1858.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES.          319

REPORT.
To the Honorable,

The House of Delegates of Maryland.

The undersigned, in compliance with your order of the 3d
instant, respectfully report, that they have codified and print-
ed all the Chancery Laws, the Testamentary Laws and the
acts relating to crimes and punishments, comprising the
most difficult part of our labors. The Chancery and Testa-
mentary Laws we submitted at a former session, and the laws
respecting crimes and punishments at this.

We have prepared the articles comprising the numerous
acts relating to Abatement, Amendment, Appeals, Appren-
tices, Clerks, Commissioners, Constables, Courts, Descents,
Registers, Justices of the Peace, Insolvents, and Sheriffs and
Coroners, and have arranged the acts not contained in these
articles so as to enable us to complete the codification of the
General Laws in a few weeks.

We have prepared all the Local Laws, making a separate
article for each county and the city of Baltimore. The man-
uscript of the local laws alone cover 1,654 closely written
pages of foolscap.

As we have heretofore stated in our communications, it is
impossible for the Legislature to examine a work so volumin-
ous as ours at a regular session. The duty required of us,
by the Constitution is to codify the acts of Assembly that are
in force, and not to make any new law. We are mere codi-
fiers, not legislators. Hence a careful examination is neces-
sary to ascertain whether our work contains all the existing
law, and nothing more.

When our code is adopted it supersedes all the statute law
of the State, and it should, therefore, be compiled with care
and diligence by us, and not adopted by the Legislature with-
out strict scrutiny.

We respectfully suggest, as we have heretofore done, that
the only practicable mode of examination is, by a committee
in the recess. It would not be necessary for this committee
to meet but a few times. The mode we suggest is, that a
joint committee of both Houses be appointed, and we" will
furnish each member of the committee several copies of each
article as soon as it is printed. This would afford an oppor-
tunity not only to each member of the committee to examine
carefully for himself, but he could also furnish intelligent
persons with the extra copies, and have, in that way, an ex-
amination by a large number of intelligent gentlemen, not
members of the committee.