The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1881-01-30
THE IJNREVISED !ST4TUTEs

gress to pass a resolution providing for
"lating to the District of Columbia" similar
to that of the "Revised Statutes of the
United States.' 1t might be prepared
during the recess and be ready for publica-
tion in December. The work of Mr.. Boutwell,
on the larger volume, however his plan of
securing the job to himself as he was OH the
eve of leaving the Senate may be criticised,
was undoubtedly useful. II could scarcely
have failed to be SO. Legislation goes on so
fast in this new country that the work of
1878 must inevitably seem antiquated as
early as 1878 unless altered to conform to the
changes in important laws, even supposing
the first attempt at codifcation to have been
perfect, which it was far from being in the
case Of the Revised Statutes. Both the rea-
sons here suggested concur with increased
force in the case of the local acts of Congress
embodied in that unwieldy tome which in
congruously includes "Post Roads, and
"Public Treaties along with them. 1t is
now eight years since the compilation, in
stead of five as in the other case and in the
mean time some of the most important
changes in organization and administration
ever made in the District have taken effect.
The so-called Territorial :" form of govern
ment has been swept away with all its works
and pomps, which take up SO much room in
the edition of 1878, and new form OF gov
ernment has required great body of varied
provisions now scattered through the inter
minable pages of the Statutes at Large. In
adjective" law, or that of procedure, the
changes are scarcely less momentous. Among
the instances that readily occur to mind are
the provisions for allowing persons accused
of crime to testify in their own behalf, for
causing deeds to take effect against creditors
and subsequent purchasers only from the
time they are filed for record, for selling the
land of tenants in common where it cannot
be otherwise parttioned, for the exemption
from debt of two months salary when less
than 500 month, for giving certificate Of
taxes due which constitutes bar against
further collections, for legitimating the chill
uA Ci vi Soioicu pcVpiC III Stt vain CdScby iUi
adding a new justice to the bench and in
creasing the amount necessary to give the
right of appeal, and numerous other enact
ments which 1t is impossible TO state in brief
without anticipating the work of the re-
visors.
But this Is not all. The edition now issued
under the great seal of the United States is
a production of which the Government has
no reason to feel proud. BY its concluding
section and by solemn proclamation this
amorphous mass repeals all statutes any
part of which is included in the revision, and
proudly takes their place as the authentic
will of the legislature and legal evidence
(" of the laws and treaties therein contained
Sin all the courts of the United States and
"of the several States and Territories" To
show what the Department Of State has ac-
cordingly certified II Is only necessary to
advert to one or two examples that have
been pointed out TO us. If this volume had
not come out SO long after the other one we
should say that the commissioners had pur-
sued in regard to it the plan indicated by
Burns, when he says of nature: "Her prem
"tice hand she tried on man, and then she
"made the lasses, OF" But probably these
indicia are those Of haste and comparative in
difference rather than in experience. In the
way of grammar, Congress is made to say
in section 937 that the court may appoint
guardians to any infant orphan entitled or
share right or claim to any property" etc.,
a result reached by leaving ont " who may
"be," or equivalent words coming before
"entitled f" in the original statute. A little
further down the court is empowered tc
f" "d,misS " guardian from Office, where the
meaning is clear enough, but the inaccuracy
dreadful in an important law. One can i'm
agine a sharp practitioner arguing that there
is no such word as "dimiss in the Eng
lish language. In section 93l the register OF
wills Is empowered to charge twelve and
one half cents for "eyery additional ,rord -
in a guardians certificate, a terrible price
until we remember that +" ward is proba.
bly, intended. A little further back in the
same chapter we find the same official re.
quired TO give bond " seasonably to record
/" the DEGREES and orders of the justice of the
"supreme court holding the special term
:" for orphans court business" but We shall
hunt in vain through the chapter on court
organization, and all the other chapters, fol
any further explanation Of this pregnant re,
mark. The section Of the act Of June q,
1870, providing for giving probate jurisdic'
tion to the supreme court has been unac
countably omitted, giving rise to the cavil
that it Is repealed, and We have properly nc
probate jurisdiction in the District. Fur.