ity of its application in
this particular instance; but we can nevertheless hardly be satisfied
to have an utterance like that of these resolutions quoted (as it is
in the last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica) as "the latest
American views on the subject."

The history of the efforts made in this country to secure
international copyright is not a long one. The attempts have been few,
and have been lacking in organization and in unanimity of opinion, and
they have for the most part been made with but little apparent
expectation of any immediate success. Those interested seem to have
always felt that popular opinion was, on the whole, against them, and
that progress could be hoped for only through the slow process of
building up by education and discussion a more enlightened public
sentiment.

In 1838, after the passing of the first International Copyright Act
in Great Britain, Lord Palmerston invited the American Government to
cooeperate in establishing a copyright convention between the two
countries.

In the year previous, Henry Clay, as chairman of a committee on the
subject, had reported to the Senate very strongly in favor of such a
convention, taking the ground that the author's right of property in
his work was similar to that of the inventor in his patent.

This is a logical position for a protectionist, interested in the
rights of labor, to have taken, and the followers of Henry Clay, who
are to-day opposed to any measure of the kind, would do well to bear
in mind this opinion of their ablest leader.

No action was taken in regard to Mr. Clay's report or Lord
Palmerston's proposal.

In 1840 Mr. G. P. Putnam issued in pamphlet form "An Argument in
behalf of International Copyright," the first publication on the
subject in the United States of which I find record. In 1843 Mr.
Putnam obtained the signatures of ninety-seven publishers, printers,
and binders to a petition he had prepared, and which was duly
presented to Congress. It took the broad ground that the absence of an
international copyright was "alike injurious to the business of
publishing and to the best interests of the people at large."

A memorial was presented the same year in opposition to this petition,
setting forth, among other things, that an international copyright
would "prevent the adaptation of English books to American wants." In
the report made by Mr. Baldwin to Congress twenty-five years later, he
remarks that "the mutila