Mr. G. H. Davis, the Secretary to the Religions Tract
Society, seems to think himself very ill-used by the Press in its remarks on the piracy of Miss Maury's book, "The Memoirs of a Huguenot Family." Mr. Davis states that the book has been known for forty years ; that it has been published in England for twenty years without objection, and that he was totally unaware that the American edition bore Miss Maury's name on the title-page. He adds, that when American publishers reproduce. English books "they act within their rights," and he does not call them pirates. Well, we do. We are quite willing to believe that Mr. Davis and his committee alike acted in ignorance, and with no intention of wronging any individual, but still they knew perfectly well that the book was not theirs, and the fact that it was American gave them no rights to it whatever. The principle they appear to defend—we do not suppose that they will really defend it,—is bad enough in a pub- lisher, but worse in the mouth of a Society professing a religious object. They might just as well maintain that if a clerk stole their books they would have a moral right to steal his watch, a proposition which we presume they would repudiate with anger. The American does not lose his rights because Congress is not honest enough to admit the rights of Englishmen.
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