Mr. Lincoln to Mr. Blaine.

No. 477.]

Sir: Referring to my dispatch, No. 475, of 17th instant, transmitting a copy of the note of the Marquis of Salisbury on the subject of international, copyright, I now have to state that I refrained from cabling the essential part of the note, although I was aware of its pressing importance, for the reason that it seemed advisable for me to call Lord Salisbury’s attention informally to the possibility of some question being raised by the employment of the words “British” and “English” in a way which might be deemed antithetical.

I was able to mention the matter to his lordship on the evening of the same day, and he said he would at once have it examined. In consequence I have to-day received the amended note, of which a copy is inclosed, bearing the same date as the former one, which comes to me with a private note calling my attention to the fact that “the last paragraph has been altered so as to make the assurance comprise the whole of the British Possessions,” and asking me to substitute it for and to return the former note.

There is of course no territorial adjective for “the United Kingdom,” but personally I have no doubt that the legal official who is responsible for the language of the note used the adjective “English” in that enlarged sense, though I rather expected, after my conversation with Lord Salisbury, that an amended note would contain merely an additional line to the effect that the word “English” wherever used, was to be taken as referring to “the United Kingdom.”

I have, etc.,

Robert T. Lincoln.
[Inclosure in 477.]

Lord Salisbury to Mr. Lincoln.

Sir: In reply to your note of the 27th ult., in which you inform me that the benefits of the American copyright act, approved March 31, 1891, are only extended to citizens of foreign countries by proclamation of the President under the conditions specified in section 13 of the act, I have now the honor to state to you as follows:

Her Majesty’s government are advised that under existing English law an alien by first publication in any part of her Majesty’s dominion can obtain the benefit of English copyright, and that contemporaneous publication in a foreign country does not prevent the author from obtaining English copyright.

That residence in some part of her Majesty’s dominions is not a necessary condition to an alien obtaining copyright under the English copyright law, and that the law of copyright in force in all British Possessions permits to citizens of the United States of America the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to British subjects.

I have, etc.,

Salisbury.