property; and in Scotland it makes it personal and moveable estate.

As regards the gift or bequest of copyright to certain universities and colleges, and assignments by them, see above, at p. 5.

COMPULSORY DELIVERY

OF COPIES OF BOOKS TO

THE BRITISH MUSEUM, AND FOUR OTHER LI

BRARIES.

To support the establishment of certain institutions for the benefit of learned bodies and the public, all acts protecting literature, or relating to books, have compelled a delivery to some libraries of copies of published works. The first of these statutes was passed in the reign of Charles II.: by it three copies were ordered for the two English universities and the King's library. The 8 Anne, c. 19., extended the number of copies demandable to nine; one for the Royal Library, two for the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge, four for the libraries of the four Scotch universities, one for Sion College in London, and one for the library of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh. The 41 G. 3. c. 107. added two more copies for Trinity College and the King's Inn, Dublin. In the case of The University of Cambridge v. Bryer, 16 East, 317., a question arose upon these statutes, whether it were necessary that the title of the book should be entered at Stationers' Hall prior to the publisher being bound to deliver up copies for the use of the public libraries, as directed by the act; and it was there held that it was not requisite it should. The next statute of copyright, the 54 G. 3. c. 156., required that eleven copies

of every book should be distributed among the same libraries, except that, in place of the Royal Library, was substituted the British Museum.

The 5 & 6 V. c. 45., with greater regard to the interests of publishers, confines the extent of copies required to be delivered to a more just and limited number.

DELIVERY TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM. The 6th section of that statute requires the delivery, on behalf of the publisher, to the British Museum, of— 1. A printed copy of every book published after the passing of this act, together with all maps, prints, or other engravings belonging to it, finished and coloured as are the best copies of the work: 2. A printed copy of any second or subsequent edition published with additions or alterations, whether in the letterpress or in the maps, prints, or other engravings, and whether the first edition was published before or after the passing of this act: and, 3. A printed copy of any second or subsequent edition, of which the first or some preceding edition has not been delivered to the Museum. Each of these copies is to be bound, sewed, or stitched together, and to be upon the best paper on which the work is printed; and the delivery is to take place within one calendar month after the book is first published within the bills of mortality, or within three calendar months after it is first published in any other part of the United Kingdom, or within twelve calendar months after it is first published in any other part of the British dominions. Pursuant to the 7th section, this delivery is to be made at the British Museum between ten and four on any day except Sunday, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Christmas Day, to

one of the officers of the Museum, or to some person authorised by the trustees of that institution. Such officer or person receiving the copy is to give a written receipt for it; and a delivery so made will fulfil all the requisitions of the statute.

DELIVERY TO THE OTHER LIBRARIES.-The 8th section of the same statute enacts that a copy of every book, or of any second or subsequent edition containing additions or alterations, together with all maps and prints belonging to it, which is published after the passing of this act (such copy to be upon the paper of which the largest number of copies of the book or edition is printed for sale, and in like condition to them), shall, on demand in writing, left at the publisher's abode within twelve months after publication, under the hand of the officer of the Stationers' Com

pany, or of any person with authority from the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Public Library at Cambridge, the Library of Advocates at Edinburgh, and the library of Trinity College, Dublin, be delivered within one month after such demand to the officer of the Stationers' Company. The officer of the Stationers' Company is to receive at the Company's hall the copies for the use of the libraries that have made their demand within the twelve months; he is to give a written receipt for them; and, within one month after delivery to him, to deliver them to the respective libraries. The 9th section provides that if any publisher wish, he may deliver the copy of a book demanded at any of the four libraries themselves, free of expense to the library, to the librarian, or other person authorised, who must receive it, and give a written receipt in return; and such delivery

will fulfil the intent of this act as much as a delivery to the officer of the Stationers' Company.

According to these provisions of the act, the main distinctions between a presentation to the British Museum and a presentation to any of the other four libraries, are these, first, that the delivery to the Museum is to be made without demand on the part of that institution; whereas delivery to one of the other libraries need not be made at all, unless there be a written demand within twelve months after publication; and, secondly, that the copy presented to the Museum must be one from the best copies of the work, while that for any of the other libraries need be only a copy from the set the most numerous. Thus, if a publisher produce a superior and an inferior edition at the same time (as in cases of quarto and octavo editions, so frequent in illustrated works), he must give a copy of the more valuable impression to the Museum; whereas he need only make presentations to the other libraries from the set of lesser cost, provided that set exceed the other by even a single copy.

-The 10th section

PENALTY FOR NON-DELIVERY. of the same statute enacts, that if the publisher of a book, or of a second or subsequent edition of a book, neglect to deliver it pursuant to this act, he shall for every default forfeit, besides the value of the copy he ought to have delivered, a sum not exceeding 5l., to be recovered by the librarian or other authorised officer of the library, for whose use the copy should have been delivered; either summarily, on conviction before two magistrates for the county or place where the publisher making default resides; or by action of debt or similar proceeding at the suit of such librarian

C

or other officer in any court of record in the United Kingdom, in which action, if the plaintiff obtain a verdict, he shall recover his costs reasonably incurred, to be taxed as between attorney and client.

LITERARY PIRACY.

Literary piracy is the unauthorised publication of a book so transcribed from another in which copyright subsists, as to preclude the necessity of reading the original work.

It should be here observed that to constitute literary piracy, it is not necessary that the copy be likely to supersede the sale of the original work, for where even the copy is attainable only at a greater price than the original, still a piracy may exist. This was decided in the case of Roworth v. Wilkes, 1 Campb. 94. There the defendant's counsel contended that, though the article in the defendant's book (an encyclopædia) contained all that was material in the plaintiff's production, still its connection with a work of such magnitude and expence as the encyclopædia, precluded the possibility of injury arising to the plaintiff by the preference which the public might give to the larger publication. But Lord Ellenborough said: "The test by which we must decide whether or not a party has infringed on the copyright of another is, not by inquiring what was the intention of the trespassing party, but whether the work of the party complaining has been so copied, that the copy may by any possibility supersede the original work... It is true that a large work like the defendant's may be allowed to embrace all the information contained in the newest