The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-01-08
The Revision of the Statutes


first time in the history of the State this i'm
portant work has been entrusted to one
man. The wisdom of the departure from
precedent is justified by the very compre-
hensive report submitted by Judge Goddard
and embraced in a volume of over fourteen
hundred pages. THERE'S apparent unity and
completeness of design naturally wanting
in previous reports produced by many minds
and, so far as arrangement and style are
concerned, of necessity in the nature of
compromises. Judge Goddard has done
much more than he was required to do. He
has not contented himself with revising,
collecting, arranging and consolidating all
the general and public laws in force, as ef-
dered by the resolve appointing him. He
has exceeded his stint, and earned the re-
ward due Jealous workman. Nor is it for
quantity alone that this workman and his
work should be commended. 1t is quite as
noticeable for fine quality. The recommen-
dations he makes and the suggestions he
throws out are always intelligent, often sa-
gacious, and invariably fructuops. The
stance DESTROYS to formulate these into law,
but they afford material for thorough con-
slderation, and are at the very least good
points from which to start.
The latest previous revision was done
twelve years ago. Since that time SS6 pub
lie laws have been enacted. Of these, 6S
have been superseded, A substantially re-
pealed, and 80 expressly repealed; % others
are acts of repeal, and 16 are of a temporary
nature: while 3S, not being of general
character are, though unrepealed, omitted
from the present revision. The remainder,
$50 in number, affecting $40 sections and
paragraphs, are wholly or in part incorpora-
ted into the report. In most instances, and
always as far as expedient the order of chap
tiers adopted in the revision of 1857 and re-
tanned in that of 1871 has been followed.
In not few instances. changes of phraseolo-
gy have been made, but in all such cases
the changes have been indicated. They ap-
pear to be invariably in the direction of
clearness, conciseness, simplicity, and good
grammatical style. Important changes in
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of reconciling apparent contradictions, obvi-
ating repetititions, supplying omissions, and
correcting impefections in the revised stat
utes and subsequent laws, and the reasons
therefor given. The head notes and margi-
nal notes have been changed to conform 10
the new revision, and additional references
added to the recently adjudged cases from
the last sixteen volumes of Maine Reports.
Instead of citing cases by their first page, as
has been the custom, the page containing
the actual reference is invariably given.
The proposed revision is 238 pages longer
than the present, the legislation of the last
twelve years increasing the sections to A.
430, the items to 2S6, AMI enlarging the code
to 1,198 pages.
The work of revising the text of the public
laws and annotating it, all that was
demanded of the Commissioner has been
thoroughly and accurately done. But Judge
Goddard has done much more than this !:
He has restored the original spelling and
capitalization of the National Constitution,
thus presenting that document as it looked
to the eyes of its authors; given brief his
tory of the fifteen amendments; marked by
difference of type those parts of the original
constitution which have become obsolete;
given the dates of admission to the Union of
all the new States, the dates of secession and
readmission of the eleven rebellious States
and furnished the text with marginal refer
ences to the 103 volumes of the United
States Reports, illustrating discussions and
interpretations of questions of constitutional
law. Concise notes are also given concern
ing the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitutional Convention of 1887, and the
acquisition of territory made since the estab
lishment of the Federal government. The
constitution of Maine is edited with equal
fidelity, and the time and manner of the
adoption of the amendments, twenty five in
number, set forth.
He has given complete list of the forty
acts known as the liquor-laws, touching in
toxication and the sale of intoxicating liq-
uors, passed since 1850, and appended them
to chapter ~ of the revision. The list of
local fsh-laws at the end of chapter 40 has
cally. Both classes of laws are thus rem
dered far more convenient for reference
than ever before. The first prohbitory law,
1t may be remembered, was passed in 1851.
1t has been followed by thirty nine statutes,
repeating, modifying or Strengthening the
original provisions. The history of these
enactments can now be easily traced. The
chapter on fisheries has been amended by
more than fifty acts of general application,
besides many acts of merely local interest.
The value of the revision is greatly in
creased by the preparation of three elaborate
indexes. The general index at the end of
the book refers to the text of the revision
and of the National and State Constitutions
The marginal references to the text are sup
plemented by a Reference Index ofE42 pages;
in two parts; the first tracing the various
sections and items of the last revision, while
the second performs the same dnty for al
the public acts from 1871 to 1882, inclusive
As appendix is Reference Table in two
parts, containing every chapter, section and
item of the third revision and of the subse-
quent public laws which is not incorporated
into the present code, with the time and
manner of the repeal, or substitut ion. This
is not designed TO form part of the latest
revision, but to aid legislators to Judge of it.
accuracy.
A valuable and very entertaining part of
the report is a full paper on the source of
land titles in Maine, tracing their history
back to the time of the original royal grants
This is most interesting contribution to
our State history.
In concluding the preface to the revision
Judge Goddard suggests fifteen amend
ments to the existing laws, some of them of
considerable Importance, and records forty
five others, made at his invitation by promi-
nent gentlemen engaged in professional and
business pursuits. The Commissioner propos-
es that constitutional amendments shall here
after take affect on the first Wednesday of
January following their adoption by the peo-
pie, pertinently referring to the disputes
arising in 1856 and 1881 out of the want of
uniformity in practice in this regard. He
thinks that newspapers should be required
to publish the public laws in good fair type.
He advises the collection and publication of