history, and McPherson £1,200 for his "Ossian."[1] Since that time money
has become greatly more abundant and less valuable; and if we desired to
compare the reward of these authors with those of the present day, the
former should be trebled in amount, which would give Robertson more than
sixty thousand dollars for a work that is comprised in three 8vo. volumes
of very moderate size. It is not a consequence of limitation of time, for
that has grown from fourteen to forty-two years--more than is required
for any book except, perhaps, one in five or ten thousand. It should not
be a consequence of poverty in the nation, for British writers assure us
that wealth so much abounds that wars are needed to prevent its too rapid
growth, and that foreign loans are indispensable for enabling the people
of Britain to find an outlet for all their vast accumulations. What, then,
is the cause of disease? Why is it that in so wealthy a nation literary
men and women are so generally poor that it should be required to bring
their poverty before the world, to aid in the demand for an extension to
other countries of the monopoly so well secured at home? In that country
the fortunes of wealthy men count by millions, and, that being the case,
an average contribution of a shilling a head towards paying for the
copyright of books, would seem to be the merest trifle to be given in
return for the pleasure and the instruction derived from the perusal of
the works of English authors, and yet even that small sum does not appear
to be paid. Thirty-two millions of shillings make almost eight millions of
dollars; a sum sufficient to give to six hundred authors more than
thirteen thousand dollars a year, being more than half the salary of the
chief magistrate of our Union. Admitting, however, that there were a
thousand authors worthy to be paid, and that would most certainly cover
them all, it would give to each eight thousand dollars, or one third more
than we have been accustomed to allow to men who have devoted their lives
to the service of the public, and have at length risen to be Secretaries
of State. If English authors were thus largely paid, it would be deemed an