Whether we consider the claims of literary men to the property of their works as founded on inherent right, to be controlled only by the superior good of the community,--or as supported by a mixture of moral and equitable considerations, having reference to the reward and encouragement of learning and talent, it is undeniable that, without some protection of this kind, the fairer and better productions of literature will fail, and their place be occupied by a rank and unwholesome growth, offensive to the senses and noxious to social life. Even the selfish and short-sighted policy of our American brethren, which, in extending the privilege of copyright to their own countrymen, has denied it to foreigners, is found to operate in the most prejudicial manner upon their native literature; as no American publisher is likely to pay its due price for any composition of domestic genius, when he can please his customers and fill his pocket by reprinting, without any remuneration to the author, the most successful productions of the British press. The repression of such a system of piracy in America, would benefit alike the foreigner, whose copyright is thus pilfered, and the American man of letters whose talent is borne down by so disadvantageous a competition. The publishers of the Magazine had for many years been aware that a cheap American reprint of the work was in regular circulation to a very large extent and they were naturally desirous to put an end to such an injustice.[56] While they were turning their attention to the subject, they received in the early part of the past year, a communication from an American gentleman, suggesting as an effectual means of redress, the insertion in the Magazine, from time to time, of an article from a native or naturalised citizen of the United States, who should establish a copyright in his own person, or that of an assignee, and thus either protect the whole work or compel the publishers of the pirated edition to reprint it in an imperfect form, such as would materially check their success, and, in either way, break up the system.