Sam played no sharp trick upon the unsuspecting Englishman.  All this is pure fiction.  What really happened was this, and it may be easily verified by reference to an English Blue Book, published in 1891, containing the correspondence relating to the “United States Copyright Act.”  The Act of Congress was passed in March, 1891.  On the 27th of May, 1891, the American Ambassador at London wrote to Lord Salisbury, then Foreign Secretary, enclosing a copy of the Act of Congress, and pointing out that the benefits of the Statute only extended to citizens of foreign countries after the President’s proclamation had been issued under conditions specified in the Act.  On the 16th of June, 1891, Lord Salisbury wrote the American Ambassador as follows:—­

“Her Majesty’s Government is advised that under existing English law an alien by first publication in any part of Her Majesty’s Dominions 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.”

On the first of July, 1891, and without further communication between the two Governments, the President issued his proclamation proclaiming, that as satisfactory official assurance had been given that in Great Britain and the British possessions the law permitted to citizens of the United States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to the citizens of that country, the above condition in the Chace Bill was fulfilled in respect of British subjects.  Thereupon the authors of the United Kingdom and Canada, and of every other British possession became entitled to the benefits of copyright in the United States on a perfect equality with American authors.

It is, therefore, plain that the action of the United States was entirely voluntary; it was the result of no bargaining; it was a straight concession to British authors, to secure which the Imperial authorities conceded nothing.  The United States by the Chace Bill conceded to British subjects privileges substantially equal to those conceded to its own citizens.  The provisions of the Chace Bill are also in force with Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Netherlands (Holland), Chile, and Costa Rica.