g
to an honor to which he was not entitled. For it is no light thing to
come to a country which you have been taught to regard as a foreign
country, and to find ourselves in the best sense of the word "at home"
[applause] among a people whom we are taught to regard as strangers, but
whom we are astonished to find are our intimate friends [applause]; and
that proffered friendship is so dear to us that I am disposed, in behalf
of my collaborateur and myself, to stray somewhat from the beaten paths
of after-dinner oratory, and to endeavor to justify ourselves in respect
to a matter in which we have some reason to feel that we have been
misrepresented.

I have seen in several London journals well-meant but injudicious
paragraphs saying that we have a grievance against the New York managers
because they have played our pieces and have offered us no share of the
profits. [Laughter.] We have no grievance whatever. Our only complaint
is that there is no international copyright act. [Applause.] The author
of a play in which there is no copyright is very much in the position
of an author or the descendants of an author whose copyright has
expired. I am not aware that our London publishers are in the habit of
seeking the descendants of Sir Walter Scott or Lord Byron, or Captain
Marryat, and offering them a share of the profits on their publications.
[Laughter.] I have yet to learn that our London managers seek out the
living representatives of Oliver Goldsmith, or Richard Brinsley Sheridan
or William Shakespeare, in order to pay them any share of the profits
from the production of "She Stoops to Conquer," or "The Good-Natured
Man," or "The Merchant of Venice." [Laughter.] If they do so, they do
it on the principle that the right hand knows not what the left hand
doeth [laughter], and as we have not heard of it, we presume, therefore,
that they have not done so. And we believe that if those eminent men
were to request a share of the profits, they would be met with the reply
that the copyright on those works had expired.

And so if we should suggest it to the managers of this country, they
would perhaps reply with at least equal justice: "Gentlemen, your
copyright never existed." That it has never existed is due entirely to
our own fault.

We consulted a New York lawyer, and were informed that, although an
alien author has no right in his works, yet so long as they remain
unpublished, we held the real title in them, and there was