NEWSPAPER COPYRIGHT. (Hansard, 18 July 1836)

§ Sir R. Inglis

said, that before the House resolved itself into Committee on the Stamp Duties Bill, he was anxious to inquire from the right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it was his intention to propose any clause in that Bill to secure the copyright to the existing London journals of their articles of intelligence, of reports of the debates in Parliament, and of their leading articles. His right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had, on a former occasion, expressed his readiness to receive any suggestion in this respect which might be made, but he (Sir R. Inglis) was wholly unprepared with any proposition. He had not communicated with any person connected with the periodical press on this subject, but on general principles he thought some security should be given to talent and capital in this respect. He therefore begged to inquire from his right hon. Friend, whether he had framed any clause having for its object the protection, in the respect he had stated, to the talents and enterprise of the periodical press of the metropolis?

§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer

had not only given the subject to which the hon. Baronet had referred his fullest and most anxious consideration, but he had actually received the draft of a distinct and separate Bill, with a view to that object, from the editors of the London journals themselves. On receiving that draft, he had placed it in the hands of his hon. and learned Friends, the law-officers of the Crown; in order to ascertain from them whether or not it was calculated to effect the object the Bill itself professed to have in view. The result of that reference he had communicated to the London press generally, but to the two letters he had written on the subject, he had not received any answer. It would have been most gratifying to him to have been enabled to propose a plan to secure to the parties the full benefit of the talent and capital so employed, but the plan suggested, and referred to the law-officers, was so imperfect, that it was impossible to propose it to the House.