2 50 50,000

Pancoast's Surgery, 4to. 10 00 4,000

Rayer, Ricord, and Moreau's Surgical Works
(translations). 15 00 5,500

Webster's Works, 6 vols. 2 00 46,800

Kent's Commentaries, 4 vols. 3 38 84,000

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 copyright now yields, and for years past has yielded, more
than $8,000 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
30,000 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,
Sigourney, and numerous others, the sale is exceedingly great; but, as not
even an approximation to the true amount 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
presents a market for books of almost every description, unparalleled in
the world.

In reflecting upon this subject, it is necessary to bear in mind that the
monopoly, granted to authors and their families, is for the term of no
less than forty-two years, and that in that period the number of persons
subjected to it is likely to grow to little short of a hundred millions,
with a power of consumption that will probably be ten times greater than
now exists. If the Commentaries of Chancellor Kent continue to maintain
their present position, as they probably will, may we not reasonably
suppose that the demand for them will continue as great, or nearly so, as
it is at present, and that the total sale during the period of copyright
will rea