The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-17
Judge J. J. Mayfeld Submits to Governor Jelks
 His Report Recodication of Alabama Law1

In accordance with Act of the Legis- lature (Acts 1903. p. 29s), providing for a re-codification of the Laws of Alabama, l. as Code Commissioned elected under that Act have the honor to herewith submit to you typewrit- ten copy of the manuscript of the re- codihcation prepared by me, together with this, my report, as required oy the provisions of said Act
 While this Act requires me to make ko you sworn statement showing ail the changes made In phraseology of all Acts and laws codthed, incluulhs additions thereto and omission there from, with accurate references to the Acts and laws so altered and changed, i have construed 1t as former Code SSmmesS'VhhGiFih sSanges which coua affect the sense or meaning of the law, and not mere changes of verbiage which are neces.. sary to qualification, but which do nol or cannot change the effect or the laW ar statute To show every change oI verbiage or expression made could m many cases be s..own only Dy settlns out in full the original slatute ana lS .nS recodification, and then comparing ana contrasting the two, which WouIu Vi course make the report useless TOT all practical purposes. as Would W The report to be of any practical ser vice to you or the Legislature, can onlv he an index or key to the changes wrought in the law by tne re5eSuiiGa1 p0, wo,, and the Legislature and thus passeu upon the merits or demeflts ol eue ne proposed changes: with this enu III view I have endeavored to IaithluiIs ha 7, .rs noint out In this report every change which could be said to make any change in the law by virtue or the re qualification by reporting sepaIaeedyt Sacytion S which has been changed Those sec fions of the Code or of the re-codinca- tion proposed, not specifically mentlo m
 Nr tVa nnchanged; that is, they remain as they are now in the Code Of loyo,
 Every hapter and article is mentioned specifically and the change repSr I11s Iea' lively; but as to the sections, @ ho. specifically referred to 1t follows tney are re-codihed unchanged The Ghap- fers articles and sections are alI re- ported In their numerical order as
 The report will of course have to De reaa and examined in connecti93nIi W,tn ynie TO set out the change or proposed la" in full would extend the report to un- due and unnecessary length;
 nsxyfalOn of the Code into Volumes.
 m accordance with the Act proVid- ing for e-codification. the code ls oI vIded into three volumes. Noiume + Political; Volume II, Civil; volume Ill.,
 Tha Political Code contains those laws and statutes pertaining to tn0 organization, and the political ana eA- eciIfive departments of the state as sifstinauished from laws pertaining 10 civil rights and remedies, ana those which are penal, or pertaining to & rhe administration of the criminal iaM Iis is matter contained in this volume us taken almost, if not quite, exclusVe4y from the present Civil Code or sia- futes passed since it's adoption reIa- live to the subjects so taken from tne Civil Code. or to kindred subjects to- xether with what additions have m, serted in the cOdihcation, winch VIII be hereinafter specifically pointed out yTbe Civil Volume contains the remain der of the present CIVIL Code ana the statutes passed since it's adoption upon Che Kindred subjects retained, together with additions or changes made ln tne re-codification. The Criminal contains 9he same subjects which 1t heretofore gOntained with a codthcGtion or ths atatutes passed upon those, or kindrSu Subjects since the coditcation, togeth- CT with the changes made by me, Nhich will be hereinafter specifically polhteu out. Ths Criminal Code has been IG fled by making great many more rhapters, or subjects, than 1t has here fofore contained. There are great many laws retained in the Civtl VoIuihe which could well be classed as poltl- cal. and there are a great many laWs which, of course, could be classeu as either civil or political. l have co1sld- cred the utility of the volume in the classification rather than stflcL teen . nicaI or logical classification. Some or the subjects contained Tn the ClVil VI which were clearly political, were so retained because of their intimate con nection or relation to other laws neces- sarily civil. and those which Qertalneu Fo the judical administration Of the laws as distinguished from the execu- five administration; such as the division of the state into Judicial circuits and chaneery dlYisions' ana tne laws relating to sheriffs and consta- bles, whose duties are almost exclu- siveIy connected with courts In the Judicial administration of the laws while their offices are strictly execu- Division Into Chapters and Articles.
 The re-codification is divided lnto three hundred and four chapters I or subjects, appropriately denominated, and numbered from one to three nun dred and four, inclusive. Every chap, ter which contains sufficient matter anu was susceptible of ub-division, mas Feen 50 divided into subdivisions call Cd articles, and appropriately denom- mated and numbered Tor conVenlelht ln reference, but the numbering or tne articles was numerically only as to the respective, or corresponding, chapters so sub-divided, while the numbering or the chapters and sections of the code as in numerical order for the entire code including the three volumes.
 Division into Sections.
 The whole re-codifcation Is divided into seven thousand and h51t6N:-eelg@nt @ rlnsive. There are, however. a few sections numbered with the letter "a as an exponent of the preceding sec tion. This was done because the sec aion so numbered was added after the whole had been numbered and refer ences made to the sections as numDer- ed Every section contains caption to its contents.
 Numbering of and Marginal References
 to Sections, and Explanatory Key
 
 Following the number of each sec Aion are the corresponding numbers enclosed in parentheses of that parti- cular section, or similar code proVis- Son. in all preceding codes. These cor responding numbers are arranged chronologically In the inverse order that is. the first number in parenthe. ges shows the corresponding number or that particular section in the code Of 1896; the second number, that Of 1886; the third that of 1876; the fourth that of 1867; and the fifth, that of 1852, and if the given section was omitted from any intervening code, or codes, this omission is shown by blank in pa Tenthesis, where the number of such intervening code would have occurred had it not been omitted. If the section has only one number, this shows that it is a new section to this code; that is that it Is the first time that 1t has been codified. Marginal references to the acts of the legislature and to the constitution are placed opposite and to the left of those sections only which are Codihed from acts of the leg islature or constitutional provisions or which have been amended or changed since the adoption Of the last code. If the section contains only one mum Der, having no numbers in parentne- sis, nor marginal reference, this shows that it was inserted by the Commis- sioner, and could not be said to he based upon any particular statute or constitutional provision, but was iu- serted as necessary to proper COdih-