facts of history will never be collected together in a manner available to the world. If you kill the goose, it will lay no more golden eggs; and, if you take from the author the means of living by his labor, his labor must cease, and the tribe of authors must become extinct.

Another of Mr. Carey's arguments against the right of an author to his own productions is, we believe, original with himself; at least we have never seen it urged in the copy-right controversy. Because Leibnitz, Descartes, Newton, Humboldt, and Bowditch were not enriched by their beneficent scientific labors, he would deny the right of such triflers as Irving, Dickens, Scott, and Cooper to the remuneration for their writings which the world has been so happy to make them in return for the pleasure which they have afforded. Mr. Carey insists that the agriculturist shall not be paid for his pears and pomegranates, because another agriculturist has failed to make a fortune out of a potato-field. The force of this reasoning we have not been able to appreciate. But, Mr. Carey shall himself state his own case:

"The whole tendency of the existing system is to give the largest reward to those whoso labors are lightest, and the smallest to those whose labors are most severe; and every extension of it must necessarily look in that direction. The Mysteries of Paris were a fortune to Eugene Sue, and Uncle Tom's Cabin has been one to Mrs. Stowe. Byron had 2,000 guineas for a volume of Childe Harold, and Moore 8,000 for his Lalla Rookh; and yet a single year should have more than sufficed for the production of any one of them. Under a system of international copy-right, Dumas, already so largely paid, would be protected, whereas Thierry, who sacrificed his sight to the gratification of his thirst for knowledge, would not. Humboldt, the philosopher par excellence of the age, would not, because he furnishes his readers with things, and not with words alone. Of the books that record his observations on this continent, but a part has, I believe, been translated into English, and of these but a small portion has been published in this country, although to be had without claim for copyright. In England their sale has been small, and can have done little more than pay the cost of translation and publication. Had it been required to pay for the privilege of translation, but a small part of oven those which have been translated would probably have ever seen the light in any but the languagò of the author. This great man inherited a handsome property, which he devoted to the advancement of science, and what has been his pecuniary reward may be seen in the following statement, derived from an address recently delivered in New-York:

There are now living in Europe two very distinguished men, barons, both very eminent in their line, both known to the whole civilized world; one is Baron Rothschild, and the other Baron Humboldt; one distinguished for the accumulation of wealth, the other for the accumulation of knowledgo. What are the possessions of the philosopher? Why, sir, I heard a gentleman whom I have seen here this afternoon, say that, on a recent visit to Europo, he paid his re

spects to that distinguished philosopher, and was ad mitted to an audience. He found him, at the age of 84 years, fresh and vigorous, in a small room, nicely sanded, with a large deal table uncovered in the midst of that room, containing his books and writing apparatus. Adjoining this, was a small bed-room, in which he slept. Here this eminent philosopher roceived a visitor from the United States. He conversed with him; he spoke of his works My works' said he, you will find in the adjoining library, but I am too poor to own a copy of them. I have not tho means to buy a full copy of my own works.""

"After having furnished to the gentlemen who produce books more of the material of which books are composed than has ever been furnished by any other man, this illustrious man finds himself, at the close of life, altogether dependent on the bounty of the Prussian government, which allows him, as I heard, less than five hundred dollars a year. In what manner, now, would Humboldt be benefited by international copy-right? I know of none; but it is very plain to see that Dumas, Victor Hugo, and George Sand, might derive from it a large revenue, In confirmation of this view, I would ask you to review the names of the persons who urge most anxiously the change of system that is now proposed, and see if you can find in it the name of a single man who has done any thing to extend the domain of knowledge. I think you will not. Next look, and see if you do not find in it the names of those who furnish the world with new forms of old ideas, and are largely paid for so doing. The most active advocate of international copy-right is Mr. Dickens, who is said to realize $50,000 per annum for the sale of works whose composition is little more than amusement for his leisure hours. In this country, the only attempt that has yet been made to restrict the right of translation is in a suit now before the courts, for compensation for the privilege of converting into German a work that has yielded the largest compensation that the world has yet known for the same quantity of literary labor.

We are constantly told that regard to the interests of science requires that we should protect and enlarge the rights of authors; but does science make any such claim for herself? I doubt it. Men who make additions to science know well that they have, and can have, no rights whatever. Cuvier died very poor, and all the copy-right that could have been given to him or Humboldt would not have enriched either of them. Laplace knew well that his great work could yield him nothing. Our own Bowditch translated it as a labor of love, and left by his will the means required for its publication. The gentlemen who advocate the interests of science are literary men, who use the facts and ideas furnished by scientific men, paying nothing for their use. Now, literaturo is a most honorable profession, and the gentlemen engaged in it are entitled not only to the respect and consideration of their fellow-men, but also to the protection of the law; but in granting it, the legislator is bound to recollect, that justico to the men who furnish the raw materials of the books, and justice to the community that owns those raw materials, require that protection shall not, either in point of space or time, be greater than is required for giving the producer of books a full and fair compensation for his labor."

We may as well remark, en passant, that the absurd story about Humboldt is all trash; his works intended for popular reading have been very popular, and he has reaped great profits from them, and he is about the most independent author

"England is fast becoming one great shop, and traders have, in general, neither time nor disposition to cultivate literature. The little proprietors disappear, and the day laborers who succeed them can neither educate their children nor purchase books. The great proprietor is an absentee, and he has little time for either literature or science. From year to year the population of the kingdom becomes moro and more divided into two great classes; the very poor, with whom food and raiment require all the proceeds of labor, and the very rich who prosper by the cheap labor system, and therefore eschew the study of principles. With the one class, books are an unattainable luxury, while with the other the absence of leisure prevents the growth of desire to purchase them. The sale is, therefore, small; and hence it is that authors are badly paid. In strong contrast with the limited sale of English books at home, is the great extent of sale here, as shown in the following facts: Of the octavo editton of the Modern British Essayists, there have been sold in five years no less than 80,000 volumes. Of Macaulay's Miscellanies, 8 vols. 12mo., the sale has amounted to 60,000 volumes. Of Miss Aguilar's writings, the sale, in two years, has been 100,000 volumes. Of Murray's Encyclopedia of Geography, more than 50,000 volumes have been sold, and of McCulloch's Commercial Dictionary, 10,000 volumes. Of Alexander Smith's Poems, the sale, in a few months, has reached 10,000 copies. The sales of Mr. Thackeray's works has been quadruple that of England, and that of the works of Mr. Dickens counts almost by millions of volumes. Of Bleak House, in all its various forms-in newspapers, magazines, and volumes-it has already amounted to several hundred thousands of copies. Of Bulwer's last novel, since it was completed, the sale has, I am told, exceeded 35,000. Of Thiers's French Revolution and Consulate, there have been sold 32,000, and of Montagu's edition of Lord Bacon's works 4,000 copies.

"If the sales of books were as great in England as they are here, English authors would be abundantly paid. In reply it will be said their works are cheap here because we pay no copy-right. For the payment of the authors, however, a very small sum would be required, if the whole people of England onld afford, as they should be able to do, to purchase books. A contribution of a shilling per head would give, as has been shown, a sum of almost eight millions of dollars, sufficient to pay to fifteen hundred salaries nearly equal to those of our secretaries of State. Centralization, however, destroys the market for books, and the sale is, therefore, small; and the few successful writers owe their fortuues to the collection of large contributions made among a small number of readers; while the mass of authors live on, as did poor Tom Hood, from day to day, with scarcely a hope of improvement in their condition,"

And, therefore, because England docs not sufficiently reward her authors, and because we read their books more than

their own countrymen do, are we absolved from all necessity of paying them for the use of their property. This is the extent of Mr. Carey's argument, so far as we have been able to master it.

We regret very much that he leaves the Prince of Denmark out of his play of Hamlet; for, after all, the main question is untouched in his letters, and that aspect of the subject which bears the most important feature for us, he does not present to us. What is the legitimate effect of the competition now waged between our own authors, and the unpaid authors of Europe? If the "cheap labor" of England has such a deadly influence upon our manufacturing prosperity as Mr. Carey contends, what must be the effects of the unpaid labor with which our literary men are brought in direct competition? They are well known; and Mr. Carey himself exhibits them in a very startling manner in the statistics he fur-` nishes of the republication in this country of foreign books, all of which might as well have been produced here. But, the great evil of our being dependent, and mental vassals of England, is not so much that it transfers the labor market from this country to Europe, and confers the reputation upon foreigners which our own people might enjoy; but it places the whole mind of the nation at the mercy of foreigners, and permeates the mental constitution of our people, with thoughts, sentiments, ideas, and aspirations foreign to our true interests and detrimental to the growth and expansion of American ideas and democratic sympathies. better argument could be brought forward to sustain the claims of international copy-right than the formidable display which Mr. Carey makes of the statistics of original publications in this country, intended by him to serve as a proof that no protection is needed by our authors.

No

"Every body must learn to read and write, and every body must therefore have books; and to this universality of demand it is due that the sale of those required for carly education is so immense. Of the works of Peter Parley it counts by millions; but if we take his three historical books (prica 75 cents each) alone, we find that it amounts to between half a million and a million of volumes. Of Goodrich's United States it has been a quarter of a million. Of Morse's Geography and Atlas (50 cents) the sale is said to be no less than 70,000 per annum. Of Abbot's histories, the sale is said to have already been more than 400,000, while of Emerson's Arithmetic and Reader it counts almost by millions. Of Mitchell's several geographies it is 400,000 a year.

"In other branches of education the same state of things is seen to exist. Of the Boston Academy's Collection of Sacred Music, the sale has exceeded 600,000, and the aggregate sale of five books by the

same author has probably exceeded a million, and the price of these is a dollar per volume.

"All these make, of course, demand for books, and hence it is that the sale of Anthon's series of classics (averaging $1) amounts, as I am told, to certainly not less than 50,000 volumes per annum, while of the Classical Dictionary of the same author ($4) not less than 30,000 have been sold. Of Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon ($5,) edited by Prof. Drisler, the sale has been not less than 25,000, and probably much larger. Of Webster's 4to. Dictionary ($6) it has been, I am assured, 60,000, and perhaps even 80,000; and of the royal Svo, one ($3 50), 250,000. Of Bolmar's French school books not lest than 150,000 volumes have been sold. The number of books used in the higher schools-text-books in philosophy, chemistry, and other branches of science, is exceedingly great, and it would be easy to produce numbers of which the sale is from five to ten thousand per annum; but to do so would occupy too much space, and I must content myself with the few facts already given in regard to this department of literature."

"Of all American authors, those of school-books excepted, there is no one of whose books so many have been circulated as those of Mr. Irving. Prior to the publication of the edition recently issued by Mr. Putnam, the sale had amounted to some hundreds of thousands; and yet of that edition, selling at $1 25 per volume, it has already amounted to 144,000 vols. Of Uncle Tom, the sale has amounted to 295,000 copies, partly in one, and partly in two volumes, and the total number of volumes amounts probably to about 450,000.

10 00

4,000

15 00

5,500

2.00

46.800

3 38

84,000

Mahan's Civil Engineering

Leslie's Cookery and Receipt-books Guyot's Lectures on Earth and Man Wood and Bache's Medical Dispensatory Dunglison's Medical writings, in all 10 vols.

Pancoast's Surgery, 4to.

Rayer, Ricord, and Moreau's Sur-
gical Works (translations)
Webster's Works, 6 vols.
Kent's Commentaries, 4 vols.

"Next to Chancellor Kent's work comes Greenleaf on Evidence. 3 vols., $16 50; the sale of which has been exceedingly great, but what has been its extent, I cannot say.

"Of Blatchford's General Statutes of New-York, a local work, price $4 50, the sale has been 3,000; equal to almost 30,000 of a similar Work for the United Kingdom.

"How great is the sale of Judge Story's books can be judged only from the fact that the copy-right now yields, and for years past has yielded, more than $5,000 per annum. Of the sale of Mr. Prescott's works little is certainly known, but it cannot, I understand, have been less than 160,000 volumes. That of Mr. Bancroft's History has already risen, certainly, to 80,000 copies, and I am told it is considerably more; and yet even that is a sale, for such a work, entirely unprecedented.

"Of the works of Hawthorne, Longfellow, Bryant, Willis, Curtis, Sedgwick, and numerous others, the sale is exceedingly great; but, as not even an approximation to the true amouut can be offered, I must leave it to you to judge of it by comparison with those of less popular authors above enumerated. In several of these cases, beautifully illustrated editions have been published, of which large numbers have been sold. Of Mr. Longfellow's volume there have been no less than ten editions. These various facts will probably suffice to satisfy you that this country prosents a market for books of almost every description unparalleled in the world."

If such a gratifying array of facts can be made under the present system, what might we not expect, if our native authors were not brought into direct competition with the pirated works of foreigners, and the mental demands of our people were answered by our own writers!

To what cause must we attribute the where startling facts, that, in this country, the taste for music is universal, where there are more pianofortes manufactured than in any other part of the world, and where musical artists receive the highest rewards, we cannot boast of one musical composer of eminence? that where, next

to France, we most liberally support theatrical establishments, we cannot boast of one dramatic author? that where we pay more than any other people for artistic finery, we can boast of no ornamental artists, and import nearly every thing that ministers to our love of art? To what cause must we, or can we, attribute these anomalous facts but to the want of a law which shall secure to the composer, the ornamentalist, and the dramatist a right of property in the products of genius and industry? English manufacturers had the shrewdness to see that while they enjoyed the privilege of robbing French artists of their designs, they could never have a class of designers of their own, and that the French manufacturers would always excel them in the novelty and elegance of their ornamental goods. The English government, therefore, gave a copy-right to French artists in their designs for calico patterns, and all other ornamental work, and immediately there was a perceptible improvement in British ornamental manufactures; under the healthful influence of their registry law, their manufacturing interests have continued to improve, and their ornamental artists to increase. Under the operation of the law which prevented an American citizen from owning a foreign built vessel, the art of ship building has flourished among us until we now stand at the head

of all the world in that great branch of manufacturing industry. John Ruskin, who is good authority on such a subject, pronounces a ship the most beautiful and no blestof all the works of man's ingenuity; and, if we can excel all the world in the greatest of all the arts, what is to prevent our attaining to equal excellence in the lesser arts of composing operas, writing dramas, and designing calico patterns and paper hangings? If we can build our own ships, why cannot we write our own books? There is no other reason, than the absence of an international copy-right to protect our intellectual labors from the destructive competition of-not cheap labor, but pirated manufactures.

When we commenced writing this article we had only the newspaper reports of the measure proposed by the administration in relation to the duty on books; we find, since, that it is proposed to admit free of duty only editious printed previous to 1830, which, of course, would not have the disastrous effects we have anticipated from an entire reduction of all duties on books and periodicals. It is proper to add, too, that Mr. Carey's Letters are addressed to Senator Cooper of Pennsylvania, in opposition to the international copy-right treaty with Great Britain, which was sent to the Senate by President Fillmore.

sneer down puns is quite the mode, antithesis between the punster and the pickpocket is in every one's mouth. Not only serious persons, but true jovial jokers join in the onslaught. Whoever lets fall a pun, is bound, in good breeding, to be ashamed of it. Dictionary-makers, in echo of the popular voice, define a pun as a "play upon words," a low and vulgar

species of wit," &c. In this single point, writers on the nature of wit and humor agree as far as philosophers ever can. Addison abuses

puns roundly. Hazlitt damns them with faint praise. Campbell begs pardon for descending so low as to mention them. And even Sydney Smith, in some youthful lectures, must needs have his fling at what he was all his life making. That

the prince of modern punsters should affect to despise his subjects, should put weapons into the enemy's hands, and completely falsify Swift's saying, "that they only deride puns who are unable to make them," was a blow too much.

To tilt against such champions seems a little presumptuous. But to the true knight, what matters the odds? The more desperate the better, if so be he show pluck.

To cross spears, however, at once; what, as far as any exists, is the main charge against puns? Under what pretext do self-appointed judges condemn them to transportation for life into the Botany Bay of false wit? "Punning is the wit of words," says Sydney Smith, says the lexicographer, says the general voice. That simple remark, with the quo

tation from Johnson, is thought to settle the question, though the Great Bear of literature, it must be remembered, did not condemn puns in the large, but only puns

on men's names.

What now is meant by the wit of words? In one sense all wit, spoken or written, is such; for without words it could not exist. This, of course; but more is true of wit and humor. Amusing ideas have more or less merit, create more or less pleasure, according as they are domiciled in good or bad words and phrases. A story which is, in one person's mouth, melancholy as a price-current, in another's will be provocative of infinite mirth. What is meant by murdering a good joke, missing the point, and kindred expressions? Clearly the want of the best words in the best places. Give an ordinary man the facts and ideas of a scene of Dickens, or a hit of Sheridan, or Swift; let him perceive, as far as possible, without the author's words, its full force, and see what he will make of it. Whoever tries the experiment will admit that words have something to do with all pleasantry!

It

With poetry the case is the same. would be the easiest thing in the world to spoil many lines in Milton, Wordsworth, or Byron, by changing a word or a phrase for its apparent synonyme. Nor is this "felicitas" of language the least excellence of any good prose. And, in conversation, though the same thoughts are in a dozen heads, the one who expresses them best wins the attention. "On a word," says Landor, "turns the pivot of the intellectual world." Words, without doubt, are the great means of literary or colloquial success. The difference between men is less in their ideas than in their power of bringing them out.

Nowhere is this truth more striking than in wit and humor. How much finish, and force, and graphic power, does choice language give! It brightens and points the witticism. It excites a pleasing surprise and concentrates it into flashes. It raises and poises the attention, and brings it to bear at the precise moment, with the precise force required. It makes every form in which Protean wit shows itself just the type of its species, whether its excellence lies in delicacy, or strength, or grotesqueness. In wit, if any where, words are the "incarnation of thought." Without the wit which lies in them, what a scurvy appearance would that of ideas make!

It is not apparently intended to attribute this crowning grace and super-excellence

in a high degree to puns. "The wit of words," says Sydney Smith, "is miserably inferior to the wit of ideas." From this we should gather that the pun, in his judgment, is the wit of words as such, viewed simply as unmeaning characters or sounds.

That wit should live on such chaff, at first blush, seems unlikely. But, while we ponder the subject, ragged troops of acrostics, anagrams, rebuses, charades, &c., limp and shuffle into the mind. But, though these come under the newspaper head of Wit and Humor, they have but slight claim to the name. Marianne may

be silly enough to be gratified that the initial letters of eight lines of rhyme should spell her name; but what pleasantry is there in the fact, unless, indeed, in the tableau which fancy creates of the poor poet cudgelling his brains by the hour? As for the tribes of anagrams, charades, riddles, and such small deer, we heartily wish they were lost tribes. The Sphinx and Solomon made the only good ones extant. Modern ones smell of the lamp. The humor of most of them resembles that of a mathematical problemshowing ingenuity and exercising one's wits, but not over and above amusing.

A trifle better is the wit of double rhymes, which, by their odd sound, tickle the ear hugely. We are tempted to read and re-read them, as we are to awaken and re-awaken a lusty echo. In alliteration, too, the wit lies wholly in the sound.

Little more, we confess, can be said, for quasi-puns, quibbles, lame of a limb, mere word-catching, funny neither in themselves, nor in the circumstances under which they appear, simple proofs that syllables pronounced alike are sometimes spelt differently, lifeless entities in the power of any one to make, and of no one to laugh at. On the same level stands a large class of puns (and other jests as well), which are in their dotage, their meaning all oozed out, but haunting certain minds like ghosts. We have a friend who never fails to greet us with a pun on our name. We do not account him a marvel of humor. But why confound the pun proper with its poor relations? It is not, of necessity, a mere clashing of sounds. It is as legitimate a vehicle of wit, as any other. The difference lies, not in its essence, but in the means of infusing its essence into the mind; and it is this means, which has thrown it into disgrace. Mankind always judge a great deal by costume, and the dress of a pun, any beggar can purchase. Still it may