desirable to bring back those golden days when Grub-street was a purlieu of Parnassus, when in the words of some one of those times whose notions of culinary taste had no elevation, the fortunate poet might be fond to revel" in gallons of broth and pounds of bullock's liver."

We venture, however, to mention to every monarch of the type, how proud soever he may be in his inky dominions,

Et caligantem nigra formidine lucum,"

that without the help of the press the spirit of literature assisted that of art to civilize the ancient world, but without the spirit of literature the press were worthless lumber.1

The right of property in the publication of poems and other works of imagination has been falsely likened to that in mechanical inventions, and it is said, because the latter is protected by patent but for a limited time, the copyright in the former should be restrained also. Now, omitting the falseness of the conclusion, even were the two subjects of this logic of a similar kind, it appears to us quite clear that no similarity whatever exists between them; they bear no relation whatsoever to each other, except in that very species of restraint which, though just and expedient in the one case, is

unjust and inexpedient in the other. A poem, a novel, a creation of the mind, passions embodied, manners imitated, and drest in the wit, taste, or fancy, of an original conception, is not a thing which grows up gradually, by successive inventions of successive minds, each formed upon the previous invention, without which it could not have been achieved. If Watt had never lived, who doubts but that some one in a

"In the wilds of the North there are insects that prey
On the brains of the elk till his very last sigh,

But, Genius, thy patrons more cruel than they.

First feed on thy brains and then leave thee to die."

The instances, we regret to say, are singularly rare, of booksellers rising superior to the limited notions of their trade. One, however, has recently become public, and we gladly take this opportunity of expressing the (we believe) universal feeling of admiration it has inspired. We allude to Mr. Murray's unconditional surrender of his share in the copyright of Marmion. His letter to Sir Walter Scott on the occasion is a perfect model of refinement and delicacy. It is the letter of a gentleman in the best sense of the term.-Edit.

few years would have found out the last completion of the Steam Engine? But would somebody else than the author or authors, whichever it may be, have found out the Iliad? Had Milton perished in his cradle, does any one suppose a later poet would have found out the Paradise Lost? It is right to give a protection to inventions, in order to encourage them, and more so in order to reward the genius of the inventor; but it is also right to limit that protection, because it is probable that in a few years the progress of mechanical arts would open the same invention to some other mind, and thus to the public, and this operation is more certain the greater the progress of such arts. Being once in advance of the continent in mechanical inventions, the probability is we shall always remain so, because the advance opens sources of discovery which are sealed to those less forward.

To establish the distinction we have drawn, let us shortly advert to the history of the steam engine, to show through what numerous minds it has gradually advanced to its present perfection. Steam was applied as a moving force by the antients in an instrument called Æolipile, but so inartificially as must have made it practically inefficacious. Its power as a mighty moving force is mentioned by a French engineer, Solomon de Caus, who came to England in 1612, and the practical value of its recondensation. The Marquiss of Worcester mentions it in his "Century of Inventions" as "an admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire." Sir Samuel Morland was acquainted with it as a moving force about 1685, and designates numerically the difference between the space water occupies in its natural state, and that of steam. Denis Papin was the first who used it to create a vacuum, in a machine where atmospheric pressure was the moving force. Savery in 1698 applied it in that way in his engine for raising water. And it was applied by various other men of practical mechanical genius, whom we shall pass over until its capacities were subjected to the inquiring and inventive sagacity of James Watt. All this time the use of steam was confined to one only of its mighty powers, that of producing a sudden vacuum. Watt was led to investigate the subject in repairing a model of Newcomen's engine, the one then in

use, A. D. 1763. It is not our intention to detail his speculations and improvements; it is enough to say, that the result was improved condensor, and the completed invention, if we may so say, of the earlier projectors, namely, the making the expansive force of steam act as a moving power to the piston, instead of atmospheric pressure; and which he discovered accidentally in the last improvement of the condensor.

Thus this powerful engine, which appears to act as if it willed, is the production of many minds in a birth of centuries, as unlike the Paradise Lost in every possible relation, as physical agencies are to moral influences, or the labours of inventive science to the inspiration of fancy.

There are many topics we regret to leave untouched, from the necessarily contracted limits of this article, and many observations might have arisen on the subsidiary provisions of the bill, but the grand point at present is to vindicate the principle. We shall conclude with some quotations directly applicable to what appears to us the leading character of

the measure.

"There is something, sir, peculiarly unjust in bounding the term of an author's property by his natural life, if he should survive so short a period as twenty-eight years. It denies to age and experience the probable reward it permits to youth-to youth sufficiently full of hope and joy, to slight its promises. It gives a bounty to haste, and informs the laborious student who would wear away his strength to complete some work which 'the world will not willingly let die,' that the more of his life he devotes to its perfection, the more limited shall be his interest in its fruits. It stops the progress of remuneration at the moment it is most needed, and when the benignity of nature would extract from her last calamity a means of support and comfort to survivors. At the moment when his name is invested with the solemn interest of the grave, when the last seal is set upon his earthly course, and his works assume their place among the classics of his country, your law declares that his works shall become your property; and you requite him by seizing the patrimony of his children."-Speech of Mr. Serjeant Talford in the House of Commons, 18th May, 1837.

And again,

"Let us suppose an author, of true original genius, disgusted

with the inane phraseology which had usurped the place of poetry, and devoting himself from youth to its service; disdaining the gauds which attract the careless and unskilled in the moving accidents of fortune-not seeking to triumph in the tempest of the passions, but in the serenity which lies above them--whose works shall be scoffed at-whose name made a by-word-and yet who shall persevere in his high and holy course, gradually impressing thoughtful minds with the sense of truth made visible in the severest forms of beauty, until he shall create the taste by which he shall be appreciated--influence one after another, the master spirits of his age -be felt pervading every part of the national literature, softening, raising, and enriching it; and when at last he shall find his confidence in his own aspirations justified, and the name which once was the scorn admitted to be the glory of his age--he shall look forward to the close of his earthly career, as the event that shall consecrate his fame and deprive his children of the opening harvest he is beginning to reap. As soon as his copyright becomes valuable it is gone! This is no imaginary case."-Ibid.

The next

The case alluded to is that of Mr. Wordsworth. quotation we shall make is from a pamphlet of Mr. Mudie, written to stimulate opposition to the bill, in which the author produces Burns as an instance to show that the world may spare itself the trouble of paying for that which genius from the force of its own uncontrollable instincts will readily supply. We quote it as one of those cases which justify and call for the measure.

"And Burns-the glorious man of insulted memory-was he stimulated by the hope of gain, or warmed by the maudlin moan of patronage? I trow not. Five pounds when alive, and five pounds while his dead body lay stretched on the humble couch, was all that was doled out to him and his family for those matchless songs of which the publisher must have made thousands. But verily they have their reward,' the one in fame the other in two letters more."--The Copyright Question, &c. by Robert Mudie.

The author who has thus expressed just feelings both for the poet and his niggardly publisher, ought surely not to raise obstacles to the introduction of a law which, if then existing, had enabled the representatives of the poet to have shared in the profits "those matchless songs" might have subsequently produced.

We shall add but one other quotation, and that from the

most touching volume of biography we ever remember to have read-the last of Lockhart's Life of Scott.

Shortly after Sir Walter's death, his sons and myself, as his executors, endeavoured to make such arrangements as were within our power for completing the great object of his own wishes and fatal exertions. We found the remaining principal sum of the Ballantyne debt to be about 54,000l.: 22,000l. had been insured upon his life, there were some monies in the hands of the trustees, and Mr. Cadell very handsomely offered to advance to us the balance, about 30,000l., that we might without further delay settle with the body of the creditors. This was effected accordingly on

the 2d of February, 1833, Mr. Cadell accepting as his only security the right to the property accruing from Sir Walter's copyright property and literary remains, until such time as this new and consolidated obligation should be discharged. I am afraid however, notwithstanding the undiminished sale of his works, especially of his novels, his executors can hardly hope to witness that consummation, unless indeed it should please the legislature to give some extension to the period for which literary property has hitherto been protected; a bill for which purpose has recently been laid on the table of the House of Commons by Mr. Serjeant Talfourd."

S.

ART. VII.-ON THE RATING OF COLLIERIES FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR.

By the Act 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 96, intituled "An Act to regulate Parochial Assessments," after reciting that it was desirable to establish one uniform mode of rating for the relief of the poor throughout England and Wales, it is enacted that after such period as the Poor Law Commissioners shall direct, "no rate for the relief of the poor in England and Wales shall be allowed by any justices, or be of any force, which should not be made upon an estimate of the net annual value of the several hereditaments rated thereunto; that is to say, of the rent at which the same might reasonably be expected to let from year to year, free of all usual tenant's rates and taxes, and tithe commutation, rent-charge, if any, and deducting therefrom the probable average annual cost of the repairs, insurance, and other expenses, if any, necessary to maintain them in a state to command such rent."