NOTE ON " OLP: C It 0 Al E L,
EDITED BF /I OPAC 'Tn."
WE have received the 11,110w irig letter in reference to our last week's make of 0/seer Cisnanwell, from a correspondent who has favoured us with his name, end offers to furnish us with the volumes if needful.
10 Tiff: LGIT0R OE THE SPECTATOR. slosad na 1.,110. Sin— En yens paper of yi-teolay you intimate a swipicien 1h :it (We. r Grout'. well, the rernan, in just puthinhed as "edited by lloiaee Smith," is Fobably wriiten by him.
In point ot tar t, it is only tie reprint of a work of Ectiati, in two volumes, price a dollar aed half, (lac.) published iii ;Sew York afloat three years ago ; a copy of ahich I I mull in ea:. posse siort shore May PraSs The work iris whiter. by an finghiArnrin riamed Iijrrjnanv, livirq. at :Sew York, and author of in The Brothers; a Tale of the Fronde." I believe he also edited an Annual called " The Magnolia." I have mentioned that the original romance appeared in New York in two volumes, (with a mezzotinto bead of Cromwell,) for six shillings. For Ma COEBURN'S pirated copy, in three volumes, the public must pay a guinea audit half! Besides, when the brooms can be stolen ready-made—But 1 need not go on. Native novelists must see what small chance they have of a decent price for their works, when "American pnaltice" can be bad for nothing. This self- same process of piracy has given American publishers handsome profits, aua American writers—nil!
The humbug of affixing "edited by —" to the pirated works should he exposed. 'We had Dr. Billy's Nick the Woods" olited by. Mr.Ainswoith;" 110WARD'S elever sea-tale, Rattli n the Reefer, was "edited by Captain Marryat;9 and HERISEITT'S Oliver Cromwell is " edited by Ilorace Smith." The name of some crack author is all that is waisted : of editing, in the proper sense of the word, there is none.
1 am, Sir, your obedient servant,
The facts stated by our correspondent settle the question of authorship. The general resemblance, however, was sufficiently strong to warrant our suspicions ; and there are other points (as the head-and-shoulder mode in which Al mums is lugged into the story) which would seem to show, that if Mr. II Eitillner is not an imitator of Mr. SMITH, he is almost an alter idem.
As regards the charges of our correspondent—that of piracy may be dismissed. Mr. COLBURN, or any one else, has a legal right to reprint any Americium publication he pleases ; and seeing the mode ia which the Americans republish English works, a moral right too— as far as they collectively are concerned.
Nor are the remarks on the other editorships altogether just. It was a fbolish thing to make Mr. iNsworern herald Nick qf the IrOods, seeing that Dr. Buns is as good a writer as the author of Josh Sheppard; but no one could have been imposed npon by the foolishness. In the case of Rattan the lemfer, there is little doubt that the editorship was /so/aide/de. Mr. llowatto has never written any thing equal to that work since ; there are in it many apparent touches of' .A1ARRYAT'S pen; and if our memory serves us, great part of it was produced piecemeal in a periodical of which the Captains was both editor and proprietor.
But though the English publisher's conduct in regard to Oliver Cromwell is not piracy, it is something worse. To reprint a pub- lication in the summer described, passing it off as an original work with an original price, and engaging a person, who has hitherto borne a respectable character in the v..orld, to vouch as it were tin its originality, is conduct we care not to characterize. But, passing by the bookseller's imposition, we must express our wonder that Mr. HottAce Small should become a party to a transaction of this kind, especially as he is reputed not to have the excuse of necessity.
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