the United States, and was presided over by such men as James Russell
Lowell, Stedman, and Eggleston. The League in a noble letter published in
1887 appealed to all good citizens for justice to foreign authors, upon
the ground that they were entitled to receive from those who read and
benefitted by their books, the same fair payment one would expect to make
on any other article, such as clothes or pictures bought from foreign
producers. The League appealed for the widening of the circulation of the
best new literature, home and international, on the ground of the
lessening of the price which would ensue, in the case of original American
books, from distributing the first cost among the greater number of copies
for which sale would be secured among American readers, if the market were
not flooded by pirated reprints of poor English novels; and in the case of
books of international importance, whether from American, English, or
Continental writers, from giving a basis of law to business arrangements
for sharing the expense of production among the several nations
interested.

A recent report to the United States Senate on the effect of the passage
of the Chace Bill sets forth that the great preponderance of opinion
amongst publishers, book manufacturers, and large printing establishments,
supports the change. The condition of the book trade in the United States
prior to the passage of the Chace Bill in 1891 was deplorable. If the
suggestion of the Board of Trade were adopted, Canada would be in exactly
the same condition as the United States before the Chace Bill was passed.

The Canadian author, therefore, has obtained security in the vast market
of the United States, because of the proclamation of the President, based
on Lord Salisbury's satisfactory official assurance, that in Great Britain
and the British possessions, the law permitted to citizens of the United
States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to