Copyright denotes the property which an author has in his literary works, or which a bookseller, or any other person, may acquire by purchase—a property founded, in either case, on the exclusive right to the publication of a particular work. The subject involves two important inquiries; one, the propriety of the obligation imposed by law on the publisher to sacrifice a given number of copies to our public libraries; the other, a much more extensive, and, in a public sense, more interesting question, the expediency of prolonging the duration of the exclusive property of a book.

1. Recent discussions have made the public so familiar with the merits of the first question, that we shall merely give our readers a short history of the facts of the case. Printing became extensive in England about a century after its discovery; and it was in the year 1556 that a charter was granted to the Stationers' Company, an incorporation, consisting not of venders of stationary, in the present sense of the word, but of booksellers and printers, who, for their general benefit, determined to keep at their hall a register, in which should be entered the title of every new book, the name of the proprietors, and the successive transfers of the copyright. Bye-laws were enacted by the company; fines were levied on members acting in contradiction to their regulations; and, in course of time, these resolutions of the association were confirmed by a well known measure of government, we mean the licensing act of 1662; an act prohibiting the publication of any book, unless first licensed by the Lord Chamberlain, and entered in the stationers' register. In 1684 a new charter was issued to the company, partly for the purpose of securing the property of books, but more with the view of interposing the royal interdict on any publication at variance with the despotic government of Charles II. In the auspicious reign of William (1691), this act was repealed; but while the liberty of the press was restored, the door was unluckily thrown open to infractions on literary property by clandestine editions. It was in vain for the owner of a copyright to bring an action against the trespasser: he had no other protection than common law; he could recover only to the extent of the "damage proved;" that is, he could not adduce evidence of the tenth, or, perhaps, twentieth part of the damage suffered, as he could not prove the sale of one copy out of twenty. This led to applications to Parliament in 1703 and 1706; but no act was passed until 1709, when, after much discussion, the sanction of the legislature was given to a bill, of which the prominent features were two: first, an obligation to deliver nine copies to as many public libraries; and next, a provision for guarding, by severe penalties, the property of copyright, during fourteen years. The public libraries entitled to the receipt of a copy each, were,

The King's Library, now transferred to the British Museum.

The Bodleian at Oxford, and the University Library at Cambridge.

In London, Sion College, or the Library of the London Clergy.

In Scotland, the libraries of the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, and Aberdeen, with that of the Faculty of Advocates.

To these were added, by a subsequent act, in 1791, two Irish libraries, viz. Trinity College, Dublin, and the Society of the King's Inns in that city.

The delivery of nine copies of every new book was a heavy sacrifice, and booksellers were indefatigable in their efforts to evade it; delivering at one time only a single volume, and at others venturing to omit the ungracious duty altogether. Hence a necessity for new acts of parliament, more particularly those of 1775 and 1791. Still these acts were not sufficiently positive; and it having been decided in 1798 (in the case of Beckford v. Hood), that publishers were not prevented by such irregularities, from obtaining damages for pirated editions, they became more and more remiss in their deliveries.

At last, in 1811, the university of Cambridge having determined to bring the question to an issue, brought an action for the non-delivery of Fox's history, and obtained a verdict. The booksellers, finding that this act was now no longer a dead letter, applied to parliament; but a committee of the House of Commons, appointed in March 1813, made a report in favour of their opponents; and in the succeeding spring an act was passed, confirming, in the most explicit terms, the claim of the public libraries, who were not even required to pay any proportion of the price of such books as they thought proper to require.

2. For many years, we might more properly say for a couple of centuries, the property of a book seems to have been considered as permanent as the property of an estate; shares of literary works being bought and sold without any idea of their expiring. It is not till 1709, that we discover a trace of interference with its permanency, the act of that year defending it against intruders during fourteen years and no longer. The limitation, however, had no practical effect; copyright was considered permanent, both by the booksellers and the public,—nay by three out of the four judges of the Court of King's Bench, in the celebrated trial Millar v. Taylor, which took place in 1709, and led to a very memorable display of judicial erudition. The plaintiff charged the defendants with a trespass, in publishing an edition of Thomson's Seasons, of which the plaintiff was the sole proprietor.

Lord Mansfield, with Judges Willes and Aston, gave an opinion in favour of the permanency of copyright, in which they were confirmed by Judge Blackstone; but one of their brethren, Judge Yates, took a very different course, and adhered resolutely to the literal construction of the act.

An action for a similar trespass was some time after brought before the Court of Session in Scotland; the London proprietor of a copyright claiming damages for an infraction by a provincial bookseller. (Case of Hinton v. Donaldson.) Here the majority of the bench were adverse to the opinion formerly delivered by Lord Mansfield, and discharged the defendant without a dissentient voice, except that of the well known Lord Monboddo. At last, in the session of 1773-4, the question came decisively before parliament, the booksellers having brought in a bill for declaring copyright perpetual. This bill passed the Commons, but was thrown out, after much debate, in the Lords.

To avoid perplexity, we shall endeavour to comprise the pros and cons in these various discussions, and in a kind of regular succession, adopting the plan of appending a rejoinder to each argument, as the best method of doing justice to both sides.

Objection. Ideas cannot be the object of property; they are not visible, tangible, or corporeal. (Judge Yates.)

Answer. Whatever admits of exclusive enjoyment may be property. (Hargrave.)

O. Another person may arrive, by his own process of thought, at similar conclusions, would you deny to him what you granted to his predecessor?

A. There is very little apprehension of such a coincidence; the plans and the results of study admit of as infinite variety as the human countenance; the same views, or the same conclusions, will never come from two persons, or even from the same person at different times, in the same language. At all events, an arbitrator or a court of justice can be at no loss to decide, whether a second publication on the same subject comes within the description of plagiarism.

O. A literary composition is undoubtedly the property of the writer, so long as it remains in MS.; but by the act of publishing, he gives it to the world; he lets the bird fly; his property is gone. (Judge Yates.)

A. He gives the public the free use of the knowledge contained in his book; but this is a very different thing from the profit as publisher. The ten shillings paid for a volume entitles the reader to the use of its contents, but can certainly give him no claim to the hundred pounds which may be expected from a new edition. (Lord Mansfield, Judges Willes, Blackstone, and Aston.)

O. It is not clear that common law ever sanctioned the exclusive enjoyment of copyright; the only titles appear to have been the royal patent and the licence of the Stationers' Company. (Lord Camden.)

A. It seems to have been always taken for granted by Chancery and other courts, that an exclusive right existed. There was a confirmatory example in the highest quarter; the King is perpetual propriety. The patentees of mechanical inventions possess but a limited term; none of them ever advanced a claim to perpetuity. (Judge Yates.)

A. Such patentees are much sooner reimbursed than authors; the fruit of their invention is of a more direct practical application. Besides, the stranger who makes a duplicate of a machine, incurs a much greater relative expense than the stranger who reprints an edition of a book.—in the one the materials form the chief part of the cost; in the other, they are comparatively insignificant, and copies may be multiplied by the thousand.

O. The statute of the 8th of Queen Anne, expressly limits the duration of copyright; it enacts that the protecting penalties shall be in force during fourteen years, and no longer. (Judge Yates.)

A. This is, no doubt, the apparent meaning of the statute, but the preamble of the act declares, that it is passed for the protection of literature; to make the act an instrument for curtailing a literary privilege would certainly be at variance with its general language. (Lord Mansfield.)

O. If such property be admitted for a time, is not the term of fourteen years sufficient? What good could the public expect from the writings of men so selfish as to call for a perpetual monopoly?

A. Monopoly is not the proper word; the object may be attained, as will be shown presently, under modifications which insure to the public a complete supply of books at reasonable prices.

O. "Glory," said Lord Camden, "is the reward of science, and those who deserve it scorn all manner views."

A. Reputation is, and always will be, the grand stimulus to literary exertion, but it requires long-continued exertion; and if we do not enable a writer to live by his works, we confine the possibility of acquiring reputation to a very small class—to the rich, or to those who derive an income from other means. Such, in fact, has hitherto been the case; standard works have been attempted only by men who, like Gibbon, possessed patrimony, or who, like Robertson and Hume, arrived at the possession of income from other sources. No one imagines that our military or naval officers follow their profession for the sake of pay; yet no one would propose to abridge it on the ground of reputation being their primary object.

O. "It was not for gain," said Lord Camden, "that Bacon, Newton, Milton, and Locke, instructed the world."

A. Each of these distinguished men were obliged to trespass on the time devoted to literature, and to seek an income from public employments. How much better would it have been could they have given an undivided and uninterrupted attention to their favourite pursuits?

In comparing these various arguments, the balance is evidently on the side of the advocates of exclusive right in every point except one—the interpretation of the statute of Queen Anne. There the words, "fourteen years and no longer," are too pointed to admit of the construction put on them by Lord Mansfield. In the beginning of 1774, when the question came before the House of Lords, the judges attended and delivered their opinions at length, Lord Mansfield advocating the cause of permanency, while Judge Yates, now supported by his brethren, Baron Eyre and Baron Perrot, asserted once more the necessity of limitation. Thurlow, at that time Attorney-General, addressed the House, as a counsellor, against the perpetuity, and found an ardent auxiliary in Lord Camden; but the opposite side was ably supported by Dunning, by Solicitor-General Wedderburne, and by Lord Lyttleton. One party contended, that fame was the only true reward of literary exertion, while the others maintained, that without an adequate pecuniary provision, the public would remain deprived of many useful works. The House, however, appear to have been alarmed at the idea of perpetuity, and finally decided, that the exclusive right should last only "fourteen years, with a contingent fourteen, if the author happened to be alive at the end of the first period."

The grand error on the part of the booksellers lay in demanding perpetuity instead of prolongation. The idea of perpetuity has in it something very serious, and will not be sanctioned by a legislature without the clearest proof of public advantage; it would be premature to ask it even in the present age. They ought to have urged the attention of Parliament to the number of years required to compose a standard work, and to the farther length of time necessary to give it effectual currency; appealing to the good sense of the Legislature, whether fourteen or even twenty-eight years were not wholly inadequate to remunerate these multiplied labours.

Foiled in the House of Peers, the booksellers determined to do what men always will endeavour to do when unjustly controlled—evade that which they cannot resist. They resorted to the alternative of giving an ostensible renewal to a work, by adding, at the end of the term of each copyright, notes and other appendages, which remained their property during another period of fourteen years, and afforded them a kind of guarantee in two ways: first, because a competitor, whatever he might do with the original text, could not touch the addenda; and, next, because the great body of publishers residing in London act as a corporation, and combine to give circulation to works thus edited, to the exclusion of rival impressions.

The law continued on this footing for forty years, the term of copyright receiving no extension till 1814. On that occasion it was soon apparent that the universities would carry the point of the delivery copies, and the only alternative was, to seek an indemnity in an extension of copyright to twenty-eight years; that is, by rendering the last fourteen certain instead of contingent. This was obtained, and here ends the historical part of our sketch.

We are now to enter on the grand question, of the advantages of a farther prolongation of the We shall begin, by examining a very material point,—we mean the dispositions and habits of those with whom authors have principally to deal. And here, from long familiarity with men of business, we entreat the particular attention of our literary brethren; for, however anxious to be instrumental in procuring them relief, we must not hesitate to point out their errors or misconceptions. Of the surprising quantity of publications issuing annually from the press, not a tenth part are the production of writers of established character; the rest proceed from candidates whose reputation is yet to make. In what manner are booksellers to form an estimate of the mass of unknown MSS., thus laid before them? Their own habits are not those of study but of business, and they must consign the task of examination to friends who have been called not unaptly "literary tasters." Need we wonder that the patience of the critic should be put to a severe test by the mediocrity of the great majority of these performances, and that his report should, in general, be so little decisive, that the bookseller is led into the habit of putting one work on a par with another, and of subjecting them, in the mode of publishing, to the coarse application of a common rule? It has become the avowed practice to decline any other terms for a new work than those of defraying the paper and print in return for the manuscript, and in the understanding that the profit of the edition, if there be any, shall be shared between the bookseller and the author.

Now, this plan of publishing, however natural in the present state of the law, is replete with mischief to all parties, bringing forth a mass of books which ought never to have seen the light, and which, in truth, would never have been published, could the writer or publisher have foreseen their failure. It is a remarkable fact, disclosed in the inquiries arising from a late parliamentary discussion, that only "one publication in eight is found to come to a second edition." (See Evidence taken by Copyright Committee in 1814.) The unfortunate limitation of copyright discourages literary men from the labour necessary to produce standard works; and the bookseller, tempted to assail the public by the attraction of novelty, goes on publishing books by the dozen, in the hope that some lucky chance may make up for his past disappointments.

All this shows that, in the great majority of cases, the contract between an author and a bookseller is made without previous data, and is nothing more or less than what is commonly termed a blind bargain. Dr Paley, on finishing the MS. of his Moral and Political Philosophy, tendered the copyright of it to a bookseller for L500, and was offered in return L250, exactly in the way that a cautious purchaser takes care to bid for unknown merchandise. During this negotiation, it happened that a brother of the trade, apprised of the value of Paley's work, came boldly forward and offered L1000 for the copyright. The author consenting to give the party first in treaty the previous option, the latter now saw the matter in a new light, and ended by paying four times the amount of his original offer.

No notion is more general among authors than that booksellers make rapid fortunes at their expense. One writer has published, that Jacob Tonson and his nephew died worth L200,000 (D'Israeli's Calamities of Authors, Vol. I. p. 29); and not one reader in twenty will stop to question the accuracy of the allegation. It is our firm belief that such a sum was never possessed by any bookseller, or partnership of booksellers, that ever existed. Among them, as in all lines of business, there are examples of considerable capitals, but these are only realized in the case of long-established concerns, and after a progress of acquisition infinitely slower than the angry imagination of a disappointed author allows him to believe. In his eagerness to take for granted that his publishers are getting rich at his expense, he forgets the history of the fathers and grandfathers of the present men, and omits to mark the slow steps by which they paved the way for the eventual rise of their descendants. He fails, likewise, to scrutinize another material point, namely, the quantum which a close calculator would deduct from the estimated fortunes so liberally assigned by current report to booksellers. The latter, like all men in business, are desirous of passing for affluent; but, if so few publications are found to be successful, must there not necessarily follow a large abatement from the imagined extent of their annual gains? It is, on various accounts, a matter of regret, that the limited profits of bookselling business should not be better understood by literary men. The discovery of it would remove the film from their eyes, would lessen greatly their habits of complaint, and would lead to cordial co-operation for redress of their common grievances. We may with confidence assert, that a small offer from a bookseller, as in the case of Paley, is indicative, not of a design to overreach, but of an apprehension that, to give more, would be to injure himself. On the other hand, we are by no means disposed to launch out into a panegyric of the liberality either of particular individuals, or of the body at large. Like other men of calculation, they naturally mete out their advances, not by attachment to the writer, but by the extent of the expected return. A large allowance for a finished book denotes a confidence of extracting a still larger from the public, while the scanty, and apparently niggardly, payment of an unknown author, is a token of the fear and trembling with which a bookseller handles a production of doubtful promise.

The customary agreement between a bookseller and a new author proceeds as follows: The latter having prepared a work, of which he has high hopes, but in which he has not had either guidance or advice, sets out by making an offer of his MS.; and, after some time taken for consideration, is answered, that his name not being yet known to the public, the publishers cannot take on themselves to make him a payment for his labour, but are willing to give it to the world on their joint account. This leads to a compact in terms somewhat like the following:

It is agreed between Messrs Y. and Company, booksellers, and Mr Z. that Messrs Y. and Com- pany shall print and publish for their account, jointly with Mr Z., in two volumes octavo, his historical work on ——— Mr Z. supplying the manuscript, and Messrs Y. and Company taking on themselves the paper, printing, and other publishing charges. The statement of the account to be made up every year at midsummer; and when, after deducting the various publishing expenses, there shall appear a balance of profit, the same to be equally shared between Mr Z. and Messrs Y. and Company. The books to be accounted for at the regular trade sale price.

The publication now takes place, and in a twelve-month after, an account is made up in the following form:

| Dr. | History of ——— by Mr Z. | Cr. | |-----|--------------------------|----| | Printing 60 sheets @ £1.20 | 750 Copies printed, retail price £1.20, the balance to the trade £1.50 | L.120 0 0 | | Over-running and corrections | 9 0 0 | | | Paper 90 reams at 30s. | 183 0 0 | | | Advertising | 50 | | | Boards for 25 copies delivered to the author's friends | 2 10 0 | | | Balance at Dr., carried to next year | 184 0 0 | |

L.296 10 0

Next year the account is considerably shorter, the charges consisting only of advertising and interest of money; but the attraction of novelty having gone off, the sale is also less, and does not probably exceed eighty copies, leaving still an adverse balance of L.100. The bookseller goes on with mercantile punctuality to render him a farther account, but the sale is now in a state of progressive decrease, and does not, for the third year, exceed 50 copies, leaving still an unfavourable balance of L.80. The author now loses patience, and entreats the bookseller to relieve him of all responsibility, by taking over the remaining copies, and considering the account closed. Such is the fate of five-sixths of the books, great and small, that come before the public. Composed without the benefit of experience, they are unprofitable to the publisher, uninteresting to the reader, and discouraging to the author. If we are suspected of stating an extreme case, let another be supposed, in which the author is less of a novice, and in which a bookseller, from confidence equally in him and in the subject, ventures to make an advance of money, and to agree to pay a fixed price for the copyright. An arrangement is made for bringing out the work against a given time, and the writer proceeds with all the ardour attendant on a new enterprise. Authors, however, were never remarkable for accurate calculations, or rather their undertakings are almost always found to require more time and labour than is anticipated—the prescribed time expires, and the bookseller agrees to postpone it for another twelvemonth. This also passes away; the publishing season draws near; the work is still unfinished, but the author is impatient of farther labour, and the bookseller thinks it high time to get a return for his money. The work goes to press, and comes out without either a correction or an acknowledgment of its imperfections, unless the author be particularly modest; in which case the public is requested, in a well turned apology, to make allowance for his multiplied avocations and the urgent nature of the subject. This is the case with almost all the better class of our new publications; the sale, in such cases, is somewhat less unfavourable than the specimen given above; but four or five years are requisite to run off an edition, and, on coming a second time before the public, it is necessary for the author to do what should have been done at first—revise and correct the whole. A second edition comes out, but under considerable disadvantages; the attraction of novelty is gone or greatly impaired; the number of readers is lessened by those who have purchased copies of the first edition, and the character of the book has been estimated, in Reviews and elsewhere, by an unfavourable standard. The bookseller is thus curtailed of profit, the author of reputation, yet each has the happy gift of throwing blame off his own shoulders; the publisher attributing the failure to the distraction of the public attention by some unlucky novelty, while the other vents his complaints on the incurable frivolity of the age. In truth, neither of the parties is much to blame; their conduct is the natural result of their situation; the haste of authors and the acquiescence of the booksellers are mainly owing to the short-lived tenure of the fruits of their labour; the habits of the one and the calculations of the other having been all along adapted to this state of things.

Is there then no remedy for so mortifying a state of things? no method of relieving the public from such an unprofitable expenditure of time and attention?—Some have been desirous to call in the patronage of Government, and have argued, that literature can never, like the coarser objects of industry, find adequate repayment in the fruit of its exertions. It is, indeed, a current subject of complaint among authors, that there should not be a larger proportion of provisions for life appropriated to literary men. Sed non tali auxilio—whatever be their distress, we beg to deprecate any interference on the part of Government. No engine is so formidable as the press in the hands of an arbitrary or artful ruler. Look at the degraded picture exhibited, during a succession of years, by the French press; and you will find men, who, under the auspices of freedom, would have acted an independent part, tempted, threatened, and gradually compelled to become the advocates of a tyrant, and to participate in the guilt of riveting the chains of their countrymen. It is in vain, even for a liberal legislature or a disinterested sovereign, to attempt to make up for the deficient reward of literary labour, by granting pensions or creating places for men of letters. These measures, though apparently beneficial, carry with them all the disadvantages of irregular and unnatural interference. A literary man promoted, as is not unusual in France, to a government employment, is withdrawn from his proper sphere of utility; he becomes lost to general reasoning and liberal views amid the endless details of practical routine. The pension granted to Johnson by Lord Bute was generally approved, both as the fair reward of past industry, and as a reasonable relief to pecuniary difficulty; but, what was the consequence? it fostered his natural indolence, prevented the composition of farther works, and, by enabling him to live in idleness, rendered him per- petually dissatisfied with himself. Had the property of his literary labour been permanent, he would have received twice as much from the booksellers, and might have continued his proper pursuits under circumstances progressively improving, without incurring the humiliation of dependence, or degrading his name by the composition of party pamphlets.

It is equally vain for zealous friends to attempt making up for the inadequacy in question, by procuring private subscriptions for a work; for whatever may be the success, in a pecuniary sense, the step is humiliating to the author, is liable to abuse, and is, besides, an interference with the proper business of a bookseller. One of the most splendid of such examples was Pope's translation of Homer; an undertaking where the importance of the task and the talents of the translator called equally for liberal remuneration. Pope was perfectly ready to sacrifice several precious years for the sake of eventual competency, and he found in his friends, particularly in Swift, a most zealous promoter of his views. Proposals were circulated, liberal subscriptions were obtained, and a favourable bargain made with the bookseller: the translation of the Iliad was executed, and will for ever remain a proof of the perseverance to which an author may be prompted by the love of fame, when relieved from pecuniary pressure, and enabled to give long continued labour to his task. So far all was well but the success of this first undertaking induced Pope to resort to the same method for publishing a translation of the Odyssey, which proved far inferior; being performed either hastily by himself, or by two coadjutors, whose respective contributions, though not altogether concealed, were unfairly represented to the world. Could such an abuse have taken place had subscription been out of the question, and had the remuneration of Pope been proportioned to the eventual sale of his book? The public would, in that case, have had a translation of equal merit with its predecessor, and Pope would have been spared the reproach of a literary imposition. The least exceptionable mode of rewarding literary eminence is by church preferment in the southern part of the kingdom, and by admission to professorial chairs in the north. But the extent of both, particularly of the latter, is limited, and does not always place a man in that station where he can be most useful, or in the mode of employment most congenial to his habits. Both besides require more of connection, of interest, and of management, than commonly falls to the lot of a retired student.

The only effectual plan is, to find the means of relief in the prosecution of literature itself; to relieve it from existing shackles, and to allow every writer to reap his reward in the sale of his books, exactly as we do in other kinds of employment. This is all that literature wants, and all that it is good for her to have. She will then make no claims to patronage from Government—no appeal to the subscriptions of private friends—nor will appointments in the church, or at universities, be an object of indecent contention; they will be coveted by a smaller number; by those only whose particular habits fit them for such situations. Perpetuity of copyright is as much the right of the author or purchaser of a book, as of the builder or purchaser of a house: and the public will never reap its full harvest of advantage from literary compositions till the law be made to confirm the claim of equity. But, as this opinion is as yet far from general, the true plan is to desist from pressing it to its extent, to demand only the grant of a specific period, and to leave the public to enact perpetuity at a future time, when it shall have had practical and undoubted evidence of the beneficial effect of prolongation.

Let us first see if we can take a useful lesson from the example of our Continental neighbours. In France, copyright has of late received several prolongations; at first limited to the author's life, it was extended in 1793 to ten years, and in 1805, to no less than twenty years after his death. Taking twenty years as the average of life after the publication of a work, we have here, in the whole, a medium term of forty years, which is considerably longer than ours. But the grand practical example is to be found in Germany. In that country, copyright is perpetual; and though the sales of editions are very limited, in consequence of the facility of importing clandestine impressions, from the territory of neighbouring princes, such is the benefit of permanency, that Germany sends forth more works of lasting use than any other country in Europe. Compare their performances in Statistics and Geography with those of France, England, or Italy, and we shall be surprised at their superior research, and their careful examination of the necessary documents. It is at present proposed to effect a most important improvement in the state of book property in Germany, by rendering the protection general throughout the empire; and by enacting, that a clandestine edition published in a different state shall be subject to the same penalties as if published in the country of the writer. The great powers, Austria and Prussia, are understood to favour this measure, and some objections raised by the lesser states are likely to be overcome; and if the decision of the diet be speedy, Germany will take the lead of all Europe in the production of standard works.

There is evidently no reason that the term of book property should have a reference to the prosperity of our bale time of an author's life; it is much more equi-presentable to prolong it to a considerable time after his death, as a provision for a family deprived of its natural protector. Our present term of 28 years appears, at first sight, no inconsiderable tenure; but the circulation of literary works is often only beginning to become considerable when the property is drawing to a close. Paradise Lost remained in comparative obscurity for many years; and, on coming nearer our own times, we find Hume's early works, and even the first volume of his History, falling dead-born from the press; and Smith's Wealth of Nations, the labour of half a lifetime, going through only two editions in the course of eight years. No wonder, then, that a bookseller should pause before giving a large price for a short-lived possession. But, prolong copyright, and you relieve him from the necessity of laying stress on the sale of this or that season; you direct his hope to eventual and permanent circulation; and you put it in his power to pledge himself for a considerable sum, because he is justified by the prospect of the return. An author, thus supported and encouraged, will no longer scruple to give year after year to studying a subject thoroughly, and bringing out his book in a finished state.

We shall next put the principal suggestions which have occurred to us into a specific form, less under the idea of their forming the basis of a legislative measure, than as a convenient mode of stating the substance of a case.

Grant, in all books to be hereafter published, a prolongation of copyright for twenty-two years, making in the whole fifty years. Appoint a commission (with power of reference to a jury) to act in all cases where the owners of copyright withhold publication, or confine it to an expensive form. Empower this commission to order the publication of such works, in the form which they judge most proper, and without any other obligation towards the proprietor of the copyright than that of paying over to him or his representatives the proportion of profit accruing, by the practice of the trade, to the owner of a copyright. (Quarterly Review, Vol. VIII. p. 112.)

The power of this commission to be operative only for the additional term (twenty-two years), without application to the existing twenty-eight.

The act of 1814 would thus remain in force.—Should it however appear, in the progress of the discussion, that the additional prolongation made it necessary to provide for the interest of the public, or of the minor booksellers, the power of the commission might be made applicable to a certain portion of the twenty-eight years. Such interference would probably not be wanted, the interest of the copyright owners being the same as that of the public; but the former would, at all events, have no reason to complain, the additional prolongation being a very substantial equivalent for any curtailment of their powers.

The grand objection hitherto has arisen from an idea, that, to prolong copyright, was to prolong the power of the owner to deal with the public as he chose. Nothing, however, is easier than to separate the two, preserving to the bookseller his property, and giving the public the right of calling for editions of his book, in the manner most suited to general convenience. This seems sufficiently explained in the above provision; and the only matter of surprise is, that it should not have been sooner acted on.

This clause would put book property on so plain and equitable a footing, as to open a prospect to another and very desirable arrangement—a community of copyright between this country and the United States; that is, a mutual compact that "the publisher of a book in the one should possess the property of it also in the other," subject always to the interference of a commission or jury in each country, who should take care that it be given to the public in a cheap and convenient form.

Such is the plan of the proposed alteration. We are next to consider its probable effects;—and first, as to literary men. They certainly feel sore at the obligation of sacrificing eleven copies of every book to the public libraries. A prolongation of copyright would go far to remove this uneasy sensation; but we would urge it on higher grounds; and here it is fit to state, that our arguments are not at all intended to favour a mercenary spirit. Those persons who write merely for money, find, at present, an ample stock of employment, in compiling, abridging, and plagiarizing; they are dead to the feeling of reputation; and incapable of that judicious and honourable calculation which shows that the true way to attain either fame or competency, is to be sparing of early publications, to study in silence, and to aim only at ultimate success. Such men do not properly belong to literature; they have been cast into it merely as a refuge, and because its pursuits bear a certain connection with their early education. The men who would be benefited by the change would be a very different class; they would be those who embrace literature as others embrace medicine, law, or the church, with the intention of following it as a profession; who make allowance for the years that must be passed in unproductive study, and who do not repine at the postponement of their reward, provided it be not eventually withheld. The proposed alteration would operate in their favour, not by gratifying a mercenary spirit, which literature never engenders, and which, if it previously existed, would be modified, perhaps cured, by such pursuits; but, by enabling the individual to pursue his task, without discouragement, and without feeling that, by gratifying his personal predilection, he is doing an injury to his family. Improve his circumstances, not that he may amass money, but that he may have the means of support during the long labour necessary to reputation. More is not to be desired; the wants of literary men are few, their residence,—their plan of life,—their mode of bringing up a family, ought all to be such as to recall the philosophic simplicity of former days.

What a reproach to Modern Europe, that, with all the benefit of extended circulation and the invention of printing, our literary compositions should not have surpassed those of the ancients! Does not this argue, that there must exist somewhere an unhappy counteraction to our advantages? In number of studious men we far surpass the fairest days of Greece and Rome; but few of them, comparatively, become writers; they meet a deal of difficulty and discouragement in their attempts to address the public, and the result is, that their knowledge expires with themselves. Such will be the case until an effectual change be made; we shall have the mortification of seeing men capable of enlightening the world and accelerating the progress of improvement, doomed to waste their time in teaching pupils, or relinquishing literature for the pursuit of professions productive only of money. Others who prefer the gratification of their taste to all considerations of property, must be content to live on a trifling pittance abroad, or in a corner of their own country, remote from libraries and the pleasure of literary intercourse.

To make literature a profession for life, is almost a new project; for hardly any have set out with the in- tention of making it their sole object. They have, consequently, proceeded without a settled plan,—have arrived at no definite method until advanced in years, and have seldom, if ever, thought of drawing up instructions for the guidance of their successors. Observe in mercantile business, in public offices, and in the law, how labour is methodized and subdivided; in what manner the mechanical and unproductive part is made to devolve on inferior assistants, and the time of the principal reserved for general views and important decisions. In literature, anything of the kind that has yet been attempted, is in its infancy; yet the same plan is applicable; and were authors so far put at their ease as to be enabled to make an undisturbed apportionment of their time, they would soon learn to make great improvements in their mode of study.

In the present situation of copyright, a bookselling house generally keeps the property of a book till towards the end of the twenty-eight years, when a sale takes place on the plan of interesting the trade at large in the preservation of the property. The work is put up to auction at the Chapter coffee-house, in sixteenth or thirty-second shares, and disposed of to a number of different purchasers, who all become interested in supporting each other, and in discouraging the sale of rival editions, printed at Edinburgh, Dublin, or elsewhere. In this manner the property of Cowper's Poems is said to have been sold in October 1812 for L.4160. The shares of all our standard writers are thus vendible, and for sums which would surprise those who do not happen to be initiated in the mysteries of the trade. Hence the great cause of the indifference of booksellers to the question of prolongation, for they consider themselves as enabled, by this happy expedient, both to baffle the tyrannical limitation of the law, and to keep within bounds the demands of authors. "At present," say they, "we are sure of having the power of purchasing shares in any valuable book property; our profits, indeed, are considerably lessened by the cheaper printing of booksellers residing out of the metropolis; but the extent of connection of us, the London traders, is such as to give a tolerable degree of certainty to the value of our shares. Were authors assured of a prolonged term, it is questionable whether we should so soon have the option of buying copyrights; at all events, we should pay dearer for them." This reasoning is plausible, but, like the general conclusions of most practical men, will be found to be drawn from a narrow circumference. Whatever be the duration of copyright, the property of it, in nineteen cases out of twenty, must be vested in the bookseller. How can authors have the means of running the risks, or waiting year after year, the tardy returns of sale? Must they not continue to exchange these formidable contingencies for a specific allowance in the shape of ready money? To write books is one thing; to sell and to hold the property of them is another. The one is the province of the retired and sedentary student, the other of the man of activity and capital. Again, as to augmentation of price, booksellers would, indeed, in the event of a prolongation, find it necessary to increase the remuneration of good writers; but this increase would be repaid them threefold in the augmented value of their editions, which would, in that case, embrace the circulation, in all probability, of the United States. Printing, at least the printing of English copyrights, cannot, in time of peace, continue in America, unless we persist in our present system. Give encouragement to our own writers, and the compositions offered to our booksellers will soon be of a stamp that will rival the impressions of France, where two or three thousand copies are struck off for one thousand in England. Observe the effect of such a change in facilitating the recovery of the drawback on paper; a drawback at present of little benefit to our exporting booksellers, because the books shipped to America are frequently in such petty lots as not to defray the expense of the despatch. These considerations are of the highest importance at a time when the re-establishment of peace and the commercial activity of the Continent of Europe, gives reason to apprehend the printing of rival editions of our standard books for the American market.

Cheapness is not to be sought by the inferiority of type and paper; but it would be the result of those progressive improvements, which would soon take place among us, were things left to their natural operation. An increase in the size of an edition, implies the practicability of reducing the price to the public. Of the various benefits arising from cheapness few of us are sufficiently aware, accustomed as we have been to progressive enhancement in this age of war and expenditure. It would enable us both to supply the foreign market and to increase greatly our circulation at home, by inducing individuals to buy books which they would otherwise borrow, and to have always at hand those to which they would otherwise only have occasional access.

What is the ordinary course of the business of a great publishing house? A large proportion of the books they send forth pass unnoticed, and hardly defray the paper and print. What loads of unsaleable volumes encumber their warehouse! What a world of expense do they incur for unproductive advertising! The success of the house depends on the very few works of standard merit (perhaps one in forty) which obtain extensive sale, and form a counterpoise to their ill-starred brethren. Now, the effect of a prolongation of copyright would be to increase very considerably this select number, and to afford on a large, that benefit which is now enjoyed on a small scale. Booksellers have merely to look around them to see that those publications succeed best where the encouragement of the writer is most liberal. This has been strikingly exemplified in the principal Reviews and other conjunct compositions of the day; and how much greater would be the exertion in the case of a separate publication,—a case where the personal fame of a writer is so much more at issue? The expense of paper, print, and advertising, are as great on a bad as on a good manuscript, and it would in time become a rule with our leading booksellers to publish none but first-rate books—adhere to this, and you may safely dispense with repeated and expensive calls on the public attention,— the name of your house will do more than everything else.

Another and by no means inconsiderable advantage of the command of a valuable manuscript, is the power of obtaining, either in money or otherwise, an allowance from a French or a German bookseller for the use of the English sheets, for the purpose of translating,—a point hitherto little attempted, in consequence of the trifling nature of most of our publications.

Booksellers complain, and probably with truth, of the vanity and unreasonableness of authors; but the literary line has many attractions, and whenever you satisfy men that they will not doom themselves to a life of poverty by following it, you may be assured that you will soon have to transact with a very different class.

It is usual with booksellers, when treating with an author of reputation, to make their bargain with reference to successive editions, that is, they pay a certain sum for the first; a farther sum when a second is called for; and a final payment on the appearance of a third, generally completes the purchase of the copyright. This plan would be regularly acted upon, could the bookseller have confidence in his literary contractor. It reduces the risk of the former, while, to the author, it affords the gratification of prospect, and gives him the strongest motives to render his book worthy of permanent favour.

Such is the state of the case as regards the elder brethren of the trade,—the principal publishers; but we must address a few words likewise to a numerous and, in general, a respectable class,—the printers and lesser booksellers. These persons may apprehend that a prolongation of copyright would prove a continued suspension of their power of coming forward with cheap editions; but we refer them to the clause in the above sketch of the proposed act, which might be so framed as to allow any bookseller who choose to make the speculation, to print an edition of a work on his obtaining the assent of the proprietor of the copyright, or, failing that assent, on his getting the sanction of the committee or jury authorized to settle disputed points. What sum should be paid to the copyright owner, is a point for farther consideration, depending on the nature of the work, its size, its popularity; but the custom of the trade would supply the proper rules, and the principle, once established, the arrangements would suffer no greater difficulty than other changes in business.

We are next to call on the lesser booksellers and printers to take a comprehensive view of their situation, and to mark that progressive change and extension of the bookselling business, which shows that there is no ground for keeping up ancient jealousies, or for considering the interest of one branch as different from that of the others. Look back to the history of the trade, and observe how it has gradually, and without the aid of interference, divided itself into a variety of distinct branches. Booksellers combined at first the sale of stationary with that of books; hence the Stationers' Company. In process of time they relinquished, in great towns at least, this unnecessary appendage, and, after a farther lapse of years, divided the wholesale book business from the retail. Progressive extension led next to a distinction between the publishing and the old book departments; and we have at present in one house (the house so well known as the publishers of Hume and Robertson) the example of an establishment avoiding all business, even wholesale, except what relates to books printed for their own account. These subdivisions tend exceedingly to facilitate business; they cause it to be done both better and to greater extent. The longer our experience, the more we are satisfied, that the repetition of employment is the only true road to success, and that we cannot more effectually clog our progress than by attempting the conjunction of dissimilar undertakings. The farther course of things, particularly under an extension of the term of copyright, would lead to the formation of establishments on a still more simple plan; some bookselling houses would confine themselves to the mere management of copyrights, and leave not only the printing, but the sale, to the trade at large. Such houses would merely stipulate a certain payment for leave to print an edition of a given size and form, and transfer all details of management to the undertaker of the speculation. Is this a prospect calculated to alarm either the printers or minor booksellers? Does it not tend to show, that things, when left to their natural course, fall invariably into their true channel, and render superfluous both the care of the legislature and the bye-laws of corporations?

We come next to consider the interest of the public in the proposed regulations. We are not aware, that there exists at present complaints of books being capriciously withheld, or confined to expensive forms. In the case already quoted, Cowper's Poems, there were on sale at one time, and that before the expiration of the copyright, no less than five editions: viz.

One in 8vo, with plates, L. 1, 6s. One in 8vo, without plates, L. 1, 1s. One foolscap 8vo, 14s. One do. of inferior print and paper, 7s. One 12mo, stereotype, 9s.

Nothing, moreover, can be clearer to a man of business, than that the dearer an edition, the fewer the purchasers; and that the true plan is to meet the demand of all classes with as little delay as possible. This we see repeatedly exemplified in the case of new books, where an 8vo edition is brought forward before the sale of the 4to is completed; but as all booksellers might not be equally accommodating, the plain alternative is to invest a commission with explicit powers to interfere. This will form a full and conclusive answer to those arguments which Judge Yates on the bench, Lord Kames in the Court of Session, and Lord Camden in the House of Peers, so strongly urged against giving what they termed the "continued monopoly of a book." These distinguished persons were not aware of the difference between the preservation of property and the continuance of control; they could not see by intuition what it has taken no small share of time and reflection to discover. The existing restrictions as to the term of copyright, tend only to open a door to abuse, by inducing an author to make his work less perfect in the first instance, on the plan of affording him an easy method of renewing the exclusive property. Gibbon did not scruple to write to his publisher, that a thorough revisal of his history would form "a valuable renewal of the copyright at the end of the term." Booksellers follow this plan avowedly and habitually; and it is the remark of a very intelligent writer on the subject of copyright, that, unless a change take place, our purest and best authors will become so disfigured by annotation, and increased in price by increased bulk, that the early editions will be called for.

We by no means assert, that the proposed change would stop the appearance of trifling works, since every man must be allowed to waste his time and his property as he chooses; but it would surprisingly increase the number of good books, prompting many, who are at present entirely discouraged, to become authors, and inducing others who labour, but labour with haste, to give a finish and attraction to their performances.

It is long since Dr Johnson pronounced us "a nation of readers," yet we are still extremely deficient in standard works, and on subjects too where we ought to have been long since amply supplied. Have we a good general history of Ireland or Scotland, or even of England? No wonder that we should still be deprived of such works when we calculate the time, labour, and expense required in their composition. Now, that public records have become so voluminous, and the transactions of nations so complicated, whoever undertakes to do justice to such topics will find himself subjected to a variety of expenses; he must set apart two, perhaps three, years for what apparently requires one; he must have his residence in the vicinity of great libraries; he must carry on an extensive correspondence; he must employ clerks in making copies of official documents and family papers. The same observations are applicable to scientific labours. At present, no bookseller can afford to indemnify a writer for the years he would be disposed to bestow on a favourite but insulated branch—he must have a work on a subject of general interest; that is, one which will take in a number of topics, without going to the bottom of any. But prolong the term, and afford a prospect that a well written book, even in a limited department, will make its way, and the bookseller will find himself justified in offering to the author a sum which will enable the latter to indulge in his predilection for the branch in question. This point is of great consequence, for almost every author has a favourite subject, which he would cultivate with great zeal, did not necessity oblige him to turn aside to popular topics, for the sake of a livelihood. We have known works that might have been completed in two or three years, postponed from interval to interval, so as to occupy seven, eight, or nine, in consequence of those unwelcome avocations.

The more a man of taste and judgment studies the true nature of composition, the more he becomes attached to simplicity; he loses all relish for flowery diction; he learns to chasten his early predilection for ambitious passages: for point and antithesis he substitutes the plain language of the Grecian and Roman models. Such a style is calculated to be permanent, but may not for sometime be popular, perverted as the public taste is by a habitual tone of exaggeration and inflation. The reward of such writers is thus to be found only in length of time. Grant but this, and you will accomplish a total change in the character of new books, rendering the writers indifferent to whatever may be called tricks of composition, and directing their attention to the plain, the solid, the permanent. What a prospect is here opened both of improving our national style and of diffusing useful information! This is one of the many things which show that the benefit of one part of the community is the benefit of all; and that, whenever we are enabled to sift a subject to the bottom, and to view a question in all its bearings, we find, that the existing evils are the result of our own prejudices or mistaken regulations. We have treated this subject with reference to four distinct parties:—authors; publishing booksellers; the lesser booksellers with the printers; and, finally, the public; yet we challenge any opponent to produce a single point in which the advantage of the one is not found to coincide with and promote the advantage of the others.

How has it then happened that a case calling so strongly for amendment has not hitherto been fully brought before the public? The reasons are the following:

Publishing booksellers have been, and still are, unconscious of the improvement which it would produce in literary composition.

The lesser booksellers and printers were not aware of the practicability of combining prolongation of copyright with freedom of composition.

The parliamentary opponents of the measure, such as the late Lord Camden, were equally unaware of the possibility of the provision in question.

And as to literary men, their error has been partly in want of co-operation, partly in asking too much, by urging at once a claim to perpetuity.

But is there now any prospect of the adoption of such a measure? The progress of improvement is slow; our legislators have not leisure to study such matters to the bottom, and our practical men are, in general, wedded to ancient usage. At the same time, there are strong reasons to hope, that the question, if taken up by a spirited and persevering member of Parliament, will eventually be carried. The universities afford an encouraging example. They have long possessed copyright without abusing it. Booksellers are beginning, particularly since the

* Correspondence from Lausanne, annexed to his Memoirs. † Address to Parliament on the Claims of Authors, by a Member of the University of Cambridge, 1813. CORALLINIADÆ. Under this head we propose to treat of these marine substances, named by Linné Corallinae, whose situation in the system of nature has not been satisfactorily ascertained by naturalists, some having referred them to the animal, and others to the vegetable kingdom. The more recent writers, Bosc, Duméril, Lamouroux, Desmarests, Lamarck, and Le Sueur, for the most part, place them with the zoophytes without hesitation; and even Cuvier, who has not fully satisfied himself as to their nature, treats of them amongst the zoophytes in his Règne Animal, which indicates the bias of his mind on the subject.

Pallas, Robert Brown, and Blainville, are inclined to refer them to vegetables; indeed, Brown has little if any doubt on the matter; and since they have not been observed to contain polypes, we are very unwilling to treat of them as animals, and therefore give an account of them under the head Coralliniadæ, a patronymic title derived from the most prominent genus of the group.

We shall give the characters of the Genera, and under each shall mention the opinions of different authors.

Tabular View of the Genera.

| Stalk | distinct, abrupt, simple terminated by | |-------|-------------------------------------| | Articulated and not abrupt; terminated by articulated branches which are none | an umbell, articulated; terminated by several pyriform processes attached by their bases, a flabellum marked with transverse curved lines, a pencil of dichotomous articulated branches, fistulose, cylindric, dichotomous, capillary, dichotomous, compressed trichotomous, cylindric dichotomous, the joints moniliform, furnished with a horny substance between their joints, furnished with flabelliform joints |

All the above genera are placed in the order Corallinae by Lamouroux, and under the title Corallinae by Cuvier. They resemble plants, are generally jointed, and are formed of two substances, the one internal, the other external. The central part is fistulose, fibrose, or compact, and is surrounded by the cortical substance, which is calcareous. From this structure, Cuvier seems to have determined to place them near the Gorgonice, whose inhabitants are very well known to be zoophytes.

Gen. 1. Acetabularia. Lamouroux. Olivia. Bertolini. Acetabulum, Lamarck, Cuvier. Stalk distinct, long, filiform, simple, fistulose, terminated by a striated-radiated umbell. Sp. 1. Crenulata, Plate LXVI. Tubularia acetabulum, S. Gaëlini, Syst. Nat. 3333. Acetabularia crenulata. Lamor. Hist. Polyp. Corall. Flex. 249. Acetabulum Caribicum. Lamarck, Hist. Nat. des An. s. Vert. 151. This species is found in the West Indian seas, where it is very common. There is another species, A. Mediterranea, that is not uncommon in the Mediterranean, the supposed animal of which has been described by Donati, who mistook some parasite for the tentacula. Cuv.

Gen. 2. Polyphysa. Lamarck, Cuvier, Lamouroux. Stalk distinct, long, filiform, fistulose, composed of confluent joints, terminated by eight or twelve pear-shaped processes, attached by their bases. Lamarck has referred this and the preceding genus to his vaginiform polypes, along with sertularia, &c., and mentions tubes and cells, which we cannot perceive in our specimens. Sp. 1. Aspergillosa, Plate LXVI. Polyphysa australis. Lamarck, Hist. Nat. des A. s. V. 152. Polyphysa aspergillosa. Lamouroux, 252. Fucus peniculus. Turner, Hist. Fac. iv. 77. t. 228. f. a–c. Inhabits the New Holland seas, and is the only species known.

Gen. 3. Udotea, Lamouroux. Flabellaria, Lamarck, Cuvier. Flabelliform, with an abrupt, distinct, simple stalk; root fibrous; the sides of the flabellum marked with curved, concentric, transverse, regular lines. This genus inhabits the hotter parts of the American ocean, and is sometimes found in great abundance attached to calcareous rocks, or thrown on the shore after heavy gales of wind. Sp. 1. Flabellata. Plate LXVI. Fig. 1. natural size; 2. portion magnified.

Udotea flabellata. Lamouroux, 371.

Flabellaria pavonia. Lamarck, Hist. Nat. des A. s. V. 343.

The branches of this species are divided into smaller branches; in the other species, U. conglomerata, the expansion or branch is undivided.

Gen. 4. Nesea, Lamouroux.

Peneocillus, Lamarck, Cuvier.

Stalk simple, terminated by a pencil of articulated cylindric dichotomous branches.

The Nesea are found in the American seas, attached to rocks by their long fibrous roots. When living, their colour is green, which they lose on being dried, and assume a whitish tint.

Sp. 1. Dumetosa. Plate LXVI. fig. 1. natural size; 2. branch magnified.

Nesea dumetosa. Lamouroux, 259.

Gen. 5. Galaxaura. Lamouroux, Cuvier.

Dichotomaria. Lamarck.*

Fistulous, cylindric, articulate, and dichotomous.

Gmelin and Esper refer the Galaxaura to the Tabulariae; but they are placed amongst the Corallinae by all other authors. Lamarck, who has placed them with his Polypiers vaginiformes, very justly observes, that they very much embarrass the zoologist.

Sp. 1. Rigida. Plate LXVI. fig. 1. natural size; 2. portion magnified.

Galaxaura rigida. Lamouroux, 265.

Inhabits the Indian seas, adhering to marine plants.

Gen. 6. Jania, Lamouroux.

Capillary, dichotomous, articulated; the joints cylindric; the axis corneous; the cortical substance soft.

All authors, excepting Lamouroux, have classed the Janie with the Corallinae, which may easily be distinguished from each other by the generic characters given by Lamouroux, who first observed the distinctive marks. The greater portion of the species attach themselves to marine plants.

Sp. 1. Pedunculata. Plate LXVI. fig. 1. natural size; 2. portion magnified.

Inhabits New Holland seas.

Gen. 7. Corallina, of authors.

Articulated, branched, trichotomous; axis composed of horny fibres; cortical substance hard.

The presence of calcareous matter in such abundance, as is found in this genus, seems to have been the principal reason which has caused naturalists to refer it to the animal kingdom, since no polype has been observed by those who have had constant opportunities to observe it in the living state. Lamouroux has noticed certain filaments covering a species found on the coast of Calvados, but only in the summer season.

When living, the Corallinae are of a beautiful reddish or purple colour, which they lose after death, and when exposed to the action of the sun and air, assume a great variety of tints. They are found generally on rocky shores, and are generally attached to the rocks; or to the marine plants on the rocks, few being found on the pelagic vegetables.

The most common species on the European coasts is C. Officinalis, which was formerly used in medicine as an absorbent, but has lately been rejected from the pharmacopoeia. The most characteristic species is,

Sp. 1. Simplex, Plate LXVI.

Corallina simplex. Lamouroux, 290.

Which inhabits the American seas.

Gen. 8. Cymopolia. Lamouroux.

Dichotomous, articulated; joints moniliform, and separate from one another; axis tubular.

The colour is nearly similar to that of corallina in the living and dried state.

Sp. 1. Rosarium. Plate LXVI. fig. 1. Natural size. 2. Portion of a joint magnified.

Corallina rosarium. Gaet. Syst. Nat. 3842.

Cymopolia rosarium. Lamouroux, 294.

Inhabits the Carribean seas.

Gen. 9. Amphiroa. Lamouroux.

Dichotomous or trichotomous, articulated; the joints long and separated from each other by a naked horny substance.

The Amphiroae attach themselves to rocks and other solid bodies, and are not unfrequently found on the shells of those brachyurous malacostraca that inhabit deep water. They are more abundant in warm than in temperate climates, and have never been observed in the polar regions.

Sp. 1. Rígida. Plate LXVI.

Amphiroa rigida. Lamouroux, 297.

Inhabits the Mediterranean.

Gen. 10. Halimeda. Lamouroux.

Articulated; joints flabelliform; axis fibrous; cortical substance chalky.

Lamarck has confounded this genus with Udotea, from which, it is needless to observe, it is altogether distinct.

Some of the species are parasitical on marine plants, but the greater portion adhere to rocks. They occur in the Mediterranean and American seas.

Sp. 1. Irregularis. Plate LXVI.

Halimeda irregularis. Lamouroux, 308.

Inhabits the Carribean seas.

Gen. 11. Melobesia, Lamouroux.

Stony, scale-like, without any stalk.

This scale-like genus is found attached to marine plants, and each species is generally found on the same sort of plant.

Sp. 1. Pustulosa. Plate LXVI. fig. 1. Melobesia pustulosa natural size on Chondrus polymorphus; 2. Detached and magnified.

Inhabits the European ocean.

The principal authors who have treated on this group are, Solander and Ellis, Natural History of Zoophytes, London, 1786.—Lamarck, Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertèbres, Vol. II. Paris, 1816.—Lamouroux, Histoire des Polypiers Coralli-gènes Flexibles. Caen, 1816.—Esper, Histoire des Zoophytes. Nuremberg, 1786.—Ellis, Essay on the Natural History of Corallines. London, 1756. (v.)