g these States, which do have some form of "revised
statutes" or complete code--and be it remembered that I am never here
speaking of annual laws, for however bad their form and the form of
their publication, they are usually, at least, _official_--it will be
interesting, and, I think, throw further light on the subject, to
cull some passages from the laws of States having such "authorized
revisions," to show how far their real authority extends. The general
statutes of 1897 of the State of Kentucky say on their title-page that
they are an authorized compilation approved by the Supreme Court, but
the form of approval of the Supreme Court of Kentucky runs as follows:
"Although we consider this duty not lawfully imposed upon us," they
say that, so far as they have observed, they "detect no errors in the
compilation and it seems to have been properly done." Of how much
value such approval would be in case there turned out to be a
discrepancy between the compilation and the original statute, I leave
to the lawyers to judge. The compiled laws of New Mexico of the same
year, made by the solicitor-general, contain an amusing statement
under his own signature, that he believes "a large part of the laws
he there prints are either obsolete or have actually been repealed by
certain later statutes," but he, as it were, shovels them in, in the
hope that some of them may be good!

The commissioners of the State of North Dakota go still farther.
Their code of 1895 bears a statement that it is, by authority of law,
"brought to date" by the commissioners, who go on to say that
they have compared the codes of other States and have added and
incorporated many other laws taken from such codes of other States,
apparently because the commissioners thought them of value! One must
really ask any first-year student of constitutional legislation what
he thinks of that statement, not only of its constitutionality, but of
its audacity. Finally, the State of South Dakota says, in its statutes
of 1899, what I quoted at the beginning--that "all the laws contained
in the book are to be considered as admissible in evidence," but not
conclusive of their own authenticity or correct statement.

We now come to the third, and, from the point of view of the believer
in statutes, probably the worst class of all. That is to say, States
which have no official or authorized compilation whatever and which
rely entirely upon the enterprise of money-making publish