constitution of eighteen hundred and forty-six, and the adoption of the Code of Procedure, made it a matter of considerable doubt whether portions of the Revised Statutes were in existence, abrogated or modified. In these cases the editors endeavored to give all of the original text which had not been obviously abrogated, although portions might be inconsistent with the existing law.

REVISION COMMISSIONERS OF 1857.

The command of the constitution not having been fulfilled, by the act of April sixth, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven (L. 1857, ch. 266), David Dudley Field, William Curtiss Noyes and Alexander W. Bradford, of the city of New York, were appointed, for a term of five years, commissioners, "whose duty it was to reduce into a written and systematic code, the whole body of the law of this state, or so much and such parts thereof as shall seem to them practicable and expedient, excepting always such portions of the law as have been already reported upon by the commissioners of practice and pleadings, or are embraced within the scope of their reports."

The commissioners were required to divide their work into three parts: one containing the Political Code, another the Civil Code and the third the Penal Code. The Political Code was to contain the laws respecting the government of the state, its civil polity, the functions of its public officers and the political rights and duties of its citizens. The Civil Code was to embrace the laws of personal rights, of the relation of property, and of obligations. The Penal Code was to define all the crimes for which persons could be punished and the punishment for the same. The commissioners were required to report to the legislature at its session in eighteen hundred and fifty-eight a general analysis of the codes projected by them, and the progress made therein, and at each succeeding session the progress of the commission was to be reported.

Meanwhile the fifth edition of the Revised Statutes appeared in eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, being a private edition, under the editorship of Amasa J. Parker, George Wolford and Edward Wade. In this edition the editors followed the plan adopted by the editors of the fourth edition.

In the year eighteen hundred and sixty (L. 1860, ch. 459, § 13) the commission of eighteen hundred and fifty-seven to codify the whole body of the law was authorized and requested to prepare and publish, in the same manner as their reports, a book of forms adapted to the Code of Procedure, to be submitted to the legislature of eighteen hundred and sixty-one.

By section thirty-eight of chapter four hundred and sixty of

the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-two the term of office of the commissioners was extended to April first, eighteen hundred and sixty-five.

This commission reported the "Political Code" April tenth, eighteen hundred and sixty and the "Book of Forms" March tenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-one. On February thirteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, they submitted their ninth and final report embracing the "Civil Code" and "Penal Code,” having been engaged in the work eight years. The last report was over the names of Messrs. Field and Bradford, Mr. Noyes having died December twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four. (Senate Documents 1865, No. 49.)

In this report the commissioners say:

"The Codes which the Commissioners have thus prepared, together with the Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure, heretofore submitted by the Commissioners on Practice and Pleadings, complete that work of codification which was contemplated by the Constitution of 1846, and when the same shall have been considered and sanctioned by the Legislature, the People of the State of New York will have the whole body of their laws in a written and systematic form, as full at least, the Commissioners venture to think, as the Codes of any other people." (Senate Documents 1865, No. 49.)

The three codes reported by this commission were not adopted by the legislature and another pause in the work of revision and codification under the constitutional mandate occurred.

Thus far the only legislation that had been enacted of the work of the various commissioners under the constitution of eighteen hundred and forty-six was the "Code of Procedure," the so-called "Field Code" of eighteen hundred and forty-nine.

In the year eighteen hundred and sixty-three, under the title of "Statutes at Large," the work in five volumes, commonly cited as "Edmonds' Statutes," was issued by John Edmonds, and a second edition was published in six volumes in eighteen hundred and sixty-nine.

On April ninth, eighteen hundred and seventy (L. 1870, p. 2149), a concurrent resolution was adopted by the legislature authorizing the governor to appoint three suitable persons to revise the laws for the assessment and collection of taxes, who should report to the next legislature within ten days after the commencement of the session. Following the direction of the resolution, Governor Hoffman appointed David A. Wells, Lucius Robinson and Edwin W. Dodge. In the following year (L. 1871, ch. 715) the sum of $9,000 was appropriated for the expenses and compensation of the commissioners, and they were directed to report

for the consideration of the legislature at its next session. During the year George W. Cuyler succeeded Lucius Robinson and the commission closed its labors on February first, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, no portion of its report having been adopted.

REVISION COMMISSIONERS OF 1870.

The provisions of the constitution of eighteen hundred and forty-six (Art. vi, § 24) having resulted in the enactment of the "Code of Procedure" and having been omitted from the constitution by the judiciary article of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, adopted by the people November second, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, and the command of the constitution of eighteen hundred and forty-six relating to the codification of the body of the law (Art. i, 17) not having been carried out the legislature on March second, eighteen hundred and seventy, passed an act (L. 1870, ch. 33) for the revision of the statutes, creating a commission commonly known as the commission of eighteen hundred and seventy, under which act the governor, by and with the consent of the senate, was authorized to appoint three persons, "learned in the law" as commissioners to revise, simplify, arrange and consolidate all statutes of the state, general and permanent in their nature, which should be in force at the time the commissioners should make their final report. (L. 1870, ch. 33.)

Under this act Governor Hoffman appointed Francis Kernan, of Utica; Amasa J. Parker, of Albany, and Montgomery H. Throop, of New York. Mr. Kernan declining to serve, Nelson J. Waterbury was appointed to fill the vacancy in June, eighteen hundred and seventy.

There remained of the labors of the several commissioners appointed under the acts of eighteen hundred and forty-seven and eighteen hundred and fifty-seven the following "Codes," submitted by them to the legislature, but still unacted on: the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Criminal Procedure, submitted by the Commissioners on Practice and Pleadings of eighteen hundred and forty-seven to the session of eighteen hundred and fifty; the Political Code, submitted by the commissioners of the Code of eighteen hundred and fifty-seven to the session of eighteen hundred and sixty; the Book of Forms, submitted by the commissioners of the code of eighteen hundred and fifty-seven to the session of eighteen hundred and sixty-one; the Civil Code and the Penal Code, submitted by the last-named commission to the session. of eighteen hundred and sixty-five.

At the outset the commissioners differed in opinion as to the general principles and lines under which their work should be done, which "led to very great embarrassment and delay in the operations of the commission."

Under date of December twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and seventy, Messrs. Parker and Throop submitted a majority report to the legislature in which the views of the commission were formulated as follows: "We propose, accordingly, to divide the new Revised Statutes into four parts, and to style them, respectively, the Political Code, the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure and the Penal Code, not because we regard those names the most expressive which could be selected, but chiefly because they have already received the approbation of the legislature and become familiar to the people through the act of 1857 and the reports made thereunder." (Assembly Documents 1871, No. 17.)

The plan suggested by Mr. Waterbury, was, in brief, the dividing of the statutes into as many parts as there were subjects that could be completely separated. In his report to the legislature, transmitted by Governor Hoffman under date of April seventeenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, Mr. Waterbury, in advocating this system, asks: "What possible objection can there be to including in a separate act or chapter all the statutory provisions relating to real property, or to the estates of deceased persons? *** The finances and property of the state would naturally be embraced in one chapter, and its public works in another; the great semi-public interests, such as railroads, banks, telegraphs, insurance, should each be placed by itself. What can be plainer than the advantage of such an arrangement over a labyrinth of parts, chapters, titles, articles and sections, which if learned to-day, would, by most persons, be forgotten to-morrow! If the statutes were thus divided into acts, or chapters, as they could be properly separated, the acts, or chapters, should of course follow each other, and be numbered in the most natural order." (Assembly Documents 1871, No. 122.)

May eighteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, Judge Parker resigned from the commission and Charles Stebbins, Jr., of Casanovia, was appointed June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, to fill the vacancy.

Messrs. Throop and Stebbins presented a report to the senate under date of January first, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. (Senate Documents 1872, No. 8.) February eighteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two Governor Hoffman transmitted to the legislature a minority report signed by Commissioner Waterbury. (Assembly Documents 1872, No. 35.) March first, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, Commissioners Throop and Stebbins sent a communication to the senate suggesting an inquiry as to the nature and causes of the differences of the commissioners. (Senate Documents 1872, No. 47.) In March, eighteen hundred and seventytwo, Mr. Waterbury retired, Governor Hoffman appointing Jacob

I. Werner in his place. The commission, now consisting of Messrs. Throop, Stebbins and Werner, agreed upon the principles which were to guide them in the future discharge of their duties, the first instance of unanimity since the creation of the body, and on February nineteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, Governor John A. Dix transmitted a report from the commissioners signed by all of them (Senate Documents 1874, No. 57), and on January sixth, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, another report, signed by all of the commissioners, was transmitted by Governor Samuel J. Tilden. (Senate Documents 1875, No. 8.)

May ninth, eighteen hundred and seventy-three (L. 1873, ch. 467), the legislature passed an act by which the commissioners were authorized to make a part of their revision, the "Political Code," the "Penal Code," the "Code of Civil Procedure" and the "Code of Criminal Procedure " reported by the commissions of eighteen hundred and fifty-seven or so much as the commissioners might deem advisable, and by chapter five hundred and twenty of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-five they were authorized to incorporate into their work the proposed "Civil Code" of the commission of eighteen hundred and fifty-seven.

The work of the commissioners was mainly upon the act relating to courts and officers of justice and proceedings in civil cases, and January twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, the complete draft of this branch of the work was reported. This report of the commissioners, in which Mr. Stebbins did not unite, showed that twenty-one chapters of the revision had been prepared, printed and distributed among the judges, members of the bar and others for suggestions.

At the time the report of the commission was presented, the chairman of the commission, Mr. Throop, addressed the judiciary committee of the senate regarding the work of the commission, in the course of which address he stated that "in reality they " (the volumes of the revision thus far produced) "are the work of one commissioner from April, 1870, to July, 1871, and of two commissioners from July, 1871, to January, 1875." He also announced to the committee that Messrs. Stebbins and Werner had presented their resignations. (Albany Law Journal, vol. xi, pp. 86, 101.)

To fill the vacancies thus made, Governor Tilden appointed Alexander S. Johnson, subsequently a member of the court of appeals, and Sullivan Caverno.

The commission was now composed of Messrs. Throop, Johnson and Caverno.

This commission presented to the legislature, under date of December ninth, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, a portion of the new revision of the statutes, under the title of "An act relating