Arkansas State Gazette And Democrat

The New Constitution of Virginia.—The Virginia Convention has at length adjourned, after a protracted and exciting session, which threatened at one time a partition of the State. The constitution adopted and recommended to the people is contained in the Richmond papers. We avail ourselves of the following synopsis, prepared by an exchange: Some of the most important features of the instrument are the following, from which it will be seen that the prominent changes of the old Constitution consist in the adoption of a system of popular elections in all departments of the government, and in the abandonment of the principle of the representation of property: Nearly all State and county officers are to be elected by the people, including the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, the Judges of the Supreme, District and Circuit Courts, and the Justices of the Peace, Commonwealth's Attorneys, Clerks and Sheriffs. The Legislature is to be apportioned, the House of Delegates on the Suffrage basis, with a Western majority of fourteen, and the Senate with an Eastern majority of 10, which arrangement is to continue until 1865, when the Legislature may agree upon a new apportionment, or submit the question of basis to the people; Taxes are to be ad valorem, except that slaves under twelve years of age are exempted, white males twenty-one years old are to pay a capitation, equal to the tax on $400 worth of land, slaves over twelve years of age are not to pay more than the tax on $300 worth of land, and licenses, incomes and salaries may be taxed at the discretion of the Legislature; seven per cent. of the existing debt of the State, and of every future debt, is to be set apart annually for the payment of the interest and principal. The new Constitution is to be submitted to the voters qualified under it, on the fourth Thursday in October, the returns made to the Governor, and if he proclaim it ratified, the Legislature, which will be elected on the second Monday in December will meet on the second Monday in January, and therefore the sessions will be biennial.