Book excerpt: Excerpt from Handbook on the Construction and Interpretation of the Laws The following pages contain a condensed statement and ex position of the accepted rules for the construction and inter pretation of the written laws, whether constitutional or stat utory. In accordance with the general plan of the Hornbook Series, these rules have been formulated somewhat after the manner of a code, expressed in brief black - letter paragraphs numbered consecutively throughout the book, and explained, developed, and illustrated in the subsidiary text. The cases cited in the original edition of this work were considered sufficient in number and variety to explain and enforce the doctrines set forth, attention being'given to the more important and leading authorities and to those which had furnished the most forcible or striking illustrations of the application of the rules of construction in actual practice. But in view of the great and growing body of decisions upon this highly important subject, it has been deemed advisable, in the present edition, very largely to increase the number of citations. Practically [all of the reported cases dealing with the general subject or any of its subdivisions, decided within the fifteen years which have elapsed since the first publica tion of the book, have been collected by the author and cited in their proper connections. These additions have also te sulted in a complete and thorough revision of the entire work. Many parts of it have been greatly expanded and some'wholly rewritten. Some changeshave also been made in the arrange ment of the several parts or sections of the book, for the sake of what now appears to the writer a more logical and orderly system of classification. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.