Baronet, who has so
completely disproved the old charge against his countrymen of
possessing an _ingenium perfervidum_, (which Dr. Johnson would have
translated by _brimstone temperament_,) and of the don't-fail-to-
spread-your-umbrella-when-it-rains-or-you'll-spoil-your-hat wisdom of
the English Commoner, who seems to have named his chief work in a
moment of abnormal inspiration, since it has become proverbial as the
severest test of human philosophy.

But we cannot suspect the Congressional Committee of a joke, still
less of a joke at the expense of those anglers in the literary
current whose tackle, however bare of bait, never fails of a sinker
at the end of every line. They have been taught to look upon books as
in no wise differing from cotton and tobacco, and rate them
accordingly by a merely material standard. It has been the dealers in
books, and not the makers of them, who have hitherto contrived to
direct public opinion in this matter. We look upon Public Opinion
with no superstitious reverence,--for Tom's way of thinking is none
the wiser because the million other Toms and Dicks and Harries agree
with him,--nevertheless, even a fetish may justly become an object of
respectful interest to one who is to be sacrificed to it.

However it may be with iron, wool, and manufactured cotton, it is
clear that a duty on books is not protective of American literature,
but simply a tax on American scholarship and refinement. The
imperfectness of our public libraries compels every student to depend
more or less upon his own private collection of books; and it is a
fact of some significance, that, with the single exception of
Hildreth, all our prominent historians, Sparks, Irving, Bancroft,
Prescott, Ticknor, Motley, and Palfrey, have been men of independent
fortune. If anything should be free of duty, it should seem to be the
material of thought.

If Congress be really desirous of doing something for the benefit of
American authors, it would come nearer the mark, if it directed its
attention to the establishment on equitable grounds of some system of
International Copyright. A well-considered enactment to this end
would, we are convinced, be quite as advantageous to the
manufacturers as to the producers of books. We believe that a
majority of the large publishing houses of the country have been
gradually convinced of the inconveniences of the present want of
system. Many of them have found it profitable to enter into an