be amended by a vote of three-fourths of all the states of the Union. The constitutions of the several states may be amended in such manner as is provided in the constitutions themselves. Like statutes, constitutions are legal sources of the law.

§ 25. Validity of statutes.-The powers of congress are fixed by the constitution, as it is interpreted by the Supreme Court. If the power to legislate on a subject is conceded to congress, the Supreme Court will not inquire into the policy of a law, or the motives, which led to its enactment, or the manner in which it was enacted. It is only when the law violates a provision of the constitution that the court by its judgment pronounces it null and void. Courts of justice should bring every law to the test of the constitution, first of the United States and then of their own state, if it be a state statute, as the paramount and supreme law, to which every inferior power must conform. As the statutes enacted by congress and by the state legislature must be brought to the test of the constitution, so the ordinances of towns and cities, which are the creatures of legislative power, must be brought to the test of the laws or charters by virtue of which they exist. Statutes enacted by congress are in force from and after their passage, unless the time of the taking effect of the law is postponed to a later date by the act itself. It would be manifestly unjust to enact statutes without providing some means of publishing them, so in civilized nations legislative enactments which have the force of laws are published by authority. In some states of the Union, general statutes are not in force until they are printed and distributed to every county in the state. In some states if in the body of the act it is declared that an

emergency exists for the immediate taking effect of a statute, it is in force from and after its passage.

It is a rule of decision which the courts recognize, that whenever the constitutionality of a statute is doubtful, it will be sustained. No statute by any fiction or relation shall have any effect before it be actually passed. And a statute is not passed so as to have effect until the legislature has given the required number of votes in its favor. When the fact of its receiving this number of votes is certified to the governor or president by the presiding officers of the two houses, and the executive signature and approval are affixed thereto, it is in effect and not before, unless in exceptional cases where the legislature may re-enact a statute by passing it over the veto of the governor or president, as provided in the constitution.

§ 26. Retroactive statutes. It is a maxim that a legislative enactment ought to be prospective and not retroactive. A retroactive statute would partake in its character of the mischief of an ex post facto law, as to all cases of crimes and penalties; and in cases relating to contracts or property it would militate against every sound principle. A retrospective statute affecting and changing vested rights is generally considered as grounded on unconstitutional principles, and consequently is void. But this doctrine does not apply to remedial statutes, which may be of a retrospective nature, provided they do not impair contracts or disturb vested rights, and only tend to confirm rights already existing, by curing defects and aiding in enforcing existing obligations. Such statutes are held valid even though operating in a degree upon existing rights, as a statute to confirm marriages defectively celebrated or a sale of lands defectively

made or acknowledged, and where the right of third parties have not intervened.

§ 27. Public and private statutes.-Statutes may be public or private. Public statutes usually relate to the general and public interests of the country or community to which they apply as distinguished from private statutes which generally concern only the particular interests of certain individuals. Public statutes bind everybody, private statutes do not bind strangers in interest by their provisions. A party to a suit basing a claim upon a private statute must plead it specially, but one who bases his claim upon a public statute need not plead it at all.

§ 28. Interpretation of statutes.-After a statute is enacted in due form and its constitutionality is established or conceded, questions may arise as to the meaning of the statute. Here the duty of interpreting the statute devolves upon the courts, whenever in an action before them the parties to the action insist upon different interpretations. Interpretation is the art of finding out the true sense of any form of words, that is, the sense which their author intended. And here let us note some of the rules of interpretation. It is not permitted to interpret what needs no interpretation. Where the intention of the law-making power is plainly manifest from a reading of the statute, that intention should prevail over the literal sense of the terms used. The intention of the lawgiver is to be deduced from a view of the whole and of every part of a statute compared together, just as a contract or a will is interpreted and the meaning of the parties ascertained by considering every part of the instrument under consideration. Where the words

are not explicit, the intention is to be collected from the context, from the occasion and necessity of the statute, from the mischief felt, and the object and remedy in view; and the intention is to be taken according to what is consonant to reason. The words of a statute, if of common use, are to be taken in their plain, obvious and ordinary sense. If technical

words are used they are to be taken in a technical sense, unless it clearly appears from the context or other parts of the law that the words were intendedto be applied in a different sense. If the technical meaning of terms is in doubt or disputed, the court may call to its aid those whose calling has made them acquainted or familiar with the meaning of such words. Statutes should be interpreted according to the natural and obvious import of the language without resorting to subtle or forced constructions. All the statutes of the same legislature relating to the same subject are to be taken together, for they are considered as having one object in view, and as acting on one system. So, whenever it is clear that a power is given by the statute, the court will construe it as implying the right to make it effective. It is a rule in some, but not all of the states, that statutes enacted in derogation of the common law are to be strictly construed. Remedial statutes are to be liberally construed. Where a literal construction would violate the legislative intention, it will not be adhered to. A saving clause or proviso repugnant to the body of the statute is void. Where a statute contains a word whose meaning is known to the common law, that meaning will be adopted. In construing a doubtful statute, the preamble and title may be consulted. Long-continued practice may affect the construction

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of a statute, and the contemporaneous construction of a statute is of high authority.

Penal statutes are to be strictly construed. Beccaria says: "Penal laws should be so plain that no judge should be tempted to interpret them. There is nothing more dangerous than the axiom, 'the spirit of the law is to be considered.'" If the legislature has not spoken plainly in such cases, it is contended that there is no law. It is better thus than to allow judicial legislation concerning the lives and liberties of the subject. The disorders that may arise from a rigorous observance of the letter of the penal laws are not to be compared with those produced by the interpretation of them. Statutes against frauds are liberally construed, and the reason is that they deprive no man of his right. They inflict no punishment; they simply prevent a wrongdoer from taking or keeping what he seeks or holds by fraud.

statute, and an Where the pro

The common law gives place to a old statute gives place to a new one. visions of a new statute are repugnant to the provisions of an earlier statute, the earlier is said to be repealed by implication, the later statute being the more recent expression of legislative intention. Repeals by implication are not favored. Statutes limiting the powers of future legislatures are void. A legislature can not enact an irrepealable statute unless it is in the form of a contract-such as a charter, under which rights have become vested. Ordinarily the repeal of a repealing statute revives the statute which had been repealed. Some states have by law abolished this rule.

§ 29. Statutes the most important of all legal sources. This is true for several reasons. In the