IV PREFACE.

1910), showed the correction to be proper. Some (apparently) typo-
graphical errors in the acts of 1906, 1908 and 1910, were discovered
only during the proof-reading, and as it was then too late to compare
the original acts as passed, were not corrected. Attention is called to
many of these typographical errors, however, by means of foot-notes.

The index to the code was regarded as particularly important, and
special attention was devoted to it. At the end of volume two is a table
of the place where each act of 1906, 1908 and 1910 amendatory of the
public civil laws is to be found in the Annotated Code. The con-
stitutions of the United States and of Maryland, and indices thereto,
will be found in the beginning of the book.

THE ANNOTATIONS.

The annotations embrace the Maryland, United States and Federal
Reports down to and inclusive of 114 Maryland, 218 United States and
184 Federal. Special attention is called to the fact that no attempt
at a digest has been made, and hence, only cases referring in terms
to the statutes are purported to be annotated, although many cases
more or less directly bearing upon, but without specific reference to,
the statutes, are included in the notes. Frequently, one case refers to
a statute, while another substantially similar decision does not; hence,
some notes will be found which do not include all the cases in support
thereof, the reason being either that the proposition was a familiar
one and it was deemed unnecessary to multiply authorities, or (more
usually) that the decisions omitted contain no reference in terms to the
statute. The fact that this book is an annotated code rather than a
digest, also explains why when statutes deal with a particular phase
only of a broad subject, such for example, as the section on "Specific
Performance" in article 16, the annotations are confined to cases
referring to the statutes, that is to say, to cases dealing only with the
particular phase of the general subject covered by the statutes.

Care should be exercised to inquire whether a decision referred to
in the notes is based on the statute as it now stands. An effort has
been made to call attention to the date of the decision where a statute
has been materially changed thereafter, but the editor does not profess
to have done so in every instance. In articles where radical changes
have been made, such for example as in article 45, "Husband and
Wife," by the act of 1898, and in article, 23, "Corporations," by the
act of 1908, the notes for the most part will be found to refer in terms
cither to certain acts, or else to sections of a particular code, that is
to say, of the code of 1904 or 1888 or 1860.

The aim has been to state briefly in the notes the gist or purport of
the decision (so far as it bears upon the statute), or if it was found
impractical to do that in the necessarily brief compass of a note, at
least to indicate what the decision was about, so that it might readily
be determined whether the case bore upon the question in hand. Fre-
quently, the two methods are combined, the more prominent portion