No. IX. enacted by the general assembly, That the counties within this commonwealth, shall be divided into ten districts, in manner following, to wit: The counties of Hampshire, Berkeley, Shenandoah, Hardy, Monongalia, Ohio, Randolph, Harrison, and Frederick, shall compose one district: The counties of Mercer, Jefferson, Fayette, Bourbon, Lincoln, Nelson, and Madison, shall compose another district: The counties of Botetourt, Rockbridge, Montgomery, Greenbrier, Washington, Augusta, Russell, Rockingham, and Pendleton, shall compose another district: The counties of Prince William, Stafford, Loudoun, Fairfax, King George, and Fauquier, shall compose another district: The counties of Albemarle, Amherst, Fluvanna, Goochland, Louisa, Spotsylvania, Orange, and Culpeper, shall compose another district: The counties of Campbell, Charlotte, Buckingham, Bedford, Prince Edward, Franklin, Henry, Pittsylvania, and Halifax, shall compose another district: The counties of Essex, Richmond, Westmoreland, Northumberland, Lancaster, Gloucester, Middlesex, King & Queen, King William, and Caroline, shall compose another district: The counties of Norfolk, Accomack, Northampton, Princess Anne, Nansemond, Isle of Wight, Surry, and Southampton, shall compose another district: The counties of Brunswick, Sussex, Greensville, Prince George, Dinwiddie, Mecklenburg, Lunenburg, Amelia, Cumberland, and Powhatan, shall compose another district: And the counties of New-Kent, Elizabeth City, Warwick, York, Charles City, Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover, and James City, shall compose another district. 2. That the persons qualified by law to vote for members to the house of delegates, in each county composing a district, shall assemble at their respective county courthouses on the second day in February next, and then and there vote for some discreet and proper person, being a freeholder, and who shall have been a bona fide resident for twelve months within such district, as a member to the house of representatives for the United States. The high sheriff of each county, or, in case of his sickness or inability to attend, one of the deputy sheriffs, being first duly sworn by a magistrate of the county, to act impartially, and a certificate of the taking such oath, under the hand of the magistrate delivered to him, shall conduct the said election, at which no determination shall be had by view, but each person, qualified to vote, shall fairly and publicly poll, and the name of the voter shall be duly entered under the name of the person voted for, in proper poll books, to be provided by the sheriff, for which purpose the said sheriff shall appoint so many writers as he shall think fit, who shall respectively take an oath, to be administered by him, or make solemn affirmation, that they will take the poll faithfully and impartially. He shall deliver a poll book to each writer, who shall enter in distinct columns under the name of the person voted for, the name of each elector voting for such person: Like proclamation and proceeding shall be had for conducting, continuing and closing the poll in each county of a district, as is prescribed by law in the election of members to the general assembly, and proclamation shall also be made at the courthouse door, of the person having the greatest number of votes on the poll, at the closing thereof. 3. Each elector shall be entitled to the same privilege from arrests, and be subject to the like penalty and forfeiture for failing to attend and vote at such election, as prescribed by law in the election of members to the general assembly; such failure to attend, to be discovered and proceeded on in like manner and under the same penalties, as is by law provided against such failures in the elections of members to the general assembly. Immediately after each election in a county, the clerks of the polls having first signed the same, and made oath to the truth thereof, (a certificate of which oath under the hand of a magistrate of the county, shall be subjoined to each po!!) shall deliver the same to the sheriff who conducted the election, and such sheriff, together with the respective sheriffs who conducted the poll of the several counties in the district, but in case of sickness, death or other disability of the sheriff who shall have conducted the poll, then any other sheriff of the county in which such disability may happen, shall, within seven days, assemble at the courthouse of the county first named in such district, and then and there compare the polls respectively taken at the elections in their several counties, and having ascer tained by faithful addition and comparison of the numbers on the respective polls, the person having the greatest number of votes upon the whole, giving their own votes in any case of the two foremost on such polls having an equal number of votes, shall proceed to certify such election under their hands and seals in manner and form following, to wit: "We, A. B. sheriff of -county, (or deputy sheriff, as "the case may be,) C. D. sheriff of -county (and so on, "reciting the name of the sheriff, and whether principal or deputy "of each county in the district) composing one entire district, "entitled by law to elect a member to the house of representatives "of the United States, do hereby certify and make known, that "at an election held onat the courthouse of our respec"tive counties pursuant to law, the electors qualified to vote for "members to the house of delegates, caused to be chosen one person, to wit, E. F. to represent the said district as a member "of the house of representatives of the United States. Given un"der our hands and seals, this"sand seven hundred and eighty -day of one thou Two fair duplicates of such certificate and return, shall be made by the said sheriffs under their hands and seals in the manner before recited, one of which shall be delivered to the person elected to represent the district, and the other shall be transmitted to the governor and council within ten days, under penalty of one hundred pounds upon each sheriff, in case of failure or neglect herein, to be recovered by motion in any court of record by the solicitor general, to the use of the commonwealth. The said sheriffs shall also under like penalty and recovery deliver to the clerks of their respective counties, within ten days after such return, the original poll books, to be by such clerk entered of record, under the like penalty for failure, ás for failing to record the poll books taken at the election of members to the general assembly, recoverable in like manner. It shall be the duty of the executive, to enclose to the congress of the United States, the certificates and returns of elections aforesaid, transmitted to them from the respective districts, without delay. Any sheriff or deputy sheriff refusing to No. IX. take the poll when he shall be required by a candidate or elector, or taking it in other manner than is herein before prescribed, or making or signing a false certificate or return of election, as herein before directed, or making any erasure or alteration in the poll books, or refusing to suffer any candidate or elector at his own expense to take a copy of the poll books, shall forfeit and pay two hundred pounds, which penalties may be recovered with costs in actions of debt, by any person who will sue for the same; one half to his own use, and the other half to the use of the commonwealth, 4. Any candidate or other person in his behalf, who shall directly or indirectly, give or agree to give any elector or pretended elector, money, meat, drink, or other reward, in order to be elected, or for having been elected, shall forfeit and pay five hundred pounds for each offence; to be recovered with costs by action of debt, to the use of any person who will sue for the same. 5. And be it further enacted, That the sheriffs of the respective counties, shall receive for their trouble and expense in conducting the said elections, the sum of ten shillings for the day on which they shall attend to compare the different polls, together with an allowance of ferriages, and three pence per mile for travelling to and from the county in which they shall meet for that purpose, to be paid in the same manner as the electors who are to vote for a president of the United States are paid. 6. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That the fines and penalties hereby imposed upon sheriffs, failing to perform any of the duties prescribed by this act, are declared not to extend to the sheriffs within the district of Kentucky; but such sheriffs shall proceed to execute the same, under the best circumstances which the promulgation of this act will admit of. CHAP. XII. An Act to repeal part of an Act, directing the Trial of Slaves committing capital Crimes, and for the more effectual punishing Conspiracies and Insurrections of them, and for the better Government of Negroes, Mulattoes, or Indians, bond or free. BE 46 [Passed November 21st, 1788.-Acts of 1788, ch. 23, pa. 13.] E it enacted That so much of an act, entitutled "an act di"recting the trial of slaves committing capital crimes, and "for the more effectual punishing conspiracies and insurrections "of them, and for the better government of negroes, mulattoes, and Indians, bond or free," as declares, that "Where any “slave shall happen to die by reason of any stroke or blow during his or her correction, by his or her owner, or by reason of any "accidental blow whatsoever given by such owner, no person concerned in such correction or accidental homicide, shall be liable to any prosecution or punishment for the same, unless upon examination before the county court, it shall be proved by the oath at least of one lawful and credible witness, that "such slave was killed wilfully, maliciously, or designedly; "and no person indicted for the murder of a slave, and upon trial found guilty of manslaughter only, shall incur any forfeiture "or punishment for such offence or misfortune;" shall be, and the same is hereby repealed. แ 'Preamble: CHAP. XIII. An Act concerning a new Edition of the Laws of this Commonwealth, reforming certain Rules of Legal Construction, and providing for the due Publication of the Laws and Resolutions of .each Session. 1 [Passed November 18th, 1789.-Acts of 1789, ch. 9, pa. 6.] WHEREAS the great number of the laws of this common wealth, dispersed as they are through many different volumes, renders it often questionable, which of them are in force; copies of those laws are procured with difficulty, and only at high prices; and so many of them have been repealed, wholly or in part, were temporary and have expired; were occasional, and have had their effect; were private or local, or have been re-enacted in substance, in the laws, taken from the report of the revisors, appointed in the year of our lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, that scarce a third of them concern the public at large. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That James Mercer, appointed to re- Henry Tazewell, Joseph Prentis, Saint George Tucker, Edmond and to report to Randolph, James Innes, John Taylor and John Marshall, Esquires, the General As- be appointed, whose duty it shall be, first, to report to the next sembly. Certain persons vise the laws session of the general assembly, what English statutes, if any there be, are suited to this commonwealth, and shall not have been enacted in the form of Virginia laws; secondly, what laws or parts of laws, which are of a general concern, shall remain in force at the close of the present session of assembly; thirdly, what laws on the same subject, ought from their multiplicity to be reduced into single acts; and fourthly, what laws or parts of laws are either unfit to be continued in force, or unnecessary to be published To prepare mar- in any code of the laws; fifthly, to prepare and report as aforesaid, ginal notes and a full index to the marginal notes and a full index to all the laws of this commonwealth; sixthly, to note in due order of time and report as aforesaid, the titles of all those laws, which may be proper to be omitted, in a general compilation of the laws; and seventhly, to instruct the clerk of the house of delegates, as far as it may be in their power, how to obtain for the use of his office, copies of those laws, the rolls whereof are lost. laws. Copies of those laws, the rolls whereof are lost, to be procured. A law repealed, not revived by repealing the law which re 2. And for preventing many inconveniencies, which certain rules for the construction of laws have already occasioned, and may hereafter occasion: Be it further enacted by the General Assembly, That whensoever one law, which shall have repealed another, shall be itself repealed, the former law shall not be revived, without express words to that effect; every act passed during any stated annual session, shall commence in force on the first day of March then next ensuing, passed at stated unless in the act itself, another day be particularly mentioned, for mence in force. the commencement thereof. pealed the first. When the acts sessions to com Rule of constru 3. As often as a question shall arise, whether a law passed during laws passed ing any session, changes or repeals a former law, passed during at the same ses- the same session, the same construction shall be made, as would have been made, if the act entituled "an act concerning election of members of general assembly," had never been passed. sion. When this act commences in force. 4. This act shall commence and be in force on the fifteenth day of January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety. CHAP. XIV. An Act repeuling a part of the Ordinance by which certain English 1 [Passed November 25th, 1789-Acts of 1789, ch. 17, pa. 11.] 1 W1 Wan ordinance to enable the present magistrates and THEREAS by an ordinance of convention, entituled Preamble: officers to continue the administration of justice and for settling the general mode of proceedings in criminal and other cases, till the same can be more amply provided for;" it is among other things enacted, that "all statutes or acts of parliament made in "aid of the common law, prior to the fourth year of the reign of king James the first, and which are of a general nature, not "local to that kingdom, shall be the rule of decision, and shall be "considered as in full force, until the same shall be altered by "the legislative power of this colony;" and whereas the good people of this commonwealth may be ensnared by an ignorance of acts of parliament, which have never been published in any collection of the laws; and it has been thought adviseable by the general assembly during their present session, specially to enact such of the said statutes as to them appeared worthy of adoption, and did not already make a part of the public code of the laws of Virginia. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That so much of the English statutes above recited ordinance, as relates to any statute or act of parlia- no longer to be ment, shall be and is hereby repealed; and that no such statute or in force in this act shall have any force or authority within this commonwealth. state. all All rights arisbe- ing under them and offences committed a 2. But all rights arising under any such statute or act, and crimes and offences committed against the same, at any time fore the commencement of this act, shall remain in the same condition in all respects, as if this act had never been made. This act shall commence in force on the first day of January, in the fore the comyear one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one. CHAP. XV. gainst them be mencement of this act to remain in the same condition. When this act commences in An Act to fix the Time of holding Elections for Representatives to force. WI Congress. [Passed December 1st, 1789.-Acts of 1789, ch. 27, pa. 16.] HEREAS the act entituled, “ an act for the election of representatives, pursuant to the constitution of government of the United States," is confined to the election of representatives holden on the second day of February, which was in the year of our lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That the above recited Elections of Re act shall be extended to future elections, with the alterations and presentatives in amendments following, that is to say: First, the election of re- Congress when to be holden; presentatives shall be holden on the first Monday in September, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety, and one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, and in every second year thereafter; and the two years for which any future representative Periods from may serve, shall bear date from the second day of February in the which, future year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, one thousand representatives are to serve; |