urvived
the whole life of its predecessor; and he who lives half as long
again, will see the new one superannuated and going the way of all
written constitutions. The late constitution of this State was in many
respects a noble one; but its successor plays the mischief with every
thing; and I have heard an old freeholder complain that he hardly
knows whether he has a house, a wife, or a head on his shoulders; so
radically has the revolution affected whatever is social and civil.
This will show you that there is, after all, no necessary perpetuity
in the present condition of things; and so I come to the statute,
which is the only just cause of complaint.

The English origin of the law is very apparent. It retains some
features of the old statute of Queen Anne, with others of 54 Geo.
III., which has lately been made so familiar in parliamentary reports.
It secures authors in their property for a term of twenty-eight years,
and provides for renewing this security for half that period, upon a
renewal of entry. One copy of every work thus protected, must be
deposited with the Clerk of the United States' Court for the District
where it is entered; and by a late enactment, the author must
contribute another copy to the library of "the Smithsonian
Institute,"--that unmeaning benevolence of an unfortunate scion of the
Northumberland family, which is already beginning to be regarded as a
folly, and which one would think might have been made to subserve the
interests of authors, rather than furnish another occasion for the
exercise of legislative ingenuity, in adding to their many annoyances.
The other important features of the Act are the penalty for piracy,
and the restriction of protection to citizens and residents; in other
words, the punishment of piracy in certain cases, and its license in
others. Thus the same Act is dainty of rights, if the craft swim in
rivers and bays, but hands over to the black flag whatever is found on
the highway of nations. Persons pirating a copyright work are liable
to a forfeiture of every copy in their keeping, whether of their own
manufacture or otherwise; and besides this, to a fine of one dollar a
sheet upon the same, of which one moiety goes to the author, and the
residue to the government. Why should it be culpable to steal from a
resident, and laudable to do the same thing with a stranger? If a
foreign mechanic exports his goods, they are as safe in New York, as
the wealth of John Jacob A