Thomas Hood

“ That a work which endures for many years must be of a sterling character, and ought to become national property —but at the expense of the public, or at any expense save that of the author or his descendants. It must be an ungrateful generation that in its love of cheap copies can lose all regard for "the dear originals."
That whereas your petitioner has sold sundry of his copyrights to certain publishers for a sum of money, he does not see how the public, which is only a larger firm, can justly acquire even a share in copyright except by similar means, namely, by purchase or assignment. ”

“ That as a man's hairs belong to his head, so his head should belong to his heirs—whereas, on the contrary, your petitioner hath ascertained, by a nice calculation, that one of his principal copyrights will expire on the same day that his only son should come of age. The very law of nature protests against an unnatural law which compels an author to write for anybody's posterity except his own. ”

“ That cheap bread is as desirable and necessary as cheap books, but it hath not yet been thought just or expedient to ordain that, after a certain number of crops, all cornfields shall become public property. ”