Popular songs, particularly if they are rather vulgar and sense-
teal, are, it appears, often very important copyrights. Mr. Sprake, on Thursday, sued, in the Common Pleas Division, Messrs. Hey- wood for inserting four songs, known as "The Poor Little Sweep," 4‘ Flirting with Nell," "I can't make it out, can you ?" and "Passing the time away," in a collection of songs which the latter were selling for a penny. Mr. Sprake testified that he gave 16 6s. for "The Sweep," /10 for "I can't make it out," and a guinea each for the others; but he wanted £100 damages, as a popular song brings is. 3d., with the music, and an enormous number might be sold. This statement was verified by Mr. d'Alcorn, who stated that he had sold 90,000 copies of the music of "Slap bang, here we are again," and 70,000 of another song, let us hope a better one. A good comic song, he said, was often Worth from /1,000 to /2,000, probably more than Barham ever received for "The Ingoldsby Legends," or Tom Hood for aty of his works. The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for /25, a sum apparently settled with a reference to the amount paid for the copyright, rather than to the possible profit on the songs. It will be observed that the witnesses all considered the secret of sale to be the music, and the puzzle is why publishers of such things take so little trouble to obtain poetical, or at all events sensible words. Sense would not spoil the music much, even to Englishmen.
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