61310 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1893, BY FRANK G. FINLAYSON In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. The street laws peculiar to the state of California are those statutory enactments which provide for improvements upon existing streets-streets opened or dedicated to public use; also, those enactments which provide for the opening, widening, extending or closing up of streets, in whole or in part. To many these street laws are terra incognita. They, are sui generis, covering a special territory by themselves quite outside of the common and ordinary domain of the general and usual practice. Heretofore these laws have constituted a branch of the practice so specialized that it has been explored by but few members of the profession; nevertheless, it is one of the most important branches in the whole wide range of jurisprudence. Municipal corporations are little more than public improvement corporations on a large scale; and, as the present tendency seems to be in the direction of a still further centralization of power in the municipalities of the country, with the investiture of still greater powers over public improvement in the municipal authorities, confiding to their care the conduct of many enterprises which have heretofore usually been in the hands of private individuals, it follows that any branch of the law which deals with the exercise of these powers is of great and growing importance, both to the profession and the laity. Cities and towns are rapidly springing up in this empire commonwealth, and streets are as rapidly being opened up and improved. Hence the necessity for some book which shall facilitate the researches of those whose business it is to study these street laws and assist in their administration. With this end in view the author has prepared this book for publication, and will feel himself amply repaid for his labors if he has succeeded in bringing together between the covers of one book such material upon the subject of the street laws of this state as will serve to simplify the subject and render a comprehensive knowledge thereof easy of attainment. One reason why the realm covered by this special department has hitherto remained unfamiliar to many, is that the statutes themselves upon the subject of street work, and the many amendatory acts, have been scattered through numer |