Preamble. Special court of oyer and terminer constituted. CHAP. VI. An Act for appointing commissioner s of Oyer and Terminer for the trial of Criminals now in the publick jail. WHEREAS, by the dissolution of the government exercised by the king of Great Britain, courts of oyer and terminer cannot now be held for the trial of criminals committed to the publick jail, and their being sundry persons confined in the said jail on suspicion of felony, it is necessary that some temporary mode should be directed for bringing them to a speedy trial: Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of the commonwealth of Virginia, That five commissioners, to be chosen by joint ballot of both houses of assembly, or any three of them, be, and they are hereby empowered and required to meet at the Capitol, in the city of Williamsburg, on the third Thursday in January next, then and there to hold a court of Oyer and Terminer, for the trial of the criminals in the publick jail; and the said commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, having taken the following oath, to wit, 1 A. B. do solemnly promise and swear that I will be faithful and true to the commonwealth of Virginia, and that I will well and truly execute the office of commissioner of Oyer and Terminer, to which I have been appointed by the general assembly, without favour, affection, or partiality. So help you God. To be administered to the commissioner first name and present by any of the others, and by him to the others, shall then and there proceed to the trial of all the said criminals, in like manner as is directed for courts of Oyer and Terminer, in and by an act intituled An act directing the method of trial of criminals for capital offences, and for other purposes therein mentioned, and may adjourn from day to day until all the said criminals are tried. And the sheriff of York county shall summon grand and petit juries for such trials, and attend the said commissioners according to the directions of the said act; and against such criminals as shall be found guilty, by verdict of the petit jury, the said commissioners shall proceed to judgment according to law, and award execution thereupon, say ing to the governour his right of granting pardons to all capital offenders, according to the constitution of government. And be it farther enacted, That the clerk of the se- Venire facias, cretary's office shall immediately issue writs of venire how issued. facias for the summoning a venire from the county, in the case of each criminal who, according to the said act, hath a right to be tried by a jury of the vicinage, and shall also issue summons for the witnesses against each criminal, and those he or she may desire to be summoned in his or her behalf, to attend at the time aforesaid. CHAP. VII. p. 40.] An act for further continuing the act Chan. Rev. intituled An act to make provision for the support and maintenance of Ideots, Lunaticks, and other persons of unsound minds. 1. WHEREAS the act of assembly made in the year Act making 1769, intituled An act to make provision for the sup- provision for port and maintenance of ideots, lunaticks, and other idiots and lunatics, furpersons of unsound minds, will expire at the end of the ther contin present session of assembly, and it is necessary that the ued. same should be farther continued: II. Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of the commonwealth of Virginia, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the said act shall continue and be in force from and after the end of this present session of assembly for and during the term of one year, and from thence to the end of the next session of assembly. CHAP. VIII. p-40.] [Chan Rev. An act to increase the reward for apprehending horsestealers, and for other purposes therein mentioned. Preamble. Additional reward for apprehend. ing horsestealers. Witnesses, how entitled. Reward le vied on es tate of offender. I. WHEREAS the reward offered for apprehending horsestealers, by an act intituled An act to prevent losses from drivers passing with horses and cattle through this colony, and for laying a duty on horses imported, and the more effectual preventing horsestealing, is found not to be a sufficient inducement to persons to undertake the pursuit of those offenders, who are of late greatly multiplied, more especially on the frontier parts of the country, to the great detriment and loss of the inhabitants: II. Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of the commonwealth of Virginia, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That all and every person and persons who shall apprehend and take any person guilty of the stealing of any horse, and shall prosecute him, her, or them, so apprehended and taken, until he, she, or they, be convicted thereof, such apprehenders or takers, for his, her, or their reward, shall have and receive the sum of ten pounds, over and above the reward given by the said act, to be paid by the treasurer for the time being, upon such certificate of the conviction of the felons as is in the said act directed and required. III. Provided always, and be it farther enacted, That no person who is or shall be admitted as a witness against the person or persons so apprehended and prosecuted, upon his, her, or their trial for the said offence, shall be entitled to the rewards given by this and the said recited act, or any part thereof, unless the judges before whom the criminal shall be tried shall be of opinion there was other sufficient evidence to corroborate the testimony of such apprehender, so as to induce them by their certificate to entitle him or them to such reward. IV. And be it farther enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That the reward to be paid by this, or the said recited act, shall be by the general assembly levied up on the estate of the offender, if the same be sufficient, and paid to the treasurer for the time being, for the use of the public. CHAP. IX. An act for the revision of the Laws.* WHEREAS on the late change which hath of necessity been introduced into the form of government in In pursuance of this act, a committee was appointed, on the 5th day of November 1776, who did not report until the 18th of June 1779, as the following authentic documents prove. IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY, Tuesday the 5th day of November, 1776. RESOLVED, That Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Mason, and Thomas Ludwell Lee, esquires be appointed a committee to revise the laws of this commonwealth. T'este, JOHN TAZEWELL, C. H. D. In the HOUSE OF DELEGATES, the 18th day of June, 1779. The speaker laid before the House a letter from Thomas Jef. ferson, esq. governor of the commonwealth, and George Wythe, esq. two of the committee of revisors, in the words following: SIR, WILLIAMSBURG, June 18, 1779. The committee appointed in pursuance of an act of general assembly passed in. 1776, intituled "An act for the revision of the laws," have according to the requisitions of the said act gone through that work, and prepared 126 bills, the titles of which are stated in the inclosed catalogue. Some of these bills have been presented to the flouse of Delegates in the course of the present session two or three of them delivered to members of that house at their request to be presented, the rest are in the two bundles which accompany this; these we take the liberty through you of presenting to the General Assembly. In the course of this work we were unfortunately deprived of the assistance and abilities of two of our associates appointed by the General Assembly, of the one by death, of the other by resig nation. As the plan of the work had been settled, and agreeable to that plan it was in a considerable degree carried into execution before that loss, we did not exercise the powers given us by the act, of filling up the places by new appointment, being desirous that the plan agreed on by members who were specially appointed by the Assembly, might not be liable to alteration from others who might not equally possess their confidence, it Preamble. this country it is become also necessary to make corresponding changes in the laws heretofore in force, many of which are inapplicable to the powers of government as now organised, others are founded on principles heterogeneous to the republican spirit, others. which, long before such change, had been oppressive to the people, could yet never be repealed while the regal power continued, and others, having taken their origin while our ancestors remained in Britain, are not so well adapted to our present circumstances of time and place, and it is also necessary to introduce certain other laws, which, though proved by the experience of other states to be friendly to liberty and the rights of mankind, we have not heretofore been permitted to adopt; and whereas a work of such magnitude, labour, has therefore been executed by the three remaining members, one of whom being prevented from putting his signature hereto, by the great distance of his residence from this city, has by letter authorized us to declare his concurrence in the report. We have the honor to be with the utmost respect, Sir, Your most obedient and most humble servants, T. JEFFERSON, Hon. Benjamin Harrison, Esquire, G. WYTHE. Speaker of the House of Delegates. Ordered that the said letter with its enclosures do lie on the table. Extract from the journal. JOHN BECKLEY, C. H. D. Some of the bills thus reported were enacted into laws, at the sessions of 1779, 1785, and 1786; but the bills never seem to have been taken up by the legislature as a complete code. In the mean time provision was made for a collection of our laws, by the following resolution of the 16th of June 1783. "Resolved, That it be an instruction to the executive to cause the several acts of the General Assembly subsequent in date to the revisal in the year 1769, and the ordinances of Convention which are now in force to be collected into one code with a proper index, and marginal notes, to be revised and examined by any two judges of the high court of Chancery: that copies of this code be printed in sufficient numbers for the use of the two houses of Assembly, the several executive boards, the superior courts of justice and the county and corporation courts, that they be covered with paste board. And that the executive be empowered to defray the expense of this collection and of printing the same out of any money in the treasury. Provided nevertheless, That the whole expence attending the same do not exceed the sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds." [Passed the house of Delegates the 13th of June, and agreed to by the Senate, the 16th of June, 1783. See M. S. Journ. of H. D. May 1783, pa. 165, 182.] This edition, which was printed in 1785, has been generally called The Chancellors' Revisal. For a general view of the several authoritative EDITIONS of our Laws, see 2 Rev. Code of 1819, pa. 323-325. |