the fort-gate, and the articles formally digested, and signed by the parties, in the presence of many Indians, who were standing about with an unusual appearance of solicitude. But this was the moment for crowning the stratagem with success. Boone and his companions, were told by the leaders of the opposite party, that among Indians, it was customary for them upon occasions like the present, to evince the sincerity of their friendship, by two Indians shaking each white man by the hand. This was also assented to, and immediately two Indians approached each white man, and taking his hand, instantly grappled him, with intent to drag him off a prisoner. On this occasion the defensive instinct required not to be prompted, by the effect of deliberation; but each man at the same moment, by an instantaneous effort, extricated himself, and from the midst of hundreds of the savages, who discharged a heavy fire, all escaped into the fort without injury, except one man, who was wounded.

Having failed in this stratagem, the enemy commenced the premeditated attack on the fort, which they kept up with little intermission, for nine days, and which was well returned by the garrison, directed by captain Boone.

In the meantime, the enemy began to undermine the fort, which stood on the bank, about sixty yards from the margin of the Kentucky River; and this new mode of attack may without doubt, be ascribed to the Frenchmen, who were with them. This mine was commenced in the bank of the river, and was discovered by the muddy water, which continued to pass down from the place; indicating the solution of new earth thrown into it. The object of this measure could not be doubted, and captain Boone ordered that a trench should be opened inside of the fort, so as to intersect the subterranean canal of the enemy; and the earth, as taken up, was thrown over the fort-walls. By this the enemy were apprised of what was going on within, and desisted from their mining project. Being now convinced that they could not effect the conquest of the place, by either open force or secret fraud, and their stock of provisions being nearly exhausted, on the 20th of August they raised the siege, and aban

doned the object of their grand expedition; and with it, the last hopes of the campaign.

During this siege, the most formidable that had ever taken place in Kentucky-from the number of Indians, the skill of the commanders, the fierce and savage countenances of the warriors, made even more dreadful by art, than by nature; the effect of which was augmented ten-fold, by the yell, and the war hoop; there were only two men killed in the garrison, and four others wounded. On the part of the savages, they had thirty-seven killed, and many wounded; who were, agreeably to cus tom, immediately removed.

After the siege, the people of the garrison picked up one hundred and twenty-five pounds weight of bullets, that had fallen on the ground, besides those which stuck in the fort.

This seems to have been the last effort of the Indians to take Boonesborough. In the autumn of this year, captain Boone went to North Carolina in pursuit of his wife, who during has captivity with the Indians, despairing of his return, had removed to her tather's house. In 1780, he returned, and re-settled himself at Boonesborough.

REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE

ON THE COPYRIGHT ACTS.

The Select Committee appointed to examine the Acts 8 Anne, c. 19; lá Geo. III. c. 53; 41 Geo. III. c. 107, and 54 Geo. III. c. 116, respecting Copyright of Books; and to report any or what Alterations are requisite to be made therein, together with their Observations thereupon, to the House; and to whom the Petitions regarding the Copyright Bill, and all Returns from Public Libraries, and from Stationers Hall, presented in the present Session, were referred, and who were empowered to report their Opinion thereupon to the House;-Have examined the matters to them referred, and have agreed upon the following Report and Resolutions.

The earliest foundation for a claim from any Public Library, to the gratuitous delivery of new publications, is to be found in a deed of the year 1610, by which the Company of Stationers of London, at the request of Sir Thomas Bodley engages to deliver a copy of

every book printed in the company (and not having been before printed) to the University of Oxford. This however seems to be confined to the publications of the Company in its Corporate capacity, and could in no case extend to those which might proceed from individuals unconnected with it.

Soon after the Restoration, in the year 1662, was passed the Act for preventing Abuses in printing seditious, treasonable, and unlicensed books and pamphlets, and for regula ting of printing and printing presses;' by which, for the first time, it was enacted, that every printer should reserve three copies of the best and largest paper of every book new printed, or reprinted by him with additions, and shall, before any public vending of the said book, bring them to the Master of the Company of Stationers, and deliver, them to him; one whereof shall be delivered to the keeper of His Majesty's library, and the other two to be sent to the vice chancellor of the two Universities respectively, to the use of the public libraries of the said Universities. This Act was originally introduced for two years, but was continued by two Acts of the same Parliament till 1679, when it expired

It was, however, revived in the 1st year of James II.; and finally expired in 1695.

It has been stated by Mr. Gaisford, one of the curators of the Bodleian Library, that there are several books entered in its register, as sent from the Stationers Company subsequent to the expiration of that Act;' but it is probable that this delivery was by no means general, as there are no traces of it at Stationers Hall, and as Hearne, in the preface to the Reliquia Bodleianæ, printed in 1703, presses for benefactions to that library as peculiarly desirable, since the Act of Parliament for sending copies of books, printed by the London booksellers, is expired, and there are divers wanting for several years past.'

During this period, the claim of au* Upon reference to the continuing Act of 17 Ch. II, c. 4, the clauses respecting the delivery of the three copies appear to be perpetual; yet it should seem that they were not so considered, not being adverted to in the Act of Anne.

thors and publishers to the perpetual Copyright of their publications, rested upon what was afterwards determined to have been the common law, by a majority of nine to three of the Judges, on the cases of Millar and Taylor in 1769, and Donaldson and Becket in 1774 Large estates have been vested in Copyrights; these Copyrights had been assigned from hand to hand, had been the subject of family settlements, and in some instances larger prices had been given for the purchase of them (relation being had to the comparative value of money) than at any time subsequent to the Act of the 8th of queen Annet. By this Act, which in the last of these two cases, has since been determined to have destroyed the former perpetual Copyright, and to have substituted one for a more limited period, but protected by additional penalties on those who should infringe it, it is directed, that nine copies of each book that shall be printed or published, or reprinted and published with additions, shall, by the printer, be delivered to the warehouse keeper of the Company of Stationers, before such publication made, for the use of the Royal Library, the libraries of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the libraries of the four Universities of Scotland, the library of Sion College, in London, and the library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh.

From the passing of this Act untif the decision of the cases of Beckford and Hood in 1798, and of the University of Cambridge and Bryer, in 1813, it was universally understood, that neither the protection of copyright, nor the obligation to deliver the eleven copies, attached to the publication of any book, unless it was registered at Stationers Hall, an act which was considered as purely optional and unnecessary, where it was intended to abandon the claim for copyright; and in conformity to this construction, the Act of 41 Geo. III. expressly entitled the libraries of Trinity College, and the King's Inn, Dublin, to copies of such books only as should be entered

at Stationers Hall.

Biren, in his Life of Archbishop Tillotson, states, that his widow, after his death in 1695, sold the copyright of his unpublished sermons for 2,500 guineas.

In Beckford versus Hood, the Court of King's Bench decided, that the omission of the entry only prevented a prosecution for the penalties inflicted by the statutes, but it did not in any degree impede the recovery of a satisfaction for the violation of the copyright. The same Court further determined, in the case of the University of Cambridge against Bryer in 1812, that the eleven copies were equally claimable by the public libraries, where books had not been entered at Stationers Hall as where they had.

The burthen of the delivery, which by the latter decision was for the first time established to be obligatory upon publishers, produced in the following year a great variety of petitions to the House of Commons for redress, which were referred to a committee; and in 1814 the last Act on this subject was passed, which directed the iudiscriminate delivery of one large paper copy of every book which should be published (at the time of its being entered at Stationers Hall) to the British Museum, but limited the claim of the other ten libraries to such books as they should demand in writing within twelve months after publication; and directed that a copy of the list of books entered at Stationers Hall should be transmitted to the librarians once in three months, if not required oftener.

It appears, so far as your committee have been enabled to procure information, that there is no other country in which a demand of this nature is carried to a similar extent. In America, Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria, one copy only is required to be deposited; in France and Austria two, and in the Netherlands three; but in several of these countries this is not necessary, unless copyright is intended to be claimed.

The committee having directed a statement to be prepared by one of the witnesses, an experienced bookseller, of the retail price of one copy of every book entered at Stationers Hall between the 30th July, 1814 and the 1st of April, 1817, find that it amounts in

the whole to 1,419. 38. 11d. which will give an average of 1532. 4s. per annum; but the price of the books received into the Cambridge University library from July 1814 to June 1817, amounts to 71,145 10s. the average, of which is 1381 168. 8d. per annum.

In the course of the inquiry committed to them, the committee have proceeded to examine a variety of evidence, which, as it is already laid before the House, they think it unnecessary here to recapitulate; but upon a full consideration of the subject they have come to the following Resolutions:

1. Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, That it is desirable that so much of the Copyright Act as requires the gratuitous delivery of eleven copies should be repealed, except in so far as relates to the British Museum, and that it is desirable that a fixed allowance should be granted, in lieu thereof, to such of the other public libraries, as may be thought expedient.

2. Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, That if it should not be thought expedient by the House to comply with the above recommendation, it is desirable that the number of libraries entitled to claim such delivery should be restricted to the British Museum, and the Libraries of Orford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Dublin Universities.

3. Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, That all books of prints, wherein the letter-press shall not exceed a certain very small proportion to each plate, shall be exempt ed from delivery, except to The Museum, with an exception of all books of mathematics.

4. Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, That all books in respect of which claim to Copyright shall be expressly and effectually abandoned, be also exempted.

5. Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, That the obligation imposed on Printers to retain one copy of each work printed by them, shall cease, and the copy of The Museum be made evidence in lieu of it.