https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/304/1897-06-01-The-Author-8-1.pdf 1b2d973270f5085bc19995aae31bc655 PDF Text Text �������������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1897-06-01 Volume 8 Issue 1 Pages Page range in volume 1–28 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18970601 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin TLhe Hutbor* (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. Vni.—No. i.] JUNE i, 1897. [Pbice Sixpence. CONT MM NoOee», Ac, 1 From the Committee 8 Literary Property— 1. Copyright (Amendment) Bill * 2. Denmark and the Union 8 3. The Paria Conference 8 4. Literary Property In Russia 8 4. Tanchnitz Editions 8 New York Letter. By Norman Hapgood 9 Notes from a Duchy. By Robert H. Sherard 11 The Friends of Charles Lamb I2 Notes and News. By the Editor 1* The Baling Passion 1* Moods—Tenses—Voices ,5 ENTS. PA9K A Flemish Saga. By H. G. Koene U Subjunctive Mood: Its Present Day Dae 17 Books and their Keepers 18 Personal 19 From " Poems " by 8. L. E 21 A Suggested Beconstitution. By F. H. Perry Coste 21 Book Talk 22 Literature in the Periodicals 24 Correspondence —1. The Output of Authors. 2. The Moi-meme in Journalism. 8. The Criticism of "Dolomite Strongholds." 4. A Good Word for Editors. 5. Answers tc some of the Questions in "A Self-Eiamination Paper for Candid Critics." 2S The Books of the Month 17 PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Eeport. That for January 1897 can be had on application to the Secretary. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all Members, 6s. 6d. per annum. Back numbers are offered at the following prices: Vol. I., io«. 6d. (Bound); Vols. II., HI., and IV., 8«. 6d. each (Bound); Vol. V., 6s. 6d. (Unbound). 3. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Mobbis Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 3*. 4. The History of the Societe des (Jens de Lettres. By S. Squibe Spbigge, late Secretary to the Society, is. 5. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 2s. 6d. 6. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squibe Spbigge. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various forms of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 3*. 7. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parlia- ment. With Extracts from the Eeport of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix containing the Berne Convention and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lely. Eyre and Spottiswoode. is. 6d. 8. The Society of Authors. A Record of its Action from its Foundation. By Walteb Besant (Chairman of Committee, 1888—1892). i*. 9. The Contract of Publication in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland. By Ernst Lunge, J.U.D. 2s. 6d.  ## p. (#406) ################################################ 11 AD VER TISEMENTS. ®t)e $ociefp of Jtuffrors (gncotporateft). PRESIDENT. g-zeoirg-ie: isdiEiaEXJiTii. COUNCIL. S.I. I The Earl of Desabt. Austin Dobson. a. conan doyle, m.d. A. W. Duboubg. Pbof. Michael Foster, F.E.S. D. W. Feeshfield. Richard Garnett, C.B., LL.D. Edmund Gobse. H. Rider Haooard. Thomas Hardy. Anthony Hope Hawkins. , P.C. I Jerome K. Jerome. BuDYABD KlPLING. Prof. E. Bay Lankester, F.E.S. W. E. H. Lecky. J. M. Lely. Mrs. E. Lynn Linton. Eev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A. Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Mus.Doo. Pbof. J. M. D. Meiklejohn. Hon. Counsel — E. M. Underdown Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E., C Alfred Austin. J. M. Barbie. A. W. X Beckett. Bobert Bateman. F. E. Beddard, F.E.S. Sib Henry Bergne, E.C.M.G. Sir Walter Besant. Augustine Birrell, M.P. Eev. Pbof. Bonnby, F.B.S. Eight Hon. James Bryce, M.P. Eight Hon. Lord Burghclere Hall Caine. Egerton Castle, F.S.A. P. W. Clayden. Edward Clodd. W. Morris Colles. Hon. John Collieb. Sib W. Martin Conway. F. Marion Crawford. Herman C. Mebivale. Eev. C. H. Middleton-Wakk. Sir Lewis Morris. Henry Norman. Miss E. A. Ormerod. J. C. Parkinson. Eight Hon. Lobd Pirbright, F.E.S. Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D. Walter Hebries Pollock. W. Baptists Scoones. Miss Flora L. Shaw. G. B. Sims. S. Squire Sprigge. J. J. Stevenson. Francis Storr. Prof. Jas. Sully. William Moy Thomas. H. D. Traill, D.C.L. Mrs. Humphry Ward. Miss Charlotte M. Yonge. Q.C. A W. 1 Beckett. Sib Walter Besant. Egerton Castle, F.S.A. W. Morris Colles. ART. Hon. John Collier (Chairman). Sib W. Martin Conway. M. H. Spielmann. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Chairman—H. Eider Haggard. Sir W. Mabtin Conway. D. W. Freshfield. Anthony Hope Hawkins. J. M. Lely. SUB-COMMITTEES. MUSIC. C. Villiers Stanford, Mub.D. (Chairman). Jacques Blumenthal. J. L. Mollot. Solicitors— f Field, Boscoe, and Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields, i, G. Herbert Theing, B.A., 4, Portugal-street Sib A. C. Mackenzie, Mub.Doc. Henry Norman. Francis Storr. DEAMA. Henry Arthur Jones (Cha A. W. a Beckett. Edward Bose. OFFICES: Secretary—G. Hebbeet Theing, B.A. 4, Pobtuqal Stbebt, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. IP. WATT So SO 1ST, LITERARY AGENTS, Formerly of 2, PATERNOSTER SdUARE, Have now removed to HASTINGS HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, LONDON", W.C. Published every Friday morning; price, without Reports, 9d.; with Reports, Is. THE LAW TIMES, the Journal of the Law and the Lawyers, which has now been established for over half a century, supplies to the Profession a complete Becord of the Progress of Legal Reforms, and of all matters affecting the Legal Profession. The Reports of the Law Times are now recognised as the most complete and efficient series published. Offices: Windsor House, Broam's-bulldings, E.O HHE AET of CHESS. By James Mason. Price 5e. L net, by post 5s. 4d. London: Horace Cox, Windsor Houbb, Bream's-buildings, E.O. THE KNIGHTS and KINGS of CHESS. By the Eev. O. A. MACDONNELL, B.A. With Portrait and 17 Dlustra tionB. Crown 8vo.t cloth boards, price 2s. fid. net. London: Horace Cox, Windsor Bouse, Bream's-buildings, E.O.  ## p. 1 (#407) ############################################## tTbe Hutbor* (The Organ of the Incorporated. Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. Vin.—No. i.] JUNE i, 1897. [Pbice Sixpence. For the Opinions expressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as expressing the collective opinions of the Committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. THE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. oio Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. GENERAL MEMORANDA. FOR some years it has been the practice to insert, in every number of The Author, certain " General Con- siderations," Warnings, Notices, &c, for the guidance of the reader. It hag been objected as regards these warnings that the trioks or frauds against which they are directed cannot all be guarded against, for obvious reasons. It is, however, well that they should bo borne in mind, and if any publisher refuses a clause of precaution he simply reveals his true character, and should be left to carry on his business in his own way. Let us, however, draw up a few of the rules to be observed in an agreement. There are three methods of dealing with literary property :— I. That of selling it outright. This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if a proper price can be obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a competent agent. II. A profit-sharing agreement. In this case the following rules should be attended to: (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro- duction forms a part. (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements VOL. VIII. in his own organs: or by charging exchange advertise- ments. (3.) Not to allow a special charge for " office expenses," unless the same allowance is made to the author. (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental rights. (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights. (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher. As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or doctor! (7.) To stamp the agreement. HI. The royalty system. In this system, whioh has opened the door to a most amazing amount of overreaching and trading on the author's ignorance, it is above all things necessary to know what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now possible for an author to ascertain approximately and very nearly the truth. From time to time the very important figures connected with royalties are published in The Author. Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the "Cost of Production." Let no one, not even the youngest writer, sign a royalty agreement without finding out what it gives the publisher as well as himself. It has been objected that these precautions presuppose a great success for the book, and that very few books indeed attain to this great success. That is quite true: but there is always this uncertainty of literary property that, although the works of a great many authors carry with them no risk at all, and although of a great many it is known within a few copies what will be their minimum circulation, it is not known what will be their maximum. Therefore every author, for every book, should arrange on the ohanoe of a success which will not, probably, come at all; but which may come. The four points whioh the Society has always demanded from the outset are:— (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement means. (2.) The inspection of those account books whioh belong to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or withheld. (3.) That there shall be no secret profits. (4.) That nothing shall be charged which has not been actually paid—for instance, that there shall be no charge for advertisements in the publisher's own organs and none for exchanged advertisements; and that all discounts shall be duly entered. If these points are carefully looked after, the author may rest pretty well assured that he is in right hands. At the game time he will do well to send his agreement to the secretary before he signs it. B 2  ## p. 2 (#408) ############################################## 2 THE AUTHOR. HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. IiTVEBY member has a right to ask for and to receive Pj advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is snch as can be given beBt by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society's solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com- mittee will obtain for him Counsel's opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Bemember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, Bend the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the trioks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Bemember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of The Author notes of everything important to literature that yon may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members' agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action npon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE. MEMBERS are informed: 1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, oonclndes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the terms upon whioh its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that nil communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in nil cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invito MSS. without previous correspondence; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by Borne of the leading members of the Sooiety; that it has a "Transfer Department" for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a " Register of Wants and Wanted" is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. NOTICES. THE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the oost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6</. subscription for the year. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make The Author complete, attractive, and interesting. Will thoBe who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write? Communications for The Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Sooiety or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in whioh they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Sooiety does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors' Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, Ac. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year p If they will do thiB, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the following warning. It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduot, whether he was honest  ## p. 3 (#409) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 3 or dishonest? Of coarse they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the "Cost of Production" are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanoed 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of "doing sums," the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at Jtg 48. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the " Cost of Production" for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums whioh may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits o a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. FROM THE COMMITTEE. I. THE short Copyright Bill, drafted on behalf of the Society of Authors, is now in Lord Monkswell's hands. The fact that the International Copyright sections settled at the Paris Conference last year have passed into law in Germany was brought to the notice of the Committee at their meeting. The Committee were unable, owing to the short notice, to send a representative to the meeting of the Association Littcraire et Artistique Inter- nationale at Monaco at Easter. They, however, informed the secretary of the Association that they would be willing to express an opinion on any subject the Association chose to put before the Society. The three sub-committees are now complete, and consist of the following gentlemen :— Aet.—The Hon. John Collier (chairman), Sir W. Martin Conway, and Mr. M. H. Spiel- mann. Music.—Professor C. Villiers Stanford (chair- man), Mr. Jacques Blumenthal, and Mr. J. L. Molloy. Drama.—Mr. Henry Arthur Jones (chairman), Mr. A. W. A'Beckett, and Mr. Edward Bose. A bankruptcy petition has been presented against Messrs. Horace and Beresford Whitcomb as representing the Neic Saturday. The Society is acting on behalf of its members, and repre- sents claims amounting to between two and three hundred pounds. The course of events will be reported from time to time in The Author. II. Me. E. H. Lacon Watson v. Catholic Gazette (Limited). An interesting case, supported by the Society, came up for trial at the City of London Court on May 11. Unfortunately, the defendants did not appear, so the judgment was given by default; but it may be useful to members of the Society to state the facts of the case. The plaintiff was asked by the editor of the defendant paper to write an article, which article was written and accepted by the editor, for a sum agreed upon. Subsequently, the editor resigned his post, and, when the plaintiff wrote to the defendant paper, he received a reply that the defendant paper did not hold itself responsible, as the editor had no power to make financial arrangements. The plaintiff had no notice whatever of this, and brought the matter before the Society. The Society, on writing to the defendant paper, received the same response; and thereupon the plaintiff, with the support of the Society, com- menced action in the City of London Court. The defendants, on the case coming up for trial, did not appear, and judgment, as stated above, went by default. It would have been interesting to hear the defence of the defendants, as it is, without doubt, a recognised custom of all papers that the editor, as agent of the proprietor, is capable and respon- sible for the making of contracts that refer to the literary contents of the paper. The amount at stake was a small one, but the Society felt bound to carry it through, as a matter of principle was involved. m. A Copyright Case. It seems to me that the following facts should be made known, in the interest of all authors who are concerned in the question of copyright. On March 28 a poem from one of my books was printed in the Weekly Sun. No acknow- ledgment of its source was appended, and the name affixed was E. Nesbitt (the name, I believe, of another author). I wrote to the editor point- ing out these facts and asking for a cheque to the amount of my usual fee for the use of a poem. I received in reply a letter stating that it was an advantage to an author to have his poems " taken" by the TVceftly Sun, and that the editor " preferred  ## p. 4 (#410) ############################################## 4 THE AUTHOR. to regard the advantage as mutual." To this I replied that the question of advantage need not be considered, as no acknowledgment of the source of the poem had been made, and the name was mis-spelled; and again I asked for a cheque. The reply from the Weekly Sun regretted Mr. Charles Watney's inability to en- dorse this suggestion. Then I wrote remarking that as yet I had claimed no damages, and named a day on which I should, unless I received a cheque, place the matter in the hands of my solicitor. By return of post came the cheque, together with the following interesting letter, in which Mr. Charles Watney plainly puts the alternatives— robbery or boycott. The boycott of the Weekly Sun is perhaps not important, but the prin- ciple is. The Weekly Sun, Temple House, Temple-avenue. London, E.C. April 19, 1897. Madam,—As I have no wish to protract this unpleasant- ness, I enclose the oheque for £2 2s. At the same time I take leave to reaffirm my view of the position, and, to avoid any recurrence of any incident of the kind, have (riven instructions that no future reference, either direct or indirect, shall be made to you or your works in the numerous publi- cations with whioh I am connected.—Tours truly, Chah. Watnhy. Comment is superfluous. E. Nesbit. Three Cables, Grove Park, Kent. LITERARY PROPERTY. L—Copyright (Amendment) Bill, [dbaft memoeandtjm.] THIS Bill is intended to amend the most serious defects in present law of copy- right. Its provisions do not materially differ from the provisions on the same points contained in the Bill introduced by Lord John Manners (on behalf of the then Government) in the House of Commons in 1879, and in the Bill introduced by Lord Monkswell in the House of Lords in 1891. Both those Bills were mainly founded on the Report of the Royal Commission on Copyright of 1878. Lord Monkswell's Bill passed a second reading in the House of Lords. The amendments are directed to the following points :— I. MAGAZINE COPYRIGHT. Since the passing of the Copyright Act, 1842, this kind of copyright property has probably increased a hundredfold in value and importance, both to authors and publishers, much literature of high merit being constantly published in the first instance in magazine form. The 18th section of the Act of 1842, which deals with the subject, is expressed in language so obscure as to be almost unintelligible, and defers the author's right of separate publication to the end of a period of twenty-eight years. It is proposed that that section should be repealed, and that the copyright should be vested in the author, subject to the following qualifications: (1) The proprietor of the magazine to have the sole right of publishing as part of the magazine. (2) The author not to publish separately until after the expiration of three years from publication. It is further proposed, as recommended by the Royal Commission (see report, paragraph 43), that the alterations should be retrospective. The entire copyright in encyclopaedias is vested in the publisher as before, but in a separate section. 11.—newspapers. It has been thought advisable to make the Copy- right Acts and the present Bill expressly apply to newspapers. It was at one time (see Cox v. Land and Water Co., L. Rep. 2 Eq., 324) con- sidered that the Copyright Act, 1842, did not extend to newspapers, but later decisions (see Walter v. Howe, 17 Ch. Div. 608; Trade Aux- iliary Co.'s Case, 40 Ch. Div, 625) have overruled Cox v. Land and Water Co., and have placed the applicability of the Act to newspapers beyond the possibility of doubt. in. LECTURES. The Lectures Copyright Act, 1835, gives to the lecturer the exclusive right of publication, but requires a preliminary notice to justices of the peace, and probably does not apply to sermons. It is proposed to repeal this Act, and to give the lecturer (including the preacher) copyright with- out any useless formalities, but permitting a newspaper report unless expressly prohibited by the lecturer. IV. ABRIDGMENTS. It is now easy without any infringement of copyright in a few weeks, by skilful abridgment, to appropriate the fruit of the labours of many years, and to compete with the original copyright, bought and published at a very great expense. This will be prevented by the simple enactment that copyright shall carry with it the right to abridge. The reputation of the author is also safeguarded by a provision that a disclaimer of his authorship of the abridgment shall, if required by the author, be printed on the title- page; and that the abridgment shall not be issued without the author's consent in cases where  ## p. 5 (#411) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 5 the author retains an interest in the sale (by royalties or otherwise) though not in the copy- right. V.—DRAMATISATION OF NOVELS. As there is no copyright in ideas, it is easy for any person to take the whole plot of a novel and practically reproduce the novel itself in dramatic form without any legal infringement of copyright, and a similar injury can be inflicted by the novelisation of dramas. It is proposed to convert these moral into legal infringements of copyright. Owners of dramatic copyright are also given a summary remedy against infringement which is much needed, as pirates are often difficult to detect, or are not worth the expense of an action in the High Court when detected; and the remedy is to be available against those who "per- mit " as well as those who "cause" the repre- sentation. VI. ASCERTAINMENT OF THE DATE OF PUBLICATION. The present term of copyright is for the life of the author, and seven years after his death, or forty-two years after first publication, whichever may be the longer period. To ascertain the date of first publication is always difficult and fre- quently impossible. It is proposed, therefore, that the British Museum authorities should com- bine with the publisher of every book in so certi- fying the date of "first publication" that no doubt" should be possible, and that a certified copy of the entry of the date of publication should be primdfacie evidence of that date in all courts. The British Museum, by the 6th section of the Act of 1842, is entitled to a free copy of every book published. The supply of these free copies has long been felt to be a considerable burden on the producers of large and expensive works, and it is submitted that the British Museum may fairly be asked to perform the small but useful service of certifying the date of a first publication. COPYBIGHT AMENDMENT BILL. Arrangement of Clauses. Definitions. 1. Definitions of "book " and " copyright." Copyright in Periodical Works. 2. Copyright in articles in periodical works. 3. Registration of articles by anthor. 4. Retrospective operation of clauses 2 and 3. 5. Registration by owner of periodical work. 6. Copyright in articles in encyclopedias. Copyright in Lectures. 7. Copyright in lectures as in book. Abridgements. 8. Abridgements without consent of copyright owner to be infringement of copyright. Dramatisation and Novelisation. 9. Dramatisation of novels to be infringement of copyright. 10. Conversion or adaptations of dramas to be infringe- ment of copyright. Summary Remedy for Infringement of Right of Repre- sentation of Drama. 11. Liability to fine of person representing drama without consent of owner of performing right. Date of Publication of Book. 12. Date of publication of book to be furnished to and certified by British Mnsenm. Repeal. Suspension in Colonies. Short Title. Com- mencement. 13. Repeal of Lectures Copyright Act, and sects. 18 and 19 of Copyright Act, 1842. 14. Power to suspend Aot, or any part thereof, in British possessions. 15. Short title. 16. Commencement of Aot. Schedules: 1. Enactments repealed. 2. Form of entry of periodical work. A Bill to Amend the Law relating to Copyright in Periodical Works, Lectures, Abridgments, and otherwise. Whereas it is desirable to amend the Law of Copyright in relation to Periodical Works, Lec- tures, Abridgments, and otherwise. Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:— DEFINITIONS. 1. In this Act and in the Copyright Acts (i) "Book" shall include " newspaper." (ii) "Copyright" in the case of books shall include the exclusive right of translating, abridging, and (as regards works of fictiou in prose or in verse) of drama- tising the same, (iii.) "Copyright" in the case of dramatic works shall include the exclusive right of converting or adapting the same into any other •form of work whether dramatic or otherwise. COPYRIGHT IN PERIODICAL WORKS. 2. Where any article, essay, poem, or other work is first published in and forms part of a review, magazine, or other periodical, the copy- right in such article, e<say, poem, or other work shall, in the absence of any agreement in writing to the contrary, be the property of the author thereof. Provided that where the author is paid for the writing of such work as aforesaid by or on  ## p. 6 (#412) ############################################## 6 THE AUTHOR. behalf of the owner of the review, magazine, or other periodical, then :— (i.) The owner of the review, magazine, or periodical shall, during the subsistence of copyright in such article, essay, poem, or other work, have the sole right of publish- ing the same as part of the review, maga- zine, or periodical, but not otherwise, (ii.) Neither the author nor his assigns shall print or publish such article, essay, poem, or other work in any form until after the expiration of three years from its first publication in the review, magazine, or periodical, and any printing or publica- tion contrary to this provision shall be an infringement of the rights of the owner of the review, magazine, or periodical. 3. The author of any such article, essay, poem, or other work as aforesaid, or his assigns, may, either before or after the expiration of the said term of three years, register the same at Stationers' Hall as a separate work, and shall thereupon be entitled to restrain and obtain damages for any infringement of the copyright therein as a sepa- rate work. 4. The provisions of sections 2 and 3 shall apply to articles, essays, poems, and other works first published in a review, magazine, or other periodical, whether such publication took place before or after the commencement of this Act, and in the case of articles, essays, poems, or other works first published before the commencement of this Act, the copyright and other rights therein shall as from the commencement of this Act be held and enjoyed in accordance with the pro- visions of those sections. 5. (i.) The owner of a review, magazine, or other periodical may register the same at Stationers' Hall, and shall thereupon be entitled to restrain and obtain damages for any infringement of his rights in the same or any part thereof (ii.) Registration of a review, magazine, or other periodical shall be in the form set forth in the second schedule hereto, or as near thereto as circumstances will permit. (iii.) It shall be necessary to register only the first number, volume, or part of a review, magazine, or other periodical published in numbers, volumes, or parts. ^ 6. Where any article, essay, poem, or other work is first published in and forms part of an encyclopaedia, or similar collective work, and the author is paid for the writing thereof by or on behalf of the owner of the encyclopaedia, the copyright in such article, essay, poem, or other work shall, in the absence of any agreement in writing to the contrary, belong to the owner of the encyclopaedia. COPYRIGHT IN LECTURES. 7. The author of any lecture shall be entitled to copyright therein as if the same were a book, subject to the following modifications and additions :— (i.) The first delivery of a lecture shall be deemed to be the first publication there- of. (ii.) So long as a lecture has not been pub- lished as a book by or with the consent of the author, the copyright therein shall include the exclusive right of delivering the same in public. (iii.) It shall not be necessary to register the copyright in a lecture which has not been published as a book by or with the con- sent of the author. (iv.) A report of a lecture delivered in public in the ordinary current edition of a news- paper, after the delivery of such lecture, shall not be deemed an infringement of the copyright unless the author, before delivering the same, gives public notice that he prohibits the same being reported, but no such report shall be deemed to be a publication of the lecture within the meaning of sub-sect. ii. (v.) The notice referred to in the last preced- ing clause may be given either by affixing the same to the door of the place where the lecture is delivered, or by advertise- ment in one or more newspapers published and circulating in the district. (vi.) The term "Lecture" shall include apiece for recitation, address, or sermon. ABRIDGMENTS. 8. (i.) It shall be an infringement of the copy- right in a book if any person shall with- out the consent of the owner of the copy- right print or otherwise multiply or cause to be printed or otherwise multiplied any abridgment of such book, or shall export or import any abridgment so unlawfully printed, or shall sell, publish, or expose for sale or hire, or cause to be sold, published, or exposed for sale or hire, any abridgment, knowing or having reasonable grounds to suspect that the same has been so unlawfully printed or imported. (ii.) Where the author of a book has sold the copyright thereof in consideration  ## p. 7 (#413) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 7 (whether wholly or in part) of a royalty, or a share of the profits to be derived froin the publication thereof, or is other- wise notwithstanding such sale possessed of a pecuniary interest therein, such book shall not, during the continuance of the copyright therein and so long as the author shall be entitled to such royalty, share of profits, or shall be so interested as aforesaid, be abridged by the purchaser of such copyright without the consent in writing of the author or his assigns. (iii.) If the owner of the copyright in a book to the abridgment whereof the consent of the author is not required under the pre- ceding proviso, intends to publish an abridgment thereof made by some person other than the author of the original book, he shall give notice of such inten- tion to the author, if living, by registered letter directed to his best known address, and shall, if so required by such author, either state or cause to be stated on the title-page of each part or volume of the abridgment that the abridgment is not by the author of the original book, or shall in like manner state or cause to be stated the name of the maker of the abridgment. (iv.) The author of a book shall be entitled to restrain and obtain damages for any abridgment published in contravention of the above provisions of this section. DRAMATISATION. 9. In the case of a book which is a work of fiction in prose or in verse, it shall be an infringe- ment of the copyright therein if any person shall without the consent of the owner of the copyright take or colourably imitate the title of such book, or take from such book any material or substantial part of the dialogue, plot, or incidents thereof and use or convert it into or adapt it for a dramatic work, or knowing or having reasonable grounds to suspect such dramatic work to have been so made, shall publicly perform the same or permit or cause the same to be publicly performed. 10. In the case of a dramatic work it shall be an infringement of the copyright therein if any person shall without the consent of the owner of the copyright take or colourably imitate the title of such book, or take from such book the dialogue, plot, or incidents thereof, and convert or adapt them into any other form of work whether dramatic or otherwise, or knowing or having reasonable grounds to suspect any work to have been so made shall print or otherwise multiply, or cause to be printed or otherwise multiplied copies VOL. VIII. thereof for sale or exportation, or shall export or import, or sell, publish, or expose for sale or hire, or cause to be sold, published, or exposed for sale or hire, any copies thereof, or shall publicly per- form such work or permit or cause the same to be publicly performed. SUMMARY REMEDY FOR INFRINGEMENT OF DRAMATIC COPYRIGHT. 11. If any person shall represent or cause or permit any dramatic work to be represented at any place of dramatic entertainment without the consent in writing of the owner of the performing right in such work, it shall be lawful for the owner of the performing right (without preju- dice to any action for damages or other remedy he may be entitled to) to apply in a summary manner to a court of summary jurisdiction in that part of the British Dominions where such representation has taken place or where the offender dwells, and such court shall, on produc- tion of the certificate of registration, order the offender to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds and costs, and such penalty shall go to the owner of the performing right by way of compensation. Provided that not more than one penalty shall be recovered in respect of each representation. DATE OF PUBLICATION. 12. (i.) Upon the delivery of a book at the British Museum, the publisher shall therewith deliver a certificate setting forth the name of the book and the date of the first publication thereof, and such certificate shall be registered in a book to be kept by an officer provided for that purpose by the trustees of the said Museum. (ii.) Such officer shall upon payment to him of the prescribed fee not exceeding 2*. 6d. give a certified copy of any entry in such book to any person requiring the same. (iii.) Such certified copy shall be prima facie evidence in all courts of the date of the first publication of the work therein referred to. (iv.) The delivery of a book at the British Museum without such certificate as afore- said shall not be deemed a compliance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, 1842, and the publisher shall be liable to the penaltv provided by section 10 of such Act. REPEAL. 13. The Acts or parts of Acts specified in the first schedule hereto are hereby repealed as from the passing of this Act, but except as hereinbefore expressly provided such repeal shall not prejudice or affect any rights acquired previously to such c  ## p. 8 (#414) ############################################## 8 THE AUTHOR. repeal, and such rights may be enforced and enjoyed as if such repeal had not been made. 14. (i.) If it shall at any time appear to Her Majesty to be expedient that this Act, or any part thereof, should not apply to any British possession, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty by Order in Council to declare that this Act, or any part or parts thereof specified in such Order, shall be suspended so far as regards such British possession, either generally or during such period as may be thought expedient. (ii.) Any such Order in Council may from time to time be revoked or altered by any further Order in Council. (iii.) Every such Order in Council shall, as soon as may be after the making thereof, be published in the London Gazette, and shall take effect as from the date of such publication. (iv.) A copy of every such Order in Council shall be laid before both Houses of Parlia- ment within six weeks after the issuing thereof if Parliament is then sitting, and if not, then within six weeks after the commencement of the next session of Parliament. (v.) No such Order in Council shall affect prejudicially any right acquired at the date of its coming into operation. 15. This Act may be cited as the Copyright (Amendment) Act 1896 ; and shall be read and construed with the Copyright Acts. 16. This Act shall come into operation at the expiration of one calendar month after receiving the Royal assent. FIEST SCHEDULE. ACTS REPEALED. Sessions and Chapter Short T.tle Extent of Repeal. 5 & 6 Will. IT. 0.65 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45. Lectures Copyright The whole Act. Sections 18 & 19. Act 1835. Copyright Aot 1842. SECOND SCHEDULE. FORM OF ENTRY OF A PERIODICAL WORK. Date of Publi- cation cf nrst vol., part, or number. Title of Work Name and address of owner. Name and address of Publisher. II.—Denmark and the Union. We learn with regret from Le Droit d'Auteur that the hopes recently entertained that the kingdom of Denmark would shortly enter the Berne Union are not likely to be immediately fulfilled. A considerable number of difficulties have arisen, in consequence of opposition to any protection of the foreign author, on the part of the same persons who raised difficulties in Sweden—proprietors of newspapers, editors, and theatrical managers. Their principal arguments are the same as usual, with the ordinary varia- tions upon the increased price that translations of foreign works would command. The Danish Press, and especially the Dannebora, has made a vigorous attack upon international literary agree- ments, insisting particularly upon the injury to public education and the general culture of the people that would result from Denmark's enter- ing the Berne Union. The result has been an unfavourable vote in the Danish Parliament. At the same time the supporters of international copyright do not despair of final success. III.—The Pabis Conference. France and Switzerland have now followed the German Empire in ratifying the Acts of the Paris Conference of 1896, reforming certain articles of the Berne Convention. IV.—Literary Property in Russia. The committee of the French Socicte des Gens de Lettres has for some years past been diligently engaged in making efforts to bring about some literary convention between France and Russia. At a meeting of Dec. 21, 1896, it resolved to accredit Mme. de Wasilief with a letter to the Russian Government, authorising her to resume previous negotiations undertaken with this aim. It has also been decided that the President of the Society (M. Henri Houssaye) should write to the Minister of Public Instruction to call his attention to the interests of literary property in Russia, and to ask him to consider whether it might be now opportune to commence negotiations on this subject in combination with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It is worth ' while to remark that, apart from the particularly friendly feeling which has of late existed between France and the Russian Empire, France has been for some time past much more forward than the other western nations to pay due attention to the ever-increasing importance of Russian literature. V.—Tauchnitz Editions. It will be good news to authors whose works are published in cheap form by the firm of Tauchnitz to know that the Cusioms House authorities have at last awakened to a sense of  ## p. 9 (#415) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 9 duty. For many years copies of Tauchnitz •editions have been introduced wholesale into England, but 'within the last few weeks a special order has been issued to all Customs officers at Dover, Folkestone, Queenborough, and Harwich, to search carefully for any concealed books, with the result that hundreds of copies are daily confis- cated. A correspondent informs us that while crossing from Calais to Dover one morning last week he witnessed a whole portmanteau full of new Tauchnitz editions seized by the Customs officers, and five minutes later a lady was dis- covered with no fewer than eighteen of the neat little volumes carefully packed at the bottom of tier trunks. In fact, our correspondent says that in almost every person's baggage there seemed -one or two of the books.—Literary World. NEW YORK LETTER. New York, May 13. MBETTNETIERE'S five lectures in New York aroused more interest among * literary people than any event which has happened within my recollection. Not only did he draw very large audiences, which nhowei the wisdom of Columbia College in chousing a public hall instead of one of the University buildings for the lectures, but what he said was the text for a great deal of private conversation about many points connected with literary criticism, and with differences in culture between Paris and New York. In one of his lectures he hinted at some of the faults of criticism in this country, particularly its lack of disinterestedness and courage. In a democracy, he thinks, there is an especial need of the highest and fairest criticism to act as a tendency against the con- fusion in ideals which grows out of the increasing number and variety of readers and the greater literary output. There is an especial danger of levelling all reputations by constant mutual praise and laudation of local writers. No sugges- tion could be more deserved. Our literary men not only rejoice in praising each other, but some of them have expressed to me the opin'on, mingled with some reproach, that to speak of a living writer, especially of a living American writer, unless what you wish to say is distinctly laudatory, is at least a breach of taste. Perhaps our desire for a national literature is responsible in part for this position, but it is hard to believe that lower motives are not part of the cause. M. Brunetiere met a popular demand by speaking freely about Zola, condemning himwith the greatest earnestness and without the least reserve for his VOL. VIII falsity to French life and his lack of the per- manent elevated qualities of style. Asked in conversation the old question about Zola's admis- sion to the Academy, M. Brunetiere answered with a laugh, " It is possible; but it will not be my fault." The story, which I believe is told in the "G-oncourt Journals," was told in answer to this remark by the man to whom Daudet related it; that Zola came to him one day and said: "This is my fiftieth birthday, and after this I intend to live. You understand, I intend to live. You others have always lived, but I have spent my life in grinding. It is my turn now." And Daudet added: "That is the man who has been telling us for so long what life is." Sarcey M. Brunetiere dismissed in a sentence, as a man who never yielded an inch to the opinion of his fellow critics, but who reversed any belief if he fflt the notions of the crowd about to shift. The most interesting of his other judgments are in the main those that will be found in his books, although his high praise of Maupassant was a sur- prise. In social intercourse M. Brunetiere noticed that conversation was less sustained than in France. If a new person joins a small group, the subject, whatever it may be, is usually dropped, and, even if there is no interruption, after one topic has been talked about for a little while it seems to die of inertia, and there is silence until another is brought up. He noticed also less charity towards other opinions, more of a desire to discuss whether another opinion is true or false than to allow each person to do the best he can in bring- ing out the interest of his own point of view, for which a generous appreciation of the points of view of others is necessary. Frank Munsey is about to follow the lead of the owner of another 10 cent magazine (S. S. McClure) in founding a publishing house. It is announced that in the fall Mr. Munsey will begin the publication of books of the quality usually sold for 1 dollar, which he will sell for 25 cents, and that his first book will have a first edition of 250,000 copies. Extravagant as the assertion sounds, it borrows some plausibility from the success which Mr. Munsey has already had as the innovator and the most successful practitioner in the field of cheap magazines. The recent death of William Taylor Adams, whose pen name was Oliver Optic, led the Chap Booh into some moralising founded on the popularity of this writer, who received no attention from the critics, but perhaps is the most widely read of American authors, certainly the most popular writer of boys' books. From the age of thirty- four to that of seventy, he wrote about 130 volumes and more than 1000 short stories, and more than two million copies of his books have c 2  ## p. 10 (#416) ############################################# IO THE AUTHOR. been sold. The Chap Book gives a flippant and not very adequate explanation that he had the good fortune to be ignored by the critics, and it backs up this explanation with quota- tions from an Advertisers' Directory, show- ing that some magazines of which nobody has ever heard have larger circulations than any of the more prominent periodicals. For in- stance, Comfort, published in Augusta, was rated at 1,252,325; the Hearthstone, of New York, at 6oo,coo; the Delineator, at 500,000; and so on. One answer to this is, that these directories must found their estimates on the statements of the publishers, which are mostly unreliable; and another answer is, that circulations of such maga- zines are largely made up of copies to give away or throw away. The Ladies' Home Journal un- doubtedly leads all of our magazines. It is rated in Lord and Taylor's "Advertisers' Directory " atover 700,000, and it probably has at least half a million genuine purchasers. McClure's and the Cosmo- politan are given 300,000 each, and Munsey's 500,000, which is too much. Harper's Monthly is given 175,000, and it probably is gradually actually approaching 150,000. The Century is supposed to be now about even with it, with Scribner's a little behind. Mr. John Corbin, one of the editors of Harper's Monthly, was dis- cussing the other day the demands of our three leading illustrated magazines. Harper's Monthly wants articles which they call " vital "—that is, which connect themselves with the practical inte- rests of a large number of people; and literary form is frankly very secondary. In carrying out this principle, it touches partly on the field of the English reviews in welcoming summary treatment of political, economical, and social questions; but within this field it will take nothing which appeals mainly to the literary man and the scholar. Scribner's Magazine, Mr. Corbin said, was lighter, caring more for literary form; the Century had no settled policy what- ever, but had made its great hit on the sensa- tion of its war articles, and was now losing it and looking about for another sensation. The editors of Harper's, on the other hand, never allow the magazine to be thrown on to one of these sudden and short waves of interest, for fear that when that subsided it would be necessary to find another sensation to save it. They believe that a greater permanent circulation will be built up by keeping almost exclusively to interests which are at once general and somewhat perma- nent, although slight variations with the current of feeling in various parts of the country are allowed. This magazine especially, with others to some extent, is becoming more and more like monthly newspapers of the better class, both in the subjects of their articles and the mode of treatment, at the same time that the dailies, especially in the Saturday and Sunday editions, become more and more like magazines, both in their general articles and in certain special literary features, such as the space now given to serials. It is impossible in a cursory letter to do justice to the most important book of the past month. In the " Literary History of the American Revo- lution," just published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, readers on both sides of the water will find much about one of the two most interesting periods of our history, which has not been accessible before. The Revolutionary period differed from that of the Civil "War, among other things, in having a more full and varied literary expression, and Professor Tyler has given us generous extracts from it, together with a clear narrative to connect them. I have already said that we have no such interesting single group of writers as the Fede- ralists, and those that immediately preceded them had much of their vigour and genuine- ness. In this first volume of Professor Tyler's History, which covers a period from 1763 to 1776, James Otis, John Adams, Philip Freneau, John Trumbull, John Dickinson, Josiah Quincy, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Paine, and Thomas Jefferson are a minority of the interesting personalities to which life is given in this volume. That time was very much alive, and none of the other histories that have covered it have given it a kind of treatment which will satisfy a literary interest as well as this. Of course, it is incomplete, for the thoughts and feelings which found their expression in the writings covered by this book- were concentrated in a few dramatic external events, which are here kept in the background, so that the reader to whom the book will be most satisfactory is the one who already knows the political history of the time. English readers will doubtless be pleased to see that the Tories are treated with fairness as the most respectable Conservatives of the times, including the majority of clergymen, physicians, lawyers, and teachers. Two or three literary men have, in my hearing, expressed a desire to make a novel out of the Salva- tion Army, which offers exceptional temptations in the picturesque. Mary A. Denison has just pub- lished a love story called "Captain Mollie," with Lee and Shepard of Boston, but it totally fails to take advantage of the Salvation Army motif, being utterly colourless The copyright provision punishing the piracy of plays has just had its first test in a suit brought by Klaw and Erlanger against Louis Robie, who is charged with stealing songs from "In Gay New York " and using them in a variety enter-  ## p. 11 (#417) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. tainment called " The Bohemians." There was an indictment, and about a week ago the defendant was held in the United States Court for trial. This is regarded as a test case. Norman Hapgood. NOTES FROM A DUCHY. NOBODY in St. Ives could give me any information about Mr. Pearce, the Cor- nish novelist about whom Sir George Douglas wrote last month. The fact is we are not great readers down here. "Nobody buys books here," said the bookstall man. Halfpenny papers go well. I suppose, absorbed as we are with the wonderful beauties of Nature, we have no time or no wish to think. Hence the demand for halfpenny papers. One can read them with- out any mental fatigue whatever. Rudyard Kipling once said that he bought Answers every week " because there are times when a man doesn't want to think." Kipling, by the way, was asked his opinion on Torquay before he left, and he said that with 30 per cent, less moisture it would be the prettiest place outside Paradise, a characteristic remark of which the Torquay people are taking advan- tage for publicity purposes. I heard that Mr. Kipling used to visit the railway bookstall every day and " have a look round." The railway book- stall has its fascination to most of us. In Camborne, to revert to Mr. Pearce, I heard his work enthusiastically talked about, with special reference to the Esther novel. I was told that Mr. Pearce was a Newlyn man, who lived in London, where he was engaged in clerical work; that he was about thirty-five years old, and that he wrote, not professionally, but pour passer le temps. Madame Alphonse Daudet's book, "Notes sur Londres," has been translated into English by Marie Belloc, and will be published in London this season. I was over at Fowey a few weeks ago. It is without exception the most beautiful and most interesting seaport I have seen anywhere. I envy "Q.," but after his fine descriptions of his home I shall not attempt to descrilje it. I was fortunate enough to see " Q." also with his little boy, who, if children's faces reveal anything of the future, will be an artist of the pen or pencil. What a happy life " Q.'8" must be. From what the papers are saying down here everybody is very glad that it is he who is to finish " St. Ives." In my perambulations about the district I came, the other day, across an inn at St. Hilary, called "The Jolly Tinners," which has the following sign: Come all true Coinish boys walk in, Here's brandy, beer, rum, Bhrnb, and gin; Yon can't do less than drink Buocess, To copper, fish, and tin. Fish, perhaps, but not all the votive beer in the world, I am afraid, will bring back success to copper or tin. Slave labour in the Straits Settle- ments has killed the tin mining industry in Cornwall. "Jolly Tinners," indeed! Why, the other day, in Camborne, a jolly-faced woman told me that all the earnings of a life of hard work had been invested in tin mines, and that the only dividend she drew was "trouble and tears for dinner, and tears and sorrow for tea "; and she wiped her eyes on her apron as she spoke. All the profits of her business went in meeting the calls on her worthless shares. I have received from Annemasse, in La Haute- Savoie, a copy of a journal called L'Avant Garde, which describes a new language—"the universal and instantaneous language, an invention for pro- nouncing, reading, and writing all languages in the world at first sight, with their pure accent "; and gives, or, rather, says that it gives, " imme- diate and irrefutable proofs" of this in French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Servian, &c. It seems that all that is wanted to enable everybody to read, write, and pronouce any lan- guage in the world—though not to understand it nor speak it—is the universal adoption of the new " Universal Phonographic Alphabet," which consists of forty-two letters. These are the ordi- nary letters of the alphabet, the additional letters being made up by the help of accents and italici- sation, whilst one or two letters turned upside down represent other sounds than when standing on their feet. This alphabet is supposed to re- present all the sounds which the human voice uses in articulation. People who have found Volapuk and other universal languages wanting, might study this new system, which is evidently being worked with some energy by the " body of professors." Particulars can be obtained at the office of the journal. Several people have written to mo about my story of the two unfilial daughters and their father at the inn at Verton, and in answer to the general inquiry I want to say that it is quite true in every detail. The point about these women which interested and pleased me most was their absolute ignorance of and indifference to all matters outside their narrow sphere. It must be an ideal existence. Animal spirits arise from the animal state, and, as far as I know, animals never "worrit" themselves about anything or anybody  ## p. 12 (#418) ############################################# 12 THE AUTHOR. in whom or which they have no direct and imme- diate concern. My good Bretonnes had never heard even of M. Carnot. Very well; when we were passing through hours and days of grief at his cruel fate, they were quietly pickling their walnuts or salting butter for the winter, and rejoicing to think how nice they would be. And in this there was no selfishness. They narrowed their interests, and thus reduced the chances of having to Buffer for oihers. I sometimes fancy that hermits have no other object in view when they retire to mountain tops or lonely caves. What was curious about the Bretonnes was that they dwelt neither on mountain tops nor in lonely caves, but within three-quarters of an hour of one of the biggest ports in France. A novel personal experience in the literary world. A book of mine has recently been pub- lished. Some days after its publication the editors of various papers receive letters signed with my name, full of personal abuse of the gentle- men who act as their literary critics. The letters were never written by me, nor is the handwriting in any way like mine, though the signature is imitated. I heard of this friendly move from one of the critics. He had written a favourable notice of the book in question, and had sent it in. Said his editor to him, " If you knew what that man has been writing about you, I do not think you would want to do him a good turn." The critic wrote to ask me what I had been "up to." I answered that I had written no letters to editors, other than for money. He then procured the letter, and recognised that the writing was not mine, though the signature was a good imitation. I have since heard of other similar letters. Can this be anything else than an attempt to wreck my book at the outset, by provoking editors and critics very naturally and reasonably to put it under tabu? And what can one say of the cher confrere, the brother writer who can act like this? Robert H. Sheraed. THE FRIENDSJ^CHARLES LAMB. "Let me not lose my friends," he prayed, when pain And horror of great darkness veiled his way; And when an afterglow of peace held sway, "To all dear friends be thanks " was still his strain. Pathos touched sharpest in the wild refrain Of " old familiar faces " passed away: Laughter rose sweetest at the close of day When comrade voices eohoed his again. And Fate itself, grown kind, fulfilled desire— Even death consigned to no unfriendly grave This spirit, trained to noblest, gentlest ends: Still rose new hearts to listen, love, admire, And each new decade more than brethren gave To him who, dying, murmured " names of friends." "Murmuring in his last moments the names of his dearest friends, he passed tranquilly out of life."—Ainger's "Charles Lamb," (Men of Letters series), p. 165. M. C. V. NOTES AND NEWS. THE Bill printed in another column was originally started with a view of doing away with the 18th section of the Act of 1842, and gradually developed into its pre- sent form. The sub-committee of the Authors' Society have acted throughout with Parlia- mentary counsel (Mr. James Rolt of Lincoln's- inn), and have had also the assistance of their solicitors, Messrs. Field, Eoscoe, and Co. They have discussed the Bill fully with the sub-com- mittees of the Publishers' and Copyright Associa- tions. With some exceptions (especially clauses 4 and 13) the Bill has received the approval of the Publishers' Association. There are, however, some points on which the Copyright Association are not absolutely in accord with the Society. These points will no doubt be discussed when the Bill is in Committee. In another column will be found a letter on the ruling passion in the mind of the youug writer. It is, of course, the desire to be published. He wants to be published. Sometimes he believes in himself; then there is hope for him. Sometimes he is diffident about his own work, yet has put into it all the strength, and knowledge and power that is in him; then there is hope for him. Sometimes he thinks that his production is as good as that of many people who do get published. In other words, he knows that he has written rubbish yet wants it published. Then there is no hope for him. Sometimes—and this is very frequently the case—he fondly imagines that all the books in the advertised lists are bringing to their authors large fortunes, and he writes in the expectation of making a large fortune for himself. Then there is no hope whatever for that writer. In any case, however, the one thing which he desires is publication. Now, since the best thing for the bad writer is to learn that he cannot hope to- Bucceed, and since the best thing for the good writer is to get a chance, the publisher who brings out the first work of a new writer confers so great a boon upon that candidate that we ought not to be too careful about the first agreement, if it only makes provision for success and for equi- table terms in new editions. Readers of this paper, who are for the most part members of the Society, would do well to impress upon young  ## p. 13 (#419) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. '3 writers: (i) that very, very few of the advertised books are successful in any sense of the word: (2) that it is generally the height of folly to suppose that what good publishers refuse bad publishers can cause to succeed, because for good or for bad publishers ulike there is but one public: (3) that it is therefore as a rule a certain waste of money to pay for production. Messrs. Archibald Constable and Co. write from 2, White- hall-gardens: "At the request of Mrs. F. A. Steel we wish to let the public know that she does not derive any benefit of any kind whatever from the publication of her book' In the Tideway,' beyond the lump sum we agreed to pay her for a seven years' lease from the date of publication. This lease is dated three years back, and as it contains no clause specifying either prioe or manner of appearance, we have not consulted her as to either." The above letter appeared in the Times. It explains itself. Mrs. Steel, in 1894, sold, on a lease for a limited term, a story of about 30,000 words. She sold all rights, and the publishers were fully entitled to produce the book in any form, or at any price, they pleased. They have chosen to produce it at the price of 6s. The case is not, therefore, at all one of author v. publisher, but of bookseller and public v. publisher. It is not, either, a case of right and wrong. It is simply a case of what the public expect to get for a 6*. book, and what, in the interests of authors, as well as of themselves, publishers should offer as a 6*. book. It is, one would think, understood that such a book should give a certain amount of solid reading. But of late there have appeared several cases in which a short story of, say, 30,000 words or so, has been priced at 6s. A notable case was that of Olive Schreiner's "Trooper Halket." Of course, it may be argued that, in giving 6«. for so short a work, the buyer may be tempted by the name and the reputation of the author. Perhaps; but in very few instances. In most cases the course seems to be a mistake on the part of the publishers, and a mistake which canDot be otherwise than pre- judicial to the commercial value of a book. We cannot have a Literary Weights and Measures Act, but we can recognise the broad principle that 6s. or 4s. 6d. is a substantial sum to pay, and that most people cannot afford to pay so much for one short hour's reading. The ordinary 6*. book generally contains from 70,000 to 200,000 words, the average being about 100,000. The following letter makes an offer which may perhaps overwhelm the writer with an avalanche of acceptances and requests. The Secretary has his name, and will forward it to any member on application. The letter is written in the best spirit—one that we have long advocated—that of encouraging people of the literary profession to put away their foolish shyness and false shame and to communicate to each other through the Society their own experiences. If "An Occasional Contributor " would be so good as to follow up this letter by suggesting some practical plan for such interchange, he might do great good. "I have only just seen the February number of The Author, when I came across a letter by 'Well-wisher' (Correspondence 4), asking if any of your town readers would look up articles in a reading-room. I should be happy to do this free of charge, as I have to go to a reading-room anyway for the purpose of looking up my own articles and stories. It strikes me, too, that it would be a good thing if occasional contributors, like myself and 'Well-wisher,' had more oppor- tunity of interchanging views with regard to the prices paid by various papers and the possibilities of acceptance. I have contributed to various monthly and other papers, and as 'Well-wisher' has evidently done likewise, I should be glad to relate and receive experiences. "An Occasional Conteibutob." A letter of which the following is an extract appeared in the Times of May 20: It has long been felt as a matter of regret by many men and women associated with Liverpool, that the city possesses no memorial of Felicia Hemans, a native of that city, who also resided there when many of her best writings were produced. On May 14 a preliminary meeting was held in Liverpool to consider the question of a local memorial to Felicia Hemans. It was Resolved " That the memorial Bhould take the form of a prize associated with the name of Felioia Hemans, to be awarded for the composition of a lyrioal poem." It is considered that from £2$o to £300 will be required, and towards this amount several subscriptions have been promised. Contributions will be received by Mr. A. Theodore Brown, 26, Exchange-street East, Liver- pool, or by Mr. W. H. Picton, College-avenue, Crosby, near Liverpool." This letter was signed by Mr. Mackenzie Bell and Mr. W. H. Picton. It is late in the day, but it could not be too late to create some memorial to Felicia Hemans. Her short life of forty years terminated sixty-two years ago, in the year 1835. This is a period long enough to prove what enduring powers lie in her work. At the present moment there is but one opinion: that she is one of the sweetest and simplest of English poets, that her poems are still widely read and known, and that her influence is wholly good. The memorial will take the form of a prize to be awarded for the composition of a lyrical poem. This object can  ## p. 14 (#420) ############################################# '4 THE AUTHOR. be attained by the raising of a small sum of from ^£250 to .£300. I wish the promoters would make it .£2000 so that the prize might be a substantial help to some young poet. Liverpool has reason to be proud of her sons, if we consider only the names of the committee. How many readers will recognise this "Por- trait," and will know who drew it? I am Sir Oracle; when my tongue wags, Ay! and my beard, let no man call his soul His own, or flount me with the filthy rags Of an opinion free from my control. Let Shelley chatterers style my gait a roll, And witless upstarts criticise my "bags"; I am English-Saxon, rough as mountain crags, One grand, historic, rude, Belf-centred whole. Ancient is modern, modern ancient too, I have said so myriad times. Who doubts it? Fool! I want some nincompoop to state his view. I'd smash him flat as Fronde or Martin Rule. Yea, by my balidom! Certes! God wot! I am the Oxford Witenagemot. We have often advocated the prohibition of introducing Tauchnitz books into this country, hitherto without effect. At last, it appears, the Customs House officers have been ordered to do their duty. These books, which are pirate copies in this country, have been brought into the country every year by hundreds of thousands. The importation, which is usually conducted by travellers for their own private bookshelves, is a direct injury and loss to the author and owner of the property—how great a loss it is difficuly to com- pute. For certainly it does not follow that if a Tauchnitz copy is prohibited, a much dearer copy will be bought—that is not contended. But almost every copy of every readable book is lent by its owner, and it is fair to suppose that out of the twenty or thirty who read it one would prob- ably buy it. But all private book-shelves presently fall to the eecond-liand bookseller. There are many such shops where there are rows of Tauch- nitz books. The sale of Tauchnitz books must be prohibited as well as their importation. Indeed, I am astonished that booksellers have not imported them in quantities and sold them openly as new books and latest editions. I beg especial attention to the last paragraph of Mr. Sherard's letter. It describes an entirely new departure in venom and spite. He says that he has recently published a book, presumably his book on "White Slaves," which has been reviewed in many papers. Apart, it would seem, from any consideration of the review itself, whether it was favourable or the reverse, some infamous person has been sending to the editor of every paper a letter, signed with Mr. Sherard's name, abusing the critic of his book. One hopes that the perpe- trator of this spiteful forgery is not himself a man of letters. If so, the famous book on the " Quarrels of Authors" must be brought up to date. Mean- time an advertisement or two in the papers warning editors might produce a good effect. Walter Besant. THE RULING PASSION. IN the columns of The Author frequent mention is made of, and warning given on, the folly of paying for publication; and in almost every case, I venture to think, it would be well were the warning taken. I cannot agree with those who assert that it is "contemptible conceit" or egotism that makes a writer willing to sacrifice almost anything, some- times everything, in order to see his work in print. Bather let us take the broader, more generous view of sympathy with the worker. "In looking back," says Jeffrey—that stern critic—" I can hardly conceive anything in after life more to be envied than the recollection of that first outburst of intellect, when, freed from scholastic restraint, and throwing off the thraldom of a somewhat servile docility, the mind first aspired to reason and question nature for itself; and, half wondering at its own temerity, first ventured its unaided flight into the regions of adventure to revel uncontrolled through the bright and boundless realms of literature and science." And so it is with every worker who possesses true "grit." There are, of course, genuine writers and not genuine—as in everything there is genuine and spurious; and he who feels that he possesses the noble gift of inspiration, who has a profound love of literature, an earnest sincerity in his work, may surely be forgiven if, in that first burst of enthusiasm, he commit the folly of presenting to the cold, calculating eye of the critic, or the often unsympathetic gaze of the public, his innermost treasured thoughts. My own case. Since childhood the thought had possessed me: "I will write a book." I wrote that book. Through much tribulation and burning of the midnight oil did I write it, yet my days were days without leisure. My work was a loved and cherished secret. Each day as it grew I lived more and more in a land of dreams—an ideal world. My characters  ## p. 15 (#421) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. '5 became as living beings who awaited me in the quiet of my own room. Was not I lonely? asked my friends. Lonely? I laughed gaily. How could I feel loneliness while exchanging golden hopes with creatures of my own creation! At length the day arrived that saw the end of my labour. My " book," thought I, should go forth and speak to the world, while I remained unknown. I wrote to my chosen publisher—and be it understood he was one of the first and foremost in Her Majesty's dominions. Audacity? Conceit? Egotism? As you will. I know it was none of these. In due course I received a courteous note from Messrs. and Co. My MS. was refused. My loved work came home; it rests with me still. Looking over it now I know what a debt of gratitude I owe to the honourable firm of pub- lishers who " regretted they could not undertake the publication of my book." Smarting under my "failure" (so called), I wrote to a man whose advertisement appeared in that stately and fashionable paper, the Morning Post. It ran as follows: "A. well-known firm of London publishers is prepared to publish approved MSS., &c." Those who have had an experience like unto mine will understand my feelings when, after having hastily written and sent up a story of About 25,000 words, I received the following: "I have read this MS. with considerable inte- rest, and I like it. Kindly send more," &c. Nice comforting words; words to flatter and "tickle the ears" of any aspirant to literary fame. Need I add more? I fell among thieves. I ■was caught in a trap dexterously laid. The more ■easily was I snared when this publisher, because •of his " considerable interest" in my MS., offered to share half expenses and all risks! The result? Not sweet to the taste; in sooth, very bitter. Earperientia docet. I had bought my experience—how dearly none but myself will ever know—ere I chanced upon the I.S.A. And now I would ask, Can nothing be done to stamp out of existence these fraudulent publish- ing houses? Finns which are a disgrace to any community, and which trade on the inexperience of young writers—cannot their dealings be made public? I read with keen pleasure the proposal made in the February number of The Author by " An Old Bird," that the I.S.A. should " show the world of letters how a book should be turned out on true business lines," &c. I cannot but think that the proposal might be carried out with incalculable benefit to writers, and with honour, as well as lucrative returns, to the Society. I, for one, entirely hope that the "Old Bird's" eyes, and many others, may be gladdened in the near future with a sight of "I.S.A." upon many a title-page. E. W. H. MOODS -TENSES-VOICES. CYNICISM is a selfishness, a shallowness, a silliness, a sourness, or a sham. Idealism may be a matter of sunshine, or only a manner of moonshine. Materialism is a blindness, a hollowness, a hopelessness, or a truthfulness. Optimism is religious, scientific, selfish or super- ficial. Pessimism is dyspeptic, irreligious, unscientific, or unwise. Realism may be sunny, stormy, or only shady. Common criticism discovers little, but invents much. Proper criticism finds merit, while the common- place only finds fault. Wisdom is less a matter of reasoning than a manner of understanding. Were there no misunderstanding, there would be no misfortune. The wise suspend their judgment, while the unwise only strangle theirs. No one fully knows the Past, realises the Pre- sent, or understands the Future. Some romance never did happen, some never could, some never ought. Fallacies for the Past, facts for the Present, fancies for the Future. The Past may be perfect in fancy, but must be imperfect in fact. Perfection ever lies in the Future. Capacities, like conceits and reputes, are ever in process of change. Opportunities, like microbes, are often imper- ceptible, but always inexhaustible. Social reputes are as overcoats, and personal conceits as undershirts. Greatness is not a matter of fame, but a manner of force or of grace. Cons, ience is a common mean between Chance and Providence. Both humour and reverence are phases of sane sympathy. Faith may madden and truth may sadden, but Love must strengthen and sweeten. Religion may be feminine and science mascu- line, but shams must be neuter. Moods may be emotional, rational, or wilful. Morbid moods make trying tenses.  ## p. 16 (#422) ############################################# i6 THE AUTHOR. Sanity simply suggests sweet sympathy. Moderate truth must inspire; the immoderate may irritate. The manly voice is not fog horny, nor the womanly steam-sirenish. Higher art transfigures common things with uncommon thoughts. Impression may be a matter of gift; expres- sion must be a manner of growth. To be loved is to be encouraged; to love is to be raised. Phinlay G-lenelg. A FLEMISH SAGA. THOSE who are acquainted with the suburb of Brussels known as the Commune of Ixelles, must have observed at the foot of the causeway leading to the city a flower-garden on the bank of a piece of ornamental water. In the midst of the glowing beds of geranium and mignonette, heliotrope and rose, is a weeping willow shading a singular monument of masonry. It consists of a sort of portico, in the centre of which are two bronze statues of a man and woman seated, the woman leaning on the man, who looks straight before him with a rapt and visionary gaze. Symbolical carvings surround them—a spinning-wheel, a dog, and other graven images; on the man's breast hangs a small bag, and over all is a medallion showing a pure and thoughtful profile surmounted by the iegend " Charles De Coster." Among the many English who pass by, there are few who understand the meaning of this memorial. But to the Belgians it is a place of reverent honour. Hither came, one beautiful summer morning in 1894, a company of more or less distinguished men to unveil the newly-built monument, and to hear an eloquent address by M. Camille Lemonnier. In this discourse were rehearsed the praises of a man who had died, obscure and almost alone, the author of a work hardly noticed in his life-time, but now pronounced by enthusiastic compatriots to be the "Bible of Flanders." Of De Coster himself there was little to say. Born in on Munich, Aug. 20, 1827, he lived poor and solitary till May 7, 1879, when he succumbed to tubercular disease in a small apartment over a greengrocer's in Ixelles. His last moments were cheered by the presence of M. and Mme. Hector Denis—M. Denis being known even beyond the boundaries of his own little land as a distinguished member of the Left in the Belgian Senate, and a devoted friend of the labouring poor. It is by his work, long neglected, that De Coster deserves a loving record. Borrowing the name of the Ger- man jester of the Middle Ages, he has created him anew as the incarnation of his country's genius, placing him—by a bold anachronism—in the sixteenth century, among the fields and streets of Flanders, full of the havoc of the Spanish persecution and the bold resistance of the kindly but tenacious burgesses and peasants. The book at its first appearance was too novel in conception, perhaps too sumptuous in form, to catch the public. A bulky quarto volume, it was illustrated with numerous etchings by the best artists of that most artistic country, and had but a slow circula- tion. In his spirited discourse, M. Lemonnier, speaking in somewhat sorrowful tones, said: "The author was unnoticed in his own day"; "he died unappreciated "; "no glory smiled upon his pillow"; "all appeared at an end—his life and its oblivion." But "Death touched nothing but what was perishable; the turf of his grave opened, and a luminous soul arose—the soul of his country—the lark singing to the free heavens." Round the speaker stood men more fortunate in their own day: Maurice Maeterlinck; the great sculptor of modern Flanders, Julien Dillens; the Liberal Senator, Edmond Picard, author of " La Vie Simple "; Charles Buls, the famous Bourg- mestre who shared with King Leopold the honour of bearing the insults of a misled mob a few years ago; Professor Pergameni, of the Brussels University, and many others of local distinction, in whose persons a repentant public made atone- ment. The publisher, M. Paul Lacomblez, who was one of 1 he company, made haste to bring out a handsome reprint of the book, without the etchings, and at a popular price; the original work is now food for the wealthy bibliophile. It is impossible to give in a few words any just idea of the literary merits of the "Roman d'Ulenspiegel." It stands alone as the national expression of Flemish patriotism, and this sets it beyond comparison with historical romances of a purely pleasurable character, like "Quentin Durward" or "The Cloister and the Hearth." In its language and its incidents it breathes the very spirit of the dawn of modern European life. Chaotic in form, archaic in expression, it gives but a secondary place to that passion of a boy and girl which is the recognised essence of an ordinary romance. The narratives of sorrow and cruelty peculiarly belonging to the place and time are related with grim realism, while a light of idealism breaks out here and there which gives occasional glimpses of epic inspiration. In the end, after adventures sometimes bloody and often gross and crude, the hero is purified and raised above the common world. In vain do his enemies heap the light sand above what they deem to be his dead form. Leaping up with a laugh, Ulen- spiegel asks, "' Can you bury me, the genius of the  ## p. 17 (#423) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 17 mother-country? She also seems to sleep, but die she cannot.' And he fared on singing his sixth song, but his last—no man knows where he sang it." De Coster, too, has leapt to life after his teem- ing burial, and literary history can hardly show such another resurrection. H. G. Kbenk. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD-ITS PRESENT-DAT USE. rr^HE correspondence on this subject in The \ Author is interesting as having brought into prominence what one correspondent has called the absence of any " self-conscious rules of grammar " in the English language. While I have not the smallest claim to speak as an authority on the matter, yet it seemed to me that none of the rules adduced by various correspondents were framed in sufficiently comprehensive terms to in- clude all cases where the subjunctive mood is used both in accordance with the cumbrous and complex rules of the grammar books, as well as in the pages of the " most approved authors of the day." To these pages then,following Professor Skeat's advice, I betook myself, thinking that it might, perhaps, be possible to deduce from them a fairly clear and com- prehensive canon as to the use of the subjunctive mood in English. Readers of the correspondence in TAe-i^MfAormayperliaps be interested to hear of my results—if, indeed, they can be called results, for I must at once confess that I am no nearer the "clear and succinct rule " which Mr. Howard Collins de- sires, than I was before starting on my enterprise. The authors I selected were: Mr. George Meredith, Mr. Lecky, Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. Henry James, Mr. Leslie Stephen, Mr. H. D. Traill, Mr. John Morley, Mr. Hardy, Professor Dowden, and R. L. Stevenson; and after stalking subjunctives throughout the pages of one of each of the above- named authors' works, the only point on which I seem approximately clear is that the use of the sub- junctive in any verb except the verb "to be," is exceedingly rare. Of my ten authors, four, i.e., Mr. George Meredith, Mr. Lecky, Mr. Andrew Lang, and Mr. Henry James, never use any other verb in the subjunctive ; three, i.e., Mr. Leslie Stephen, Mr. H. D. Traill, and Mr. John Morley, have a single instance each; while R. L. Steven- son, Mr. Hardy, and Professor Dowden yield respectively six, four, and two such instances. Mr. L. Stephen's solitary instance of a verb other than the verb "to be" in the subjunc- tive mood, "even though it contain" (" Social Rights and Duties," vol. II., p. 161), is the more perplexing when we observe what might almost be called his callous indifference to the claims of that mood in other passages. Thus, he writes: "What difference does it make whether the brain . . . has a fixed resemblance to ... or be . . . the product," &c. {Ib., p. 9). "^If the honourable gentleman means to say . . . But, if his meaning be simply," &c. (Ib., p. 160). "It might be a question . . . whether the pleasure . . . be really so great, &c. . . . It is certainly also a question whether his expen- diture was ethically right " (Ib , p. 110). Similar instances might be multiplied. Mr. Lecky—whose sentences in his "History of Rationalism" are seldom cast in the hypothetical form—has, on p. 11, vol. I.: "Those who lived when the evidences of witchcraft existed in profusion . . . must surely have been as competent judges as ourselves, if the question was [and his argument goes to prove that it was not] merely a question of evidence ;" and again (lb., 433), where the case is purely hypothetical: "//"some great misfortune were to befall a man . . . if the physician declared [here there is no special form for the subjunctive] . . . if concealment was only possible by a falsehood, there are very few moralists who would condemn," &c. Mr. Andrew Lang (" Custom and Myth," p. 239) has: "If this was the cast*, surely the presence of those elements . . . should have been indicated. ... Is nothing said about the spirits of the dead ... in the Vedas? Much is said, of course. But were it otherwise," &c. Mr. Hardy (" Pair of Blue Eyes," p. 333) writes: "The gentle-modest would turn their faces south if I were coming east, flit down a passage 1/1 was about to halve the pavement with them." Mr. Henry James, in the volume entitled "Daisy Miller," never uses the subjunctive in the present tense, although he appears to discriminate care- fully between "was " and " were." Mr. Morley's "The most that the individual can do is to seek for himself, even if he seek alone" ("On Compro- mise," p. 101) is somewhat puzzling when com- pared with his: "Even if he thinhe it does mom harm than good" (76., p. 223); nor does his " if it be valid (lb., 174) explain itself side by side with "If the principle of such conformity is Hood for anything at all " on the following page. On the other hand, he appears to be consistent in his use of the past subjunctive. Mr. Meredith likes the subjunctive mood (of the verb " to be "), nevertheless we meet with: "It is a lute to scatter songs to his mistress; a rapier it she obstinate" ("Egoist," p. 12). "If it is necessary" (lb., p. 60), where there is both futurity and contin- gency, "Yet if my friend is not the same," &j. (Ib., p. 132, where the case is purely hypothe- tical). Contrast these with: "For any maltreat-  ## p. 18 (#424) ############################################# i8 THE AUTHOR. ment of the dear boy Love . . . you [i.e., the reader], if you be of common soundness" {lb., p. 300), "If it be a failing" (lb., p. 86), and "If this line of verse be not yet in our literature" {lb., p. 5). Professor Dowden, in his "Life of Southey," only twice uses the indicative after "if," and here again, it seems difficult to dis- criminate between, e.g., "If the ice were fairly broken he found it natural to be easy and familiar" (lb., p. 90), and "If to these melody icas added, he had attained" (lb., p. 193), &c. And while " except," "if," and "whether" are all followed by the present subjunctive, we find: "There was nothing in the poem that could be remembered with shame unless it is shameful to be generous," &c. (p. 170). I have, I fear, only made confusion worse confounded by my re- searches. But should any one object to our use or non-use of the subjunctive we can at least feel that the onus probandi rests with the accuser. Summary. . I Approximate number of words Author. Book. in book. ■George Meredith The Egoist 190,000 W. E. Lecky ... History of BationaliBm, vol. 1 102,000 Andrew Lang . .. Custom and Myth 68,000 Leslie Stephen... Social Eights and Duties, vol. II 71,000 T. Hardy Pair of Blue Eyes 99,000 E. Dowden Life of Southey 67,000 E. L. StevenBon. Men and Books 99,044 H. D. Traill Life of Coleridge 60,000 Henry James ... Daisy Miller 56,000 John Morley .. On Compromise 57,000 -Positive instances. Subjunctive moods. To be. Words to one sub- junctive. 2800 .. 3800 .. 2300 1400 2300 .. 3200 .. 1900 2900 2200 .. 2500 2S3oI ■ • 2043 • ■ 5370 • • 2957 ■ • 1543 • • 55oo • • 16750 .. 4280 .. 6666 2800 ■ • 1055 BOOKS AND THEIR ZEE PEES. [i.- Present. George Meredith 11 W. E. Leoky ... 11 . A. Lang 20 L. Stephen 36 T. Hardy..- 3* . E. Dowden 5 E. L. Stevenson. 5 H. D. Traill 5 . H. James — J. Morley 16 III.—Negative Instances. George Meredith 50 ... 11 ... 32 ... 93 W. E. Lecky ... 7 ... 2 ... 10 ... 19 A. Lang 13 ... 4 ... 6 ... 23 L.Stephen 15 ... 3 ... 28 ... 46 T. Hardy 11 ... 6 ... 1 ... 18 E. Dowden 1 ... 3 ... o ... 4 E. L. Stevenson. 6 ... 11 ... 8 ... 25 H.D.Traill 2 ... 2 ... 5 ... 9 H. James 2 ... 16 ... 2 ... 20 J. Morley 29 ... o ... 25 ... 54 * 2 "if so be." t After " though." I Average, B. E. Meyer. An Interview with Me. J. T. W. MacAlistee. "fT^HE index of a book should be made by the I author; anybody can do the rest of it." This curious saying, not Mr. Mac Aba- ter's, rang in the ears of the interviewer when, in his talk with the honorary secretary of the forthcoming International Library Conference, he came to the point of discussing questions that stand between librarians and authors. "It should be a rule," replied Mr. MacAlister, " that every book should be provided with a good index. To publish a book without one ought to be reckoned an offence." Another offence lies in the framing of titles. "Titles," said Mr. MacAlister, "should set forth clearly the nature of the books, instead of being merely fanciful, as they often are. It would amuse authors," he continued, "to find to what an extent librarians have to make new titles for their works. First we have to catalogue the title which the author has given to the book, but that has to be constantly followed by other titles which are absolutely necessary to make the ordinary reader understand what the book is about." Mr. MacAlister selected at random the follow- ing titles, which are meaningless to the average library user:—Buskin's "Ethics of the Dust," "Crown of Wild Olive," "Eagle's Nest," " Queen of the Air," " St. Mark's Best;'' Dr. John Brown's "Horse Subseeivae," Birrell's "Obiter Dicta," MacMichael's "Goldheaded Cane," Kinglake's "Eothen," MacDonald's " Orts," Miller's "Cruise of the Betsey." Again, "The Despot's Champion" is the title of a life of Claverhouse; "Through the Long Day," "Shadows of the Past," and "Faint, yet Pursuing," are also biographies; "In an Enchanted Island" is an account of Cyprus; while " Through the Long Night " is a pleasant specimen of the indefiniteness of many titles of novels. While on the subject of book-titles the inter- viewer ask-d Mr. MacAlister's opinion of the proposal made in The Author by Mr. F. Howard Collins, to the effect that the Society of Authors should compile a list of all the book-titles that had been used, in order that a writer would be saved from selecting a title which is already appropriated. Mr. MacAlister did not think sued an undertaking would be seriously worth while. "Bemember," he said, " that such a case of the same title being selected over again cannot happen where a very famous or important book is concerned. When it does occur, it argues that the forerunner in the title is a ' dead' book. The British Museum catalogue can always be discussed by the  ## p. 19 (#425) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 19 author, and, besides, Stationers' Hall people are very good in that way. To compile such a list as is proposed would be a gigantic task, and a very expensive one, but it would be like employing a Nasmyth hammer to crack an egg." The issue of old books under new titles is a practice more common than is generally supposed. "This may be said to be exclusively a trick of the novelist's," Mr. MacAlister remarked; "it is unknown in other fields of authorship. Thus a book which has been unfortunate as 'The Maid Forlorn ' will reappear after a decent interval as 'How to Prepare an Underdone Mutton Chop,' and the librarian buys the new book, as he thinks it to be, not knowing that it is on the shelves already in another dress. Of course it is com- mon for a story that has appeared as a serial to be published in volume form under a new title; that is quite different. But when a book that has failed under one title gets a new title-page stuck in and is then put on the market as a new book, it is simply a piece of dishonesty." [At this stage several cases were instanced.] "Authors do not realise either," said Mr. MacAlister in answer to another question, " how often their books sere printed on wretched paper. It would not be fair to mention names, but some well-known editions of popular novels are issued on paper so notoriously bad that librarians do not bind them after they have been in use a year or two. The difference in cost between a paper that will last one hundred or two hundred years and one that will, like the present average, hardly last fifty must be very trifling. Any author who seeks a lasting reputation cannot afford to overlook this matter, although I suppose the question of paper will lie principally with the publisher." On July 13 to 16 the second International Library Conference will be held in the Council Chamber of the Corporation of London. Libra- rians from all civilised parts will foregather here, under the presidency of Sir John Lubbock. Delegates—in the majority of cases representing the Government of these countries—will be present from France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain, Holland, India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Af nca. Largest contingent of all, 300 American librarians will absent themselves from the States for two months with the avowed objects of becoming acquainted with as many English librarians as possible, seeing English methods of library administration, and visiting as many places of historic and literary interest as they can. Since its formation twenty years ago, the Library Association of the United Kingdom has grown from a membership of scarcely 200 to one of upwards of 500. The American librarian thinks he has a good deal to learn in England, but, on the other hand, this feeling is fully reciprocated by his British confrere with regard to America. Both from the Government and through private munificence, the American libraries have received much larger gifts than those of Britain. But, as Mr. MacAlister pointed out, the British experiment of establish- ing libraries by the will of the people, and having them voluntarily supported by the rates, has in many respects produced a better effect by leading the people to take a more personal interest in them. "At the same time," continued Mr. MacAlister, "we should be very glad indeed if public spirit in this country could induce the Government to do something for public libraries. They have done nothing so far." "We have not attained to the Bibliographical Professorships yet?" "No, but there is an approach to it in the Sandars Readership in Bibliography at Cambridge. Mr. Sandars was a member of our association who bequeathed a considerable sum, the interest of which was to be devoted to the payment of the lecturer. In America, of course, there are fully equipped library schools, with lecturers attached, and degrees in librarianship. We have hopes that when a new teaching and examining University is established in London there may be a chance of getting the new authorities to recognise the importance of the subject. It is only in London that there is sufficient material to give practical illustrations to students." PERSONAL. MR. LECKY, M.P., presided at the Book- sellers' Dinner on the 8th ult., and in proposing "Literatureand Science,"said that the first thing that would strike one was the enormous multiplication of books. The power of spinning something in the nature of a book from the slenderest possible materials with the greatest possible haste was an accomplishment which the present age had brought to a perfec- tion that no other generation had ever attained. It might be said that there was no great harm in writing a book which no one was obliged to read, and, indeed, the sale of some works had the positive advantage of making the lives of their authors somewhat more easy than they otherwise would be. But, after making all allowances, he still felt bound to say that contemporary litera- ture would probably be much better if it were somewhat less voluminous and somewhat more  ## p. 20 (#426) ############################################# 20 THE A UTHOh. choice. He did not wish to speak in a desponding way about literature. If poor books were greatly multiplied it did not mean that good books were less numerous. Nothing was more remarkable than the silent, steady sale of good books long after people had ceased talking about them. Tuesday, May n, was a ladies' night of the New Vagabond Club, when five to six hundred guests sat down to dinner in the Holborn Restau- rant. Mr. Hall Caine, who presided, in giving "The Ladies," said that the reign all were going to celebrate had been pre-eminently the reign of woman. Some rumours they heard of masculine jealousy that women were competing, perhaps too successfully, with some of them in the pro- fessions, but he did not believe that any man worthy of the name ever yet owed a woman a grudge because she was beating him in his craft, and he appealed to them to see that when a woman crossed their path in her struggle to live she should have fair play and every chance and every help that a man's hsmd could give her. Lecturing at the Royal Institution on "Romance," Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins said that the leading characteristics of romance as a quality in literature were, first strong emotion; second, a high pitch of abstraction; and third, self-assertion. Every novel which dealt with love was not romance. For example, there was a large class of novels which gave pictures of the life that was about them every day, and in which love played, so far as the incidents went, a leading part. But the love was not a subject; it was rather a datum. That was not of necessity untrue to life, but it might be anything in the world except romance. Novels with "love" for their theme failed in that respect. The love-making was itself mechanical. It did not rule the book. They were, in fact, constrained to believe that the author did not understand his theme, or had confused the theme with the auxiliaries. That was why those books were not romances. There was no power, no imagination in them. The " problem novel" and the "realistic novel" were not in the nature of romances, for, instead of simplicity and confidence, they found in them complexity and self-distrust. He admitted that it was not always so easy to draw the line between the novel and the romance. For example, in "Tom Jones," "Vanity Fair," and " Pendennis," there would be found matter of a romantic character. Generally speaking, the reader should ask what was the theme, and by that he should judge. Let them take the story of "The Three Musketeers." They would exclaim, "Here is romance!" Why Y Because, in spite of all its complexity, they found running through the whole book and inspiring it that one strong simple passion or emotion which ruled the lives of the leading characters, and, above all, that of the great hero D'Artagnan. Dumas's trilogy of the Musketeers was a romance of the joy of action. Those men did not so much care as to what they were at, but they must be at something. At the same time, he did not say there was nothing in " Tom Jones" or "Pendennis" of a similar kind. It would be, perhaps, correct to say that the great English writers used their heroes to gratify the world, and the great Frenchman used the world to gratify his heroes. The romancist was not the worst companion that a reader would find speaking to him words of truth. The New York Critic of April 10 announces the result of its prize competition for the best list of the best twelve American short stories. The prize has gone to Mr. J. W. George, of St. Louis, who has selected two stories by Hawthorne, two by Irving, two by Poe, and one each by Dr. Hale (" The Man Without a Country," of course), Bret Harte, Frank R. Stockton, Thomas Nelson Page, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and Mary E. Wilkins. The editors add that they do not offer this "as an ideal list, be it observed, but merely as, on the whole, the best of those submitted." Some 500 lists were received, and they publish, also, another list, containing only one story by a single author—the authors selected being T. B. Aldrich, H. Bunner, F. R. Stockton, Mary E. Wilkins, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, E. E. Hale, G. W. Cable, and Richard Harding Davis. Mrs. Linnaeus Banks, the novelist, died at Dalston, on May 4, in her seventy-sixth year. Her best known stories are "God's Providence House" (the historic building in Chester which escaped the plague) and "The Manchester Man." Like the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Mrs. Banks was well advanced in life before she began to publish any remarkable work. "God's Providence House" appeared when she was forty-five, and "The Manchester Man" about a decade later. As Miss Isabella Varley she had, however, written and published verses in Manchester newspapers as early as her sixteenth year. Her first collection of poems, "Ivy Leaves," appeared in 1844. Mrs. Banks was a native of Manchester, and her works were especially popular in Lancashire. It is told of the late Mrs. Banks that, when negotiating for the serial publication of one of her novels, she felt herself somewhat worsted in the bargaining. She accepted the terms, but, by way of revenge, exclaimed, "' It is naught, it is  ## p. 21 (#427) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 2 1 naught, saith the buyer; but when he is gone his way then he boasteth.'" The publisher was greatly pleased with the cleverness of the quota- tion, and his estimate of Mrs. Banks's work by no means suffered in consequence of her witty protest. Mr. Theodore Bent, the indefatigable explorer of South-East Africa and Arabia, died, on May 5, of malarial fever and pneumonia, at the age of fifty-two. His works included "The Cyclades; or Life among the Insular Greeks" (1885); "Ruined Cities of Mashonaland" (1892); and "Sacred Cities of the Ethiopians" (1893). FROM "POEMS" BY S. L. E. An jEolian Harp. From harp strings strained before the wind Strange music issues forth; It comoth now from east and west, And now from south and north. At first a sweet, low, moaning wail, Pathetic, fitful, mild; Then, gathering strength—the sound bursts forth In music strong and wild. We listen breathless; joyful strains Must crown this fitful play. Alas! the mnBic drops and falls, And, moaning, dies away. The song of life, the Christian song, Begins full oft in pain; Then, gathering strength, bursts forth in song, Begins a heavenly strain. Begins—a hopeful prelude gives Of heavenly music here; But soon ib quenohed in death—the theme Is for another sphere. There will earth's wild, tumultuous notes, And discords here too strong, Be gathered up in one complete, One rapturous, perfect song. A SUGGESTED RECONSTITUTE. AT the recent annual meeting of the Society I brought forward a proposition for the direct election of the Council by the whole body of the members of the Society. Sir W. Besant asked me to put my suggestions into writing for publication in The Author, and this request I now comply witb. Of course we all know that, at present, the Council, however generally representative it may be, is in no sense elective; for the members of the Society have no voice in the choice of their "representatives." No doubt, in the early days of the Society this arrangement was judicious, for the great body of members were ignorant and helpless, whilst a few leading spirits alone had any adequate knowledge of the needs and true interests of the Society. It was therefore well that those who so generously devoted time and labour to promoting the interest of their fellow authors should be given a free hand in their choice of colleagues; in other words, it was perhaps well that the infant Society should be governed autocratically. But it is obvious that the rigime which is good for infancy is highly unsuitable for adolescence, and that sooner or later the Society must be released from leading strings and allowed to govern itself and to exercise the franchise; and I think that many members agree with me in hold- ing that the time for a Reform Bill has now arrived. Last year an attempt was made to introduce a small elected element into the Society, but this attempt resulted in failure. The reason for this failure I alluded to at the annual meeting, but it is unnecessary to repeat my remarks here, since we are looking forward and not back- ward. I proposed that the whole Council shall be directly elected by the Society, each member serving, say, three years, and a third of the Council retiring every year. For the purpose of election the Society should be divided into faculties, each faculty electing a proportionate number of councillors. For instance we should require a faculty out of Fiction, Poetry, Music, Education, Physical Science, and so on. It would be neces- sary to fix a minimum number of members for each faculty, and as a basis for negotiation I suggest that no faculty should be constituted with fewer than 100 members. Where the writers upon any subject were too few to claim a faculty for themselves, they should be classed with writers on allied subjects into a joint faculty, just as at London University the graduates in music, being too few to claim a faculty of their own, are classed for voting purposes with the graduates in science. Thus it might be necessary, at present, to put sociologists, historians, and legal writers into one faculty; to class dramatists, poets, and all other writers on aesthetics together; to put psychologists into the Physical Science faculty, and so on; but these are all matters of detail that can easily be arranged. Similarly when a writer belongs equally to two subject-faculties he should be allowed to decide in which he would be classed for voting purposes. One point I must especially emphasise. It is absolutely essential to this scheme that each faculty, whether including 100 or 400 members, should elect the same number of representatives,  ## p. 22 (#428) ############################################# 22 THE AUTHOR. for the Society is concerned with the interests of every branch of literature, and not merely with the interests of a majority of its present members. We must here adopt the old political principle that interests and classes, not simply heads, must be counted. Unless this system be adopted it is clear that one slightly dominant faculty might outvote the others, and "nobble" the whole machinery of the Society in the interests of one class of writers only. This, of course, would soon lead to a secession of the other members, and the foundation of a rival Authors' Society, and that would be a disaster which we must avoid at all hazards. Therefore we must make it a tine qua nun that each faculty elect the same number of representatives. One word more and I have done. The elec- tions must be real and not formal. Everyone who has belonged to any of our scientific societies knows that, although theoretically their consti- tution is a pure democracy, yet actually it is a pure oligarchy, for the outgoing council always nominate their successors, and the society goes through the farce of filling up ballot papers which never include the names of any rival candi- dates, for it is considered "bad form " to oppose the council's nominees. Against this un-English abuse we must make stringent safeguards, and I therefore propose that, at each election there shall be at least two candidates for every vacancy, so that the election must necessarily be real. I pro- pose that the initiative shall be left with private members of each faculty, but that if in any faculty there be fewer than two candidates pro- posed for each vacancy, the Council, or preferably individual members thereof, shall propose suffi- cient candidates to make up the required number; but otherwise the Council should nor, interfere in the elections. Such is, in brief, the outline of the Reform Bill which I have the honour of laying before the Council and my fellow-members of the Society; and I hope that the English spirit of popular government and an unrestricted fran- chise will be amply strong enough in the Society to ensure its adoption. F. H. Perky Coste. BOOK TALK. THE Jubilee celebrations are causing a healthy stoppage for a week or two in the free flow of new books. As one result, the autumn season will perhaps prove to be an unusu- ally busy one this year. The Royal Asiatic Society will commemorate the completion of the sixtieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria by founding a gold medal for distinguished scholarship, to be awarded trien- nially for the best work on an Oriental subject in the English language. A series of small books upon the "Imperial" platform is projected by Messrs. Horace Marshall and Sons, entitled "The Story of the Empire," edited by Mr. Howard Angus Kennedy. The series will begin with a volume by Sir Walter Besant on "The Rise of the English-Speaking Race"; to be followed by volumes on South Africa, by Mr. E. F. Knight; on Australia and New Zealand, by Miss Flora Shaw; and on Canada, by Mr. Kennedy. These books will be all short; and, it is hoped, attractive and instructive. Mrs. Alfred Baldwin's " Story of a Marriage" has been added to Messrs. Macmillan's Colonial Library. "Daughters of Thespis: a story of the Green Room," is the title of Mr. John Bickerdyke's new novel. The publishers are Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Limited. The same author has recently published through Mr. L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, an illustrated six-shilling volume entitled "Wild Sports in Ireland." It includes descriptions of the author's considerable yachting, wildfowling, and fishing experiences on the large Shannon lakes. "False Gods," a novel by Mrs. Albert S. Bradshaw, has just been published by Messrs. Henry and Co. Two poems by Mrs. Albert S. Bradshaw have been taken by Messrs. George Routledge and Co. for publication in the "Fernandez Reciter," just published. Miss Bertha Thomas has written a series of stories presenting various pictures of modern English society. The book, entitled "Camera Lucida; or, Strange Passages from Common Life," will be published by Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. Mr. Guy Boothby's new story, "The Fascination of the King," is about to be published by Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Co. Mr. Clark Russell has written "A Tale of Two Tunnels," which Messrs. Chapman and Hall will publish. Mr. Hume Nisbet and Mr. Alan St. Aubyn each has a new work of fiction in course of publi- cation by Messrs. White. Mr. Marion Crawford has written a novel entitled "A Rose of Yesterday," which Messrs. Macmillan will publish.  ## p. 23 (#429) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 23 Mr. Lane is publishing this month two volumes —one of prose and one of verse—of the works of Col. John Hay, the new American Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. The books are "Castilian Days " and " Poems." Mr. Tom Gallon's novel, "Tatterley," is being adapted for the stage by Mr. Norman Forbes. Professor Miall, of Leeds, has written " Thirty Years of Teaching," a volume which Messrs. Mac- millan will publish shortly. Professor George Adam Smith, of the Free Church College, Glasgow, has undertaken to write the biography of the late Professor Henry Drum- mond. The possessors of material connected with the subject are invited to send it to Professor Smith, 22, Sardinia-terrace, Glasgow; or to Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. The Indian prince and famous English cricketer, K. S. Ranjitsinhji, has written a book upon the game. It will be published by Messrs. Black- wood. "The Diary of Master William Silence " is the title of a study of Shakespeare and of Elizabethan sport, which Mr. Justice Madden, of the Irish Bench, has written. It will be published by Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. The long-expected Life of Lord Tennyson will be published on Oct. 6, the fifth anniversary of the poet's death, by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. "Are We to go on with Latin Verses?" This inquiry is the subject of a pamphlet by the Hon. Edward Lyttelton, head master of Haileybury College, which Messrs. Longmans will publish. Mr. W. M. Rossetti has selected and edited a volume of "Poems " by the late Mr. J. Lucas Tupper, who was a contributor to the Germ in 1850. The volume will be published by Messrs. Longmans. Miss Ella Fuller Maitland is publishing a col- lection of her verses, under the title " The Song Book of Bethia Hardacre." A volume of poems by Mr. F. W. Bourdillon, some of which are new, while others appeared anonymously in Oxford some years ago, is to be published by Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen. The title will be "Minuscula: Lyrics of Nature, Art, and Love." Mr. Henry Craik, C.B., is writing a history of Scotland from the Union, which will deal in special detail with the 100 years following 1745. General Maurice, C.B., is writing a volume on "National Defence" for Messrs. Macmillan's English Citizen series. The rebuilding of the London Library will be begun next month. A number of Spanish books have been added to the collection lately, but the library is still deficient in the literature of the Romance languages. At the 107th anniversary dinner of the Royal Literary Fund subscriptions were announced to the amount of nearly <£iooo, headed by the sixtieth donation of £100 by Her Majesty the Queen. Lord Lister, who presided, said that Literature was an uncertain calling by no means rewarded according to its deserts. To a man of high literary culture and exquisite sensibility, the mercy extended through this fund blessed those who gave and those who but for that would have been lost to the world. A fine copy of the extremely rare quarto, the "Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice" (1600), was sold at Sotheby's for ,£315. This is the highest sum ever realised for a first edition of one of Shakespeare's plays. Mr. Vere Foster is printing the correspondence of the two Duchesses of Devonshire, in which there will be letters of Fox, Sheridan, Gibbon, Moreau, Napoleon, the Emperor Alexander I. of Russia, and others. The work will be entitled "The Two Duchesses." Mrs. Patmore is engaged writing a memoir of her husband. She will be assisted in the work by Mr. Basil Champneys and Mr. Frederick Greenwood. Mr. Champneys has also designed the monument to be erected over the grave of the poet in Lymington Cemetery, and per- mission has been granted by the authorities for trees to be planted near the spot. To the expense of the latter object all who wish to do so may send contributions to Rev. Father O'Connell, The Presbytery, Lymington; or to Mr. F. G. Stephens, 10, The Terrace, Hammer- smith, W. Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein have brought out a one-volume storv, entitled "A Princess of Islam." The author is Mr. J. W. Sherer, C.S.I., whose chapters ou the great Mutiny formed a feature in Col. Maude's book published in 1895. The new story is mainly devoted to the domestic life of the Indian Muslims — a curious and interesting subject. A curious illustration is to hand (says a corre- spondent) of the small equipment of historical knowledge requisite for a successful journalist. Here is an editor who in expressing sympathy with the Greeks observes that the best soldiers are subject to panic when ill led! Under a Wellington or a Nelson, Tommy is "practically invincible; at Fontenoy or Bunker's Hill he runs."  ## p. 24 (#430) ############################################# 24 THE AUTHOR. The writer ought surely to have known that as much valour was shown by the private soldiers at these two fights as at Waterloo. If any use was to be made of the argument it would have been more to the purpose to compare the Royalists and Roundheads at Naseby. But this, doubtless, is "ancient history," which journalism, we know, disdains. "The Note-book of Tristram Risdon " |(i6o3- 1628) has long lain buried in the richly-stocked library of Exeter Cathedral. It is a companion to the well-known "Chronological Description or Survey of the County of Devon," published in 1714, and contains much information which closely concerns Devonshire genealogists. Mr. James Dallas, F.L.S., Curator of the Exeter Museum, has transcribed the MS., and the volume is about to be issued by Mr. Elliot Stock. Two hundred and fifty copies only will be printed for subscribers. Headon Hill's new novel "By a Hair's Breadth," which begins to run in Cassell's Maga- zine this month, will be published in volume form when it has finished its serial course, simulta- neously in London and New York. The English publishers will be Messrs. Cassell and Co., and the American rights have been acquired by Messrs. Dodd, Mead, and Co., of New York. —> • «^ LITERATURE IN THE PERIODICALS. The Literature or the Victorian Era. H. D- Traill. Fortnightly Review for June. The Apotheosis op the Novel under Queen Victoria Herbert Paul. Nineteenth Century for May. Canton English. Colonel Wilkinson J. Shaw. New Revievi for May. Shall English Become a Dead Language? Review of Reviews for April; Spectator for May 1. Stevenson as a Writer. Mr. George Moore in Daily Chronicle for May 12; E. Le Gallienne in Westminster Gazette for May 19. Canadian Poetry. John A. Cooper. National Review for May. A Poet op Spring [Herriok],—Temple Bar for May. On the Theory and Practice op Local Colour. W. P. James, Macmillan's for May. The day of estimates of Victorian literature is upon us. Mr. Lang, indeed, opened the ball a few months ago. Dr. Traill contributes a more lengthy review to the new Fortnightly. Except for the triumph.* of the Romantic and Naturalist movement in English poetry, the literature of the nineteenth century, he says, will mean exclusively the literature of the Victorian Era. The two decades—1837-1857—which witnessed the birth of the works of Tennyson Browning, Carlyle, Macaulay, Dickens, Thackeray, and Ruskin, was a dazzling period which need fear no com- parison with the most famous periods of English history. From 1857 to 1877 the tide of literary produc- tion was steadily receding. Only, it produced Mr. Swinburne—beside whom Dr. Traill declines to place Rossetti or Matthew Arnold. In fiction, George Eliot's advent might, at first sight, appear to retrieve the literary credit of the period, but "we should be careful not to mistake the ap- proval of the critical and cultured English society for a popular pronouncement. The middle Vic- torian Era is not really the age of Tennyson in poetry and George Eliot in prose fiction; it is the age of Trollope as a novelist and of Martin Tupper as a poet"—and "one need not cast about for any severer criticism on the taste of the time." The reaction, as regards fiction, may be said to have begun when Mr. Blackmore gave "Lorna Doone to the world; and certainly, from the middle of the seventies to the present time, the art of the novelist has displayed a vitality, a strength, a many-sided activity, on which we may justly pride ourselves. They have witnessed Mr. Hardy's elevation to a foremost place among English novelists; Mr. Meredith's emergence from the shadow of an almost lifelong neglect; and the career of Stevenson. The last— "the youngest, and much younger than the eldest "—has naturally exercised the greatest influ- ence. To him we owe the new romantic move- ment, whose only serious competitor for popularity at the present day is the "Kailyard " school. As to this latter band of writers, Dr. Traill observes: "Time may be trusted to sift out the Scotch novelists who are novelists first and masters of the Doric afterwards from those with whom this order of procedure is reversed; and it will be in- teresting to note which of them will prove his substance and solidity as a wi-iter by remaining in the sieve." Dr. Traill also notices a remarkable improve- ment in workmanship during the last dozen years, which has made it difficult, in the case of dozens of novels which are issued from the press every year, to discover the delineating line between the merits of their form, and the merits or demerits of their matter. In a concluding passage he has a word of mordant reproof for some present-day criticism: If the democratic movement has made for the wider diffusion of the literary faculty, it has, on the other hand, infected the published estimates of literary productions with the peculiar and characteristic vices of democracy— with its vehemence, its ignorance, its inconsistency, its insatiable thirst for the sensational, its vulgar admiration for artistic vulgarity, its utter laok of measure and reserve. From the exaggerated eulogy, the shameless reclame which  ## p. 25 (#431) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. attends even the most moderate of contemporary successes in literature, sober criticism revolts . . and it needs a determined fair-mindedness on the part of the critic to refrain from judging the whole literary movement of the time by these repellent incidents. "The novel threatens to supersede the pulpit. . . Perhaps few of us realise the extent to which the novel is a growth of the present reign. If we put aside the great and conspicuous in- stances of Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, of Fanny Burney, Jane Austen, and Walter Scott, there is scarcely an English novelist now read who died before Her Majesty's accession to the throne." Thus Mr. Herbert Paul. The weight of responsibility that has been shown to result from this serious view which is taken of themselves by the new class of novelists does not, however, wholly recommend itself to Mr. Paul. "Those who love, Uke Horace, the golden mean, may look back," he says," with fondness to the beginning of Her Majesty's reign, when novelists had ceased to be pariahs and had not become prigs." The poli- tical novel is among the more or less literary products of the Victorian age, and chief of poli- tical novelists is, of course, Mr. Disraeli. But how far is either the political or the historical novel (which may be considered as a variety of the political) legitimate or desirable r "I must confess to thinking," Mr. Paul answers, "that a novel should be a work of the imagination, and that it must stand or fall upon its own merits, without reference to any external standard what- ever. A novel which only interests those who are interested in the subject of it does not, if this view be correct, belong to the highest class." The "novel with a purpose" is also a product of the Victorian age. Dickens began it when he ran a tilt at the Poor-law in "Oliver Twist," and con- tinued it when he attacked the Court of Chancery in "Bleak House." Charles Kingsley's novels had a great practical influence in the promotion of sanitary improvement; although their earnest- ness was not conducive to literary perfection. And if novels with a purpose are to be written at all, they could hardly be written more wisely than Charles Reade, whose purposes were in every respect benevolent and praiseworthy, wrote them —Charles Reade whom, by the way, Mr. Paul classes with Whyte Melville and Wilkie Collins as authors who have fallen into oblivion. Mr. Paul is happy, too, that the school of Dickens is at last dying out. Their dreary mechanical jokes, their hideous unmeaning caricatures, their descriptions that describe nothing, their tears of gin and water, provoke only unmitigated disgust. But Dickens is absolved from responsi- bility for the long lingering train of weak imitators. His position is "unassailed and unassailable. He must always remain an acknowledged master of fiction and a prince of English humourists." Mr. Stead's alarm for the language is not shared by the writer in the Spectator. Mr. Stead pictures one language being spoken in London, another in Chicago, and a third in Melbourne, the users of these dialects being mutually un- intelligible. He proposes that to avert the danger of our race being struck with the curse of Babel, a sort of academy of editors and men of letters should be formed, who would keep the language true and make our words and phrases keep line. Assuming for the moment that the danger feared by Mr. Stead doesexist, the Spectator replies that this suggested remedy would be worse than the disease, and they would rather see the English language grow so disunited that it would cease to be a single language, than see it perish by being confined in an academic strait-waistcoat. The beauty of any language is its freedom and adaptability; when it has become fixed and rigid it is dead. Again, no committee could tell whether a word is a good word or a bad word, or whether it is wanted or not. Thousands of words which we now consider absolutely essential to the language were, when they were first introduced, described as quite unnecessary and the mere surplusage of pedantry or affectation. Each word must take its chance. But all this is beside the question, for the Spectator writer does not admit the need for an academy for the English language; he denies the proposition that the English race in its various habitations is taking to unintelligible dialects. "We have never met a newspaper article in modern English, much less a printed book, whether hailing from America or Australia, which, if not deliberately intended to- be a skit on current local slang, was not perfectly intelligible to every educated man who uses the English language as his mother tongue." Free trade in words has kept the language steady. Books written in the Elizabethan age are still perfectly intelligible. The language will broaden and deepen, and yet remain as clear as ever. CORRESPONDENCE. I.—The Output op Authors. IFIND it stated in The Author for May i that I confess to having written two of my books at the rate of 7000 words a day. I made no such confession. I said that while I had two of my earlier books in hand I must have written as much as 7000 words a day, but that that included  ## p. 26 (#432) ############################################# 26 THE AUTHOR. a mass of journalistic work—a very different thing from invention. H. G. Wells. Heatherlea, Worcester Park, Surrey. II. —The Moi-meme in Journalism. Students of literary methods cannot fail to have remarked the extensive growth of late of the moi-meme style of contribution, whether as applied to books, the drama, parliamentary reporting, or even the telegraphic views of "our own " or " our special." Is this new departure a healthy one? I venture to think not. The advantage of a lavish employment, over initials, of the personal pronoun is by no means apparent. Rightly or wrongly, a feeling is engendered that the impartial duties of a writer towards the organ he represents are being sacrificed upon the altar of egoism. Thus the small, not infrequently very insignificant, " I myself" flouts the more potent editorial " we " in quite a cheeky fashion. As a matter of fact, the general public are apt to resent individual opinions as above indicated, and fail as a rule to even identify such contributors, save when pseudonyms or initials are of established reputation. Anonymity in journalism, apart from book reviewing, seems to me the wisest course for all parties concerned. Cecil Clarke. Authors' Club, S.W. March 17. _ III. —The Criticism of "Dolomite Strongholds." That "the works of members should not be criticised in The Author" is a healthy rule, and I was glad to see it formulated, on p. 287, in the last number. But, in the previous number (p. 264), I am sorry to see that Sir William Martin Conway has managed to insert a very damaging criticism of a member's book, which he names in full—"' Dolomite Strongholds,' by J. Sanger Davies "—and the attack is none the less effective because it is brought in " to illustrate" Sir W. M. Conway's novel views of the moral obligations which should govern his reviewing, or should not. What necessity was there for giving the full title and author's name? The " illustra- tion" in no way needed it. Of course, as Sir W. M. Conway declares that he has "reviewed with open hostility . only three books," I am not seeking a reason for the supposition that he intended, in this case, "to kill the book if he can," although members of the Alpine Club did once suggest something. But why trouble your readers, who are chiefly non-climbers, with a climbing criticism of my book? Sir William Martin Conway informs them: "The book is not a good. one from the point of view of an expert climber." The opinion, as an opinion, is a perfectly legiti- mate one, especially coming from one who pro- jected and announced a little book of his own upon the same group of mountains, with the aid, how- ever, of another hand. But why drag in this, or any other opinion, with full title of book and the author's name, into an illustration in a letter to The Author? True, there was a balancing clause, that he "praised" the same book in a popular weekly because it was " quite amusing," &c.; and, from the context, I may gain the further comfort that the readers of popular weeklies, "being possibly the fools they are," will get "no false notions of any importance " from my book. But I must decline to see the compensation even in this " praise," and I trust that there will be no further criticism of the works of any member of the Authors' Society in the pages of The Author. J. Sanger Davies. IV.—A Good Word for Editors. I recently sent a short story to one of our current publications, and received a cheque from the editor for just twice the amount asked. Though the fee named was a modest one, it was at a rate of payment that is, I believe, often used. That the story may have been worth more than the author asked for it makes no difference to the liberality of the transaction, but helps to prove that editors are not all mean and grasping. Why do I write this? Justice is my plea. May 17, 1897. Margarita. V.—Answers to some of the Questions in "A Self-Examination Paper for Candid Critics."—[The Author for May.] 1. I have only read " Robinson Crusoe " in Ger- man, where the hero figures as Crusoe Robinson. I never make any remarks upon the book, affec- tionate or other. 3. I published an article in the National Review for July, 1890, showing the "Vicar of Wakefield" to he one of the coarsest and most grossly absurd stories in English litera- ture. 5. Ranke's "History of the Popes," of course. —Contemplating the ruins of St. Paul's with a view to sketching them. Who doesn't know that?  ## p. 27 (#433) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 27 6. Give the article. Will any do? 4. (b.) I have a ri^ht to draw comparisons between any two novelists that are comoarable. Does M. C. V. intend to insinuate that, for instance, George Eliot, Mrs. Gaskell, Mrs. Oliphant, and, say, Mrs. Humphry Ward, are not comparable to Jane Austen, or that the female novelist of the present day is "incomparable "? In either case I disagree with him. Frederic H. Balfour. THE BOOKS OF THE MONTH. [April 24 to Mat 22—240 Books.] "Actinotus." The Power of (he Pane. 3/6. Sonnenschein. Adcock. A. St. John. East-End IdyllB. 8/6. Bowden. Alexander, Mrs. Mrs. Crichton'B Creditor. White. Anonymous. America and the Americana. Heinemann. Anonymous: A. O. M. Two Brothers. Gardner. Anonymous: M. R. S. OptimuB, and Other Poems. 2/6. Sonuenschein. 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"These poems are welcome, in that they evince a genuine love of national beauty and a poetic perception of its effect. They are beautifully coloured, and bring home to the reader a sense of wha t constitutes the charm of New Zealand."—Dvndce Advertiser. ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. Grown 8vo., limp cloth, price 2s. fid. .a. haitdbooe: OF PROCEDURE OF TH1 HOUSE of COMMONS, SUGGESTIONS AND PRECEDENTS FOR THE USS OF PARLIAMENTARY DEBATING SOCIETIES, BY GEO. G. GRAY, Esq., LL.D. (Lond.), J.P., Barrister-at-Law, Ac, Author of "A Manual of Bankruptcy/' a Treatise on "The Right to Support from Land and Buildings," &c. Speaker of the Hastings Local House of Oommona. London : Horace Cox, WindBor House, Bream's-buildinga, E.C. In demy 8vo., prico 12s. net, by post 12s. 6cl. Six Months in a Syrian Monastery. Being the Record of a Visit to the Headquarters of the Syrian Church in Mesopotamia, with some account of the Yazidis, or Devil Worshippers of Mosul, and El Jilwah, their Sacred Book. By OSWALD II. PARRY, 13.A. (Of Magdalen College, Oxford.) Illustrated by the Author. With a Prefatory Note by the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Durham. "The author of this handsome volume presents 'a detailed study of a relic of history pursued off the track of general research;' ho has sought to give, and has succeeded In giving,' a picture of quiet life in a country much abused, and among a people that command less than their share of ordinary interest.' 'Westward the tide of Empire takes its way,' sang a prophetic divine of the olden days, and no leas certainly, as Mr. Parry points out, does the ebb of travel return towards the East. . . . Aa a volume descriptive of life and travel among a distant people, his work is well worth reading, but for those persona who are more particularly concerned with the old Syrian Church, or in the aolution of the problem indicated above, it is one of quite unique attraction. Apathetic interest attaches to the account of the YazidU included in thiB volume, for it contains part of their sacred writings, the original manuscript of which was In the hands of Professor Robertson Smith for translation at the time of his death."—P-ubUther? Circular. London: Horace Cox, WindBor House, Bream's-buildings E.C. Now ready, price 2s. (id., cloth. A FLYING VISIT TO THB AMERICAN CONTINENT. WITH NOTES BY THE WAY By F. DALE PAVLE. London: Horacb Cox, Windsor House, Bream'a-buildings, E.C- Now ready, demy 6vo., cloth boards, price 10s. fid. IN NEW SOUTH AFRICA. Travels in the Transvaal and Rhodesia. With Map and Twenty-six Illustration!. By H. LINCOLN TANGYE. CONTENTS. Introductory. PART L Chapter I.— The Land of Gold and the Way there. II.—Across Desert and Veldt, in.—Johannesburg the Golden. IV. —A Transvaal Coach Journey. V.—Natal: the South African Garden. VL—Ostracised in Africa. Home with the Swallows. PABT II.— BAMBLES IN RHODESIA. Chapter I.—Eendragt Maakt Magt. II.—Into the Countrv of Lobengula. m.—The Trail of War. IV.—Goldmining, Ancient and Modern. V. —Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. VI.—To Northern Mashonaland. VII.—Primitive Art. The Misadventures of a Wagon. Index. London: Horacb Cox. Windaor House, Bream'a-buildings, E.C. Super-royal 8vo., price 20a., post free. CROCKFORD'S CLERICAL DIRECTORY 1897. 8 EI NO A STATISTICAL BOOK OF REFERENCE For facts relating to the Clergy in England. Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the Colonies; with a fuller Index relating to Parishes and Benefices than any ever yet given to the public. Crockkord's Clerical Directory is more than a Directory: itcon- tains concise Biographical details of all the ministersand dignitaries of the Church of England, Wales. Scotland, Ireland, and the Colonies; also a List of the Parishes of each Diocese in England and Wales arranged in Rural Deaneries. Horack Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C.  ## p. 28 (#436) ############################################# IV AD VEIi TISEMENTS. LOWEST PRICES IN LONDON. Authors' M.SS. correctly and neatly copied at lOd. per lOOO words. Carbon Duplicates at 2d. ,, LEGAL A>TJJ GENERAL COPYING at Id. per folio. We have a skilled and well educated staff of operators. Give us a trial, and compare our work and prices with those of other offices. LARGE ORDERS ESTIMATED FOR. Note our address— { THE ECLIPSE TYPEWRITING AND SHORTHAND OFFICES, ! 28, FENCHURCH STREET. LONDON, E.C. THE TEMPLE TYPEWRITING OFFICE. § rpYPEWKITING EXCEPTIONALLY ACCURATE. Moderate prices. ^ -L process. Duplicates of Circulars by the latest S OPINIONS Of CLIENTS— Distinguished Author:—"The most beautiful typing I hive ever seen." Lady of Title:—"The J work was very well and clearly done." PROVINCIAL Editor :—" Many thanks for the spotless neatnesB and beautiful accuracy." 5 MISS GENTRY, ELDON CHAMBERS, 30, FLEET STREET, E.C. Typewriting by Clergyman's Daughter and Assistants. MISS E. M. SIKES, The West Kensington Typewriting Agency, 13, Wolverton Oardens, Hammersmith, W. (Established 1898.) Authors' MSS. carefully and promptly copied. Usual Terms. Legal and General Copying. Typewritten Circulars by Copying Process. Authors' Reffrknues. — WRITINQ ACCUEATELY AND PROMPTLY EXECUTED. postage paid, please give trial. MISS RAINES, 11, Falconer Chambers, Scarborough. 6* At/ I PASTE STICKS Crown 8vo., cloth boards, price 6s. HATHERSAGE A Tale of North Derbyshire. CHARLES EDMUND HALL, Author of " An Ancient Ancestor," &c. London: Horace Cox, Windsor House. Bream's-buildings, E.O. =18. GILL, TYPE-WBITINO OFFICE, 35, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. (ESTABLISHED 1883.) Authors' MSS. carefully copied from Is. per 1000 words. Duplicate copies third price. Skilled typints sent out by hour, day, or week. French MSS. accurately copied, or typewritten English translations supplied. References kindly permitted to Sir Walter Besant; also to Messrs. A. P. Watt and Son, Literary Agents, Hastings House, Norfolk-street. Strand, W.C. THE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD. (The Lkadenhall Press Ltd.), 50, Leadeuliall Street, London, E.C. Contains hairless paper, over which the pen slips with perfect freedom. Sixpence each: 5«. per dozen, ruled or plain. Royal 8vo., price 16s. net. Sporting Days in Southern India: BEING REMINISCENCES OP TWENTY TRIPS IN PURSUIT OF BIG GAME, CHIEFLY IN THE JflADRAS PRESIDENCY. Lieut -Col. A. J. 0. POLLOCK, Royal Scots Fusiliers. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY WHYMPER AND OTHERS. CONTENTS.—Chapters L, IL, and III.—The Bear. IV. and V.—The Panther. VI., VII., and VIII.—The Tiger. IS. and X.—The Indian Bison. XL and XII —The Elephant. XIII.—Deer (Cervidaj) and Antelopes. XIV — The Ibei. XV. and XVI.— Miscellaneous. London: Horaoe Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C. Printed and Published by Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, London, E.C. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 08 Issue 01 (June 1897) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 08 Issue 01 (June 1897) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015049239455" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015049239455</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1897-06-01-The-Author-8-1 publications The Author