of them, are hereby empowered to meet at such time and place as they shall see fit, (public notice thereof having been given previously for four weeks in the Virginia Gazette) to ascertain and settle the accounts of all claimants under this act; and they shall be further authorised to examine any person or persons they shall think necessary for their information in all things relative to the said claims, and to administer an oath or affirmation, as the case may require, to any person or persons for the better discovering the true quantity of the tobacco so destroyed.

II. And be it further enacted, That in stating the said accounts, the commissioners, or any three of them, shall and they are hereby directed and required, to express the value of the tobacco at the time it was destroyed, specifying the quantity of crop and transfer tobacco separately; which accounts the said commissioners, or any three of them, shall return under their hands and seals to the next session of the general assembly.

III. And be it further enacted, That for the ease and convenience of the commissioners in this act mentioned, they are hereby empowered to appoint a clerk, who shall keep a record of their proceedings, to be laid before the next session of the general assembly.

IV. And be it further enacted, That the re-building of Byrd's warehouses shall be suspended until the end of the next session of general assembly. And whereas it is represented to the general assembly, that the loss of Byrd's warehouses will augment the duty of the inspectors at Shockoe and Rockett's, so much as to render them inadequate thereto: For remedy whereof,

V. Be it enacted, That one of the inspectors at Byrd's warehouses shall attend at Shockoe, and the other at Rockett's Inspections, for the present year, as assistant inspectors to those already commissioned at the said warehouses respectively, for which they shall be allowed the same salaries heretofore given them by law.

Commission

CHAP. XXV.

An act for appointing commissioners to receive subscriptions for the purpose of opening a road from the falls of the Great Kanawa to Lexington, in Fayette county.

1. WHEREAS the opening a more direct and reaers to receive dy communication with the Kentucky district, will be subscriptions for opening a greatly facilitated, and the distance to that country road from the rendered shorter and safer, by establishing a public

falls of the Great Kanawa to Lex ington in Kentucky.

road from the falls of the Great Kanawa to the town of Lexington, in the county of Fayette, and it is represented that such a road may be cut and maintained by private subscription:

II. Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly. That John Marshall, jun. Henry Banks, Alexander St. Clair, Robert Gamble, John Stuart, William Renick, William Morris, James Armstrong, Joseph Crocket, James Wilkison, Edmund Lyne, James Garrard, Isaac Cox, Andrew Hynes, John Jouett, Gabriel Madison, John Campbell, Richard Terrel, George Adams, Green Clay, Benjamin Logan, Isaac Shelby, and George Clendinen, gentlemen, be appointed commissioners, who are severally authorised and empowered to open and receive subscriptions for that purpose. Each of the said commissioners, before he enters upon the duty assigned him, shall enter into bond with good security, payable to the governor and his successors, in a reasonable penalty, conditioned for the faithful execution of his office, to be recorded in the court of the county in which he may reside, and moreover shall take an oath before such court to the like effect; a certificate of which oath taken, and bond given, under the hand of the clerk, shall be shewn to every subscriber. It shall be lawful for the said commissioners, or a majority of them, to contract with such and so many proper persons to survey, mark, clear and open the said road, as to them shall seem fit; and for that purpose to apply the subscriptions taken, as far as the same will go, taking bond with good security from the undertaker for the performance of their trust. The said com

missioners shall return an account of their proceedings and disbursement of the subscriptions pursuant to this act, to the supreme court of the Kentucky district, there to be recorded; and shall cause the said road to be finished and compleated on or before the first day of January one thousand seven hundred and eightynine. If any subscriber shall fail or refuse to pay up his subscription at the time specified, it shall be lawful for the said commissioners to recover judgment against. any such delinquent subscriber for the sum of money or value of the specific thing subscribed, in any court of record, upon motion, and ten days previous notice, upon which judgment execution shall go, endorsed by the clerk "no security to be taken."

CHAP. XXVI.

An act imposing new Taxes.

I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That New taxes there shall be paid by the owners of riding car- imposed. riages, an additional tax, over and above the taxes now by law imposed, on all such carriages as they shall be in possession of on the ninth day of March next, and also on the ninth day of March in each succeeding year, after the following rates, to wit: For every coach or chariot, an additional tax of five dol. On carriages. lars a wheel; for all other riding carriages with four wheels, except those used for the purposes of agriculture, an additional tax of three dollars a wheel; for all other riding carriages with two wheels, an additional tax of one dollar a wheel. Every person failing to render and give in to the persons who now are or hereafter may be appointed by law to receive an account of the taxable property, a true and just account of the carriages he or she may be possessed of on the day above mentioned, shall for every such offence, forfeit and pay four times the amount of the tax that would have been due for the said carriage, if it had been given in agreeable to this act. Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to subject

On clerks of courts.

the maker of any such carriage to the payment of the said tax, during the time that any such carriage shall remain in his possession.

11. And be it further enacted, That the clerks of the court of appeals, court of chancery, general court, of the respective county courts, and each of the corporation courts, shall account for and pay annually into the treasury, one third of the amount of what they shall actually have received for their fees for services performed in the preceding year. And that the said amount may be justly ascertained, the said clerks shall, on or before the first day of September, in each year, make out a fair account of the amount of their fees for the preceeding year, as also of the sums that they may have received for the same, likewise of the sums that they may have received for arrears of fees that may become due after the passing of this act; which account the clerks of the court of appeals, court of chancery, and general court, shall give in to the commissioners of the tax (directed to be appointed by an act, "To amend the act for ascertaining certain taxes and duties, and for establishing a permanent revenue,") for the county of Henrico, and the other clerks to the commissioners, appointed as aforesaid, for the counties where each of the said courts is held. And the said commissioners, or any one of them, having compared the said account with the fee book of the said clerks, shall certify the same to the county court; whereupon, the said clerk making oath that the said account contains a true list of all fees charged or received by him for services performed in the preceeding year, as also of all sums received by him since his last settlement for fees due for services performed after the passing of this art, and which were not accounted for before, the said court shall order the said account to be certified, and the said clerk shall on or before the first day of October, in each year, deliver in the said account so certified to the auditor of public accounts, and pay at the same time into the treasury, the sum which by the said account shall appear to be due from him. Every clerk failing to render such account, or to pay into the treasury the sum which he shall thereby appear to be indebted to the state at the time aforesaid, shall for every such offence, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred pounds, to be recovered by motion of the so

licitor general, in the same manner that is used against delinquent sheriffs.

III. And be it further enacted, That every practis- On attornies ing attorney, at any court within this commonwealth, before he shall be permitted to appear for the plaintiff or defendant in any matter depending in the said court, wherein a fee may be by law taxed in the bill of costs, shall pay down to the clerk of the said court, one tenth part of the amount of the said fee, which proportion of the legal fee shall be paid by every attorney appearing on either side. And that the said fees may be faithfully accounted for,

How collect.

IV. Be it enacted, That the clerk of each court shall be answerable for the amount of the said tax, although ed and ac he may not have received the same; and the said clerk counted for. shall, in the minutes of the proceedings of the said court, and also in his rule-book, in all such contests where attornies fees might be charged, enter the names of all the attornies who appeared on either side, and where no such entry shall be made by the said clerk, he shall be accountable for the amount of what ought to have been paid by two attornies, unless it shall appear that no attorney did appear. And the clerk of each of the said courts, shall, on or before the fifteenth day of March and the fifteenth day of September, in each year, settle with the commissioners of the tax aforesaid, in manner before directed; which account, having by the said commissioners been compared with his memorandum-book, rule-book, and minute-book, and found to be right, shall be certified to the courts, where the clerk having made oath to the same, it shall be certified by order of the court, returned by the clerk to the auditor within thirty days thereafter, and accounted for to the treasurer, under the penalties above directed.

On physici

V. And be it further enacted, That there shall be a tax of five pounds paid by every practising physician, ans. apothecary, or surgeon, within this state; and that every person, coming under either of the above descriptions, shall enter himself as such in his list of property directed to be given in to the commissioners by the act aforesaid: and every such person failing so to do, shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty pounds, to be recovered in the court of the county where he resides, on the motion of the said commissioners, or ei