Richmond Enquirer

SKETCH OF THE LAWS,
Passed at the session of the General Assembly
of Virginia, which commenced
December 4, 1815.
[continued.]

58. An Act providing for the pay of Officers of
Courts Martial in certain cases, provides that, in all
cases where a special Regimental Court Martial
shall have been held during the late war, for the
purpose of hearing claims to exemption from military
duty, agreeably to any general order for detachment
or militia, it shall be the duty of the annual Regimental
Court of Enquiry, for the Regiment,
from which such detachment was ordered, where
it has not already been done, to make the same allowance
to the Clerk and Provost Martial attending
such special Regimental Court Martial, as they are
respectively entitled to for their attendance at such
annual Regimental Court of Enquiry; and to allow
the Adjutant acting as the mustering and inspecting
Officer, or to such other officer as the Commandant
of the Regiment may have appointed for the purpose
of mustering and inspecting the detachment
ordered from his Regiment, a sum not exceeding 6
dollars per day. Which allowances, as well those
heretofore, as those hereafter to be made, shall be
certified and paid in the same manner as allowances
made to Clerks of Courts Martial, Adjutants and
Provosts Martial at the annual Regimental Courts
of Enquiry are certified and paid. In all cases
where the adjutant of a Regiment, or other person
has been or hereafter may be sent on an express by
the Commandant of a Regiment or Battalion, or
other Militia officer authorized to employ an express,
in consequence of any General order such
Commandant or other Officer may have received,
or in discharge of any duty appertaining to their respective
commands in the militia, and there shall
not have been, or hereafter may not be sufficient
funds arising from militia fines in the regiment, to
which the person so employed as an express belongs,
to defray the expense of such express, then
and in that case the allowance made such express
shall be paid out of any money in the Treasury arising
from militia fines---In all cases where there has
been a special regimental muster for the purpose of
forming a detachment of militia called into actual
service, or ordered to be held in readiness to take
the field at a moment's warning, the adjutant and
musician attending such muster shall be entitled to
the same compensation as for attending the annual
regimental muster; and the regimental courts of
enquiry are authorized and required, where it has
not already been done, to make the allowances to
all such adjutants and musicians, which shall be certified
and paid in the same manner that other claims
of the adjutant and musicians are certified and
paid.

59. An act appointing commissioners to ascertain
and mark the dividing line between the counties
of Russell, Washington and Scott.

60. An act concerning Mary Thom.

61. An act changing the mode of electing Common
Councilmen for the Borough of Norfolk.

62. An act to amend the act concerning Counsel
and Attorneys at Law, authorizing strangers residing
in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee,
Kentucky, N. Carolina and Maryland, and in the
District of Columbia, to practice law in the Courts
of this State.

63. An act altering the time of holding a Superior
Court for the county of Scott.

64. An act authorizing the employment of an
additional Clerk in the Land Office, and for calling
in Land Warrants issued on or before the 2d day of
Feb. last.

65. An act incorporating a company to establish
a turnpike road from the city of Richmond
or near the new bridges erected across Chickahominy
river.

66. An act incorporating the Franklin Library
and Reading Company of Lexington in the county of
Rockbridge.

67. An act concerning the widow and children
of Jesse Hacking dec'd.

68. An act incorporating a company to open &
establish the navigation of the Ocoquan river & its
tributaries.

69. An act to incorporate a company to open
& establish a turnpike road from Shepherd's town to
Winchester.

70. An act to alter the times for holding certain
Superior Courts of law in the third Judicial
Circuit.

71. An act concerning Robert McCandlish.

72. An act increasing the pension of Moses Rollins.

73. An act to revive and amend an act, entitled
an act incorporating, extending and improving the
navigation of the river Rappahannock, and all its
navigable branches.

74. An act extending Granby Street in the Borough
of Norfolk.

75. An act concerning Daniel Wilson.

76. An act establishing a ferry from the land of
Wm. Haws across the Potomac.

77. An act to create a fund for internal improvement
passed the 5th day of February, 1816,
declares that a fund shall be created, to be denominated,
"The fund for internal improvement." and
to be applied, exclusively, to the purpose of rendering
navigable and uniting, by canals, the principal
rivers, and more habitually connecting, by public
highways, the different parts of this Commonwealth.
It shall consist of the shares held by the Commonwealth
in the Stock of the Little River Turnpike
Company, of the Dismal Swamp, Appomattox,
Potowmac, and James River Canal Companies: of
the Bank of Virginia and Farmers' Bank of Virginia;
together with such dividends as may, from
time to time, accrue on such shares; and such bonus,
or premiums, as may be hereafter received for the incorporation
of new Banks, or for the augmentation of the Capitals,
or the extension of the charters of existing Banks.--For the purpose
of preserving and improving this fund, and of
disbursing such portions of it as the General Assembly
may, from time to time, direct to be applied to
any object of internal improvement, it shall be vested
in a corporate body, to be styled 'the President
and Directors of the board of public works;' of
which Board the Governor, ex-officio, shall be President
and the Directors shall consist of the Treasurer
and the Attorney General of this Commonwealth,
for the time being, and of ten citizens thereof; of whom
three shall reside Westward of the
Alleghany mountain; two between the Alleghany
and the Blue Ridge; three between the Blue
Ridge and the great Post Road, which, passing
through the territory of the Commonwealth, crosses
the principal Rivers thereof at or about the head
of tide water; and the residue between that road
and the Sea coast, which ten Directors shall be chosen
annually by joint ballot of the two Houses of the
General Assembly, and shall receive for their services
such compensation as may be allowed by law,
which, until otherwise provided, shall be the same
mileage for travelling to and from the place of sitting,
and the same pay per diem, during the continuance
of their services, as is now by law allowed
to a member of the General Assembly. (The
details of this Law are very important, but occupy
too much space to be comprehended in a sketch of
this nature. By the 6th Section, the public faith is
solemnly pledged to fulfill the appropriations made
thereby: and that the said appropriation shall continue
in force until the first day of January, 1826.
except at such times as the United States of America
may be involved in war, or the safety of the
Commonwealth may, in the opinion of the General
Assembly, require; when the General Assembly
may withdraw, during the period of actual hostilities.
or of such imminent danger, the whole or any part
of the said fund for the purpose of defence; provided
such withdrawal can be made without a violation
of any engagement entered into under this act.

78. An act to amend An act, entitled An act to
organize and establish Superior Courts of law in the
counties of Accomack, and Northampton, and for other
purposes, passed the 9th day of February,
1809." (By this act, an addition of $250
dollars per annum is made to the salary of the Judge of the
General Court for the 4th Circuit.

79. An act to continue in force, for a limited
time, the act entitled, An act giving further time to
the owners of surveys in the county of Grayson to
return their plats and certificates of surveys into
the Land Office.

80. An act concerning Richard Davis.

81. An act allowing the town of Petersburg a
Representative in the House of Delegates and for other
purposes.

82. An act to alter the days of holding the Superior
Courts of Law in the sixth judicial Circuit.

83. An act authorizing the establishing a Museum
on part of the public Square in the City of
Richmond.

84. An act appointing Commissioners to run and
mark the dividing line between the counties of Kanawha
and Cabell.

85. An act to preserve the Public Arms--requires
the Executive to select and purchase three
proper situations for Arsenals, one on the western
side of the Alleghany, and two on the eastern side
thereof above the City of Richmond, and to have
such buildings erected for the preservation of the
Arms, and such fortifications made for the defence
of the Arsenals, as in their opinion shall appear expedient:
each arsenal to be large enough to contain
twenty thousand stand of Arms complete; and
the Executive may have either of them built first
as circumstances may in their judgment require;
but that which is first erected is to be supplied with
the twenty thousand stand of Arms, and the guard
hereinafter mentioned, before another is commenced:
and each successive Arsenal shall be supplied
with arms and guards, before the expense of commencing
or building another shall be incurred.
The executive are to commission one Lieutenant,
& enlist any number of privates not exceeding twenty
and one Sergeant to be enlisted for each Arsenal.
for a term not exceeding five years, for the purpose
of guarding and keeping said arms in good order
and erecting said fortifications to receive such pay
and allowances as the troops of the United States
are now allowed by law, and be subject to the rules
and articles of war, except that the punishment of
death shall not be inflicted for any violation of those
articles by the soldiers so enlisted. When an Arsenal
is finished, and the guards for it enlisted, the
Executive shall cause as many of the public Arms
to be taken from the hands of the militia, and to be
deposited in the said Arsenal, as will supply the
same, having all such as shall not be in excellent
and complete order previously repaired; or such
Arsenal may be supplied from the City of Richmond;
provided that there shall not be less than
twelve thousand stand of arms, in good order for
action, at any time in the said City. The said Lieutenants
are to hold their commissions during the
pleasure of the Executive: and it shall be their duty
to inspect and cause to be kept safe and clean the
arms at their respective Arsenals, to make monthly
returns of their state and condition to the Executive,
and to give receipts for all the public arms delivered
to them. It shall be the duty of the Colonel
commanding the regiment in which either of the
Arsenals may be erected, once in every three
months to examine into the condition of the arms
therein deposited, and make report thereof, and also
of the condition of the Arsenals and Fortifications,
to the Executive. For such examination and return,
he shall be allowed five dollars, to be paid out
of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated:
and if he shall fail to make such examination
and return once in every three months, he shall forfeit
and pay the sum of ten dollars, with costs for
each failure, to be recovered by action of debt, in
any Superior or Inferior Court of Law, of a county
where he may be found; to be applied for the benefit
of the literary fund; and in case the said colonel
shall fail to make either of the returns required,
it shall be the duty of the Executive to cause suit to
be brought for each penalty incurred, unless a sufficient
excuse should be offered to them for such failure
within three months thereafter. It shall not
hereafter be lawful for the Executive to distribute
the public arms among the militia, except to such of
them as may be called into actual service; but
they may arm any volunteer or other company of
militia, if the party applying for the arms shall give
bond and good security, to be approved by the Executive,
that the arms shall be kept in good order, and
returned to the orders of the Executive, when they may at any time
require it. And the Executive shall so regulate the
penalty and condition of each of the bonds aforesaid,
as to secure the rights of the Commonwealth, and
in case of a violation of the condition of such bond
suit shall immediately be brought thereon for the
benefit of the Commonwealth. The operation of
this act is not to extend to the counties situated below,
or intersected by the great post road leading
through the territory of the Commonwealth from
North to South and crossing the principal Rivers
thereof at or about tide-water: nor to the chief
Towns upon the banks of those Rivers, or the counties
in which those Towns are situated.