PREFACE. By an Act of the General Assembly, assented to 9th December, 1858, provision was made for the 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 Statutes of the State, the Decisions of the Supreme Court, or the Statutes of England, of force in this State.” David Irwin, Hon. Herschell V. Johnson, and Iverson L. Harris, were elected, Commissioners, under the provisions of this Act The last two na ned declining the position, His Excellency Governor Brown supplied the vacancies by the appointment of Thomas R. R. Cobb and Richard II. 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, the object contemplated by the Legis lature swelled into a project, the magnitude of which would have deterred the boldest adventurer, if its accomplishment did not strike his mind as being utterly impossible. The Commissioners, however, did not believe that such a construction of the Act was a proper interpretation of the Legislative will, but construed it as requiring a Code which should embody the great fundamental principles of our jurisprudence, from whatsoever source derived, together with such Legislative en.etments of the State as the wants and circumstances of 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 Law, required either by the citizen or the subordinate Magistrate. Thus interpreting the Act of the Legislature prescribing their duties, the Commissioners entered upon the discharge of those duties, seeking not only to condense and arrange the verbose and somewhat chaotic mass of the Statutes of Georgia, but also to interweave therewith those great leading principles of jurisprudence necessary to fill out and make perfect the body of our laws, of which the Statutes constituted but disjointed parts. In such an undertaking, the Commissioners could not hope for complete success; but to attain it as near as possible, they have spared neither painstaking or labor. How far they have succeeded in their effort, is submitted to the judgment of a generous profession and a generous public. The Code is divided into four parts, as follows: PART I.-THE POLITICAL AND PUBLIC ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE: Which treats of the Boundary, Divisions, Subdivisions of the State, and the Municipal Organization and Regulations thereof. PART II. THE CIVIL CODE: Which treats of Rights, Wrongs, and Remedies. PART III.-THE CODE OF PRACTICE: Which treats of the Various Methods of Enforcing Rights and Redressing Wrongs, together with the Law of Pleading and Evidence and the Practice of the Courts. PART IV. PENAL LAWS: Which treats of Crimes and Misdemeanors, Trial and Punishment, and is subdivided into: First-Penal Code for the Trial and Punishment of white persons, to which is added a XVI. Division, containing the Proceedings in Preliminary Courts. Second-Laws for the Government of the Penitentiary. Third-Penal Code for Slaves and Free Persons of Color. In the preparation of this work, the Commissioners have endeavored to arrange the various subjects under appropriate Titles, Chapters, Articles, and Sections, except the Penal Code, in which, for the purpose of convenient reference, the original Divisions have been retained. The paragraphs are numbered from the beginning to the end of the book. Thus prepared, the Code, after a thorough and laborious examination by a Legislative Committee, was submitted to the Legislature, and on the 19th of December, 1860, was "adopted as the Code of Georgia, to be of force and take effect on the 1st day of January, 1862." The adopting statute further provided, that all laws and resolutions of a public and general character, passed at the session of the Legislature in the year 1860, and also the Laws of Georgia having reference to the city of Savannah, should be incorporated in and made part of the Code, and that the duties and powers of the Commissioners should be continued to that end, with authority to place the same in the Code, in proper form and connection, and to correct any conflicts that might be created thereby, with existing provisions. On the 18th of March, 1861, a Convention of the People, then in session, Resolved, That in the publication of the Code, it should be made to conform to the Government of the Confederate States, instead of the Government of the United States, from which Georgia had then but recently seceded, and also that the Constitution of the Confederate States should be published as part of the Code. A compliance with these provisions required an almost entire revision of the Code, and added greatly to the labor, as well as to the difficulties in the way of perfect success. It is but an act of justice to the Publisher to state that the typographical errors which appear in the book are mainly attributable to the frequent change of printers during the progress of its publication, resulting from the excited and unsettled state of our national affairs. No less than eleven printers, who were at one time or another engaged in printing this Code, are now in the service of the Confederate States. The errors alluded to have been corrected in an Errata, which will be found at the end of the Index, and to which the special attention of the reader is invited. Many of the rules of the Supreme and Superior Courts, having been superseded by Legislative enactments and decisions of the Courts, and others being embodied in this Code under appropriate heads, it is believed that the rules of both Courts should undergo a revision by the proper authorities, and therefore they are omitted in this book. As constant reference will be made to the Code, not only by the Bench and Bar of the State, but also by the various public officers and citizens who are not lawyers, the Commissioners have endeavored to make the Index copious and full, and to distribute the matter under as many heads as it could be appropriately placed, in order that what is sought for may be readily found. The Commissioners submit to the people of Georgia the result of their labors, and ask for it a patient examination, sufficient at least to understand the plan, arrangement, and execution of the work; and if, after that, it be not approved by the public, they can but regret it. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. To the General Assembly of the State of Georgia: The Committee appointed under the resolution of the last session of this General Assembly (assented to 16th Dec., 1859,) to meet the Commissioners appointed under an Act to provide for the Codification of the Laws of Georgia, (approved 19th of Dec., 1858,) at the capital in Milledgeville, at least twenty days before the meeting of this present session of the General Assembly, for the purpose of revising and fully examining said Code, respectfully report: That they have discharged the duty devolved upon them by said resolution, and the following is the result of their investigations: Referring to said Act of 9th of December, 1858, your Committee find that it was made the duty of the Commissioners thereby appointed, to prepare for the people of Georgia a Code which shall, as near as possible, embrace in a condensed form the Laws of Georgia, whether derived from the Common Law, the Constitution of the State, the Statutes of the State, the Decisions of the Supreme Court, or the Statutes of England, of force in this State. With this enlarged and extensive chart of the powers and duties of said Commissioners before your Committee, and as directory, as well to compilation as in the revision and examination of said Code, they caused each and every section |