Richmond Enquirer

VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE

Yesterday, the bill for constructing a turnpike road from Winchester to some point on the Ohio, not designated in the law, passed the H. of D. after a long Debate, and by a majority of one vote. The road is to be put under the direction of a corporate Board of the Governor, Treasurer, Second Auditor and Attorney General—who are to borrow $125,000 on the credit of the State— The route is to be marked out by the Principal Engineer.

The mammoth bill (in volume and importance) to establish Superior Courts of Law and Equity in the counties and certain corporations in this State, was presented in the engrossed form by the Committee. (The whole labor of engrossment being executed in one night.) It was carefully read over the 3d time; the blanks filled—and finally passed, without debate, by a vote of 78 to 18. (The bill establishes 12 circuits—2 judges to each; one, a judge of the Chancery Court, and stationary in the circuit; the other, a Judge of the Common Law, to be exchanged from one circuit to another, according to the assignment of the General Court.)— The 103rd section of the bill vacates the commissions of the present Judges, on the rising of the Legislature, according to the Constitution; requires the new Judges to hold such of the Spring Terms as shall come on between the rising of the legislature and fifteenth of June; the Judges to hold the Courts to be designated by the legislature—also the terms of the present Chancery Courts—in the interval, the Judges and Chancellors to have power to award all such process, and make all such vacation orders as the present Judges could do, if this act had not passed.