intrusting such men with power, are well shown in the fact that the same government which has so recently concluded a copyright treaty with our own, has since entered “into the bookselling trade on its own account,” competing “with the private dealer, who has to bear copyright charges.”  The subjects of this “reactionary step” on the part of a government that so much professes to love free trade, are, as we are told, “the famous school-books of the Irish national system."[1] A new office has been created, “paid for with a public salary,” for “the issue of books to the retail dealers;” and the centralization of power over this important portion to the trade is, we are told,[2] defended in the columns of the “Times,” as “tending to bring down the price of school-books; for booksellers who possess copyrights, now sell their books at exorbitant prices, and, by underselling them, the commissioners will be able to beat them.”  Judging from this, it would seem almost necessary, if this treaty is to be ratified, that there should be added some provision authorizing our government to appoint commissioners for the regulation of trade, and for “underselling” those persons who “now sell their books at exorbitant prices.”  If it be ratified, we shall be only entering on the path of centralization; and it may not be amiss that, before ratification, we should endeavor to determine to what point it will probably carry us in the end.

   [Footnote 1:  Spectator, June 4, 1853.]

   [Footnote 2:  Ibid.]

The question is often asked, What difference can it make to the people of this country whether they do, or do not, pay to the English author a few cents in return for the pleasure afforded by the perusal of his book?  Not very much, certainly, to the wealthy reader; but as every extra cent is important to the poorer one, and tends to limit his power to purchase, it may be well to calculate how many cents would probably be required; and, that we may do so, I give you here a list[1] of the comparative prices of English and American editions of a few of the books that have been published within the last few years:—­

English. Amer.

Brande’s Encyclopaedia $15 00 $4 00

Ure’s Dictionary of Manufactures 15 00 5 00

Alison’s Europe, cheapest edition 25 00 5 00

D’Aubignd’s Reformation 11 50 2 25

Bulwer’s “My Novel” 10 50 75

   Lord Mahon’s England 13 00 4 00

   Macaulay’s England, per vol. 4 50 40

   Campbell’s Chief Justices. 7 50 3 50

    " Lord Chancellors 25 50 12 00

   Queens of England, 8 vols. 24 00 10 00

   Queens of Scotland 15 00 6 00