home copyright was made before the British Commission, in 1877, by Herbert Spencer. His testimony is given in full in the Popular Science Monthly for November, 1878, and February, 1879.

The recommendation had been made that, for the sake of securing cheap books for the people, the law should give to all dealers the privilege of printing an author's books, and should fix a copyright to be paid to the author that should secure him a "fair profit for his work." Mr. Spencer objected that—

First. This would be a direct interference with the laws of trade, under which the author had the right to make his own bargains. Second. No legislature was competent to determine what was "a fair rate of profit" for an author. Third. No average royalty could be determined which could give a fair recompense for the different amounts and kinds of labor given to the production of different classes of books. Fourth. If the legislature has the right to fix the profits of the author, it has an equal right to determine that of his associate in the publication, the publisher; and if of the publisher, then also of the printer, binder, and paper-maker, who all have an interest in the undertaking. Such a right of control would apply with equal force to manufacturers of other articles of importance to the community, and would not be in accordance with the present theories of the proper functions of government. Fifth. If books are to be cheapened by such a measure, it must be at the expense of some portion of the profits now going to the authors and publishers; the assumption is that book producers and distributors do not understand their business, but require to be instructed by the state how to carry it on, and that the publishing business alone needs to have its returns regulated by law. Sixth. The prices of the best books would in many cases, instead of being lessened, be higher than at present, because the publishers would require some insurance against the risk of rival editions, and because they would make their first editions smaller, and the first cost would have to be divided among a less number of copies. Such reductions of prices as would be made would be on the flimsier and more popular literature, and even on this could not be lasting. Seventh. For the enterprises of the most lasting importance to the public, requiring considerable investment of time and capital, the publishers require to be assured of returns from the largest market possible, and without such security enterprises of this character could not be undertaken at all. Eighth. Open competition of this kind would, in the end, result in crushing out the smaller publishers, and in concentrating the business in the hands of a few houses whose purses had been long enough to carry them through the long and unprofitable contests that would certainly be the first effect of such legislation.

All the considerations adduced by Mr. Spencer have, of course, equal force with reference to open international publishing, while they may also be included among the arguments in behalf of international copyright.

With these views of a veteran writer of books may very properly be associated the opinions of the experienced publisher, Mr. Wm. H. Appleton, who, in a letter to the New York Times in 1872, says:

"The first demand of property is for security.... To publish a book in any real sense—that is, not merely to print it, but to make it well and widely known—requires much effort and large expenditure, and these will not be invested in a property which is liable to be destroyed at any moment. Legal protection would thus put an end to evil practices, make property secure, business more legitimate, and give a new vigor to enterprise. Nor can a policy which is unjust to the author, and works viciously in the trade, be the best for the public. The publisher can neither afford to make the book so thoroughly known, nor can he put it at so low a price, as if he could count upon permanent and undisturbed possession of it. Many valuable books are not reprinted at all, and therefere are only to be had at English prices, for the same reason that publishers are cautious about risking their capital in unprotected property."

The copy-book motto, "Honesty is the best policy," fails often enough to come true (at least as to material results) in the case of the individual, simply because his life is not always long enough to give an opportunity for all the results of his actions to be arrived at. The community, however, in its longer life, is subject to the full influence of the certain though sometimes slow-working relations of cause to effect, relations which, among other things, bring out the essential connection between economics and ethics, and which show in the long-run the just method to be the wise method. An enlightened self-interest finds out the advantage of equity. If the teaching of history makes anything evident, it is that in the transactions of a nation, honesty pays, even in the narrowest and most selfish sense of the term, and nothing but honesty can ever pay. Among the many classes of interests to which this applies international copyright certainly belongs.

Rejecting the Elderkin-Sherman suggestion of an open market for republishing as in no way effecting the objects desired; the Baldwin-Cox plan of giving protection only to books of which the type had been set and the printing done in this country, as narrow in principle and uneconomic in practice; and the Bristed-Morgan proposition to extend the right of copyright without limitation or restriction, as not giving sufficient consideration to the business requirements, and as at present impracticable to carry into effect—we would recommend a measure based upon the suggestion of the British Commission, coupled with one or two of the provisions that have been included in the several American schemes:

1. That the title of the foreign work be registered in the United States simultaneously with its publication abroad.

2. That the work be republished in the United States within six months of its publication abroad.

3. That for a limited term, say ten years, the stipulation should be made that the republishing be done by an American citizen.

4. That for the same term of years the copyright protection be given to those books only that have been printed and bound in this country, the privilege being accorded of importing foreign stereotypes and electrotypes of cuts.

5. That, subject to these provisions, the foreign author or his assigns shall be accorded the same privileges now conceded to an American author.

I believe that, in the course of time, the general laws of trade would and ought to so regulate the arrangements for supplying the American public with books that, if there were no restriction as to the nationality of the publisher or as to the importation of printed volumes, the author would select the publishing agent, English or American, who could serve him to best advantage; and that that agent would be found to be the man who would prepare for the largest possible circle of American readers the editions best suited to their wants.

The foreign author would before long recognize that it was to his interest to be represented by the publisher who understood the market most thoroughly and who had the best facilities for supplying it. If English publishers, settling here, could excel our American houses in this understanding and in these facilities, they ought to be at liberty to do so, and it would be for the interest of the public that no hindrances should be placed in their way.

The experience of our American houses, however, who have had business with