Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-10-06
THE CODE COMMISSION.

As thereis much interest being felt through
out the State, among the legal profession as
we'll as others, respecting the work of the
Code Commission, and the progress making
in this important work, in order to lay before
our readers such facts upon the subject as we
could obtain, on Monday last we called on
j. F. Hart, Esq, member of the commits
sion, who cheerfully gave us the following
information:
The first steps taken by the Commissioners
after their appointment and organization, was
to apportion the incipient work among the
three members of the commission. The pres
ent Revised Statutes was taken as basis tor
the division of labor, and each member elm
mated all laws repealed or superseded, and
collected and inserted all amendments and
new enactments germane to the subjects OF
the several chapters. As this work was com
pleted, it was put in print, and copies given
to each member for careful criticism.
AT the several sessions of the commission,
the first proof sheets of the work, with the
critical notes and suggestions of the mem
bers, were reviewed and discussed, and such
corrections made as appeared necessary to
reconcile conflicting or repugnant provisions,
and to obviate redundancy Of expression, &c.
The work was then given to the printer for
setting up in the form of report to the Leg
islature. All of the statute law, including the
Code of Civil Procedure, will be reported to
the coming session of the General Assembly.
The Commissioners were also directed, un-
der the act providing for the revision Of the
statues, to prepare and report "Penal Code"
for adoption. This word is, to some extent,
an original creation, and requires greater
amount of labor and study, than could be
devoted to it in the brief time given, with the
other work on hand. 1t will be impracticable
to frame and present, at the coming session
of the Assembly, penal code of the charac.
ter we would wish our names connected 18th,
or that the gravity of the undertaking would
Justify. The Commissioners have devoted
such labor to this subject as their time per-
mitted, but have not yet put the work in
shape. The statutes, as revised, will be con-
tanned in one volume, of about the size OF the
present Revised Statutes
The Commissioners were harmonious IN
the view that they were without authority to
create new laws, or to repeal existing statutes,
unless in the way of reconciling repugnant
provisions, or supplying occasionally such
omissions as were necessary to the harmony
of the whole as a system of laws. These
changes will be called to the attention of the
Legislature 1t would be impossible now to
sketch these in such way as to give the pro-
fession a just view of the changes recon-
mended.
The statutes will be numbered by chapters
and sections from first to last, consecutively,
on the plan of the U. S. Rev. Statutes. The
number of sections in the Code will be re-
duced but the old number of each section is
placed on the margin for reference. The
sections of the Code will be numbered indie
pently of the statutes or of the Code as it now
stands
The Commissioners have received valuable
suggestions from the Bench and Bar, as to
matters pertinent to the work, many of which
have been adopted, and much benefit derived
from other suggestions involving changes they
did not feel at liberty to make.