tate; 2, that
the annual laws be separated, public from private, and be printed by
numbered chapters arranged either chronologically or topically; 3,
that the indexes be arranged under the forty general heads used by
the New York State Library in its annual digest, with such additional
heads as may, perhaps, prove necessary in some States, such as, for
instance, Louisiana, which has subjects and titles of jurisprudence
not known to the ordinary common-law States; 4, that the constitutions
be printed with the laws; 5, that every State, under a law, employ a
permanent, paid parliamentary or legislative draftsman whose duty it
shall be to recast, at least in matters of style and arrangement, all
acts before they are passed to be engrossed."

Any private member introducing a bill can, of course, avail himself
of the draftsman's services before the bill is originally drawn. His
advice may be required by the legislature or by legislative committees
on the question whether the proposed legislation is necessary, that
is to say, whether it is not covered by laws previously existing. It
shall be his duty then to edit the laws, arrange them for publication,
and to authenticate by his signature the volumes of the annual laws.
One person is better than two or three for such work, but he should
be paid a very large salary so that he can afford to make it his life
work. He should be appointed for a very long term and should have
ample clerical assistance. It should also be his duty to correspond
and exchange information with similar officials in other States.
In other words, he with his assistants should be the legislative
reference department. These recommendations were duly referred to the
Committee on Uniformity in preparation of session laws.

* * * * *

At some risk of wearying the reader I have attempted superficially
to cover a very extensive field. I started with quoting Blackstone's
remark that there is no other science in which so little education
is supposed to be necessary as that of legislation. These words were
penned by him more than one hundred and fifty years ago and there
is still no book upon this subject; the books on Government,
Parliamentary Law, and Hermeneutics concerning respectively the
source, the procedure, and the interpretation of legislation, not
the content thereof. I can but hope to have called attention to the
immense importance of this subject, particularly in our re