Chap. 193.—An ACT to provide for the revision, codification and indexing,
with suitable marginal citations and references, of the statute law of
Virginia; for the printing, publication and disposition thereof; to ap-
point commissioners therefor and fix their compensation; to provide for
the necessary clerica] assistants to said commissioners; and to appro-
priate the necessary funds for said work. (S. B. 68.)

Approved March 21, 1914.

Whereas, twenty-six years have elapsed since the last revision
and codification of the statute law of Virginia, and there exists
an immediate necessity for a new revision and codification thereof;
therefore, be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, as
follows, to-wit:

Sec. 1. The governor shall, from a list of ten qualified citizens
of Virginia, who shall be nominated by ithe supreme court. of
appeals of Virginia, appoint three commissioners to revise, codi fy,
and index, with suitable marginal citations and references, the
general statute law of this State, whose duty it shall be to collate.
revise, and codify all the general statutes, civil and criminal, of
this Commonwealth, which may be in force at the time of ‘te
completion of their work, and properly index the same. In
performing this duty the said Commissioners shall denote all
contradictions, omissions, or imperfections they may discover in
the statute law, and recommend to the general assembly how the
same may be reconciled, supplied, or amended without producing
a radical change in the present system of statute law of this State;
they shall arrange all the statutes under proper titles and chapter :,
and divide the whole Code into sections, numbering them consecu-
tively from one to the end, having regard to the divisions into
titles and chapters; they shall make such marginal citations and
references as they may deem helpful to a clear understanding of
the statutes, and prefix to each chapter a table, stating briefly the
subject thereof, and inserting or omitting such captions to sections
as to them may seem fit; they shall in all respects execute and
complete the revision and codifications as hereby directed in such
manner, as in their opinion, will harmonize the general statutes
and make the Code of statute law, as existing at the close of their
work, as complete as possible, and they shall supervise the publica
tion of the first edition of such revision and codification of the
statutes, and examine, read and correct the proof thereof, until
the said ‘work shall have been fully completed and published,
including a proper index.

Sec. 2. The register of the land office shall assign some
convenient room in the capitol or the State library building, and
furnish the same for the use of said commissioners while engaged
in said work. The said commissioners shall have power to appoint
a clerk, whose salary shall not exceed eighteen hundred dollars per
annum, and to employ such additional clerical help as may be
necessary, at a total expense not to exceed three thousand dollars
per annum, and to purchase such stationery and supplies as shall
be necessary. Each of the said commissioners shall receive the
sum of six thousand dollars. The clerical help shall be paid
monthly. Warrants for the payment of the moneys hereby author-
ized to be expended shall be drawn by the auditor of public
accounts, upon the treasurer of the Commonwealth, on the order
of the said commissioners, or a majority of them, approved by
the governor.

Sec. 3. The principal office of the said commissioners shall
be located in either the capitol or the library building of the
State, in the city of Richmond; but the commissioners, if in their
judgment it be conducive to their work, may, from time to time.
hold their sessions elsewhere. The said commissioners and their
clerks shall receive, in addition to the compensation hereinbefore
provided for, their actual traveling expenses to and from their
place of meeting; provided, however, that such traveling expenses
shall not exceed in any year five hundred dollars.

Sec. 4. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall furnish to
each of the commissioners such copies of the several codes of the
statute law of this State, and of the acts of the general assembly
of Virginia, as they may need in the prosecution of their work.

Sec. 5. The said commissioners shall make report of their
work to the general assembly on the first day of the session of the
general assembly in the year nineteen hundred and sixteen, and,
in the meantime, they are hereby authorized to deliver the whole
or any part of their report at different times to the public printer,
who shall print five hundred copies thereof for the use of the
general assembly.

Sec. 6. The said revision and codification, together with the
index, citations, and references, shall be published by the public
printer under the supervision, advice, and direction of the said
commissioners, in one volume, if practicable, printed on good
paper, in such types as may be prescribed by the commissioners.
well bound in calf, and lettered on the back, “The Code of
Virginia.” The said Code shall also contain the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and its
amendments, the Constitution of Virginia, and its amendments,
and a complete index to the same, and it shall be the duty of the
said commissioners to prepare the same for publication.

Sec. 7. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall secure the

copyright of the said revision and codification for the use and
benefit of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
_ Sec. 8 The superintendent of public printing, in having the
printing, binding. and lettering aforesaid done, and in attending
to the publication of said revision and codification, shall in all
respects conform to the requirements of the law in regard to the
public printing.

Sec. 9 When the said revision and codification of the statute
law of this State shall have been completed and adopted by the
general assembly, ten thousand copies thereof shall be printed by
the superintendent of the public printing, who shall dispose of the
same as shall be provided.

Sec. 10. The said revision and codification of the statutes,
when so completed and adopted by the general assembly of Vir-
ginia, and published as in this act provided, shall be received as
evidence for any purpose. for which the original act could be
received, and with as much effect.

Sec. 11. The said commissioners shall, within six months after
the publication of the revision and codification of the statute laws
aforesaid, prepare and deliver to the superintendent of public
printing, for publication in conformity with the requirements of
the law in respect to public printing, such notes as they may deem
useful in explanation of the changes made in the law by said
revision and codification. The said notes and notations and
citations shall be printed and bound in a separate volume in the
same manner and form as the said Code is herein required to be
printed and bound, and the said commissioners shall superintend
the publication thereof, and such publications shall be disposed
of as shall be provided by law.

Sec. 12. It shall be the duty of the city council of each city.
the town council of each town, and the board of supervisors of
each county in this State to purchase from the secretary of the
Commonwealth a sufficient number of the copies of said revision
and codification for distribution in the manner following: a copy
thereof to the mayor, and one copy to the clerk of each branch of
city or town council, for the use of the ‘council only; to cach
attorney for the Commonwealth, sheriff, sergeant, treasurer, city
engineer, county surveyor; to each court held in the city or county
for the use of the court; the clerk of each court, superintendent of
schools, chief of fire department, and to each justice of the peace.
The copies of the Code so furnished to the officers herein so
provided shall remain the property of the city or. county, as the
case may be, and the board of supervisors of the county and city
council of each city, and the town council of each town shall require
ench danndat ar other cecrnrity ac mav he nreccrihed hy anv ench
_ city or town council or board of supervisors, to secure the proper
care and safe return thereof upon the expiration of their terms of
. Office, respectively, to such person or depository as such city or
town council or board of supervisors may by resolution direct.
* The secretary of the Commonwealth shall furnish to the cities,
towns, and counties such copies as they may require to comply with
- the provisions of this section at the actual cost per volume of the
. revision, codification and publication thereof to the Commonwealth.
Sec. 13. The secretary of the Commonwealth shal] be author-
- ized to dispose of the surplus of copies of said revision and codifica-
tion in his hands, after complying with the requirements of this
* act, at such price as may be prescribed by law. All moneys realized
from the sale and disposition of said revision and codification, and
‘ commissioners notes, shall be paid into the public treasury until
‘ such sum is realized therefrom as will reimburse the Common-
wealth for the cost of the revision, codification and publication of
« the same. After the Commonwealth has been fully reimbursed as
: aforesaid, the proceeds of all sales thereafter made shall be and
“ constitute a part of the literary fund of this Commonwealth.
Sec. 14. The sum of forty thousand dollars, or so much
thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated for the purpose
of carrying out the provisions of this act, the same to be paid out
«of the treasury as hereinbefore provided.
Sec. 15. In the event of the death, disability, resignation, or
“removal of any of the commissioners appointed under this act
‘ before the completion of said revision, his successor shall be
‘ appointed in the same manner provided in the first section hereof.