PREFACE. 7

modifications, and all the entirely new amendatory and supple-
mental legislation is introduced in the proper articles.

It was obviously impossible, without perplexing confusion,
to retain the same numbers and letters of the Sections of the
articles in the old Code and in the subsequent legislation
repealing and re-enacting these sections and adding new sec-
tions, and hence, from the manifest necessity of the case, the
lettering has been discarded and new numbers have been given
to the sections wherever this was requisite, but to facilitate the
work of tracing the changes and the additions to the pre-
existing law, references are made above each section showing
its origin and subsequent changes.

Reference to the alphabetical index under the heading "Acts
of Assembly " will readily show the place where every Public
General Act now in force passed since the adoption of the Code
of 1888 can be found codified.

The practice has long existed in Maryland of enacting laws
applicable only to one or more of the counties of the State,
and consequently there are Public Local Laws applicable to
one or more of the counties, differing, sometimes slightly and
sometimes very materially, from the Public General Laws cov-
ering the same general subjects. And so, too, is this the case
in a marked degree as to the city of Baltimore by reason of
its peculiar condition and needs.

To meet this case and to avoid the difficulty of interpretation
which would necessarily arise from having a Public General
Law and at the same time a Public Local Law on the same
subject applicable only to one or more of the counties or to the
city of Baltimore, Rule 12 of the "Rules of Interpretation"
provides that "where the Public General Law and the Public
Local Law of any county, city, town or district are in conflict,
the Public Local Law shall prevail. "