he buys the book for something more than it cost boasting of the correspondence with distinguished him to read it then,-but what a book it is! He persons. English writers are thus frequently imscarcely preserves it after one perusal, and the posed upon, and made to form improper notions of library copy was probably quite as cheap to him as people and country, which leads, sometimes, to their the volume which he is now compelled to purchase. grievous disappointment when they come among A little increase in price, would give him a book us. Mr. Dickens, himself, found out his mistake which he might place honorably upon his shelves, as to the position of his correspondents long before in his own little collection. In this way, it would he got back to England. He found that they were frequently undergo perusal. The book that he neither hard-handed farmers, nor yet persons occunow buys, he is not apt to read a second time. pying respectable positions in the literary ranks of The very type and paper are opposed to such a the country. In short, his tributes were not those performance. He reads it in the first instance, of a heart, overburdened with delight and admira only for its novelty and, with this object, the old circulating library, at five dollars per annum, would be the better form of publication for him. They do ner. Our Senators in Congress must not share the error of the foreign author, and legislate solely in reference to the sale of seven-penny pamphlets to a people, who, for the use they make of them, would be just as likely to buy them at seven pounds. tion, but with vanity and weakness-they were not the spontaneous effusion of a simple, worshipping people, but of inane and shallow youth, with a pasTo show how great the passion is for reading sion for notoriety, which their slender wits enabled among our people, and, in this way to work upon them in no other way to gratify. These persons the country members, the following ridiculous pas- are really a most shocking nuisance. sage is taken by our pamphleteer from one of the not confine their attentions to the foreigner, but bespeeches of Mr. Dickens, while in this country. stow them very equally upon the native. I fancy Alluding to the heroine in one of his tales, he says, there is scarcely an American writer, of any re"I had letters about that child in England from pute, male or female, who has not been pestered, dwellers in log-houses, among the morasses and by letters complimentary, congratulatory and soliciswamps of the far west. Many a sturdy hand, hard ting, from persons of whom they know nothing, and with the axe and spade, and browned by the sum- whose only avowed object is the pouring forth of mer's sun, has taken up his pen and written to me." their full hearts in tribute to one to whom they proNow, if Mr. Dickens' head had not been unhap- fess a world of gratitude, which they can show in pily turned by the gross adulation which he recei- no better way than by-increasing his-bill of posved in this country-had he not been so grossly tage. Had not Mr. Dickens been blinded by his ignorant, and so wanting in all philosophical re- self-delusions while in America, he would have spects, he would never have permitted himself to forborne this petty egotism, in conjecturing the real speak this nonsense. I happen to know the source character of his "hard-handed" correspondents. of some of these letters to Mr. Dickens,-nor to At all events, we must not be deluded in like nianhim alone-for they are written to every foreign author as soon as his name becomes tolerably well known among us. They come from no hard-handed laborers of the country, "hard with axe and spade and browned by the summer's sun." Their writers use few heavier implements than comb, and brush, and cane, and goose quill. They may be traced to clever young professional adventurers in villages, half trading and half rural, where idle time is in abundance, and where a restless vanity begets an itch for notoriety which makes the possessor but too frequently forgetful of what is proper. This question has been repeatedly answered. There is a large class of this sort of foolish people The point will be found elsewhere noticed in these who actually correspond with all British authors of letters. The assumption here, that English prices any repute. They would be unknown else. This would influence the American market, in the event is their ambition and they make the most of it. of a cession of Copyright to the foreigner, is an The foreign author, pleased with the expression of absurdity which should be obvious to a little examian adventurer-(which is seldom qualified by pro- nation. The very fact which Mr. Campbell himpriety or sense)-from an individual in a distant self shows, that, at a guinea a copy, the work country,—and assuming our western country to be would not find purchasers, in this country, is cona sort of wilderness-ignorant of the character of clusive that such a price would never be demanded. the letter writer, and of the motive for his express- The publisher in every country asks just what he ed admiration, considers the compliment-as Lord is likely to get, and no more. His prices would Byron did as a sort of foretaste of immortality. be regulated by those of the American writer, and It is the homage of posterity to him. The motive by the ability of the American people. If he deof this" dweller in log-houses" is really the vanity manded more than the former, he would be driven of the individual, seeking a miserable notoriety, by from the market entirely, subjected to a competi "Now, it may be asked," continues Mr. Campbell, “how did these intelligent farmers of the far West obtain the pleasure and reap the advantage of perusing the productions of our gifted guest? By purchasing his Copyright works-every one a guinea?" truths already beyond the reach of cavil." We shall see this hereafter. But with the "example." The publishing price in England of Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, &c., is The same work here, is $14 00 5 00 Alison's History of Europe, English copy, 45 00 The same work here, The same here, 4 50 14 00 3.00 8.00 3 00 66 cheap, 1 00" D'Aubigne's Reformation, English, 66 66 66 tion which now he does not feel. In the event of Again: from the appendix," where," says the writhe passage of a mutual Copyright Law, hundreds ter, "a few additional examples are given because of British writers would be besieging the Ameri- they illustrate, although they can not strengthen can publisher, and the choice afforded him by their numbers, would place them very much as the native author is now, at the mercy of the tradesman. The advantage to the native author would be, simply in being placed on the same footing with his competitor. He might even possess another. The domestic publisher, required to pay as well for his foreign as native material, might then very naturally allow his patriotism to influence, in some degree, his choice in favor of his countryman. When Mr. D'Israeli says, (on dit) "Give us this law, and the people of America shall never read my books for a less price than my own countrymen," he speaks very much like a simpleton; but I doubt the whole story. Mr. D'Israeli must see that such These may be facts, so far as they go. But a declaration involves an absurdity. He must sup- facts are not truths, and figures, true in themselves, pose that his writings are so absolutely essential may yet, in the course of an argument, be made to the American public that they will have them the instruments of very wholesale lying. Facts at any price. Now, the fact is, that the American will make truths if you can get enough of them. public know nothing of Mr. D'Israeli's books until Unfortunately, our author has here omitted to bring they are printed and put before them, at shilling forward some, which belong to the collection, and prices, by the American publisher. They can spare which are vitally important to our issue. Giving better men than himself and be conscious of no him due credit for an acquaintance with his subloss. But this paltry anecdote is very fitly em- ject, I am constrained to think that he was not ployed to introduce the following disingenuous wholly ignorant of the effect of his omission at statement. Here are some samples of lying the time of making it. In short, his statement of figures:-loquitur, Mr. Campbell: the case is a most disingenuous one. Let further facts show. Undoubtedly, his object is to prove, by those given, that the monstrous disparity between the English and the American prices, is the result of Copyright-comes from the fact that the amount demanded by the author occasions the greater expensiveness of the work in England. $5 00 This is the only point material to the argument, 2 00 since the object is to dissuade the American Con500 gress, for this very reason, from giving the Copy2 00 right privilege in this country to the foreign author. 75 Now, what shall we say to this, when we are told, D'Israeli's Amenities of Literature, English, 10 00 that the authors of several of these works named, American, 1 75 never received a cent for their Copyrights; and forms one of the smallest items in the outlay of that, when they are paid, the amount received the publisher, and makes scarcely a perceptible difference in the price to the public. Thousands of novels, such as Bulwer's, Dickens', James', &c., are published at a guinea in London, for which the author never gets a stiver. American books republished there, have brought a guinea, though the au87 thor here never received even a copy of the work 500 by way of recompense. You must look for some 1 50 other cause for this disparity of price. It must not be saddled upon the author. Fortunately, it needs but a glance at the respective editions, English and American, to reveal the true nature of, and occasion for, the difference. It consists in the superior beauty and costliness of the English edi "To illustrate the prices which the public would The same work published here, is 66 66 edition, 66 American, 66 2 "18 mo. 10" 12 mo. 1 " 8 vo. of every book are the type-setting and the paper. | Turner's Sacred History, American The cost of the former diminishes with every additional copy printed, while that of the latter re- Southey's Works, English edition, mains the same. The English publisher addresses himself to the wealthier classes of the country- Now, I assert, without fear of contradiction from for Europe has no poor reading public like the any honest publisher who knows his business, that United States-a reading public commensurate, in a single glance at these respective editions will be some degree, with the population in all our densely enough to account satisfactorily for the difference settled communities;-puts forth small editions, in their prices-nay, to make it greater; for the ranging from five to fifteen hundred copies, and American publisher's edition is, of the two, by far distinguished by all the luxury of large type, broad the most profitable. The Copyright, even when margin, and thick, white, linen paper. The Ame-paid, forms one of the most insignificant items, and rican publisher, addressing himself to a poorer, but does not perceptibly influence the cost of publicamore extensively reading people,-stereotypes the tion. The difference, in the style of all these publication, so that he can publish countless copies works, is prodigious, and to be understood only by from fixed plates, compresses the English work subjecting them to the familiar examination of touch from three, or even five, volumes, into one, by and sight. The English books are invariably of means of the smallest possible type, and issues his large open print, on fine, white, linen paper, which editions of from two to twenty thousand copies. will endure for ever. The American are on very If the English publisher had to deal with an Ame-inferior paper, much of it dingy, all of it flimsy, rican instead of an English public, he would pur- and without any durable properties whatever. The sue the same course, work in like manner, and type is miserably small and hurtful to the eye. publish just the same editions. He would soon The difference of cost in paper, type and presslearn what our people can best afford; and, as his work, will be easily understood by a reference to policy is precisely that of our own publisher, to the relative size and number of these pages, in the adapt his works to the market, and find a ready two styles of publication. I take a work, for an sale, he would very soon ascertain its resources example, to which Mr. Campbell has made special and necessities. For that matter, you have only reference-the History of Europe by Mr. Alison. to take off your duties upon English books alto- The English edition is quoted by Mr. Campbell at gether let them come in free of duty, and, my $45; the American at $5. A wonderful disparity life on it, neither English nor American authors indeed, but less striking, upon examination, than would ever trouble you farther on the score of In- it seems at first sight. Let me indicate some of ternational Copyright. What the domestic manu- the discrepancies. Forty-five dollars is the price facturer might say is quite another matter. It of the English work, only in the American marwould then only suffice to secure Copyright in the ket. In London, it may be got for a fraction over one country-England-there would be little dan- $30. A part of the additional 50 per cent, which ger of piracy here. If English mind is good attaches to the imported work, is the duty-our enough for us, English print certainly is. Their tariff--for which, my dear Mr. Holmes, we are books would then come to us in far better style somewhat indebted to yourself and your brothers than our own, at much less, or equally low prices. in Congress, who let in rail road iron free of duty, They would underwork paper-maker and book- while the charges on foreign books are absolutely maker, in such a fashion, as to leave both parties rated by the pound. Fifty per cent is the usual absolute time enough for pamphleteering. To addition by the American bookseller, to the cost of illustrate what I have been saying, suppose we English books imported, to cover duty, insurances look to a few additional figures. They have been and difference of exchange. The English Alison, gathered hastily in an application to one of the then, lowered to $30, and it becomes, in one sense, importers of European books in this city. Some a far cheaper book than the American at $5. Look of the examples of Mr. Campbell have been left at the difference in manufacture. Indeed, they are unnoticed, simply as the English editions are not not the same books. The English Alison is a splento be procured among us;-but enough is known did octavo in ten volumes. The American is conof all of them, to determine, as I have said, that tained in four. The English type is leaded; the the disparity of price is the result of the mechani- American close. The English is twice the size cal execution only,-that the price of Copyright of the American type. There is a spacious marhas nothing to do with it. But, to our table:- gin to the page instead of a narrow one, and the Jay's Exercises, English edition, paper is fine, stout and made of linen. The American, though a very good paper, according to our notions, is yet very far inferior. The superior quantity of paper consumed by the English copy may be understood by the fact that, though the 8 vo. page of both editions is precisely the same in size, 66 66 American, 66 66 66 American, Turner's Sacred History, English edi tion, Cooper's Novels 1 vol. 2 " 1 1 75 1.00 25 50 Let yet the English copy is spread over no less than | Bradford's Antiquities, 8,275 pages, while the American is crowded into Norman's Yucatan, less than 2,500. When you have compared and Headley's Italy, contrasted the quality of the paper, and the number of sheets respectively consumed in the two works, Not to speak of numerous original works, at 25 you will see that the "figures" and "tables" of cents and even lower. All these are Copyright Mr. Campbell are a miserable delusion, which could works as well as the preceding, and neither table impose upon nobody at all disposed to look closely has any bearing upon the question. In both cases, into the matter. Our pamphleteers rely very much the cost of Copyrights, forms one of the least esupon the little interest which Senators in Congress sential items. If the works quoted above, by Mr. take in matters which do not excite the national Campbell, had been shown to be in the same infemind. All the difference in price, between the rior style as the English reprints which are shown books of the two countries, is due to the fact that to be so much cheaper, there would be something the publications referred to are not the same in in the argument;—but this is not the case. both. Our pamphleteer has contrasted, not com- the reader compare the American editions of Engpared the several publications. He has put in op-lish books with those of the native authors thus position the most splendid issues of the English quoted, and he will discover an immeasurable difpress-works, costly because of the great excel-ference between the mechanical aspect of the two. lence and beauty of their manufacture,—with the The works of Bancroft, Sparks, Irving, Prescott most cheap and unattractive of the American. and Stephens, are on beautiful paper, full of costly Nor has he given English prices as I am able to plates and maps, and done up very much in emulagive them. I have before me now a beautiful Eng-tion of the English style. It is this mechanical lish edition of D'Aubigne, in 3 vols., quoted by difference which constitutes the real occasion for him at $8, for which I pay but $3 50 in Charles- the difference in price; and, though it is unqueston. By an English circular which now lies be- tionably true, as Mr. Campbell asserts, that pubfore me, I find that Ure's Dictionary is sold in Eng-lishers find it pleasanter to sell 1,000 copies of a land at $11 12 instead of $14;-Southey's book at $5, than 5,000 at $1, still, I am prepared Works $11 12 instead of $12 50, and a similar to believe that the latter price, and the cheaper discrepancy exists in the prices of nearly all the mode of publication, would, in the end, be much rest. In comparing these wholly dissimilar things, more profitable for the author. He would make the writer must have calculated largely on the in- more money. He has very little or nothing to do difference of the American Senate to the subject. with the style and prices with which his book is A few American samples may not be amiss, to set forth. These depend almost wholly upon the show the mistake-to call it by the least offensive publisher, who knows what the market will bear, name of which he has committed. For example, and upon what class of books he may expend his I can procure an American edition of Scott's po- skill and fix high prices. You will do well to note etical writings for fifty cents. Another edition of the fact, that all Mr. Campbell's examples, in this the same works is before me now, costing $9. An table, have been drawn entirely from works of American Shakspeare may be had among us for American history. This is a department of letters $2, while there are other American editions which in which the laborers are necessarily few, the pubcost $15. Again, I have an English Spenser, lications are unfrequent, and of a class to discourwhich cost me but $2. There is an American age competition. The subjects of this nature are edition of the same work which sells for $18-if soon exhausted. These works require labor and it sells at all. It would be an absurdity, not to say erudition, rather than the creative or endowing impertinence, to report these prices as determining faculty. They may almost be said to belong to the any thing with reference to this argument, and fixed sciences, and one good work, on either of the hence the miserable balderdash contained in a far- subjects named, will suffice a people for a century. ther table of examples, where Mr. Campbell proceeds to show the price of American books as influenced by Copyright. Let us quote them: "Sparks' Washington, Bancroft's United States, Irving's Columbus, 1 vol. $4.50 3" 3 " 6 50 It is only to assure the public of the faithfulness of the historian, of his industry in accumulating the proper facts, of his skill in displaying them, and there is little danger of any rival treading in his footsteps. Such is the condition, such are the 750 securities, of all writers of history. Such is pe3 50 culiarly the security of the American. The ex750 ceptions to this security, are when the historian 5 00" becomes a partisan, and provokes into dissent the representative minds of persons thinking differHad Mr. Campbell been disposed to make his ently of the facts from himself, denying his authocase a fair one he should have shown rities and conclusions, and travelling over the same Meyer's Mexico, $2 00' ground in order to reverse his decisions. Such cheap edition, 2" Prescott's Ferd. & Isab. Stevens' Travels in Central Am., 2 were the labors of Hume, on the one hand, and public, and there is no good reason why it should Lingard on the other, in their several histories of not be so. I repeat, that the author had little or Great Britain. The recent history of Mr. Alison, nothing to do, at any time, with the prices imposed representing the aristocratic party of Europe, by the publishers. Whether they put forth rich will undoubtedly have the effect of compelling the and fine, or poor or base editions, is scarcely within democratic analysis of the same materials, with his province. In fact, authors are but little regardthe view of counteracting the influence of that able, ed by the publishers in either country-their opi but jaundiced and bigoted performance. American nions are not often asked in matters of publicawriters of history have confined themselves chiefly tion-but few of them are paid, and the only questo their own country. With this, they are natu- tion which remains is, whether any shall be paid. rally more familiar-more deeply interested in the An International Copyright Law will not increase subject, they have yielded it more attention than the pay of the American author, except as it inis likely to be accorded it by foreign writers;-and creases his employment. His true object is to get with little present occasion for partisanship, in nar- employment; an object which he now must seek rating the events of the past, they are not likely in vain, so long as British books are abundant, and to provoke competition in their labors, either at at the mercy of the domestic publisher. The prohome or abroad. It is on the strength of these posed measure will cheapen books rather than make circumstances that the publishers rely, when they them costly. British publishers will transfer themput forth costly editions and charge for them ac-selves to this country and enter into competition cordingly. But these reasons do not apply to the with our own. They will become our own. Ediwriters of poetry and romance, or of any of the de- tions will be issued from the same face of type, for partments which call chiefly for the original and all sorts of customers, some on fine and some on creative faculty. These depend upon the indi- inferior paper, some bound and some in sheets. vidual genius of the author, and are liable to floods The competition between the publishers, with that of foreign competition. To show that such is the which must necessarily take place between the case, let us draw attention to the price of this class authors,-then, for the first time, brought into opof books, as well before, as since the era of cheap position-will not only bring out the strength of literature. The American works of fiction have been always nearly as cheap as the English reprints in America. For example, English novels in 2 volumes, printed by Lea & Blanchard, and Carey & Hart, usually sold at $1 50 or $1 75 in the stores, while those of the American, the Copyright works, To afford some additional tables, which Mr. never exceeded $2,-and this, so late as 1830. Campbell might not so well include in his collecWalter Scott's novels, as they appeared, brought tion, I will indicate a class of publications in Engthe same price as those of Fenimore Cooper, and land and America, by which we may better illusno Copyright was paid for them. Where there trate the respective difference of price of which was a trifle of fifteen or twenty-five cents difference we have been speaking-by which, indeed, we may between them, this may be assumed to have been get some tolerable glimpse of what free trade in the amount paid the domestic author for his copy. the literary commerce of the two countries might The difference was seldom more. Harper and do for us in the United States. Here, then, are Brothers first brought down the price of these re- the American reprints of the four reviews of Great prints, taking the field somewhere about 1828, or Britain. These reprints, which are quite respecta'30, and issuing their novels at an average retail ble, and really about the cheapest works issued in price of $1. But prices again rose, subject to oc- our country, are sold to subscribers at $3 per ancasional alternations-to an occasional fall at retail, num. But what if I can get the English work from $150 to 50 cents--but only when there was itself, with all its superiority of print and paper, a prospect of struggle between two of the publish- delivered to me here, in Charleston, at $3 50? A ers for the foreign spoil-when there was a sup- superior style of publication, a better book for the posed necessity for bringing a refractory rival to library, better for the eyes, better for durability, his good behavior. The substantial lowering, with twice or thrice as many pages. Here, then, both of English and American books, was the re- is Copyright literature, and no doubt the best paid sult of that greater conflict among the appropria- literature in Great Britain, coming to us, with all tors, large and small, which we designate, par the advantages of British costume, at prices almost excellence, the era of cheap literature. As we did equally low with the reprints of the same work not owe the previous costliness of English books among ourselves. Once more,-let Congress but to Copyright, so we do not owe the latter-day re- remove its duties from English books altogether, form in prices to patriotism. We certainly owe and we will say no more about Copyright. But something to this reform. It taught us, as I have what will Mr. Campbell say? said before, that books can be made cheaper to the both, but will probably have the effect of improving somewhat the manufacture of books without adding any thing to present prices. The profits will be found in daily increasing editions, and the sale of more numerous copies. The appendix of this pamphlet is addressed to |