PREFACE.

In 1903 I published a codification of the Public General
Laws of Maryland covering the whole body of our General
Statute Law down to the Acts passed at the Session of 1902,
inclusive.

Some few of the copies of this Code were distributed, but
the great bulk of the edition was destroyed in the Baltimore
fire of February, 1904.

The need of a new Code being seriously felt, by reason of
the many and great changes made in our Public General Laws
since the publication in 1888 of the Code of that year which
went into effect in January, 1889, the General Assembly at the
Session of 1904 passed an Act (chapter 72) legalizing the
Code published by me in 1903 and making it evidence of the
Public General Laws of the State contained in the then exist-
ing Code and of the Public General Laws enacted subsequent
thereto, with the proviso that before it be published the Public
General Laws enacted by the General Assembly of 1904 be
incorporated therein.

Under the authority thus conferred, the present work has
been prepared.

In its compilation 1 have followed the general alphabetical plan
and arrangement with which for more than forty years we have
been familiar, retaining all the ARTICLES found in the Code of 1888
as therein entitled and numbered; and thus, with the exceptions
of the five new subjects "Immigration, " "Public Accountant, "
"Public Works—Board of, " "State Aid and Charities, " and
"Weather Service, " all of the legislation contained in the
several articles of the Code of 1888, together with all the
legislation enacted from 1890 to 1904, both inclusive, capable
of being embodied in those articles, has been given a proper
place in some one of the articles as they stand in our present
Code.