What then is the reason for the present agitation?  Does any one pretend to assert that the present conditions under the Fisher Bill are not working well?

Under the provisions of the Fisher Bill, it has become possible for any Canadian publisher to go to England, make arrangements with the owner of a British copyright for the publication in Canada of a Canadian edition, and then publish here freed from the fear of an invasion of his market by British, American, or any other foreign reproductions, whether the publication was first in Canada or subsequent to publication elsewhere.

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To summarize the position:—­In 1847, the Imperial authorities yielded to Canadian demands and permitted the introduction of the cheap American reprints of British copyright books.  This arrangement our own Parliament terminated.

In 1886, the Imperial Parliament set at rest a question which had existed in reference to the copyright in books first published in Canada, by providing that the British Copyright Acts should apply to such works in the same manner as they apply to works first produced in the United Kingdom.  They now occupy exactly the same footing.

In 1900, the Imperial authorities again yielded to Canadian demands, and permitted the Fisher Act to come into force, which prohibits the importation of copies of a work printed in the United Kingdom, when the Canadian publisher produces in Canada an edition of the work under license from the copyright owner.

The Canadian author who publishes his work in Canada secures copyright not only in the whole British Empire, but obtains protection in all the countries comprising the Copyright Union.  If he comply with the provisions of the Chace Bill, and print and publish contemporaneously in the United States, he secures the whole market of the States as well, which was a loss to him prior to 1891.  Sir John Bourinot thus obtains protection for his property in his valuable historical productions, and is reaping splendid returns from the United States market.  Mr. Seton-Thompson and Dr. Drummond are doing the same.  Yearly the authors of Canada are gathering a harvest from this great market.  Secured by the Berne Convention, Mr. Frechette’s “La Noel au Canada,” printed in Toronto, goes to France safe from continental piracies.  Not a year passes that Canadian editions of books are not shipped to Great Britain, and the trade is increasing.  Examples of such books are Professor Clark’s “Paraclete” and Colonel Denison’s “Soldiering in Canada.”

The Canadian publishers are now secured in the possession of their own market when once they have acquired a license from a British copyright owner, and have reproduced the work in Canada.  Canadian printed editions of Rudyard Kipling, George Eliot, Francis Parkman, and of scores of others may now exclusively be dealt in by the Canadian book-selling trade.  Prominent American publishers have told me repeatedly that our Canadian Copyright Law as it stands, is superior to anything they have had in the United States for the benefit and encouragement of publishing.