FOREIGN DRAMATISTS UNDER AMERICAN LAWS. 
97 
the legitimate spoil of any one who may 
choose to print and publish them, it may 
not be out of place to inquire how the same 
subject has been treated by the English Par- 
liament and courts. The former, as has 
been seen, in legislating “for the encour- 
agement of learning,” has made no distinc- 
tion between native and foreign authors, but, 
aiming to make England the publishing 
house of the world, the center of learning 
and culture, has, in the opinion of the most 
learned statesmen and lawyers of the realm, 
invited men of learning of every tongue to 
send their productions to the United King- 
dom for first publication. Tros Tyriusque 
mihi nullo discrimine agetur. It is true that 
this intention was less liberally construed in 
1854, when the highest judicial tribunal of 
the realm declared the bodily presence of a 
foreign author upon English soil at the time 
of publication to be an essential condition 
precedent to valid copyright. But even 
while this continues the supreme law, a com- 
pliance does not become a hardship. More- 
over, between England and several Conti- 
nental powers, including France, Prussia, 
Belgium, Spain, etc , a special international 
copyright arrangement subsists, by which 
the authors of those countries may enjoy in 
England the privileges of protection for 
their works without being on English terri- 
tory, or even first publishing in Great Britain. 
But these favors are granted by England 
only in cases of reciprocity to British au- 
thors, and therefore the United States does 
not come within this arrangement. 
Nevertheless, American authors may easily 
acquire valid copyright in England. The 
conditions are three. In the first place the 
British public must have the benefit of a first 
publication. This does not mean that the 
author must publish there and nowhere else. 
He may publish in as many countries and 
as many languages as he pleases; but in 
no place must the publication be on an 
earlier day than in the United Kingdom. 
It may, however, be on the same day, as 
the English courts make no distinction be- 
tween a first and a contemporaneous pub- 
lication. In the next place, the book must 
be published in England, Wales, Scotland, 
or Ireland; it is not sufficient that it ap- 
pear in Canada, India, or any of the prov- 
inces. Lastly, the author is required to be 
upon British soil at the time of such publi- 
cation. Where, it matters not ; whether in 
the busy streets of London, within the 
“Asiatic Empire of Britain,” under an Afri- 
can sun, or at any point in Canada between 
V0L..XI.— 7 
the two oceans. Provided he be anywhere 
within the British dominions when his work 
is published first in the United Kingdom, 
English law will be satisfied, and his book will 
be protected wherever that law is supreme. 
We find here, then, no more irksome con- 
dition imposed upon an American author 
seeking English copyright than a short trip 
to Canada. And this would not be a seri- 
ous matter in the case of a citizen of Detroit, 
where only the waters of the St. Clair sepa- 
rate American from British soil ; still less to 
an author who might be enjoying the scen- 
ery of Vermont, where only an imaginary 
line marks the limit between American and 
English rule. And yet it is only necessary 
for an American author to step across this 
border to satisfy the law of London which 
makes this a dividing line between valid and 
void copyright in an American book. 
That the copyright laws of England still 
deny to men of letters that fuli protection to 
which the labors of every man, poet or peas- 
ant's rightly entitled, and which was enjoyed 
by English authors prior to 1774, is true; 
that the effects of those laws give to literary 
. men, and especially to dramatists, just cause 
of complaint, is also true. But it cannot be 
successfully disputed that the British nation 
for more than a century and a half has pur- 
sued a far more liberal and enlightened policy 
toward foreign authors than has the Ameri- 
can Government. The motive of the former 
may have been a selfish one, viz., the ad- 
vancement of British interests. But, if so, is 
it not selfishness of a more wholesome kind 
than that which turns from our shores the 
productions of foreign literature and art ? 
Under the catholic spirit of the English laws 
toward the authors of other countries, Eng- 
lish literature and art and culture have con- 
tinued to flourish and advance. Is not that 
full of significance to American legislators ? 
In other words, does not broad and en- 
lightened statesmanship require that our 
gates be opened wide to the literature and 
science of England, the philosophy of Ger- 
many, and what is best in the drama of 
France ? Upon two or three slight condi- 
tions, England welcomes to the protection of 
her copyright laws, all tongues, all races, all 
creeds; the United States turns away all but 
its own citizens. This may be, in the “ glori- 
ous Latin Webster borrowed of Sir Robert 
Peel, vera pro gratis, unwelcome truth ; ” but, 
if the first step toward remedying an evil is 
to expose it, the sooner we know the defi- 
ciencies of our copyright laws, the sooner 
we may hope to see them improved. 
Botanical 
cm copyright reserved garden 
