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National
encourage-
ment,

Rhymes on
Art; p. 17,
Preface.

Evid. on

Arts, 1836, p. 165.

Id. 1835, p. 3.

case in England. We have also an impediment in the very freedom of our political constitution; the necessity of perpetual reference to the House of Commons, the jealousy of that House in regard to the mode in which the public money is expended [?]; the clamour, more or less prevalent, for economy, furnishing sometimes a reason to the Government for declining expense, and always a convenient excuse; these are obstacles in a great measure peculiar to this country, and they tend to prevent that dignified course of liberality in many points, but particularly in that which is connected with the present enquiry, which is best calculated to ensure the respect and affection of the people, and to promote their wealth and happiness. In brief, the Government has given but reluctant attention to such matters, and, in times past, the great mass of the people have been indifferent."

Sir Martin Archer Shee, President of the Royal Academy:

"When it is considered at what a trifling charge all the great objects which necessarily result from an enlightened patronage of the arts might be obtained; it seems scarcely credible that a people generous to prodigality in every other department of expense, should in this instance display a parsimony, as ungracious as it is ineffective." "The public are ignorant, to an extraordinary degree, upon the subject of the Arts; even those who are considered as the enlightened classes of society,—who are considered competent to legislate on all other points, are incompetent judges of the Arts."

Charles Robert Cockerell, Esq., R.A., &c.

"The Governments of the Continent have been always better and more systematically directed to Arts and Manufactures than by our own scattered endeavours, especially in the higher departments; by establishment of professors of archæology furnishing the learning necessary, academies providing accomplished hands, by premiums on manufactures, direction of some of them, by exhibitions of Art of all ages gratuitously, thus diffusing taste through every class of society, from the manufacturer to the purchaser. My enquiries

have resulted in a conviction of the necessity of such means in this Country as they have on the Continent, which, superadded to the capital and industry of this country, would give us the superiority over every other, in both Arts and Manufactures."

Charles Toplis, Esq., Manager of the Museum of National Manufactures, in Leicester square:

seq.

"It is a subject of heavy complaint with manufacturers that they Protection have now so little protection in their original designs: so little proof inventive design; tection, indeed, that they feel in many cases little disposed to incur Id. p. 116, the expense of paying artists to produce designs for their particular establishments, knowing that after they have incurred that expense they are open to piracy the next day, if they produce anything likely to take with the public. The present protection is little available; it is an expensive process in Chancery, which very few men choose to resort to."*

George Foggo, Esq., historical painter:

"So doubtful is the recovery, and so great the expense attending Idem; p. 47.

it, that, where otherwise fifty guineas would be expended on a design,

no more than £5 would now be ventured by the silversmith

"I think that the advantage of the copyright in France depends on the circumstance of the cheap law. I was lately in court in a case where the sale of spurious works was most clearly proved. The expenses, I was informed, amounted to £100, and the award for the sale of five different and distinct prints was £15. From what I recollect of such cases in Paris, I should say that the expenses would have been under £15, and the award might have been £100. It is, therefore, in France, worth while (particularly when we con sider the certainty of recovery) for the man of talent to claim his protection.

"The encouragement given to art in France arises principally from Museums, the liberality of exhibitions, and most particularly of the libraries and &c. Idem, of the museums. The opportunities of study in the libraries and museums are far superior to anything in this country. I may

"I will ask any professional man, common law as well as equity lawyers, and upon the answer I will be content to rest the issue of this part of the argument,-whether, when the case has been sent him of a person kept out of a property of small amount which belonged to him, and when, by his skill, he has discovered the precise nature of the wrong, if he found that the only remedy was the Court of Chancery, he would not think he has reduced the problem ad absurdum. No man, who ever put a forensic habit on his back, would think of advising a suit in equity to recover £50, £80, or £100. Can there, then, be a greater libel upon the law of a country than to say that a man [a manufacturer] must be kept out of his right [the infringed copyright of a design,] because, if he sought it, the costs of the Court of Chancery will be his inevitable ruin?" -Lord Brougham's Speech on Chancery Reform.

p. 49.

mention in proof, that the works of Flaxman, of Hope, and the publications on Etruscan vases of Sir William Hamilton, were shut up in private collections in England, and produced little effect on the public taste; but being placed in libraries in Paris, and other towns, where not only artists but the public had free access, the knowledge and taste of Flaxman and of Hope became there generally appreciated, instead of being, as in England, confined to a few. A fine example of their museums was that of the French monuments, where, in appropriate halls, samples of French statuary of seven successive centuries afforded an excellent opportunity of studying the taste and the history of the nation."

It were easy, but surely unnecessary, to multiply evidence to the same effect, from equally competent authorities, differing indeed amongst themselves on minor points, but all agreed in reprobating the past apathy of the English Government to this most important subject, and its neglect of duties, to which smaller powers, and less extensive combinations than it alone can command, are wholly inadequate.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE PROTECTION OF COPYRIGHT IN INVENTION.

"I am unable to understand why that which springs wholly from within, and contracts no other right by its usurpation, is to be regarded as baseless, because, by the condition of its very enjoyment, it not only enlarges the source of happiness to readers, but becomes the means of mechanical employment to printers, and of speculation to publishers. . . . The author's reward can but be so much as his readers are delighted to pay him.. Why then should we grudge it, any more than we would reckon against the soldier, not the pension or the grant, but the very prizemoney which attests the splendour of his victories, and in the amount of his gains proves the extent of ours?"-TALFOURD-Second Speech on Copyright, April 25, 1838.

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'Considering that every new idea, whereof the manifestation or development may become useful to society, belongs originally to him who has conceived it; and that it would be to attack the rights of property in their essence, not to regard a discovery in industry as the property of its author; considering also that all the principles of justice, of public order, and of national interest, require imperatively that public opinion respecting this species of property should be fixed, by a law which shall protect and render it sacred, it is decreed as follows." - Preamble to the French Law of Patents (No. 308).

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