what would you do about the counter copy-right convention, submitted by the present british minister?.Ⓐemendation i cannot see that it differs from the one which we proposed, except that the foreign author may with-hold publications of his book, duringⒶemendation several months, and still hold his copy-rightⒶemendation; whereas in ours, he must publish in both countries simultaneously, in order to make his copy-rightⒶemendation good. if i have read the thing aright, this is an improvement. i am at work upon bret harte, but am not enjoying it. he is the worst literary shoe-maker, i know. he is as blind as a bat. he never sees anything correctly, except californian scenery. he is as slovenly as thackeray, and as dull as charles lamb. the things which you and clark have marked, are plenty good enough in their way, but to my jaundiced eye, they do seem to be lamentably barren of humor. still i think we want some funereal rot in the book as a foil.