church with its deep portal and its pointed steeple. Well, they paid him a thousand pieces of gold; At the end of it there was an angel who, when the he worked day and night for fourteen years, and hour struck, lifted a trumpet to his mouth and completed the beautiful clock I have told you played a flourish. Then the angel, Gabriel, stand-about. Having done so, he sought the Bishop and ing on the left hand of the clock, waved a lily said, "I will now return to my own country and branch, as if he were saying an ave to the holy rejoin my poor mother whom I have not embraced virgin who was placed on the right, and who, kneel- for fourteen years. I have concealed in this staff ing before her crucifix, joined her hands and bowed the thousand pieces of gold which I received for her head as if she replied, "the will of God be done." my work,-God and the holy virgin be praised! Then the doors of two niches would fly open If my guardian angel protect me on my journey, I and there you saw some death's heads, and then a will carry to the excellent woman, that which will book whose leaves turned over of their own accord, secure her against the fear of want!" so that you might read the pious thoughts inscribed upon them. After this a wonderfully sweet and plaintive chime was heard, and you saw passing before you, on a sort of little gallery, all the passion of our Lord, from the moment he was betrayed so wickedly by Judas, to that in which Jesus bowed his head and rendered his soul to God the father. The angel again sounded his trumpet, when all disappeared; all was shut up and every thing be-tain the shepherd at Cambray-but to every procame immovable and silent.

Now was not that a sight worthy of admiration, and would you not have been delighted to behold it? Well, I will tell you how it happened that the church of Notre-Dame of Cambray, was endowed with so rich a present.

Now the Bishop in those days was not a man who feared God. So he said to himself, this shepherd is going to another country, he will there perhaps make a second clock more wonderful that this,-ours will lose its renown, without reckoning that pilgrims will then no longer piously resort to a town where they can gaze with admiration on so unique a miracle of art. He therefore tried to re

mise, however seducing, the young man answered,
"I prefer my old mother to all that you can give me."
"We will send for her," said the Bishop.
"Oh no," replied the shepherd; "she would de
under your cold and cloudy sky. My mother in-
habits the beautiful city of Rome, and even if she
could bear the fatigue of such a journey, she would
not quit the city of the Pope, to look on whom
once a day is worth an indulgence to her."

The Bishop then wished to procure the shepherd to be arrested as a sorcerer and heretic, but he feared a revolt of the people if he practised such an indignity.

So he contented himself by setting some bad men, devoid of truth and law, to waylay the shepherd as he left the city. He defended himself bravely, and they succeeded in nothing but depriving him of his staff, in which the thousand pieces of gold were concealed. "I have returned poor," cried he after escaping from the hands of his fierce assailants, "but my eyes and my fingers are left me and I know how to gain as much more gold."

A great many years ago there was a Prince who laid siege to Cambray; but in spite of all his forces, in spite of the great towers of wood from which they cast enormous stones, and arrows, and burning torches, he could do nothing against the city. A miraculous cloud spread itself around the walls like a second rampart, and our lady and the angels appeared in the midst of the cloud and hurled back the stones, and the arrows, and the flaming torches among the besiegers, to whom they did great mischief. The hostile Prince, enraged by this miraculous protection, blasphemed dreadfully against the patron saint of Cambray. He was punished in a terrible manner. He lost his sight. Then he humbled himself before the hand which had smitten him, raised the siege, and vowed if he could recover his vision, that he would give to the church of our lady of mercy a crown of gold, in which his horse could without difficulty turn himself about. His repentance found favor with the mother of our Saviour, his eyes were re-opened, and to atone for his sin, he appeared before the church with a taper of yellow wax in his hand. You can imagine The poor young man died many years afterwards his joy, my child! Would you not be too sorry if a wanderer in the streets of Cambray, where Le your eyes, like mine, could behold nothing but sad begged his bread from door to doon, but he never obscurity. No more beautiful blue skies, nor clouds again saw the city of the Pope or his old mother. which fly like birds, nor green trees, nor flowers At this moment a slight noise startled me-it of a thousand hues! not to venture a single step was the kiss of adieu which Trea gave her lover. without being afraid of hurting yourself,-to remain The young girl rose, took me by the hand and we sitting sorrowfully all day long-and then never more to see one's children! night! night! forever night! Oh! my little master, depend on it one who is blind has much to mourn.

The Prince of whom I speak, in his transport of joy, declared aloud that he wished to make the church a second present, as rare as the first was rich. At these words, there stepped out of the crowd a young shepherd of Rome who boldly said, "I will fashion it. Give me a thousand crowns of gold, allow me fourteen years and I will make a clock, that shall be as much talked of as the seven wonders of the world. Yes--by the safety of my soul, I swear it shall be called the wonder of Cambray."

The wicked Bishop, to whom this was reported. then took a resolution which must have been inspired by Satan himself. He caused the shepherd to be deprived of his eyes and the fingers of both hands to be cut off.

returned home. But all that night I heard in my dreams the voice of the blind shepherd, who, weeping, called upon his mother, and on my awakening in the morning, I thought I saw a pale and mutilated phantom gliding away from the foot of my little bed.

The clock which forms the subject of this legend was begun in 1338, under the episcopacy of Guy de Collemède; it was finished in 1397.Pierre D' Ailly caused it to be still further perfected in 1400, and it was again repaired in 1549 and 1602. Finally, in 1765, the clock was almost entirely renewed. The dial indicates the days of the week-the succession of the months-the signs of the Zodiac and the various aspects of the sun.

I have not yielded implicitly to their extravagant peti

REPLY TO E. D. AND MR. SIMMS. tions. We are, therefore, not bound to aid them

(Concluded.)

on the score of benevolence, and their pretended claim of right has been shown, I trust, to be equally untenable. The simple question then is, whether any reason in point of policy can be suggested, Sir:-The system of Copyright, as it is now why we should permit these importunate suppliunderstood, has prevailed in no age or country ex-cants to share the advantages of our law of Copy

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SOU. LIT. MESSENGER.

cept among the nations of Modern Europe and their right. colonies. If it be asked why these enlightened When so much ingenuity and invective has been nations have thought proper to fetter the circula- employed in defence of International Copyright, it tion of knowledge with the restraints of a monopoly, is somewhat remarkable, that nothing has been urged their only justification can be found in the princi- to recommend the propriety of an International ples of public policy, in the supposed tendency of patent-right for the benefit of mechanical invention. such a measure to foster the growth of science and These franchises rest on precisely the same princiliterature. Copyright is, in truth, the mere crea- ples, and, if utility alone is considered, the services, ture of legislation, produced and fashioned exclu- which they are designed to recompense, are at sively with a view to the interests of the commu- least equally meritorious; nor can I conceive of nity where it is established, and which should endure any process of reasoning that would not apply with no longer than is consistent with those interests. equal cogency to the justice and policy of either It is a device to stimulate intellectual labor by the measure. And yet I am not aware that the most prospect of gain, and thus encourage the advance- sturdy innovator has yet proposed to include mement of knowledge and development of genius. chanical inventors within the scope of his projected It is a gratuity, a bounty similar in principle and reforms. The pretensions of Fulton, of Arkright, operation to the patent rights secured to the authors of Bolton and Watt, men whose brilliant invenof mechanical inventions, to the various expedients tions have given such a marvellous impulse during resorted to by governments for the promotion of the last seventy years to wealth, enterprise and domestic industry. Such privileges, dictated by civilization, are, I suppose, of trivial consequence policy, have been uniformly restrained by the same compared to the claims of those illustrious benepolicy to some definite period, a limitation imposed factors of mankind, Dickens, Carlyle and Ainson no other species of property. worth.

If, in the institution of municipal Copyright for Let no man suppose, that, because I make expethe encouragement of native genius, the interests diency the sole basis of Copyright, I am hostile to of society are alone consulted, the question is that system, or that I would be disposed in any wise whether foreign literature possesses any stronger to narrow or abolish a franchise so beneficial to the elaims on our liberality, or justice. Will it be community. On the contrary, I deem it one of the alleged, that, while this boon is bestowed on our noblest and most salutary contrivances of human Own countrymen as a gratuitous concession, the policy, and were I persuaded that the tendencies citizens of other States may demand it as a right? of International Copyright would be equally propiThe maxim, that "charity begins at home," ap- tious to the true interests of this country, that plies emphatically to governments, and surely none institution would at once command my ardent and will be hardy enough to maintain that the interests unhesitating support. The most impartial examiof foreigners should supersede the performance of nation of the subject has, I own, failed to satisfy this fundamental duty. I hold, then, that we are me, that such a scheme would be beneficial to ourunder no moral obligation to engraft upon our sys-selves; in my view the only proper subject of intem the scheme of International Copyright, and quiry, or that whatever casual advantages it might that, whatever irrelevant topics may have been produce would not be counterbalanced by the sacridragged into the discussion, the whole question, so far as foreigners are concerned, resolves itself into an appeal to our generosity, or our interests. What claim, then, have the authors of foreign countries @pon our munificence? Let it be borne in mind, that they enjoy the profits of a monopoly under the sanction of their own governments, and now invoke our liberality, not to relieve the pressure of actual want, but to replenish coffers already overflowing. These sturdy beggars disdain to implore our charity on the plea of penury, the hackneyed pretext of The argument principally relied on by the Amethe mendicant; they demand it as a right, and in- rican partizans of International Copyright as evisult us with the bitterest reproaches because we'dence of its expediency, proceeds on the assumption

VOL. X-37

fice of corresponding benefits far more than equivalent. I shall nevertheless admit, that if not clearly forbidden by some preponderating motive, not positively opposed to the diffusion of knowledge and prejudicial to the cause of education, the sense of gratitude should incline us, in adjusting the balance of advantages, to lean towards the claims of those distinguished foreigners, whose literary efforts have ministered so greatly to our pleasure and improvement.

But let us inquire whether the practice of cheap

that it will accelerate the growth of our own litera- | paltry remuneration from the publisher, who, in ture by ensuring to native authors a more certain such a state of things, will be unable to offer him and adequate reward for their labors. This propo- a liberal recompense. Now, to admit foreign writers sition is distinctly avowed by your correspondent to the privileges of our law of Copyright can only E. D., and if I mistake not the drift of Mr. Simms' augment the prices of contemporary books in our reasoning, he has adopted the same idea. The market, and would, therefore, furnish a very partial policy of an expedient calculated to encourage the corrective of the alleged mischief. It would still efforts of American genius is universally conceded, leave an immense mass of literature untouched, and were it evident that such would be the inevi- and liable to be moulded by our enterprising bibtable consequence of International Copyright, the liopolists into forms adapted to the frugal habits of decision of this vexed question might be no longer our people. The process of depreciating the gedubious. But even on that supposition it behooves neral value of books would still continue, nor would us to ascertain before venturing on this novel ex- there be any remedy for this imaginary evil but periment in legislation, that the benefits to native by subjecting all foreign works, whether ancient or literature resulting from its adoption are indisputa-modern, to the operation of a retrospective Copyble, and of such magnitude as to countervail the right, or fixing their value by an arbitrary act of grievous operation of a monopoly on the great legislation; schemes too revolting to common sense body of the people. To purchase a trivial advan- to be proposed even by the most sanguine protage for some privileged class at the expense of jector. sacrificing the interests of the mass would be, not simply a dereliction, but a palpable and criminal publication really diminishes the price of Copybreach of public duty. That no human institution rights in the market. No printer can venture to is productive of unmixed good, or evil is a truism publish a book without a reasonable profit on his verified by the most superficial observation. The labor and capital. The excess of money derived office of enlightened legislation, therefore, consists from the sale of a book over the expenses necesmainly in a wise choice of inconveniences, in a sarily incurred in its manufacture, and circulation, prudent estimate of incompatible advantages. In constitutes the neat gain of a publisher, which adjusting the complex machine of civil society, it varies, of course, as that excess swells or dimiois the common fault of innovation to pursue with ishes. If there be no excess, the undertaking blind enthusiasm some phantom of ideal good, un- will be, if not absolutely ruinous, at best a waste mindful, or ignorant of the subtle mischief which of time and labor, and must, therefore, be aban so often lurks beneath the surface of the most doned. If the excess be not equal to the usual plausible and alluring schemes of improvement. rate of profit in other pursuits, the publisher will Let us beware of such a fatal error in the settle-be driven by the inflexible laws of trade to seek ment of this important controversy. Let no illusive prospects of advantage tempt us to depart, with injudicious haste, from the line of safe precedent. Let us be convinced, before we embrace the policy of International Copyright, that it is essential to the prosperity of our domestic literature-that its benefits will be certain, solid and permanent—and that whatever transient check it may give to the diffusion of knowledge among our people will be amply compensated by its invigorating influences on American genius.

some more lucrative occupation. When a book is costly, the number of purchasers will of necessity be abridged in an inverse ratio to its price, and to ensure a profit to the publisher, that price must be so regulated as to compensate for the reduced demand. By parity of reasoning it may be assumed, that when a book is cheap, it will have a wider circulation, and that the low price will be counterbalanced by the multitude of buyers. In both cases, the aggregate of sales ought to produce the same amount of total gain, supposing the labor and After much reflection, I can conceive of but two capital employed to be equal, and in all cases the modes in which International Copyright could pos- produce should be sufficient to defray expenses and sibly increase the profits of American writers, pay the ordinary rate of profit in the market, er namely, by extending their present monopoly to the business must be discontinued. If these prinforeign countries, or by enhancing the general ciples be true, and to my mind they seem incontroprice of books among us as a marketable com- vertible, it follows as a necessary deduction, that modity. The prevailing system in the republica- the publication of cheap books in this country must tion of foreign works is supposed by some to im- be a gainful trade, and that the emoluments realpair the value of native Copyrights by bringing ized in it would warrant as large an expenditure those cheap books into competition with Ame- in the purchase of Copyrights as could be afforded, rican publications, and thus reducing the wages supposing the cost of books to be increased in any of literary labor to so low a rate that the hapless author must either commit his lucubrations to the press, at his own risk, with almost the certain prospect of eventual loss, or be content with a

reasonable proportion; for that expenditure, it is evident, must always be proportioned to the magnitude of the publisher's profits. It cannot affect the force of this reasoning, that the price of Copyright

is, in all cases, an additional charge on the gains of turer have been steadily advancing during the same the publisher which, by the activity of competition period, and, indeed, have augmented nearly in an in all the departments of trade, must inevitably be inverse proportion to the cheapness of their works, reduced to the lowest point compatible with the until, in this enlightened era, penury has ceased to prosperity of his business-for whether books be be the reproach of the genus irritabile, and the cheap or dear, the application of that principle will prosperous author, transplanted from his wretched be equally manifest. Profits must be proportioned attic to comfortable lodgings, no longer skulks in to the outlay of capital, and as that outlay is swelled corners to elude the vigilance of the bailiff, or dives by the purchase of Copyright, there must of neces-in cellars to snatch a meagre and cheerless repast. sity be a correspondent increase in the amount of In the golden age of costly folios, when to amass profits, or the business of publication will sink under a library was the exclusive privilege of exorbitant the weight of this additional burthen. The capital wealth, Dryden, and Otway, and Steele, and Saof the publisher need not be as great, certainly not vage, with a countless throng of men of genius, lived greater when books are cheap, than when books in poverty, and died (some of them at least) the are dear, and assuming that he accumulates in pro- victims of squalid destitution: in this iron age of portion to his stock, his ability to reward the labors cheap duodecimos, James, and Marryat, Dickens, of an author will be equal in both conditions of the and Ainsworth, the mere butterflies of literature, market. are gathering treasures, at which Oliver Goldsmith If the editors of those cheap foreign books, which would have stood aghast, and which Samuel JohnE. D. deems so pestilential, were required to pay son would have described in his magniloquent style a premium to the authors for the privilege of pub- as "the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams lication, I doubt not that they could readily sustain of avarice." The solution of this enigma is appathe imposition, nor would such a tax necessarily en- rent to the slightest reflection. It is that readers eroach upon their profits; for by adding a mere have multipled much faster than books have deprepittance to their present prices they could afford to ciated; that the demand for literary labor has bestow a generous compensation on literary labor. expanded with such inconceivable rapidity as to I see no reason why a popular American work, overbalance beyond all proportion the reduced price published on the same plan, might not, by its exten- of its productions. If, then, the lessons of history sive circulation, reimburse the expenses and profits are to be heeded, the cheapness of books in any of the publisher, and still leave a handsome divi- country, so far from indicating the decay of literadend to satisfy the claims of the writer. No arti- ture, is the first step of its successful progress, the ficial contrivance, no legislative protection can sus- sure forerunner of its palmiest state of prosperity. tain a work not popular, or make its publication The paradox is easily explained. It propagates a lcerative so long as sales are voluntary and not taste for reading in that numerous class who are compulsive. It may be said, that foreign books precluded by the scantiness of their means from are purchased with more avidity than those of indulging in the luxury of costly volumes, and thus indigenous production, and that this unreasonable widens, by a sure and natural process, the circle of partiality must necessarily occasion an unfair dis- literary consumption. A great revolution has taken erimination in adjusting the relative value of native place in the condition of men of letters, since they and foreign Copyrights. But would an advance in were compelled by sharp necessity to haunt the the general price of books correct this caprice of antechambers of wealth and power as needy and public taste? Would not the same preference be suppliant dependents, since the days when Spencer exhibited in every fluctuation of the literary mar- described in such touching and beautiful strains, ket? But if it be no caprice, if indeed it be a evidently suggested by his personal experience, natural and justifiable leaning to the claims of supe- the sickening miseries of solicitation. They are rior merit, then the competition between native now no longer constrained, and foreign writers can never be reduced to an equality, until their works are distinguished by equal eloquence, invention, learning and ability. Theory seems, then, to warrant the conclusion, A man of genius is not now degraded by accepting that the process of cheapening literature by intro- a paltry and precarious subsistence, wrung by decing new modes of publication, does not seriously truckling importunity from pampered wealth and affect the value of literary property so far as the proud nobility. He has found a patron far less interests of authors are involved: let us now inquire exacting, and more munificent in the obscure and whether this opinion is not corroborated by the unrespected multitude. and, sustained by the contestimony of experience. Ever since the inven-scious sense of independence, he can now vindicate tion of printing, there has been a constant and uni- without fear the innate dignity of his character. form decline in the price of books, and yet the lite- Let us not then be frightened into indiscreet legisrature of every country in Christendom has thriven lation by this bugbear of cheap literature. The and flourished. The profits of the literary adven- evils of such a state of things are transient, and

To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne,
To spend, to give, to want, to be undonne.

carry with them their own corrective. If, indeed, | tical of its capacity to sustain itself, unassisted, our literature languishes, its maladies must be traced but by the fostering protection of our own governto other causes, and its revival will be wrought, not ment. by the vaunted specific of International Copyright, but by the vis medicatrix naturæ, its own internal and recuperative energies.

Under the discouragement of foreign competition, of a constant reduction in the price of books, it has taken root and flourished. It has borne fruit, whose flavor has satisfied even the fastidious palate of European criticism. Its productions in history, in poetry, in romance, in science, bear witness that it is planted in a fertile soil, and under a genial atmosphere. What though an untimely frost has blighted its blossom and doomed it to temporary barrenness! Shall we therefore despair of its future growth? Its trunk is still vigo rous, its vitality unimpaired; and when its buds unfold under more benignant seasons, it will shoot up with renovated luxuriance, and, like the Indian banyan, strike its clustering branches into every corner of our land.

But, perhaps, our literary men, seduced by the prospect of monopolizing the immense markets of the old world, flatter themselves with the idea of extravagant gains from the establishment of International Copyright. Without dwelling on the want of reciprocity in such an arrangement between nations having an established literature, sustained by a well-trained body of learned men, and practised writers, and a country whose literature is yet in its infancy, and whose men of talents are, for the most part, engrossed with the active business of life, I will venture to predict, that our hopes of fame and emolument from this quarter will be, in a great de- Assuming, then, that the artificial stimulus of gree, abortive; that we shall be forestalled in International Copyright is not required by the inevery department of literary effort by veteran and terests of native literature, that its benefits to the more popular opponents. Can it be presumed that American author are, at most, trivial and insignifiour productions will meet with much success on cant, let us inquire whether it be proper, or expethe continent of Europe, among people differing dient to extend to foreigners the protection of a from us in language, in their standard of taste, in system, unsanctioned by precedent, and called for their models of composition; or that, even in Bri- by no municipal considerations. It has already tain, they could encounter the competition of her been shown, that the proposed innovation receives own favorite authors, backed, as they would be, by no countenance from the principles of abstract the whole force of national prejudice? But admit- right, and that the propriety of its adoption can ting that all these difficulties are overcome, that only be vindicated upon views of policy, or conve our adversaries should grant us a fair field, equal nience. I have already conceded, that if no diffiweapons, and impartial judges, should we chance culties of a political complexion intervene, if there to win the battle, may we not still be defrauded of be nothing in the peculiar character of our instituthe meed of victory? What guerdon for our toils tions or condition of our people to forbid it, a sense will remain but barren honor, now so lightly esteem- of gratitude should incline us to favor the preten ed, when some literary pirate has clutched the pecu- sions of men, to whose labors we are indebted for so niary reward? And how is such a consummation much innocent enjoyment and valuable information. to be avoided? What prospect has an American It is the appropriate sphere of an American statesauthor of maintaining his rights in distant coun- man to guard and to patronize domestic interests, tries, and before unfriendly judges, when even at and when he is invited to embrace any new scheme, home, under his own eye, and aided by the whole he must first determine the preliminary question, power of his own government, he can with diffi- how far it interferes with these primary objects of culty repel the encroachments of the trespasser? his care, and superintendence, before he can yield It would be impracticable to defend a position, without censure to the impulses of gratitude and vulnerable at so many points, against such nume- generosity. What then will be the operation of rous assailants; or, to make his foreign monopoly International Copyright upon ourselves? Its immeavailable, he must wield the wealth of Rothschild, diate result will be to enhance the price of modern and possess the vigilance of Fouché. His life books, and thus to seal up to that extent the founwould be a state of perpetual warfare, of endless litigation and few would consent to purchase a boon, so equivocal, at the expense of such continued vexation and disquietude.

tains of knowledge, to a large portion of our reading public in the middling and lower classes of society; to close with the barrier of a monopoly the access of that important branch of our popula These arguments, if I am not deceived, demon- tion to the great receptacle of modern discovery: strate the fallacy of the supposition, that our native to exclude them from the softening influences of literature will derive any effectual support from an that refinement, which, at this day, has purged International Copyright. But does it need such elegant letters from the taint of ancient grossness: extrinsic aid? The brief sketch of its origin and to check their growing taste for intellectual pleaprogress during the last thirty years, so eloquently drawn by Mr. Simms, sufficiently evinces the vigor of its constitution, and must satisfy the most scep

sures by withholding its natural aliment; and to consign them to the debasing bondage of ignorance and prejudice. A thirst for knowledge, a relish for