e
"Sketch Book" was printed, and the cheapest edition that has yet been
published sells for one dollar and twenty-five cents. "Jane Eyre" contains
probably about the same quantity of matter, and sells for twenty-five
cents. Of the latter, about 80,000 have been printed, costing the
consumers $20,000; but if they were to purchase the same quantity of the
former, they would pay for them $100,000; difference, $80,000. What, now,
would become of this large sum? But little of it would reach the author;
not more, probably, than $10,000. Of the remaining $70,000, some would go
to printers, paper-makers, and bookbinders, and the balance would be
distributed among the publisher, the trade-sale auctioneers, and the
wholesale and retail dealers; the result being that the public would pay
five dollars where the author received one, or perhaps the half of one. We
have here the real cause of difficulty. The monopoly of copyright can be
preserved only by connecting it with the monopoly of publication. Were it
possible to say that whoever chose to publish the "Sketch Book" might do
so, on paying to its author "a few cents," the difficulty of this _double
monopoly_ would be removed; but no author would consent to this, for he
could have no certainty that his book might not be printed by unprincipled
men, who would issue ten thousand while accounting to him for only a
single thousand. To enable him to collect his dues, he _must_ have a
monopoly of publication.

It may be said that if he appropriate to his use any of the common
property of which books are made up, and so misuse his privilege as to
impose upon his readers the payment of too heavy a tax, other persons may
use the same facts and ideas, and enter into competition with him. In no
other case, however, than in those of the owners of patents and
copyrights, where the public recognizes the existence of exclusive claim
to any portion of the common property, does it permit the party to fix the
price at which it may be sold. The right of eminent domain is common
property. In virtue of it, the community takes possession of private
property for public purposes, and frequently for the making of roads. Not
unfrequently it delegates to private companies this power, but it always
fixes the rate of charge to be made to persons who use the road. This is
done even when general laws are passed authorizing all who please, on
compliance with certain forms, to make roads to suit themselves. In suc