need to be paid by the consumers of books. To the paper-maker, printer,
and bookbinder, called upon to supply one thousand of a book for _the
few_, where before they had supplied ten thousand for _the many_, it
would be small consolation to know that they were thereby building up the
fortunes of two or three large publishing houses that had obtained a
monopoly of the business of republication, and were thus adding to the
"security and respectability of the trade." As little would probably be
derived from this source by the father of a family who found that he had
now to pay five dollars for what before had cost but one, and must
therefore endeavor to borrow, where before he had been accustomed to buy,
the books required for the amusement and instruction of his children.

Our State of New Jersey levies a transit duty of eight cents per ton on
all the merchandise that crosses it. Had the imposition of this tax been
accompanied by a law permitting all who chose to make roads, no one would
have complained of it, as it would have been little more than a fair tax
on the property of the railroad and other companies. Unfortunately,
however, the course was different. To the company that collected it was
granted a monopoly of the power of transportation, and that power has been
so used that while the State received but eight cents the transporters
charged three, five, six, and eight dollars for work that should have been
done for one. The position in which the authors are necessarily placed is
precisely the one in which our State has voluntarily placed itself. To
enable them to collect their dues, some person or persons must have a
monopoly of publication, and they must and will collect five, ten, and
often twenty dollars for every one that reaches the author. The Union
would gain largely by paying into our treasury thrice the sum we receive
for transit duty, on the simple condition that we abolished the monopoly
of transportation; and it would gain far more largely by doing the same
with foreign authors. If justice does really call upon us to pay them, our