ACT No. 95. SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, etc., That John Ray be and is hereby appointed and authorized to compile a Digest of the Statutes of the State of a general character, from the Acts passed at the present session of the General Assembly, including the Act of Revision, and to superintend the printing of the Revised Civil Code and Code of Practice adopted at the present session, under the supervision of the Committee on Revision; and that such Digest and Codes be stereotyped and printed as required by the seventh and eighth sections of an act entitled "An Act relative to the purchase and distribution of certain books," approved March ninth, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine. Approved March 16, 1870. REPORT. TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA: Immediately after the passage of the Act of March 16, 1870, (No. 95) appointing and authorizing me to compile a Digest of the Statutes of the State of a general character, from the Acts passed at the sessions of 1870, including the Act of Revision, the plan of the Digest was arranged with the Committee on Revision, and I commenced the work, now completed and printed according to the requirements of said Act, which Digest I herewith present to the General Assembly. The plan of the Digest comprises the following points: The Revised Statutes (No. 96), approved March 14, 1870, embraced all the amendments to the Civil Code and Code of Practice which had been enacted since the Codes went into effect, in 1825, and also all other laws on the various subjects embraced in the Codes making any changes in these subjects. The Revised Civil Code and Code of Practice, being Acts Nos. 97 and 98 of the Acts of 1870, which received Legislative sanction at the same time as the Revised Statutes, had incorporated into them all the amendments made to them. since their adoption in 1825, and also all other statute laws passed since that time on the subjects treated of in the Codes. I have been careful in this Digest to omit all the amendments to the Civil Code and Code of Practice, and other laws on the subjects treated of in the Codes, and included in the Revised Civil Code and Code of Practice, and have embraced in the Digest only the other statute laws of a general character, in order to prevent a reiteration of the same laws in the Codes and the Digest, the object aimed at being to embrace all the statute laws of the State in the Code of Practice, the Civil Code and the Digest, as one general and consistent system, without the repetition of the same provisions of law in these different books. In some instances, in which part of a section was incorported in the Codes, or either of them, leaving the balance of the section still in force, I have inserted the entire section in the Digest. A point, considered by me of the first importance, which I have studiously aimed to accomplish, and I hope successfully, has been to make the Digest as convenient and useful as possible to all State and parish officers, as well as to the general and professional reader, by embracing under its apprcpriate title every law relating to it, and under the head of every officer all the duties required of him, without reference to other headings, so that any State or parish officer, or the general reader, on consulting the Digest under the appropriate title, without reference elsewhere, will find the law distinctly laid down, and, in the case of an officer, his duties clearly defined. For instance,. under the heading of "Crimes and Offenses," he will find all the law relating to that subject, and the same is true of any other title in the Digest. This obviously could not have been successfully accomplished without duplicating the same section of law under many different heads, and it was thought advisable to do this rather than to impair the usefulness of the Digest, in the greater facility of reference, to officers and others who are not lawyers, and even to lawyers themselves. The original Acts passed in 1870, and the Revised Statutes, enacted as a separate Act by the General Assembly in 1870, and containing 3990 sections, embraced all the laws of a general character, in force in the State, except what are contained in the Revised Codes. In arranging these laws in the Digest, the number of each section of the Revised Statutes, or of the session Acts of 1870, is retained, as also marginal reference to the original Act of the Legislature from which it was taken. This arrangement makes reference to the Revised Statutes, or to the original Act easy, whenever it may be deemed necessary. The articles of the Constitution of 1868, whenever applicable, have been placed at the heads of the several titles in the Digest, thus affording easy reference to its provisions, as occasion may require. Careful marginal notes have been made to each article of the Constitution and each section of law. The sections under each title have been numbered consecutively from the beginning to the end of the title, and head notes have also been made to each title, giving the substance of each section. An exhaustive analytical Index, which can not fail to be useful, has been made to the whole work. A large amount of matter has been incorporated into the first part of the Digest, including the Constitution of the United States, the several Constitutions of this State, from its organization to this time, together with the laws on the subjects of Naturalization, the Authentication of Records, the Stamp Act, and other laws, showing the legal history of this State, all of which are often referred to, and very proper to be included in a Digest. No pains or labor has been spared to make this Digest as perfect and useful as possible. The Revised Civil Code, the Code of Practice and this Digest embrace all the statute laws of this State of a general character, now in force, in as small a compass as it can be embraced, since no part of what is contained in any one of these volumes, is included in the others, except in a few instances elsewhere mentioned. |
