If he has before him an American novel on which, if he prints it, he must pay the author a royalty, and an English novel of apparently equal merit, on which he is not called upon by law to pay anything, the commercial inducement is on the side of the latter. If, on the score of patriotism or for some other reason, he may decide in favor of the former, his neighbor or rival will take the English work, and will have advantages for underselling him. As a matter of fact, as I shall specify further on, it is the custom of the leading publishing houses to make some payment for the English material that they reprint, but as they secure no legal title to such material, they cannot, as a rule, pay as much for it as they would for similar American work. There is also the advantage connected with English works that they usually come to the American publisher in type, in convenient form for a rapid examination, and that he can often obtain some English opinions about them which help him to make up his own publishing judgment, and are of very material assistance in securing for the books the favorable attention of the American public. It has therefore been the case that an American work of fiction has had to be a good deal better than a similar English work, and more marked in its attractiveness in order to have anything like the same chance of success. And what is the case with fiction, is true, though to a less degree, with books for young folks and works in other departments of literature. It is to be said, however, that this difference in favor of English productions has been very much greater in past years than at present, and is, I think, steadily decreasing. American writers have, against all disadvantages, forced their books to the favorable attention, not only of the American but of the foreign public, and the best work is now fairly secure of a hearing. But there is no question but what the want of a copyright measure has, as above explained, operated during the past three quarters of a century to retard and discourage the growth of American literature, especially of American fiction, and to prevent American authors from receiving a fair return for their labor. An international copyright is the first step towards that long-waited-for "great American novel."