David Brewster

“ That if your honourable house should not recognise that inherent right which every author has in his intellectual productions, your petitioner humbly begs that the law, as at present constituted, may be stripped of that unjust and partial character, by which young authors receive a higher boon than those who are aged and infirm, and by which works of easy and rapid composition receive a more enduring privilege than those of great research and erudition. ”

“ That your petitioner is the author of various works the copyright of which is unassigned ; and that he is engaged in the preparation of others, requiring great labour and research ; and which it may not be in his power to publish till he and his family cannot derive any advantage from that part of the privilege which depends upon his own life. ”