English authors have not been fairly treated. They are at great disadvantage, and must be satisfied for the present to work for fame, or but for little more. Fortunately for them, the American publishers, seeing that they do what they are legally entitled to do, are quarrelling amongst themselves, and are crying out for protection. [Here is introduced the case of an American publishing-house stated by themselves, which concludes thus:— ... “A review of these facts naturally suggests the reflection that the interests of the book-trade in this country, no less than the protection of authors in their just rights, require further legislation at the hands of Congress. It is high time for the passage of a well-considered International Copyright-Law, such as will wipe away from our country the reproach of what are known as ‘pirated editions.’”] We quite agree with this. Some legislation is called for. But now comes a third party, the public, which has its rights as well as the others. We shall very likely incur some odium for admitting that the million have any rights whatever to the productions of men of letters, and may be told that emanations of the brain are as much the private property of their authors as the guineas are of the man of business. So they are, so long as they keep them, to themselves; but when they have communicated them to the world they are no longer their exclusive property. It is right that they should have a modified protection, and we think it must be admitted that English authors are amply protected in their own country. We think, however, that the American public will not be disposed to give them the same amount of protection there, nor is it well that they should have it. They are, however, entitled to some protection, and we hope the day is not far distant when English authors will reap some solid advantages wherever the English language is spoken. We are disposed to think that seven years would generally be long enough for the purpose; although so short a time would be hard upon such men as Grote, Motley, Merivale, Webster, and others, whose lives have been spent upon their works. We take it for granted that the law, when modified, will be the same on both sides, and that Dickens and Longfellow will receive equal treatment. We are too selfish to give up our cheap editions of Longfellow, and American citizens are not what we take them to be, if they would, for a whole generation, debar themselves from popular editions of Dickens. (From _The Bookseller_, June 1, 1869.)