advantage too of being warmer in winter and cooler in fummer than thofe of wood; of being cheaper in their first construction, where lime is convenient, and infinitely more durable. The latter confideration renders it of great importance to eradicate this prejudice from the minds of our countrymen. A country whofe buildings are of wood, can never increase in its improvements to any confiderable degree. Their duration is highly eftimated at 50 years. Every half century then our country becomes a tabula rafa, whereon we have to fet out anew, as in the first moment of feating it. Whereas when buildings are of durable materials, every new edifice is an actual and permanent acquifition to the ftate, adding to its value as well as to its ornament.

QUERY XVI.

THE meafures taken with regard to the eftates and poffeffions of the rebels, commonly called tories?

A tory has been properly defined to be a traitor in thought but not in deed. The only defcription by which the laws have endeavored to come at him, was that of non-jurors, or perfons refufing to take the oath of fidelity to the ftate. Perfons of this defcrip

tion were at one time subjected to double taxation, at another to treble, and laftly were allowed retribution, and placed on a level with good citizens. It may be mentioned as a proof both of the lenity of our government, and unanimity of its inhabitants, that though this war has now raged near feven years, not a fingle execution for treafon has taken place.

Under this query I will ftate the measures which have been adopted as to British property, the owners of which stand on a much fairer footing than the tories. By our laws, the fame as the English in this refpect, no alien can hold lands, nor alien enemy maintain an action for money, or other moveable thing. Lands acquired or held by aliens become forfeited to the state; and, on an action by an alien enemy to recover money, or other moveable property, the defendant may plead that he is an alien enemy. This extinguishes his right in the hands of the debtor or holder of his moveable property. By our feparation from Great-Britain, British fubjects became aliens, and being at war, they were alien enemies. Their lands were of course forfeited, and their debts irrecoverable. The affembly however, paffed laws, at various times, for faving their property. They first sequestered their lands, flaves, and other property on their farms in the hands of commiffioners, who were moftly the confi dential friends or agents of the owners, and directed their clear profits to be paid into the treafury and they gave leave to all perfons owing debts to British

fubjects

fubjects to pay them alfo into the treafury. The monies fo to be brought in were declared to remain the property of the British fubject, and, if ufed by the ftate, were to be repaid, unlefs an improper conduct in Great-Britain fhould render a detention of it rea fonable. Depreciation had at that time, though unacknowledged and unperceived by the whigs, begun in fome small degree. Great fums of money were paid in by debtors. At a later period, the affembly, adhering to the political principles which forbid an alien to hold lands in the ftate, ordered all British property to be fold: and become fenfible of the real progrefs of depreciation, and of the loffes which would thence occur, if not guarded against, they ordered that the proceeds of the fales fhould be converted into their then worth in tobacco, fubject to the future direction of the legislature. This act has left the question of retribution more problematical. In May, 1780, another act took away the permiffion to pay into the public treafury debts due to British subjects,

QUERY

QUERY XVII.

THE different religions received into that

ftate?

The first fettlers in this country were emigrants from England, of the English church, just at a point of time when it was flufhed with complete victory over the religious of all other perfuafions. Poffeffed, as they became, of the powers of making, administering, and executing the laws, they fhewed equal intolerance in this country with their Prefbyterian brethren, who had emigrated to the northern government. The poor Quakers were flying from perfecution in England. They caft their eyes on these new countries as asylums of civil and religious freedom; but they found them free only for the reigning fect. Several acts of the Virginia affembly of 1659, 1662 and 1693, had made it penal in parents to refufe to have their children baptized; had prohibited the unlawful affembling of Quakers; had made it penal for any master of a veffel to bring a Quaker into the state; had ordered those already here, and fuch as fhould come thereafter, to be imprisoned till they should abjure the country; provided a milder punishment for the first and second return, but death for their third ; had inhibited all perfons from fuffering their meetings

in

in or near their houses, entertaining them individually, or difpofing of books which fupported their tenets. If no execution took place here, as did in NewEngland, it was not owing to the moderation of the church, or spirit of the legislature, as may be inferred from the law itself; but to historical circumstances which have not been handed down to us. The Anglicans retained full poffeffion of the country about a century. Other opinions began then to creep in, and the great care of the government to support their own church, having begotten an equal degree of indolence in its clergy, two-thirds of the people had become diffenters at the commencement of the prefent revolution. The laws indeed were still oppreffive on them, but the fpirit of the one party had subsided into moderation, and of the other had risen to a degree of determination which commanded refpect.

The prefent ftate of our laws on the fubject of religion is this. The convention of May 1776, in their declaration of rights, declared it to be a truth, and a natural right, that the exercise of religion should be free; but when they proceeded to form on that declaration the ordinance of government, instead of taking up every principle declared in the bill of rights, and guarding it by legiflative fanction, they paffed over that which afferted our religious rights, leaving them as they found them. The fame convention, however, when they met as a member of the general affembly

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