power to engage such assistance as he might need during the progress of the work.

In accordance with these votes the present volume has been prepared. It contains (1) a summary or digest of all the acts of the legislature relating to the city of Boston, and of such general laws as it seemed to be desirable to insert; (2) the ordinances of the city; and (3) such notes, references to judicial decisions, and such historical statements, as were deemed necessary and proper.

In regard to the legislative provisions, it has often been a difficult question to determine what acts of the legislature should be incorporated in the present volume. Of course, all the special laws now in force relating to the city should be inserted. As to the general laws, it was thought that no fixed rule could safely be adopted, but that each case should depend on a careful judgment, based upon all the facts and considerations affecting the case. Some statutes, although general in their form, are more particularly applicable to Boston than to any other part of the commonwealth. In others, there are specific duties to be performed in this city in a different manner from what they are required to be performed in other places; while there are other statutes so general and universal in their application, that it was thought best to insert them for

that reason.

In this department of the work there has been much difficulty and embarrassment from the fact, that when

the General Laws of the commonwealth were revised in 1835, there were a large number of special acts relating to the city of Boston, growing out of its peculiar wants, condition, and circumstances, which were not expressly revised or repealed, and the Revised Statutes. provided that this city should continue to have and exercise all the powers and privileges, and be subject to all the duties and liabilities, mentioned in the act establishing the city of Boston, and in the several acts especially relating to said city. At the same time, the Revised Statutes contain many general provisions upon the same subjects that are included in the special laws relating to the city of Boston, which obviously supersede and were intended to supersede the special provisions. The same fact is more obvious in many subsequent statutes, where the legislature have made general provisions, in effect extending special acts to all the towns in the commonwealth. Whether a general act is to be deemed an implied repeal of a special prior act, is of course a question depending upon a careful comparison of the two acts. In the present volume, the principles laid down in the case of Brown v. City of Lowell, 8 Metcalf's Rep. 172, have been adopted as the rule of action. No special act has been regarded as repealed by implication by a general act, unless the latter contained strong terms upon which to found such a conclusion, and even then, such notes and references have been made as will enable the reader easily to examine the point for himself.

It will be noticed that the statutes have not been inserted at length, but are presented rather in the form of a digested summary, although the language of the acts has been generally used. It would have been much less laborious to insert the various statutes in chronological order, without undertaking to state precisely what the law now is, but it is obvious that this would have left a labor, always embarrassing and sometimes very difficult, to be performed by every person who should consult the work, in order to ascertain the present state of the law on a given subject. The City Charter, for instance, has been amended so often and in so many different parts, that it is necessary to consult several different acts of the legislature to find out what the present chartered rights and duties of the city are. Much trouble is saved by presenting a digested summary of the law as it now stands, the various amendments being all incorporated, and the original altered so as to correspond with the subsequent statutes. This course has been attended with considerable labor and constant liability to error; but all the statutes are so constantly referred to in the margin, and the notes are so frequent, that the means of correcting any error are always near at hand.

It is hardly necessary to state in this connection, that this work is intended for popular rather than professional use; and members of the legal profession will not, of course, be content with any digest of the statutes, but will go to the originals, an examination of

which this work is not intended to supersede, although it is hoped that it may be of some use to them in pointing the way.

The ordinances contained in this volume have in general been recently revised and passed by the city council. When the committee was appointed, it was their understanding, and they had reason to know that it was the understanding of the city council, that the volume should be printed during the present year. It was not supposed that there would be time for anything like a general revision of the ordinances, which would necessarily require much labor, from the fact that there had been no general revision since 1833. But upon examination it was found that there were so many ordinances upon the same subjects; there had been so many alterations and amendments, repeals and partial repeals, that it was impossible to make any useful collection without revising and submitting many of the ordinances to the city council for its approval. This has been done with most of them, and in some instances important alterations have been made. In those instances where no alterations seemed necessary, the ordinances have been printed from the original records, with this difference, that where there are several on one subject, they are placed together and the sections numbered continuously as one ordinance; but in all cases the dates of the ordinances are given in the margin.

When it is considered that the plan of this revision

was not matured and the work itself was not actually commenced until the latter part of March last; that all the general and special laws relating to the city have been collated and digested, with notes and references to the leading decisions; that nearly all the old ordinances of the city have been revised; and that several new and important ordinances have been made, it will not be denied, probably, that the work has been printed as soon as could reasonably be expected.

BOSTON, NOVEMBER, 1850.