PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION (1878).
This volume consists of two parts which, though separate, are arranged for combined use.
The first is a Chronological Table of all the Statutes, shewing total or partial repeals thereof.
The second is an Index to enactments in force.
The preparation and publication of the work are conducted under the authority of Her Majesty's Government (having been originally undertaken some years ago in pursuance of a suggestion made by the present Lord Chancellor to Lord Chelmsford, then Lord Chancellor), and are placed under the direction of the Statute Law Committee, now consisting of Sir John G. Shaw Lefevre, K.G.B., Sir Thomas Erskine May, K.C.B., Sir Henry Thring, K.C.B., Sir Henry S. Maine, K.C.S.I., Mr. R. R. W. Lingen, C.B., Mr. F. S. Reilly, and Mr. R. O'Hara.
In this edition the Chronological Table is little altered, the Index is extensively improved.
The Chronological Table is based on the edition of the Record Commissioners, known as The Statutes of the Realm, as far as that edition extends, namely, to the end of the reign of Queen Anne. Thenceforth, Ruffhead's edition, by Serjeant Runnington, 1786, has been followed, as far as it extends, namely, to the end of the session of the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King George the Third. Thence downwards, it is believed, all editions are alike. The variances between the Statutes of the Realm and Ruffhead's edition are shewn in foot notes or in parentheses, and a complete table of those variances is prefixed.
The Chronological Table covers the whole period between the passing of the earliest Statute of the Parliament of England and the end of the latest Session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, namely, the session of 1877 (40 & 41 Vict.). Ante-Union Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland and Ireland are not comprised in the Table. Acts of the Parliament of England extended to Ireland by 10 Hen. 7. c. 22. (I.), Poynings Act, are, in relation to Ireland, treated as ante-Union Acts of the Parliament of Ireland.
The Chronological Table comprises all Acts printed in the Statutes of the Realm, and, after the end of that edition, all Acts classed by the King's or Queen's Printers as Public or as Public General. Many of these Acts, however,
