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neither, but as I am very ambitious of imitating every one who has intimacies with men of power, will leave the justice of the nation to give a name to the man who declares that Byng could not only have relieved fort St. Philip, though he had but one regiment on board, who were in the battle to ferve him as marines, and was called back even from obferving the place by a fuperior fleet, but that he might have brought back a marshal of France, and his army prifoners.

To what has been faid already on the cafe of Mr. Byng, I fhall add,

That his enemies have, fince the appearance of his defence, endeavoured to change the state of the question. That the moft forward of the minifterial writers dare no longer charge him as the lofer of Minorca:

That the only queftion now is concerning his conduct in the battle.

That this is a queftion relating no otherwife to the nation, than as the nation is interefted in the difcipline of the navy!

That by his cowardice, if we prejudge him a coward, he loft no ground, for Minorca could not be faved; no fhip, for he brought his whole fleet away; no honour, for the enemy retired before him.

That if Byng's general character be infamous, those muft share the infamy, that felected him for an undertaking fo important.

That Byng has been treated fince his return with indignities and feverities, neither decent nor needful. That papers have been industriously given away to inflame the populace againft him.

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That fince the profecution of Laud, no fuch zeal for vindictive justice has been ever fhewn.

That from fuch diligence of perfecution there is reafon to believe there are fome latent enemies interested in the accufation, who defame him that he may be less invidiously destroyed.

That whatever be the fate of Byng, the juftice of the nation ought to hunt out the men who loft Minorca.

CON

CONSIDERATIONS

ON THE CASE OF

1.

DR. T[RAPP]'s SERMONS*,

T

Abridged by Mr. CAVE, 1739.

HAT the copy of a book is the property of the author, and that he may, by fale or otherwise, transfer that property to another, who has a right to be protected in the poffeffion of that property, so transferred, is not to be denied.

2. That the complainants may be lawfully invested with the property of this copy, is likewife granted.

3. But the complainants have mistaken the nature of this property; and, in confequence of their mistake, have fuppofed it to be invaded by an act, in itself legal, and juftifiable by an uninterrupted series of precedentsä

Dr. Trapp, it will be recollected, was a popular preacher; and, about the year 1739, when Methodifm might be faid to be in its infancy, preached Four Sermons "On the Nature, Folly, Sin, and Danger, of being righteous over-much;" which were published by Auften and Gilliver, and had an extenfive fale. Mr. Cave, ever ready to oblige his readers with temporary fubjects, took an extract from them, and promised a continuation, which never appeared; so that it was either stopped by a prosecution, or made up by other means. On all difficult occafions Johnfon was Cave's oracle. And the paper now before us was certainly written on that occafion. Gent. Mag. July 1787. from

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from the first establishment of printing among us, down to the prefent time.

4. He that purchases the copy of a book, purchases the fole right of printing it, and of vending the books printed according to it; but has no right to add to it, or take from it, without the author's confent, who ftill preferves fuch a right in it, as follows from the right every man has to preferve his own reputation.

5. Every fingle book, fo fold by the proprietor, becomes the property of the buyer, who purchases with the book the right of making fuch use of it as he fhall think moft convenient, either for his own improvement or amufement, or the benefit or entertainment of mankind.

6. This right the reader of a book may use many ways to the disadvantage both of the author and the proprietor, which yet they have not any right to complain of, because the author when he wrote, and the proprietor when he purchafed, the copy, knew, or ought to have known, that the one wrote, and the other purchased, under the hazard of fuch treatment from the buyer and reader, and without any fecurity from the bad confequences of that treatment except the excellence of the book.

7. Reputation and property are of different kinds; one kind of each is more neceffary to be fecured by the law than another, and the law has provided more effectually for its defence. My character as a man, a fubject, or a trader, is under the protection of the law; but my reputation as an author is at the mercy of the reader, who lies under no other obligations to do me justice than thofe of religion and morality. If a man calls me

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rebel or bankrupt, I may profecute and punish him; but, if a man calls me ideot or plagiary, I have no remedy, fince, by felling him the book, I admit his privilege of judging, and declaring his judgment, and can appeal only to other readers, if I think myself injured.

8. In different characters we are more or lefs protected; to hifs a pleader at the bar would perhaps be deemed illegal and punishable, but to hifs a dramatic writer is justifiable by custom.

9. What is here faid of the writer, extends itself naturally to the purchafer of a copy, fince the one feldom fuffers without the other.

10. By thefe liberties it is obvious, that authors and proprietors may often fuffer, and fometimes unjustly : but as these liberties are encouraged and allowed for the fame reason with writing itself, for the discovery and propagation of truth, though, like other human goods, they have their alloys and ill-confequences; yet, as their advantages abundantly preponderate, they have never yet been abolished or reftrained.

11. Thus every book, when it falls into the 'hands of the reader, is liable to be examined, confuted, cenfured, tranflated, and abridged; any of which may destroy the credit of the author, or hinder the fale of the book.

12. That all thefe liberties are allowed, and cannot be prohibited without manifeft difadvantage to the public, may be easily proved; but we shall confine ourselves to the liberty of making epitomes, which gives occafion to our prefent enquiry.

13. That an uninterrupted prefcription confers a right, will be eafily granted, efpecially if it appears that the pre

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fcription,

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