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Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1890-07-15 Volume 1 Issue 3 Pages Page range in volume 59–88 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18900715 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. 1.–No. 3] JULY 15, 1890. . [Price, Sixpence, The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Published for the Society Be ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. - 1890.  ## p. 58 (#82) ############################################## Berton, Sept 1yh1878 anse Mersands of letters. Men. Marie, Todd & Co. Jene t it as of our one ..... und and I hohe ou une I have seus me of your do the beat you can for it frius, to have a point meuded . Though I have in the mean rough Meu Hoshu, leurs : Trier bought another of qui It. of Mencity. Ton may like to know that shake - Corrugated mached C. Thave and this yeu constantly I do not know whether : formure than twenty years, que caus hin this testimonial hine the days of a book of min hot'I jul as if the fun when called "The Automath of the Breakfast talle "1857-8 mutie . has cancied out to much of muy thought and brought back last Friday without repair and always with herfect satisfaction To much in banin farms in ehun was enlitted to this I have written with in halfa - Certificat of hinnata tecnica dozen or more volumes, a lange number of Ennys de Mira Wordleli Hermes ILLUSTRATED Price List will be sent, free and post paid, on application to MABIE, TODD & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.  ## p. 59 (#83) ############################################## (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. 3.] JULY 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence. CONTENTS. News and Notes ... "The Literary Handmaid of the Church" The German Society of Au-hors A Hard Case, No. Ill La Federation du Livre Unauthorized Publication of Sermons— I. Note by W. Morris Colles II. Note by F. P III. IV. Letters reprinted from the Times by the Bishop Peterborough {by permission) The Inauthorated Corpses Leaflet No. III.—On Paying for Publication of Questions, Cases, and Answers A Personal Experience Chestnut Bells Encore. By Charles G. Leland The Queen's English. By Oswald Crawfurd ... The Memorial to the First Lord of the Treasury The Pensions of the Year A New Guide to Books Mr. Bainton on Himself At Work New Books and New Editions Advertisements PAGE ... 7« ... 78 ... 79 ... 79 ... 80 ... 82 ... 8a 83 ... 84 ... 85 ... 86 NEWS AND NOTES. TH F. Council of the Society has been strength- ened by the accession of the following names: — Lord Brabourne, Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G., Messrs. Alfred Austin, R. D. Blackmore, James Bryce, W. Martin Conway, P. W. Clayden, Oswald Crawfurd, Marion Crawford, Eric Erichsen, G. R. Sims, and Edmund Yates. Of these gentlemen Mr. W. Martin Conway joins the Committee of Management. The Third Annual Dinner of the Society was held on Tuesday, July 8th. The Chair was taken by Prof. Jebb. There were 200 present on the occasion. A full report will be presented with the next number. A lady who wishes to be anonymous has offered to present to the Committee the sum of ^30 annually for three years, to be expended in such a manner as may appear to be for the best interests of Literature. This offer of pecuniary assistance is a new thing of this year. It shows that the work of the Society is being understood and ap- preciated. Another sign of advancing opinion is that on the foundation of The Author a good many members came forward to give it a start. It isastound- ing how much may be effected even in such a Society as ours by means of the little cheque. We have never yet gone begging, but . Meantime, there would be no pecuniary anxieties if we had two thousand members instead of six hundred, and if everybody would remember the modest annual obligation. Amid the general mingled chorus of denunci- ation, exasperation, disappointment, satire, and dis- gust, caused by the loss of the International Copy- right Bill, there has hitherto been lacking—what it specially behoves The Author to supply—some recognition of the noble efforts made by the leading men, the men of culture, in the Eastern States. These men have never rested, and are still active, in advocating by every means in their power the passage of the Bill. They include all the authors of America, all the honourable publishers, and a great number of editors. The opponents of the Bill are the ignorant Western farmers, who know nothing about literature, literary property, authors' rights, or anything else except their own local interests. The education of these men is a slow process; they take a great deal of time to grasp new ideas; the existence of authors is not suspected by them ; the existence of authors' rights is absolutely unknown to them. But they are gradually being educated. Let us consider our own case before we throw stones at the Americans. It is now five years since vol. 1. E  ## p. 60 (#84) ############################################## 6o THE AUTHOR. this Society began its endeavours to educate the British world into the perception of the fact that there is such a thing as literary property and that it is a very real thing. We are not Western farmers. Yet we have not learned to grasp this one central fact any more than these honest members of Con- gress. Still the old ideas cling; still those who talk of literary property as if it was a real thing, like turnips, are regarded as madmen. Still the leading articles talk of the dangers and uncertainties of publishing. Still the old belief remains, that authors must take whatever their employers choose to bring them; still that old Bogey, "Risk," is trotted out to frighten us; still men continue to talk about the "generosity " of their publishers—as if writers were beggars, humbly holding out their hands for doles, instead of honest men demanding their just share in the proceeds of the work of their hand and brain. These ideas will slowly pass away. But meantime since they linger in this country, and are every day traded upon for their own purposes by interested persons, we cannot be surprised at an equal ignorance among the narrow-minded and half educated people who form the greater part of Congress. Consider, again, a special case, recent and treated further on in these columns. There is a certain great Society called the Society for Promot- ing Christian Knowledge. Its President is the Arch- bishop of Canterbury: its Vice-Presidents are other Archbishops and Bishops: its Publication Committee are all clergymen. Now, not one of these illustrious men seems as yet to have grasped the simple truth that an author may be sweated as well as a needlewoman; and that in the purchase of literary property there are elementary laws of morality based on the Eighth Commandment. Not one, so far as I know, up to the present moment of writing, when their Society has been called upon to compare its methods of publishing with these simple principles of truth and equity, and has, so far, by its silence, refused to do so, has boldly declared that he will no longer pre- side—or vicariously preside—over a great Corpora- tion, which, unless certain ugly allegations can be explained, seems to be little better than a Society of Sweaters for the greater glory of Christ. With this illustration before them can the authors of Great Britain expect from an ignorant Western farmer a keener thirst for righteousness than they have found at home among the Societies of the Anglican Church? As for what is said on International Copyright by newspapers in the Eastern States, read the enclosed from the New York Evening Post. It refers to the pirated edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." "A certain man went from Edinburgh to America and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his sheets, and electrotyped him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And a certain Doctor of Divinity passed by on the other side; and when he saw him he went over, and came where he was, and said unto him: 'How is it with thee, my friend?' And he answered him: 'I am in sore distress, for that I have been robbed of nearly all that I possess.' And the Doctor of Divinity spake and said: 'My heart is heavy for thee, my friend; but hast thou yet anything left?' And he answered him again, saying: 'Yea, the half of what I had is left me; but I am in fear least my enemy return and carry off the rest!' 'Nay,' said the man of God, 'but if others are to have a cast at thee, I may as well come in for my share; but, for that I have great compassion on thee, I will leave thee a portion of what these wicked men have spared.' And, so saying, he took what pleased him of the man's goods, and having preyed upon him, gave him his blessing and went and prayed in the temple. Likewise a certain Pharisee, who was also a haberdasher and a man of letters, passed that way, voyaging from Washington by way of Philadelphia; and he came and looked on the man and saw that he was helpless, and heard his groans. And he also inquired of him what ailed him; and when he had heard his story he beat his breast and cried aloud: 'This is flat burglary, to take all that thou hast, and to leave next to nothing for me! Verily, I must protect myself against such wicked- ness, and must circumvent the doers thereof; since it is expected of me that when circumventing is to be done, I shall be there!' And with that he seized on the balance of the man's stock, and blessed him in the name of his peculiar god, and went his way. But a certain Government having on his breast a breastplate whereon was writ in letters of gold, 'In God We Trust,' came where the man was, and when he saw him, he had com- passion on him, and went to him, and opened his wounds, and rubbed into them salt and vinegar, and set him on a wild ass of the desert, and put a bunch of nettles under the tail of the beast, and cried unto the man: 'Away with thee, thou foreigner! What rights hast thou that I need respect? I care not twopence for thee or thy wrongs; and if ever thou darest come again, I will repay thee!"' In another place will be found a letter from Mr. Bainton on the subject of what he is pleased to call a " stab in the dark." Everybody else thinks that it has been a stab in the open. But never mind,  ## p. 61 (#85) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 61 The point and moral of the correspondence to the readers of The Author should be that in future they should not allow themselves so easily to be drawn. Why should authors alone, of all professions, be asked to explain their methods? Why should they, when they are asked, be so ready to reply? For my own part, I fell into the trap, like my neighbours, but fortunately wriggled out again and did not explain my methods. In future, let us behave with greater reticence. Now what would be thought if some enterprising gentleman were to write to all the barristers in practice in the following terms ?— Dear Sir, I must speak at last. There comes a time when silence is culpable. I have long" considered you the most eloquent orator as well as the most accom- plished and learned lawyer that at present adorns the Outer or the Inner Bar. I read nothing at all but your speeches; my wife reads nothing at all but your speeches. She takes them after early dinner, with a nap; moreover, I have for a long time given my mother-in-law, who lives with us, and is now in declining spirits, nothing at all to read but your speeches; my children learn your speeches by heart. My youngest—Teeny Wheeny, three—is now learning her alphabet out of your speeches. They are, in fact, deeply alphabetic. I am going to give a little lecture—just a little lecture —to one or two young people. I wish to call my lecture the "Art of Demosthenes, or the Ciceronian Bag of Tricks." I desire above all things to strengthen it by a description of your own Bag of Tricks, oratorical and legal. Will you therefore kindly tell me where you picked up your method of oratory, and how you manage to seem to know so much law? I remain, Sir, Your obedient admirer and respectful worshipper, Theophilus Swipe. Now who would expect a barrister to answer this letter, or to take the least notice of the writer? Vet the authors, when they receive a similar letter, reply all together en masse, without, apparently, any exception. There was, I learn, an exception. It was an American man of letters, and one of great distinction. He positively did not reply. It is not generally known that a certain fable of ^isop referring to a fox and a crow and a piece of cheese, was written for authors, who have so far failed to observe the moral. The following is a close translation of the fable in its first form. Amid the leaves—the leaves of bay—■ The leaves they use for crowns— The author sat, the livelong day, Above the common clowns; Well skilled was he the crafty rhyme And artful plot to mix; And in his hand he held, meantime, His precious Bag of Tricks. "Oh! Master, Master, greatest, first—" He heard, and blushed to hear— "All other bards with envy burst— I've seen 'em—that I swear. Day in, day out, the week about, Thy great works through and through, I read and read—I do, indeed; So do my children too. "Tell me, sweet author, whom I love— Ah !head so fitly crowned! Thy place so rightly set above, The bay leaves circling round!— Tell me, sweet author, if thou wilt, Oh! condescend to tell- How are thy tales romantic built? How canst thou rhyme so well? "Thy art, thy secret, and thy craft, Confide—confide to me." The author smiled—the author laughed; Yet never a word said he. "Oh! by the crown of glory grand That on thy pale brow sticks" That crown to feel, he raised his hand And dropped his Bag of Tricks! There is no moral to this fable in the original. But La Fontaine's will do— "Mon bon Monsieur, Apprens que tout flaneur Vit aux depens de celui qui lecoute.' The Daily News, which has always been on the alert to watch any step in the movement for International Copyright, reportsadecision which may lead to very valuable results. It was delivered on June 25th, by Judge Shipman, of the United States Circuit Court. Three suits were begun some time ago by Messrs. A. and C. Black, cf Edinburgh, and the Scribners, their American agents, against an American firm which had published a pirated edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" from photographic plates, charging infringement of the American copyright laws because the republication contained articles written by Americans and copy- righted in this country by them. The defendants entered demurrers based on the general ground VOL. I. E 2  ## p. 62 (#86) ############################################## 62 THE A UTHOR. that the publishers of the "Encyclopaedia Britan- nica," in employing American authors to treat of American topics and then publishing their articles under copyright, thereby laid a trap for the American public and American publishers, and therefore a court of equity could not interfere to protect such a fraud. Judge Shipman overruled the demurrers, and declared that the assignments in no way permitted other parties to infringe authors' copyrights. This decision has been hailed with delight by the advocates of International Copyright, who regard it as the most serious check the piratical publishers have yet had. There are three photo- graphic editions of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" now selling at about a seventh of the price of the authorized edition. The decision is likely to alarm the publishers, since, if sustained in further judgments, Messrs. A. and C. Black will bring suits against them for heavy damages. "I have never yet had any disagreement with my publisher," said a well-known man of letters the other day. "Therefore, I have not joined the Society." The remark and the inference alike illustrate a common disposition to look on the Society as one which exists for the purpose of patch- ing up or even of creating quarrels and grievances with publishers. That is not the case, of course, only one is well-nigh tired of repeating the fact. It suits certain persons who regard us with natural hostility to keep this delusion alive. The Society has no quarrel with publishers as such, and never has had any. It maintains continually that the services which publishers render to Literature are solid, and must be substantially paid for. The Society exists, however, mainly for the purpose of maintaining the rights, the sacredness, and the reality of Literary Property. Therefore it fights the battle of all authors, and should be supported by all who approve of its principles. Briefly, they are these :— (1) Literary property is created by the author, and belongs at the outset to him. (2) Literary property must be held as sacred as any other kind of property. (3) Literary property is ruled by the demand for a book just as colliery property means the sale of the output. And as the value of a colliery depends first on the output in tons and their price, so the value of a book can only be estimated with reference to the number of copies sold. (4) The author must not part with his property without due consideration, nor without understanding exactly what possibilities, as well as what certainties, he gives and what he receives. (5) What the author is entitled to, is, after pay- ment of the cost of production and the publisher's agency and labour, all the remain- ing proceeds. This proportion of the returns is the property which he has to sell for a lump sum down, or to receive year by year. (6) The publisher has to be remunerated for his agency and labour out of the returns of the book in a certain proportion, which should be a fixed proportion recognised by both contracting parties and understood by both. These principles have long been recognized by the French after a good fight, carried on by the Socie'te des Gens de Lettres, an association of which ours is a successor and an imitator. But how, it may be asked, if publishers will not agree to the adoption, once for all, of an equitable arrange- ment? It is the task of the Society to create such a consensus of opinion on the subject as will cause all houses which desire to maintain a good name to fall in with the Society's views. It will also cause all authors of ability and reputa- tion to insist upon equitable agreements. How, it may be asked again, about the unfortunate begin- ners and those who have no name? The scheme to be put forward by the Society will cover their case as well. But they must, first of all, be protected. And for this reason our pages are full of stories of the scoundrels who deceive and rob the literary beginner. Consider. Is there to be no protection for the weak? Is a pickpocket to get off with impunity because he has only stolen a girl's purse? The Council of this Society does not hold that opinion. There are many who still maintain that sharks and thieves should be free to do as they please— devour and destroy—rob and lie with impunity, because ignorant and young literary aspirants ought to take care of themselves, and because most of their work is rubbish. In no branch of the industrial community should thieves be per- mitted to exist. And even if good quality of work were to be the condition of protection, we should have to protect a whole hundred because one of them—an unknown one—may have in him the gift of authorship. As a curious illustration of the growing change in opinion on this subject, it may be mentioned that in one of the most popular penny- papers of the day, a paper which circulates by the hundred thousand, there lately appeared an article on " Bogus Publishers," written by one who knows the gentry and has served under them. The article might have been written in this office,  ## p. 63 (#87) ############################################## THE A UTHOR. 63 so true it is, and so complete in its details. Was it conscience or was it revenge which forced this ex- perienced person to reveal the secrets? "We have taken your new MS. on the old terms," said a certain small publisher recently. "Of course, however, you will not join the Society of Authors. In fact, we put a black mark against the name of every member of that Society." The writer of that work is a member. If this remark has been made to anybody else, let me hasten to point out that if this publisher were to put all the black marks he has got against all the names of all the authors, no harm whatever would be done because in such a case we should immediately find other publishers who would do the work of production and distribution quite as well, and in this case perhaps much better. Fortunately the public cares nothing who publishes a book; it is concerned solely with the contents. Plenty of men—hundreds and thousands of men— are willing and anxious to step into any trade by which they can make money. But to the marker in black—the black marker—we would point out very seriously that the Society itself can do a great deal more harm to a publisher than he can do to any individual member. We are now, he should under- stand, by no means a small, harmless, or a feeble body. One does not like even the appearance of boast- fulness, but the following little fact illustrates some- thing approaching to power. There is a certain firm in this city of which it is sufficient to say that all the worst things ever alleged against the publishing trade maybe brought together, and, with the greatest truth, alleged against this particular firm. We have for a long time kept work out of their hands, and we intend to go on doing so until they mend their ways. It was reckoned the other day, by one who has had the chief conduct of this business, that in the space of eighteen months or two years over ,£2,000 worth of work has been kept from these people, and that without reckoning on the chance of a big success among the authors kept from them. Now as writers learn more and more to distrust their own ignorance and to seek advice of those who know as to whom they should trust, this branch of our business will naturally increase and multiply. My statement in last month's Author that there are fifty men and women who make a thousand a year by writing novels has been questioned. I have, therefore, taken the trouble to draw up a list, which, however, must not, for obvious reasons, be published. I find that I can enumerate almost off-hand more than fifty—Americans and English —who are called novelists by the world, and make over a thousand a year by writing, though the whole income may be sometimes derived from other kinds of literary work. I know the facts partly from ex- perience acquired in the offices of the Society, partly from information. A note in the St. James's Gazette asks whether these works are worth the money. This question denotes some confusion of ideas. For what is the actual worth of a book? You cannot measure it at all by money. A suc- cessful novelist is one who holds the attention, commands interest, awakens emotions, amuses or terrifies, calls up tears or laughter, and brings brightness into millions of dull lives. This great power is not to be valued by money at all. If the St. James's critic asks whether the books really produce by their sale all this money, that is a very different question. They really do—and a very great deal more. Here is an interesting little proposal. A "Graduate of Oxford," modestly hiding his philan- thropic name, has conceived a theory that there are many poets, as yet unrecognized, who would like their "best" verses—only their best, mind—to be published. He invites them, therefore, to send him two or three short poems not exceeding in all 120 lines. With their best verses is to be forwarded a guinea. In return the contributor will receive two copies of a handsome volume in which—oh! Joy and Glory!—his own best verses will appear. It will be like bringing out the best china, or wearing the best clothes, or sleeping in the best bed room, all these things being among the innocent pleasures of our ancestors. "These," will say the glorified bard, "are my best verses; others I have, second best, for home consumption, and even third best, for washing day, but these are my best." If the poet is to be made happy, what shall be said of the benevolent Graduate? His handsome volume contains, we will suppose, 20 sheets, or 320 pages, with, at the rate of three pages apiece, 107 contributors. He must print 214 copies at least. The cost of the volume will be about ,£35. Grateful to their Graduate, the poets will contribute ^107. Net profit to the Graduate (besides gratitude, warmth of heart, and glow of virtue) ^72. Who will say that he is overpaid? The Society does not, as a rule, work for people whojare not members, but there are occasions on which it is necessary to break this rule. One such occurred the other day when a young writer sent up a grievous case. He had been writing steadily for a certain firm, until their obligations amounted to a considerable sum. He therefore  ## p. 64 (#88) ############################################## 64 THE AUTHOR. wrote for a cheque. He received no answer. He wrote again—and again. There was still no answer. He wrote therefore to the Society. The firm were informed that if they preferred legal proceedings to paying their just debts, they could have them. They preferred, however, paying the author in full, with the statement that they had not received more than one letter of application. Now the firm will probably never take any more work from the young man. But this is the very best thing that could possibly happen to him. He will now try to get employed by some firm which does pay. I give, after these notes, a brief resume of a pamphlet addressed to the Publication Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. I have received other instances of their treatment of authors, even more flagrant than those quoted in the pamphlet. No answer has been vouch- safed to this pamphlet either by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the President of the Society, or by the Publication Committee. As this worthy body will not meet till October, further action in the matter is deferred until then, when I hope to parade a few more facts to delight the world with the "Christian" methods of dealing with other people's property. —* Among the " warnings " which we publish every month in Tlie Author, and every year in the "Annual Report," is one which cautions writers against signing any agreement, in which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, without consulting the Society. A little circumstance which happened a year or two ago, and was related to me the other day by a very well known man of letters, illustrates the necessity for this warning. It is what mathematicians call an extreme case— that is to say, we have never at the Society come across one quite so "extreme." Here it is :—A person had produced a MS. on a certain subject which she—it was a lady—wished to publish. She accordingly took it to a man whom she believed honest, and asked him if he would produce it. He agreed to do so if she would pay the whole cost of production. He sent an estimate of this. It amounted, according to his showing, to £120 for so many copies. She showed the estimate to a friend, who submitted the MS. to a printer. He offered to print and bind as many copies for the sum of ^16—of course it was a very short manuscript. This was done and the work published. We have often seen the "cost of production" set down at double. But to multiply the actual cost by seven and a half shows an amount of enterprise which we could not previously expect. Waltlr Besant. "THE LITERARY HANDMAID OF THE CHURCH." THIS pamphlet appeared in the third week of June. A copy has been sent to the President and all the Vice-Presidents of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. The following is an abridgment of its contents :— "The Publication Committee of the Society for the Promo- tion of Christian Knowledge, in their Report for last year, announce that they will 'gladly receive any suggestion' which may enable them to make * the venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid of the Church of Eng- land throughout the world.' "A Publication Committee has to do with Literary Property. It is therefore desirable first of all to lay down certain pre- liminary observations on the nature of Literary Property. "(I.) First of all, it is very real property; it has its fluctua- tions, like corn, wine, and any other property; but it is a species of property which enables a few hundreds to live in great comfort, plenty, and luxury, and a great many thousands to live simply and carefully. "(2.) Literary property is subject to the laws w hich protect all property. The simplest and the most comprehensive of all these laws is the Eighth Commandment, ' Thou shalt not steal.' "Applied to literature and addressed to Publishers, Publish- ing Societies, and Publication Committees, this Command- ment is thus to be interpreted: 'Thou shalt not cheat the author while buying his work from him; thou shalt not pay the workmen a price which will reserve for thyself the principal profit ; thou shalt remember that the work is his—his the design of it, his the invention, the fancy, the imagination, the learning, the brain, and the hand of it. It is not thine at all. If it becomes thine it must be by an equitable agree- ment, which shall give thee only a fair reward for labour done, and leave to him all the rest.' In no other way can this Commandment be read and interpreted by a conscien- tious Publication Committee. "(3-) What is the value of a book? Clearly it is the price which it will fetch in the market. That is say, it depends upon the number of copies which the public will buy. An author, therefore, can claim his reward solely with reference to that number, and a publisher, can, equitably, make his offer of remuneration only with reference to that number. "(4.) The publisher is an agent ; he must be paid for his agency in managing, distributing, and collecting, out of the proceeds of the lxx>k. For his trouble he is entitled to a reasonable percentage on the proceeds. "For example, if a publisher gives an author £yi for a book out of which he makes a nett profit of £100, knowing, or reasonably expecting, that he is going to make that, or some similar amount, he may be a successful trader, but he must lie classed as a sweater and a robber in the eyes of honour- able men, and especially of a Society which exists for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. For if Christian Know- ledge be not promoted on Christian principles, then were it better not to be promoted at all. The author may never know that he has been robbed. But the fact remains. The Eighth Commandment still hangs upon the wall." The pamphlet then goes on to speak of the four kinds of publishers. "First, the upright, or perfect publisher. He, sensitive and lender of conscience, will not take from an author one penny more than is his own just due. lie has settled with his conscience what he should lie paid for what he has done, and  ## p. 65 (#89) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 65 he will lake no more. If he pays an author a sum of money down, it is considered by this person only as an advance on what may become due to him afterwards if his work succeeds. He will not publish bad work, or work that will not succeed. To have that publisher's name at the foot of a title-page is a hallmark of excellence. To be in his hands is to rest easy in the assurance that he will do the best for the book and be honest, that is, just, with the author. "Where is that publisher to be found? Surely, we should look for him first in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. It is a Society whose President is the Primate of all England ; whose Vice-Presidents are all the Archbishops and Bishops; whose General Literature Com- mittee contains nine clergymen out of twelve members; and whose three Secretaries are also Clergymen. "There, if anywhere, should we expect to find the upright publisher. "The second kind of publisher is he who belongs to a house well established and desirous to be considered as honourable. The distinction, let us remember, between the 'honourable' houses and those which are not honourable is well known and perfectly understood by all who have studied the business of publishing. Now when we divide publishing houses into those which are honourable and those which are dishonour- able, there cannot, surely, be a doubt or a question on which side we ought to place the Literature Department of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge—the 'Literary Handmaid of the Church.' The gentlemen who form the Publication Committee shall themselves, if they please, when they have inquired into the conduct of their own business, answer that question, each in turn, after the manner of the House of Lords, every man his hand on his heart— 'Upon my Honour.' "The third class is that of the knavish publisher. These gentry, of whom there are many, are those who rob and cheat the ignorant author in every account that they produce, who chea-t and lie in their statements of the cost of produc- tion, of t he sums spent in advertising, in the moneys they have received, and, in fact, in every way that can suggest itself to the ingenuity of man. "The fourth class is that of the sweating publisher. "The Select Committee of the House of Lords, on the sweating system, of which the Archbishop of Canterbury, President of the Society for Promoting Christian Know- ledge, was a member, reports that the first evil of the sweating system is 'A rate of wages inadequate to the necessities of the workers or disproportionate to the work done.' Let us accept this definition, and apply it to this class of publishers. "The sweating publisher, then, is one who grinds down the faces of his unfortunate authors, who offers a miserable sum for work which is going to bring him in a hundredfold profit—who scruples not to toss an author a ten-pound note for his labour, and without a pang of shame or remorse makes ^50 or .£100 or £$oo profit for himself; who knows no law but the cruel law of supply and demand, and recognises no other right in an unfortunate author but his right to receive meekly the highest sum that he can obtain. "There are many of these people abroad. They deal largely with the productions of women. The sweater, it is well known, works more comfortably by means of women. They are helpless, they are ignorant of business, they are yielding; if they cannot be frightened they can be cajoled. And literary women, again, are timid about their own work, not knowing what amount of stability they have achieved or what is the extent of their popularity. Therefore the sweater can do what he pleases with them. If they venture gently to remonstrate, he bullies them; if they weep and entreat, he threatens. He enjoys making them feel that he is their master; he is never so happy as when he has them at his feet, humiliated and submissive. The sweater is always a bully as well as a sweater. "He has got all kinds of excuses for his sweating. His first excuse—in fact, the words are seldom out of his mouth—is that there is perfect freedom of contract between himself and his authors. 'It is take it or leave it. Here is a sum of money, there is the MS.' That is all. There is no other consideration. "Freedom of contract! It is freedom of contract w hen the wretched seamstress toils all day long—a day of sixteen hours—for 11 hi.—or less. She is free to take it or to leave it. It is freedom of contract when the poor woman who writes for her bread submits a manuscript which has cost her weeks and months of labour; yes, and that of a kind which requires, before it can be produced, a pure heart, a lofty soul, a brain rich with knowledge and a-glow with ideas, fancies, and a imaginings, and a trained hand. Such a woman is a most precious gift and blessing to the generation in which she lives and works. She may lie a most potent force in the advancement of humanity. But she is also a most sensitive, and delicate instrument. And she has to deal with a sweater! She goes to him trembling, because she knows what to expect. He will toss her j£\0, £20, ^30, £$o, whatever it may be. And out of her book he will make to himself a profit of ten, twenty, fiftyfold. "Freedom of contract! No greater mockery, no greater cruelty than to speak of such a woman driven to such necessities, as free to choose—free to accept or to reject. She is not free, she is the slave of the sweater." After these preliminary considerations, the pamphlet quotes three several cases and describes the treatment received by the author in each, and the sums received. In the first of these cases the Society bought, outright, the copyright of a small biographical work for the stupendous sum of £12! There was also a promise, as affirmed by the author, of future payment should the book prove "a success." \Vhat constitutes a success? The book is now in its seventh thousand—perhaps by this time in its eighth or ninth. The Secretary, while denying the promise, owns in his letters to a profit of about six times that of the author! This he states without a word of shame. Just as if it was a right and proper thing, a thing in accordance with the highest Christian ethics, that the Society should make this enormous proportion of profit! In a second case, the author, a lady, wrote ten books for the Society. She received, on an average, £50 a-piece for them. They were historical books and works of fiction. Taking one of the books as an example, it is shown that if 6,000 copies have been sold this just and generous Society has made a profit of about ^330 to the author's £50, i.e., £Z2> 5s- > so that taking the whole ten books the profits of this Christian Society seem to stand at the figures of ,£2,739 10 ^4rS—tne actual sum— given to the author. Who are the authors who write for this Society? "I turn next to the list of authors. Setting aside the clergymen who have written religious books and still keeping to the department of belles lettres and fiction, I find among the writers hardly one single name of those who at present  ## p. 66 (#90) ############################################## 66 THE AUTHOR. stand in the first rank, of those in the second rank'half a dozen. The rest are wholly unknown and obscure. Why is this? Why does not this venerable Society, with its enormous prestige, its immense clientele, its unparalleled power of selling books, command the services of the best writers? Have all the authors of Great Britain and Ireland abandoned the Kaith of their Fathers? No bruit or rumour of so deplorable an apostacy has reached my ears. How, then, can we account for their absence? "Is not the reason proclaimed—shouted aloud—by the facts quoted above? Does the needlewoman continue in her bondage when she has found a door of escape? Does she return to her old employer unless she is compelled by famine? "Let us, however, consider another imaginary scene. I see before me a Society which has a department devoted to the publication of books of all kinds; it defends, in the first in- stance, the tenets and doctrines of the Christian religion, and in the second place those of the Church of England. Besides these books it publishes, on terms and methods prepared with the most scrupulous attention to justice and righteous dealing, a vast mass of general literature. It is an honour to write for the Society ; it is a voucher of the value of the work, only to have the name of the Society on the title-page; no books have so wide a circulation. Hither come the historians, the scholars, the poets, the essayists, the novelists, the writers on science, art, music, everything. All the best men come to this Society. Its corpus of literature contains all that is best and noblest of the work of each generation. Those who are authors by profession long to get into the lists of the Society. If a clergyman of the Church writes such a lxx>k as Farrar's ' Life of Christ,' it is to the Society that he goes with it quite naturally, and as if it was the only thing to do. If another writes such a book as Green's ' History of the People,' it is to the Society that he offers it. If a novelist has a finished work, it is to the Society that he takes it. This Society leads all other publishers, and is an example for them; fair and honourable dealing is rendered necessary to all by the bright and shining example of the 'Literary Handmaid of the Church.' Nor is the money received the only thing. This Society, while it continues to defend the Church, regards literature from a broad and comprehensive point of view. The Church is better served by those who write for men, than by those who write for girls." This "Reply" to the invitation of the Publica- tion Committee of the S.P.C.K. has created a certain amount of interest, as was to be ex- pected from the nature of the subject and the position of the venerable Society concerned. The principles laid down in the pamphlet as to the Ethics of Publishing are simple, and will probably command general acceptance by all but persons interested in keeping up the old fictions. Among other letters received upon the subject is one from a Bishop which so remarkably and so fully (though in small space) illustrates a common attitude of mind that I venture to quote from it. His Lordship writes as follows :— (i) "I do not find any reason to suppose that the publishing department of the S.P.C.K.. act otherwise than other publishers." One is sorry, indeed, that the Bishop thinks so badly of other publishers. The pamphlet shows some of the prices given by the S.P.C.K. and some of the profits made out of the unfortu- nate authors. Now, the good Bishop would boil with indignation were he to read or hear of sweaters in other trades. Yet he can find no tear, no sympathy, for the sufferings of the man or woman who writes and is sweated. (2) "Nor am I convinced that there is any injustice in a publisher who has purchased an author's copyright making a larger profit on the particular work than he seems to have paid for. All publishers risk losses by books that do not pay, and take their chance of profit or loss. The author will not share the loss. He has made his own bargain and receives the money. I do not see that he is entitled to claim a share in the gain unless indeed that is part of the bargain." The Bishop has here confused two or more points of importance which should have been kept separate. Let us divide the word. a. No risk need ever be incurred by the S.P.C.K. Let us repeat this over and over again, be- cause of all the Bogies, Spectres, and Ghosts ever raised by interested persons this is the hardest to lay. No Risk. No Risk at ALL NEED BE INCURRED BY THE S.P.C.K. In the old days, in fact down to very recent times, the business of publishing was specu- lative and risky. It is so no longer. That is to say, the area of the reading public is so vast; the book trade is so enormous; the demand is so varied; the knowledge of markets and the demand is so much in- creased, that no publisher who knows his business need ever undertake a risk. In other words, having regard (i) to the literary worth of a MS. (ii) to the subject; (iii) to the name of the author; (iv) to his own machinery—the publisher who knows his business knows very well before he consents to publish a book that he can "plant" such a minimum number of copies as will repay the cost of production, in- cluding a certain profit for himself. p. In the case of the S.P.C.K. their machinery for the disposal of books is unrivalled. They have shops and agents all over the country; they have an immense number of subscribers; and they have the invaluable reputation of publishing only books that are doctrinally "sound." Another reason why the S.P.C.K. need never actually pub- lish a book which results in a loss. 7. "The author will not share the loss." First, there is, as I have said above, no loss except such as is caused by an error of judgment.  ## p. 67 (#91) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 67 Next, apply this principle to other branches of production. A man makes a beautiful desk. He takes it to a shopkeeper who sells desks. The shopkeeper says, "My friend, this is an admirable desk. It should be worth three pounds to you. But as I was a fool yesterday, and bought a desk which is too bad for me to sell again, I can only give you thirty shillings. You must share in the loss." The Lord Bishop's ears shall not be shocked by hearing the reply of that cabinet-maker. i. The principles laid down by this Society are few and simple. For our part we contend that they are based upon a commandment which is read in the Churches every Sunday once and sometimes in the week. It is contended by the defenders of the Society that they give away their books largely. Perhaps they do—but perhaps their gifts are not so very large. In one of the cases quoted the Secretary did not claim to have given any away: he only owned that the profits made by the Society amounted to something like six times the sum paid to the author. Now to repeat the Archbishop's own definition, "The first evil of the sweating system is a rate of wages inadequate to the neces- sities of the workers or disproportionate to the work done." Six times the author's profit! Six times! My Lord Archbishop, late of the Com- mittee on the Sweating System, will you produce that sweating cabinet-maker, that sweating shoe- maker, that sweating shirt-maker who sweats his workmen to the tune of a profit six times the men's wage? And there are other cases behind even worse than those quoted in the pamphlet which shall be produced in good time. It remains to be said that as yet no reply at all to this pamphlet has been issued by the Publication Committee, nor has any answer been received by the author from the President of the Society. * THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF AUTHORS. AS at present constituted the Deutsche Schrift- steller Verbund originated from a fusion of the old Schriftsteller Verbund (founded in 1878) and the former Schriftsteller Verein, a fusion which took place some three years ago, and it comprises now about 700 literary men and women of Germany, Austria, and German Switzerland. Its objects are :— {a.) To look after the members' interests as to their calling in general. (6.) To support them in case of need and in old age, as well as to provide for those they may leave behind. The constitution of the Society under the Presidency of Herr Robert Schweichel in Berlin, is similar to that of the English Society of Authors, but it is at the same time sub-divided into branch societies at Berlin, Breslau, Hamburg, Leipsic, Frankfort-on-Maine, Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna, Prague, and Gratz. Rather important factors in the working order of the General Society are :— (a.) The "literary bureau," a kind of agency established with a view to placing literary work of the members, to providing situa- tions (in editorial offices, &c), and to find out pirated reprints. (d.) The "Syndikat," under a lawyer, to give advice gratis on all questions regarding their literary interests. (c.) Courts of Arbitration, settling any disputes between the members who, it must be remembered, consist of editors as well as contributors, and even as regards publishers, I should think he would be a rash man who would not readily submit to it. The official organ of the Society is the "Deutsche Presse," which comes out weekly. All this may look satisfactory enough, but I am afraid I must add that all is not yet in such perfect working order as it might be, and I feel sure, one day—will be. As a special feature of our Society, however, I should like to mention also the facilities for social intercourse afforded thereby, and which by drawing kindred—or may be sometimes even the reverse— spirits of the same calling together, constitute perhaps the greatest advantages cf all. There are not only frequent meetings all through the year ot the members of the different branch societies—some having even special "Vergniigungs" Committees for arranging entertainments, excursions, &c.—but once a year a particular place is chosen, to which a goodly number of the members always flock from all sides for several days' fete, and of course for the transaction of some important business of the Society. The place chosen for this summer is Breslau, and if you, or any of your members, should like to have any further information on the "Schriftsteller Tag" of this summer, I should be happy to give it as soon as the programme is out. If any of the members of your Society should be anywhere near Breslau at the time and care to be present at the gathering, I feel sure they would be heartily welcomed by my friends in Germany. Wilhelm F. Brand.  ## p. 68 (#92) ############################################## 68 THE AUTHOR. A HARD CASE. No. III. THIS was certainly a hard case, but it was also one where the author's negligence largely contributed to his own mishaps. For this was a publishing transaction undertaken without any agreement at all. The publisher approached the author with regard to the production of a technical work. According to his proposal the author was not only to contribute to the work, but was also to obtain and edit the other material necessary, and to pay towards the cost of production of the first edition ^150; it being understood that all other monies necessary for the issue should be found by the publisher. Any profits that might result were to be equally divided between the author and the publisher. These terms, however, were never embodied in any agreement. It is easy to see what they might mean. When the cost of production is left entirely in the publisher's hands, he can make it as high as he likes. He can make it as low as he likes. He can advertise to what extent he chooses. He need not even advertise at all. He can receive money for advertisements to be inserted in the work—it was an annual of the nature of an almanac, appealing to a very large body of scientific men, and especially likely to be used as a medium of advertisement by many tradesmen—and he can settle the scale at which such advertisement shall be charged for. He can print as many, or as few copies as he chooses. He can, in fact, if he pleases, put off the author's chance of a share of profits indefinitely, because it is in his power so to manage matters that there shall never seem to be any profit to share. He can, almost without fear of detection, add what sums he likes to the various items of the cost of production; he can receive from tradesmen and from advertisers whatever commission they may choose to give him: he can, in fact, so arrange a system of secret profits for himself, that he shall receive at least six times as much as the author, even should he allow the author ever to receive anything at all. Of course he would always and in all cases do such things at the risk of a law-suit or a criminal prosecution, and, if the author had provided himself with an agreement, having in it a clause giving him the right to demand an audit of the account, with the examination of the actual charges incurred by the publisher, it is clear that the publisher—though as unjust as the steward of Scripture—would not be able to render "cooked" accounts. Whether or no some such "cooking" took place in the case before us, cannot be certainly stated, but the publisher asserted that the first three annual editions only just covered the expenses, so that there were no profits to divide, while it came to the author's ears that considerable profits had really been made. He then directed his solicitors to apply for a statement of accounts. Then a strange thing happened. The publishers wrote repudiating the author's claim on the grounds that they had nothing to do with the matter at all! They were, they said, only issuing the annual on commission for another gentleman—naming one of their own employes, whose Christian name was par- tially, andsurname entirely identical with those of the head of the firm—and that to him all application for redress must be made. They reminded the author that all the correspondence concerning the business had been transacted between himself and this gentleman, who had, it appeared, represented him- self as the firm. Shortly afterwards the publishers went into bank- ruptcy. The trustees then communicated with the author, telling him that the accounts of his publish- ing transaction with the bankrupts were open to his inspection, but refusing to recognise his claim" against the estate upon the grounds alleged by the bankrupts. Considerable profits were then found to have been obtained upon the first three editions. The employe^ whom the publishers declare to be their client, and responsible to the author for the author's share of profits, then wrote and denied his liability. He asserted that the book was issued by the firm, and not hy himself, and that it was ridiculous for the firm to attempt to set up such a plea. He promised to give the author every assistance in his power, and, further, said that the accounts opened for inspection did not reveal the true state of the case, but that the profits were really larger than they were there made to appear. There was nothing to be done. The offenders were bankrupt, and the author had no agreement whereby to substantiate his claim. The want of a proper agreement has often, to our knowledge, been the source of great loss to an author in various ways, but this is the only case that has come before us in which the author was not able to prove with whom he had made a con- tract, having no written contract at all to show. This book, treated with such a contemptuous want of formality, seems to have been a fairly valuable property. Would tlie author have allmved a pig-stye of his to be hired of him without knowing who his tenant actually was, and without taking the trouble to record on paper the terms of the trans- action?  ## p. 69 (#93) ############################################## THE A UTHOR. 69 It remains to be stated that the author, who only came to the Society when he thought it might help him, retired when he found that nothing could be done for him. This was, in fact, a Hard Case for the Society. There have been many such, of writers who keep aloof till they are in trouble, then get proposed and elected, pay the first year's sub- scription, sometimes entail upon the Society legal expenses amounting to many years' subscription, and then resign. * LA FEDERATION DU LIVRE. To the Editor of'The Author. I have read the " Literary Handmaid" with much interest; the correspondence in the Guardian I had seen at the time. I hope the Authors' Society will keep up the discussion, and give an eye also toother Religious Societies, which I do not imagine to behave much better to their authors than the S.P.C.K. This question of the duty of charitable or religious institutions, as employers of labour, is not new ; it must be thirty years or more since the Bookbinders' Union appealed to the dignitaries at the head of the Bible Society not to cheapen Bibles to such a point as to make them hateful to the starving folders and sewers. But in those days good people were afraid of labour questions and the operatives got no satisfaction. Has it occurred to you that in this matter the author, the printer, the binder—and even the ink and paper-makers—are more or less in the same boat? The unprincipled publisher, who grows rich by grinding the faces of poor authors, also has his binding and printing done cheap by the houses which the Workmen's Unions call "unfair." And these employers of cheap labour undersell liberal publishers, and make it more difficult for them to deal fairly by all grades of book pro- ducers. Now as authors—I won't say are—but are sup- posed by an indulgent public to be—a superior race of intellectual beings, would it not be appro- priate for them to take the initiative in organizing the industry with which they are connected dc fond en cortbic, in a reasonable and righteous manner? Should we not have a better position, as regards the public, when trying to convince the " Literary Handmaid " that the labourer is worthy of his hire, if we spoke on behalf of all those who get their living by assisting in the manufacture of books as well as in the interests of the writers? Is it even fair for the author to take a high moral ground and lecture the publisher on his duties unless he him- self is careful not to have any share in the profits of iniquity? But unless there is some concert and co-opera- tion between authors and operatives, through their respective organizations, how can the most scrupu- lous writer be secure against a partnership in the very evils, perhaps denounced in his book? At present there is nothing to prevent authors who, by position or principles ought to be most secure against such dangers, from falling a victim to them. There must be something rotten in the state of the book trade when it is possible for the works of a great and honourable writer to be printed at—what the mass of workmen call—an "unfair " house : or when the journal of a certain most illustrious Authoress (who does not depend for maintenance on her pen) narrowly escapes causing a strike among the women sewing it. (The book referred to was on extra thick paper, and the firm of binders employed by the publisher refused to pay extra on this account; the sore fingers produced by the hard work required in a short time are still well remembered in the trade.) On the other hand, supposing the printing trade to be hampered by any unreasonable or ignorant prejudices among the operatives, who could medi- ate with more effect than writers, who have an interest in cheap printing, controlled by the con- scientious desire to secure fair wages throughout the trade? Some slight approach has been made in Paris towards recognizing this natural solidarity among all workers in the book industry. I do not know whether the Soci^ti; des Gens de Lettres is in any relation with the Federation du Livre, which last year had between 5,000 and 6,000 members in Paris, including, besides ordinary compositors and bookbinders, highly-paid lithographers and various classes which have not yet learnt to act together in England. In the printing trade the State is not a better employer than the Church, and while State, Church, and competing private publishers continue to en- force the "Law of elevenpence ha'penny," what avails it for one eloquent author to lift up his voice against it? No doubt some people will say, authors have enough to do to fight their own battles without troubling about the operatives, who can take care of themselves. But it is often easier to do a big thing than a small one. Suppose there are six sets of work- men employed in turning out a book, including the humble functionary who writes it. Each of the six has to do with an employer or entrepreneur, with an interest in keeping down his wages; and all six, author included, are more often defeated A  ## p. 70 (#94) ############################################## 70 THE AUTHOR. thrm victorious in their bargains with this opponent. But let the six interests be allied, and they are stronger than any one adversary; and as a disin- terested alliance is only possible in a good cause, there is nothing to be feared from a rival federation of sweaters. If you object that the plea for extended organi- zation comes with a bad grace from a scribbler who has not joined the Society, I plead guilty and am willing to amend, but the fact is, I have been waiting for an occasion to ask your views on this point first, as one feels now-a-days that any or- ganization partaking of the character of a Trade Union is particularly bound to recognize the rights and interests interwoven with its own, and to sus- tain rather than endanger their just claims. Edith J. Simcox. * UNAUTHORIZED PUBLICATION OF SERMONS. I. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK in your June number criticises my note on "Copyright in Lectures " which you published in May. I hope you will permit me, as the writer of the note, to point out that the common law only gives protec- tion to lecturers so long as their lectures are not published by being publicly delivered. This protec- tion is afforded by the Courts in a practical way by issuing an injunction against infringers. But directly there is publication (as when a clergyman preaches a sermon in church or a public lecture open to all without condition is delivered) the common law protection is at an end, and the lecturer is left to such protection as the statute gives him. I am glad of an opportunity to make this distinction clear, although as my note only referred to public lectures I did not before allude to the common law rights in unpublished lectures. Sir Frederick Pollock cites the case of "Caird v. Sime" (12 App. Ca. 326) but it was there held by the Lord Chancellor and Lord Watson (Lord Fitzgerald dissenting) that Professor Caird's lec- tures to the students of Glasgow University were not public but private, and that, therefore, he was entitled to a "perpetual interdict" against their publication. Moreover, Lord Watson in his judgment remarks :—" On the other hand I do not doubt that a lecturer who addresses himself to the public generally without distinction of persons or selection or restriction of his hearers has, as the Lord President observes in this case, abandoned his ideas and words to the use of the public at large." The preamble of the Statute 5 and 6, Will. IV, c. 65, runs:—"Whereas printers, &c, have frequently taken the liberty of printing and publishing lectures delivered upon divers subjects without the consent of the authors, &c, to the great detriment of such authors, &c." This, I suppose, was true. As Lord Watson puts it in "Caird v. Sime," the purpose of the Act is to secure their right of property to the authors of such lectures, notwithstanding their having been pub- lished by delivery. Nor are all University, &c, lectures private, for, as Lord Watson was careful to add, "there may be lectures delivered within the walls of such institutions which do by their delivery become public property just as there may be others which do not." It was pointed out by the Copy- right Commissioners, 1878, that these are denied statutory protection. It was, as Lord P'itzgerald observes in his dissenting judgment in the same case, thought desirable by the House of Commons of the day that these lectures should remain public property, and that their authors should be denied statutory copyright. My authority for the statement that " a lecturer is powerless to prevent unauthorized re-delivery," is in the Report of the Copyright Commission, 1878, pp. xvi, xvii. "The present Act of Parliament," the Report runs, "which gives copyright in lectures, seems only to contemplate one kind of copyright, namely, that of printed publication, whereas it is obvious that for their entire protection lectures require copyright of two kinds, the one to protect them from printed publication by unauthorised persons, the other to protect them from re-delivery." The Report goes on to suggest that an author's copyright should extend to prevent re-delivery. If the Commissioners are right, I am correct in stat- ing that "there is no such thing as" performing right "in a species of literary production in which this may be really valuable." Sir Frederick Pollock further remarks:—"There- fore, a person acting on the commentator's opinion that sermons 'seem to be clearly public property,' would be more likely to make practical acquaint- ance with the nature and operation of an injunction than to make his fortune by unlicensed reprints of pulpit eloquence." But I contend that it is a fact that the piracy of pulpit eloquence is a systematic, and, perhaps, a profitable trade. Lord Eldon, in Abernethy v. Hutchinson [3 L. J. (Ch.) 214], distin- guished the case of a clergyman as one in which there was no remedy by injunction, and Copinger remarks (Lmv of Copyright, p. 35), "it would appear that sermons by Clergy of the Established Church,  ## p. 71 (#95) ############################################## THE A UTHOR. 7i in endowed places of public worship, are deemed public property." The Bishop of Peterborough, to whose case I referred, in complaining of the unlicensed publication of his sermons by the Editor of the Contemporary Pulpit, remarked (Times, June 14th, 1888):—"I am aware that for this kind of literary assassination an unhappy preacher has no redress; he is completely at the mercy of penny- a-liners and enterprising editors who make 'per- nicious nonsense ' of his discourses, and then vend them for their own gain." A story is told of the late Canon Henry Melvill to the effect that, on one occasion, he paused in the middle of a sermon, and exclaimed, pointing an indignant finger at a reporter, "There is a thief. He is stealing my property." Sir Frederick Pollock writes with authority, but it is more than singular that an injunction was never sought by any injured and outraged preacher; and I venture to think that the explanation is to be found in the fact that sermons, like public lectures, are, in Lord Eldon's phrase, "communicated urbi et orbi by the mere act of delivery." W. Morris Collet II. The point is certainly unsettled. I have little doubt that a generation or two ago Mr. Colles's opinion was the commonly received one. But, in addition to disclaiming any pretension of writing with authority myself (which would be superfluous if I were writing for lawyers only), I may point out that there is no real authority on the other side. The opinion of the Copyright Commissioners could not be referred to in a Court of Justice, and the dicta in Caird v. Sime are extra-judicial, not being at all necessary to the decision. It may be a long time before we get a legislative declaration, and meanwhile case-law can be improved only by those who have the courage to dispute current opinions. Many opinions quite as current as this, and having more show of authority, have been over-ruled in our own time. There would be a fair chance, to the best of my judgment, of inducing the Court of Appeal to throw on the unauthorized reproducer the burden of proving an unlimited dedication to the public. I do not know why authors should acquiesce more than other men in that view of a doubtful point which is least favour- able to themselves, and I only wish the Bishop of Peterborough had been advised to stand in the breach. At all events the author who publishes a revised text of his discourse has the protection of ordinary literary copyright for his additions and corrections. F. P. III. [Reprinted from The Times, June 14th, 1888. By permission of the Bishop of Peterborough.] To the Editor of The Times. Sir, I have just received a copy of a publication purporting to be a series of sermons on the Church Catechism by the Bishop of Peterborough, re- printed, apparently, from the Contemporary Pulpit. I ask your permission to state that this publication has been made without my consent or knowledge; and that (with the exception of the first sermon of the series, which was partially corrected by me) I am in no way responsible for its contents. The facts of the case are interesting as an illus- tration of what preachers, who, like myself, do not use manuscript, have to suffer at the hands of re- porters and editors of religious periodicals. I have preached lately a series of short sermons in Peter- borough Cathedral on the Church Catechism. These were reported in the local newspapers; and the editor, I think, of the Contemporary Pulpit, or, if not, some other editor, sent me shortly after a proof of the first of these for correction, with a view to publication in his magazine. I found it, as might have been expected, both imperfect and inaccurate. I could not afford the time, even if I had the ability, to reproduce the sermon from memory. I was obliged, therefore, to content myself with rendering into English a good many sentences which were certainly not printed in that language, and with erasing one or two amazing doctrinal statements which were the reporter's and not mine. The remaining sermons were published in the Contemporary Pulpit without any revision or cor- rection from me, and are now republished in a permanent form for the profit of the publisher or editor, with the heading "Magee Extra; price sixpence. I am aware that for this kind of literary assassina- tion an unhappy preacher has no legal redress; he is completely at the mercy of penny-a-liners and enterprising editors, who make "pernicious non- sense" of his discourses and then vend them for their own gain. I do not grudge them their gains, though, if I might be allowed the choice, I would gladly pay them what they might think their venture worth on condition that they would forego it. But what I do complain of is that, because I will not, and indeed cannot, reproduce for them my sermons, I must submit to the publication and circulation of all the bad English and worse theology which they think fit to give to the public as mine. I complain, too, of the further annoyance of having to answer numerous letters from per-  ## p. 72 (#96) ############################################## 72 THE AUTHOR. plexed, and occasionally angry, correspondents, who ask, "Did you really say this?" "Can it be possible that you said that ?"and of having to write to each one an assurance that I never said "this" or "that," and an explanation—sometimes a long one—as to what I really did say. I know that these complaints of mine will fall— so far as enterprising editors are concerned—upon deaf ears. Preachers are their natural prey and diet. But, as a matter of common honesty, I think it only due to any intending purchaser of this particular "Magee Extra "to apprise him that, if he expends upon it the sum of sixpence, he will get for his money a good deal more of the "Extra" than of the " Magee." I am, Sir, Faithfully yours, W. C. Peterborough. Palace, Peterborough, June nth. —» IV. [Reprinted from The Times, June 25th, 1888. By permission of the Bishop of Peterborough.] To the Editor of The Times. Sir, The editor of the Contemporary Pulpit alleges that "misunderstanding has been caused" by my not having "communicated with him" on the subject of his " Magee Extra," about which I lately wrote to you. I confess that I see no reason why I should have communicated with him on the matter. The injury of which I complained— namely, the publication of a volume of sermons as mine without my consent or knowledge and with- out any correction or revision from me—was done and could not be undone by means of any com- munication of mine to the doer of it. It seems to me that it would be as reasonable to expect me to "communicate " with a person who had assaulted me in the street in order to prevent any misunder- standing that might arise from my giving him into custody. Might I suggest to the editor of the Contemporary Pulpit that previous communication, in either of these cases, from the intending assailant to his intended victim, would be the more reason- able course of the two? It would prevent some pain to one of the parties concerned, and a good deal of trouble to both. I hasten, however, to correct, as far as possible to make amends for these "misunderstandings" that I have caused. I was "mistaken," it appears, in thinking "that my sermons were reprinted from the Contemporary Pulpit." That periodical, it seems, is none of your "penny dailies," nor six- penny weeklies even. It is nothing less—so please you—than a quarterly, which "publishes every quarter full reflexes of the best preaching of the day"—obtained in my case, at least, by printing off a bundle of uncorrected newspaper cuttings— edited with no greater pains or cost than is implied in the use of the scissors and the paste pot. I admit and apologise for my ignorance as to the rank and dignity of this youngest of the "quarterlies." Possibly, however, some of the editor's elder breth- ren may think that, under the circumstances, and for the credit of the family, some apology is due to them from him. I was also wrong, I am told, in believing that the editor was guilty of the weakness of allowing me to revise the proof of even one of my sermons. As a matter of fact, I did not assert this. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and said that this was done either by him or " by some other editor." I admit, however, my mistake in crediting him with even this small amount of fair- ness and courtesy, and I apologize accordingly. Having now, I trust, sufficiently explained my "mistake," I proceed briefly to comment on the remainder of the editor's letter. He is evidently a person who, in conducting his business, is in the habit of "supposing" a good deal. For (1) he "supposed " (he does not say why) that I revised all the reports of my sermons for the newspapers in which they appeared." (2) He " supposed" that the necessarily hurried and rough correction of reporters' errors and mistakes of the Press, which alone is possible in such a case, was really equiva- lent to the careful revision and to the supply of omitted passages which a preacher might not un- reasonably desire to make in a re-publication in a permanent form of newspaper reports of bis sermons. (3) He "supposed" that I had no "intention of publishing these sermons myself." For, as he assures us that it is his rule in such a case never to publish, and as he certainly never said a word to me on the subject, he must have either taken for granted that I had no such intention, or he must (4) have "supposed" that it was my business to notify such intention to every religious editor in the country, and that failing such notification they were free to publish the sermons on their own account. In the next place, I observe that this editor measures out his civilities to preachers in the same way that railway servants are sometimes accused of measuring theirs to railway passengers —namely, according to their rank. To a "more eminent preacher" than myself, it seems, "any terms " for the right to publish his sermons revised and corrected by himself." To second class preachers like myself he offers no terms whatever,  ## p. 73 (#97) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 73 and no opportunity for revision or correction. He roundly claims the right to republish our sermons as a literary speculation, uncorrected and unrevised, when and how he pleases, unless, indeed, we in- form him beforehand of our intention to publish them for ourselves. How he treats third-class preachers I hardly dare to imagine. It may be that he does not publish their sermons in any shape. If so, I should be infinitely obliged to him if he would henceforth put me in the third class. Probably, however, if we had the opportunity of interviewing the eminent preacher above referred to, he would tell us that, having been offered the uncomfortable alternative either of devoting much valuable time and pains to revising and correcting his sermons for another man's profit, or of allowing them to go forth unrevised, he chose, as the least of two evils, the latter course. So should I, were I given the choice, of which, however, it appears I am not worthy. The editor adds that "it is impossible for him to yield to any further claim of mine." Let me assure him that I made and make no claim upon him whatsoever. I fully anticipated, as I said in my former letter, that any claim of mine on him, either for justice or mercy, would "fall on deaf ears." Preachers are, as I said, "the natural prey and diet of religious editors;" and I have never heard that the carnivorous animals are much affected by the sufferings of the creatures upon which they dine. All that I claimed was the right to disclaim all responsibility for the "bald, disjointed trash," which he has published as mine, and to warn in- tending purchasers of it as to what they would get for their money. One word more on the general subject. I make no complaint of reporters. They do their best, often under very difficult circumstances, and it is no discredit to a country reporter if he is not as deft and practised as one of the staff of The Times, nor so well skilled in divinity as to qualify him for detecting doctrinal misstatements in his reports, which nevertheless may be distressing to a preacher. Nor do I in the least complain of the editors of local newspapers for publishing such reports. I am not so absurd as to expect that editors of newspapers should send me, even if it were always possible to do so, the proofs of my sermons or speeches, and still less that they should find space, to the exclusion of other matter, for sermons in extenso. I am quite content in this respect to share "neighbours' fare," and to suffer, as every public speaker must, the passing annoyance of some misquotation, which I can correct, if I care to do so, in the next day's paper, or the suppression of what I might wish had been published, but which the editor, probably quite rightly, thought might not interest his readers. I know that all such reports will, in a day or two, find decent in- terment and oblivion in the common grave of speeches and sermons, the back files of old news- papers. But it is quite another matter when some re- ligious editor exhumes the mangled corpse, labels it as mine, and displays it in an exhibition, "ad- mission sixpence," in order that he may turn what I suppose he calls an honest penny at my expense. To protest against this may appear to the editor a "claim " so outrageous that he "declines to com- ment on it." To me it appears a perfectly just and reasonable protest against a practice which I had rather not describe by its proper name. I am, Sir, Yours faithfully, W. C. Peterborough. The Palace, Peterborough, June 22nd. * THE INAUTHORATED CORPSES. TWO Congresses, fifteen Legislatures, one House of Commons, and several hundred newspapers had sat upon the question of International Copyright for years; and nothing beyond pirated editions were ever hatched of it. As the honourable member for Lower Idaho pointed out in Congress: "If we can hike down the fruit of the centuries from the moss-gnarled trunks of an effete civilization over the sea, why in Paradise should we pay a dollar for a book when we can hook it for a dime? Let the good work go on." In England every vestryman knew that there were no votes to be obtained from authors, and no one could quite understand what it was the gang wanted, or why they should actually own what they had " made out of their heads, y' know," and the situation crystallued itself into a round game of grab. The American publishers began by giving an English author ten pounds for advance-sheets of a book which they brought out for fifty cents. Then the Sad Sea Wave Library would undercut the first firm, and produce a thirty cent edition; and last of all the "Bowery Bloodsucker Serials" would set a muzzy German to abridge and adapt the book and would issue the mutilated fragments for a dime or ten cents. When a man had taken some trouble over his book and put perhaps one or two ideas into it, and was feeling happy, his friends would post him American variorum edi- tions of that book to make him happier. Later  ## p. 74 (#98) ############################################## 74 THE A UTHOR. on the American publisher discovered that it was not worth while to pay the author for advance- sheets at all. The syndicates established an agency for appropriation, and their agents moved among the English printing-houses and turned the handle of a printing press four or five times more than was necessary, and went away with the advance- sheets. That was called Enterprise, and it made both the British and American reading public laugh. Then the authors borrowed some writing-paper and wrote a petition to Parliament asking that the fight might be made if not a fair, at least a free one. They respectfully prayed that all the laws were on one side, but, they said, if the matter of copyrights were "left to be fought out by such instruments as your petitioners' resources allow they would ever pray, &c." Parliament being then extremely busy with a new scheme for Local Self-Government in Cornwall (which county had discovered that it was Phoenician and not British), said, "Let it be law as it is desired," and it was law. Three days after it came into effect, the London representative of the great "publishing" firm of Fibbs and Glew met an author-man by appoint- ment in the former's rooms. "How is the Legend of the Spotted Death getting on ?" said the representative, with a grin. "Gone to press," said the author. "What are you going to do about it?" "Nothing much. One of our men photoed the MS. page by page in the office, with a button- hole camera. I've mailed the enlarged films to America, and I guess we've got the drop on your English lirm this time." "But I'm going to knock the thing about in proof a great deal," said the author. "There's more bad work in the last chapter than I care to think of." "'Can't help that," said the representative. "We must be first in the market if you wrote a revised edition of the alphabet with twenty-six misprints. However, we've dealt with you from way back. Here's a tenner. Take it or leave it." He turned to his desk to get the money. When he faced round he was looking directly down the barrel of a '440 Derringer. His hands stiffened above his head, the bank note in the right fist. "Who has the drop now?" said the author. "It's a fair fight at last—with such resources as we can command. Keep your hands up, please." "Don't be an ass," said the representative. "This isn't a theatre." "Quite right. It's a court of law. Understand, I'm not in the least angry with you. You had a perfect right to steal my work, which is about all the property I have or ever shall have. You were entitled to insult me with the sort of 'tip' his uncle gives to a boy going to Eton, as well as to make hay of my sentences to suit your con- venience. There was no law, and so you reverted to the primitive man. Quite right. Now you're going to learn the law just as a horse-thief in Idaho learns it—through fear of death and physical pain." He took the bank note from the uplifted hand. "Lie down on the hearth-rug with your hands behind you. I'm going to take all the money I can find in the office. Drop!" The representative obeyed, and the author made investigations which repaid him for two years' sales of unauthorized editions. "Now it's not safe," he concluded, "to leave you with a fighting hand. I should be within my right if I killed you as your countrymen kill horse-thieves. And let us be moral. Why do they kill horse- thieves?" "Because," said the representative, his face on the hearth-rug, "the assumption is that when you steal a horse you dismount a man, and the man may die in the wilderness." "Exactly. How do you know where I wish to ride on these my books, and why do you try to dismount me before I dismount myself?" "There was no law," said the representative. "The law has come now. It's primitive for the nineteenth century, but I think it will work. Hold your right hand over the fender-rim; I don't want to spoil your carpet. There! Through the right wrist. That will cripple you for life. If you can shoot me with your left next time we meet, well and good. Then you can go on stealing without fear. Let me tie your hand up. We must all learn the Law with pain and sorrow. Good bye!" The author departed while the representative lay fainting with his head in the fender. He came of a nation eminently just at heart, so he brought neither a civil nor a criminal suit against the author, but went to the very best doctor and the best gunmaker in all London, and made arrange- ments to bring out an edition as soon as possible of that author—in boards—limited to one copy.  ## p. 75 (#99) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 75 LEAFLET No. III. On Paying for Publication. THOSE who pay for the publication of their works are young poets, travellers, novelists, essayists, and clergymen who bring out their sermons. The number of poets who at the present moment can dispense with the ceremony of pre-payment for publication is certainly small, probably not more than eight or nine. And there appears no indication of an immediate increase in their number. The handsome illustrated books of travel appear also, for the most part, and judging from the agreements sent to this Society, to be largely paid for by the author, who is asked to "guarantee," that is, to take and pay for, at a certain price, so many copies. The greater number, however, of those who pay for the production of their books are novelists. Now in the year 1889 lhere were 828 new novels published and 353 new editions of novels. (Let us here remark that both writing and publishing of novels ought to be in a healthy condition since so many new editions are called for.) Out of the 828 new works of fiction at least one-half are children's books or goody books, of which the output is enormous. Of the remaining half between two and three hundred are three volume novels; the rest are either six shilling one volume novels, or shilling stories. In any case at least two-thirds, and perhaps three-fourths, of this long list of novels are books paid for by the author. The following is the invariable process. The author has written the book—perhaps with im- mense pains and trouble; perhaps he has " dashed" it off at odd moments when there was nothing else to do. In any case the MS. is at last ready. The writer of it now begins to send it round. He looks at the advertised lists of books. He selects a firm: if he is wise, he begins with a big house: and he sends off his manuscript. He then waits with a beating heart for a reply. Presently he receives a polite answer declining the work. He tries another publisher with the same result. And a third —being rejected again. At this point he generally commits a fatal error. For, if he were a wise man, he would argue that (1), these firms all vol.. 1. ardently desire to publish good work which they can sell; that (2), the fact of their refusal to pub- lish his work shows that it lacks at least com- mercial value, if not literary merit; and that (3), he should now revise it and submit it to some third person, say one of the readers for this Society, for an independent opinion as to the cause of these repeated failures. But he does not take this line at all. He says, "Perhaps, if a great house will not take my MS., a smaller house will." Now, there are small houses of various kinds. Most of them mainly live by bringing out books which are paid for by the authors. Some of them do this work, which can hardly be called the highest class of publishing, honourably and honestly. Others, to put it mildly, do not. He goes to one of these and he pays for production. Whether the author pays a large sum or a small sum need not here be considered. The question is, why he pays anything at all. Consider. There are many authors and many publishers. But there is only one public. It is true that there are many branches of the public. One branch, for instance, likes sporting books, and another likes religious books; some like love stories and others like murders. Still only one public, wherever the author goes—for all publishers alike. Let him ask this question then. If this public should refuse to buy this MS. if published—say —by Longman or Bentley, of what other pub- lisher would they buy it? and for what reason ? . In other words:—If a MS. is offered to all the respectable houses in vain, it is refused because all the respectable houses are agreed in thinking that the public will have none of it. Where, then, is that other public which will demand it when it is published elsewhere? In this Society, cases by the score—by the hundred—have been examined in which the author has had to pay for the production. Nay, in look- ing down the lists of new books advertised in the papers, we are able to name the books which are paid for because we know the houses which publish in this way. Seldom, indeed, does a case come before us in which the writer gets any of his money back. Never does he get any kuIo* at all. He 1  ## p. 76 (#100) ############################################# 76 THE A UTHOR. gets contemptuous reviews, his friends snigger at his failure, he writhes under the shame and pain of the plain truth : and when his accounts come in there prove to have been no sales. Only yesterday I read a letter from a young lady. She had paid ^50, being deluded by glowing hopes, but not actual promises, of large profits to divide. The sales amounted to £1 2s. gd. Sometimes, however, there are absolutely no sales at all. Literary vanity is, of course, at the bottom of this folly. All the writer asks for is to be in print, only to be printed; if he can obtain this, as he always can on such terms, he will pay anything and sign anything. No rebuffs, no reader's opinions, no rejections can persuade him that his MS. is worthless, and that, whatever he pays, he will meet with nothing but disappointment, vexa- tion and shame. He is quite sure that his work is brilliant and certain to succeed. There are instances on record of books, after- wards successful, having been refused by one pub- lisher after the other. The famous and leading case of Vanity Fair is one. These instances do mightily comfort the rejected author. He feels himself a possible Thackeray // only he can get printed. Mistakes, he says, have occurred before now. Readers are fallible. Mistakes may occur again. And perhaps the reader is also himself a novelist. We all know that jealousy is a common as well as a hateful vice. Or perhaps the reader knows some private enemy of the author and bears a grudge. What more likely than that the jealous reader should wish to smother a dangerous rival? Or perhaps the perfidious reader has not even taken the trouble to look at his work. Anyhow, since the best firms are so foolish as to refuse to make money by his work, some other shall have the chance. He will get it printed even though he has to pay for it. And so the output of worthless books is increased by one more, and the reviewers grow more and more savage over the swelling flood of rubbish, and the noble art of fiction is degraded and insulted. Will not the readers of this paper join in dissuading, by all means in their power, their friends from paying for produc- tion? Editor. QUESTIONS, CASES, AND ANSWERS. "Some years ago I wrote a biographical paper for a magazine. It was accepted and published. When I wrote for payment I had no reply. I wrote another paper also on an historical subject for a weekly newspaper. The editor returned it, ask- ing me to enlarge it. This I did, and he printed it. But he never paid me. "I recently sent an article of a similar character, on which I had expended a considerable amount of trouble and time, to a monthly magazine. The editor has now lost it. I have kept no copy, and must write it again. Is there no redress? "A publisher lately signed an agreement in which he covenanted to bring out a written work in a certain series at a certain price. He has printed the work and now refuses to bring it out, alleging that he believes it would be a failure. He offers the author the printed sheets for the price of set- ting up the work. What should the author do?" ♦ If such a thing should now occur of an editor accepting a MS., publishing it in his paper, and refusing payment, the author has only to bring the case before the Society and he will get redress. But the Society cannot take up old cases. As for losing a MS. most editors find it necessary to warn authors that they will not be responsible for losing MSS. If contributors could see the piles of MSS. offered to every editor they would not be surprised at this stipulation. The third question is one for a lawyer to con- sider. The proposer of the case should sent up all the agreements and letters to the Secretary. "When an author has paid for the publication of a book is it fair on the part of the publisher to sell the remainder of the edition as waste paper without consulting the author, without giving him the choice of buying up the remaining copies, which he would assuredly in many cases be glad to do at a price even above that of waste paper? "If the publisher is entiiled to do this can the poor author lay no claim to a share in the proceeds of this melancholy transaction?" The reply to the last question is that the agreement generally contains a clause giving the publisher such power. It is for the author before signing the agreement to make a stipulation that he shall first be consulted If he has paid for the publi- cation all the copies should be his own, and the remainder of the stock should be sent to him as soon as the sale is finished.  ## p. 77 (#101) ############################################# THE A UTHOR. 77 Up to the present, authors have always felt that to have an MS. published in a magazine was to ensure payment according to the scale of the maga- zine. This prop appears about to be knocked from under them. An enterprising publisher has now hit upon the ingenious plan of getting work into his magazine for nothing. His method and the generosity of his soul are shown in a letter addressed to an author. He says that he has been in con- sultation with the editor of the Magazine since he received the writer's MS. The Editor is willing to insert this story as a serial, if it is illus- trated. This the Firm would be willing to do at their expense, "if you are willing to make over the story to us free of charge." Should the Firm, in the future, think to bring out the work as a volume, they should perhaps be able to offer some small sum. The pages of the magazine, he says, are full for twelve months to come, but the Firm will retain the MS. and insert it after that period if the writer wishes. "It would have the effect of placing your name before the public at all events." He goes on to say, "The Firm feel that the publication is such a speculation, that considering that a great deal of money will have to be spent upon illustration and advertising before its publica- tion, no payment can be offered to the author until the work appears in book form." The letter con- dudes with these words: "We have really only made the offer to insert the story in the magazine so as to try and give you some encouragement to continue writing." Observe upon this:—i. The publisher, con- sidering the vast sums he spends on illustrating and advertising his magazine, cannot pay for the work at all. The same reasons apply to all other con- tributions. Therefore, we suppose, he has a good reason for paying nobody. 2. The author is to give him the copyright of the work. If he chooses, he is to give her " some small sum," whether it succeeds or not. Even if it turns out to be a great success, he is not bound to give the author anything. 3. This noble offer is wholly disvnteresttd and prompted by nothing but a disposition to help a struggling author! Generous, large-hearted, whole- souled Patron of Letters! One other observation presents itself. How enviable is the lot of the editor of such a magazine! "In your last number, quoting Mr. Rider Hag- gard's letter to Messrs. Rand, McNally & Co., you very justly denounce what you call a 'new terror to literary men.' But this piratical liberty of mutilating as well as stealing literary property is by no means new. It must be some fifteen years ago that I picked up by chance on an American book- vor. 1. stall a little book of my own, which, without my knowledge, had been fitted for theft by the altera- tion of phrases likely to wound transatlantic sus- ceptibilities. I fancy such a process of judicious editing of stolen matter is far from uncommon. Has no enterprising American firm thought of bringing out a revised edition of the Bible, with desirable omissions—for instance, of the eighih commandment! We can sympathize with Mr. Rider Haggard; but he must not expect from all robbers the courtesy of a Claude Duval." A. R. H. M. "Do warn," a lady writes, "all young authors of the folly of doing all or nearly all their work for one editor. Editors die, or, as in my case, take up another paper or magazine, and the faithful old contributor finds her position changed. "Ten years ago I did an immense amount of work for a certain paper, which we will call the Strand Circus—essays, stories, &c. It was then edited by the eldest son of the proprietor, and I was given to understand that it would be worth my while to work away at the Strand Circus, to study- its interests, and not go roving here and there with MSS. Therefore I declined offers of work from other papers, and never sought new openings. All went well for many years. Then the father died; his son had to take over other work, and a new editor was appointed." The sequel may be guessed. The warning, however, is serious. Let no young author be contented with one magazine or journal. In every fresh opening he should find another pillar of support, and another body of readers and friends. ♦ Bad authors create bad publishers. This fact, once fully apprehended, should be an inceniive to the production of good work. But perhaps the state- ment wants explanation. A correspondent fur- nishes an illustration. "A lady once wrote to me 'as a successful author'—I had at that time published one in- different novel, which had been gently reviewed— asking my advice under the following conditions. She had published three novels at her own expense, not one of which had attracted any attention. What did I think she had better do now? The style of her stationery, as well as this confession, pointed to her being wealthy, while the literary style of her letter proved that she had no idea of writing at all. "This experience directed me in certain inquiries, and I discovered how- the idiotic three volume novels which are found in circulating libraries at F 2  ## p. 78 (#102) ############################################# 7« THE A UTHOR. seaside places get beyond the MS. stage. They are written by well-to do women who are ready to pay £200 to get a novel published. "Does not the existence of 'authors' of this kind account in some measure for the existence of low class publishers? May we not go even further and call this fact a justification of their existence? Honourable publishers refuse books which .ire foregone failures; they will not allow their names to appear on the title-page of such rubbish. Where, then, are the poor rich things to go with their MSS. and their money, save to such a friendly gentleman, who will kindly take £200 for publishing a book which costs less than £100 to produce?" My correspondent is a little too hasty. It is not only the rich woman but the poor woman as well who is responsible for the existence of these persons. It is any one, man or woman, who believes that a MS., refused by those who only publish books certain to be in demand, will be accepted by the public when they are issued by those who publish any rubbish brought to them. In another part of this number we deal with the question of paying for publishing at greater length. "I think," says a correspondent, "that you do not realise that small authors really get a great advantage in selling their copyright. In this way we get the money at once, without waiting for a year, and we have no risk or anxiety as to whether the book will sell or not." Well, if there is any risk or anxiety on that score the publisher will not buy the MS. at all. At the same time there are very few writers who would not rather take a lump sum down than the same or a little more spread over a term of years. The hardship is that the lump sum down is too often such a very little lump indeed. One fair and honest way would be for the publisher to buy an edition of so many copies, a new arrangement to be made when these were gone. * A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. MY remarks arise out of one made by Mr. Max Miiller :—" Find a respectable pub- lisher and stick to him." It has been the ambition of my literary life to do so, but I shall have to postpone it, I fancy, to another and a better world! I began full of hope ten years ago, deter- mined to give the public the best work of which I was capable as a novel writer. I loved the work and spared no pains to make it good. I sent what I had written to a firm of leading publishers, who accepted my novel. Terms—half profits. I accepted the offer with joy, thinking myself fortu- nate th:it I had not been asked to take any risks. My book was well launched and excellently re- viewed by all but the Athenceum, Academy, and the Saturday Revieiv. The Athenceitm called it "a wealth of nonsense," whereupon I asked the editor—when I told him it had been accepted on its merits by the firm in question, who, he admitted, would not have accepted "a wealth of nonsense "— how he permitted such an unjust criticism in the pages of a journal supposed to guide literary opinion. The Academy critic cast odium on his paper by uttering an opinion on the book and the writing which a subsequent critic in the same paper emphatically contradicted. He spoke of the book as "beneath criticism," while my next critic in the same referred to it as a book of " distinct merit." The Saturday Review danced upon it. The result of this handling by the three leading papers then, was, that the short three months' existence enjoyed by a three volume novel, by an unknown author, was insufficient to sell the number of copies published, and my publishers, while admitting that I had written a good book, found me a non-financial success, and bade me go else- where. The consequence of their decision was that other firms fought shy of my next book, which took three years in finding a publisher and was refused by twelve, one of whom took twelve months to consider it, and finally refused it "regretting—"! It was published at length and favourably reviewed. But all this came too late. The three years lost in finding a publisher made me practically once more a beginner after the lapse of five years between my first and second book. I lost heart after this, and tried no more "leading firms," since I found it was not good work they wanted so much as quick financial returns. Last year, ten years after my first work appeared, I went casually and as a stranger into a first class library in a fashionable watering place. I asked for a small shilling story I had just brought out—not by a leading firm. Of course it had never been heard of, so I humbly said, "It is by the author of and "naming my books. "Oh," ex- claimed the librarian, brightening up, "I know those books well, they are among the best read in our library." This after ten years! Moral:—Would it not be well for leading firms to be a little more patient with the slow sales of an unknown author's work ripening into "profits." My difficulty has been not so much in not being able to find a publisher I could stick to, but in finding one who would stick to me. I think I have proved that the adhesive properties are not lacking in  ## p. 79 (#103) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 79 consequence of bad work, or work that is short- lived. Where is the remedy for such a case as mine? Editor's Note.—Perhaps the author is wrong, and the three leading literary papers were right. That is to say, they were probably right when they condemned the book from a literary point of view, and in regard to style or artistic construction. In such matters these papers do not often go wrong. But there are readers in plenty who regard neither style nor artistic construction. For them the story—that is the leading situation—is everything. And the leading firms do publish many books every year the sale of which is necessarily slow. * CHESTNUT BELLS ENCORE. APROPOS of Chestnut Bells. We often see the hand-bell in grotesque sculptures of the middle ages used in a manner which clearly indicates that it is intended to impose silence, oras an intimation that what one person is saying is not believed in, or is ridiculed by another. Thus on the grand portal of St. Stephen's Church, Vienna, there is a sp;rited stone-picture of a rollicking witch and a reprobate priest (perhaps a sorcerer), engaged in a tussle, he holding her by one leg, while she with the right hand pulls his head back by the capote, and with the other rings a bell in his ear—as if to silence his love-making, and say, "Yes, I have heard all that before—enough—shut up!" A copy of this will appear as a vignette in my work on gypsy sorcery now in the press. On more than one bas-relief of the fourteenth century, we see a goat dressed as a monk, and in one instance, a sow, ringing a small bell. The allusion here is to telling coarse tales, since in modern German phrase doing this is called ringing the Sauglocke, or sow-bell, and I possess an outrageous little old work bearing that name, with the picture of a bell on the cover depicted in a manner "which could convey little joy to either moralist or Christian." The Lumpenglock, or blackguard's bell, is a term applied in Germany to the bells in steeples, rung at eleven o'clock p.m., as a signal to close all the beer-houses. So we are told of that veteran rois- terer, the Herr von Rodenstein, that when he died— "The blackguard's l>ell in the old Town Hall, Began of itself to ring." A man who is always telling coarse and rude tales —or a Zotenreisser—is commonly said to be contin- ually ringing the sow-bell. And I think it very probable that at a time when symbolism entered into every- thing, there was something of all this implied by the bells on the cap of the professional jester or fool. There was mockery in their sound, as in the words of their wearer, and both were like the ring of the chestnut bell, and the tinkling of brass pots of yore—all synonyms for vain repetition and idle chatter. It may be here observed that the primary object of church bells was not so much to call the faithful together to worship, as to drive away and avert evil influences, especially devils, concerning all which there is a deeply learned chapter in Southey's Doctor. The primitive Christian church bell was very truly what Mr. William Sikes called a " tinkler," since it was precisely of the shape, material, and make of the same which, in America especially, is hung to the necks of cows. Their object is to keep the cows from straying afield too far—that of the chestnut bell to recall men from wandering in discourse. When I was a schoolboy, I once invested my last cent in the purchase of a black letter Latin folio—the " Moralization of the entire Bible," by Petrus Berchorius, all of which I perused faithfully and admiringly many times. By the way, my copy had belonged to Melancthon. It just occurs to me that the spirit of the old monk Pierre Bercheur is living again in these disquisitions on the true inwardness of the chestnut bell, and the esoteric mysteries of the Sauglocke. "Oh, good old man— even from the grave thy spirit" comes over thy disciple, into the year eighteen hundred and ninety, prompting him to find preaching in pebbles and sermons in grains of sand ; of which "making great amount of small things," all that can be said is that it is better than making no account of or be-littling great ones, which is the vice of our day. Chari.es G. Leland. * THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH. '"T^ HE enrolment into a single company of I so numerous and influential a body of English writers as composes the Society of Authors, may perhaps be profitably utilized in a manner which, if it be a little outside the scope of its foundation, would interest and benefit every reader and writer of the English language. There has never yet existed in this country any academic body, any authoritative company of edu- cated Englishmen qualified to pronounce judgment upon moot points connected with the writing of English. It has been questioned whether the formal institution of such an Academy would be  ## p. 80 (#104) ############################################# 8o THE AUTHOR. for the lasting benefit of literature, and I doubt myself if the ex cathedra pronouncements of an official Board of Letters would ever carry much weight with Englishmen. We are too impatient of law and precedent; but in a humble way some nse- ful work might surely be done. An expression of the consensus of opinion of so influential a body as our Society, can never be without influence and effect, and a resolution of the doubts and uncer- tainties that exist on manypoints in syntax, spelling, prosody, and phraseology would be welcomed by every educated man and woman in the land inside and outside of our own circle. I venture to sug- gest therefore that the Society of Authors should from time to time hold an inquest upon some one or other of the aforesaid moot points, and that their deliberation should issue in the shape of verdicts to be arrived at by unanimity, or by a large majority of votes; the verdicts to be published to the world at large in the columns of The Author. There is another and perhaps a still greater service which our Society and its new organ might confer upon English letters, and that is by their sanction of the admission of useful provincial words into general usage. Many an admirable English word has no circulation beyond a limited district, many a word expressing ideas that can only be rendered else- where by a clumsy paraphrase. More competent persons than myself could cite many local words, which, if they were made general, would enrich the language. I will give but one example at present. In parts of the West and of the North of England backword signifies a refusal to comply with a pomise made or to fulfil some intention declared. The following telegram was recently offered at a London Post Office: "Dine with me on Saturday. A sends me a backword." The telegraph clerk refused "backword" as a single word, properly observing that it was in no dictionary, and the recipient of the message—a cockney—had no notion of its meaning. Now surely such a word deserves to pass into circulation, to enjoy the approval, to be stamped with the mint mark of some academic body, and to become at once current coin of full weight and value in the realm of English literature. Oswald Crawfurd. THE CIVIL LIST. I. The following is the Memorial which it was proposed to submit to Mr. W. H. Smith :— "This Memorial Sheweth as follows:— "(a) It was enacted by section 5 of 1 Vict., c. 2. That your Memorialists respectfully submit that further Legislation is urgently needed on the grounds and for the following purposes :— "(b) Section 6 of 1 Vict., c. 2, declared that it is the bounden duty of the responsible advisers of the Crown to recommend to her Majesty, for grants of pensions of the Civil List, such persons only as have just claims on the Royal beneficence, or who by their personal services to the Crown by the performance of duties to the public, or by their useful discoveries in science or attainments in literature and the arts, have merited the gracious consideration of their Sovereign and the gratitude of their country. "(c) The Select Committee appointed in 1837 to inquire into the then existing pensions, classed them under the following heads:—(i)Army; (2) Navy; (3) Diplomatic; (4) Judicial and Legal; (5) Political; (6) Civil and Revenue; (7) Colonial; (8) Services to Royal Family and in Household; (9) Rewards for Literary and Scientific Attain- ments; (10) Royal Bounty and Charity; (11) Compensation for Forfeited Estates; (12) Mis- cellaneous. "The said Select Committee also reported as follows :—The operation of the Superannuation Acts, the system of retired allowances, the military and naval pensions for good services, the pensions granted by 57 Geo. iii, c. 65, for pensions holding high political offices, and the pensions for the diplomatic and consular services, have to a great extent superseded one of the original purposes of the Pension List. These Acts have also substi- tuted a strictly-defined and regulated system of reward for a system which depended on the arbitrary selection of the Crown or the recommen- dation of the existing Government exposed to the bias of party or personal consideration. "(d) The said regulated system of reward has since the passing of 1 Vict., c. 2, been confirmed, amended, and extended by the following statutes: The Superannuation Act, 1859 ; The Naval and Marine Pay and Pensions Act, 1865 ; The Colonial Governors' Pensions Act, 1865; The Superannua- tion Act, 1866; The Diplomatic Salaries Act, 1869; The Political Offices Pensions Act, 1869; The Colonial Governors' Pensions Act, 1872;  ## p. 81 (#105) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 81 The Superannuation Act, 1876; The Pensions and Yeomanry Pay Act, 1884; The Pensions (Colonial Service) Act, 1887. "(e) Notwithstanding the said Statutes, and the Report of the said Select Committee, pensions on the Civil List have been granted for services per- formed in the (1) Army; (2) Navy; (3) Diplo- matic Service; (4) Civil and Revenue Services; and (5) Colonial Service. "(J) It appears from the 'Returns of all Per- sons now in receipt of Pensions charged on the Civil List' (1889), that of the ,£25,221 13*. 4*/. (the total annual charge of the pensions payable at the date of the said Return) £8,625 was payable at the date of the said Return in the following proportions for services in the (1) Army (.£2,710); (2) Navy (£1,335) j (3) Diplomatic Service (£9°°); (4) Civil Service and Revenue (£3,455) J (5) Colonial Service (.£225). "And your Memorialists respectfully submit that further Legislation is urgently needed for the following purposes :— "(a) The restriction of the grant of pensions on tie Civil List within ascertained limits. "(b) The allocation of pensions amounting to ru t less than £800 in each year to those who by th.iir useful discoveries in Science or attainments in Literature and the Arts have merited the gra- cious consideration of their Sovereign and the gratitude of their country, or their widows and children. "(c) The increase of the Royal Bounty Fund and the Civil List Pension Fund so that her Majesty may be enabled to relieve distress and reward merit in a manner worthy of the dignity of the Crown." The Memorial speaks for itself and requires little further elucidation here. It places on record the following facts :—(1) That notwithstanding the wording of the Civil List Act, and notwithstanding the Report of the Select Committee, pensions on the Civil List have been improperly granted; (2) That of the £25,221 13*. ^d. (the total annual charge of the pensions payable in May, 1889), .£8,625 was paid to the classes of persons not contemplated by the Act or the Report of the Committee. Mr. VV. H. Smith remarks in his letter to Mr. S. S. Sprigge, which we published last month, " that the figures in the Memorial, accepting them as fairly correct, show that the practical administration of the Fund is almost identical with the distribu- tion proposed by the Societies, namely, one-third to services rendered to the Sovereign, and two- thirds to the representatives of Science, Literature, and Art" From this it appears that the First Lord of the Treasury defends the grant of pensions on the "Civil List" for services performed in the Army, Navy, Diplomatic, Civil and Revenue, and Colonial Services on the grounds that these are "services to the Sovereign." The Act, however, only empowers the grant of pensions for " personal services to the Crown," and it is, we imagine, merely idle to pretend that this expression was ever intended to have any such meaning as that which it is now sought to give it. It was no doubt one of the original purposes of the Pension List to reward all these classes of public servants, but as the Report of the Select Committee (cited in the Memorial) points out, various statutes have been passed "substituting a strictly-defined and regulated system of reward " in all these cases fcr a system which depended on the caprice of the Crown and of Her Majesty's advisers. It was clearly not the intention of the Act or the desire of the Committee-—and it is necessary to remember that it was a Select Committee of Inquiry into this very question appointed in deference to a loudly expressed public opinion—that any pensions for these services should in future be charged on the Civil List. We think, then, that we have fully established the irregularity of all these pensions, and we regret that the First Lord of the Treasury, who admits that he enjoys "that discretion which must in such cases finally rest with some one res- ponsible minister," has attempted to evade the conclusion. Mr. W. H. Smith further remarks that" to make such changes as the Memorial suggests would necessitate a new Act of Parliament." This we are not prepared to deny. The Memorial prays for " further legislation " for certain specified pur- poses. We feel some diffidence in making any rejoinder to Mr. Smith's expression of opinion that there has not been "any such expression of dis- satisfaction either in the House or outside of it as would justify the proposal." But we think it due to ourselves to say that the Incorporated Society of Authors and the Institute of Journalists do not stand alone in objecting to the present administration of the Civil List Pension Fund. The press has almost without distinction or exception condemned the existing system in no measured terms, and we are not aware that a single voice has been raised in its defence. If the Fund were administered strictly within its proper limits, it would, it is universally admitted, be impossible to satisfy the just claimants. Restrictions, it appears, already exist. It will be seen from the correspondence published in the current report of the Executive Committee that literary pensions can only be granted to the writers of "historical novels and technical and useful books," owing  ## p. 82 (#106) ############################################# 82 THE AUTHOR. to the unexpected existence of certain regulations, or, as Mr. Smith denned them in the House of Commons, "notes on practice." The Society has already placed on record a protest against the "permanent exclusion of any class of Literary, Scientific, or Artistic production from the just claims on the Royal beneficence contemplated by section 6 of i Vict., c. 2." The Society has already demanded that "the regulations, if any, under which the Civil List Pension Fund is administered should be communicated to the public." The case for reform is now complete. It cannot be left to private secretaries to draw up rules which vary the meaning and affect the application of an Act of Parliament. It is high time that genuine regulations were framed, if necessary by statute, which should restrict the grant of pensions not upon an artificial theory but in accordance with public opinion. Mr. Smith "fears that Parliament would be very unlikely to agree to an increase of the sum annually set apart for the Pension List." We, on the other hand, believe that if the necessity were shown to exist, the popular representatives would ungrudgingly support such a use of public money. And there is only too little doubt as to the urgent character of the necessity. It is the unanimous testimony of every First Lord of the Treasury that he is year by year deluged with applications for pensions which he is unable to grant. Many of those cases which now, perhaps, "lie forgotten in the cupboards of the Treasury," were, we do not doubt, sad and saddening, although no whisper of them reached the unofficial world. There are moreover, few years that pass by without the country being startled by the announcement that a pension has been refused to some distinguished man of letters or his surviving widow and children. We do not doubt, we repeat, that the public would support even an increase of the Pension List, but be that as it may, it cannot be denied that the country at large would welcome a re- form in the administration of the Pension Fund, which would ensure it being devoted to the pur- poses for which it was founded. II, The Pensions of the Year. The Civil List Pensions granted during the last twelve months have now been published. They are as follows:—William Muggins, LL.D., a pension of ^150 (very good). Ellen S. Scott, widow of (General H. Scott, R,E., a pension of j£iqo (very bad). The widow of a soldier does not fall within the limits of the grant. Bessie Hatch (widow of Rev. Edwin Hatch, a pension of £100 (very good). Ellen Isabella Tupper, daughter of Martin Tupper, a pension of ^75 (very good). Rosamond Bur- nard, daughter of Gen. Sir H. W. Burnard, a pension °f £lS- 1"ne daughter of a soldier has no business in the list at all, unless that soldier was also dis- tinguished for service, art or literature. Henrietta Elizabeth Wood, widow of the late J. T. Wood, a pension of £,!$■ Augusta Theresa Motteram, widow of the late Judge Motteram, a pension 0^75. l>ady Wilde, a pension of ^70. Pensions of ^50 each to Mrs. Caroline Blanchard, Mr. John Absolon, Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, Dr. William Spark, Mrs. Kate Livingstone, Miss Catherine Shilleto, Mrs. Jane Eleanor Wood (widow of Rev. J. G. Wood). Pensions of ^25 each have been granted to the Misses Eliza and Mary Maquire, daughters of the late Dr. Thomas Maquire, of Trinity College, Dublin, and of £20 each to the four unmarried daughters of the late Rev. M. J. Berkeley, F.R.S. General verdict. On the whole, a great improvement on many recent lists. * A NEW GUIDE TO BOOKS. AGUIDE to Books should be found in any review. That is to say, the reader should be able to depend upon the review which he reads regularly to guide him in the ordering of books from the library. And, no doubt, the reader of the Saturday Review, for instance, would find no difficulty in understanding what is promis- ing in the way of new literature. But one can very well understand that there may arise cases in which the most perfect review may fail to inform the reader as to the best books on special subjects. For instance, the Saturday Review may be acknow- ledged by its best friends to be weak in the Department of Surgery, or of Pure Mathematics, or of Electricity. Therefore, a certain compilation which will first appear in the autumn may prove of great use to specialists, if not to the general reader. The object of the editors is to "place at the service of the reader the opinions of those who may be trusted to give sound advice upon the books which are of value in each department of knowledge." A great many people—specialists- have promised to assist. Among them—members of the Society—we find the names of William Archer, Courthope Bowen, James Bryce, John Earle, Richard Gamett, J, W. Hales, E. Ray Lankester, J. Norman Lockyer, Erikr Magnusson, Max Miiller, Sir Frederick Pollock, Burden San- derson, J. R. Seeley, Sir Henry Thompson, Andrew Tuer, and Sir Charles Wilson,  ## p. 83 (#107) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 83 MR. BAINTON ON HIMSELF. To the Editor of The Author. Sir, I deeply regret I should have been the cause of so serious an amount of feeling and annoyance as the correspondence in your paper reveals—a correspondence which comes upon me as a most painful surprise. I must ask your corres- pondents to believe me when I say that my fault or folly, whichever it may be, was wholly unintentional ; and that how- ever carelessly I may appear to have acted in certain instances, I have had no other than the purest purpose in view, and have been moved by no mean or dishonourable motive. Un- fortunately the book in question was quite an after-thought. When preparing my address I had no idea of so extended a compilation. I simply desired my lecture to be issued in pamphlet form, shoul 1 it stem likely to answer the purpose for which it was designed. My fault has been in changing the form of publication without first acquainting all my generous correspondents of what I purposed doing. But I acted under the impression that this was not necessary after having solicited their consent to use their words in print. That in this I committed a serious over-ight I now learn to my bitter cost, and I deeply regret it should have happ ned. But that I have been guilty of the unfairness, the wilful discourtesy, and other outrageous sins which some of your correspondents—and especially yourself—are anxious to fasten upon me, I most earnestly and indignantly deny. After the first portion of the address was given here in the Old Grammar School, to a united meeting of the Young Men's Associations of the City, and largely reproduced in the columns of our local papers, I was repeatedly urged to return to the subject, and put the matter I had already spoken into print. Through lack of time long delays inter- vened before I could make any attempt to compile a promised second part of the same address, or before I could do anything towards remoulding what I had roughly sketched out. When I did the contributions with which I had to deal were so many, and the interest attaching to them so great, that my MS. quickly exceeded the limits of an ordinary pamphlet. It was then, and not till then, the idea of the book occurred to me. Had I for a moment conceived that in this I was exceeding the bounds of a strict courtesy and integrity, I should most certainly have communicated again with the authors who had generously sent me the items of their experience. Indeed the book would have been at once abandoned had I known it would have given pain to any. I had no interest to serve by concealment, and nothing what- ever to lead me to act in the spirit Mr. Hall Caine insinuates. Some of your correspondents, and several critics outside the columns of The Author, have Hung the ungenial sneer at my supposed sordid desire for gain. The imputation is most unjust, and does not speak well for the spirit of those by whom it is made. I have not received one penny from the book. When towards the close of last year I finished the MS. and submitted it to the publishers, I did not stipulate for any payment, I did not ask for any terms on my own behalf, but gladly accepted their suggestions, with the assurance I should be only too pleased and grateful if the book repaid them the cost of production, and proved of some real in erest and value to its readers. Should anything ever come to me from its sale it will be hea tily at the disposal of those who made the book possible. I prepared the book with a good motive, and it was not the motive of personal gain. I notice in many of the letters you have reproduced your cor- respondents speak of their communications to me as private. They quite overlook the fact that I wrote to them upon a matter for a pitblic and not a private purpose. Letters sent expressly for use in illustrating a lecture can hardly be regarded as ordinary private correspondence. A lecture is not usually private ami confidential. It is liable to be reported and reproduced in print, with or without the lecturer's consent ; and as a matter of fact the lecture in question, which Mr. Hall Caine angrily infers was never given, was in great part printed in the columns of a local paper,* portions of the same appearing three successive weeks, with Ion*; extracts from the most interesting and useful letters, Mr. Hall Caine's not excepted. The com- munications were not sent to me as private, or for a private purpose ; they were not requested for any private aim, else they would have been treated strictly as such. A few of the most helpful letters I received and retain, were not used at all, because the writers expressly objected to their contents being made public. You mention several persons and say they were all ignorant that I intended to print their remarks. That is not correct. I wrote to almost every person you name, to almost every correspondent in your columns, asking permission to use their words in print. Only in two instances am I uncertain of having done so. To Mr. Allen, then in Italy, I wrote twice, to make sure he should receive my request, and neither letter was returned. Several like Mr. Allen did not reply. Was I wrong in assuming that such silence meant either indirierence or consent? If Mrs. Parr, Mr. Gilbe rt, and others had the opportunity to refuse and did not, where is the breach of faith of which they speak? Surely if they had felt so serious an objection to the use of their words they would at least have given expression to it. But though opportunity was afforded they did nothing of the kind; they left me, therefore, free to act as I thought best, and I inter- preted silence as consent. The majoiity did reply, and gave the consent I asked. How then can they have been ignorant of my intention to print their remarks? One of the most eminent of your correspondents assures you I acted in his case with perfect frankness and consistency throughout. In no instance have I sought to be less open and (rank. Why should I i What had I to gain by such concealment with one person more than another? Whatever you or others may affirm to the ontrary I am at least guiltless of any intention to deceive. Memory does not serve some of your correspondents with any great fidelity. Miss Yonge mvy perhaps recall her assurance that I could make the use I asked of what she had written, when I remind her that such consent was given upon condition that no mention should be made of a statement concerning a recent writer. I was careful to respect her wish. Mr. Blackmore too was asked and consented to the use of his letter in print ; and only a few weeks since, May 3rd, 1890, wrote in acknowledgment of acopyof his printed letter, "Am glad to hear of the appearance of your book, which I hope to procure at the first opportunity. With all good wishes for its success, &c." Yet this gentleman "'objects to the use Mr. Bainton has made of the reply procured through the good will due to a clergyman, and lor clerical purposes." Mrs. Kennard also joins in the protest that she did not know, though her letter was printed with her consent ; while writing on May 5th, 1890, she says, "My poor remarks scarcely deserved such prominence as you have been g'>od en ugh to give them. Thanking you for the compliment you have paid me, &c." To Mr. Rider Hagyaid I owe a special word of explanation and apology. The proof he requested when consenting to mv use of his letter would have been submi'ted, but for a statement I saw at the time that he was travelling in the Erst. I trust he will accept the expression of my sincere regret that for this reason his desire was not complied with. * Coventry Times.  ## p. 84 (#108) ############################################# «4 THE AUTHOR. Permit me to add in conclusion that only this week have I learned, and that quite casually, of this painful corres- pondence. No copy of The Author was sent me, and no intimation was given that you were endeavouring so seriously to injure my good name. Is it fair dealing to stab a man in the dark? Is it fair dealing to seek to destroy a man's reputation without a word of warning, and without so much as a hint of the course of action you have taken? Is this the spirit in which the Society of Authors is conducted? If so it is the spirit of a ruthless cruel'y. I do not for a moment doubt that your purpose is just and your motive pure; but surely before seeking fataby to injure the reputation and character of another, you might at least have had sufficient considerate feeling to give him a chance to vindicate himself and explain his conduct in the same issue of the journal in which you have printed your hard and harsh judgment. You have not done so, and I now claim the right that my letter shall appear in the following number of the paper, the columns of which have been used to do me so grievous a wrong. Gf.orgf. Bainton. Coventry, /tine 26/h, 1890. P. S.—When writing the above letter more than a week since, I could discover scarcely any of the replies I had re- ceived frc-m authors giving me permission to use their communications in print. 1 can now put my hands upon several, and I may even yet find others. Unfortunately I did not conceive the matter would ever be called in question, and, therefore, never thought it necessary to preserve them. But it would have been strange had I been so punctilious about the consent of some, and so careless about that of others of my correspondents. An impartial judge would surely admit the strong probability that what was done in so many cases was haidly neglected in the bulk cf the others. When I have used no more than a sentence or two I did not trouble the writers with a note of request ; but if I missed any others the omission was purely accidental. My complaint of the lady who opened this painful controversy is, that she printed two of my letters, and said not a word about the letter in which I responded to and thanked her for her communica- tion. It was in that I asked her to do me the kindness to consent to the use of her letter. Much has been made of the fact that I used in many cases the same form of request. After writing to the first author I retained a rough copy of the letter sent, and used it whenever its terms made it possible, or altered it as the circumstances of the case rt quired. This was done to save unnecessary trouble, and I cannot think in doing so I did wrong. I spoke in some of those letters of the author's books as having given me very special pleasure and help. After twenty-five years constant reading, a man may well have very many pleasant companions amongst the authors of the day—it would be strange if he had not. In my own case I think the book itself will sufficiently show I hardly deserve the suspicious comments you have made. It is easy for a critic to indicate a special point in the speech or conduct of another, and then draw from it a general adverse conclusion. At first I only purposed securing the aid of a few favourite authors, and wrote to that end. The words, which I fain hope were not often used, to which you so seriously and justly object, formed part of the draft of the earliest commu- nication sent out, and were not written with any attempt to mislead. All the correspondence I hold relating to the matter in question is freely open to the inspection of anyone concerned in it. George Bainton. July 5th, 1890. To the Editor of The AUTHOR. Sir, Mr. Bainton has only himself to thank for our change of tone towards him. Many may have wished him success—as I did—through misconception of his purpose. W ho could foretell from a page of his book what the nature of the volume was to be? It proves to be a piece of patchwork, collected from fifty quarters; and the patches, though not exactly pilfered, were procured for a very different use. If Mr. Bainton had said at first—" I am writing to all the English authors I have heard of, to ask them how they do their work; I shall use their replies for my own pupils first, and then (if I see my way) make a book out of them "—how many answers would he have got? Later on, when he had obtained replies (by writing to scores of authors, as if to each exclusively and for a benevolent purpose), in fairness he should have explained to each the character of his forthcoming volume, instead of describing it as a mere expansion of his lecture. In that case, how many would have allowed him to pour on the literary world (instead of his Coventry class) their off-handed replies? Faithfully yours, R. D. Blackmore. [Mr. Bainton's letter only shows the justice of those who complained of his conduct. He asked certain questions, the answers to be used for a lecture. That he admits. He then used them for a book. That he also admits. If a man prints a communication for one purpose which was intended for another it is not enough ;o write for permission—he must also obtain permission. A letter is a private document, unless the contrary is stipulated expressly. As for the spirit in which this Society is conducted, it is one of continued hostility to all who invade or attack the rights of authors. Having printed Mr. Bainton's reply, we can now leave the matter as between Mr. Bainton and his correspondents and between him and The Author to be judged by our readers. —Editor.] * AT WORK. This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society, who are invited to keep the Editor acquainted with their work and engagements. R. J. NORMAN LOCKYER, F.R.S., is editing Am£dee Guillemin's work, "The Heavens." Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S., has presented to the Royal Irish Academy a "Catalogue of binary Stars for which orbits have been computed." The Catalogue, which will be published by the Academy, contains the elements of all the orbits hitherto calculated, the magnitudes and colours of the components, spectra, "hypothetical," and measured parellax, the relative brightness of each compared with a standard star, and data for computing the velocity in the line of sight, for use in the spectroscopic method of measuring the star's distance from the earth. The Catalogue is followed by a series of notes giving further details and the most recent measures of position of the component stars. There has been a change in the Editorship of the Publishers' Circular"; Mr. J. A. Steuart is the new Editor. Mr. Steuart has in the press a work of Criticism and a novel, both of which will be published in the autumn by- Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & Co.  ## p. 85 (#109) ############################################# THE A UTHOR 85 Mr. Charles Leland is now preparing a work on "Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling." There will be an Edition de Luxe. 150 copies only, and all numbered. The publisher, Mr. Fisher Unwin, receives names of intending subscribers. Mrs. Cashel Hoey has this year written the summer number for Household Words. It is a complete story called "His Match and More." In last month's "At Work," two mistakes were left uncorrected. The name of William Westall appeared as "William Werlah," and Mr. Watt wis announced as the agent for The Author under Ithe heading of Mr. W. F. Smith's new version of "Rabelais." The author should not be in italics. It refers to the translation of "Rabelais," not the Journal. Mr. E. M. Edmonds will contribute an English edition of the "Autobiography of Koloko Kenes," with an historical introduction on the Klephts for Mr. Fisher Unwin's "Adven- ture Series." His biography of Klugas, the Protomartyr of Greece (Longman), has already shown his knowledge of kindred subjects. Mr. Oscar Wilde's story, " The Picture of Dorrin Grey," which constituted the July number of LippincotCs Magazine, will shortly be issued as a one volume novel by Messrs. Ward and Lock. Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson will shortly issue, through Messrs. Chatto and Windus, "Father Damien: an open letter to the Kev. Dr. Ande." A second edition is ready of Mr. Eustace A. R. Ball's "Mediterranean Winter Resorts." It is a handbook to the principal health and pleasure resorts on the shores of the Mediterranean (London, L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand; and Paris, The Galignani Library, 224, Rue de Rivoli). The article on "Alexandria," in Nos. 9 and 10 of Cassell's "Picturesque Mediterranean," is by Mr. Eustace A. R. Ball, who is also the author, under the pseudonym of Evelyn Ballantyne, of the article called "The Pit and Its Critic." Rev. James J. Hillock has issued the third edition of his "Hard Battles for Life and Usefulness" (Houlston and Sons). Crown 8vo. 3*. 6d. Miss Frances Armstrong begins a story for the young called "Changed Lots; or, Nobody Cares," in the July- Number of Newbery House Magazine. Miss BIyth's new story is entitled " Adolphus Etherton ; or, the Boy who was Always Amused." Mr. Edric Vredenburg has recently completed a new story which will be published in the Weekly Times and Echo, beginning January 3rd of next year. Mrs. Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell's book on Palestine, called " Forty Days in Holy Land," is in the press, and will be published by Messrs. Kegan Paul & Co. A new edition of Mr. Justin McCarthy's " History of the Four Georges" is being issued by the same publishers. Volumes I and II are now ready. Esme Stuart commences a new serial tale in the July number of the Newbery House Magazine. It is now stated that Mr. Christie Murray is not lost at all. He has sailed for Samoa vid Sydney with the intention of joining Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson. The author of "Thoth" (Blackwood), and of " Toxar" (Longman) is Professor Nicholson of Edinburgh, a member of this Society. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Aubyn, St. Alan. A Fellow of Trinity. Chatto and Windus. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. (Shortly.) Author ok "Thoth." Toxar, a romance. 1 vol. 6s. Longmans. BESANT, W. H., D.Sc, F.R.S. Notes on Roulettes and Glissettes. Second Edition, enlarged. Messrs. Bell. 8vo. 5/. Collins, M. The Blossom and Fruit: A True Story of a Black Magician. Crown 8vo. 2s. Conway, H. Martin. Climber's Guide to Central Alps. I vol. 10s. T. Fisher Unwin. Conway, W. M. Climbers' Guide to the Central Pennine Alps. i8mo. lew. Crommelin, May. Midge. Trischler and Co. 6s. Dowden, Professor. The Poetry of John Donne. Chap- man and Hall. Farrar, F. W. The Passion Play at Oberammergau, 1890. W. Heinemann. 4to. 2s. 6d. James, C. T. C. The New Faith. 3 vols. 31*. 6d. Ward and Downey. "John Strange Winter." Dinna Forget. Trischler and Co. Paper, is. ; cloth boards, Is. 6d. Kennard, Mrs. G. Matron or Maid: A Novel. Crown 8vo. 2s. td. Lange, F., Ph. D. Elementary German Reader: A Gra- duated Collection of Readings in Prose and Poetry. With English Note and a Vocabulary. Messrs. Bell. 8vo. is. 6d. Linton, E. L\ nn. Sowing the Wind: A Novel. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. Murray (C), and Herman (H.). Wild Darrie. i2ino. 2s. Murray (D. Christie) and Herman (Henry). Paul Jones's Alias. Chatto and Windus. is. "Nemesis." By Seyton Crewe. Eden, Remington and Co. 6s. Oliver, Cai'T. P. Madagascar; or, Robert Deury'sJournal during Fifteen Years' Captivity on that Island. T. Fisher Unwin. 5*. Powell, F. York, M. A. History of England, Part I, From the Earliest Times to the Death of Henry VII. Rivington. 2s. 6d. Robinson, F. W. The Keeper of the Keys. Hurst and Blackett. 3 vols. Ruskin, John, D.C.L., LL.D. The Seven Lamps of Architecture. New cheap editions. George Allen. Small post 8vo. p. 6d. each. ■ Aratra Pentelici. Seven Lectures on the Elements of Sculpture. Val D'Arno. Ten Lectures on Art of the Thirteenth Century in Pisa and Florence. Salmone, H. Anthony. An Arabic-English Dictionary on a New System. 2 vols. Triibner & Co. Symonds, John Addingto.n. Essays, Speculative and Suggestive. Chapman and Hall. 2 vols. Warden, Florence. St. Cuthbert's Tower. Popular Edition. Cassell and Co. $s. Westall, William. Strange Crimes. I vol. 6s. Ward and Downey. Whistler, J. McN. Gentle Art of Making Enemies. W. Heinemann. 4th thousand, ioj. 6d.  ## p. 86 (#110) ############################################# 86 AD VER TISEMENTS. THE LITERARY HAJYDJHAID OF THE CHURCH" J3 -V -%KT AIiTBB 3B E S A T. HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING. NOW READY. This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid of the Church of England throughout the world." The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps. THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION. BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A. READY IN OCTOBER. This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.  ## p. 87 (#111) ############################################# 87 NEW BOOKS. RABELAIS. A New Translation. liy W. F. Smith, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer of Saint John's College, Cambridge. Issued to Subscribers in a limited Edition of 750 copies, all numbered, of which 500 copies are for this country and 250 for America. In two hand- some 8vo vols. Price 2$s the set. The aim of the al>ove translation has l>een to render more accessible, to explain and illustrate a book which has exercised a wide influence on the French language as well as on European literature. A system of marginal reference has been introduced. Great attention has been paid to the historical aspect of the book, and points bearing on the political and religious affairs of the times have been carefully noticed. As the work must be presented as a whole, and as certain passages and parts can no longer l>e presented in English, these have been left in the original old French, where they can lie read by such as desire it. The work will be accompanied by a life of Rabelais, a notice of the translators, Urquhart, and Motteux, a map of the environs of Chinon, the part of France where Ra!>elais was brought up, notes on the language and style, and on other points. It will be, in fact, an entirely new and complete presentation of the great French master. Prospectus giving /nil details ami all information to lie had OH a/plication from the Publisher. A HOOK NECESSARY TO EVERY AUTHOR. SLANG AND ITS ANALOGUES — Past and Present. By John S. Fakmkk, Author of "Americanisms—Old and New," &c. A new and absolutely unique -Slang Dictionary, In three volumes, foolscap 4to, primed antique style, on thick paper, large margin, to the number of 500 copies for England and 250 for America, each copy being numbered and signed, to Subscribers only as follows: The Set (3 vols.) £5 51. net. In hall-calf, parch- ment sides. The price will be raised 011 completion as in the case'of "Americanisms—Old and New." A Dictionary, Historical and Comparative (011 the lines of Dr. Murray's New Ivnglish Dictionary) of the Heterodox Speech of all Classes of Society for more than 300 years, the whole presenting a Curious Picture of Social Life and Manners of the English People. Sotes and Queries says—" For the first time in a dictionary the subject of English Jantf is seriously treated. Recent works liavu been catchpennies, and Mr, Farmer is the first to treat the subject of slant in a manner com- mensurate with its importance. . . . Very full is Mr. Farmer s list, the first volume extending- to mer four hundred double columnct panes. . . . His book commends itself warmly to our readers, and its progress cannot be otherwise th.ui inUTi-^ttnif. As it is issued in a limited edition it can scarcely fail of becoming a prized possession." Prospectus and all information to be hadfrom the Publisher, AMERICANISMS: OLD AND NEW. By John S. Fakmeh. In 1 vol. Foolscap 4tot printed in antique style, and bound in vellum, £2 2s, A book for the library, desk, or general reading; for journalists. Members of Parliament, public speakers, and all professional men. It is a dictionary of words, phrases, and colloquialisms peculiar to the United States, British America, the West Indies, &e, &c, together with their derivation, meaning, and application. "Certainly the best and completes! dictionary of Americanisms at THREE NEW BOOKS ON THE HOLY LAND. PALESTINE UNDER THE MOSLEMS. liy GUY LE Strange, With Map, and numerous Plans and Drawings specially executed for this work. Handsome post 8vo, pp. 604. Cloth extra, 12s. txl. "A work intended to render the mass of interesting iiiN'niiatiun about Palestine, which lies buried in the Arabic texts of the Moslem geographers and travellers of the middle ages, available to the English reader." ".... is written throughout with a sort of luting care which proves how thoroughly the author nas lelt the fascination of his subject."— Saturday Review, Third Edition, now ready. THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. By Henry A. Hakier. With an Introduction by Walter liesant. Coloured Map and numerous Illustrations, demy 8vo, 16*. "Instructive, interesting, and in many ways admirable . . . enables the reader so to revise his impressions of Scripture typography as in many caser, to throw quite a flood of new light upon a hitherto obscure narrative." —Manchester hxamintr% "Supplies .1 long-felt want by connecting in a popular and vivid manner the work which has been done by the Society with the Bible narrative."— Christian Leader, NORTHERN AJLUN, "Within the Decapolis," liy Hkrk Schumacher, Author of "Across the Jordan," &c. With Maps, Plans, and over 60 Illustrations, crown 8vo, 3.1. 6*/. "Altogether we have to thank Mr. Schumacher for an important addition to ojt knowledge of what has long remained a terra incognita,"— Saturday A'eriert'. THE SURVEY OF WESTERN PALESTINE. Only 17 sets of this magnificent work now remain. It will ttevtr be reprinted, ~<<ith the exception of the two volumes "Flora and Fauna " and "Jerusalem." '/'he price of the set is 25 guineas. It consists of the following in seven uniform and handsomely bound volumes. $to. THE MEMOIRS. Being the Notes taken in the Field by Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E,, and Colonel Kitchener, C.M.G., A.D.C.R.E., re-written and arranged after their return. With thousands of illustrations of tombs, ruins, &c, drawn expressly for these volumes, a'id not to be found anywhere else. 3 vols. THE NAME LISTS. Transliterated from the Arabic with translation by Major Conder, R.E.,and edited by Professor K. H. Palmer. 1 vol. THE VOLUME OF SPECIAL PAPERS. Con- sisttug mostly of reprints of important p.ipers from the "Quartet ly Statement," by Col. Sir Charles Wilson, K..C.B., K.C.M.G., F.K.S., D.C.L., I.L.D., K.E. ; Col. fcir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., K.C.U., F.R.S., K.K.: Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E.; M. Clermont- 1 Ganneau, Mr. Greville Chester, etc. 1 vol. THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF PALESTINE. With manv Illustrations (hand-painted). riy Canon Tristram, LL.D., F.R.S. 1 vol. THE JERUSALEM VOLUME. With a Portfolio of 50 Plates. By Col. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., and Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E. 1 vol. THE MAPS. An IUnalrated Circular, giving all information about the above, will be sent, post free, on application. Published for the Palestine Exploration Fund by London: ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, Paternoster Square, E.C.  ## p. 88 (#112) ############################################# 88 TYPE-WRITING! CHARING CROSS TYPE-WRITING ASSOCIATION, ■* 447, STRAND *■ (Directly opposite Charing Cross Station). Managers - Miss ROUSE & Mrs. URQUHART. Authors' MSS. copied with accuracy and despatch. Specifications. Law copying. Translations from and into all foreign languages. Shorthand Writers always in attendance. Misses GILL & CARPENTER, TYPE-WRITING OFFICES, 6, ADAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. 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Supplied for Cash, or on our Hire Purchase System. CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED. W. J. RICHARDSON & Co., 12 & 14, Queen Victoria St, E.C. 40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfield Street, Glasgow; Guardian Building, Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all members. 3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.) 2s. The Report of three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887. 4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 4-f. 6d. 5. The History of the Soctete" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the Society, is. 6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition preparing.) 7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible. Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.  ## p. 88 (#114) ############################################# The Society of Authors (Jncorporated). PRESIDENT. The Right IIon. The LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.S.I. ALFRED AUSTIN. ROBERT BATEMAN. Sir HenRY BERGNE. WALTER BESANT, R. D. BLACKMORE. REV. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S. LORD BRABOURNE. JAMES BRYCE. P. W. CLAYDEN. J. Comen's CARR. EDWARD Clodd. W. MARTIN CONWAY. MARION CRAWFORD. OSWALD CRAWFURD. THE EARL OF DESArt.. A. W. DUBOURG, ERIC ERICHSEN, F.R.S. PROF. Michael Foster, F.R.S. HERBERT GARDNER, M.P. RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D, COUNCIL. EDMUND Gosse. II. RIDER HaggarD. THOMAS HARDY. PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S.: Rev. W. J. LOFTIÉ, F.S.A. GEORGE Meredith. HERMAN C. MERIVALE. . T. C. PARKINSON.. THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY. Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D. WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK.. A. G. Ross. GEORGE AUGUSTUS Sala. W. BAPTISTE SCOONES. G. R. Sims. J. J. STEVENSON. JAS. Sully. WILLIAM MOY THOMAS. H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L. EDMUND YATES. - Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C. Auditor-Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WKAE, F.L.S. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Chairman-WALTER BESANT. I ROBERT BATEMAN. W. MARTIN COYWAY.. EDMUND Gosse. H. RIDER HAGGARD. A. G. Ross. J. M. LELY, Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK. Solicitors. Messrs. FIELD, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. OFFICES. 4, PORTUGAL Street, LINCOLN's Inn Fields, W.C. Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City of Westminster. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 03 (July 1890) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 03 (July 1890) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1890-07-15-The-Author-1-3 publications The Author