[1278] Der Büchernachdruck nach ächten Grundsätzen des Rechts geprüft.
[1279] Von denen altesten kayserlichen und landesherrlichen
Bücherdruck-oder Verlag-privilegien, 1777, 8vo.
[1280] Vol. xvi. p. 96.
[1281] [Exclusive privileges for printing the English Bible and Prayer
have been granted by the Crown at different periods up to the present
time, with the exception of the period of the Commonwealth, during
which they were abolished. In the 27th year of Charles II. a Royal
patent was granted to Thomas Newcomb and Henry Hills. In the 12th of
Anne to Benjamin Tooke and John Barber; in the 22nd of George I. to
John Basket. Then came John Reeves, who received his patent from George
III. in the 39th year of his reign, and in association with George Eyre
and Andrew Strahan, printed the many editions of the Bible and Prayer
described as Reeves’ editions. The present patent was conferred by
George IV. upon Andrew Strahan, George Eyre, and Andrew Spottiswoode,
for a term of thirty years, which commenced January 21, 1830, and
consequently ceases in 1860. By this last patent every one but the
patentees is prohibited from printing in England any Bible or New
Testament in the English tongue, of any translation, with or without
notes; or any Prayers, Rites, or Ceremonies of the United Church of
England and Ireland; or any books commanded to be used by the Crown;
nor can either of the above be imported from abroad, if printed in
English, or in English mixed with any other tongue. The Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge also enjoy the right of printing Bibles, &c., in
common with the patentees; but in their case it is a simple affair of
permission, they having no power to prohibit or prosecute. The present
patentees, it may be here observed, have not of late years attempted to
enforce their rights, and Bibles are now printed almost _ad libitum_.
In Scotland, prior to 1700, various persons held concurrent licenses,
consequently it is very difficult to say who were king’s printers and
who were not. On July 6, 1716, George I. granted a patent to John
Basket, the English patentee, and Agnes Campbell, jointly for forty-one
years. To them succeeded Alexander Kincaird, whose patent dates from
June 21, 1749; and then James Hunter Blair and John Bruce, whose patent
commenced in 1798 and expired in the hands of their heirs, Sir D. H.
Blair and Miss Bruce. In 1833 the patent ceased, and has never been
renewed. Unlike either England or Ireland, the four Scotch Universities
have never participated in this monopoly.
In Ireland, George III. in 1766 granted a Bible patent to Boulter
Grierson for forty years. He was succeeded by his son George Grierson,
who, in 1811, obtained a renewal, and is still with Mr. Keene, the
Irish patentee. Trinity College, Dublin, has also a concurrent right,
but both Oxford and Cambridge are, by the Irish printers’ own patent,
permitted to import their Bibles into Ireland.--_Dr. Campbell’s Letters
on the Bible Monopoly._]