Entered according to act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, BY BANKS & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Northern District of New York. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, BY BANKS & BROTHERS, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, BY BANKS & BROTHERS, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, BY BANKS & BROTHERS, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 154144 State of New York, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE, SS. I, FREDERICK COOK, Secretary of State, certify that so much of the matter contained in the text of this edition of the Revised Statutes as purports. to be a copy thereof, is a correct transcript of the text of the Revised Statutes, as originally published under the authority of the State, except such typographical errors in the original as have been corrected in the copy, and except such parts as have been altered by acts of the Legislature, and that. with respect to such parts it conforms to the acts by which such alterations. have been made. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my signature, at the city of Albany, this first day of March, 1889. 1 R. S. FREDERICK COOK, PECULIAR FEATURES OF THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH EDITIONS OF THE REVISED STATUTES. (1.) In these, as in the former editions, the provisions of the Revised Statutes which have been expressly amended are made to conform to the latest amendatory acts, and provisions which have been expressly repealed are omitted; but the text, where it has not been expressly altered by subsequent legislation, is given, with scrupulous accuracy, precisely as it was enacted by the legislature, and without attempting (as was done in each of the former editions subsequent to the third) to express, by alterations of the text, the editor's opinion as to the present effect of any provision. (2.) In general, the entire text of the Revised Statutes has been given, as it now is, noting, without omitting, provisions supposed to be repealed by implication. In a few instances, exceptions have been made to this rule. The only one of these which is of much importance is the omission, in title 4 of chapter 2 of part 1, of the detailed description of the boundaries of the several towns, for reasons explained in the note at the foot of page 276. Occasionally, also, a provision has been omitted, which was so manifestly repugnant to subsequent statutes or constitutional amendments, that there appeared to be no room for reasonable doubt that it was abrogated. Excisions of this character have been made rarely and cautiously; and in each instance a reference has been made to the inconsistent controlling provisions. (3.) In these editions, although the acts, other than the R. S., are arranged under the captions of the chapters, titles, and articles of the R. S., relating to the subject matter thereof, and, in cases where there are no such appropriate captions, under new titles and articles added to the proper chapters, yet they are not intermingled with the provisions of the R. S., with sectional numbers altered, so as to number them continuously, as was done in the former editions, to the infinite bewilderment and confusion of those having occasion to examine or cite the statutes. In these editions the two classes of statutes are not only separated, but distinguished by the use of different styles of type, and a dif ferent arrangement of the marginal notes and authorities cited; the original sectional numbers of each class are preserved; and each of the session laws retains its proper caption. Also the numbers and arrangement of the titles and articles of the R. S. have not been disturbed, the additional titles and articles, which it was necessary to insert, having been designated as supplementary, and so arranged as to preclude the possibility of any confusion in that respect. (4.) In these editions, the original paging is not only preserved in the margin of the pages which contain the text of the R. S., but it is also given in full and consecutively in the analysis, so that a person searching for a provision of the R. S., cited by the volume and page of the first edition, can easily and immediately find its place by reference to the analysis. (5.) Local statutes have been, as a rule, excluded from this work, whereas the former editions usually gave, at length, all local statutes which created exceptions to a general statute. Certainly the insertion of the local acts of that description would have rendered this work more perfect, and the editor has omitted them with great reluctance; but they have now become so numerous and voluminous, that an attempt to insert them in this work would have so swollen its bulk, as very seriously to affect its practical utility. Occasionally the editor has relaxed the rigidity of the rule excluding local laws, where the addition of a few short acts of that character (often cited only by their titles) has enabled him to complete the legislation upon some subject of great general importance. For these few variations from his general rule he must perhaps bear the accusation of inconsistency; but if it is understood that local laws do not belong to this work, no just disappointment will occur to any reader who fails to find a particular local law therein. If the editor can in every case avoid a similar reproach, his ambition in preparing this work will be fully satisfied. 302 STATE STREET, ALBANY, } February 15, 1889. MONTGOMERY H. THROOP. |