PREFACE.

THIS WORK is issued in fulfillment of a promise made to the public in the
prospectus to the CODE. It is the first volume of a uniform series -which will
furnish all the legislation of the State since the adoption of the Code

We have also included in the present volume the Constitution of Maryland
with Marginal Notes referring to the Acts of the General Assembly and Deci-
sions of the Court of Appeals, and the Constitution of the United States and its
Amendments, with Marginal Notes referring to the Decisions of the Supreme
Court The References to the Decisions are in the briefest form, and are brought
down to 17 Md and to 24 Howard's Reports, respectively. The value of these
references will be appreciated by Members of the Bar and others, who wish to
examine Constitutional Questions. We have added in an Appendix the Private
Acts and the Resolutions of the Extra Sessions of 1861, and the Regular Ses-
sion of 1862, of the General Assembly.

We have also prefixed Tables showing the Articles and Sections repealed or
amended, with reference to the Chapter and Section by which amended or re-
pealed. These Tables are arranged Alphabetically, both as to Articles and Sub-
divisions or Subjects, and show at a glance the subject embraced, the Articles
or Sections repealed or amended, and the Acts referred to.

The Index corresponds with the Index to the Code, that to the General Laws
being at the end of the whole, and referring to Articles, Sections and Pages,
and that to the Local Laws being prefixed to each Article, and referring to Sec-
tions only The Index, and particularly that to the Public General Laws, is
full and accurate, and its references are so multiplied as to render it what it
purports to be, an Index to every important subject and every prominent word
in the book.

The utility of this work to the people of Maryland cannot be over-estimated.
The Code contains the« whole body of the Statute Law of the State to the date of
its adoption The Constitution expressly requires all future legislation to con-
form to it, and to consist solely of repeals or amendments of Articles or Sections,
or of the addition of new Articles. It will therefore prove of incalculable value
to every class of the community, and especially to all concerned in the adminis-
tration of Justice, to have the legislation of each Session of our Legislature
arranged under the titles to which they belong and which the Code has made
familiar, with references to the Acts from which they are taken.

Great care has been observed to preserve the exact language of the Acts of
Assembly; the only variation permitted has been in the alteration of a few
obvious mistakes of the public printer, and these have invariably been italicised.

Since the publication of Kilty's Laws we have had no edition of our Laws
embracing the Constitution of the United States, and since the adoption of the
New Constitution, none embracing that instrument. This volume, containing
both, with most valuable Notes and References, completely and most opportunely
fills this void.

The addition in the Appendix of the Private Acts and the Resolutions of 1861
and 1862 completes the volume, and arranged as they are alphabetically and
separate from the mass of General and Local Laws, places them in a form
more convenient for reference than in the annual volume issued by the State

Continuing this publication through future years, and giving to the public
after each Session of the Legislature a volume identical in arrangement and
detail with that now issued, the people of Maryland will have their Statute
Law in a form more complete, convenient and accessible than any State in the
Union, or any country in the world.