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law. Such a construction should only be adopted when forced upon the court. But it must be admitted that to adopt the narrower construction compels this court to place a limitation upon the language of the legislature. Have we that power? In the case of State v. Emerson, 39 Mo. 87, the court said: "In construing an instrument the true intention of the framers must be arrived at, if possible, and, when necessary, the strict letter of the act, instrument or law, must yield to the manifest intent." In Whitney v. Whitney, 14 Mass. 92, this language is used: "Therefore many cases not expressly named may be comprehended within the equity of a statute, the letter of which may be enlarged or restrained according to the true intent of the maker of the law." The supreme court of Vermont has said: "Effects and consequences of a construction are to be considered, and when, from a literal interpretation, an effect would follow contrary to the whole intent and spirit of the statute, the intent and not the literal meaning must be regarded." Ryegate v. Wardsboro, 30 Vt. 746. In People v. Insurance Co., 15 Johns. 358, it is said: "Whenever such intention can be discovered it ought to be followed with reason and discretion in the construction of the statute, although such construction seems contrary to the letter of the statute. A thing which is within the intention of the maker of the statute is as much within the statute as if it were within the letter, and a thing which is within the letter of the statute is not within the statute unless it be within the intention of the makers, and such construction ought to be put upon it as does not suffer it to be eluded." But the federal supreme court has perhaps gone as far as any court in giving effect to the intent of the law makers: "The spirit as well as the letter of a statute must be respected, and when the whole context of the law demonstrates a particular intent in the legislature to effect a certain object some degree of implication may be called in to aid the intent." Durousseau v. U. S., 6 Cranch. 307. "It is undoubtedly the duty of the court to ascertain the meaning of the legislature from the words used in the statute and the subject-matter to which it relates, and to restrain its operation within narrower limits than its words would import, if the court