Section 7 of the Act reads: That after the close of each Congress the Secretary of State shall have edited, printed and bound a sufficient number of the volumes containing the Statutes at Large enacted by that Congress to enable him to distribute copies, or as many thereof as may be needed, as follows: To the President of the United States, four copies, one of which shall be for the library of the Executive Mansion, and one copy shall be for the use of the Commissioner of Public Buildings; to the Vice President of the United States, one copy; to each Senator, Representative, and Delegate in Congress, one copy; to the library of the Senate, for the use of Senators, one hundred and fourteen copies; to the librarian of the House, for the use of Representatives and Delegates, four hundred and ten copies; to the Library of Congress, fourteen copies, including four copies for the law library; to the Department of State, including those for the use of legations and consulates, three hundred and eighty copies; to the Treasury Department, including those for the use of officers of customs, two hundred and sixty copies; to the War Department, including a copy for the Military Academy at West Point, fifty copies; to the Navy Department, including a copy for the library at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, a copy for the library at each navyyard in the United States, a copy for the library of the Brooklyn Naval Lyceum, and a copy for the library of the Naval Institute at Charlestown, Massachusetts, sixty-five copies; to the Department of the Interior, including those for the use of the surveyors-general and registers and receivers of public land-offices, two hundred and fifty copies; to the Post Office Department, fifty copies; to the Department of Justice, including those for the use of the chief and associate justices, the judges and the officers of the United States and territorial courts, four hundred and twenty-five copies; to the Department of Agriculture, five copies; to the Smithsonian Institution, two copies; to the Government Printing Office, one copy; and the Secretary of State shall supply deficiencies and offices newly created. Also, the Department was ordered to sell the Revised Statutes and the laws of each session "at the cost of the paper, press work, and binding, with ten per cent thereof added thereto to any person applying for the same," the proceeds to be paid into the Treasury. Following the provisions of the law, the system at the present day is as follows: As soon as a law or resolution is passed by Congress and signed by the President, or passed by a two-thirds vote over the President's veto, it is sent to the Department of State. There it is numbered and classed either as "public" or "private," and is compared with the printed bill upon which it was based, which had been received by the Department before it became a law. The bill is altered so as to be identical with the law, and becomes the "copy" for the Government Printing Office. Up to July, 1838, all the laws and resolutions were copied in the Department in full in books provided for the purpose; but the law requiring this was in that year repealed, and this unnecessary labor ceased. The proof, being received from the Government Printing Office, is compared, not with the "copy," but with the original engrossed act or resolution, the revised and re-revised proof being similarly dealt with. As finally printed, the act or resolution appears on separate, unbound sheets. These are termed the "slip laws," and are for free distribution; and certified copies under the seal of the Department can be had on application, the "slip law," before the certification, being again compared with the original. The pamphlet publication of the statutes is made from the "slip laws;" but, after they are given to the printer and "set up," they have the benefit of comparison with the originals, making, in all, four separate readings. Having passed into the hands of the Editor of the Laws, they are printed under his supervision, and appear as the Statutes at Large. The original laws and resolutions are, after the final reading, bound and placed on file; and the stereotype plates from which the printing is done are sent to the Department of State and deposited there. In addition to the laws themselves, there are deposited with the Department of State what are known as the "pocketed laws." These are the bills or resolutions of Congress which, coming to the President within ten days of the adjournment of Congress, have not received his approval. They have not been returned to Congress with his disapproval, and they sim ply fail because he has not signed them. These are all sent to the Department of State, where they are bound and preserved under the above heading. The printed editions of the laws pass into the immediate custody of the Bureau of Accounts, being distributed according to the Act of Congress, and sold subject to the provisions of the following circular, the moneys received being deposited in the Treasury Department and credited to the fund "Miscellaneous Accounts:" DEPARTMENT OF STATE. The following are the prices at which the Laws of the United States are sold at this Department, no provision having been made by Congress for their free distribution : Revised Statutes (Edition of 1878)......... ....bound...$2.90 Revised Statutes relating to District of Columbia, Post Roads, and Public Treaties...... ....bound... 3.58 Supplement to the Revised Statutes (Edition of 1891)..............do................ 2.00 (Abridgment of Vols. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26, Statutes at Large.) Laws of first session, 43d Cong., 1873-'74.......... ..pamphlet... 1.05 .65 Laws of second session, 43d Cong., 1874-'75............................................do...... Uor M |