4 MAY 1839, Page 12

THE COPYRIGHT BILL IN ITS NEWEST ASPECT. Ma. WARBURTON'S resolute

opposition, for which he is abused by nearly the whole press, with more virulence than beseems disinte- rested literary sentimentalists, did good : the Sergeant has been compelled to fix another day than jobbing Wednesday, and some ominous remarks from members of the Government have been elicited. Lord Howicx expressed his opposition to that part of the project which nominally gives (by means of ex post facto law) a sixty years privilege to unexpired copyrights in the bands of authors and their relatives, but which in reality, in the majority of cases, will create a monopoly for sixty years to the booksellers against the public. Mr. SPRING RICE proposed, and will again bring forward, an amendment to reduce the sixty to thirty-one years (as we understand the report) after the author's death. This is an ample term to provide for the widow and children ; and, with a clause limiting the inheritance of copyright to the near relations of the author, and restricting its sale after his death for more than seven years at a time, the bill would be passable enough. But, shorn of the ex post facto clause, will it have any value in the eyes of the prime movers?