for the Encouragement of Learning," and, declaring
that an author should have the sole right of publishing his book,
prescribed penalties against any who should infringe that right. Its
evident intention was to more clearly establish, and make more easily
defensible, the rights of authors, but curiously enough it had for its
effect a very material limitation of those rights.

It provided, namely, that copyright should be secured to the author or
his assigns for fourteen years, with a privilege of renewal to the
author or his representatives for fourteen years longer. This
privilege of renewal was not conveyed to any one who might have
purchased the author's copyright. It was supposed for a long time that
this statute had not interfered with any rights that authors might
possess at common law, and in the oft-cited case of Millar _vs._
Taylor in 1769, in regard to a reprint of Thomson's "Seasons," a
majority of the judges of the King's Bench (including among them Lord
Mansfield) gave it as their opinion that the act was _not_ intended to
destroy, and had not destroyed, copyright at common law, but had
simply protected it more efficiently during the periods specified. The
opinion delivered by Lord Mansfield, as chief justice of the court,
remains one of the strongest and most conclusive statements of the
property-rights of authors, and has been termed one of the grandest
judgments in English judicial literature. Its conclusion is as
follows:

"Upon the whole, I conclude that upon every principle of reason,
natural justice, morality, and common law; upon the evidence of
the long received opinion of this property appearing in ancient
proceedings and in law cases; upon the clear sense of the
legislature, and the opinions of the greatest lawyers of their
time since that statute--the right (that is in perpetuity) of an
author to the copy of his work appears to be well founded, ...
and I hope the learned and industrious will be permitted from
henceforth not only to reap the same, but the full profits of
their ingenious labors, without interruptions, to the honor and
advantage of themselves and their families."

In 1774, in the case of Donaldson _vs._ Beckett, the House of Lords
decided on an appeal, first, that authors had possessed at common law
the right of copyright in perpetuity, but, secondly, that this right
at common law had been taken away by the statute of Anne,