ors and
inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and
discoveries. There is no limitation of the power to natives or
residents of this country. Such a limitation would have been hostile to
the object of the power granted. That object was to _promote_ the
progress of science and useful arts. They belong to no particular
country, but to mankind generally. And it cannot be doubted that the
stimulus which it was intended to give to mind and genius, in other
words, the promotion of the progress of science and the arts, will be
increased by the motives which the bill offers to the inhabitants of
Great Britain and France.

"The committee conclude by asking leave to introduce the bill which
accompanies this report."

Let it not, however, be supposed that Mr Clay was unreported by the
American press; on the contrary, a large portion of it espoused the
cause of the English author in the most liberal manner, indeed the boon
itself, if granted, would in reality be of more advantage to America
than to us; as many of them argued. The New York Daily Express
observes, "But another great evil resulting from the present law is,
that most of the writers of our own country are utterly precluded from
advancing our native literature, since they can derive no emolument or
compensation for their labours; and it is idle to urge that the devotees
of literature, any more than the ingenious artisan or mechanic, can be
indifferent to the ultimate advantages which should result alike to both
from the diligent use and studious application of their mental energies.
We patronise and read the works of foreign writers, but it is at the
expense of our own, the books of the English author being procured free
of all cost, supersede those which would otherwise be produced by our
own countrymen,--thus the foreigner is wronged, while the same wrong
acts again as a tariff upon our American author and all this manifest
injury is perpetuated without its being qualified by the most remote
advantage to any of the parties concerned."

The Boston Atlas responded to this observation in almost the same
language.

"This systematic, legalised depredation on English authors, is perfectly
ruinous to all native literature. What writer can devote himself to a
literary work, which he must offer on its completion, in competition
with a work of the same description, perhaps, furnishing _printed copy_
to the compositors, and to be had for the expens