Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-12-31


the necessarily incomplete and incompre
hensive session indices. Even then,
the point he was after might per-
chance be snugly tucked away IN
| the recesses of some unindexed sec
tion of long statute, the general
character Of which was CT entirely diner
ent import. All this has created a pressing
necessity or some means Of ready reference
to the statute law. That necessity is to
be met fully and completely by the sup
plement to the Revised Statutes, which Is
to be issued withinsthree months after the
adjournment of the Legislature by Hon.
E. Dudley Freeman of the Cumberland
bar The Journal has before it some OF
the advance sheets of the Supplement
The work is admirably planned. 1t will
contain about 800 pages and cover all the
laws passed since the revision of 1888,
including those of the present session. 1t
is to be uniform in order and method with
the Revised Statutes of 1888, chapter for
chapter and section for section, with the
same convenient marginal abstracts and
citations. Mr.. Freeman says that no at
tempt is made at revision. With few
unimportant exceptions ''the public laws
are printed verbatim, those sections OF the
Revised Statutes which are specifically
changed being given in full as finally
amended, and all other public laws as acts
additional to the chapter to which they
seem properly to belong, these additional
acts being connected by reference with
those sections of the Revised Statutes
which are affected thereby. Citations to all
the Maine reports published since the revi-
sion of 1888, so far as they apply, accompany
each chapter, and the completed volume
will contain comprehensive index. " MIR.
Freeman's we'll known legal ability and
skill will sufficiently guarantee the ac-
curacy and discrimination required in a
work of this kind. The value of the book
will be almost inestimable. Indeed, it
has even been questioned whether an un-
official compilation like that of Mr.. Free
mans containing the text of the laws as
actually passed, is not preferable to re-
vision. A revision is one of those things
which "he who runs may not read. )" 1t
is not always finality. Its provisions
are constantly construed with reference
to previous legislation. A recent writer
on the subject of statutory revision Illus
trates this by a case which occurred IN
Massachusetts: "Two fishermen from
Newburyport, in 1866, took, between
them eight bushels of CLANS, for bait, from
a beach in Ipswich. They were prosecuted
for violation of an apparently simple Sec
ton of the general statutes. The supreme
court, in constituting the language of this
section, began with the Body of Liberties of
1641, and pursued the history of the en-
actment in question through the colonial
laws of 1860 and 1912; considered Felt's
History of Ipswich, and referred to five
different provincial statutes, to statutes
of 1898, 1895, and 1896, to re-enactments
in the Revised Statutes of 1886 and to acts
of 1888, 1S41 and 1874 and so led up to the
clause of the general statutes upon which
the fishermen were being prosecuted.
So much for the ad
vantage which the plain man is to derive
in the guidance of his daily affairs from
the perusal of statutory codification.
If fisherman cannot read a bait statute
how can any layman read any sratute?"
Without expressing any opinion at present
on the advantages or disadvantages of
revision it is undoubtedly true that if a
revision be made the labor and the ex-
pense to the State will be greatly lessened
by reason of Mr.. Freeman's work. Further
more to quote member of our own su-
preme bench sit ought to postpone the
necessity for revision for some years. y
With Mr. Carver's Citations" biennially
revised to serve as an index to current
legislation and works like Mr.. Freeman IS
published at intervals of about decade
the legal profession and people in general
who have frequent occasion to consult
legislation will be vastly convenienced.
Mr. Freeman's work is certainly de-
serving of encouragement from every
quarter, and we predict that in a few
years it will be in the hands of every busy,
practising lawyer in the State.