viii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

to operate; and succeeding Legislatures appear to have been
anxious to get rid of the copies of the book on hand after it
had been printed. For provision was made by Resolution No.
33 of Nov. Sess. 1811 (to be found in the same book before
referred to) for the sale of nine hundred and fifty copies of
Kilty's Report. A similar Resolution was adopted at Dec.
Sess. 1816 (No. 69 in the same book), by which an agent 'was
appointed to sell the books by wholesale or retail. And by
Resolution No. 63 of Dec. Bess. 1817 the Governor and Council
were authorized to sell five hundred copies of the book, and the
proceeds were directed to be applied to the purchase of a public
library for the use of the Superior Courts and the General
Assembly. The results of these various Resolutions were not
very satisfactory. Justly: because the Report of Chancellor
Kilty ought to have been considered by the Legislature only
as a means to au end; as showing only, and correctly enough,
what ought to be adopted as the law of the State; and it would
have been far better economy OB the part of the Legislature to
have published the Statutes found to be in force at the same
time with the Report, for a reasonably large edition of the
Statutes themselves could, no doubt, have been sold at a rea-
sonable profit, and if a portion of it remained unsold, the
average of loss would at least have been considerably reduced
by the further investment. I am not, however, altogether sure
that it becomes me to make such observations as these, because
I am indebted to these scruples, or other motives, whatever
they were — possibly a country party may have been in the
ascendancy — of the Legislature for my own opportunity.

Succeeding times have been (as they generally are) more
just to the valuable labors of Chancellor Kilty than the non-
contents of the House of Delegates of 1810. In Dashiell v. the
Attorney General, 5 H. & J. 403, the Court said that "the book
was compiled, printed, and distributed under the sanction of
the State, for the use of its officers, and is a safe guide in
exploring an otherwise very dubious path." And other obser-
vations of a like sort are to be found in other cases.

The present Bill of Rights, in its 5th Article, declares that
"the Inhabitants of Maryland are entitled to the Common Law
of England, and the trial by Jury, according to the course of
that Law, and to the benefit of such of the English Statutes as
existed on the Fourth day of July seventeen hundred and