Already  the  principle  has  been  adopted  in  the  patent  laws,  of
5*tend»ng  their  benefits  to  foreign  inventions  or  improvements.
*t  is  but  carrying  out  the  same  principle  to  extend  the  benefit
of  our  copyright  laws  to  foreign  authors.  In  relation  to  the
■ubjects  of  Great  Britain  and  France,  it  will  be  but  a  measure
<*f  reciprocal  justice ;  for,  in  both  of  those  countries,  our  authors
tnay  enjoy  that  protection  of  their  laws  for  literary  property
which  is  denied  to  their  subjects  here.
"  Entertaining  these  views,  the  committee  have  been  anxious
to  devise  some  measures  which,  without  too  great  a  disturbance
of.interests,  or  affecting  too  seriously  arrangements  which  have
Down  out  of  the  present  state  of  things,  may,  without  hazard,
fc  lubjected  to  the  test  of  practical  experience.  Of  the  works
*Kch  have  heretofore  issued  from  the  foreign  press,  many  have
•Wy  been  republished  in  the  United  States,  others  are  m
fngms  of  republication,  and  some  probably  have  been  steroo-


228  -  The  Copyright  Law.  [Mazcli

typed.  A  copyright  law  which  should  embrace  any  of  tbes
works,  might  injuriously  affect  American  publishers,  and  leai
to  collision  and  ligitation  between  them  and  foreign  authors.
