Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Booksellers' Bill 1774 Legislating in the 18th Century: A View from Sir Henry Cavendish's Parliamentary Diary

The Booksellers' Bill 1774 Legislating in the 18th Century: A View from Sir Henry Cavendish's Parliamentary Diary

Johnson, Phillip

Paperback

Series: Parliamentary History Book

General Political Science

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1394180772
ISBN13: 9781394180776
Publisher: Blackwell Publ
Published: Dec 12 2022
Pages: 518
Weight: 1.50
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
The history of copyright and publishing in the 18th century is well trodden, and an event in 1774 is one of the most explored of all. The house of lords heard the infamous case of Donaldson v. Beckett in February, when it was found that copyright in printed books was by then a purely statutory creation. The case had attracted great public interest, as did the subsequent petition by the London Booksellers for a bill that would have delayed the full impact of the judgment for over a decade. The Booksellers' Bill is used here as a window into how the public interacted with parliament, how it then legislated and how its work was viewed. This examination is possible because the debates on the Bill were recorded by Sir Henry Cavendish in shorthand, and his diary entries noting the relevant speeches are published here for the first time. Along with this invaluable record there remains in existence a substantial number of the lobbying papers as well as the extensive recording of the Bill proceedings in contemporary newspapers. All of these are reproduced here. So while the Bill was neither championed by the government nor part of any wider political picture, it was hard and bitterly fought and the materials available present to us a microcosm of parliamentary activity in the period in a way that was not to be possible again for decades.

Also from

Johnson, Phillip

View All

Also in

General Political Science

View All