Bancroft or Mr. Prescott? Assuredly not. The bookseller, then? Will he not
use his power in reference to foreign books precisely as he does now in
regard to domestic ones? If he deems it now expedient to sell a 12mo
volume for a dollar or a dollar and a quarter, is it probable that the
ratification of this treaty will open his eyes to the fact that it would
be better for him to sell Mr. Dickens's works at fifty cents than at three
dollars? Scarcely so, as I think. It is now about thirty years since the
"Sketch Book" was printed, and the cheapest edition that has yet been
published sells for one dollar and twenty-five cents. "Jane Eyre" contains
probably about the same quantity of matter, and sells for twenty-five
cents. Of the latter, about 80,000 have been printed, costing the
consumers $20,000; but if they were to purchase the same quantity of the
former, they would pay for them $100,000; difference, $80,000. What, now,
would become of this large sum? But little of it would reach the author;
not more, probably, than $10,000. Of the remaining $70,000, some would go
to printers, paper-makers, and bookbinders, and the balance would be
distributed among the publisher, the trade-sale auctioneers, and the
wholesale and retail dealers; the result being that the public would pay
five dollars where the author received one, or perhaps the half of one. We
have here the real cause of difficulty. The monopoly of copyright can be
preserved only by connecting it with the monopoly of publication. Were it
possible to say that whoever chose to publish the "Sketch Book" might do
so, on paying to its author "a few cents," the difficulty of this _double
monopoly_ would be removed; but no author would consent to this, for he
could have no certainty that his book might not be printed by unprincipled
men, who would issue ten thousand while accounting to him for only a
single thousand. To enable him to collect his dues, he _must_ have a
monopoly of publication.

It may be said that if he appropriate to his use any of the common