It may be interesting to our readers to learn the history of these peculiar legal restrictions, which have so long prevailed in the German booktrade, and the results likely to follow from their removal.

  “Until the beginning of this century literary piracy was not prohibited
  in the German States.  As, however, protection of literary productions
  was, at last, emphatically urged, the Acts of the Confederation (on the
  reconstruction of Germany in the year 1815) contained a passage to the
  effect, that the Diet should, at its first meeting, consider the
  necessity of uniform laws for securing the rights of literary men and
   publishers.  The Diet moved in the matter in the year 1818, appointing a
  commission to settle this question; and, thanks to that supreme
  profoundness which was ever applied to the affairs of the father-land by
  this illustrious body, after twenty-two years of deliberation, on the
  9th of Nov., 1837, decreed the law, that the rights of authorship should
  be acknowledged and respected, at least, for the space of ten years;
  copyright for a longer period, however, being granted for voluminous and
  costly works, and for the works of the great German poets.

“In the course of time, however, a copyright for ten years proved insufficient even for the commonest works; it was therefore extended by a decree of the Diet, dated June 19, 1845, over the natural term of the author’s life and for thirty years after his death.  With respect to the works of all authors deceased before the 9th of November, 1837—­ including the works of the poets enumerated above—­the Diet decided that they could all be protected until the 9th of November, 1867.

“It was to be expected that the firm of J. G. Cotta, favored until now with so valuable a monopoly, would make all possible exertions not to be surpassed in the coming battle of the Publishers, though it is a somewhat curious sight to see this haughty house, after having used its privileges to the last moment, descend now suddenly from its high monopolistic stand into the arena of competition, and compete for public favor with its plebeian rivals.  Availing itself of the advantage which the monopoly hitherto attached to it naturally gives it, the house has just commenced issuing a cheap edition of the German classics, under the title ‘Bibliothek fuer Alle.  Meisterwerke deutscher Classiker,’ in weekly parts, 6 cts. each; containing the selected works of Schiller, at the price of 75 cts., and the selected works of Goethe, at the price of $1.50.  And now, just as the monopoly is gliding from their hands, the same firm offers, in a small 16mo edition, Schiller’s complete works, 12 vols., for 75 cts.

  “Another publisher, A. H. Payne, of Leipzig, announces a complete edition
  of Schiller’s works, including some unpublished pieces, for 75 cts.