It. Brit. Lows Stalties d THE Mixturley Mill. ADMIRALTY STATUTES: BEING THE fandel dorcate of the test. PUBLIC STATUTES ACTUALLY IN FORCE 9. RELATING TO THE ADMIRALTY AND From 5 & 6 Edw. VI. (A.D. 1552) to 48 & 49 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. SIR, 2, Brick Court, Temple, March 1875. I HAVE now to present to you, for the approval of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, the collection of Admiralty Statutes on which I have been at work, under your direction, since the summer of 1872. I avail myself of this opportunity of calling attention to the object of the collection, the principles by which I have been guided in its formation, and lastly, the features by which it is distinguished. The object of this work is to present within a moderate space all the Public Statute Law relating to the Admiralty or the Navy actually in force at the end of the session of 1874. It resembles, therefore, in its general aim and character the earlier series of Admiralty Statutes, published by Mr. Raithby under the authority of the Admiralty in 1823, and continued by Mr. Godson under the same authority in 1846. In forming this collection of statutes I have adhered to the following principles :-First, that all enactments ought to be excluded which either are not in force, or do not refer to the functions or duties of the Admiralty or Naval service as they at present exist; secondly, that all enactments ought to be included which are in force, and have reference either to the Admiralty as a Government office or to the Naval service; and, lastly, that in the application of the foregoing principles theoretical consistency should always yield to practical convenience. The result of my application of these rules has been that the work is marked by the following features: 1st. All statutes and all parts of any statute which are repealed or have expired, or have become spent, are omitted. On this account all repealing statutes, all schedules containing repealed enactments, and speaking generally, all repealing sections have been left out of the collection. In one or two cases indeed the peculiar form in which a repeal is expressed, or some other special circumstance, has led to the retention in the book of a repealing section, but these cases are very rare. 21936. a 2 |