treating of the same subject as previous acts, and some repealing, directly or indirectly. Every year there is an addition of two more volumes containing several hundred new laws. There is no index to the whole; only an alphabetical index at the end of the volumes of each year's acts. Subdivisions and sections of general laws have been amended, added to, and re-enacted, sometimes year after year, for years and years. To ascertain the statute law on any subject at first hand is, as a general thing, utterly impracticable. It involves finding the original act, and then tracing the changes through the session laws of every year since it was passed with the help only of the index to the laws of each year. That is a process quite beyond the demands of a professional occupation. As a consequence we have to depend on unauthorized compilations, which simply reflect the fidelity, care and ability with which the compilers have done their work. With two or three, or more, acts covering, or relating to, in whole or in part, the same subject, one compiler may construe a later act or section as impliedly repealing a former, and another give them both as in force; and which is the right view is often a matter of great uncertainty. Such a state of things is inexcusable. There is no language too strong for its condemnation.

What is needed in the way of improvement is quite obvious and easily stated. There should, in the first place, be a consolidation of all the statutory law concerning the same general topic or subject down to the present time. Consolidation does not mean or involve revision. It is unwise to complicate consolidation with revision, because the latter may consist of changes in the substance of the law, and is to that extent new legislation to be discussed and considered as such. The delay incident to new legislation on a large scale is to be avoided in the

enactment of a scheme of consolidation coextensive with the whole body of the statute law. Consolidation is not a change of substance, but the condensation and re-expression of various statutes bearing on the same subject in a single statute. When consolidation is completed the resulting acts must necessarily be arranged, according to some principle of classification, to bring them into a coherent and compact whole. It is not so important what the principle of classification adopted is if it be clear, and be adhered to when once adopted. Classification has its difficulties, but there is nothing insurmountable about them.

There should in the next place be an act or acts expressly repealing all the statutes which have been consolidated, or which, because obsolete, have not been carried into the body of statute law produced by the consolidating process. With that done we should have a complete, coherent, classified body of the living statute law of general operation, which, when issued and published by the State, would be authoritative. It should and must be issued by the State to be authoritative and exclusive. That is what is imperatively needed; and contrasted with the existing condition of things, it would be order contrasted with chaos. It is a delicate piece of work to accomplish; one requiring care, fidelity, patience, method, and skill in the art of expression; but it presents no overwhelming difficulties, and nothing that is not attainable.

A necessary complement to this scheme is an adequate index to the statutes in force, accompanied by a chronological table of every statute ever enacted by the State, setting forth in one column the year and chapter of the act, in another a reference to its subject-matter, and in another a reference to the later acts repealing or other

wise affecting it. An index suffices for the statutory law in force, and such a table facilitates an inquiry into the origin and history of any item of that law, and of any statute enacted before the consolidation. With the aid of the index and chronological table issued under the authority of the Statute Law Committee in England it is easier for us to-day to ascertain the English statutes which bear on a subject, and the history of every act of Parliament enacted since and including the reign of Edward I, than it is to obtain the same information as to the statutes of our own State. What has been accomplished there has proved immensely serviceable, and it is not to our credit that the older country with all its conservatism should lead us in the march of improvement.

With this work done a very desirable change could be made in the form in which the annual session laws are published for facility of use and reference. At present the acts are printed in the order in which they become laws, whether local, private or general, occupying two fairly thick volumes of about 500 pages each, with only an alphabetical index. Compare with that the English method! We will take the volume for the first year of the reign of Edward VII. It consists altogether of 241 pages. First in order are the general acts which take up 174 pages. Next is a table of the titles of the local and private acts covering about thirty pages. Then follows a table of three pages showing the effect of the year's legislation on existing laws, given in chronological order. Next there is a list of the local and private acts, arranged in classes according to their subjects, occupying twelve pages. And lastly, there is an index to the general acts according to their subjects. If we follow that plan of publication we will have one small volume of general laws each year, of far greater service with its tables, lists and

indices, in tracing the changes and additions made from year to year, than the volumes now issued; and the private and local acts could be published in a separate volume, which could be taken, or referred to in libraries, as one preferred.

To stop mid

These are the essentials of a feasible and approved scheme for the separation of the living, substantive statute law from the dead; for the embodiment of the former in an orderly, systematic, intelligible and compact code; for its authorized publication as the whole of the substantive statute law in force at the time of its issue; for a ready and easy means of access to its contents; and for tracing the changes and additions made from year to year. Fortunately, much of the work of consolidation and expurgation has been already done through the labors of the late Statutory Revision Commission created in 1889. Part of it exists in the form of enacted laws, and part in the form of proposed laws. What is necessary is to complete this work and bring it down to date. way is utterly illogical and indefensible. Much of the preparatory labor, done at a great expense, is thereby lost and wasted. The partial consolidation which has been accomplished is not a remedy; there is no real cure short of the completion of the entire scheme. This is not merely the expression of a personal opinion. The Commission of Fifteen appointed by the Governor under the Act of 1902 to consider the whole subject has declared to the same effect. There can be no higher authority than the conclusions and recommendations of that body of trained and experienced men. They should be taken as a settlement of the problem. It received from them deep and earnest consideration; they approached it in an enlightened and practical spirit; no other solution is offered or suggested. This Association at its last meet

ing unanimously approved the report of the Committee on Law Reform, concurring in the report and recommendations of the Commission of Fifteen in their entirety. With no alternative proposed anywhere or by anybody, the office of discussion and deliberation would seem to be closed. It does not impress me as exceeding the bounds of propriety to say clearly and firmly that a measure of legal reform and improvement so beneficial in its purposes and results, and which has been so authoritatively formulated and approved, should be accepted as final by the public officials upon whose action its realization depends.

What action, then, should the Association take under these conditions? It is open to it to renew and repeat its efforts of last year, with increased vigor and, let us hope, with a more favorable outcome. The Commission of Fifteen in its report recommended a bill empowering the Governor to appoint a commission of five members of the Bar of the State, to be known as the Board of Statutory Consolidation, to direct and control the revision, amplification, arrangement and consolidation of all the statutes of the State, general and permanent in their nature, in force on the 1st day of January, 1905. The members of the Commission, except the chairman, were to serve without pay, and authority was given to employ competent persons to do the work. It was thought that two years would be sufficient in which to complete the labors of the Commission, and that the expense would not exceed seventy-five thousand dollars. No effort should be spared to obtain the passage of the bill during the present session of the Legislature. The plan it proposes for the execution of the work is unquestionably the best. It saves us from the protracted labors of a highly paid and expensive commission. There will be no diffi