PART III: NEWSPAPER REPORTS.

No, Sir, the association of the London booksellers was not set on foot for the purpose of prosecuting the booksellers in the country, as the elder Mr. Merrill informed you last Tuesday, but in order to relieve the country Booksellers a subscription was made to pay all such Booksellers who had bought any pirated books through mistake, which was often done, as the pirates printed books with the proprietors names at the bottom. B I Morning Chronicle i , 29 March b : A counter petition is prepared and signed by the stall booksellers, in order to be presented to the House of Commons, against the bill for the relief of the booksellers holders of copy-right. Upon a cross-examination Mr. Wilkie's replies to the questions put to him gave the House the following information: - That in 1759 he signed a circular letter to the Country Booksellers at the instance of a Committee of the London Booksellers, who had entered into an association, not for the purpose of prosecuting the Country Booksellers, as the elder Mr. Merrill had informed the House on the Tuesday before; but in order to relieve the Country Booksellers a subscription was made to pay all such Booksellers who had bought any pirated books through mistake, which was often done, as the Pirates printed books with the proprietors names at the bottom. This Part comprises all the known reports of the parliamentary debates on the Booksellers' Bill in the London, Edinburgh and Glasgow newspapers and monthly magazines. B I Middlesex Journal i , 31 May-2 June b : The Booksellers bill was presented to the House of Lords, yesterday, by Mr. Feilde, Mr. Burke, Col. Onslow, &c. B I Public Ledger i , 2 June b : Read a first time the Booksellers Bill, relative to Literary Property, and after a debate, the Bill was rejected on a division 21 against 11. [Extracted from the article]