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OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA PREPARED b y R. H. CLARK, T. R. R. COBB a n d D. IRWIN. V ATLANTA, GEORGIA: P U B L I S H E D B Y J O H N H . S E A L S . OBU8ADKE BOOK AND JOB OFFICE. 1861. > / i I k i t f ^ c l R R E E A_ C E By an Act of the General Assembly, assented to 9th December, 1858, pro­vision was made for th e election of three Commissioners, “ to prepare for the people of Georgia a Code, which should as near as practicable, embrace in a condensed form, the Laws of Georgia, whether derived from the common Law, the Constitutions, the Statues o f the State, th e decisionsof the Supreme Court, or the S tatutes o f England, o f force in this State.” David Irwin, Hon. Herschell V. Johnson, and Iverson L. Harris, were elec­ted Commissioners, under th e provisions of this Act. The last two named, declining the position, His Excellency, Governor Brown, supplied the vacan­cies by th e appointment of Thomas II. II. Cobb, and Richard H. Clark, who were also elected by the Legislature at its session next after they were ap­pointed. Thus organized, the Commissioners commenced the work assigned them. Looking alone to the words of the Act, th e object contemplated by the Leg­islature swelled into a project, the magnitude of which would have deterred th e boldest adventurer, if its accomplishment did not strike his mind as being u tte rly impossible. The commissioners, however, did not believe, th a t such a construction o f th e Act was a proper interpretation of the Legislative will, but construed it as requiring a Code, which should embody the g re a t fundamen­tal principles of our jurisprudence from whatsoever source derived, together with such Legislative enactments of the State, as th e wants and circumstan­ces o f our people had from time to time, shown to be necessary and proper. Such a Code will furnish all the information, on the subject of L aw, required either by the citizen, or the subordinate Magistrate. Thus in te rp retin g th e A c t o f th e Legislature prescr