306 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/306 | The Author, Vol. 08 Issue 03 (August 1897) | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+08+Issue+03+%28August+1897%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 08 Issue 03 (August 1897)</a> | | | <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> | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a> | 1897-08-02-The-Author-8-3 | | | | | 57–88 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=8">8</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1897-08-02">1897-08-02</a> | | | | | | | 3 | | | 18970802 | XL he Hutbor*<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Aidhors. Monthly.)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. VIII.—No. 3.] AUGUST 2, 1897. [Price Sixpence.<br />
CONT<br />
FAQ I<br />
General Memoranda 87<br />
From the Committee 59<br />
Literary Properly—1. The Home of Lords Committee. 2. The<br />
New Copyright Bill. 3. The Eight of CriiioiBm. 4. University<br />
of Cambridge r. Blackie and Sons 59<br />
Copyright (Amendment) Bill (H. of L.) 63<br />
Civil List Pensions 67<br />
Notes and News. By the Editor 67<br />
The Proposed Net System "1<br />
A Warning to Authors and Others 72<br />
A Case in Pofnt 74<br />
ENTS.<br />
PAOI<br />
'International Library Conference 75<br />
Book Talk 78<br />
Fashions in Language. By H. O. K ... 81<br />
Correspondence.—1. Corruptions of the Language. 2. Editor<br />
and Contributor. 8. English Novels In Germany. 4. A Query.<br />
5. Transliteration. 6. Subjunctive Mood: its Present Day use.<br />
7. Cost of Production. S. How Long; 82<br />
Literature in the Periodicals 85<br />
Personal 86<br />
Obituary 87<br />
The Books of the Month 87<br />
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.<br />
1. The Annual Report, That for January 1897 can be had on application to the Secretary.<br />
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary<br />
Property. Issued to all Members, 6*. 6d. per annum. Back numbers are offered at the<br />
following prices: Vol. I., 10*. 6d. (Bound); Vols. II., III., and IV., 8«. 6d. each (Bound);<br />
Vol. V., 6s. 6J. (Unbound).<br />
3. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher,<br />
95, Strand, W.C.) 3$.<br />
4. The History of the Societe des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Spriooe, late Secretary to<br />
the Society, is.<br />
5. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type,<br />
size of page, <fec, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of<br />
books. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 2*. 6d.<br />
6. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigoe. In this work, compiled from the<br />
papers in the Society's offices, the various forms of agreements proposed by Publishers to<br />
Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various<br />
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements.<br />
Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 3*.<br />
7. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parlia-<br />
ment. With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix<br />
containing the Berne Convention and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lely. Eyre<br />
and Spottiswoode. is. 6d.<br />
8. The Society of Authors. A Record of its Action from its Foundation. By Walter Besant<br />
(Chairman of Committee, 1888—1892). is.<br />
9. The Contract of Publication in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland. By Ernst<br />
Lunge, J.U.D. 2*. 6d.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 56 (#470) #############################################<br />
<br />
11<br />
AD VER TISEMENTS.<br />
^i)e gociefj} of Jlufljors (§ttcotporafe6).<br />
8ib Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.<br />
J. M. Barbie.<br />
A. W. X Beckett.<br />
Robert Bat em an.<br />
F. E. Beddard, F.R.S.<br />
Sir Henry Bkrgne, K.C.M.G.<br />
Sib Walter Besant.<br />
ATjOUBTINE BlRRELL, M.P.<br />
Rev. Prop. Bonnet, F.R.S.<br />
Right Hon. James Brtce, M.P.<br />
Right Hon. Lord Burohclire, P.C.<br />
Hall Cains.<br />
Eoerton Castle, F.S.A.<br />
P. W. Clatden.<br />
Edward Clodd.<br />
W. Morris Colles.<br />
Hon. John Collier.<br />
Sir W. Martin Conwat.<br />
F. Marion Crawford.<br />
The Eabl of Desart.<br />
president.<br />
o-ieozroce :mz:e:k.:e:dit;e3:.<br />
COUNCIL.<br />
Adstin Dobson.<br />
a. conan dotle, m.d.<br />
A. W. Dubouro.<br />
Prof. Michael Foster, F.R.S.<br />
D. W. Freshfield.<br />
Richard Garnett, C.B., LL.D.<br />
Edmund Gosse.<br />
H. Rider Haqgard.<br />
Thomas Hardy.<br />
Anthony Hope Hawkins.<br />
Jerome K. Jerome.<br />
RuDYARD KlPLINO.<br />
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S.<br />
W. E. H. Lecky, P.C.<br />
J. M. Lely.<br />
Mrs. E. Lynn Linton.<br />
Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.<br />
Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Mas.Doc.<br />
Prof. J. M. D. Meiklejohn.<br />
Herman C. Merivale.<br />
Eon. Counsel — E. M. Underdown,<br />
Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake.<br />
Sir Lewis Morris.<br />
Henry Norman.<br />
Miss E. A. Ormerod.<br />
J. C. Parkinson.<br />
Right Hon. Lord Pirbrioht, P.C,<br />
F.R.S.<br />
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D.<br />
Walter Herries Pollock.<br />
W. Baptiste Scoones.<br />
Miss Flora L. Shaw.<br />
G. R. Sims.<br />
S. Squire Spriqoe.<br />
J. J. Stevenson.<br />
Francis Store.<br />
William Moy Thomas.<br />
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.<br />
Mrs. Humphry Ward.<br />
Miss Charlotte M. Yonoe.<br />
Q.C.<br />
A.. W. X Beckett.<br />
Sir Walter Besant.<br />
Eoerton Castle, F.S.A.<br />
W. Morris Colles.<br />
ART.<br />
Hon. John Collier (Chairman).<br />
Sir W. Martin Conway.<br />
M. H. Spielmann<br />
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT<br />
Chairman—H. Rider Haggard.<br />
Sir W. Martin Conway.<br />
D. W. Freshfield.<br />
Anthony Hope Hawkins.<br />
J. M. Lely.<br />
SU B-COM M ITTEES.<br />
MUSIC.<br />
C. Villiers Stanford, Mas.D. (Chairman)<br />
Jacques Blumenthal.<br />
J. L. Molloy.<br />
Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Mub.Doc.<br />
Henry Norman.<br />
Francis Storr.<br />
Solicitors—<br />
f Field, Roscoe, and Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields<br />
DRAMA.<br />
Henry Arthur Jones (Chairman).<br />
A. W. a Beckett.<br />
Edward Rose.<br />
Herbert Thring, B.A., 4, Portugal-street. Secretary—G. Herbert Thrino, B.A.<br />
OFFICES: 4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.<br />
.A.. IP. WJ^TT & SOINT,<br />
LITERARY AGENTS,<br />
Formerly of 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,<br />
Have now removed to<br />
HASTINGS HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND,<br />
LONDON". W.C.<br />
Published every Friday morning; price, without Reports, 9<L; with<br />
Reports, Is.<br />
THE LAW TIMES, the Journal of the Law and the<br />
Lawyers, which has now been established for over half a century,<br />
supplies to the Profession a complete Record of the Progress of Legal<br />
Reforms, and of all matters affecting the Legal Profession. The<br />
Reports of the Law Times are now recognised as the most complete<br />
and efficient Beries published.<br />
Offices: Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.0<br />
THE ART of CHESS. By James Mason. Price 5s.<br />
net, by post 5s. 4d.<br />
London: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.0.<br />
THE KNIGHTS and KINGS of CHESS. By the Rev.<br />
G. A. MACDONNELL, B.A. With Portrait and 17 Illustra-<br />
tions. Crown 8vo., cloth boards, price 2s. «d. net.<br />
London: HouACE Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.O.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 57 (#471) #############################################<br />
<br />
be Hutbor*<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. VIII.—No. 3.] AUGUST 2, 1897. [Price Sixpence.<br />
For the Opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
signed or initialled the Authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
graphs must be taken as expressing the<br />
collective opinions of the Committee unless<br />
they are. officially signed by G. Herbert<br />
Thring, Sec.<br />
THE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all<br />
remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and<br />
requests that all members not receiving an answer to<br />
important communications within two days will write to him<br />
without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union<br />
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br />
letter only.<br />
Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on<br />
all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub-<br />
jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are<br />
returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS.<br />
GENERAL MEMORANDA.<br />
FOB some years it has been the praotioe to insert, in<br />
every number of The Author, certain " General Con-<br />
siderations," Warnings, Notices, &c, for the guidance<br />
of the reader. It has been objeoted as regards these<br />
warnings that the tricks or frauds against which they are<br />
directed cannot all be guarded against, for obvious reasons.<br />
It is, however, well that they should be borne in mind, and<br />
if any publisher refuses a clause of precaution he simply<br />
reveals his true character, and should be left to carry on<br />
his business in his own way.<br />
Let us, however, draw up a few of the rules to be<br />
observed in an agreement. There are three methods of<br />
dealing with literary property:—<br />
I. That of Belling it outright.<br />
This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if a proper<br />
price can be obtained. But the transaction should be<br />
managed by a competent agent.<br />
II. A pro&t-sharing agreement.<br />
In this case the following rules should be attended to ><br />
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
duction forms a part.<br />
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br />
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br />
VOL. VIII.<br />
in his own organs: or by charging exchange advertise-<br />
ments.<br />
_ (3.) Not to allow a special charge for " offioe expenses,"<br />
unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br />
rights.<br />
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br />
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br />
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br />
doctor!<br />
(7.) To stamp the agreement.<br />
III. The royalty system.<br />
In this system, which has opened the door to a most<br />
amazing amount of overreaching and trading on the<br />
author's ignorance, it is above all things necessary to know<br />
what the proposed royalty means to both °ides. It is now<br />
possible for an author to ascertain approximately and very<br />
nearly the truth. Prom time to time the very important<br />
figures conneoted with royalties are published in The Author.<br />
Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the<br />
"Cost of Production." Let no one, not even the youngest<br />
writer, sign a royalty agreement without finding out what<br />
it gives the publisher as well as himself.<br />
It has been objeoted. that these precautions presuppose a<br />
great success for the book, and that very few books indeed<br />
attain to this great success. That is quite true: but there is<br />
always this uncertainty of literary property that, although<br />
the works of a groat many authors carry with them no risk<br />
at all, and although of a great many it is known within a few<br />
copies what will be their minimum circulation, it is not<br />
known what will be their maximum. Therefore every<br />
author, for every book, should arrange on the chance of a<br />
success whioh will not, probably, come at all; but which<br />
may come.<br />
The four points whioh the Society has always demanded<br />
from the outset are:—<br />
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br />
means.<br />
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br />
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br />
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br />
withheld.<br />
(3.) That there shall be no secret profits.<br />
(4.) That nothing shall be charged whioh has not been<br />
actually paid—for instance, that there shall be no charge for<br />
advertisements in the publisher's own organs and none for<br />
exchanged advertisements and that all dissounta shall b"<br />
duly entered.<br />
If these points are carefully looked after, the author may<br />
rest pretty well assured that he is in right hands. At the<br />
same time he will do well to send his agreement to the<br />
secretary before he signs it.<br />
F 2<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 58 (#472) #############################################<br />
<br />
58 THE AUTHOR.<br />
HOW TO USB THE SOCIETY.<br />
I. "TTWERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br />
I* J advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
business or the administration of his property. If the advice<br />
sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member<br />
has a right to an opinion from the Society's solicitors. If the<br />
case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com-<br />
mittee will obtain for him Counsel's opinion. All this<br />
without any cost to the member.<br />
2. Eemember that questions connected with oopyright<br />
and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the<br />
experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple<br />
to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually<br />
engaged upon such questions for us.<br />
3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past<br />
accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in<br />
order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree-<br />
ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively<br />
so far. The Seoretary will always be glad to have any<br />
agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor-<br />
mation thns obtained may prove invaluable.<br />
4. If the examination of your previous business trans-<br />
actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should<br />
take advice as to a change of publishers.<br />
5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br />
posed dooument to the Society for examination.<br />
6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in<br />
the cose of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish-<br />
ing firm in the country.<br />
7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you<br />
are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are<br />
reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing<br />
the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen-<br />
dence of the writer.<br />
8. Send to the Editor of The Author notes of everything<br />
important to literature that you may hear or meet with.<br />
9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of<br />
members' agreements and their preservation in a fireproof<br />
safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con-<br />
fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who<br />
will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1)<br />
To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To<br />
stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon<br />
them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments<br />
due according to agreements.<br />
THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE.<br />
MEMBERS are informed:<br />
1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of<br />
the business of members of the Society. That it<br />
submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree-<br />
ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene-<br />
rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business<br />
details.<br />
2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured<br />
will be forwarded upon detailed application.<br />
3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those<br />
members of the Society whose work possesses a market<br />
value.<br />
4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations<br />
whatever ou the distinct understanding that those negotia-<br />
tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all<br />
communications relating thereto are referred to it.<br />
5. That clients can only be seen by the Direotor by<br />
appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days'<br />
notice should be given.<br />
6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi-<br />
cations promptly. That stamps should, in ail cases, be sent<br />
to defray postage.<br />
7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS.<br />
without previous correspondence; does not hold itself<br />
responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that<br />
in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray<br />
postage.<br />
8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for<br />
lectures by some of the leading members of the Society;<br />
that it has a "Transfer Department" for the sale and<br />
purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a " Register<br />
of Wants and Wanted" is open. Members are invited to<br />
communicate their requirements to the Manager.<br />
There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services<br />
will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It<br />
is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the<br />
Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in<br />
the Syndicate.<br />
NOTICES.<br />
THE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of the<br />
Society that, although the paper is sent to them free<br />
of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very<br />
heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br />
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br />
6s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br />
The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and<br />
communications on all subjects connected with literature<br />
from members and others. Nothing can do more good to<br />
the Society than to make The Author complete, attractive,<br />
and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this<br />
work send their names and the special subjects on which<br />
they ore willing to write?<br />
Communications for The Author should reach the Editor<br />
not later than the 21 st of each month.<br />
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether<br />
members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate<br />
to the Editor any points connected with their work which<br />
it would be advisable in the general interest to publish.<br />
Members and others who wish their MSS. read are<br />
requested not to send them to the Office without previously<br />
communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable<br />
despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in<br />
which they are received. It must also be distinctly under-<br />
stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances,<br />
undertake the publication of MSS.<br />
The Authors' Club is now open in its new premises, at<br />
3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary<br />
for information, rules of admission, Ac.<br />
Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they<br />
have paid their subscriptions for the year? If they will do<br />
this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's<br />
order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the<br />
trouble of sending out a reminder.<br />
Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the<br />
following warning. It is a most foolish and may be a<br />
most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding<br />
for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they<br />
would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five<br />
years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest<br />
. I<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 59 (#473) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
59<br />
or dishonest? Of coarse they would not. Why then<br />
hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them-<br />
selves into literary bondage for three or five years?<br />
Those who possess the "Cost of Production" are<br />
requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15<br />
per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble<br />
of "doing sums," the addition of three shillings in the<br />
pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding<br />
is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be<br />
added twenty-four shillings more, bo that it now stands<br />
at £g 48. The figures in our book are as near the exact<br />
truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's,<br />
bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be<br />
arrived at.<br />
Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged<br />
in the " Cost of Production " for advertising. Of course, we<br />
have not included any sums which may be charged for<br />
inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines,<br />
or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too<br />
often go, there is nothing to prevent the publishor from<br />
sweeping the whole profits o a book into his own pocket,<br />
by inserting any number of advertisements in his own<br />
magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are<br />
who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those<br />
who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it.<br />
FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br />
ON Thursday, July 26, a meeting of the Com-<br />
mittee was held at the Medical Association<br />
Rooms, Hanover-square. It was Resolved:<br />
"That in view of the proposed action of the<br />
Publishers' Association towards the booksellers,<br />
a committee be appointed to consider the whole<br />
questiou, and to arrive at the opinions and inte-<br />
rests of the persons most concerned. That the<br />
committee should consist of five, who should have<br />
power to extend their number to twelve, but not<br />
more."<br />
It is expected that the committee will begin<br />
their work in September.<br />
Owing to the great pressure upon our space<br />
this month, Mr. Hapgood's New York Letter, and<br />
Mr. Sherard's Notes from Elsewhere, have been<br />
unavoidably held over.<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
I.—The House of Loeds Committee.<br />
THE Select Committee of the House of Lords<br />
which has been appointed to deal with the<br />
copyright law promoted by the Society, and<br />
drafted for the Society by Mr. J. Rolt, of 4, New-<br />
square, sat for the first time on Thursday, July 1.<br />
As previously stated in The Author, the Bill is<br />
being brought forward on behalf of the Society<br />
by Lord Monkswell, who acted as chairman of<br />
the Lords' Committee.<br />
Mr. Daldy, who was a member of the com-<br />
mission of 1878, and who is secretary of the<br />
Copyright Association, was the first witness<br />
called.<br />
He gave evidence on the various points of the<br />
Bill, and answered the numerous questions put to<br />
him by their Lordships as to the effect of the Bill<br />
and its bearing with regard to change in the exist-<br />
ing law.<br />
The witness, in answer to their Lordships,<br />
touched on the point of the inclusion of transla-<br />
tion rights in a definition of copyright and its<br />
effect on the International law; on the question<br />
of the definition of " book" shall include " news-<br />
paper"; on the existing law with respect to<br />
lectures ; on the proposed amendment of that law;<br />
and generally on all the other points dealt with<br />
in the Bill.<br />
After the witness had given his evidence on<br />
the point relating to the definition "book shall<br />
include newspaper," the room was cleared, and on<br />
the re-admission of the public the chairman said<br />
that the committee had come to the conclusion<br />
that they would not include any alteration in the<br />
law with regard to the copyright in newspapers<br />
in the present Bill.<br />
Mr. Daldy was taken through various objec-<br />
tions, and suggested amendments, which objec-<br />
tions and amendments he had furnished to the<br />
secretary of the Society, who in turn had forwarded<br />
them to the chairman of the committee.<br />
Their Lordships listened with attention to his<br />
statements, and reserved the points for their con-<br />
sideration.<br />
At the conclusion of Mr. Daldy's evidence,<br />
Mr. C. J. Longman, representing the Publishers'<br />
Association, was called. His evidence was given<br />
in support of the Bill in all its important essen-<br />
tials. He did not touch on the points that had<br />
already been covered by the former witness except<br />
when it appeared to him that errors of law or<br />
fact had been put before their Lordships. His<br />
evidence was very strongly in favour of the fullest<br />
protection for the performance of dramatic works,<br />
whether such performance took place in a place<br />
of dramatic entertainment or in a private house.<br />
Although not supporting the suggestion in the<br />
Bill for registration at the British Museum, he<br />
stated that he looked forward to a time when<br />
registration should be made compulsory.<br />
Mr. G. H. Thring, the secretary of the Society,<br />
as representing the promoters of the Bill, was<br />
called last so as, if necessary, to supplement or<br />
correct the evidence already given, and to put<br />
before the Committee, should they desire, the views<br />
of the promoters of the Bill on any of the sepa-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 60 (#474) #############################################<br />
<br />
6o<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
rate clauses. As most of the difficulties had<br />
already been explained (both of the former wit-<br />
nesses being mainly in favour of the Bill), there<br />
was very little to add, but the secretary pressed<br />
those points which appeared to be of the greatest<br />
benefit to authors, namely, the repeal of the 18th<br />
section of the existing Act and the adoption of<br />
the present clauses; the retention in the author<br />
of rights of dramaiisation of his novels, and the<br />
necessity for complete registration.<br />
The committee then adjourned to Thursday,<br />
July 8.<br />
On Thursday, July 8th, their Lordships' Special<br />
Committee again sat, Mr. Bram Stoker, Sir<br />
Henry Irving's manager, was called as being<br />
able to answer for the theatrical managers on the<br />
points relating to the drama and dramatic rights.<br />
He stated that the practice of dramatising novels<br />
was on the increase, and he thought it was<br />
absolutely essential both that the author of a<br />
book should be protected from dramatisation,<br />
and the author of a drama from novelisation.<br />
He submitted that dramatic authors should be<br />
able to prohibit performances in public or private.<br />
He desired to see a simplification if possible of<br />
the method of obtaining an injunction against the<br />
infringing parties, and stated that managers<br />
would prefer such simplified legal remedy rather<br />
than merely the power of obtaining penalties.<br />
He also touched on the subject of copyright in<br />
lectures.<br />
At the close of his evidence the room was<br />
■cleared for the consideration of the Bill by their<br />
Lordships.<br />
The Bill has now been revised by the Special<br />
Committee, Lord Thring undertaking the redraft-<br />
ing of it on behalf of their Lordships' Special<br />
Committee.<br />
On Monday, July 19, Lord Monkswell on the<br />
motion to go into committee on the Bill made the<br />
following speech. The House then went into<br />
committee, and the amendments proposed by the<br />
Special Committee were agreed to.<br />
Lord Monkswell asked to be allowed to say<br />
a few words as to the proceedings of the<br />
Select Committee to which the Bill was referred.<br />
The benches opposite were represented by Lord<br />
Knutsford, Lord Pirbright, Lord Hatherton,<br />
and Lord Tennyson; while Lord Farrer, Lord<br />
Thring, and Lord Wei by represented that side.<br />
The committee sat several days, and went into<br />
the subject carefully. The first point which<br />
they devoted a great deal of attention to was that<br />
of translation. It was absolutely necessary to<br />
amend the law with regard to translations. It<br />
was now in a sad state of confusion. Trans-<br />
lation into foreign tongues were dealt with<br />
under the Berne Convention and under the<br />
International Copyright Act. But as to trans-<br />
lations into Hindustani, Welsh, Gaelic, and other<br />
tongues current within the British Dominions the<br />
law was in a doubtful state indeed. With regard<br />
to this he could not do better than quote from<br />
the evidence of Mr. Daldy, one of the Commis-<br />
sioners of 1878, and who was now, and had been<br />
for many years, honorary secretary of the Copy-<br />
right Association.<br />
Lord Monkswell then read the portion of the<br />
evidence bearing on this point, and then pro-<br />
ceeded :—It was certain, therefore, that the matter<br />
of translation ought to be dealt with as soon as<br />
possible, and the promoters of the Bill proposed<br />
to deal with it by giving, as was proposed in the<br />
original Bill, the absolute right during the whole<br />
period of the copyright to prevent unauthorised<br />
translations. An endeavour had been made to<br />
lighten the Bill so that it might be got through<br />
their Lordships' House this Session, and it dealt<br />
only with those subjects which were most press-<br />
ing and least contentious. All reference to news-<br />
paper copyright had been struck out. With<br />
regard to magazine copyright, it was proposed to<br />
make it retrospective, but as there was a diffe-<br />
rence of opinion as to that, the clause in the Bill<br />
making the copyright retrospective had been<br />
omitted. With regard to lectures the Bill<br />
had also been considerably lightened. The<br />
great point on which the committee wished<br />
to insist was that eojiyright should be given not<br />
only in lectures when published in a book, but<br />
when delivered, and that they had tried to effect<br />
by the Bill. It was further suggested in the<br />
original Bill that the law should be altered so as<br />
to give copyright, which did not now exist, to<br />
lectures delivered in endowed buildings. The<br />
Select Committee were on the whole favourable to<br />
that proposition, but, at the same time, they re-<br />
cognised that any alteration of the law to effect<br />
that must seriously affect very considerable inte-<br />
rests; and they thought it was not desirable,<br />
without taking a great deal of evidence and going<br />
into the matter very thoroughly, to recommend<br />
such an alteration in the law, consequently they<br />
had inserted in the amended Bill a proviso set-<br />
ting up again the provision that now existed—<br />
not allowing copyright to lectures in endowed<br />
buildings. For the present it had been decided<br />
not to propose any change in the law with<br />
regard to the difficult and thorny question of<br />
registration. Another alteration had been made<br />
which he thought would commend itself to their<br />
lordships. The principil Act of 1842 now<br />
applied to all British possessions, unless by Order<br />
in Council they should bo exempted either from<br />
the whole Act or part of it. It was proposed<br />
in the amended Bill to give the British posses-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 61 (#475) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
61<br />
sion8 much greater freedom of action by declar-<br />
ing that the Act, if it passed, should not run in<br />
any of the British possessions unless they them-<br />
selves asked either for the whole or part of it.<br />
The net result, therefore, of the labours of the<br />
Select Committee had been to greatly lighten<br />
the Bill, and to clear it of almost every subject<br />
of controversy, whilst at the same time it intro-<br />
duced a great many alterations of the law which<br />
were of considerable value. He might, perhaps,<br />
be allowed to say that the best thanks of the<br />
committee were due to Lord Thring for the great<br />
care and attention he had bestowed on the draft-<br />
ing of this measure. (Hear.) He found that<br />
two or three amendments would have to be made,<br />
which, however, did not touch the Bill in this<br />
respect. In order that noble lords might have<br />
an opportunity of considering the amendments<br />
he had put down, he proposed to take the<br />
report stage to-morrow, and the amendments<br />
on Thursday or Friday, when he hoped the<br />
House would give a third reading to the Bill.<br />
(Hear, hear.) He begged to move that the<br />
House now resolve itself into Committee on the<br />
Bill.<br />
On Friday, July 23, the Bill was read a third<br />
time.<br />
Lord Monkswell stated that at the wish of the<br />
Colonial Office he desired to move that Clause 12<br />
be omitted.<br />
The omission was agreed to.<br />
II.—The New Copyright Bill.<br />
I. FBOM THE "TIMES."<br />
A gentleman engaged in a publishing business<br />
recently wrote to Lord Monkswell suggesting that<br />
it was desirable to take steps to protect the titles<br />
of series of books, and so to prevent the foisting<br />
upon the public of hasty imitations of deservedly<br />
popular volumes. "I have been," he said, "in<br />
correspondence both with the Stationers' Hall<br />
authorities and the Trade Mark Office of the<br />
Board of Trade; and recently I took occasion to<br />
have an interview with the respective chiefs of<br />
these offices. The Eegistrar of Trade Marks told<br />
me that, unquestionably, such titles fall outside<br />
the scope of the present Trade Mark Acts; but<br />
he seemed to see no objection whatever to the re-<br />
gistration of such titles, only he thought that<br />
such a matter would fall more fittingly within the<br />
province of Stationers' Hall. The chief man at<br />
Stationers' Hall said: (1) That my application<br />
was by no means the first of the sort, that, on the<br />
contrary, more people came to his office with<br />
similar requests than with any other; (2) that he<br />
thought that means for registering novel titles of<br />
businesses and series of books should be given to<br />
the public; (3) that he had noted with surprise<br />
that the new Copyright Bill which your lordship<br />
was introducing into the House of Lords contained<br />
no provision for this purpose; (4) that he thought<br />
it very possible that, if the matter were brought<br />
before your lordship, your lordship would see the<br />
desirability of making such an addition." Lord<br />
Monkswell's reply was as follows: "I will lay<br />
your statement before the Copyright Committee<br />
at its next meeting; but, as the amendments you<br />
suggest would enlarge the scope of the Bill, I do<br />
not think they will consider themselves justified<br />
in recommending them to the House."<br />
II. FBOM THE " DAILY NEWS."<br />
Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill has been<br />
printed and circulated with the amendments made<br />
by the Select Committee of the House of Lords.<br />
These were accepted in committee of the whole<br />
House yesterday afternoon, and the Bill now<br />
stands for third reading. As it has not yet passed<br />
through the House of Commons, the chances of<br />
its becoming law this session must be regarded as<br />
remote. But it has now been brought into the<br />
best shape which legal minds can give it, and<br />
there may be some hope for it in 1898. Even<br />
this year, if some general agreement could be<br />
obtained, a judicious attempt to deal with a<br />
difficult subject might be crowned with success.<br />
Social reform is not achieved in England with<br />
reckless or thoughtless haste. The essence of this<br />
measure formed the subject of a Bill which the<br />
present Duke of Rutland, then Lord John<br />
Manners and Postmaster-General, introduced<br />
into the House of Commons in 1879. That<br />
was, if we are not mistaken, the year in<br />
which the late Sir John Holker moved the<br />
second reading of the Criminal Code Bill, which<br />
has never got beyond a second reading since.<br />
There are presentable, we do not say conclusive,<br />
arguments against the codification of the criminal<br />
law. But the law of copyright has been osten-<br />
sibly codified for more than half a century, and<br />
all that is now required may be accomplished by<br />
a short amending Bill. In 1878 there was a<br />
Royal Commission on Copyright, to which Lord<br />
John Manners' Bill was due, and thirteen years<br />
afterwards, in 1891, Lord Monkswell again<br />
endeavoured to legislate upon the Commission's<br />
Report. But there is none of "that slippery<br />
stuff," as Mr. Morley calls party capital, to be<br />
made out of copyright, and so copyright, like the<br />
Corporation of London, remains unreformed. In<br />
1891 Lord Monkswell's Bill was read a second<br />
time. This year it has advanced a step further,<br />
and has gone through Committee. The first<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 62 (#476) #############################################<br />
<br />
62<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
clause makes translation an infringement of copy-<br />
right. This is obviously just, if there is to be<br />
any copyright at all, whether the right has or has<br />
not been expressly reserved. A very important<br />
change is made in the copyright of magazines.<br />
In 1842, when the principal Copyright Act was<br />
passed, there were very few magazines, except the<br />
old quarterlies, with Blachicood's and the Gentle-<br />
man's. Now there are almost as many magazines<br />
in a month as there are days in a year, and a large<br />
number of the articles contributed to them have a<br />
really permanent value. At present the author of<br />
an article has a right of separate publication for<br />
eight-and-twenty years. Macaulay, for instance,<br />
could not without permission from the editor of<br />
the Edinburgh Review—which was, of course,<br />
given, but which might have been refused—have<br />
republished during his lifetime any of his essays<br />
except those on Milton, Machiavelb, and, perhaps,<br />
one or two more.<br />
The Bill provides that while the proprietor of<br />
the magazine shall have the sole right of pub-<br />
lishing the magazine itself, and the articles as<br />
part of it, the author of an article may publish<br />
it separately after three years. This is a great<br />
change, but a change wholly, in our opinion,<br />
for the better. Copyright is essentially the asser-<br />
tion of property. But whei-e a special kind of<br />
property, which did not exist at common law, is<br />
created by statute, Parliament should be careful<br />
to regulate it in the public interest. The interest<br />
of the public lies in the rapid diffusion of readable<br />
matter, and cannot be served by locking up<br />
interesting essays for a generation. Seven years<br />
before the Copyright Act of 1842 there was passed<br />
the Lectures Copyright Act of 1835. This Act<br />
gives a lecturer the exclusive right of publication.<br />
But it requires a preliminary notice to Justices of<br />
the Peace, which savours of the terror inspired by<br />
the French Revolution, when lectures were<br />
regarded much as dynamite w-as regarded a hun-<br />
dred years later. It is doubtful whether the Act<br />
applies to sermons, and there must, we should<br />
imagine, be very few magistrates who have been<br />
formally notified that a new volume of sermons<br />
was about to dazzle the world. The Bill abolishes<br />
this rather ridiculous formality, and gives the<br />
lecturer, as well as the preacher, an absolute<br />
copyright. But it allows a lecture to be reported<br />
in a newspaper unless the lecturer expressly<br />
states that he does not wish to be reported.<br />
There are not many lectures which would suffi-<br />
ciently attract the general reader to be reported<br />
at any great length, nor would many newspapers<br />
have space for them. But a paid lecturer, who<br />
delivers the same lecture, which may have cost<br />
him much labour and research, at several places,<br />
is entitled to protection against a form of<br />
publicity which would destroy his market. Suchr<br />
at least, is the view popular in the literary class,<br />
and the view to which Carlyle gave such forcible<br />
emphasis in his famous petition to the House of<br />
Commons. There is, of course, the theory,<br />
understood to find favour with at least one<br />
eminent statesman, that copyright is an infringe-<br />
of public right, and that authors should be com-<br />
pensated by a royalty. But that is not within<br />
the range of practical politics. One of Johnson's<br />
biographers narrates an argument upon a Scottish<br />
case, which went from the Court of Session to<br />
the House of Lords, and which raised the point<br />
of copyright at common law in lectures or<br />
sermons. Dr. Johnson declared that it was<br />
unjust to stereotype a man's doctrines and ideas,<br />
which he might afterwards see cause to alter.<br />
That motive had not previously restrained the<br />
sage from reporting Parliamentary debates in<br />
what he was pleased to call the "Senate of<br />
Liliput."<br />
Wot the least important clauses in the Bill are<br />
those which deal with abridgments. As Lord<br />
Monkswell says in the useful memorandum pre-<br />
fixed to the Bill: "It is now easy without any<br />
infringement of copyright, in a few weeks, by<br />
skilful abridgment, to appropriate the fruit of<br />
the labours of many years, and to compete with<br />
the original copyright bought and published at a<br />
very great expense." The art of judicious<br />
abridgment is not perhaps quite so common as<br />
Lord Monkswell supposes. But a farrago of<br />
extracts any fool can turn out, and they may<br />
be so copious or so vital as to prevent many<br />
readers from approaching the original work.<br />
Under this Bill copyright carries with it the right<br />
of abridgment as well as the right of transla-<br />
lation, and the author would be empowered to<br />
insist upon a disclaimer of his authorship being<br />
printed upon the title-page. There is no copy-<br />
right in ideas. That is to say, that an illegitimate<br />
reproduction of another man's work must be a.<br />
verbal one, or there is no remedy. Any one,<br />
therefore, is at liberty to make a play out of<br />
somebody else's novel, or a novel out of somebody<br />
else's play. The whole plot may in either case be<br />
stolen. But no penalty is imposed upon the thief.<br />
It is for this reason that novelists who intend<br />
afterwards to dramatise their own novels arrange<br />
for one colourable performance on the stage so-<br />
soon as the story appears, so as to bring them-<br />
selves under the protection of the Dramatic Copy-<br />
right Act. It is proposed to make a statutory<br />
copyright in ideas, and to make the unauthorised<br />
dramatisation of a novel an infringement of it.<br />
Such are the chief features of this excellent Bill.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 63 (#477) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
63<br />
III.—The Eight of Criticism.<br />
In the action brought by Sir John Carr in<br />
1808 against Messrs. Hood and Sharpe, the<br />
exact words of Lord Ellenborough were as<br />
follows:—<br />
Every man who publishes a book commits himself to the<br />
judgment of the public, and anyone may comment upon his<br />
performance. Ridicule is often the fittest weapon that can<br />
be employed for such a purpose. Reflection on personal<br />
character is another thing. Show me an attack on the<br />
moral character of this plaintiff, or any attack upon his<br />
character unconnected with his authorship, and I shall be<br />
as ready as any judge who ever sat here to protect him;<br />
but I cannot hear of malice on acconnt of turning his works<br />
into ridicule.<br />
In the more recent case of Merivale v. Carson<br />
(20 Q. B. Div. at pp. 280-1), Lord Esher, M.E.,<br />
said, carrying the doctrine, if possible, even<br />
further:—<br />
Every latitude must be given to opinion and to prejudice,<br />
and then an ordinary set of men with ordinary judgment<br />
must say whether any fair man would have made such a<br />
comment. . . . Mere exaggeration, or even gross exag-<br />
geration, would not make the comment unfair. However<br />
wrong the opinion expressed may be in point of truth, or<br />
however prejudiced the writer, it may still be within the<br />
prescribed limit. The question which the jury must con-<br />
sider is this. Would any fair man, however prejudiced he<br />
may be, however exaggerated or obstinate his views, have<br />
said that which this criticism has said of the work which is<br />
criticised?<br />
IV.—University op Cam bridge v. Blacxie<br />
and Sons.<br />
(Before Mr. Justice Kekewich.)<br />
In this ease the plaintiffs as proprietors of the<br />
"Pitt Press" brought this action and now moved<br />
the court for an injunction in respect of an alleged<br />
infringement of their copyright in annotated<br />
editions of Pope's "Essay on Criticism" and<br />
Milton's " Lycidas," "Allegro," and "II Pense-<br />
roso." Copyright was, of course, claimed solely<br />
in respect of the annotations.<br />
Mr. Millar, Q.C., and Mr. Ingpen appeared<br />
for the plaintiffs, and Mr. Stokes for the defen-<br />
dants.<br />
It was now arranged that on the defendants<br />
undertaking to keep an account of all books sold<br />
by them, and to file affidavits and deliver copies of<br />
exhibits within the first seven days of October, the<br />
motion should stand over until the second motion<br />
day in Michaelmas sittings; and<br />
Mr. Justice Kekewich made an order to that<br />
effect.— Times, July 23.<br />
VOL. Till.<br />
COPYRIGHT (AMENDMENT) BILL. [H. L]<br />
[As Amended by the Select Committee.]<br />
MEMORANDUM.<br />
THIS Bill is intended to amend some of the<br />
most serious defects in the present law of<br />
copyright. Its provisions do not mate-<br />
rially differ from the provisions on the same<br />
points contained in the Bill introduced by Lord<br />
John Manners (on behalf of the then Govern-<br />
ment) in the House of Commons in 1879, and in<br />
the Bill introduced by Lord Monkswell in the<br />
House of Lords in 1891. Both these Bills were<br />
mainly founded on the report of the Royal Com-<br />
mission on Copyright of 1878. Lord Monkswell's<br />
Bill passed a second reading in the House of<br />
Lords.<br />
The amendments are directed to the following<br />
points :—<br />
I.—Translations.<br />
Translation is made an infringement of copy-<br />
right.<br />
II.—Magazine Copyright.<br />
Since the passing of the Copyright Act, 1842,<br />
this kind of copyright property has probably<br />
increased a hundredfold in value and importance,<br />
both to authors and publishers, much literature<br />
of high merit being constantly published in the<br />
first instance in magazine form. The 18th section<br />
of the Act of 1842, which deals with the subject,<br />
is expressed in language so obscure as to be<br />
almost unintelligible, and defers the author's<br />
right of separate publication to the end of a<br />
period of twenty-eight years. It is proposed that<br />
that section should be repealed, and that the<br />
copyright should be vested in the author, subject<br />
to the following qualifications :—<br />
(1.) The proprietor of the magazine to have<br />
the sole right of publishing as part of the<br />
magazine.<br />
(2.) The author not to publish separately until<br />
after the expiration of three years from<br />
publication.<br />
The entire copyright in encyclopaedias is vested<br />
in the publisher as before, but in a separate<br />
section.<br />
III.—Lectures.<br />
The Lectures Copyright Act, 1835, gives to the<br />
lecturer the exclusive right of publication, but<br />
requires a preliminary notice to justices of the<br />
peace, and probably does not apply to sermons.<br />
It is proposed to repeal this Act, and to give the<br />
lecturer (including the preacher) copyright with-<br />
out any useless formalities, but permitting a<br />
newspaper report unless expressly prohibited by<br />
the lecturer. It will be observed that a proviso<br />
has been inserted maintaining the present law as<br />
G<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 64 (#478) #############################################<br />
<br />
64<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
to lectures in endowed buildings, &c. The com-<br />
mittee have taken this course because they did<br />
not think it desirable to alter the law without<br />
taking more evidence than time permitted.<br />
IV.—Abridgments.<br />
It is now easy, without any infringement of<br />
copyright, in a few weeks, by skilful abridgment,<br />
to appropriate the fruit of the labours of many<br />
years, and to compete with the original copyright,<br />
bought and published at very great expense. This<br />
will be prevented by the" simple enactment that<br />
copyright shall carry with it the right to abridge.<br />
The reputation of the author is also safeguarded<br />
by a provision that a disclaimer of his author-<br />
ship of the abridgment shall, if required by the<br />
author, be printed on the title page ; and that the<br />
abridgment shall not be issued without the<br />
author's consent in eases where the author retains<br />
an interest in the sale (by royalties or otherwise)<br />
though not in the copyright.<br />
V.—Dramatisation of Novels.<br />
As there is no copyright in ideas, it is easy for<br />
any person to take the whole plot of a novel and<br />
practically reproduce the novel itself in dramatic<br />
form without any legal infringement of copyright,<br />
and a similar injury can be inflicted by the<br />
novelisation of dramas. It is proposed to convert<br />
these moral into legal infringements of copyright.<br />
Owners of dramatic copyright are also given a<br />
summary remedy against infringement which is<br />
much needed, as pirates are often difficult to<br />
detect, or are not worth the expense of an action<br />
in the High Court when detected ; and the remedy<br />
is to be available against those who •■ permit" as<br />
well as those who " cause " the representation.<br />
AEEANGEMENT OF CLAUSES.<br />
Translations.<br />
Clause.<br />
1. Translations and infringement of copy-<br />
right. Copyright in translations.<br />
Copyright in Periodical Works.<br />
2. Copyright in articles in periodical works.<br />
3. Registration of article by author.<br />
4. Registration by owner of periodical work.<br />
5. Articles in encyclopaedias.<br />
Copyright in Lectures.<br />
6. Lectures.<br />
Abridgments.<br />
7. Abridgments without consent prohibited.<br />
Copyright owner not to abridge without<br />
author's consent in certain cases. Notice<br />
on title page that abridgment is not by<br />
author.<br />
Dramatisation.<br />
8. Dramatisation of novels prohibited.<br />
9. Conversion or adaptation of dramatic<br />
works prohibited.<br />
Summary Remedy for Infringement of Dramatic<br />
Copyright.<br />
10. Liability to fine of person representing<br />
drama without consent of owner of per-<br />
forming right.<br />
Repeal.<br />
11. Repeal.<br />
12. Application of Act.<br />
13. Short title.<br />
14. Commencement of Act.<br />
Schedules.<br />
A Bill (as amended by the Select • Committee)<br />
intituled an Act to amend the Law relating to<br />
Copyright in Periodical Works, Lectures,<br />
Abridgments, and otherwise. — [The Lord<br />
Monkswell.]<br />
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent<br />
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of<br />
the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons,<br />
in this present Parliament assembled, and by the<br />
authority of the same, as follows:—<br />
Translations.<br />
1. —(1.) In the case of a book, it shall be an<br />
infringement of the copyright therein if any<br />
person shall, without the consent of the owner<br />
of the copyright, translate the book:<br />
(2.) The author of an authorised translation<br />
of a book shall be entitled to copyright therein<br />
in the same manner as if it was an original<br />
work.<br />
Copyright in Periodical Works.<br />
2. Where any article, essay, poem, or other<br />
work is first published in and forms part of a<br />
review, magazine, or other periodical, the copy-<br />
right in such article, essay, poem, or other work<br />
shall, in the absence of any agreement in writing<br />
to the contrary, be the property of the author<br />
thereof. Provided that where the author is paid<br />
for the writing of such work as aforesaid by or<br />
on behalf of the owner of the review, magazine,<br />
or other periodical, then—<br />
(i.) the owner of the review, magazine, or<br />
periodical shall, during the subsistence of<br />
copyright in such article, essay, poem, or<br />
other work, have the sole right of publishing<br />
the same as part of the review, magazine,<br />
or periodical, but not otherwise;<br />
(ii.) neither the author nor his assigns shall,<br />
without the consent of the owner of the<br />
review, magazine, or periodical, print or<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 65 (#479) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
65<br />
publish such article, essay, poem, or other<br />
work in any form until after the expiration<br />
of three years from its first publication in<br />
the review, magazine, or periodical, and any<br />
printing or publication contrary to this pro-<br />
vision shall be an infringement of the rights<br />
of the owner of the review, magazine, or<br />
periodical.<br />
3. The author of any such article, essay, poem,<br />
or other work as aforesaid, or his assigns, may<br />
either before or after the expiration of the said<br />
term of three years register the same at Stationers'<br />
Hall as a separate work, and shall thereupon be<br />
entitled to restrain and obtain damages for any<br />
infringement of the copyright therein as a separate<br />
work.<br />
4. —(i.) The owner of a review, magazine, or<br />
other periodical may register the same at<br />
Stationers' Hall, and shall thereupon be entitled<br />
to restrain and obtain damages for any infringe-<br />
ment of his rights in the same or any part<br />
thereof.<br />
(ii.) Registration of a review, magazine, or<br />
other periodical shall be in the form set forth in<br />
the First Schedule hereto, or as near thereto as<br />
circumstances will permit.<br />
(iii.) It shall be necessary to register only the<br />
first number, volume, or part of a review, magazine,<br />
or other periodical published in numbers, volumes,<br />
or parts.<br />
5. Where any article, essay, poem, or other<br />
work is first published in and forms part of an<br />
encyclopaedia or similar collective work, and the<br />
author is paid for the writing thereof by or on<br />
behalf of the owner of the encyclopaedia or similar<br />
collective work, the copyright in such article,<br />
essay, poem, or other work shall, in the absence of<br />
any agreement in writing to the contrary, belong<br />
to the owner of the encyclopaedia or similar collec-<br />
tive work.<br />
Copyright in Lectures.<br />
6. The author of any lecture shall be entitled<br />
to copyright therein as if the same were a<br />
book, subject to the following modifications and<br />
additions:—<br />
(i.) The first delivery of a lecture shall be<br />
deemed to be the first publication thereof.<br />
(ii.) So long as a lecture has not been published<br />
as a book by or with the consent of the<br />
author, the copyright therein shall include<br />
the exclusive right of delivering the same in<br />
public, but when so published the copyright<br />
in the book shall date from the first delivery<br />
of the lecture.<br />
(iii.) It shall not be necessary to register the<br />
copyright in a lecture which has not been<br />
published as a book by or with the consent of<br />
the author.<br />
VOL. Till.<br />
(iv.) A report of a lecture delivered in public,<br />
in the ordinary current edition of a newspaper<br />
after the delivery of such lecture, shall not<br />
be deemed an infringement of the copy-<br />
right unless the author before delivering the<br />
same gives public notice that he prohibits<br />
the same being reported, but no such report<br />
shall be deemed to be a publication of the<br />
lecture within the meaning of sub-sect, (ii.)<br />
(v.) The notice referred to in the last preceding<br />
clause may be given either by affixing the<br />
same to the door of the place where the<br />
lecture is delivered, or by advertisement in<br />
one or more newspapers published and circu-<br />
lating in the district, or by a declaration<br />
made by the lecturer before the delivery of<br />
his lecture at the place where he delivers the<br />
same.<br />
(vi.) The term "lecture" shall include a piece<br />
for recitation, address, or sermon.<br />
(vii.) Provided that this enactment shall not<br />
extend to any lectures delivered in any uni-.<br />
versity or public school or college or on any<br />
public foundation, or by any individual in<br />
virtue of or according to any gift, endowment<br />
or foundation [5 & 6 Will 4, c. 65, s. 5.]<br />
Abridgments.<br />
7.—(i.) It shall be an infringement of the<br />
copyright in a book if any person shall, without<br />
the consent of the owner of the copyright, print or<br />
otherwise multiply, or cause to ba printed or<br />
otherwise multiplied, any abridgment of such<br />
book, or shall export or import any abridgment<br />
so unlawfully produced, or shall sell, publish, or<br />
expose for sale or hire, or cause to be sold, pub-<br />
lished, or exposed for sale or hire, any abridg-<br />
ment, knowing, or having reasonable grounds to<br />
suspect, that the same has been so unlawfully<br />
produced or imported.<br />
(ii.) Where the author of a book has sold the<br />
copyright thereof in consideration (whether wholly<br />
or in part) of a royalty or a share of the profits to<br />
be derived from the publication thereof, or is<br />
otherwise, notwithstanding such sale, possessed of<br />
a pecuniary interest therein, such book shall not,<br />
during the continuance of the copyright therein,<br />
and so long as the author shall be entitled to such<br />
royalty, share of profits, or shall be so interested<br />
as aforesaid, be abridged by the purchaser of such<br />
copyright without the consent in writing of tht<br />
author or his assigns.<br />
(iii.) Where the author has sold the exclusive<br />
right of publication of a book without assigning<br />
the copyright, he shall not be at liberty to publish<br />
an abridgment of the work without the consent<br />
of the owner of the exclusive right of publication.<br />
(iv.) If the owner of the copyright in a book<br />
o 2<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 66 (#480) #############################################<br />
<br />
66<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
to the abridgment whereof the author's consent<br />
is not required under the preceding proviso<br />
intends to publish an abridgment thereof made<br />
by some person other than the author of the<br />
original book, he shall give notice of such inten-<br />
tion to the author, if living, by registered letter,<br />
directed to his last known address, and shall, if so<br />
required by such author, either state or cause to<br />
be stated on the title page of each part or volume<br />
of the abridgment that the abridgment is not by<br />
the author of the original book, or shall in like<br />
manner state or cause to be stated the name of the<br />
maker of the abridgment.<br />
(v.) The author of a book shall be entitled to<br />
restrain and obtain damages for any abridgment<br />
published in contravention of the above provisions<br />
of the section.<br />
Dramatisation.<br />
8. In the case of a book which is a work of<br />
fiction in prose or in verse, it shall be an infringe-<br />
ment of the copyright therein if any person shall<br />
without the consent of the owner of the copyright,<br />
take or colourably imitate the title of such book,<br />
or take from such book any material or substan-<br />
tial part thereof, and use or convert it into or<br />
adapt it for a dramatic work, or knowing or<br />
having reasonable grounds to suspect such<br />
dramatic work to have been so made shall<br />
perform or permit or cause the same to be<br />
performed.<br />
9. In the case of a dramatic work it shall be an<br />
infringement of the copyright therein if any<br />
person shall, without the consent of the owner of<br />
the copyright, take or colourably imitate the title<br />
of such book, or take from such book any material<br />
or substantial part thereof and convert or adapt<br />
such part into any other form of work, whether<br />
dramatic or otherwise, or knowing or having<br />
reasonable grounds to suspect any work to have<br />
been so made shall print or otherwise multiply, or<br />
cause to be printed or otherwise multiplied, copies<br />
thereof for sale or exportation, or shall export or<br />
import, or sell, publish, or expose for sale or hire,<br />
or cause to be sold, published, or exposed for sale<br />
or hire, any copies thereof, or shall perform such<br />
work, or permit or cause the same to be per-<br />
formed.<br />
Summary Remedy for Infringement of Dramatic<br />
Copyright.<br />
10. If any person shall represent or cause or<br />
permit any dramatic work to be represented<br />
without the consent in writing of the owner of<br />
the performing right in such work, it shall be<br />
lawful for the owner of the performing right<br />
(without prejudice to any action for damages or<br />
other remedy he may be entitled to) to apply<br />
within two months after the commission of the<br />
offence to a court of summary jurisdiction having<br />
jurisdiction in the place where the representation<br />
has taken place, or where the offender dwells, and<br />
such court shall, on production of the certificate<br />
of registration, order the offender to pay as a civil<br />
debt a sum not exceeding fifty pounds and costs,<br />
and such sum shall go to the owner of the per-<br />
forming right by way of compensation. Provided<br />
that not more than one penalty shall be recovered<br />
in respect of each representation.<br />
Repeal.<br />
11. The Acts or parts of Acts specified in the<br />
Second Schedule hereto are hereby repealed as<br />
from the passing of this Act, but except as<br />
hereinbefore expressly provided, such repeal<br />
shall not prejudice or affect any rights acquired<br />
previously to such repeal, and such rights may be<br />
enforced and enjoyed as if such repeal had not<br />
been made.<br />
Extent of Act.<br />
12. —(i.) This Act shall extend only to the<br />
British Islands, but if Her Majesty the Queen<br />
is satisfied that the Legislature of any<br />
British possession has by resolution declared<br />
its assent to this Act or any part thereof<br />
being extended to such possession, Her Majesty<br />
may direct by Order in Council that this Act<br />
or such part thereof shall apply to such<br />
possession, and this Act or such part shall apply<br />
accordingly.<br />
(ii.) Any such Order in Council may, with such<br />
assent as aforesaid, from time to time, be revoked<br />
or altered by any further Order in Council.<br />
(iii.) Every such Order in Council shall, as<br />
soon as may be after the making thereof, be<br />
published in the London Gazette.<br />
(iv.) A copy of every such Order in Council<br />
shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament<br />
within six weeks after the issuing thereof if<br />
Parliament is then sitting, and if not, then<br />
within six weeks after the commencement of the<br />
next session of Parliament.<br />
(v.) No such Order in Council shall affect<br />
prejudicially any right acquired at the date of<br />
its coming into operation.<br />
13. This Act may be cited as the Copyright<br />
(Amendment) Act, 1897, and shall, except so<br />
far as is inconsistent with this Act, be read and<br />
construed with the Copyright Acts.<br />
14. This Act shall come into operation on the<br />
first day of January, one thousand eight hundred<br />
and ninety-eight.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 67 (#481) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
67<br />
SCHEDULES.<br />
First Schedule.<br />
Form of Entry of a Periodical Work.<br />
Date of Publica-<br />
tion of first<br />
Volume, Part, or<br />
Number.<br />
Name and<br />
Address<br />
of Owner.<br />
Name and<br />
Address<br />
of Publisher.<br />
Title of Work.<br />
Second Schedule.<br />
Ads Repealed.<br />
Session and Chapter.<br />
Short Title.<br />
Extent of Repeal.<br />
5 & 6 Will. 4 0. 65.<br />
5 4 6 Vict. c. 45.<br />
Lectures Copyright The whole Act.<br />
Act, 1835.<br />
Copyright Act, 1842 Sections eighteeen<br />
and nineteen.<br />
CIVIL LIST PENSIONS.<br />
APAELIAMENTARY return which has just<br />
been issued gives the following list of all<br />
pensions granted during the year ended<br />
June 20, 1897, and charged upon the Civil<br />
List:—<br />
Mary Anne, Lady Broome, <£ioo, in considera-<br />
tion of the public services of ber late husband, Sir<br />
F. N. Broome, K.C.M.G., especially as Governor<br />
of Western Australia, and of her own literary<br />
merits.<br />
Mr. William Alexander Hunter, £200, in con-<br />
sideration of his labours in connection with<br />
Roman law and scientific jurisprudence.<br />
Dr. John Thomas Arlidge, .£150, in considera-<br />
tion of his valuable labours in the cause of<br />
public health, and especially his investigation into<br />
the hygienic results of particular industries and<br />
occupations.<br />
Miss Beatrice Hatch, .£30, Miss Ethel Hatch,<br />
JB30, Miss Evelyn Hatch, ,£30, in consideration<br />
of the services of their father, the late Rev. Edwin<br />
Hatch, in connection with ecclesiastical history.<br />
Amelia, Lady Thurston, £150, in recognition of<br />
the distinguished services of her husband, the<br />
late Sir John Bates Thurston, as Governor of<br />
Fiji and High Commissioner for the Western<br />
Pacific.<br />
Mrs. Elizabeth Dickens, £100, in consideration<br />
of the literary eminence of the late Mr. Charles<br />
Dickens, and of the straitened circumstances in<br />
which she has been left by the death of her<br />
husband, Mr. Charles Dickens, jun.<br />
Mrs. Rose Trollope, £100, in consideration of<br />
the distinguished literary merits of her husband,<br />
the late Mr. Anthony Trollope, and of her<br />
straitened circumstances.<br />
Miss May Martha Mason, £30.<br />
Mrs. Mary Caroline Florence Wood, £30, in<br />
recognition of the originality and merit of the<br />
work of their father, the late Mr. George Mason,<br />
in painting.<br />
Mr. Augustus Henry Keane, F.R.G.S., £50, in<br />
consideration of his labours in the field of<br />
ethnology.<br />
Dr. Francis Steingass, £50, in consideration<br />
of his services to Oriental scholarship in England.<br />
Mrs. Maria Garrett, £50, in recognition of the<br />
merits of her husband, the late Dr. George<br />
Garrett, as a composer of church music.<br />
Mrs. Jane Wallace, £50, in recognition of the<br />
philosophical labours of her husband, the late<br />
Whyte's professor of moral philosophy in the<br />
University of Oxford.<br />
Mr. Archibald Hamilton Bryce, D.C.L., £50, in<br />
recognition of his services in the cause of secon-<br />
dary education in Scotland.<br />
The total is £ 1200.<br />
NOTES AND NEWS.<br />
TINHERE is an article in the current number<br />
I of the Quarterly Review entitled "Ou<br />
Commencing Author," which purports to<br />
be based on this journal and its contents for the<br />
last seven years. The paper is in many respects,<br />
as I shall show immediately, quite satisfactory<br />
and even sympathetic. The writer begins with<br />
recognising the right of the author to a full<br />
understanding at least of what is meant by the<br />
estate which his publisher administers: therefore,<br />
of course, his further right to understand what<br />
the publisher makes by his administration. As<br />
to the sympathetic side, we will return to that<br />
immediately. Let us first take the points to<br />
which I must take exception.<br />
It has been our contention in this paper, over<br />
and over again, that the literary and the com-<br />
mercial side of literature are totally distinct.<br />
The poet at work, if he allows any other con-<br />
sideration to enter his brain — any touch of<br />
commercialism—must infallibly mar that work.<br />
In every art, the artist must be absorbed while<br />
he is at work. The work done, he may be as<br />
commercial as he pleases. That is the just<br />
and obvious deduction. But this writer cannot<br />
understand such a distinction. His view is that<br />
an artist, when his work is finished, must not,<br />
without detriment to that work, pay any atten-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 68 (#482) #############################################<br />
<br />
68<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
tion to its commercial value. He says, "To<br />
such men"—i.e., men who, when their work is<br />
finished, do consider its literary value—" there<br />
comes a literary half and a commercial half."<br />
Just so. Why not ?" Where the commercial half<br />
arrives at being real, there is some danger that it<br />
will drive out the literary half." No : because the<br />
two have nothing to do with each other. If the<br />
writer means that there is danger that the artist<br />
may have his brain filled with commercialism<br />
while he is at work, one can only reply that he<br />
must be a very mean and miserable artist. Apply<br />
the same kind of conventional talk to painting.<br />
All great painters receive large sums of money for<br />
their work. No one in his senses has ever re-<br />
proached them with doing so: no one has ever<br />
asserted that they have ruined their art as their<br />
price went up. In the name of common sense,<br />
then, why cannot literary men be treated as on<br />
the same footing as painters?<br />
There is, again, another distinction between<br />
the literary and the commercial side of literature<br />
which must not be forgotten. It by no means<br />
follows that a writer of the highest kind will<br />
become popular, while a person of tenth-rate<br />
merit may command the shillings of millions.<br />
This consideration alone should show the futility<br />
of the common talk about commercialism. My<br />
position is this: If an author chooses to give his<br />
property to a publisher, let him. If he chooses to<br />
keep his property for himself, or to administrate<br />
it for himself, or to let its administration out at a<br />
rent or royalty, or to sell it, there is no danger<br />
whatever that the same care of his commercial<br />
interests will damage that completed tcork<br />
any more than the same care icill damage a<br />
painting. There is, perhaps, the danger that he<br />
may scamp the next poem, and that commercialism<br />
may "infect it." Surely, however, something<br />
must be allowed to the artistic sense which<br />
governs and controls artistic production.<br />
Again, the writer says: "In some of our lesser<br />
men, it is conceivable that a journeyman's credit-<br />
able faculty of going straight on, and of produc-<br />
ing yet another book, and yet another book, will<br />
survive." Here we seem to discern the bogey of<br />
"inspiration." The writer plainly understands, I<br />
have no doubt, that the painter must go on paint-<br />
ing because he is a painter; yet he cannot see that<br />
the poet, the story-teller, the dramatist—where<br />
are we to stop ?—the critic, the essayist—everyone<br />
who writes because he is to the manner born,<br />
must go on—must go on writing till he dies.<br />
Lo boa Diea me dit, " Chante,<br />
Chante, paavre petit."<br />
The writer quote3 these lines—full of tears as<br />
well as of consolation—yet cannot understand that<br />
they contradict flatly what he has just advanced<br />
about the dangers of " going on."<br />
He finds fault with The Author for hoping-<br />
that copyright may be so enlarged as to enable a<br />
successful and popular writer to found a family.<br />
Says that it is an ignoble wish. Why does he<br />
think so? Because he confuses the literary<br />
and the artistic value of a book. He says, he who<br />
could act " on a pill-vendor's conditions, namely,<br />
that he keep his private property for ever, must<br />
receive only as a pill-vendor.'' This is nonsense.<br />
One might as well say that the Marquis of<br />
Salisbury if he receives his rents and keeps-<br />
his property does so as a pill vendor. But<br />
this kind of rubbish will continue to be talked<br />
so long as literary value and literary property are<br />
mixed.<br />
The Reviewer speaks of a certain writer who<br />
would abolish criticism. I wonder who that<br />
writer is. The position taken up by The Author<br />
has always been (i) that criticism should be a<br />
distinction—that is to say, that a paper should,<br />
as some papers do, select books for careful criti-<br />
cism by competent persons; (2) that the system of<br />
"reviewing" books in a batch is injurious to<br />
literature because it does not give importance to<br />
important books, because " notice " is not criticism,<br />
and because it is impossible for the writer, with the<br />
best intentions, to read the books he notices, and<br />
that the system is injurious to the paper because it<br />
ruins the literary character of that paper; (3)<br />
that to notice harmless weak productions is useless,<br />
because such a notice does not educate the writer<br />
nor does it help the pubbc, which, whatever its<br />
faults, does not buy or read we.ak books; (4)<br />
that the space in the paper taken up by little<br />
notices written without reading the books would<br />
be much better bestowed upon an important<br />
notice; (5) that the present depressed condition<br />
of criticism is due mainly to the system of the little<br />
notices, which simply will not allow their writers<br />
to read the books; and, lastly, that the public<br />
never read, and pay no heed, to these little notices.<br />
This is the position taken up in these columns on<br />
the subject of reviewing. It will be seen that this<br />
is very, very far from wishing to abolish criticism.<br />
The Reviewer is also very angry with some<br />
uuknown persons who, it seems, object to literary<br />
men advising publishers. Who, again, are these<br />
people? The position of adviser to publishers is<br />
one of the greatest responsibility and importance.<br />
Most men of letters have at various times done<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 69 (#483) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
69<br />
such work: some, occasionally: some by engage-<br />
ment and on salary. It seems to me quite<br />
unnecessary to defend the work, and I do not<br />
know who has attacked it. Personally, I have<br />
myself done such work, and I see no reason at all<br />
to be ashamed of it.<br />
Nor do I think it necessary in these columns to<br />
do more than enter a protest against the implied<br />
accusation that The Author, the only publication<br />
standing at the head of the article, finds any fault<br />
with any literary man or woman who advises for<br />
pay a publishing house.<br />
He says that in demanding inspection of docu-<br />
ments I myself have done a " grea,t service" and<br />
have been right, "however injudiciously" I may<br />
be held to have done it. My methods—or rather the<br />
methods of the Committee—have always been<br />
perfectly simple. There has been throughout a<br />
steady determination to get at the facts and the<br />
figures and to publish them; to pour a flood of<br />
light on facts strenuously concealed. There has<br />
been no other method, and that method will be<br />
continued. _<br />
In many points: on the necessity for main-<br />
taining the responsibility and the honour of<br />
authorship: on the differences which mark men<br />
of genius: on the writer as teacher: and so forth,<br />
one has nothing but gratitude to this Reviewer,<br />
because it is good that such things should be said.<br />
But the whole paper is tainted and spoiled by<br />
this inability to distinguish literary value from<br />
commercial value: so that the writer, while he is<br />
fain to acknowledge the genius of Scott and<br />
Dickens, must needs try to explain away or to lament<br />
the fact that they were good at business. Nearly<br />
all popular writers have thought very much of the<br />
separate commercial side: Scott: Dickens: Trol-<br />
lope: George Eliot: Macaulay: Byron: every-<br />
body.<br />
At the same time one must certainly not obtrude<br />
the subject. As our writer says: "If the public<br />
once hears too much about profits—it has not<br />
bothered itself yet about the matter—but if it<br />
should?" In The Author the question of profits<br />
is a question of principle: there is no mention<br />
of any single writer's returns: or of what he<br />
obtained from any book: and there never will be<br />
any. It is the trade organ of literary men and<br />
women generally: its object is to give such facts<br />
and figures as illustrate principles. But the<br />
writer is quite wrong about the matter. The public<br />
has heard about these profits: it hears often : not<br />
from us, but from other papers, what this and<br />
that writer is receiving.<br />
Again, the Beviewer protests against the use of<br />
the phrase " thousand words," " so many thousand<br />
words:" "so much for so many thousand words."<br />
Now this is not the phrase of the author, but of<br />
the editor. He wants an article of a certain<br />
length, and no longer: it is to fill a definite space<br />
in his magazine: he may say, if he likes, so<br />
many pages: or he may say so many thousand<br />
words. What on earth does it matter? Or the<br />
author, in that commercial spirit which the<br />
reviewer confuses with the artistic spirit, may<br />
say, "Here is my work. It occupies so many<br />
pages," or "Here is my work. It occupies so<br />
many thousand words." Will anybody in his<br />
senses contend that there is any difference? It<br />
is a fctfon de parler. I am myself, for instance,<br />
under agreement to hand in, by a certain time,<br />
a certain story to a certain editor. My editor tells<br />
me, " I want a story of 8o,coo words." He means<br />
that it is to occupy a certain number of months<br />
in his serial. Whether it is 70,000 words, or<br />
80,000 words, or 90,000 words he will not mind,<br />
nor will he count. But he means that I am not<br />
to take lip the old space, and that he will not fill<br />
up his pages with the old-fashioned three-volume<br />
novel. He must assign a limit: he must say how<br />
much space he can give. Whether he says words<br />
or pages, I repea", what does it matter?<br />
In a word, this Reviewer means well: he sees<br />
that we are absolutely in the right, and he says so:<br />
but because he confuses literary and commercial<br />
value he has got hopelessly muddled ; while in such<br />
little matters, as one or two which I have quoted,<br />
he is wrong simply because he does not know the<br />
practice.<br />
There are one or two remarks which I should<br />
like to quote:<br />
There is this special feature in the writing business, that<br />
it is entirely volunteered.<br />
Some few years ago writers awoke to the belief that they<br />
had not received a fair share in the net profit of their<br />
wares. More particularly they desired to make a declara-<br />
tion of their right to know the amount of expense incurred<br />
in the publication of their volumes. In this they have<br />
nothing bnt our sympathies, and part of their work is yet<br />
to do.<br />
What are the more prevalent motives which set genuine<br />
men of letters to work? We fear that the first motive we<br />
assign will appear to many most honourable men of the day<br />
l; perilously near to cant." Yet, upon omviction, we<br />
cannot but put it in the forefront of the battle. We speak<br />
of a mission, a vocation, a priestly office; a priestly office<br />
assuredly in a wider natural church. And this office no<br />
man lightly takes upon himself. The real men are never<br />
likely to take it upon themselves lightly, for they slide<br />
into it involuntarily and unconsciously. And they slide<br />
into it too with a good deal of that suffering, whioh, in the<br />
genuine man of letters, seems inevitable.<br />
Business men who have selected as their path to fortune<br />
the financial side of books, are, from one commercial point<br />
of view at least, exceptionally lucky. They are hardehells<br />
who have to deal with softshelU. It is not to be wondered<br />
at that the softshells have not been conspicuous for getting<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 70 (#484) #############################################<br />
<br />
7°<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
the best of it. Many a publisher might say perhaps, as<br />
Robert Clive said in the gold vaults of the Indian city, " By<br />
heaven ! I am surprised at my own moderation!"<br />
A man oan only be an author in so far as he is a man who<br />
has perceived, or known, or done real things, and possesses<br />
the gift and feels the duty of speaking about them.<br />
A woman and an author must be either something above<br />
the average robust male or something below him.<br />
The following information is here published as<br />
a warning to typewriters:<br />
"Some time ago a friend lent me a small but<br />
interesting pamphlet, and as it is out of print I<br />
was allowed to have a typewritten copy made<br />
of it. The friend recommended as type-<br />
writer a young lady, orphan daughter of a clergy-<br />
man, recently deceased, who courageously sup-<br />
ported herself by typewriting, She copied the<br />
pamphlet for me very nicely, and when I paid<br />
her bill she said she wished to get regular work<br />
from authors, so I advised her to advertise in<br />
The Author, which she has done every month since<br />
January, 1897. She now writes to say that some<br />
one, whose name she does not mention, has<br />
written to ask her terms, but says his MS. is so<br />
precious that she must pay him a guinea as<br />
caution money before he sends her the MS. She<br />
naturally declines to have anything to do with a<br />
person of this sort."<br />
I would only add to the above that the object of<br />
the demand is made obvious by the fact that when<br />
a manuscript, which is very rare, is precious, it is<br />
probably worth many hundred guineas. Asking<br />
a guinea as caution money for a manuscript which<br />
the writer declares to be "precious," is too thin<br />
to deceive anybody. I shall be much obliged if<br />
papers generally will be so good as to copy this<br />
warning in the interests of typewriters, who have<br />
not, probably, too much experience of the world.<br />
The Civil List, which is published in another<br />
column, is the very best list that has ever ap-<br />
peared since its commencement. There are sixteen<br />
recipients of pensions. Among them, eleven are<br />
widows and daughters. One observes that these<br />
pensions are granted more and more to widows<br />
and daughters instead of the workers themselves.<br />
The change will be accepted by everybody with<br />
satisfaction. One observes, also, that it is not yet<br />
possible to obtain a list completely in accord with<br />
the famous resolution of 1837. That resolution<br />
undoubtedly gave power to place in this list<br />
persons who had claims upon the Sovereign. Thus,<br />
the Queen's tutors and teachers were placed upon<br />
the list by authority of that clause. Yet the list<br />
was then, and has always been, intended for persons<br />
distinguished or connected with literature, science,<br />
and art. There are two ladies in this list who<br />
are widows of Colonial Governors. One of these,<br />
Lady Broome, better known as Lady Jackson, is<br />
herself a writer of some distinction; the other,<br />
Lady Thurston, is simply the widow of a Colonial<br />
Governor. As such, her pension has no place on<br />
this list. The power of foisting all kinds of<br />
people into this meagre provision for literature,<br />
science, and art could be removed by passing<br />
another resolution omitting the clause referred to.<br />
I observed in a certain paper a question meant<br />
to be " smart." "Is it," the writer asked, " the<br />
wickedness of the publisher which causes the<br />
names of Dickens and Trollope to appear in this<br />
list?" It is not in these pages that private affairs<br />
will be discussed. The late Charles Dickens, jun.,<br />
however, was not a writer, except of one or two guide<br />
books. He was a printer. Perhaps publishers<br />
showed their "wickedness" by not paying his<br />
accounts. As for the name of Trollope, it was<br />
stated at the time of Anthony Trollope's death<br />
that he was possessed of a large sum saved from<br />
the proceeds of his novels. Publishers have<br />
hardly been so "wicked " as to take that money<br />
from his family. But what silly nonsense it is to<br />
ask such a question!<br />
I have received from a correspondent a collec-<br />
tion of extracts from letters received from various<br />
publishers, which inform him that they cannot<br />
undertake the responsibility of publishing his<br />
manuscript.<br />
The letters are very curious and instructive.<br />
Various reasons were assigned, all of which were<br />
different, but all contained one cardinal fact in<br />
which they were agreed: that the work was too<br />
long.<br />
One firm frankly admitted that what they<br />
wanted was a manuscript of about 60,000<br />
words.<br />
What may be gathered from all these letters<br />
is, in fact, that some publishers are becoming<br />
increasingly anxious to bring out books at 6*.<br />
which contain the minimum leugth for which the<br />
long suffering public will pay 4s. 6d. In these<br />
columns mention has already been made of a<br />
little book, containing about 24,000 words, and<br />
taking very little more than an hour to read, and<br />
costing 4.S'. 6d. cash.<br />
To what lengths is this practice going to be<br />
carried?<br />
A certain result will be that before long the<br />
advertised price of 6*. and the real price of<br />
4«. 6d. will fall into contempt, and the public<br />
will refuse to pay more than a shilling for a little<br />
book which can be read in one hour.<br />
It is true there may be cases in which the<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 71 (#485) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
author's name is great enough to carry off a high<br />
price for a short story, but these cases must<br />
always be very rare.<br />
It seems that it should always be the duty of<br />
novelists to provide the public with work which,<br />
in length, at least, will give them some fair return<br />
for the cost of the book.<br />
Let us turn to lighter themes. The following<br />
appeared in the Times, July 24, in the form of a<br />
letter from Mr. Walter Wren. He kindly<br />
gives me permission to reproduce it here. Mr.<br />
Wren is well known as a profound student of<br />
Dickens. The origin of Do-the-boys Hall seems<br />
settled by this discovery beyond the reach of<br />
reasonable doubt. One pities the unfortunate<br />
Mr. Simpson, of Easby, near Richmond, York-<br />
shire:<br />
"In your article of June 12, on the coronation<br />
number of the Times, telling your readers that<br />
they would be presented gratis with a reproduc-<br />
tion in facsimile of the Times of Friday, June 29,<br />
1838, you call attention to these two advertise-<br />
ments as containing a hint of some of the abuses<br />
which Dickens (whose 'Oliver Twist' is here an-<br />
nounced as appearing in Bentley's Miscellany)<br />
was already setting himself to scourge. 'These<br />
are of schools—one in Yorkshire—at which<br />
youths are boarded and instructed according to<br />
age, including clothes, books, and other neces-<br />
saries. No extras and no vacations.'<br />
"I respectfully submit that you might have put<br />
this more strongly, and that these must be the<br />
originals from which Dickens made up Mr.<br />
Squeers's card. 'Nicholas Nickleby' was published<br />
in 1839. It seems to me clear that Mr. Squeers's<br />
card was based on them. It will be found on<br />
page 20 of the original edition. Please print all<br />
three.<br />
'" Education.—At Winton Hall, near Kirby<br />
Stephen, in Westmoreland, young gentlemen are<br />
boarded, clothed, provided with books, and edu-<br />
cated, by Mr. Twycross, in whatever their future<br />
prospects may require, at £20 per annum. There<br />
are no extras nor vacations. Prospectuses and<br />
references may be had at Peele's Coffee-house,<br />
Fleet-street, where Mr. T. attends daily, between<br />
12 and 2 o'clock.'<br />
"' Education.—At Mr. Simpson's Academy,<br />
Easby, near Richmond, Yorkshire, youth are<br />
boarded, and instructed by Mr. S. and proper<br />
assistants in whatever their future prospects may<br />
require, at twenty and twenty-three guineas a<br />
year, according to age, including clothes, books,<br />
and other necessaries. No extras and no vaca-<br />
tions. Cards with references to be had from Mr.<br />
S., who attends from 12 to 2 o'clock daily at<br />
VOL VIII.<br />
the Saracen's Head, Snow-hill. Conveyance by<br />
steam vessel weekly.'<br />
'" Education.—At Mr. Wackford Squeers's<br />
Academy, Dotheboys-hall, at the delightful village<br />
of Dotheboys, near Greta-bridge, in Yorkshire,<br />
youth are boarded, clothed, booked, furnished<br />
with pocket money, provided with all necessaries,<br />
instructed in all languages living and dead,<br />
mathematics, orthography, geometry, astronomy,<br />
trigonometry, the use of the globes, algebra,<br />
single stick (if required), writing, arithmetic,<br />
fortification, and every branch of classical litera-<br />
ture. Terms twenty guineas per annum. No<br />
extras, no vacations, and diet unparalleled. Mr.<br />
Squeers is in town, and attends daily, from one<br />
to four, at the Saracen's Head, Snow-hill.'<br />
"Dickons added to the advertisements in your<br />
issue of 1838. But the leading principles are in<br />
all three—viz., ,£20 a year for clothes, books, and<br />
education; no extras, no vacations; and both Mr.<br />
Simpson and Mr. Squeers, the two Yorkshire<br />
schoolmasters, 'attended daily at the Saracen's<br />
Head.'"<br />
Mr. Howard Collins projxises to take up and<br />
continue the subject of the subjunctive mood in<br />
the October number of The Author if possible.<br />
He is consulting.as many men of letters as he can<br />
reach as to their opinion of his j>osition.<br />
Walter Besant.<br />
THE PROPOSED NET SYSTEM.<br />
ACOMMITTEE has been appointed by the<br />
Society for the investigation of the whole<br />
subject. It would be injudicious therefore<br />
to express any opinion until that committee has<br />
given in its report. There has already appeared<br />
a sheaf of papers and articles dealing with the<br />
proposal. It is well known that among the book-<br />
sellers—the persons most concerned—there is con-<br />
siderable difference of opinion. Perhaps it would<br />
be well, before their views are ascertained, and<br />
before the committee completes its labours, that<br />
there should be a general silence. On the produc-<br />
tion of the report, no doubt, the floods will be<br />
let loose. The bare facts of the case seem fairly<br />
stated in a brief article which appeared in the<br />
Pall Mall Gazette of July 13. There is one word,<br />
however, which should be altered. It is there said<br />
that the publishers "intend to boycott discount<br />
booksellers." They do not intend: they propose<br />
—a very different thing.<br />
One Book, One Price.<br />
Shall we buy a book at gd. or is.? The outside<br />
public say, unhesitatingly, gd.; the booksellers<br />
H<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 72 (#486) #############################################<br />
<br />
72<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
say, unhesitatingly, i«. Both natural enough,<br />
when you come to look at it. The advantages of<br />
selling at is. and buying at gd. are so obvious<br />
that there is no need to go further into them.<br />
But the most casual observer who remarks the<br />
prices on the bookstalls and compares them with<br />
the rumours that reach us from the traHe cannot<br />
help seeing that a Battle of the Books is only a<br />
question of time. Here and there we find six-<br />
penny magazines sold at 4.|«?., and books pub-<br />
lished at 6*. going at 4*. 6d.<br />
The thing seems simple enough. Can a retail<br />
bookseller sell at what price he likes r He gets<br />
his books at a discount of 25 per cent., or some-<br />
thing more than that; has he a free hand after<br />
that? With the vague idea we all have of the<br />
principles of law, we declare offhand that any-<br />
thing else would be interfering with the liberty<br />
of the subject. The question is nothing new. It<br />
has been gone into years ago. The only novelty<br />
now is that the booksellers have got an associa-<br />
tion, and have the powers of a trade union.<br />
They are the only people who object to the<br />
discount. The publishers do not. The authors<br />
do not. If an author is getting a royalty on the<br />
published price it is nothing to him how the book<br />
is sold. In any case the lower rate is probably to<br />
his advantage, for it increases the sale of his work.<br />
The same thing would apply to the publisher. In<br />
fact, the opinions of all the great writers of the<br />
day were taken on the subject, and were published<br />
in Sir W. Besant's paper, The Author. Speaking<br />
from memory, we recollect they were practically<br />
unanimous and decided in saying the retail<br />
price was the bookseller's affair. The price at<br />
which the wholesale bookseller buys from the<br />
publisher is quite another matter. It is allowed<br />
that to break this is to ruin the book for regular<br />
trade.<br />
Against all this the fact remains that most of<br />
the big publishers intend to boycott the discount<br />
booksellers. Taking it logically, the publishers<br />
are really the employes, and are going on strike.<br />
To the average onlooker it would seem to lje just<br />
a case in which a strike would not succeed. The<br />
discount man can get his books indirectly if he<br />
likes; and he can appeal to the public to support<br />
him. The reduction of yl. in the shilling is an<br />
argument which touches the British public in its<br />
tenderest point. It is the argument which he<br />
has always made till now whenever the difficulty<br />
has come up; and in these days of libraries the<br />
British public wants every possible encourage-<br />
ment in buying books.<br />
However, publishers are not ignorant of the<br />
world, nor are they, by any means, incapable<br />
men of business. Obviously, the new Book-<br />
sellers' Association have found their power, and<br />
can put pressure on the publisher which he is-<br />
unable to resist. But the fight has hardly yet<br />
begun.<br />
The publication of a book appears a simple<br />
thing at first sight. When you come to look<br />
into it, or, worse still, have anything to do with<br />
it, it is a problem which runs close South African<br />
politics or the Irish question itself.—Pall Mall<br />
Gazette, July 13.<br />
A WARNING- TO AUTHORS-AND OTHERS.<br />
ITHINK the following story may interest<br />
some readers of The Author, if only as a<br />
curious instance of human effrontery. It<br />
may, however, act as a warning against a certain<br />
class of "literary agents."<br />
About a year ago Madame X., a French lady,<br />
wished to have some short articles and stories,<br />
which she had written in English, corrected for<br />
the press, and inserted an advertisement in a local<br />
London paper. It brought several replies, and<br />
among them one from a gentleman whom I will<br />
call Mr. A. He stated that he was "late editor<br />
of the Readers' Gazette" (I give a fictitious<br />
title), and named several persons as his referees;<br />
among them, a well-known publishing firm, "for<br />
literary publications "; and for " scholastic pub-<br />
lications " a certain "Jones, Manchester." in a<br />
foot-note he also named a gentleman, very well<br />
known in the scholastic world, as able to speak<br />
to his literary qualifications. I will call him<br />
"Mr. N." Mine. X. was delighted. She<br />
fancied that fortune had directed her to a literary<br />
man, and she hastened to communicate with A.<br />
He called upon her, and in conversation told<br />
her he held an official post in the Civil Service.<br />
It was agreed that he should undertake the<br />
corrections, the only thing contemplated up to<br />
now. But, in the course of the interview, he<br />
intimated that he was prepared to undertake the<br />
duties of literary agent, and to place the MSS.<br />
as well as to correct them.<br />
Mine. X. said that she could not afford' to<br />
pay for this, but Mr. A. replied that she had told<br />
him she was acquainted with many French<br />
journalists. Now, it was the wish "of his heart<br />
to become a correspondent of the Continental<br />
Press, and if she would give him an introduction<br />
he would consider himself paid. On this Mme.<br />
X. confided to him a number of MSS., and gave<br />
him an introduction to the editor of one of the<br />
most widely known of continental journals.<br />
Months passed, during which Mr. A. wrote<br />
from time to time, speaking vaguely of his efforts<br />
on Mine. X.'s behalf—they had been uusuccess-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 73 (#487) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
73<br />
ful, but he expressed himself as by no means<br />
discouraged. During this time he corrected the<br />
longest of the articles—it was a short story. I<br />
saw the copy he had made—the MS. was entirely<br />
in his handwriting, and so far his assertion that<br />
he had "re-written" it was true. But his<br />
corrections were a farce. As I myself had to<br />
"re-write" it, I speak from knowledge, and a<br />
gentleman, who is himself a writer, said of it that<br />
it was not worth having, even if done for nothing,<br />
that no one with the least literary ear could<br />
possibly have passed the foreign turns of expres-<br />
sion. Even obvious omissions of parts of sen-<br />
tences were not supplied, and the general<br />
incompetence displayed in this specimen of A.'s<br />
powers confirmed our suspicions that he was not<br />
what he had represented himself to be. We<br />
were not at all surprised to find that the foreign<br />
editor had been puzzled by his letter, had evi-<br />
dently conceived an unfavourable opinion of A.,<br />
and declined to have anything to do with him. I<br />
should say that A. asked and received 5*. for<br />
correcting this short story.<br />
On my return to England after an absence,<br />
Mme. X. had confided her doubts to me. I<br />
advised her to get her MSS. back as soon as<br />
possible—especially as she had a chance of dispos-<br />
ing of them herself. She wrote explaining this.<br />
A. replied in a manner which struck us as evasive,<br />
but at last, after many weeks and many letters<br />
from Mme. X., he returned all but one. .In the<br />
accompanying letter, lie said that he had sent all,<br />
and also said that he had "re-written" two<br />
others of the MSS.; but the parcel, on being<br />
opened, did not contain these copies, nor were<br />
the returned MSS. "corrected." Mme. X. felt<br />
that she had simply wasted six months—A. had<br />
done absolutely nothing—his corrections were<br />
worthless in the instance in which he made them,<br />
and, in the majority of instances, he had done no<br />
work at all. Of course he could not be held<br />
responsible for failing to dispose of the MSS.,<br />
supposing lie ever tried, which the sequel makes<br />
us gravely doubt. Mme. X. wrote in vain, asking<br />
for the missing MS. and the two "copies." A.<br />
replied that he had sent the MS., and he ignored<br />
the question of the copies. And in a few days he<br />
sent in a bill for ,£3 3*. for "professional ser-<br />
vices." Mme. X. was in despair, she was utterly<br />
unable to pay £3 38., and A. had known this<br />
from the first. She wrote reminding him that<br />
he had himself offered those services in return for<br />
an introduction which she had given; and added<br />
that she was ready to pay on the same scale as<br />
before for the "corrections" of the MSS. which<br />
he had said he had" re-written," when she received<br />
the rc-tcritten copies. The reply was a threat of<br />
the County Court. Neither then, nor afterwards,<br />
did A. ever allude to the (verbal) agreement, or<br />
to the missing copies. He simply repeated his<br />
threats of the County Court if a remittance was<br />
not sent " to-morrow," or " next Tuesday," as the<br />
case might be. It was almost amusingly evident<br />
that he was trying to strike terror into a helpless<br />
foreigner. He numbered his letters "second and<br />
third " application." His first threat of the County<br />
Court came barely a fortnight after the "first<br />
application," and in reply to a civil request for the<br />
work he was demanding payment for. Mme. X.<br />
was in very bad health, and was much distressed<br />
at the prospect of appeariug in Court, and<br />
perhaps being made to say what she did not mean.<br />
Under these circumstances a friend began to<br />
make inquiries of the persons given by A. as<br />
referees.<br />
The first person applied to was the present<br />
editor of the Readers Gazette. He replied<br />
that there must be some mistake—he himself<br />
had been editor many years—and he suggested<br />
imposture. Next, the Civil Service List was<br />
tried, with the result that nothing whatever<br />
was known of Mr. A. A slight clue, however,<br />
was followed up, and at last Mr. A. was dis-<br />
covered—not as a Civil servant, but as under-<br />
master in a primary school in an adjacent<br />
parish. Meantime, the firm of publishers was<br />
written to. They at length remembered—not<br />
Mr. A.'s name, but a now, de plume which he<br />
had mentioned as the name he wrote under.<br />
A MS. by a writer with this nom de plume had<br />
been submitted to the firm, and declined. The<br />
"scholastic" side of Mr. A. was next probed;<br />
and here, strange to say, we came upon the first<br />
piece of bond fides we had yet discovered.<br />
"Jones, Manchester," whose name had sounded<br />
to us so apocryphal that we had not thought it<br />
worth while to waste a letter upon him, turned<br />
out to be a most respectable firm of publishers<br />
—almost entirely, it seemed, of school books for<br />
primary schools. They knew Mr. A., and thought<br />
well of him. He had published an " elementary<br />
book " and a leaflet or two for children to learn.<br />
It was not precisely a testimony to "scholastic"<br />
qualification, but at least he was known. More-<br />
over, Mr. N, whom A. had mentioned as able to<br />
speak to his literary qualifications, replied favour-<br />
ably, and said that A. had held " high positions,"<br />
and was "an educated gentleman," but added<br />
that he knew nothing of his literary qualifications.<br />
Thinking there was a mistake in identity, and that<br />
A. was trading on a similarity of name, we asked<br />
for further particulars, and learned that Mr. N.<br />
had obviously no personal knowledge of A., but<br />
that A. really had been inspector of some diocesan<br />
schools in the provinces, and afterward* head-<br />
master of a " high school." All this while, A.'s<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 74 (#488) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
threats were becoming more urgent, and he repre-<br />
sented himself as on the eve of placing the<br />
matter in the hands of his solicitor. The friend<br />
who made the inquiries thought it was time to do<br />
something, and wrote a letter to A., repeating the<br />
facts as stated by Mine. X., and informing A.<br />
of the result of the inquiries. The letter con-<br />
cluded with a renewed offer to pay him 58. each<br />
for the corrected stories, on receiving the correc-<br />
tions. A reply came by return of post. It<br />
appeared to be written by A.'s wife at. his dicta-<br />
tion, and stated that Mr. A. could not answer the<br />
letter now, as the matter had passed out of his<br />
hands.<br />
Before this, at first, in order to learn whether<br />
A. was already known to our Society, 1 had con-<br />
sulted Mr, Thring, who with the greatest kind-<br />
ness gave me counsel. He now reiterated his<br />
opinion that wc ought to get a " friendly solicitor"<br />
to write A. a letter. A legal friend of my own<br />
most kindly consented to do this, and wrote deny-<br />
ing any indebtedness for "professional services,"<br />
but again renewing the offer to pay for the cor-<br />
rections. It brought the following answer again<br />
by return:<br />
"Sib,—-I have received yours of the , and<br />
it has been duly filed."<br />
This extraordinary reply, and the effrontery of<br />
A.'s whole attitude, astonished the solicitor, and is<br />
still a puzzle to us all. We are, however, consoled<br />
by seeing that A. is really not so clever. For six<br />
weeks after this, when we all thought the matter<br />
was ended, he suddenly wrote once more to Mme.<br />
X., threatening to put the matter into a<br />
lawyer's hands if the money was not sent within<br />
three days. By this time the threat had lost its<br />
terrors—even Mme. X. was able to laugh at it,<br />
and so I trust all was well that ended well. But<br />
it is a singular story, for there can be no doubt<br />
that A. was at no distant period in an excellent<br />
position, and yet his calm effrontery would seem<br />
to show a practised hand. It is my deliberate<br />
conviction, basrd on several small indications,<br />
that he never showed the MSS. to a single editor.<br />
This, of course, we cannot prove, but if he had<br />
ventured to force us into court he would have<br />
heen required to mention names. I should say<br />
that in this last letter he repeated that he had<br />
been editor of the Readers' Gazette — it was<br />
the only allusion he ever made to the unmasking<br />
of his pretensions. Finally, I would entreat, not<br />
only authors, but everybody, to "look up their<br />
references"—though, as a gentleman I consulted<br />
over this business said very frankly, " When does<br />
one look them up, if they are good ones?" And<br />
I confess that I should have thought it impossible<br />
that a man would venture falsely to call himself<br />
ex-editor of a paper—it is a statement so easily<br />
verified. But perhaps A. is a student of human<br />
nature, and reckoned on our reasoning thus!<br />
And candour compels me to admit, that had<br />
inquiries been made at first, and had we happened<br />
to begin with Mr. N. and "Jones, Manchester,"<br />
we might have- been perfectly satisfied, and have<br />
gone no farther. Wherefore, when references are<br />
given you, write to them all. Y.<br />
A CASE IN POINT.<br />
IOUGHT to have joined the Society of<br />
Authors long ago; but I suppose it is a<br />
case of stinginess over the wrong thing, and<br />
that even the demands of a large family upon a<br />
slender income should not have hindered my<br />
finding that guinea subscription. Every author<br />
wants more or less protection under the present<br />
conditions of things: certainly the unwary one.<br />
Here is a case in point.<br />
A well-known publisher asked me to prepare a<br />
book for the present season. It was to be ready<br />
at the New Tear, and I was to receive =£50 in<br />
advance, on account of royalties, upon delivery of<br />
the MS. I sent in the complete work in the last<br />
days of December. I waited, and at length hud<br />
to remind the publisher that three weeks had<br />
elapsed, and I was expecting to hear from hiin.<br />
To my surprise his reply, and several subsequent<br />
communications, showed me that he was " off the<br />
job," if possible, having doubts of its probable<br />
success. But I stuck to him. He suggested<br />
additions and improvements, which I loyally<br />
worked up with great benefit to the book. At<br />
length, early in April, I had the first proofs and a<br />
cheque for .-£25.<br />
The last sheets were returned, and I was look-<br />
ing for the completion of the payment. But,<br />
guess my astonishment on being informed by<br />
letter that many faults in composition, cant<br />
phrases, and so forth, had been discovered, and it<br />
had been necessary to take the thing to pieces<br />
—also " whether the thing will ever pay is becom-<br />
ing more than ever a matter of doubt with me."<br />
With the best possible grace I accepted the<br />
possibility that my style was open to criticism,<br />
but I asserted that for acquiescence in his<br />
improvements I must first have the opportunity<br />
of weighing their value. Now that the book is<br />
published I find that, far from " improvement,"<br />
the book has been utterly damaged by interpola-<br />
tions and omissions, and many alterations of very<br />
slight importance but destructive to that coherent<br />
unity of style which should throughout reveal an<br />
author's personality. There are six verbal altera-<br />
tions which I should consent to. The remainder<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 75 (#489) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
75<br />
are of a piece with the specimens I have marked<br />
in the copy of the work inclosed for your inspec-<br />
tion, which amount to nothing more nor less than<br />
interpolated blunders.<br />
The book has been brought out, price 7«. 6d.<br />
As it looks more like a 4*. or 58. volume, the<br />
booksellers won't touch it, and it has fallen still-<br />
born upon a season especially favourable for the<br />
sale of such a work. Our publisher tells me it is<br />
"complete failure," and ascribes the failure to<br />
the numerous alterations rendered necessary after<br />
the thing was in type, and which added heavily to<br />
the printer's bill. What this has to do with the<br />
shyness of the retail booksellers passes me, but I<br />
have been so worked upon by the sad story of<br />
£150 or more thrown away upon my " diabolical"<br />
(tie) book as to give a renunciation of all further<br />
right or claim upon payment of ,£5 5*. There is<br />
nothing now to hinder Mr. X. T. from reforming<br />
his mode of publication, and making a small<br />
income out of it.<br />
Simpleton, you will say! I deserve it.<br />
S.<br />
INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY CONFERENCE.<br />
President—Sir John Lubbock. Chairman of<br />
Committee—Kichard Garnett, LL.D. Hon.<br />
Treasurer—H. K. Tedder. Hon. Secretary—<br />
J. Y. W. MacAlister. Secretary—J. D. Brown.<br />
f I ^HE Conference was opened on Tuesday, July<br />
I 14, by the Lord Mayor, in the Council<br />
Chamber of the Guildhall. The following<br />
notes of the principal proceedings are taken from<br />
the Times:—<br />
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.<br />
The President (Sir J. Lubbock) then gave his<br />
inaugural address. He said that the existence of<br />
this congress was an indirect result of an Act<br />
passed by a private member of Parliament (Mr.<br />
Ewart) in the year 1850. The Act was a striking<br />
example of beneficent legislation passed by a<br />
private member. It had been adopted by some<br />
350 places, containing nearly half our people.<br />
From 1857 to 1866 it was adopted by fifteen<br />
localities, from 1867 to 1876 by forty-five, from<br />
1877 to 1886 by sixty-two, from 1887 to 1896 by<br />
no fewer than 190. In London the recent pro-<br />
gress had been even more remarkable. From<br />
1850-66 only one public library was established,<br />
and Westminster had the honour of taking the<br />
lead; from 1867 to 1876 not one, from 1876 to<br />
1886 only two, from 1887 to 1896 no fewer than<br />
thirty-two. These libraries now contained over<br />
5,000,000 volumes, the annual issues amounted to<br />
27,000,000, and the attendances to 60,000,000.<br />
Australia had 844 public libraries with 1,400,000<br />
volumes, New Zealand 298 with 330,000, South<br />
Africa about 100 with 300,000. In Canada the<br />
public libraries contained over 1,500,000 of<br />
volumes. The United States possessed in 1890<br />
1686 public libraries, containing 13,800,000<br />
volumes. These numbers, however, were hardly<br />
comparable with ours, as they included in some<br />
cases college and law libraries. Moreover, we had<br />
many public libraries which were not included in<br />
the above numbers. The British Museum alone<br />
contained 2,000,000 volumes. Those who doubted<br />
the advantage of public libraries generally based<br />
their argument on the assertion that an immense<br />
preponderance of the books read were novels.<br />
But it must be remembered that a book of poems,<br />
and even more a work of science, would take much<br />
longer to read than a novel. Moreover, many<br />
novels were not only amusing and refreshing, but<br />
also instructive. No doubt the wise choice of books<br />
was becoming more and more difficult. The<br />
National Home Reading Union had done, and was<br />
doing, excellent service in assisting our country-<br />
men and countrywomen to what to read, and how<br />
to read. A recent writer had referred to the<br />
treasures of ancient lore in Egyptian papyri,<br />
which were now scattered in large numbers<br />
through the museums of Europe, where, for want<br />
of catalogues and descriptions, they lay well nigh<br />
as profoundly buried as if they were in their<br />
original tombs. Many authors buried their own<br />
creations by misleading titles, or by bringing<br />
together incongruous subjects, which led to un-<br />
fortuuate results, like other ill-assorted marriages.<br />
A friend of his had recently mentioned a remark-<br />
able case in point. In the year 1850, Dr.<br />
Mitchell, the Director of the Observatory of<br />
Cincinnati, which was then the only astro-<br />
nomical observatory in the United States,<br />
brought out a perfectly beautiful book, and<br />
it came over here for sale in the ordi-<br />
narv way. It was called "The Planetary and<br />
Stellar Worlds." The publisher of the book<br />
complained bitterly about it, and said that he had<br />
not sold a single copy. His friend said, "Well,<br />
you have killed the book by its title. Why not<br />
call it ' The Orbs of Heaven'?" That was acted<br />
upon, and 6000 copies were sold in a month.<br />
(Cheers and laughter.) As regarded Govern-<br />
ment, our own had set a very good example. An<br />
American writer (E. H. Walworth), in an article<br />
on " The Value of National Archives," had paid<br />
us the compliment of stating that "perhaps no<br />
nation had been more careful than England in<br />
the preservation of her archives; and perhaps no<br />
nation has been more careless in this direction<br />
than the United States." (Cheers.) This was,<br />
however, no longer true of the United States<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 76 (#490) #############################################<br />
<br />
76<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
Government, which now issued excellent monthly-<br />
catalogues. India also had for some time taken<br />
much pains to make her publications as available<br />
as possible. The Eoyal Colonial Institute had<br />
recently taken an important step in adopting and<br />
forwarding to every colonial Government a reso-<br />
lution, "That the colonial Governments be<br />
respectfully invited to issue—through the medium<br />
of their Government gazettes or otherwise—<br />
registers containing entries of all publications<br />
within given periods, and also all other locally<br />
published works, with their full titles, so as to<br />
furnish for general information complete records<br />
of the literature of each colony." To turn to the<br />
scientific societies, our own Eoyal Society had<br />
accomplished a great and most useful work in its<br />
catalogue of scientific papers, contained in nine<br />
thick quarto volumes. These had been extremely<br />
useful. The society was moreover organising a<br />
catalogue which aimed at completeness, and was<br />
intended to contain the titles of scientific publica-<br />
tions, whether appearing in periodicals or inde-<br />
pendently. In such a catalogue the titles of<br />
scientific publications would be arranged, not only<br />
according to authors' names, but also according to<br />
subject-matter, the text of each paper and not the<br />
title only being consulted for the latter purpose.<br />
The preparation and publication of such a com-<br />
plete catalogue was far beyond the power and<br />
means of any single society. Led by the above<br />
considerations, the president and council of the<br />
Royal Society had appointed a committee to<br />
inquire into and report upon the feasibility of<br />
such a catalogue being compiled through inter-<br />
national co-operation. (Hear, hear.) There was<br />
one other catalogue to which he should like to<br />
refer, namely, the classified index of the London<br />
Library in which were given the names of the<br />
principal authors who had written on each sub-<br />
ject; and the assistance there given to the student<br />
was invaluable. To every true lover of books it<br />
was sad to see our countrymen and countrywomen<br />
neglecting the great masterpieces of science and<br />
literature, and wasting their time over " books<br />
that were no books," merely because they were<br />
new—in many cases, to use Buskin's words,<br />
"fresh from the fount of folly." (Cheers.)<br />
EVOLUTION OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.<br />
Mr. Henry Tedder read a paper on "The<br />
Evolution of the Public Library." Mr. Herbert<br />
Spencer had, he said, traced the origin of all our<br />
professions. The processes of development and<br />
differentiation had been as clearly shown in the<br />
case of public libraries as in other departments.<br />
The earliest librarians were priests, and the<br />
earliest libraries ienples. The earliest civilisa-<br />
tions—those, e.g., of Assyria and Egypt—had<br />
their public libraries, which, however, were purely<br />
of an ecclesiastical character. Aulus Gellus said<br />
that Pisistratus in the sixth century b.c. was the<br />
first founder of a real public library, whilst others<br />
ascribed their origin to Aristotle. One of<br />
Caesar's projects was the establishment of a great<br />
public library, and Varro had written a treatise<br />
on the subject; and at Herculaneum a beauti-<br />
fully arranged small room was found with 1756<br />
manuscripts, which gave an insight into the<br />
arrangements of libraries of that time. Christian<br />
libraries, of course, dated from Constantine; and<br />
his successors, especially Theodosius, busied<br />
themselves with their establishment, and St.<br />
Augustine gave his library to the church at<br />
Hippo. The early church was, however, more or<br />
less hostile to the ancient literature of Greece and<br />
Rome. But the Benedictines early in the sixth,<br />
century were the first of the Christian bodies to<br />
establish libraries, and their example was followed<br />
by the Carthusians, Cistercians, Prasmonstraten-<br />
sians, and others; and the Cistercians were the<br />
first to allow persons outside their orders to<br />
borrow books. In the thirteenth century a<br />
library was formed at St. Germain des Pres.<br />
Paris, where, in 1513, a noble library was<br />
founded. For much which was in his paper he<br />
wished to acknowledge his obligations to Mr.<br />
J. Willis Clarke, who had clearly traced the con-<br />
nection between collegiate and monastic libraries<br />
—a connection specially manifest at Merton<br />
College, Oxford. Mr. Tedder also gave interest-<br />
ing accounts of the construction and arrangements<br />
of college libraries; and particularly of the<br />
Escurial Library founded in 1584. He also<br />
described cathedral libraries, of which he took<br />
Westminster as a type. The old type was mainly<br />
for the benefit of the professional scholar; and it<br />
was not until the middle of the eighteenth<br />
century t hat the needs of the people at large were<br />
considered, and the Bodleian and Mazarin<br />
libraries were splendid instances of private<br />
munificence. The free library movement started<br />
by E wart's Act was mainly educational, and the<br />
rapid growth of rate-supported libraries—which<br />
were peculiar to this country—had been described<br />
by Sir John Lubbock. In the United States a<br />
similar movement had been going on, and France<br />
afforded numerous examples of public libraries on<br />
every scale of magnitude. Belgium, Austria-<br />
Hungary, and Scandinavia were also well<br />
equipped, and in recent years a vast number of<br />
library associations had grown up both here and<br />
in the United States. In conclusion, Mr. Tedder<br />
described public libraries as the real universities<br />
of the unattached, and said that the librarian<br />
should remeinbir that he was a priest of litera-<br />
ture. (Cheers.)<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 77 (#491) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
77<br />
PUBLIC LIBRARY AUTHORITIES.<br />
Mr. Herbert Jones read a paper on "Public<br />
Library Authorities, their Constitution and<br />
Powers, as they are and as they should be."<br />
Our present system, he observed, was due to<br />
the happy-go-lucky methods which were so<br />
characteristic of the British people. The results<br />
had, no doubt, on the whole been good, but the<br />
time had come for a reconstruction on a more<br />
logical and consistent basis. Library committees<br />
were variously constituted in different centres,<br />
and the numbers were fluctuating and sometimes<br />
too great for useful action, and their relations to<br />
other local bodies vague and ill-defined. But<br />
when commissioners were appointed a better<br />
system prevailed. Our free library legislation<br />
needed amendment, and it was not desirable tliat<br />
a possibly hostile vestry should be able to super-<br />
sede the regular library authority. A small body<br />
appointed or elected ad hoc was surely better than<br />
a large body constituted for a variety of purposes.<br />
He was in favour of the appointment in each<br />
district of a distinct library authority—not<br />
constituted of too many persons, but varying<br />
according to population—whose sole work would<br />
be the supervision of libraries. In this way<br />
a uniformity of action and a security which<br />
was greatly to be desired would be effected.<br />
(Cheers.)<br />
Mr. Alderman Rawson, of Manchester, said<br />
that his city was the first to adopt Mr. Ewart's<br />
Act. A like movement had almost simultaneously<br />
started in the United States. Since the estab-<br />
lishment of the libraries the numbers of books<br />
and readers in Manchester had increased tenfold.<br />
Notwithstanding the enormous circulation of<br />
books, the loss by missing or injured books was a<br />
mere trifle. The employment of women in the<br />
libraries had produced most beneficial effects in<br />
the maintenance of silence and order. The cor-<br />
poration, though entitled to elect outsiders on the<br />
library committees, had not done so, and had, with<br />
pardonable vanity, thought themselves competent<br />
to manage their libraries. The Manchester<br />
libraries were peculiar in one respect, that they<br />
never levied fines, and their confidence in the public<br />
had never been abused. (Cheers.) The Inland<br />
Revenue had tried to exact income-tax, and the<br />
case had been carried to the House of Lords,<br />
where in the end the library authority of Man-<br />
chester achieved a notable victory for themselves<br />
and all the public libraries of the country.<br />
THE TRAINING OF LIBRARIANS.<br />
Mr. Charles Welch, Guildhall Librarian, read a<br />
paper on "The Training of Librarians." He<br />
insisted on the primary importance of a wide and<br />
liberal education.<br />
BOOKS AND TEXT-BOOKS.<br />
A paper on "Books and Text-Books: The<br />
Function of the Library in Education," was<br />
read by Mr. F. M. Crunder, librarian, Public<br />
Library, St. Louis, U.SA., who said that the<br />
problem was to provide the best education for the<br />
masses. Could text-books furnish that educa-<br />
tion P He remembered his surreptitious enjoy-<br />
ment as a schoolboy of a book of extracts—chiefly<br />
poetry and oratory—and those poems and speeches<br />
were to him worth all the arithmetic and text-<br />
book learning which he was compelled to learn.<br />
To use Sir John Lubbock's words, "the main •<br />
thing is not so much that every child should be<br />
taught as that every child should wish to learn."<br />
Franklin's was the ideal education—that no child<br />
should be taught until he desired to learn.<br />
Books were the true university, and the true edu-<br />
cation was to stimulate the love of good literature,<br />
and to enable the child to discriminate between<br />
what is good and bad in books. Education<br />
should seek to make not lawyers, engineers,<br />
farmers, &c., but men; and the larger aim would<br />
be found also invariably to have included the<br />
narrower. The text-book should only be employed<br />
as the guide to what was of permanent value and<br />
interest in literature.<br />
NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY.<br />
Mr. Sidney Lee, editor of the Dictionary of<br />
National Biography, read the next paper on<br />
"National Biography and National Biblio-<br />
graphy." He said he should make his immediate<br />
purpose plainer if he said a few words about the<br />
aims and scope of the Dictionary of National<br />
Biography, which might be defined as a bio-<br />
graphical census of all dwellers in the British<br />
dominions who had achieved anything worthy of<br />
commemoration. The most notable feature in<br />
their methods of execution was the effort to give<br />
authority for every fact recorded. The life of<br />
Shakespeare, for instance, would be practically<br />
useless were not the authenticity of each of the<br />
traditions which had accumulated about his name<br />
carefuly determined. He had himself attempted<br />
on a modest scale a bibliography of Shakesperiana<br />
arranged in the order in which the student of<br />
Shakespearian biography was likely to find it<br />
convenient to approach the books. His biblio-<br />
graphy was far from complete; the catalogues<br />
of the British Museum Library, with its 3680<br />
entries; the Barton collection in the Boston<br />
Public Library, with its 2500 entries; and the<br />
Birmingham Public Library, with 9640 volumes,<br />
supplied far longer lists of Shakesperiana. But he<br />
had endeavoured to observe some logical principle<br />
of classification which the larger library cata-<br />
logues did not attempt. After a reference to the<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 78 (#492) #############################################<br />
<br />
78<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
bibliography respecting Milton, Sir Walter Scott,<br />
Sir W. Raleigh, Dryden, and others, he said that<br />
all that was possible was to mention, as a rule<br />
in chronological sequence, the chief articles or<br />
memoirs previously published. The Dictionary's<br />
list of authorities contained much that was<br />
material for the preparation of a subject<br />
catalogue of literature, and a subject catalogue<br />
was obviously of high importance in developing<br />
the utility of public libraries. The making<br />
of subject catalogues was a subsidiary branch<br />
of the science of bibliography. In its essence<br />
bibliography was the science of describing<br />
books as books, in contradistinction to books as<br />
literature. For the literature of Great Britain<br />
and Ireland there existed at present four notable<br />
experiments in national bibliography. At the<br />
beginning of the century Eobert Watt, a poor<br />
surgeon of Paisley, sacrificed twenty years of<br />
arduous labour in compiling his "Bibliotheca<br />
Britannica," an elaborate catalogue mainly of<br />
British literature, though a few foreign works<br />
were included, arranged in two indices—one of<br />
authors' names, the other of the titles of books.<br />
The next effort in national bibliography was made<br />
by William Thomas Lowndes, who in his<br />
"Bibliographers' Manual," first published in<br />
1834, endeavoured to arrange the titles of books<br />
(under authors' names) with some regard to their<br />
intrinsic interest. Lowndes, after many years of<br />
abject poverty, lost his reason and died in 1843.<br />
The third great attempt at a bibliography of<br />
English literature was made in America, and it was<br />
to the credit of that great country that its history<br />
involved no distressing incidents like those which<br />
accompanied the efforts of Watts and Lowndes.<br />
Allibone's ample " Dictionary of English Litera-<br />
ture" was projected in 1850, and the last proof<br />
sheets were read by the author on the last day of<br />
1870. The work was published by Messrs.<br />
Lippincottof Philadelphia, in three large volumes,<br />
and a supplement in two volumes, almost equally<br />
large, appeared in 1891. Living authors were<br />
included as well as the dead, and to all books<br />
of importance there were appended illustrative<br />
quotations from critical reviews. Although<br />
Allibone's book was open to criticism and con-<br />
tained many blunders, jet the work was an<br />
invaluable book of reference, as every librarian<br />
would acknowledge. The fourth great experi-<br />
ment in national bibliography was the printed<br />
British Museum catalogue, which is a permanent<br />
memorial of the skill, knowledge, and industry<br />
of Dr. Garnett, the Keeper of Printed Books, and<br />
his staff.<br />
BOOE TALE.<br />
THE Earl of Desart's new novel will be<br />
entitled " The Raid of the Detrimental."<br />
In it he has made a new departure. The<br />
tale deals with the true history of the Great<br />
Disappearance of 1862, and is related by several<br />
of those implicated, and others. The book will<br />
be published early in September by Messrs. C.<br />
Arthur Pearson Limited.<br />
Professor Laughton is engaged upon "The<br />
Life and Letters of Henry Reeve." The book<br />
will be published by Messrs. Longmans, Green,<br />
and Co. Among other forthcoming publications<br />
by this firm are "The Validity of the Papal<br />
Claims," by Dr. Nutcombe Oxenham, with a<br />
preface by the Archbishop of "Xork; and a<br />
biography of Dr. Maples, Bishop of Likoma, in<br />
Central Africa, by his sister.<br />
Colonel H. M. Vibart has written a work on<br />
"The Siege of Delhi, in the Indian Mutiny," in<br />
which he gives to Colonel Bard Smith's services a<br />
more adequate recognition than he believes they<br />
have hitherto been granted. The book will be<br />
published by Messrs. A. Constable and Co.<br />
Mr. Bret Harte's new novel is called "Three<br />
Partners," and treats of a strike in a mining<br />
camp. It will be published next month by<br />
Messrs. Chatto and Windus.<br />
Mr. Meredith's volume of selected poems will<br />
appear shortly.<br />
Mr. W. Clark Russell's articles on the life of<br />
Nelson, which are running in one of the maga-<br />
zines, will be issued in book form in the autumn<br />
by Mr. James Bowden.<br />
Mr. Sidney G. Murray is the author of "A<br />
Popular Manual of Finance," which will be issued<br />
immediately by Messrs. Blackwood.<br />
The late Mr. Du Maurier's novel, "The<br />
Martian," will be published by Messrs. Harper<br />
on Sept. 17.<br />
Mine. Sarah Grand's new novel is to be published<br />
by Mr. Heinemann.<br />
Mr. Herbert Warren, the president of Magdalen<br />
College, is having his poems published by Mr.<br />
Murray, under the title " By Severn Sea." Some<br />
time ago they were printed by Mr. Daniel, of<br />
Oxford, but only circulated privately. They are<br />
now to be available to the public.<br />
Mr. Geo. Haven Putnam has a scheme for the<br />
institution of literary courts or boards of arbitra-<br />
tion, to settle disputes arising between the writing<br />
and publishing professions. Details of it are to<br />
be given in the revised edition of his work,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 79 (#493) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
79<br />
"Authors and Publishers," which is to appear<br />
shortly.<br />
Sir Ellis Ashmead Bartlett, M.P., has written<br />
"The War in Thessaly, with Personal Experiences<br />
in Turkey and Greece." It will be remembered<br />
that one of the "personal experiences" of the<br />
author was to be captured by a Greek torpedo<br />
boat and carried to Athens.<br />
Mr. Fitzgerald Molloy has aimed at presenting<br />
a complete picture of Irish society in the last<br />
century, in his forthcoming work entitled "The<br />
Romance of the Irish Stage." Messrs. Downey<br />
and Co., who will publish the book, are also about<br />
to issue a uniform edition of Mr. Molloy's social<br />
and historical studies at a popular price.<br />
Mr. D. J. O'Donoghue, the biographer of<br />
Carleton, will shortly conclude " The Life and<br />
Writings of James Clarence Mangan," a work he<br />
has been engaged at for some time. It will tell<br />
for the first time the story of the young poet's<br />
tragic career in the Young Ireland days; and<br />
there will also be reminiscences of Mangan by Sir<br />
Frederick Burton, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, Dr.<br />
J. K. Ingram, and others.<br />
A biography of the engineer who laid the first<br />
Atlantic cable—Sir Charles Tilston Bright—is<br />
being prepared for publication (by subscription)<br />
by Messrs. Constable and Co. A brother and a<br />
son of the distinguished pioneer have compiled<br />
the work from the diaries which Sir Charles kept;<br />
therefore it will be largely autobiographical in<br />
character.<br />
Lord Eibblesdale, who was Master of the<br />
Buckhounds under the last administration, is<br />
writing his recollections of " The Queen's Hounds<br />
and Stag Hunting," to which will be contributed<br />
illustrations by prints and drawings from Her<br />
Majesty's collections at Windsor Castle and at<br />
Cumberland Lodge. The book will be published<br />
by Messrs. Longmans.<br />
Mr. Theodore A. Cook will write a book about<br />
Rouen, and Miss Margaret Symonds (daughter of<br />
the late John Addington Symonds) one about<br />
Perugia, for a series of volumes dealings with<br />
mediaeval towns which Messrs. J. M. Dent and<br />
Co. are to publish. The late Mrs. Oliphant was<br />
writing "Sienna," but had only completed three<br />
chapters of it.<br />
The biography of Professor Huxley is not<br />
likely to be ready before the autumn of 1898.<br />
Prince Ranjitsinhji's book on cricket is to be<br />
published by Messrs. Blackwood, and will be<br />
dedicated to the Queen. There will be an ddition<br />
de luxe in crown quarto, with the author's auto-<br />
graph, twenty photogravures, and eighty full-<br />
page plates; a fine-paper edition in royal octavo,<br />
with a photogravure frontispiece and ninety-nine<br />
plates; and a popular edition in large crown<br />
octavo, with eighty page illustrations and twenty<br />
in the text.<br />
Mr. George Bernard Shaw is revising his plays<br />
for their coming publication in book form under<br />
the title " Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant." They<br />
will be in two volumes, to be published by Mr.<br />
Grant Richards in the autumn.<br />
The several stories contained in Mr. Coulson<br />
Kernahan's "Book of Strange Sins," are being<br />
published in separate numbers by Messrs. Ward,<br />
Lock and Co.<br />
Mr. Fraser Rae is at work upon a new edition<br />
of Sheridan, in which he will correct the accepted<br />
text to a considerable extent.<br />
Mr. William Le Queux's new Tuscan novel, now<br />
in the press, is to be called "A Madonna of the<br />
Music Halls."<br />
Mr. F. E. Robinson, M.A., the latest recruit to<br />
the ranks of London publishers, announces that<br />
he has nearly completed arrangements for a series<br />
of Oxford and Cambridge College Histories,<br />
which will be written by dons and other well-<br />
known graduates.<br />
Mr. Frank A. Munsey—whose enterprise has<br />
lately been spoken of by Mr. Hapgood in the<br />
New York Letter of The Author—has been in<br />
London making preliminary arrangements for an<br />
English edition of Mungey's Magazine. He will<br />
probably send a manager from New York, and<br />
open a branch establishment here. Mr. Munsey<br />
has secured a story by Mr. Max Pemberton for<br />
the magazine, to succeed Mr. Hall Caine's " The<br />
Christian."<br />
Mr. Alfred Kingston is engaged upon a work<br />
entitled " East Anglia and the Great Civil War,"<br />
in which he tells the story of the rising of Crom-<br />
well's Ironsides in the counties of Cambridge,<br />
Huntingdon, Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex,<br />
and Hertford.<br />
The "Victorian Era" series of books, to be<br />
issued by Messrs. Blackie, is intended as an<br />
authoritative record of the great movements of<br />
the century. Mr. J. H. Rose, M.A., late Scholar<br />
of Christ's College, Cambridge, will edit the<br />
series, and contribute a volume on " The Rise of<br />
the Democracy." Canon J. H. Overton will write<br />
"The Anglican Revival ;" Dean Stubbs, a<br />
biography of Charles Kingsley; Mr. George<br />
Gissing, a biography of Charles Dickens; Mr.<br />
H. Holman, "National Education;" Mr. G.<br />
Aimitage Smith, " Free Trade and Its Results;"<br />
Mr. Lawrence Gomme," Modern London;" &c.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 80 (#494) #############################################<br />
<br />
8o<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
Mr. F. Anstey's "Baboo Jabberjee" will be<br />
published by Messrs. Dent this autumn.<br />
Mr. Barry Pain's new novel, which Messrs.<br />
Harper will publish immediately, is entitled " The<br />
Octave of Claudius."<br />
Colonel L. J. Trotter has written the " Life of<br />
John Nicholson, Soldier and Administrator,"<br />
which Mr. Murray will publish.<br />
A series of stories by Mr. Barry Pain, dealing<br />
with the career of Eobin Hood; a series by Mr.<br />
Max Pemberton, dealing with the French<br />
Revolution; and a series of detective stories by<br />
Major Arthur Griffith, are among the forth-<br />
coming projects of the English Illustrated<br />
Magazine,<br />
Mr. Andrew Lang has edited a volume of selec-<br />
tions from Wordsworth, which is in the press, and<br />
which will be the first of a new series of "Selec-<br />
tions from the Poets," to be published by Messrs.<br />
Longmans.<br />
Mr. William Harbutt Dawson has written a<br />
comprehensive account of the present day social<br />
movement in Switzerland in its various branches.<br />
The volume, entitled "Social Switzerland," will<br />
be published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall at<br />
once.<br />
"The Typewriter Girl" is the title of a story<br />
dealing with an aspect of London life untouched<br />
hitherto, which Messrs. Pearson are about to<br />
publish. "Olive Pratt Rayner" is the name<br />
assumed by the writer.<br />
A work on English monastic history, by the<br />
Rev. Ethelred L. Taunton, will be published by<br />
Mr. John C. Nimnio in the autumn. It will be<br />
called, "The English Black Monks of St. Bene-<br />
dict: A Sketch of their History from the Coming<br />
of St. Augustine to the Present Day."<br />
The third volume of the series entitled " Litera-<br />
tures of the World," which Mr. Heinemann<br />
publishes, will be "Italian Literature," by Dr.<br />
Richard Garnett. It will appear early in the<br />
autumn. Three months later "English Litera-<br />
ture," by Mr. Edmund Gosse, the editor of<br />
the series, will be ready.<br />
Mr. G. Forrest, Director of Records, Govern-<br />
ment of Tndia, is to write "A History of<br />
British India" for the important project, the<br />
Cambridge Historical Series.<br />
The Historical Society of Trinity College,<br />
Dublin, is co-operating with the National Literary<br />
Society of Dublin to celebrate the centenary<br />
of Burke's death. It is proposed to hold a<br />
public meeting in November, and to erect a<br />
tablet on the house in which Burke was born.<br />
Miss Phoebe Allen, whose work in interesting<br />
children and spreading their love for Nature is<br />
well known, is the editor of a small botanical<br />
quarterly called the Sunchildren's Budget, which<br />
is the organ of two botany clubs, the second of<br />
which is for children. Readers of this paper who<br />
are interested in the subjects are invited to make<br />
the acquaintance of the magazine for their<br />
children.<br />
Mrs. Butcher, wife of Dean Butcher of Cairo,<br />
will publish in October a book on Egypt, where<br />
she has lived for nearly twenty years. It gives<br />
an outline of the history of Egypt from the time<br />
of the Roman occupation in the year 30 b.c. to the<br />
English occupation in the year 1882 a.d., and so<br />
will fill a blank in our knowledge of that ancient<br />
country. As the Christianity of Egypt is the<br />
connecting thread for all the various epochs com-<br />
prehended in these twenty centuries, the book<br />
will be called "The Story of the Church of<br />
Egypt." Messrs. Smith and Elder are the<br />
publishers, and it will appear in two volumes.<br />
A story of public school life, entitled " The Gift<br />
of God," is about to be brought out in volume<br />
form. It is by Mrs. Laffan, the wife of the Prin-<br />
cipal of Cheltenham College; better known to the<br />
reading public by her former name—" Mrs. Leith<br />
Adams." Mrs. Laffan gave a lecture at the<br />
Ladies' College, Cheltenham, last month, on the<br />
subject of "Fictional Literature as a Profession<br />
for Women." It has created great interest, and<br />
will be repeated. New editions of "Madelon<br />
Lemoine," and" The Old Pastures," by this<br />
writer, are in the press.<br />
Volume 2 of Mr. Edwin 0. Sachs' monumental<br />
work, "Modern Opera Houses and Theatres," has<br />
now been issued, and with it, perhaps, that part<br />
of the undertaking which appeals most to the<br />
general public has seen its completion, for the<br />
third volume, due in December, will mainly deal<br />
with the historical and practical details of theatre<br />
construction, finance, and management, and have<br />
an essentially technical character. Mr. Sachs has<br />
been able to extend materially the scope of the<br />
second volume beyond what was originally in-<br />
tended, so that the part now completed contains<br />
descriptions of over fifty playhouses in Europe,<br />
with no less than 450 illustrations. Most of the<br />
latter are on plates. Every country is represented,<br />
including Russia with three theatres, Roumania<br />
and Greece with one each. Garnier's charming<br />
theatre at Monte Carlo even stands to do credit<br />
for the principality of Monaco. The playhouse<br />
most elaborately illustrated in vol. 2 is the Paris<br />
Opera House, and the French capital is further<br />
represented by the new Opera Comique in course<br />
of construction, and the Eden Varietv Theatre.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 81 (#495) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
81<br />
The great Vienna Opera House heads the Austrian<br />
examples in vol. 2, whilst Her Majesty's takes<br />
a similar position among our metropolitan houses.<br />
Mr. Sachs has received great assistance from<br />
many foreign Governments whilst preparing the<br />
work, and many of the names prominently asso-<br />
ciated with drama on the one hand, and with<br />
architecture on the other, will also be found on<br />
his list of subscribers.<br />
Mr. Arthur Lee Knight has a new book for<br />
boys in the press, entitled "Under the White<br />
Ensign; or, for Queen and Empire." Messrs.<br />
Jarrold are the publishers, and the volume will<br />
be profusely illustrated by Mr. J. B. Greene, who<br />
makes a special study of naval subjects.<br />
"The King's Oak" will be the title of a volume<br />
of stories by Robert Cromie, which Messrs. E.<br />
Aickin and Co., Limited, of Belfast, have in the<br />
press. Mr. Cromie is best known as the author<br />
of " The Crack of Doom," which had an extraordi-<br />
nary circulation in Sir GeorgeNewnes' "Famous<br />
Books " series.<br />
The author of " The Song-Book of Bethia Hard-<br />
acre" (Chapman and Hall) is Mrs. (not Miss)<br />
Fuller Maitland.<br />
"The Demon of Santa Fc," by Mr. Farquhar<br />
Palliser (Heber K. Daniels), commences in the<br />
current number of Eureka: The Playgoers'<br />
Magazine, conjointly with "A Romance of Nor-<br />
way," from the same pen, in No. 4 of the<br />
"Favourite Illustrated Stories." A sequel to Mr.<br />
Palliser's " Me and Jim," entitled " Our Tenants,"<br />
will also be published by the same publishers—<br />
the Favourite Publishing Company, Pentonville-<br />
road.<br />
The Navy and Army Illustrated (edited by<br />
Commander C. N. Robinson, R.N.) is devoting a<br />
series of special numbers to the Yeomanry and<br />
Volunteers. The title of the work is "Our<br />
Citizen Army," and the entire letterpress is by<br />
Callum Beg, author of " The Life of a Soldier,"<br />
&c. The second number of the series was lately<br />
published and contains some fifty or sixty<br />
illustrations descriptive of the duties falling<br />
to the lot of our citizen soldiers in camp and<br />
elsewhere.<br />
"Cruelties of Civilisation."—Early in August<br />
the Humanitarian League will issue the third<br />
volume of its publications. It will contain the<br />
following essays: "Literce Humaniores: An<br />
Appeal to Teachers," by Henry S. Salt; "Public<br />
Control of Hospitals," by Harry Roberts; "The<br />
Shadow of the Sword," by G. W. Foote; "What<br />
it Costs to be Vaccinated," by Joseph Collinson;<br />
"The Gallows and the Lash," by Hypatia Brad-<br />
laugh Bonner; "The Sweating System," by<br />
Maurice Adams; "The Humanities of Diet," by<br />
H. S. Salt. One of the League's new pamphlets<br />
will deal with the English Game Laws.<br />
FASHIONS IN LANGUAGE.<br />
VERT great men may almost be said to be<br />
"of no time." The English of Shakspeare<br />
is still modern, and one reads it with more<br />
ease and pleasure than that of much more recent<br />
writers; the reason being that he writes sincerely,<br />
and is but little swayed by the thoughtless<br />
fashions of his day. This is not the case with a<br />
vast majority of even good authors; most of whom<br />
are content to swim with the tide, and to gain a<br />
temporary success at the cost of all chance<br />
of immortality. Addison, Gray, Coleridge,<br />
Macaulay, Tennyson, are all instances of men who<br />
have stedfastly resisted such temptations, and of<br />
whom, therefore, we may feel sure that their<br />
works will endure and will become classics.<br />
It is when one turns to the colloquial idiom<br />
recorded by writers of various times that one<br />
observes how fashions affect our language, and<br />
realises what changes are in store for it among<br />
the multitudes of so-called "English-speaking<br />
people" that are growing up in America and the<br />
Colonies. Yet precisely similar changes have been<br />
always going on, even in the comparatively small<br />
and well-trained circle of London society, without<br />
seriously affecting the purity of written English.<br />
Time and space would not suffice for a com-<br />
plete exemplification of these remarks; we may<br />
however, find enough to justify them in con-<br />
sidering one class of words—the adjectives and<br />
adverbs by which indolent and ill-trained men and<br />
women have been wont to express intenseness and<br />
superlative quality. Thus, in the London of the<br />
Revolution, when institutions began to be fixed<br />
and West-end society to become organised, we<br />
find colloquialism of this sort recorded by Con-<br />
preve and the Spectator; and the fine ladies and<br />
their beaux at once began to coin current epithets<br />
which circulated with but little regard to their<br />
intrinsic value. Mrs. Fainall hates her husband<br />
"transcendentally"; Mirabell is a "pretty"<br />
fellow; Cleantha has been "hugely" diverted.<br />
Then comes the Hanoverian age, beginning with<br />
George II. and ending with George IV., when<br />
convention was lord of all, and " enthusiasm"<br />
was regarded as a form of insanity. Here we<br />
come upon yet more artificial epithets, the paper-<br />
money of social intercourse. Not only are words<br />
used without any pretence of their proper signifi-<br />
cation, but the lords and ladies who set the<br />
fashion do not even deign to employ the neces-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 82 (#496) #############################################<br />
<br />
82<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
sary termination to indicate an adverbial meaning<br />
The characters in Miss Burney's novels talk of a<br />
"monstrous handsome woman," and a "prodi-<br />
gious pretty place;" like the mediaeval emperor,<br />
they are above grammar, though they can hardly<br />
be said to have mastered that humble science.<br />
Many other instances will occur to readers of<br />
eighteenth century books, and will be even found<br />
in sermons and works intended to be dignified.<br />
"Respectable " is used as a high form of praise;<br />
few words, indeed, can have more changed their<br />
value.<br />
Boswell writes of "Chief Baron Smith of<br />
respectable and pious memory," where he evidently<br />
means to exhaust eulogy. Two other favourite<br />
epithets of the period have fallen from their high<br />
estate—"elegant"and "genteel," the former used<br />
to mean much what we mean when we say that a<br />
lady is refined, or that her hospitality is gracious;<br />
the latter meant well bred or polite.<br />
Lord Chesterfield, about the middle of the<br />
period, touched the subject with his habitual<br />
plesantry:—<br />
"Not content," writes the witty peer, "with<br />
enriching our language with words absolutely<br />
new, my fair countrywomen have gone still<br />
farther and improved it by the application and<br />
extension of old ones to various and very different<br />
significations. They take a word and change it,<br />
like a guinea into shillings for pocket-money, to<br />
be employed in the several occasional purposes of<br />
the day. For instance, adjective vast, and its<br />
adverb vastly, mean anything. . . . Large<br />
objects are vastly great, small ones are vastly<br />
little; and I had lately the pleasure to hear a<br />
fine woman pronounce a very small gold snuff-<br />
box that was produced in company to be vastly<br />
pretty because it was vastly little."<br />
On this Walpole noted: "Humming is a cant<br />
word for vast. A person meaning to describe a<br />
very large bird, said 'It was a humming bird.'"<br />
Surely we seem to be on familiar ground here.<br />
Is it not the fact that for the last thirty years we<br />
have had "cant words," or intensive expletives,<br />
of at least equal absurdity?<br />
What is the meaning of a lady who is awfully<br />
ugly, but has an airfu/ly jolly house?" Or of<br />
the young officer who comes down to breakfast in<br />
a strange house declaring that he has had "a<br />
rippin' night's rest?"<br />
H. G. K.<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
I.—Corruptions of the Language,<br />
THE AUTHOR" is fulfilling several useful<br />
functions, and its usefulness seems to<br />
grow with every month.<br />
The suggestion of " E. W. H." appears to me<br />
to be an excellent one; and I shall be glad to<br />
support it.<br />
But I am hunting smaller game just now; and<br />
I ask for only a few lines of your journal to call<br />
attention to a minor nuisance. The English<br />
language is in daily danger of being corrupted<br />
by slovenly phrases introduced by journalists<br />
and reporters in a hurry; and it might be one of<br />
the duties, and one of the privileges, of The<br />
Author to guard the purity of the language, in<br />
so far as this is possible and practicable for any<br />
one journal. But, as The Author is read by<br />
hundreds of men and women who write, and who<br />
have an honest respect for the language they<br />
write in, it is, probably, a task that becomes it<br />
well, to exclude from the language words and<br />
phrases that are "bad English" or ungram-<br />
matical, or ill-sounding.<br />
An obituary notice of Mrs. Oliphant in the<br />
July number of The Author, concludes with<br />
the words: "Mrs. Oliphant was predeceased by<br />
her husband and two sons." Now, I did not<br />
expect to find that in The Author. Let me talk<br />
grammar for a minute; I will try not to bore you.<br />
"Predeceased by " is clearly a verb in the passive<br />
voice. If one can "be predeceased," it follows<br />
that one can "decease" and even "predecease."<br />
Then " decease" is an active verb. What is to<br />
decease/ There is no such verb in the English<br />
language. Still less is there the verb to pre-<br />
decease. The writer might have given the sad<br />
facts in a truer way if he had not gone after<br />
Latin words, but kept within the bounds of his<br />
mother tongue: "Mrs. Oliphant was a widow;<br />
and all her children had died before her."<br />
There is another Latin word that is hauled in<br />
by every penny-a-liner with fatal facility and<br />
unpleasant results. I saw this heading in a<br />
country newspaper the other day: "Demise of a<br />
Dundee Baker in Canada." What is a demise*<br />
It is a demissio—a handing down (of the crown<br />
or of some title). Shakespeare has the verb to<br />
demise in the sense of to bequeath. Mr. Greville,<br />
in his Memoirs (quoted in the Century Dictionary),<br />
writes: "Now arose anew difficulty—whether the<br />
property of the late king demised to the king or<br />
to the Crown." Here the word demise is rightly<br />
used. An act of demise is a handing down of<br />
something to somebody. But the small journalist<br />
saw the word, liked the sound of it and the look<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 83 (#497) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
83<br />
of it, didn't know what it meant, took the ignotum<br />
pro magnifico, and applied it to the death of the<br />
first person he had to mention the departure of.<br />
As I am on the prowl for a few minutes, I will<br />
mention another piece of bad English that seems<br />
likely to gain and to keep a place in our language.<br />
It is the American vulgarism " at that." Anyone<br />
whose ear has been trained by the reading of the<br />
best English prose, must be shocked by the use of<br />
a phrase so unrhythmical.<br />
I should like to suggest to you the usefulness<br />
of setting apart a column as a sort of Index<br />
Expurgatorius, in which all kinds of bad English<br />
and slovenly grammar would be gibbeted, as the<br />
gamekeeper nails stoats and other vermin to the<br />
barn door. J. M. D. Meiklejohn.<br />
St. Andrew's, July 6.<br />
II.—Editor and Contributor.<br />
What is the law in the following supposed<br />
case? I write an article, more or less ephemeral,<br />
and send it to a daily paper. I receive a proof;<br />
on it is a notice that such proof is no guarantee<br />
that the article will be accepted or published.<br />
There is, therefore, no contract.<br />
I send a copy of the same article to another<br />
daily paper, which at once prints and pub-<br />
lishes it.<br />
It happens that on the first of the Greek<br />
Kalends my article appears in both papers.<br />
Has either paper any remedy against me, or<br />
are they both equally in my debt?<br />
Delay spells ruin to an ephemeral article; how<br />
am I to view the notice printed on the proof<br />
slip? Dubious.<br />
[My opinion is that, if the author of the article<br />
in question was not able, or willing, to take his<br />
chance, he should have kept the proof and<br />
informed the editor of his intention to offer it<br />
elsewhere, unless he received a note of acceptance<br />
or contract to publish. I do not think that he<br />
was justified in sending it to the second paper<br />
without such warning or notification to the first<br />
paper. Clearly, the editor of the first paper<br />
was entitled to believe that the article was offered<br />
to him alone. By the decision of the Westminster<br />
County Court in the case of "Macdonald v.<br />
National Revieic," the forwarding of a proof is<br />
in itself an acceptance of the article, or a contract<br />
to pay for it, if not to publish it. The notice<br />
that the proof is not a guarantee of acceptance<br />
is probably sent with the proof in consequence of<br />
that decision.—Ed.]<br />
III.—English Novels in Germany.<br />
I have read with considerable surprise the<br />
statement of your contributor, " E. W. H.," to the<br />
effect that " Germans have found it necessary to-'<br />
forbid the perusal by young girls of English<br />
novels." The italics are his.<br />
After a comprehensive study of the works of<br />
prominent German writers of to-day, I confess it<br />
would seem to me quite unnecessary to banish<br />
even some very advanced English novels from the<br />
library unless, at the s:ime time, an enormous per-<br />
centage of the romances read, with or without<br />
permission of the parents, by girls of seventeen or<br />
younger, were forbidden at the same time. Per-<br />
sonally, I have the greatest admiration for the<br />
style and literary merits of works I could men-<br />
tion, written by leading Teuton (men and women)<br />
authors; but it is impossible to deny that few<br />
books which attain general popularity in the<br />
Fatherland would escape the verdict in England<br />
of "highly pernicious," or that they would<br />
instantly be locked away on the shelf with the<br />
glass windows, of which only " papa" is supposed<br />
to have the key.<br />
As the assertion in question is not" E. W. H.'s"<br />
own, I trust he will forgive me for taking up the<br />
cudgels in defence of English literature.<br />
Gwendoline Ashworth-Edwards.<br />
Germany. ii<ri<br />
IV.—A Query.<br />
I should feel much obliged if any reader of 'The<br />
Author could give a definite rule, or refer to a<br />
satisfactory authority, in the following cases:<br />
(a) The correct form of the predicate verb,<br />
"when two or more pronouns of different persons,<br />
are connected by alternative conjunctions."<br />
According to Professor Bain, there is a diver-<br />
gence of use among classical writers.<br />
(/?) The correct auxiliary to be used with<br />
verbs of motion.<br />
(y) The present day use of, and distinction<br />
between, the prepositions " by " and " with."<br />
A. E. Aldington.<br />
V.—Transliteration.<br />
With reference to the note by "H. G. K." on<br />
"Transliteration" in The Author for this month,<br />
I beg to point out that the congress he wishes for<br />
has sat, and to a great extent settled the question.<br />
At the Tenth Oriental Congress, held at Geneva<br />
in 1894, on the motion of Lord Reay, President<br />
of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, a<br />
commission was appointed to consider this<br />
subject. The scheme adopted by the commission<br />
was printed in the Proceedings of the Congress,<br />
and a translation of it was published in the<br />
Asiatic Society's Journal for October, 1895.<br />
This system has, with a few alterations, been<br />
adopted by the society, and earnestly recom-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 84 (#498) #############################################<br />
<br />
84<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
mended for adoption by all writers on Oriental<br />
subjects.<br />
As one who has written and published a good<br />
deal on Indian languages, I am deeply impressed<br />
with the necessity of uniformity on this point—<br />
not for the sake of Oriental scholars, to whom,<br />
knowing as they do the words in their Oriental<br />
alphabets, transliteration is of little moment, but<br />
for the general public, who are apt to be bewil-<br />
dered by diversity of spelling. The system<br />
adopted by the Geneva Congress does not com-<br />
mend itself to me in every particular, and in such<br />
of my writings as are intended for students of<br />
Oriental languages only I could not conscien-<br />
tiously adopt some of the Roman equivalents<br />
proposed, as I consider them misleading. But in<br />
writing for the general public this objection<br />
would not arise, and the Geneva system might<br />
be used. I think, however, for general use<br />
the employment of dots and diacritical signs<br />
would have to be dispensed with, as the public<br />
would not understand them without previous<br />
study—and the public has no time to study such<br />
matters.<br />
In the Arabic language there are four letters,<br />
all of which in India are pronounced as z, three<br />
which are pronounced s, and two pronounced t.<br />
It would suffice to write all these letters as they<br />
are pronounced without putting dots under them.<br />
But then the four letters pronounced as z in India<br />
are pronounced differently in other Mahomedan<br />
countries. For instance, the name of the month<br />
during which all good Muslims fast is pronounced<br />
in India and Persia Ramzan, while in Arabia and<br />
Turkey it is pronounced Ramadhan (i.e., like the<br />
two English words "rummer " and "darn," not<br />
like "rammer" and "dan"). I do not think<br />
any system, except one which hideously distorted<br />
them, would enable the Englishman who is unac-<br />
quainted with Arabic to pronounce these words<br />
properly at sight—one would not like to see the<br />
word written " rummer darn!" The short indis-<br />
tinct vowel which is so very frequent in Oriental<br />
languages creates a great difficulty. The sound<br />
of it is exactly the same as the u in English<br />
bun, sun, run. It is also the same as the unac-<br />
cented e in the French le, jc, me; and the half<br />
audible c at the end of German eine, meine, gate.<br />
But it is also the same as the final unaccented a in<br />
America, woman. Consequently the Geneva<br />
Congress, following an already established rule,<br />
has adopted a to express this sound, and this<br />
course is now followed by all Oriental scholars.<br />
French writers (not scholars), however, use e.<br />
Thus the general whose name we should pro-<br />
nounce in India as Uzzum Pasha, appears in<br />
Thessaly as Edhem, and Muhammad is written<br />
Mehemet.<br />
While, therefore, absolute uniformity is,per haps,<br />
not likely to be attained soon, it might be an<br />
advantage if the alphabet adopted by the Geneva<br />
Congress were made more geuerally known, and<br />
used by English writers at least. Foreign writers<br />
may perhaps in time consent to use it also.<br />
John Beames.<br />
Netherclay House, Bishop's Hull,<br />
Taunton, July 6.<br />
VI.—Subjunctive Mood: Its Present Day<br />
Use.<br />
Your correspondent might have ascertained<br />
Mr. Lang's views on this subject by a shorter<br />
process than the study of 68,000 words.<br />
"I," says Prince Prigio, "unworthy as I am,<br />
represent the sole hope of the Royal Family.<br />
Therefore to send me after the Fired rake were*<br />
both dangerous and unnecessary." To which the<br />
author appends a note: *" Subjunctive mood!<br />
He was a great grammarian!"<br />
Apparently a suspicion of priggishness attaches<br />
at the present day even to the use of "the sub-<br />
junctive of to be after if." E. C. S.<br />
VII.—Cost of Production.<br />
In re the letter of "S. R.," published on page<br />
38 of the current issue of The Author, I think he<br />
is quite wrong in his deduction that because a<br />
decent publisher declines to accept a book that<br />
therefore it is not worth publishing! Not so,<br />
friend " S. R."! However meritorious a book is,<br />
many publishers will not accept it unless the<br />
author has already a well-known name in the<br />
literary world, as they think that without this the<br />
work will not "catch on." The commercial side<br />
comes in, you see, and publishers will not take<br />
the first plunge.<br />
The refusal of a book by a decent publisher is<br />
no sign that it is not worth publishing, for it is<br />
not its literary merit so much as the status of<br />
the author that the publisher considers. Many<br />
historic cases—" Vanity Fair," "Jane Eyre,"<br />
&c. — prove this. My own book, "Fisherman<br />
Fancies," Elliot Stock declined to bring out at<br />
his own risk, and yet it was much praised by Mr.<br />
R. D. Blackmore, and had capital reviews from<br />
good London and provincial journals.<br />
F. B. Doveton.<br />
VIII—How Long?<br />
Here is another choice experience of the<br />
courtesy of editors. Last December I submitted<br />
a contribution to a weekly paper circulating in<br />
the parish where I reside. No acknowledgment<br />
was vouchsafed. After a couple of reminders, it<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 85 (#499) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
85<br />
has to-day been sent back, declined with thanks.<br />
Seven months to consider a short story! It is<br />
difficult to believe that a small suburban news-<br />
paper can find any valid excuse for so long a<br />
detention of manuscript. C. C.<br />
Authors' Club, July 15.<br />
—■»•«><br />
LITERATURE IN THE PERIODICALS.<br />
On Commencing Author. Quarterly Review for July.<br />
On the Complaints op Authors. A. T. Q. C<br />
Speaker for July 3.<br />
The Proposed School op Fiction. A. T. Quiller<br />
Coach. Pall Hall Magazine for Jaly.<br />
John Sterling, and a Correspondence between<br />
Sterling and Emerson. Edward Waldo Emerson.<br />
Atlantic Monthly for July.<br />
Some Reminiscences op English Journalism Sir<br />
Wemysa Reid. Nineteenth Century for July.<br />
Pascal. Leslie Stephen. Fortnightly Review for July.<br />
A Woman Poet [Mme. Marceline Valmore]. Fort-<br />
nightly Review for July.<br />
The paper in the Quarterly Review has been<br />
treated elsewhere (see Notes and News).<br />
A practical suggestion the Quarterly Review<br />
makes has regard to the work of agents. At the<br />
present time, many agents only look at the work<br />
of well-known people; but the writer seems to<br />
foresee considerable remuneration to a firm who<br />
will announce themselves as the depositaries of<br />
everything—sonnets, epics, turnovers for a paper,<br />
or anything else, by servant girls, duchesses, or<br />
eminent men. For these they would have to give<br />
an immediate receipt. They would be free to send<br />
back at once anything considered unmarketable.<br />
They would be at liberty to charge (say) ten per<br />
cent, on whatever they obtained for the item, and to<br />
pay themselves. There would be no temptation to<br />
dishonesty, because the action of the percentage<br />
and the immediate receipt for the document would<br />
be so self-working. It will be noticed that the<br />
idea is substantially that which Mr. Isidore G.<br />
Ascher put forward in the July number of The<br />
Author.<br />
Just before the latest Quarterly appeared,<br />
Mr. Quiller Couch had been writing his view that<br />
the commercial side of the literary calling has<br />
been too prominent of late. He believes " that<br />
writing has aims and rewards of its own which<br />
must and always will escape what I may call a<br />
bagman's estimate, and that if a man can only<br />
bring a bagman's estimate to this calling, a bag-<br />
man he had better be." The author and the<br />
publisher, is a case of the workman and the<br />
capitalist; and "give and take" is the best<br />
motto for each. There is a class of authors,<br />
one would point out to Mr. Couch, who take<br />
their money, as much as they can get, and then<br />
pretend not to care how much it is. There is, as<br />
a rule, no one more anxious for money than the<br />
writer who talks big about bagmen. Those who<br />
know how to separate literary from commercial<br />
value do not talk about the sordidness of keeping<br />
watch over property.<br />
An interesting friendship between Emerson and<br />
Sterling is revealed by Mr. E. Waldo Emerson.<br />
The correspondence (they never met) that passed<br />
between the American poet and the British man<br />
of letters, here published for the first time, shows<br />
their relations to have originated by Emerson<br />
sending a presentation copy of his "Essays."<br />
Sterling acknowledges this in a letter from<br />
Clifton, dated Sept. 30,1839. "I have read very,<br />
very little modern English writing that has<br />
pleased, me so much," he says; "among recent<br />
productions almost only those of our friend<br />
Carlyle, whose shaggy-browed and deep-eyed<br />
thoughts have often a likeDess to yours which is<br />
very attractive and impressive, neither evidently<br />
being the double of the other." Emerson, in re-<br />
plying, criticises Sterling's volume of poems,<br />
saying, "I must count him happy who has this<br />
delirious music in his brain;" and " I am natu-<br />
rally keenly susceptible of the pleasures of rhythm,<br />
and cannot believe but that one day—I ask not<br />
where or when—I shall attain to the speech of<br />
this splendid dialect." There are twenty letters<br />
altogether, eight of them Emerson's. They are<br />
made up of criticisms of literature, and passages<br />
of tender personal sympathy with trouble.<br />
"Ill-health, many petty concerns, much loco-<br />
motion, and infinite laziness," are Sterling's first<br />
excuse for delay; and the Eame reason of ill-<br />
health continues until in June, 1844, when he is<br />
dying, he writes from Ventnor that his condition<br />
is one of " expecting to be dead in five minutes,<br />
and noticing the pattern of the room paper<br />
and of the doctor's waistcoat as composedly<br />
as if the whole had been a dream." We find<br />
Sterling saying, in 1840, that "Hartley Cole-<br />
ridge, Alfred Tennyson, and Henry Taylor are<br />
the only younger men I now think of who have<br />
shown anything like genius, and the last—<br />
perhaps the most remarkable—has more of voli-<br />
tion and understanding than imagination."<br />
In 1842 Sterling thought of visiting New Eng-<br />
land. "Come and bring your scroll in hand,"<br />
promptly writes the American sage. "Come to<br />
Boston and Concord, and I will go to Niagara<br />
with you. I have never been there." Again he<br />
writes, introducing his countryman Bronson Alcott<br />
as " a man who cannot write, but whose conver-<br />
sation is unrivalled in its way—such insight, such<br />
discernment of spirits, such pure intellectual play,<br />
such revolutionary impulses of thought." Another<br />
friend Emerson introduces is Henry James, of New<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 86 (#500) #############################################<br />
<br />
86<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
York, "a man of ingenuous and liberal spirit, and<br />
a chief consolation to me when I visit his city."<br />
Here is one paragraph from a letter of Emerson's,<br />
dated January 31, 1844.<br />
I learned by your last letter that you had builded a<br />
house, and I glean from Russell all I can of your health and<br />
aspect; and as James is gone to your island, I think to come<br />
still nearer to you through his friendly and intelligent eyes.<br />
Send me a good gossiping letter, and prevent all my proxies.<br />
What can I tell you to invite such retaliation? I dwell<br />
with my mother, my wife, and two little girl -. the eldest five<br />
years old, in the midst of flowery fields. I wasted much<br />
time from graver work in the last two months in reading<br />
lectures to Lyceums far and near; for there is now a<br />
"lyceum," so oalled, in almost every town in New Eogland,<br />
and, if I would accept every invitation, I might read a<br />
lecture every night. My neighbours in this village of<br />
Concord are Ellery Cbanning, who sent his poems to you, a<br />
yontb of genius; Thoreau, whose name you may have Been<br />
in the Dial ; and Hawthorne, a writer of tales and historiettes,<br />
whose name you may not have Been, though he, too,<br />
prints books. All these three persons are superior to their<br />
writings, and, therefore, not obnoxious to Kant's observa-<br />
tion, " Detestable is the company of literary men."<br />
Emerson was trying to arrange for the printing<br />
of Sterling's poems in America, but the project<br />
hung fire. The reasons are given by Emerson in<br />
his letter of June 30, 1843, which shows the un-<br />
satisfactory state of the book law at that time:<br />
Oar whole foreign book market has suffered a revolution<br />
within eighteen months, by the new practice of printing<br />
whatever good books or vendible books you send ns, in the<br />
cheapest newspaper form, and hawking them in the streets<br />
at twelve, eighteen, and twenty-five cents the whole work;<br />
and I suppose that fears, if his book should prove<br />
popular, that it would be pirated at once. I printed Carlyle's<br />
•' Past and Present" two months ago, with a preface beseech-<br />
ing all honest men to spare our book; but already a wretched<br />
reprint has appeared, published, to be sure, by a man<br />
unknown to the trade, whose wretchedness of type and<br />
paper, I have hope, will still give my edition the market for<br />
all persons who have eyes and wish to keep them. But,<br />
beside the risk of piracy, this cheap system hurts the sale<br />
of dear books, or such whose price contains any profit to<br />
an author. Add one more unfavonrable incident whioh<br />
damped the design, that a Philadelphia edition of<br />
"Sterling's Poems " was published a year ago, though bo ill<br />
got up that it did not succeed well, our booksellers think.<br />
To judge from this year's issue of Professor<br />
Kiirschner's "Deutsche Litteratur Kalender,"<br />
which has been fully described in this journal<br />
before, the guild of writers must be on the<br />
increase in Germany. It numbers sixty pages<br />
more than last year's issue, and contains much<br />
new and valuable information. The portraits<br />
inserted in the present volume are of special<br />
interest. The one facing the title-page represents<br />
the popular and prolific romancer Mas Ring, who,<br />
as we learn from Kiirschner, is a doctor of<br />
medicine, and will celebrate on the 4th of next<br />
month his eightieth birthday. Among his<br />
various successful novels the one entitled "John<br />
Milton und seine Zeit" has attracted in Germany<br />
particular attention. The second portrait is that<br />
of the well-known poet . Detlev von Liliencron.<br />
As for the rest, the useful literary and biographical<br />
annual fully maintains its standard, and we<br />
may cordially recommend it to all who take an<br />
interest in current German literature.<br />
PERSONAL.<br />
"|V TE- GEORGE SMITH gave a dinner at<br />
IVI the Hotel Mctropole, on July 8, to his<br />
friends and the contributors to the<br />
"Dictionary of National Biography." In pro-<br />
posing the health of Mr. Sidney Lee, Mr. Smith<br />
said that twenty-one volumes of the "Dic-<br />
tionary" had appeared under the editorship of<br />
Mr. Leslie Stephen, with the assistance of Mr.<br />
Sidney Lee; five were edited jointly by Mr.<br />
Stephen and Mr. Lee; and twenty-five had been<br />
produced under the editorship of Mr. Lee. The<br />
number of contributors was 634; and each volume<br />
contained between 400 and 500 separate biogra-<br />
phies. Mr. Lee, in replying to the toast, said<br />
that when ill-health unhappily compelled Mr.<br />
Stephen to retire from the editorship, it was the<br />
force of his example that had enabled him to<br />
carry the work forward to the stage it had<br />
reached. Mr. Stephen also acknowledged the<br />
toast. Mr. Lee gave " The Health of the Con-<br />
tributors," and Canon Ainger replied. "The<br />
Guests who were not Contributors" was proposed<br />
by the Chairman, who coupled with it the names<br />
of Viscount Peel and Mr. Lecky. One of the<br />
most remarkable features of the time, said Mr.<br />
Lecky, was the manner in which individual exer-<br />
tion had been replaced by corporate work, by<br />
syndicates and companies. It was old fashioned<br />
now to think that a history could only be written<br />
by one hand in a uniform style.<br />
The Tennyson Memorial in the Isle of Wight<br />
will be unveiled by Lady Tennyson, and dedicated<br />
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on Friday, the<br />
6th inst., at 3 p.m. It is placed in Freshwater<br />
Down, the favourite walk of the late Laureate.<br />
Mark Twain has declined the fund which was<br />
set on foot for him by the New York Herald, and<br />
supported in London by the Westminster Gazette.<br />
A man who is able to work, he says, should not<br />
accept charity. The appeal was meeting with<br />
ready response.<br />
A successful Dickens fete was held at Broad-<br />
stairs in the first week of July. The principal<br />
feature was a fancy dress bazaar, in which the<br />
stall-holders impersonated characters in the<br />
novelist's books. The proceeds will be devoted to<br />
erecting a club-house and other buildings in<br />
memory of Charles Dickens.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 87 (#501) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
87<br />
OBITUARY.<br />
MISS JEAN INGELOW died at Kensing-<br />
ton on July 20, at the age of seventy-<br />
seven. She came, like Tennyson, of a<br />
Lincolnshire family (her mother was a Scotch,<br />
woman of literary inclinations), and was one of a<br />
banker's eleven children. Her first volume which<br />
attained fame was "Poems" (1863), which has<br />
been popular through the half century that has<br />
elapsed since. This was her second work, the<br />
first, "A Rhyming Chronicle of Incidents and<br />
Feelings," having been published anonymously in<br />
1850. "The Brothers," " Divided," and " Songs<br />
of Seven" were likewise well received; and<br />
Mr. Swinburne, for one, paid very high praise<br />
to "Requiescat in Pace." Both in this country<br />
and in the United States her works com-<br />
manded large sale in the sixties and seventies.<br />
Her stories in blank verse included " Lawrance"<br />
and "Gladys and Her Island "; "Supper at<br />
the Mill" and "Afternoon at a Parsonage"<br />
were dainty sketches. The poem by which<br />
Miss Ingelow is best known is "High Tide<br />
on the Coast of Lincolnshire," which is a<br />
favourite piece with public reciters. She also<br />
wrote fairy stories for children and novels for the<br />
young. "Off the Skelligs" was perhaps her<br />
best prose work. Miss Ingelow seldom revised<br />
her poems after she had once committed them to<br />
paper. She shunned publicity, and was a generous<br />
friend of the poor.<br />
Sir John Skelton, K.C.B., LL.D., Advocate,<br />
late Vice-President of the Local Government<br />
Board for Scotland, died in his native city, Edin-<br />
burgh, on the 20th ult., aged sixty-six. He was<br />
the author of several books on public health and<br />
the poor law; of "Nugse Criticse," a volume of<br />
essays published in 1862; and of historical and<br />
other works, including " A Campaigner at Home,"<br />
"The Impeachment of Mary Stuart," " Maitland<br />
of Lethington and the Scotland of Mary Stuart,"<br />
"Mary Stuart," "Essays in Romance," and<br />
one novel, "Crookit Meg." It was Disraeli's<br />
admiration for "Crookit Meg" that removed<br />
the young barrister from Parliament House at<br />
Edinburgh to be Secretary of the old Board<br />
of Supervision. His latest work was "Table<br />
Talk of Shirley" (1895), of which a second<br />
series appeared last winter. This work contains<br />
reminiscences of some of the foremost writers of<br />
the present reign. Dr. Skelton was a consistent<br />
admirer of the unfortunate Queen of Scots, but<br />
this did not interfere with his close friendship<br />
with Froude. Under the pseudonym of " Shirley"<br />
lie was a frequent contributor to Frasers and<br />
Blackwood's. He was the original of Lord<br />
Glenalmond in Stevenson's" Weir of Hermiston."<br />
"' Shirley' is the last of them," the late Miss<br />
Isabella Blackwood used to say in speaking<br />
of the former but departed glories of literary<br />
Edinburgh.<br />
Sir John Charles Bucknill, M.D., F.R.C.P.,<br />
F.R.S., who died at Bournemouth on the 19th<br />
ult., aged seventy-nine, originated, in 1853, the<br />
Journal of Mental Science—which for nine years<br />
he edited, was one of the original editors—and<br />
Brain; and wrote numerous psychological works.<br />
The most important of these are: "Unsound-<br />
ness of Mind in Relation to Criminal Acts,"<br />
"The Mad Folk of Shakespeare," "Notes on<br />
American Asylums," "Habitual Drunkards and<br />
Insane Drunkards," and " Care of the Insane and<br />
their Legal Control."<br />
THE BOOKS OP THE MONTH.<br />
[June 24 to July 23.—154 Books.]<br />
About, Edmond. The King of the Mountains, [trans, by Richard<br />
Davey.] 3/6. Heinemann.<br />
Allen, Grant. An African Millionaire. 6'- Richards.<br />
Allingham, Francis. Crooked Paths. 6/- Longmans.<br />
Aloysius, Slater Mary. Memories of the Crimea. Burns and Oates.<br />
Anglican, An. Some Thoughts on the Third Order of St. Francis.<br />
I/- Skeffington.<br />
Anonymous. A Catalogue of the Egyptian Antiquities in tho Posses-<br />
sion of F. G. Hilton Price. Quaritch.<br />
Anonymous [*'E."]. Peggy's Decision. 1/- Simpkin.<br />
Anonymous. Notes on tho Painted Glass in Canterbury Cathedral.<br />
Canterbury: E. Crow.<br />
AnonymouB. The Oxford Debate on tho Textual Criticisms of the New<br />
Testament. Bell.<br />
Anonymous [•'One of H. M.'s servants."] The Private Life of tho<br />
Queen. 2/6. Pearson.<br />
Armitage, E. S. A Key to English Antiquities, with special reference<br />
to the Sheffield and Roiherham District. 7, - Sheffield:<br />
W, Townsend.<br />
ABtlns, G. S. Wayside Echoes. 2/- King, Sell, and Railton.<br />
Austin, Alfred. Victoria: June 20, 1S37—June 20, 1897. 6d.<br />
Macmillan.<br />
Bailey, James. Sunday School Teaching. 1/6. R. Cully.<br />
Barnes, W. E. An Apparatus Criticus to Chronicles in the Pesbitta<br />
Version. 5/- Clay.<br />
Harnett. P. A. (ed.) Teaching and Organisation. 6/6. Longmans.<br />
Barr, Robert. Tho Mutable Many, (i - Methueu.<br />
Bathurst, J. K. The Royal Houses of Great Britain. Genealogical<br />
Chart, with notes. Comparative Synoptical Chart Company.<br />
Be a van, A. A. Popular Royalty. 10 6. Low.<br />
Bell, R. S. Warren. The Cub in Love and Other Stories. 18.<br />
Richards.<br />
Bellamy, Edward. Equality 0 - Heinemann.<br />
Besant, Sir W. The Queen's Reign and its Commemoration.<br />
The Werner Company.<br />
Bingham, Clive. With the Turkish Army in Thessaly. C tj net.<br />
Macmillan.<br />
Blrrel), Augustine. Four Lectures on the Law of Employers' Liability<br />
at Home and Abroad. 2/6. Macmillan.<br />
Boae. W. P. Du. The Ecumenical Councils. 6 - Edinburgh: Clark.<br />
Bower, Marfan. The Story of Molly. 3;(J. Andrews.<br />
Brown, J. D., and Stratton, S. S. British Musical Biography. 10,6<br />
net. Birmingham: S. S. Stratton.<br />
Browning, Oscar (ed.) The Journal of Sir George Rooke, Admiral<br />
of the Fleet. Navy Records Society.<br />
Bryant, Sophie. The Teaching of Morality in the Family and the<br />
School. 8/- Sonnenschein.<br />
Bryden, H. A. The Victorian Era in South Africa. Offices of<br />
African Criiic.<br />
Caine, Caisar (editor). AnaVcta Eboracensia: Some Hemaynesof the<br />
Ancient City of York. 42 - Phillimore.<br />
Cameron, MrB. Lovott. A Man's Undoing. White.<br />
Campbell, C. T. British South Africa: A History of the Colony of<br />
the Cape of Good Hope. 7 C. Haddon<br />
Campbell, F. Index-Catalogue of Bibliographical Works (chiefly<br />
in the English language) relating to India. Library Bureau.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 88 (#502) #############################################<br />
<br />
88<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
Cavalry Officer, A. Cavalry Titetics. 4 - Stanford.<br />
Clarke, L. W. Tlie Miracle Play in England. 3/6. Andrews.<br />
Cocking. B. D. A Primer of French Etymology. 1/6. Innes.<br />
Cotton, John. Thoughts and Fancies. Simpkin.<br />
Cowell, E. B. (ed.) The Jataka. Vol. III. 12/6. Clay.<br />
Crawford, J. W. Wild Flowers of Scotland. 6/- net. Hacqueen.<br />
Davenport, Cyril. The English Regalia. 21 - net. Kegan Paul.<br />
Donaldson, T. Walt Whitman, The Man. 6/- (lay and Bird.<br />
Druery, O. T. The New Gulliver, or Travels in Athomia. 3/6.<br />
Roxburghe.<br />
Earlo, Mrs. C. W. Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Oarden. 7/6. Smith,<br />
Elder.<br />
England, Frances. Small Concerns. 1/- Dlgby.<br />
Farquharson, C. D. The Federation of the Powers. 1/- Warno.<br />
Forlong, J. G. R. Short StudieB in the Science of Comparative<br />
Bcligion, embracing all the religions of Asia. Quaritch.<br />
Fowler, Edith H. The Professor's Children. 6/- Longmans.<br />
Oarbctt, Captain H. Naval Gunnery. 6/- Bell.<br />
Gardiner, S. It. What Gunpowder Plot Was. o/- Longmans.<br />
Gardner, J. Starkie. Armour in England. 3/6 net. Seeley.<br />
Glnsburg. C. D. Introduction to the Massoretieo—Critical Edition of<br />
the Hebrew Bible. Tractarian Bible Society.<br />
Gorst, MrB. Harold. E. Possessed of Devils. 6/- Macqueen.<br />
Gregor, N. Ter. The Star of the Sea. 6/- Hoywood.<br />
Grenfell, B. P. and Hunt, A. S. (editors land trs.) AOriA IHCOY:<br />
Sayings of our Lord. From an early Greek Papyrus. 2 - net,<br />
and 6d. net. Frowde.<br />
Haldane, J. W. C. Bailway Engineering, Mechanical and Electrical.<br />
15/- Spon.<br />
Hallard, J. H. Gold and Silver: an Elementary Treatise on Bimetall-<br />
ism. 2/6. Bivington.<br />
Hammond, Joseph. A Coinish Parish. [St. Austell ] 10/6.<br />
Skeffington.<br />
Hancock, F. The Parish of Selworthy. Taunton: Barnicott and<br />
Pea re e.<br />
Harris, C. F. The Science of Brickmaking. H. Grevile Montgomery.<br />
Harvey, M. Newfoundland in 181)7. 6/- Low.<br />
Hay, J. Speech at Unveiling of the Scott Bust. 1/- net. Lane-<br />
Herbert, W. de Brocy. A Handbook of the Law of Banks and<br />
Bankers. 2/6. C. Wilson.<br />
Hewitt, J. D. It. Creation with Development, or Evolution. <; -<br />
Kegan Paul.<br />
Hewitt, J. T. Organic Chemical Manipulation. 7/6. Whittaker.<br />
Hill, G. F. Scenes from Greek History between tho Persian and<br />
Peloponnesian Wars. 10/6. Froude.<br />
Holt, B. B. Whitby PaBt and Present. Copas<br />
Howard. J. J., and Crisp, F. A. Visitation of England »nd Wales.<br />
Vol. V. 21/- F. A. Crisp, Grove Park, Denmark Hill, S.E.<br />
Hull, E. Our Coal Resources at the Close of the 19th century. Spon.<br />
James, R. N. Painters and their Works. Vol. III. Gill.<br />
Jane, Fred. T. The Torpedo Book. 1/- Bcoman.<br />
Jane, Fred. T. To Venice in Five Seconds. 1/6. Innes.<br />
Jay. Rose. A Missionary Family. 3/6. Marshall Bros.<br />
Johnson. A. H. Europe in the Sixteenth Century. 7/6. Rivington.<br />
Johnston, Sir H. H. British Central Africa. Mcthuen.<br />
Jones, H. A. The Case of Rebellious Susan. 2/6. Macmillan.<br />
Klrsop, Jos. Life of Thomas N. Carthew. Crombie.<br />
Lamond, B. The Sporting Adventures of M. Lolotte. 1/- Dlgby.<br />
Lang, Andrew, Modern Mythology. 9/. Longmans.<br />
Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. LI.<br />
Smith, Elder.<br />
Leith, Mrs. Disney. Three Visits to Iceland. 5/G. J. Masters and Co.<br />
Levett-Yeata, S. The Chevalier d'Aurlac. 6/- LongmanB.<br />
Lillie, A. Croquet: Its HiBtory, Rules, and Secrets. 6/- Longmans.<br />
Lowndes, Frederic S. Bishops of the Day. 5/- Richards.<br />
Lyrienne, B. de. The Quest of the Qilt-Edged Girl. 1/-net Lane.<br />
Macgregor, Sir William. British New Guinea. 4/. Murray.<br />
Macleane, D. A HiBtory of Pembroke College, Oxford. Oxford His-<br />
torical Society.<br />
Macray, W. D. A Register of the Members of St. Mary Magdalen<br />
College, Oxford. New Series, Vol. II.—Fellows, 1522-1575.<br />
7,6. net. Frowde.<br />
Maeterlinck, M. Aglavaine and Selysette. (tr. by A. Sutro). 2 6.<br />
net. Richards.<br />
Marlon, Neville. Sweet Scented Grass. 1/- Digbv.<br />
MarBh, F. E. Five Hundred Bible Readings. 6/- Marshall Bros.<br />
Martin, E. A. Nature Cbat.l/- Taylor.<br />
Maurice, Major-General. National Defences. 2/6. Macmillan.<br />
Mlall, L. C. Thirty Years of Teaching. 8/6. Macmillan.<br />
Morloy, George. In Russet Mantle Clad. 10,6. Skeffington.<br />
Morris, Sir Lewis. The Diamond Jubilee, an Ode. 6d. Kegan Paul.<br />
Morris, Wm. O'Connor. Hannibal. 5/- Putnam's.<br />
Oates, John. The Sorrow of God, and Other Sermons. 8/6. Bowden.<br />
Oliver, Pasfleld (tr. and editor). The Voyages made by the Sieur<br />
D. B. to Madagascar and Bourbon in 1669, 1670, 1671, and 1672.<br />
10/6 net. Nutt.<br />
Omond, T. S. English Verse-Structure. 1/- Edinburgh: D. Douglas.<br />
Pallnurus. The Paper Boat. 8/6. Bowden.<br />
Papenfus, F. W. The " Grondwet" of the South African Republic,<br />
wllh the Thirty-three Articles. Dunbar Brothers.<br />
Parish, Edmund. Hallucinations and Illusions, G- Scott.<br />
Pearmain, T. H., and Moor, C. G. The Analysis of Focd and Drugs.<br />
»/- BalUere.<br />
Pearson, the late Bishop. Words of Counsel. Stock.<br />
Phelps, Philip E. The Odea of Horace in English, and the Original<br />
Metres. 4 C net. Parker.<br />
Pollock, Wilfred. War and a Wheel. 1/- Cbwtto.<br />
Pope, J. Buckingham. Conservatives or Socialists? 1- Riving/ton.<br />
Prescott, J. E. (editor). The Bcgister of the Priory of Wetherhal.<br />
18/- Kendal: T. Wilson.<br />
Primmer, J. Jacob Primmer in Borne. 2 fi net. Dunfermline:<br />
Citizen Office.<br />
Pryde, D. The Queer Folk of Fife. Glasgow: Morison.<br />
Pryer, W. Stephen. Rowena and Harold. 1/6. Ward, Lock.<br />
Rnien of Reviewz. Notables of Britain. [Portraits and Autographs. ]<br />
5/- Office of Rcrhic of Revietc*.<br />
Bidden, Mrs. J. H. A Bich Man's Daughter. 6/- White.<br />
Bigg, Jas. Wild Flower Lyrics and other Poems. Gardner.<br />
Roberts, T. R. The Spas of Wales. 1/- J. Hog/r.<br />
Bobertson, F. E. A Practical Treatiso on Organ Building. Low.<br />
Ro8, Mrs. A. McK. Irene Iddesleigh. W. and G. Baird.<br />
Bothenstein, Will. English Portraits. Part III 2 G net. Richards.<br />
Bye, W. Songs, Stories, and Sayings of Norfolk. 2 - net.<br />
Norwich: A. H. Goose.<br />
Sachs, E. O. Modern Opera Houses and Theatres. Vol V. Batsford.<br />
Salntsbury, George. Sir Walter Scott [•'Famous Scots."] 1/6.<br />
Oliphant.<br />
Seymour, Gordon. A Homburg Story. 2 - Dent.<br />
Shuttleworth, E. The County Courts Act, 1S88. J. Smith and Co.<br />
Sill, E. B. What Happens at Death? *e. 16. Skiff!ngton.<br />
Skeat, W. W. (cd ). Chaucerian and Other Pieces. A Supplement to<br />
Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1894). 18'- Frowde.<br />
Smith, J. Fruits and Farinacea the Proper Food. Ideal Publ. Union.<br />
Solly, S. E. A Handbook of Medical Climatology. If./- ChurehllL<br />
Stanley, Hiram M. Essays on Literary Art. 3 6. Sonnenschofn.<br />
Stunner. H. H. The Counsels of William de Britaine. 3 6. Robinson.<br />
Swan, Annie S. The Curse of Cowden. 1/- Hutchinson.<br />
Taylor, Job. The Public Man: His Duties. Ac. 3 6 net E.Wilson.<br />
Temple, A. G. England's History as Pictured by Famous Painters.<br />
10/6. NewneB.<br />
Thomas, Bertha. Camera Lucida, or Strange Passages in Common<br />
Life. 6/- Low.<br />
Thomas, J. LI. Journeys among the Gentle Jsps. 7/6. Low.<br />
Thompson. J. A. Contribution to the History of Leprosy in<br />
New Zealand. 2 6 net. Macmillan.<br />
Traill, H. D. (ed.). Social England. Vol. VI.—1815-85. 18 - Cassell.<br />
Various Contributors. Paying Pleasures of Country Life. 1/-<br />
Routledge.<br />
Various Contributors (Bishop of Stepney and others). The Church<br />
Historical Society Lectures. Third Series. 2/- S.P.C K.<br />
Vaughan, J. N. Thoughts for All Times. 5/- Boxburghe.<br />
Venn, J. Biographical History of Gonvllle and Caius College, 1849-<br />
189 7. Vol.1. 20,- net. Clay.<br />
Vye, Birch. From the Womb of the Morning. 1 - Boxburghe.<br />
Wachtmeister, Countess C, and Davis, K. B. (editors). Practical<br />
Vegetarian Cookery. 3 6 net. TheoBophical Publishing Co.<br />
Walker, A. Manual of Needlework and Cutting Out. ■'./- Blackie.<br />
Wells, J. Oxford and Its Colleges. 3/- Methuen.<br />
Wentworth, B. Tho Master of Hurlingham Manor. 1'- Digby.<br />
Williams. E. E. The Foreigner in the Farmyard. Heinemann.<br />
Wlngfleld, W. Bicycle Gymkhana and Musical Bides. 5/- net.<br />
Harrison.<br />
Wooldridge, H. E. Early English Harmony. Vol I.—Facsimiles,<br />
prepared for the members of the Plainseng and Medieval Music<br />
Society. 25.'- Quaritch.<br />
Wright, S. The Law Eclating to Landed Estates. 12/6. Eztates<br />
Gazette Office.<br />
Wyatvllle, G. Victoria, Begina et Itnperatrix, and Other Poems.<br />
3/6 net. Birmingham: Cornish Bros.<br />
Xenopoulos, Gregory. Tho Stepmother (tr. by MrB. Edmonds).<br />
2/6 net. Lane.<br />
Zeto. Vashtl. a tragedy, and Other Poems. 5;- Kegan Paul.<br />
'• Zuresta." Ye Booke of Ye Cards. 1/- Boxburghe.<br />
Among the books of the month of July ought<br />
to have been mentioned " The Fairies' Favourite;<br />
or, the Story of Queen Victoria," told for children<br />
by T. Mullett Ellis. It was published nominally<br />
on Commemoration Day, but actually a little<br />
earlier. The publishers are Messrs. Ash Partners,<br />
Limited, and the price is is.<br />
In the books of the month, "Armstrong,<br />
Q-. F. S., Queen, Empress, and Empire," should<br />
have been entered as "Savage-Armstrong, G. F.,<br />
Queen, Empress, and Empire."<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 88 (#503) #############################################<br />
<br />
ADV<br />
Now Ready, Crown 8vo., Cloth Boards, Silver<br />
Price 68.<br />
A LADY OF WAI<br />
"A Story of the Siege of Chester, 1i<br />
BY THE<br />
Rev. VINCENT J. LEATHERDAL<br />
London: Horace eox, Windsor House, Bream'e-tmili<br />
SEMENTS.<br />
Ill<br />
Now ready, demy 8vo., cloth boards, price 10s<br />
IN NEW SOUTH AFf<br />
Travels in the Transvaal and Rhoa<br />
With Map and Twenty-six Illustrations.<br />
By H. LINCOLN TAN<br />
In demy 8vo., price 12s. net, by poet 12s. 6d.<br />
Six Months in a Syrian Monastery.<br />
Being the Record of a Visit to the Headquarters of the Syrian<br />
Church in Mesopotamia, with some account of the Yazidis, or Devil<br />
Worshippers of Mosul, and El Jilwah, their Sacred Book.<br />
By OSWALD H. PARRY, B.A.<br />
(Of Magdalen College, Oxford.)<br />
Illustrated by the Author. With a Prefatory Note by the<br />
Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Durham.<br />
41 The author of this handsome volume presents 1 a detailed study of<br />
a relic of history pursued off the track of general research;' he has<br />
sought to give, and has succeeded in giving. 'a picture of quiet life in<br />
a country much abused, and among a people that command less than<br />
their share of ordinary interest.' 1 Westward the tide of Empire takei<br />
its way,' sang a prophetic divine of the olden days, and no less<br />
certainly, as Mr. Parry points out, does the ebb of travel roturn<br />
towards the East. ... As a volume descriptive of life and travel<br />
among a distant people, his work is welt worth reading, but for those<br />
persons who are more particularly concerned with the old Syrian<br />
Church, or in the solution of the problem indicated above, it is one of<br />
quite unique attraction. A pathetic interest attaches to the account<br />
of the YazidiB included in this volume for it contains part of their<br />
sacred writings, the original manuscript of which was in the hands<br />
of Professor Robertson Smith for translation at the time of his<br />
death.' —Publisher? Circular,<br />
CONTENTS.<br />
Introductory.<br />
PART I.<br />
Chapter I.—The Land of Gold and the Way there.<br />
II.—Across Desert and Veldt.<br />
III. —Johannesburg the Golden.<br />
IV. —A Transvaal Coach Journey.<br />
V.—Natal: the South African Garden.<br />
VI.—Ostracised in Africa. Home with the Swalt<br />
PART II —RAMBLES IS RHODESIA<br />
Chapter L—Eendragt Maakt Magt.<br />
,, IL—Into the Country of Lobengula.<br />
III.—The Trail of War.<br />
,, IV.—Gold mining. Ancient and Modern.<br />
V.—Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.<br />
„ VI.—To Northern Mashonaland.<br />
„ VIL—Primitive Art. The Misadventures of a Wa<br />
Index.<br />
London: H0Ri.cs Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-builc<br />
Crown 8vo., cloth boards, price 6s.<br />
HATHERSAC<br />
A Tale of North Derbyshij<br />
BY<br />
CHARLES EDMUND H<br />
Author of " An Ancient AnoeBtor," ftc|<br />
London: HORACE Cox, Wlnd»or House, Breun's-bull<br />
London: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C.<br />
Eoyal 8vo., price 16s. net.<br />
SPORTING DAYS<br />
IN<br />
SOUTHERN INDIA:<br />
BEING<br />
REMINISCENCES OF TWENTY TRIPS IN PURSUIT<br />
OF BIG GAME,<br />
CHIEFLY IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY.<br />
Lieut.-Col. A. J. O. POLLOCK,<br />
Eoyal Scots Fusiliers.<br />
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY WHYMPER<br />
AND OTHERS.<br />
Contents.<br />
Chapters I., II., and III—The Bear.<br />
IV. and V.—The Panther.<br />
VI., VII., and VIII.—The Tiger.<br />
IX. and X.—The Indian Bison.<br />
XI. and XII.—The Elephant.<br />
XHI.—Deer (CervicUe) and Antelopes.<br />
XIV. —The Ibex.<br />
XV. and XVI.—Miscellaneous.<br />
ndon : Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 88 (#504) #############################################<br />
<br />
ADVErERTKNTS.<br />
IV<br />
THE TEMPLE 1<br />
UTING OFFICE. §<br />
kail<br />
| rpYPEWEITING EXCEPTIONALLY ACCTJ T| fl KriceB. Duplicates of Circulars by the latest |<br />
^ ■> ,_.TrT,-r>V ITT DON C <J, 1< .L. H.Xl<-1- OJ-iVJaiaii<br />
3 ^y^^^3.r^»^mr<br />
be ns. a-1L<br />
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,<br />
LUDGATE HILL, E.C.<br />
"TYP.ws.Tixa by S»™1'!ijtfl'1,SlKl<br />
13 Wol^erton Gardens, Hammersmtth, R jflj^ J. (ESTABLISHED 1883.)<br />
(EsTAnusnED IBM.) \ ;~M<br />
t am) General Copyi..„.<br />
TywwrMen Circular, by Copying Process. ,ing8< E.0.<br />
AUTHORS' BEFEBKSCEB.<br />
EUSS carefully copied from In. per 1000 words. Duplicate<br />
M< price. Skilled typists sent out by hour day. or week.<br />
W; accurately copied, or typewritten English translations<br />
kindly permitted to Sir Walter Bcsant: also<br />
, P Watt and Son, Literary Agents, Hastings House,<br />
Meet, Strand, W.C.<br />
ACCURATELY AND PROMPTLY EXECXJTEI d(<br />
RLeadenhall Street, London, n.C<br />
H<br />
POSTAGE I'AID. PUAW »i-» t<br />
MISS HAINES, 11. FALCONER CHAMBERS, SCARB<\<br />
luTHOR'S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD.<br />
(The Leadeshau. Press Ltd.),<br />
q esio<br />
<br />
Super-royal Svo., price 20a., post free.<br />
CROCKFORD'S<br />
CLERICAL DIRECTORY 1<br />
BEING A<br />
STATISTICAL BOOK OF EEFEEENC<br />
For fa ts Muting to the Clergy in England, Wales, Scotia<br />
and the Colonies: with n fuller Index relating to P<br />
Benefices thim any ever yet given to the public.<br />
Chockkord's CLERICAL Directory is more than a Direc<br />
taini concise Biographical details of all the mlnlstersandd<br />
the Church of England, Wales, Scotland. Ireland, and th<br />
also a List of the Parishes of each Diocese in Englandffon<br />
arranged in Hural Deaneries.<br />
ins hairless paper, over which the pen<br />
„ h perfect freedom.<br />
1 -v^x."1 %xpence each: 5«. per dozen, ruled or plain.<br />
Pocket Size, price fid.; by post, fi.Jd.<br />
LAWS OF GOLF,<br />
jpted by the Royal and Ancient Gulf Club of<br />
1 St. Andrc^ve.<br />
tii:il Kulcs for Medal Plav.<br />
uette of Golf.<br />
rners of the Golfing Championship,<br />
pen and Kunners-up for the Amateur Championship.<br />
<br />
Q Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C<br />
Crown Svo., limp cloth, price 2s. Cd.<br />
HANDBOOK<br />
Horace COX. Windsor House, Bream-s-buildiugs,<br />
Crown 8vo.,<br />
3d. extra<br />
PROCEDURE<br />
OF THE<br />
USE of COMMONS,<br />
WITH<br />
Second Edition, B-*- -d<br />
PRINCIPLES™* OP 4r' MEN™Y D'BATING S0C'ETIES'<br />
„„v and PRACT1C1' > „ „^ ✓ < t> t v x^,„<br />
HE:<br />
'.SUGGESTIONS AND PRECEDENTS<br />
FOR THE CSE OF<br />
,N THEORY AND PRACT1CI<br />
Combination. *■ .<br />
Windsor House. Bream's-buB<br />
3. Combination.<br />
London: Hobace Cox<br />
r GEO. G. GRAY, Esq.,<br />
Ind.), J.P., Barrister-at-Law, Ac., Author of "A Manual of<br />
_ —. ptcy," a Treatise on 11 The Right to Support from Land and<br />
^\ J J I Jj ^Si" &C., Speaker of the Hastings Local House of Commons.<br />
: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C<br />
"panted and Published by<br />
^~^dlng«, E.C. fie> Bream'e-btiildings, London, E.C. | https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/306/1897-08-02-The-Author-8-3.pdf | publications, The Author |