854
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1814, July 29. By 64 Geo. III. c. 156. the period of fourteen years for copyright in any author, and of a further term of fourteen years if he should be then living, were extended on this day to twenty-eight years, from the day of the tirst publication ; and if the author should be living at the expiration of that term, then for the residue of his life ; but the entry of the title- page correctly at stationers' hall, with the name and abode of the publisher, is required within one month after the day of the first sale within the bills of mortality, and three months if sold elsewhere. Before the act of Anne (see page 593 ante) copyright was a common law right. An author left the profits of his works to his children, or sold them for ever to another, with whom they became property of a like kind. The act of Anne related only to books entered at stationers' hall, as a more ready way of securing penalties. The sending the copies there was merely optional — the common law right still remaining. If this be deemed incorrect, then the act of Anne was a violation of an existing right, taking away an author's fee simple and allowing him a condi- tional leaiehold right in its place. Lord Ellen- borough always asserted that an author had a right at common law. Nine out of twelve judges, in 1769 and 1774, were of this opinion. Large estates had been vested in copyrights, and as- signed £rom hand to hand, and as large sums, or Uurger, were given for copyrights before the act of Anne, as were given after it. In 1798 to enter a book at stationers' hall was considered optional, and the books given to corporate bodies were only those so entered, and so acknowledged by 41 Geo. III. ; and in the case of Beckford and Hood, in the king's bench, the foregoing doctrine was confirmed. The omission to enter at stationers' hall prevented a prosecution for the penalties inflicted by the statutes, but left a satis&ction for the violation of copyright at common law still the same. In 1812, with the peculiar felicity of our lawyers in common sense and consistency, they reveised the foregoing opinions and precedents, and made every printed book liable to the demand of the corporate bo- dies before alluded to, and that in the teeth of private right and ancient usage. By the act of 1814, the author had an absolute right of his own works for twenty-eight years, and a renew- able right for twenty-eight years more, if he was alive at the expiration at that period, else the copyright was lost, and his family, which before the decision of 1812 had a claim to copy- right for ever if he had retained it, lost the property, which became any body's.* Such a law is a mockery of protection, which under
- The law of other coimtries is In this respect flu: more
eqaitable than oars. In America, and In Prussia, Saiony, and Bavaria, only one copy of every work is required from the author \ in France and Austria two copies are required) and in the Netherlands three. The {^vem. menta of the most despotical states treat the authors better than they have hitherto been treated by the legis- lature of ftattiui.—EiM)urgh Review, June, IS3I.
For a nustoly aitlele, exposing the iqJusUce and im- |x>Uc]r of Ha copytigbt acta, aee No. 41 of the Quartertf Rmtew for May, ISlt.
pretence of benefiting literature, and Kietan men, — takes from them* the inheritance of thm labours, and by taking a number of books from them or their booksellers, enriches certain exclu- sive bodies which have ample means of their own.
1814, Aug. 10. Died, William Cowbhot, proprietor, editor, and printer, of the Mtawhester Gazette, aged sixty-two years. Mr. Cowdroy was a man of rare genius — a poet — a wit— a facetious companion — an unshaken patriot— a kind father — a firm friend — and a truly honest man. As conductor of the Manchester Gazette, his light punning paragraphs had no equal. His columns frequently supplied the newspapers with wit and humour on current topics; and many of his old compositions, with changes of name and date, were often revived at intervals of five or six years. At Chester, while he employed himself as editor and compositor, he displayed the singular faculty of composing his paragraphs without writing them ; and some of his happiest efibrts, in prose and verse were produced in that manner. He left four sons, all printers,* and two daughters.f
The following lines are from a poem written to bis memory by his friend Edward Rusbton :
Ye lovers of social delights
Whose bosoms are nmd and humane, Ah < pause from your perilous rites.
And marif for a moment my atraio. Poor Cowdroy, by nature endowed
With talents to please and illume. To nature's dread flat has bow'd.
And silently snnli to the tomb.
As the elephant's trunk can upraise
The lords of the forest as straws, 8o Cowdroy could pen on a phrase.
Or advocate nature's great cause. If hate ever rankled his breast,
Twas against the dark foes of mankind j And each dalm that corrodes, the opprest,
Twas the wish of his soul to unbind.
His heart was the nest of the dove,
lliere gentleness found an abode, 'And like the bright day-star, his love
For the whole human family glow'd : But that bosom with feeling once fraught.
And that tongue, the dispenser of mirth. And those eyes ever beaming with thought.
All, all are descended to earth !
1814, Aug. 12. Died, Coenelius Leigh, s worthy and universally respected joumeymwi
Erinter at Manchester, where for upwaras of alf a century he was employed as pressman on Harrop's Mercury ; and whose interest, records his employer, he was ever anxious to promote, and to whom he regularly discharged bis duty with fidelity, diligence, and integrity.
- William Cowdroy, who had been in partnenhip with
John Slack, as printers and periodical publishers, in Ssi- ford, succeeded to his father's business, and died Mardi 34, \KM.
Thomas Cowdroy had been in partnership with his brother William, but marryinr the widow of a chemist and druggist, took to that business.
Bcnj. Cowdroy held a situation as a printer, in Loodoo.
Citizen Howarth Cowdroy, in partnership with Mr. Rathbone, commenced a newspaper called ^eMancktster Courier, January 4, I8I7, He died in ISS8.
t Mrs. Clarke, Ills youngest daughter, appeared on the stage at Covent-garden, and other theatres, with cos- slderable eelat in tragedy.
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