A proposition will doubtless be made in the course of a year by the British Government for the appointment of an International Commission for a fresh consideration of the subject, and our government ought to prepare for this International Commission by the early appointment of a Home Commission to give due consideration to the several interests involved in the question, to collect again the different sets of opinions, and to harmonize these as far as practicable. By the time our English friends are ready to talk the matter with us, we ought to have informed ourselves definitely as to what kind of a measure is on the whole most desirable, and how much of this it is at this present time practicable to carry into effect. There has undoubtedly during the past ten years been a growth of enlightened public sentiment on the question, but I should still be indisposed to entrust its settlement to the House of Representatives, and should suppose that it could probably be handled to best advantage by the Senate in the shape of a treaty. It is due to American publishers to explain that, in the absence of an international copyright, there has grown up among them a custom of making payments to foreign authors which has become, especially during the last twenty-five years, a matter of very considerable importance. Some of the English authors who testified before the British Commission stated that the payments from the United States for their books exceeded their receipts in Great Britain. These payments secure of course to the American publisher no title of any kind to the books. In some cases they obtain for him the use of advance sheets by means of which he is able to get his edition printed a week or two in advance of any unauthorized edition that might be prepared. In many cases however, payments have been made some time after the publication of the works, and when there was no longer even the slight advantage of "advance sheets" to be gained from them. While the authorization of the English author can convey no title or means of defence against the interference of rival editions, the leading publishing houses have, with very inconsiderable exceptions, respected each others' arrangements with foreign authors, and the editions announced as published "by arrangement with the author," and on which payments in lieu of copyright have been duly made, have been as a rule not interfered with. This understanding among the publishers goes by the name of "the courtesy of the trade." I think it is safe to say that it is to-day the exception for an English work of any value to be published by any reputable house without a fair and often a very liberal recognition being made of the rights (in equity) of the author.