and graceful in expression; ready and magnanimous in action. We are the countrymen of Newton and of Bacon, of Shakspeare and of Milton, of Raleigh and of Sidney. Truly, we come of earth's best blood.' 90. And who can tell what might be achieved by such a people universally educated;—every man placed on the best vantage ground for the development of what should be within him. It were a spectacle the world has not yet seen. Το prepare the way for it, were to prepare the solution of the greatest problem in the destinies of humanity. 91. For any, the remotest, approximation to such an end, what were the expenditure which, well applied, should seem other than trivial and of no account? And what were the honour due to the monarch and the government which should adopt new means for its attainment? To some such means, hitherto greatly neglected, it has been the object of these pages to invite increased attention. LIST OF APPENDIX. Page A. Copyright.-On certain of the details of Mr. Sergeant Talfourd's Bill; and on the duration of copyright in books in the principal States of Europe 351 B. Patents for Inventions.-On Lord Brougham's Act giving power to Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to extend term of Letters Patent in special cases 355 C. Copyright and Patents.—On the constitution of copyright D. Application of Art to Manufactures. On the French quinquennial Exhibition of National Industry 363 365 E. Public Galleries.-On the plan of the Pinacotheca and Glyptotheca of Munich. 368 F. On the plan of the Catalogues of some Continental Museums. G. Extract from a recent report of the Royal Institution of Liverpool, on the effects of free exhibitions 372 373 H. Art-Unions.-On the encouragement extended to Historical 374 APPENDIX. Note A. Copyright, p. 63. SINCE the observations in the text were printed, Mr. Talfourd's bill has been reintroduced, with two important alterations in its details, which partly anticipate what I had intended to suggest in this note. But before any further remarks are offered with respect to the learned Sergeant's bill, it may be useful briefly to trace the present state of law respecting literary property in the principal countries of Europe and in the United States. In Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and in some of the minor States of Germany, copyright in books perpetual. Of the state of the law in Spain, I am unable to speak so positively, but I infer from the statement of M. Victor Foucher,* (on the authority of the Nuevissimo Recopilacion↑ of 1805,) that there it is perpetual also. M. Foucher's words are "En Espagne une loi de 1805, doit admettre la perpétuité du droit de l'auteur." In Russia, by a law of 1830, copyright subsists in the author for his life, and in his heirs for twenty-five years after his death, and if within five years of the expiration of this term a new edition be published, then it subsists in the heirs for a further term of ten years from the expiration of the twenty-five. In the case of assigned copyright, the Russian law gives the author a presumptive right to publish a second edition, after the lapse of five years, if there be no express agreement in writing to the contrary.‡ In Prussia, by a law of the 11th of July, 1837,§ copyright subsists in the author for his life, and in his heirs for a term of thirty years from his death, without distinction whether the work shall have been published during his lifetime or not. And by the 35th section, the privileges of this law was extended "to all writings, charts, drawings, and musical compositions which are already printed.'|| * De la Propriété Littéraire et de la Contrefaçon, Paris 1836. § Tit. xi. Art. 996-1036, of the General Code, part i. Das Königl. Preussische Gesetz vom 11 Juni, 1837, zum Schutze des Eigenthums an Werken der Wissenschaft und Kunst gegen Nachdruck und Nachbildung: dargestellt...durch D. J. E. Hitzig, Berlin, 1838. In France, by an ordinance of the 30th of August, 1777, copyright in the author and his heirs was made perpetual, but if assigned to a bookseller it ceased with the author's life. This perpetuity, however, was reduced to a term of ten years from the author's death, by a law of the National Convention, (July 19, 1793,) and this term again extended in favour of the widow† and children, to twenty years, by an imperial decree of the 16th of February, 1810. If an author have neither widow nor children, then his heirs or assigns have a term of ten years from his death. Since this period, two distinct commissions-the first in 1826, under the presidency of the Vicomte de la Rochefoucauld; the other, in 1836, under that of the Comte Philippe de Ségur-have recommended the further extension of the term to fifty years after the author's death, in favour of his widow and heirs, "legataires ou donataires," provided the copyright shall have been unassigned, but if assigned, then the commission recommend that the assignees be bound to make an equitable allowance of profits upon each edition to the author's heirs. In Holland and in Belgium copyright subsists for a term of twenty years from the author's death, under conditions not very dissimilar to those of the French law. At least I am not aware of any alteration of the general law of the Netherlands of the 25th of January, 1817.§ In the United States of America, copyright subsists in the author for twenty-eight years, with an additional term of fourteen years, if he, or his wife, or his children so long survive. But here, as in France, opinion seems to tend towards an increase of this term. A writer in the Amerirican Jurist,¶ after stating that a Judiciary Committee of the House of Representation, which sat on this subject in 1831, would have reported a bill for a perpetual copyright, "if they had thought the public mind prepared for so great a change at one stride;" continues-"But the time, we venture to augur, is not far distant, when authors will be placed nearer upon an equality with their fellow-men, in the enjoyment of what they earn by • "Tout auteur qui obtiendra en son nom le privilége de son ouvrage, aura le droit de le vendre......et jouira de son privilége pour lui et ses hoirs à perpétuité pourvu qu'il ne le rétrocéde à aucun libraire, auquel cas la durée du privilége sera, par le fait seul de la cession, réduite à celle de la vie de l'auteur." Ordonnance du 30 Avril, 1777. Art. 5. Recueil général des anciennes Lois Françaises. Tom. 25, p. 109. The widow's right to the usufruct for her life depends on the "conventions matrimoniales," if she enjoy it, the term of twenty years still remains in the children, from the date of her death. Rapport de la Commission, etc. Art. 15. § See Répertoire du Jurisprudence, contrefaçon. Sec. 17. See the Acts of Feb. 3, 1831, and 30th of June, 1834.- Revue Etrangère et Française de Législation, &c. Tom. 1, p. 449. Vol. 10, p. 80. |