It is a question often mooted, how far it is the duty of a just and equal government to interfere in such cases for the protection of its subjects: this, however, is evident, that whatever restrictive laws are framed, if they are attempted to be enforced while a want of information prevails upon the subject, the very people for whose benefit and protection they are introduced, will, likely enough, view them with distrust and suspicion, and, until the imposition has been unmasked, will look upon those who have assumed characters not their own, as persecuted individuals, entitled to their sympathy rather than their detestation. It is by diffusing information, and clearing away obscurity, that we shall erect the best safeguard against delusion. Those who are ignorant are consequently credulous, superstitious, and undefended against the tricks and subtleties of the artful and designing. If a book is published, our opinion is almost insensibly influenced by what the reviewers say of it. If a new association, a company, or enterprise of any kind is projected, we look to the list of directors, committee, and patrons. Our education and universal custom induces us to pay deference to those whom we suppose to be possessed of superior information, to be men of character and reputation, and entitled, from their position in society, to be regarded with respect. These legitimate feelings have been so poisoned and tampered with by those who have designedly entered into a conspiracy to hoodwink the people, and share the plunder; and again by the hardly less criminal apathy of others, who, without dividing the spoil, have suffered the trickery to pass unexposed; that professional and literary men cannot but perceive distrust and want of confidence in their decisions, now becoming general among the reflecting and intelligent classes of society, who see that they have been trifled with, and treated as credulous dupes, and that they really have no guarantee for the merits of a production, the purity of a proposal, or the honesty or propriety of any measure to which distinguished names and lofty patronage are appended. The exposé of the practices of the railway, mining, and other bubble schemes illustrates this truth; and the secrets elicited during the discussion on Mr. Serjeant Talfourd’s Copyright Bill, clearly demonstrate how infamously the confidence of “a generous public” has been abused.[1]