ng English authors, like George Eliot,
Miss Mulock, William Black, R. D. Blackmore, Wilkie Collins, Thomas
Hardy, Mrs. Alexander, Tyndall, Huxley, and very many others, have
received and are receiving liberal payments from their American
publishers, who are accustomed, as I have said, not to interfere with
each others' purchases.

In past years there have been sharp criticisms on the other side of an
American habit of "adapting" and reshaping English books, so that the
authors, in addition to the grievance of receiving no compensation for
their American editions, had the further cause for complaint that
these editions were not trustworthy and did not fairly represent their
productions. It was also charged that English material was
occasionally "annexed" bodily by American authors, without any credit
being given. For both sets of charges there have doubtless been
grounds, but the instances have certainly during the past quarter
century grown very much fewer. Indeed, the last kind of appropriation
would to-day be almost impossible, as the knowledge of English current
literature is so thorough that detection would follow at once.
"Appropriated" material could not be sold. In England, however, while
American literature is, as I have shown, beginning to be appreciated,
it is not yet at all thoroughly known, and there is therefore much
less risk in making use of it. As a matter of fact it has been so made
use of by literary hacks to a considerable extent, and there are some
amusing instances in which the English publishers and English critics
have been imposed upon by material that was _not_ original. Mr.
Randolph, the publisher, relates how he was innocently led to reprint
some essays brought to him by an English friend, which seemed to him
very fresh and original, and which proved to have been taken bodily
from one of Henry Ward Beecher's volumes. Mr. Randolph promptly called
Mr. Beecher's attention to his own felonious conduct, and handed him a
check for the considerable amount due him for copyright on the sales.

A translation by Charlton T. Lewis of Bengel's "Gnomon of the New
Testament" was reprinted in London as the work of "two clergymen of
the Church of England." Mr. Lewis' version was followed verbatim, with
the single exception of the omission of some Latin quotations.

Dr. S. Irenaeus Prime had sent to him a volume bearing the name of an
English author, with the inquiry as to whether, in his judgment, it
was li