tion. The cost of a patent to a citizen of the United States is thirty dollars. Patentees are required to stamp on each article offered for sale, the date of the patent.

§ 276. In cases where the invention is new and useful, and is valuable and important to the public, and the inventor has not been adequately remunerated, notwithstanding he has used diligence in introducing his invention into use, the commissioner of patents is authorized, at the expiration of the fourteen years for which the patent originally issued, to extend it for an additional period of seven years.

§ 277. The authors of books, maps, charts, and musical compositions, and the inventors and designers of prints, cuts, and engravings, being citizens of the United States or residents therein, are entitled to the exclusive right of printing, publishing, and selling them, for the term of twenty-eight years. If the author be living, and a citizen of the United States, or a resident therein, at the end of that term, or if he shall have died and left a widow or children living, he or they are entitled to a renewal of the same exclusive right for the further period of fourteen years. This exclusive privilege is termed a copyright.

§ 278. The author or proprietor, in order to obtain a copyright, must, before publication, deposit a printed copy of the title of the book, map, or engraving, etc., in the office of the clerk of the district court of the United States in the district wherein such author or proprietor shall reside; and then within three months after publishing the book or other work, he must deliver a copy of it to the clerk of the court, who is required to transmit it to the Secretary of State, to be preserved in his office. The author must also, within the same period, deliver one copy to the

Smithsonian Institute at Washington, and one to the Library of Congress.

§ 279. The person to whom the copyright is granted is required to cause to be inserted in every copy of each edition published, during the duration of the right, on the title-page, or the page immediately following, if it be a book, or if a map, chart, musical composition, print, cut, or engraving, on the face thereof, the following words, viz.: "Entered according to act of Congress in the year

by

in the clerk's office of the district court of This is to be done in order to give notice of the copyright, so that persons may not violate it from ignorance of its existence.

§ 280. An author has a right over his unpublished compositions. By an act of Congress it is provided that any person who shall print or publish any manuscript whatever without the consent of the author or legal proprietor first obtained, (if such author or proprietor be a citizen of the United States or resident therein,) shall be liable to suffer and pay to the author or proprietor all damages occasioned by such injury; and such publication of any manuscript may be restrained by a court of the United States.

[Clause 9.] "To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court."

§ 281. This clause will be considered when we come to a subsequent part of the Constitution which treats of the judiciary.

[Clause 10.] "To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations."

§ 282. By the Articles of Confederation, (Art. 9,) Con

gress had the power of appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas. The Constitution confers upon Congress the right not only of punishing, but of defining such piracies and felonies. It also gives to Congress power to define and punish offences against the law of nations.

§ 283. Under this clause Congress has, in different acts, enumerated various offences on the high seas which shall be treated as piracies and felonies. Piracy, by the law of nations, is robbery on the high seas, done in the spirit and intention of universal hostility. For felony, see § 157. The high seas include the unenclosed waters of the ocean which are outside of land, and also the waters on the sea-coast which are beyond the boundaries of low-water mark. Pirates have been always regarded as the enemies of the human race, and every nation has a right to attack and kill them without any declaration of war.

§ 284. Unless the acts which are declared to be piracy by the laws of the United States amount to piracy by the law of nations, they are piracy only when committed by a citizen of the United States, and jurisdiction over such acts belongs exclusively to the tribunals of the United States. A robbery committed at sea on board of a foreign vessel belonging at the time to subjects of a foreign State, is within the jurisdiction of such foreign State, and could not, therefore, be treated as piracy by the courts of the United States, under our acts of Congress, though it would be so treated if committed on board of an American vessel.

§ 285. Among the various offences on the high seas which Congress has declared shall be treated as piracies, are, murder or robbery on the high seas, or in any river, haven, or bay, out of the jurisdiction of any particular

State, or any offence which, if committed within the body of a county, would, by the laws of the United States, be punishable with death.

§ 286. It has further been enacted that, if any captain or mariner shall piratically run away with a vessel, or any goods or merchandise of the value of fifty dollars, or shall yield up the vessel voluntarily to pirates; or if any seaman shall by force endeavour to hinder his commander from defending the ship or goods, or shall make revolt in the ship, he shall be deemed a pirate and a felon.

§ 287. By another act it is provided that, if any person upon the high seas, or in any bay or river where the tide ebbs and flows, commits the crime of robbery in and upon any vessel, or the lading thereof, or the crew, he shall be adjudged a pirate. So if any person engaged in any piratical enterprise, or belonging to the crew of any piratical vessel, shall land and commit robbery on shore, he shall also be adjudged a pirate. The slave-trade has likewise been declared piracy.

war.

§ 288. By the law of nations is to be understood, in a general sense, those principles of justice and those usages, which define the rights and prescribe the duties of nations in their intercourse with each other, whether in peace or Violations of passports, infringements of the rights of ambassadors, disregard of treaties, and piracy, may be mentioned as illustrations of offences against the law of nations. The definition and punishment of such offences is vested in Congress, because that body represents the whole country in its national relations.

[Clause 11.] "To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water."

§ 289. In England, the right to declare war and conclude treaties of peace, is a prerogative of the king. Here, the right to declare war is vested in the representative department of the government, and the right to make treaties is granted to the President, by and with the advice of the Senate. By the Articles of Confederation, (Art. 9,) Congress, with the assent of nine States, could declare

war.

§ 290. By "letters of marque and reprisal" are meant commissions granted by the government to a private individual, to seize and take the property of a foreign State, or of its citizens or subjects, as a reparation for an injury committed by such State, or its citizens or subjects, for which it has refused satisfaction. Such letters are often issued to save a resort to a declaration of war. Reprisal means a taking in return; marque means the passing of the boundaries of a country for the purpose of such taking.

§ 291. The right to make rules concerning captures on land and water, is intrusted to Congress, because it is connected with the right to declare war, and is incident to the control of the army and navy.

§ 292. Capture is the taking of property by one belligerent from another. In general, all vessels belonging to the enemy may be captured, whether they be public vessels of war, or merchant vessels belonging to individuals. The vessel or goods captured at sea are called a prize; goods taken from a public enemy on land are called booty.

§ 293. The general practice of nations is to distribute captured property among the captors, as a reward for their bravery. Where a prize is taken at sea, it must be brought into some port, in order that a competent court may inquire into the facts. It is necessary, before a title can vest in the captors, that the ship should be judicially