pt to
draw off attention from those efforts by which the interests of
literature might be substantially promoted; and to exhaust public spirit
in comparatively unprofitable exertions, when the wrongs of literary men
are crying out for redress on all sides. It appears to me, that towards
no class of his Majesty's subjects are the laws so unjust and
oppressive. The attention of Parliament has lately been directed, by
petition, to the exaction of copies of newly published works for certain
libraries; but this is a trifling evil compared with the restrictions
imposed upon the duration of copyright, which, in respect to works
profound in philosophy, or elevated, abstracted, and refined in
imagination, is tantamount almost to an exclusion of the author from all
pecuniary recompence; and, even where works of imagination and manners
are so constituted as to be adapted to immediate demand, as is the case
of those of Burns, justly may it be asked, what reason can be assigned
that an author who dies young should have the prospect before him of his
children being left to languish in poverty and dependence, while
booksellers are revelling in luxury upon gains derived from works which
are the delight of many nations.

This subject might be carried much further, and we might ask, if the
course of things insured immediate wealth, and accompanying rank and
honours--honours and wealth often entailed on their families to men
distinguished in the other learned professions,--why the laws should
interfere to take away those pecuniary emoluments which are the natural
inheritance of the posterity of authors, whose pursuits, if directed by
genius and sustained by industry, yield in importance to none in which
the members of a community can be engaged?

But to recur to the proposal in your letter. I would readily assist,
according to my means, in erecting a monument to the memory of the Poet
Chatterton, who, with transcendent genius, was cut off while he was yet
a boy in years; this, could he have anticipated the tribute, might have
soothed his troubled spirit, as an expression of general belief in the
existence of those powers which he was too impatient and too proud to
develope. At all events, it might prove an awful and a profitable
warning. I should also be glad to see a monument erected on the banks of
Loch Leven to the memory of the innocent and tender-hearted Michael
Bruce, who, after a short life, spent in poverty and obscurity, was
ca