them. This might be done by
withdrawing from the Americans the privilege of copyright on first
publication in this country. We have, however, come to the conclusion
that, on the highest public grounds of policy and expediency, it is
advisable that our law should be based on correct principles,
irrespectively of the opinions or the policy of other nations. We
admit the propriety of protecting copyright, and it appears to us that
the principle of copyright, if admitted, is of universal application.
We therefore recommend that this country should pursue the policy of
recognizing the author's rights, irrespective of nationality."

Here is a claim for a far-seeing, statesmanlike policy, based upon
principles of wide equity, and planned for the permanent advantage of
literature in England and throughout the world. Contrast with this the
narrow and local views of the following resolutions adopted at a
meeting held in Philadelphia in January, 1872, with reference to
international copyright, at which, if I remember rightly, Mr. Henry
Carey Baird presided;

"I. That thought, unless expressed, is the property of the thinker" (a
pretty safe proposition, as, _until_ expressed, it could hardly incur
any serious risk of being appropriated); "when given to the world, it
is as light, free to all.

"II. As property it can only demand the protection of the municipal
law of the country to which the thinker is subject."

The property which would, if it still existed, most nearly approximate
to such a definition as this is that in _slaves_. Twenty years ago, an
African chattel who was worth $1000 in Charleston became, on slipping
across to the Bermudas, as a piece of property valueless. He had no
longer a market price.

It is this ephemeral kind of ownership, limited by accidental
political boundaries, that our Philadelphia friends are willing to
concede to the work of a man's mind, the productions into which have
been absorbed the grey matter of his brain and perhaps the best part
of his life.

"III. The author of any country, by becoming a citizen of this, and
assuming and performing the duties thereof, can have the same
protection that an American author has."

We have already shown what an exceedingly unprotective and
unremunerative arrangement it is that is accorded to the American
author, and we have yet to find a single one, except perhaps Mr.
Carey, who is satisfied with it.

Why a European author, who has before him, unde