and gentlemanlike. A select committee, of which Mr Clay was chairman,
was formed to consider upon it, and the following was the result of
their inquiry, and a bill was brought in, upon the report of the
committee:--

"_In Senate of the United States, Feb_. 16, 1837.

"Mr Clay made the following report:--

"The select committee to whom was referred the address of certain
British and the petition of certain American authors, have, according to
order, had the same under consideration, and beg leave now to report:--

"That, by the act of Congress of 1831, being the law now in force
regulating copyrights, the benefits of the act are restricted to
citizens or residents of the United States; so that no foreigner,
residing abroad, can secure a copyright in the United States for any
work of which he is the author, however important or valuable it may be.
The object of the address and petition, therefore, is to remove this
restriction as to British authors, and to allow them to enjoy the
benefits of our law.

"That authors and inventors have, according to the practice among
civilised nations, a property in the respective productions of their
genius is incontestible; and that this property should be protected as
effectually as any other property is, by law, follows as a legitimate
consequence. Authors and inventors are among the greatest benefactors
of mankind. They are often dependent, exclusively, upon their own
mental labours for the means of subsistence; and are frequently, from
the nature of their pursuits, or the constitutions of their minds,
incapable of applying that provident care to worldly affairs which other
classes of society are in the habit of bestowing. These considerations
give additional strength to their just title to the protection of the
law.

"It being established that literary property is entitled to legal
protection, it results that this protection ought to be afforded
wherever the property is situated. A British merchant brings or
transmits to the United States a bale of merchandise, and the moment it
comes within the jurisdiction of our laws they throw around it effectual
security. But if the work of a British author is brought to the United
States, it may be appropriated by any resident here, and republished,
without any compensation whatever being made to the author. We should
be all shocked if the law tolerated the least invasion of the rights of
property, in the case of the merchandise,