effect, under or by virtue of the laws so repealed, but the same may be asserted, enforced, prosecuted or inflicted as fully and to the same extent as if such laws had not been repealed; and all actions or proceedings, civil or criminal, commenced under or by virtue of the laws so repealed and pending February twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, may be prosecuted and defended to final effect in the same manner as they might under the laws then existing unless it shall be otherwise especially provided by law.

§ 242. Construction. The provisions of this chapter, so far as they are substantially the same as those laws existing on February twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, shall be construed as a continuation of such laws, modified or amended, according to the language employed in this chapter, and not as new enactments; and references in laws not repealed, to provisions of law incorporated into this chapter and repealed, shall be construed as applying to the provisions so incorporated. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to amend or repeal any provision of the Penal or Criminal Code.

243. When to take effect. This chapter shall take effect on the first day of March, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, except in towns in which the annual town meeting for eighteen hundred and ninety-one shall be held on or subsequently to March first, in which towns it shall take effect May first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one.

SCHEDULE OF LAWS REPEALED.