418 
_ three theusand pounds have been gained 
by some bulky compilations; it will hard- 
ly be contended that literary property 
can be insecure, or that a successful au- 
ther is not repaid for his labours. I 
‘do not mean to mfer that authors can 
be too well paid: for either they pro- - 
duce little, and therefore cannot enrich 
themselves; or they produce rapidly, and 
_therefure must often fail of success. 
> If we enquire into the state of literary 
property in Europe, we find that the 
French complain of the rapid piracies of 
Holland and Switzerland; and that be- 
fore a second edition can be prepared 
at Paris, it is anticipated at the respec- 
tive presses of these countries. In Spain 
and Portugal the literary character is not 
yet sufficiently respected, from the gene- 
ral poverty of their literature, which is 
still too much restricted to religious and 
echolastic works, Their new bisects 
tions are litthe read at home, and « 
course no country even borrows them ha 
translation. 
T believe literary property is not much 
more valuable in Germany than in 
France. The Leipsic and Frankfort 
fairs, however, form a kind of monopoly 
of books, w oy eught to enable book- 
sellers to-give a better price to their au- 
thors; but are tid traders liberal? Have 
the best’ German authors ever received 
sums preportionable to those by which 
our English writers are daily gratified ? 
My knc owledye does not induce me to 
believe they do: perlips some of your 
cor respondents ma y inform us 
An ingenious [talian writer observes, 
thatthe F rench, the English, and the Ger- 
mans, frequently i inquire if Ttaly has still 
any of those great geniuses and great 
writers, who in former ages were the 
lights and ornaments of Europe? ? These 
ier ci he adds, would perhaps be asto- 
xished thatwe have so many even as wecan 
Capek, if they knew that the greater num- 
ber. of our authors are oblived to con- 
sume a preat part of their ‘fortune to 
print their works; and that the more vo- 
luminous are the ‘Tabaurs of a writer, the 
worse is the chance for him to get repaid. 
The ‘cause of this miserable. prospect 
which literary men have ever before their 
eyes in Italy, it seems, is owing to the 
privilege which every city in the nume- 
reus states of Italy grants te its own 
subjects; so that an author who publishes 
a work at Milan, at Pavia, or at Cre- 
_ mona, has no property in that work, when 
printed i in any other principality : ‘hence 
diterary property being rendered inseé- 
1 
Defence of Bucer and the English Reformation. 
-[June 1, 
cure, is of little value, either to the book- 
venders, or the writers; neither having a 
real property in a new ‘work. Whether 
these niatters are better regulated of late, 
in that country, remains to be known. 
ZENO. 
ee 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
DEFENCE of BvcER and the ENGLISH 
REFORMATION. 
AY I be permitted to express my 
astonishment and concern, that the 
pages of your very respectable Miscellany, 
should have become the vehicle of a 
gross, clumsy, and infamous calumny? It 
matters little whether the subject abused 
be living or dead. Justice is as much the 
due of a person in one Case, as in the 
other; and in my humble opinion, there 
1s no difference w hatever, morally speak- 
ing, between bringing an unfounded 
charge against a man who is 10 more, 
than : against one who is»capable of de- 
feuding himself. Nor is it, I think, at 
all less culpable to attack the. fair fame 
of a person who died two or three centus 
ries ago, than that of one whose naine is 
still Gboh among us, and who has left 
those behind him who are both able and 
willing to vindicate his reputation. 
Withovt any further preface, Mr. 
Editor, 1 demand upon what authority a 
writer in your last number, without ether 
a real or assumed signature, has peremp- 
torily asserted that “ Martin Bucer, : the 
reformer, was born a Jew, aud died @ 
Jew?” 
When a person presumes to bring a 
heavy accusation against a man, ee m 
his own day was an object of high respect 
for his learning and his piety, and, whose 
name stands recorded with reverence for 
the services which he rendered to the 
community, of which he was a shining 
ornament, it is expectec, that the charge 
should not only be very accurately stated, 
but be accompanied with’ the exactest . 
references, and supported by unexcep- 
tionable evidences. When the assertion 
is ancnymous, a scrupulous attention to 
these particulars is still more reguisite. 
What must be thought then of the moral 
feelings of a writer, who,.disdaiming all 
regard to historical and biographical ac- 
curacy, vents a fuul aspersion, without 
condescending to give us his own name, 
ora single voucher for what he asserts, 
on the memory of a divine, whose learn- 
‘Ing and moderation alone, entitle hint to 
respect} P 
Itis not incumbent on me to enter r into 
the delineation of Bucer’s life and cha- 
‘ fe te rvacter; 
