relating to navigation companies were now "in force and use" so as to require their insertion. They were aware that there were several charters of those companies still in legal existence, but they had reasons to believe that the companies were so near a final extinction from nonuser or abandonment, that it was entirely useless to retain them. As they found that this volume when going to press would not be so large as they anticipated, the superintendents have ventured to insert in an appendix several articles which were deemed not inappropriate to such a work. These articles, comprising among others the great charters of English and American liberty, not already inserted, will, it is hoped, be found neither uninteresting nor uninstructive ; and as those of them, which are not entirely new, are not often seen in works easily accessible to the public, it is trusted, that their appearance in their present position will be favorably received.
In the progress of these volumes through the press, one or the other of the superintendents has constantly attended to them, and every sheet has undergone his supervision and correction. With what accuracy this part of their duty has been performed, it is not for them to say. They have anxiously endeavored to have the typographical part of the work perfect, so far as their exertions could contribute towards so desirable an object. But yet from the great desire to have the volumes ready for distribution at as early a day as possible, their publication has been hastened in a manner inconsistent with entire correctness. It is hoped and believed however, that no error will be found, particularly in the body of the work, at all affecting the sense of the passage in which it may occur. It may be proper to mention here that the revised and other public acts contained in the first volume of this work, were regularly ratified in the usual form and signed by Messrs Hugh Waddell, speaker of the senate, and William H. Haywood, Jun., speaker of the house of commons, but the certificate of ratification has not been retained, because as the acts were passed separately, it would have presented a useless repetition.
With these explanations and remarks the "Revised Statutes" are submitted to a generous public, with the hope, that with the corrections and amendments which they received from the legislature and the sanction given to them by that body, they will contribute in some degree at least, to the object for which they were designed, a simplification of the Statute Law and an extension of its knowledge among the people.
JAMES IREDELL.
