Alexandria Gazette

Homestead Exemption.

In our humble way we have often shown the necessity of every State having some provision, by law, for the protection of the families of the poor and honest yeomanry of the land. In looking over the Revised Code, which went into operation on the 1st day of July, we could not help noticing the provision protecting the families of those persons, in the middle and humbler walks of life, against being broken up and reduced to beggary. The following is the meagre list of property that cannot be taken under execution, or otherwise:

One cow, one bedstead, with a bed and necessary bedding for the same: six chairs, one table, six knives, six forks, six plates, two dishes, two basins, one pot, one oven, six pieces of wooden or earthenware, one loom and its appurtenances, one spinning wheel, one pair of cards, one axe, five barrels of corn, five bushels of wheat, one barrel of flour, two hundred pounds of bacon or pork, and $5 in value of forage or hay.

Now is not this a liberal provision for a family of from three to ten persons—less than one hundred dollars worth of property—and but one bed for all of that family, no matter what its size, to rest their weary limbs upon. Virginia professes to have a great amount of chivalry and patriotism where State matters are concerned, but when it comes to bettering the condition of man, and elevating him and his family in the scale of being, she is far behind many of her sister States, and sorry are we to have to chronicle the fact—Leesburg Chronicle