cil. When the committee was appointed, it was their understanding, and they had reason to know that it was the understanding of the city council, that the volume should be printed during the present year. It was not supposed that there would be time for any thing like a general revision of the ordinances, which would necessarily require much labor, from the fact that there had been no general revision since 1833. But upon examination it was found that there were so many ordinances upon the same subjects; there had been so many alterations and amendments, repeals and partial repeals, that it was impossible to make any useful collection without revising and submitting many of the ordinances to the city council for its approval. This has been done with most of them, and in some instances important alterations have been made. In those instances where no alterations seemed necessary, the ordinances have been printed from the original records, with this difference, that where there are several on one subject, they are placed together and the sections numbered continuously as one ordinance; but in all cases the dates of the ordinances are given in the margin. When it is considered that the plan of this revision was not matured and the work itself was not actually commenced until the latter part of March last; that all the general and special laws relating to the city have been collated and digested, with notes and references to the leading decisions; that nearly all the old B |