La Doc 1.47. 2 LEC MAR 1 1900 Bright fund Entered according to act of congress, on the sixteenth day of January, in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-three, by SAMUEL SHEPHERD & Co. in the clerk's office of the district court of the eastern district of Virginia. PREFACE. The Supplement to the Revised Code of the laws of Virginia here presented to the public, requires but little explanation: it is a compilation of the public and general acts which have been passed since the revisal of 1819, and embraces all those acts with some few exceptions. Among these exceptions, are the acts which have been either superseded and rendered unnecessary by a reduction into one, of all acts upon the same subject, or have been entirely repealed by acts subsequently passed; these, and the laws changing the places and times of holding courts, establishing and altering separate election districts, imposing annual taxes and making appropriations of the revenue, and most of the laws relating to surveys, and those internal improvements which are more local than general, are omitted, because it was found impossible to embrace them in the convenient compass of a single volume, and they were believed to be unnecessary for ordinary reference and daily use. The work is intended as an accompaniment to the code, exhibiting in one view all the alterations and amendments which have been made to the general laws. The courts and bar will thus at once perceive what the law is, without a laborious search through many volumes, a search which, when made, cannot but leave the mind in doubt and uncertainty, for it often happens that acts which are repealed at one session are revived or re-enacted after the lapse of a few years, and this process is not unfrequently more than once repeated. The order and arrangement as well as the subject-matter of both volumes of the Revised Code, have been observed throughout, as far as practicable; indeed, the deviations are so few that they are scarcely worthy of notice. The Supplement commences with the acts concerning the organization of the late convention, contains the amended constitution, and pursues the various heads of the code, presenting in chronological order such amendments as have been made, beginning with those adopted immediately after the revisal, and terminating with the session of the legislature in 1831-2. Every facility of reference is afforded, by means of running titles to the laws, a table of contents, a table shewing what acts and parts of acts have been omitted, and a copious index attached to the whole. The work is comprised in as small a compass as the number of the laws would permit. References to the sessions acts from which each law has been taken, have been inserted, citing the particular section or act of the code amended or altered, referring to the various subsequent modifications made by the legislature, and adding such other matter connected with the subject as was deemed useful. In executing the plan of the Supplement, the object in the first place was to preserve the acts entire, but upon more mature reflection it was thought to be better where two subjects entirely dissimilar were united in one act and would admit of a separation without impairing their connection, to divide them and place each subject under its appropriate title. By adopting this course, the whole law upon a given subject is presented in a connected view. As for instance, in the "act to amend the revised acts concerning rent and the penitentiary-house," the act is divided and inserted under the titles "Penitentiary," and "Rents:" so, also, in the "act concerning the adjutant general, and for other purposes," as no one would imagine that the office of vaccine agent was abolished by its provisions, or that the services of the sheriff of the county of Henrico in attending the sitting of the court of appeals, were dispensed with, and the duties transferred to the tipstaff of the court, these different provisions are arranged under their proper titles; such as relate to the adjutant general under the title "Militia," such as concern the vaccine agent under the title "Small Pox," and such as prescribe the duties of the sheriff under the title "Court of Appeals." There are many other acts combining equally dissimilar subjects, and accordingly, wherever it could be done safely, the sections have been divided; but in every instance of division, the title of the act is inserted in each place, and the note at the foot of the page refers to the head where the omitted section is to be found. General provisions growing out of special individual cases are sometimes found connected with provisions of a private, local or temporary character; in such case the latter are omitted as unnecessary, and referred to both in the note and table of omitted sections. The laws sometimes embrace several distinct subjects, so blended, as to be inseparable; in all such instances the act is inserted under the most important head only an example of this is presented in the "act for the relief of the sureties of clerks and coroners:" the law is inserted under the title "Clerks," and under the head of "Coroners," a note is found referring to the page where the act itself is contained. So also in the act granting licenses to retail ardent spirits, which, being designed principally to regulate the conduct of slaves, is inserted only under the title "Slaves." When an act is totally and unquestionably repealed or superseded, the repealing or superseding act is inserted, and the act repealed or superseded is omitted; in which case, the volumes containing the omitted acts are cited. Great care has been taken in strictly examining the acts with their originals, and their correctness will stand the test of scrutiny; indeed, where errors are manifest in the sessions acts, as is sometimes the case, the acts have been corrected by a reference to the roll itself. By amalgamating or reducing into one act every act or section upon the same subject, much repetition and tautology might have been avoided; but no such liberties have been taken, and the work is now presented to the public, not as perfect as it might be made by a revision of the laws, but in a state believed to be highly useful and necessary. February 1833. TABLE, Chap. 1 12345 Act of cession of Old Point Comfort and Rip Raps, of jurisdiction over part of Smith's island, Maryland boundary, Resolution relating to Maryland boundary, |
