Richmond Enquirer

SKETCH OF THE LAWS.

Passed by the General Assembly of Virginia, at the session which commenced on Monday, December 6th, 1819.

[CONCLUDED.]

1. An act, to amend the act, entitled, an act for clearing and improving the navigation of James river, and for uniting the eastern and western waters by the James and Kanawha rivers.'--This law was inserted at full length in Thursday's Enquirer.

112. An act, 'to enlarge the Lunatic Hospital in the city of Williamsburg.'

113 An act, 'altering the time of holding a superior court of law for the county of Southampton, and for other purposes,' provides that that court shall be holden on the 30th days of March and August, and that the quarterly court of the same county shall be in August annually.

114. An act, 'to amend an act to incorporate the Dismal Swamp Land Company.'

115. An act, 'to repeal in part, the act, entitled, 'an act for the relief of Daniel Davisson, Jr.'

116 An act, 'to amend an act concerning the constables for the City of Richmond.'

117 An act. 'to amend an act, entitled, "an act incorporating Shepherdstown in the county of Jefferson, and for other purposes."

118 An act, 'authorising Thomas Meaux to erect a dam across Ware creek.'

119. An act, 'to revive and amend the act, entitled, ''an act incorporating a company to establish a turnpike road from John J. Dickenson's tavern in the county of Goochland to the commencement of the Richmond turnpike road, passed the 23d of Feb. 1816.'

120 An act, 'concerning the Directors of the Literary Fund, and the Board of Public Works.' provides that, whenever, from any cause, the President of the court of appeals shall be unable to attend the Board of Directors of the Literary Fund, it shall be the duty of the senior Judge of said court, capable of attending, to act as a Director thereof, in lieu of the said President: that the attorney general shall cease to be a member of the Board of Public Works : and that, in his stead, the Governor with the advice of Council, shall annually appoint some member of the Council to act as a Director of the Board of Public Works.

121. An act, 'to amend the act, entitled, 'an act prescribing certain general regulations for the incorporation of turnpike companies.' provides that, when the share of any stockholder shall be offered for sale, pursuant to the 6th section of that act, and there shall be no bidders therefor, the President and Directors shall be entitled to the like remedy as is thereby provided for the recovery of the balance due in case of a sale of such share; and that, at any toll gate erected, agreeably to law, on any turnpike road, the tolls authorised to be collected may be demanded of every person passing said gate, whether such person shall have travelled the whole, or only a part, of the section of the road on which such gate shall have been erected.

122. An act, 'altering the time of holding the Hustings court of the corporation of Lynchburg.' to the first Tuesday in every month, instead of the time now prescribed by law.

123. An act, appropriating the public revenue.'--The principal appropriations are, to the expenses of the general Assembly, 30,000 dolls : to the Salaries and allowances of the officers of government 20,000 dolls.: to commissioners of the revenue 27,000 dolls : for criminal charges 34,000 dolls : for a civil contingent fund 18,000 dolls. : for a military contingent fund 4,000 dolls.; for pensioners 6,500 dolls. : to the militia establishment 20,000. : for the internal expenses of the Penitentiary institution 54,000 dolls. to officers of the Penitentiary for their services 6,000 dolls. ; to the expenses of removing criminals from county jails to the Penitentiary 7,000 dolls : to the public manufactory of arms, including the costs of repairing arms 50,000 dolls ; to the officers of the armory for their salaries 4,500 dolls : to gun carriages, cleaning and removing arms 1,000 dolls.: to the public guard in the city of Richmond 3,500 dolls.; to pay for slaves transported and executed 15,000 dolls.; to defray the expenses of the revision of the laws, by paying pay to superintendent and printer 23,000 dolls.; for the lunatic hospital 10,000 dolls.: to guards at the public arsenals 5,000 dolls; and to expense of assessment of lands 25,000 dolls.

124. An act, 'imposing taxes for the support of government.' The taxes on lands are imposed according to the new assessment, at the rate of 12 1/2 cents for every hundred dollars value. The tax on pedlars is increased to eighty dollars on every license to a pedlar of dry goods, and forty dollars on every license to a pedlar trading in tin or pewter. In other respects, the taxes are the same as for last year.

125. An act, 'to amend an act entitled "an act reducing tax on at the several acts providing for the poor, and declaring who shall be deemed vagrants," provides, that "shall hereafter be the duty of the overseers of the poor to examine, once in every three months, into the idleness of all free negroes and mulattoes residing in their respective districts; and, unless it shall appear that they procure by their own labour, or by purchase or otherwise from persons having the right to hold and sell property, sufficient means of subsistence for themselves and families all such free negroes or mulattoes, as by law full age." shall be deemed and treated as vagrants and treated as such that, if any free negro or mulatto, shall buy, sell or receive of, to, or from a slave any commodity whatever, without the leave of the master, owner or overseer of such slave, or shall presume to deal with any slave, without such leave. he or she, so offending, shall, in addition to the forfeitures and penalties to which such offender is now subjected by law, be moreover deemed and taken to be, and treated as a vagrant: that any sheriff hereafter appointed collector of poor rates, refusing or neglecting to serve as such, after being duly notified, shall forfeit $50 dollars, to the use of the poor, recoverable on motion, on ten days notice, in the name of the overseers of the poor : that, if any person on whom any poor rate or county levy is assessed, shall not have any visible property from which it can be made, it shall be lawful for the sheriff or collector of the same, to attach the debts or money of the said person in the hands of any other person : and it shall be lawful for such garnishee to pay the amount due on account of such poor rate or county levy : and the receipt of the sheriff or collector for the same shall be a discharge for so much against the person on whom such poor rate or county levy is assessed, and, if such garnishee shall refuse or fail to pay, and deny, the sheriff or collector shall summon him or her before a justice of the peace : and if he or she shall appear, and, on oath or affirmation, shall acknowledge that he or she is indebted to, or has effects in his or her hands, of the person on whom such poor rate or county levy is assessed, or shall fail to appear having been duly summoned, or refuse to be sworn or affirmed, the justice shall award execution against him or her, for the amount of such poor rate or county levy, or for so much thereof as shall appear to be in his or her hands, with costs, including a fee of 63 cents to the sheriff or collector.

126. An act, 'altering the time of holding a superior court of law for the county of Lunenburg.' Court to be held on the Tuesday after the 3d Monday in April and September in each year.

127. An act.' authorizing the Board of Public Works to subscribe for one hundred and fifty shares of the stock of the Upper Appomattox company, and for other purposes.'

128. An act, 'directing the payment of a certain sum of money to the School Commissioners of the county of Spotsylvania.'

129. An act, 'concerning William Miller, junr.'

130. An act. 'to amend an act, entitled. ' an act for improving the navigation of Wils's river.'

131. An act, 'to amend the act more effectually to prevent the circulation of notes emitted by unchartered banks.' declares it unlawful for any person, with the intention to create or put into circulation a paper circulating medium, to issue, circulate, directly or indirectly, cause to be issued, or put into circulation, any note, bill, check or ticket purporting or evidencing, or intended to purport or evidence, that any sum less than five dollars will be paid to any person receiving or holding such note, bill, check or ticket, or that it will be received in the payment of any debts or dues. Any person who shall, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, directly, or indirectly, issue, circulate, or cause to be issued or put into circulation, or who shall sign, countersign or endorse any note, bill, check or ticket, as aforesaid, shall be held and taken to be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than three hundred dollars, and imprisonment for a term of not less than one nor more than twelve months, at the discretion of a jury.--But no person is prevented from giving his bond or note, in consideration of any contract, or for any sum which may be bona fide due to the person receiving the same, or from drawing a check or draft for any sum actually due to the drawer. It shall not be lawful for any body politic or corporate, to make, or cause to be made, any bond, note, bill, draft, acceptance, check, ticket or token, purporting or evidencing that such body politic or corporate, or that any officer or agent thereof, owes or will pay, or requires any other person, body politic or corporate, to pay any sum of money less than five dollars ; and, if any member, officer or agent thereof, shall make or cause to be made, or shall aid or assist in making, or causing to be made, or shall sign, countersign or endorse any such bond, note, bill, draft, acceptance, check, ticket or token, he shall forfeit and pay, for every such offence, a fine, not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars; and the holder of any such bond, note, bill, draft, acceptance, check, ticket or token, may recover thereupon, from the body politic or corporate, making the same, or causing it to be made, or from any member, officer or agent of a body politic or corporate, who shall have made or caused to be made, or aided or assisted in making, or signed, countersigned or endorsed the same, the full sum of twenty dollars, with costs, either by warrant before a justice of the peace, or by motion, on ten days' notice in court ; but no body politic or corporate, &c. is prevented from making any draft or check, and using it for the purpose only of drawing money actually due to them.--In like manner, any person, who, with the intention to issue, circulate or offer it in payment, shall bring into this Commonwealth any note, bill, check or ticket purporting that any sum less than one dollar is due thereon, or that the said note, &c. will be received for any taxes, debts or dues, or is passable at any place or to any person within or without this Commonwealth, is also declared guilty of a misdemeanor: fined not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars : imprisonment not exceeding one month.--Such offender may also be bound to his good behavior; but these provisions do not extend to travellers or sojourners, in this Commonwealth, who, without intent to violate the provisions of this act, shall pay or offer in payment, any such bill, note, check or ticket.--A fine of ten dollars is incurred by any person, who shall pay, or offer in payment, or in any manner, directly or indirectly, circulate, or cause to be circulated, any note, bill, check or ticket, the issuing or putting into circulation of which is by this act prohibited.--This act to go into effect in December next.

132. An act. 'to amend an act to reduce into one all acts, and parts of acts, or regulating the militia of this commonwealth'--provides, that if any clerk of a regimental court of enquiry shall hereafter fail, within 60 days after the adjournment thereof, to transmit to the auditor a list of all claims allowed upon the militia fund, or if there be no such claim allowed, to certify that fact; or shall fail to return to the auditor, within the time prescribed by law, the sheriff's or collector's receipt for each list of militia fines put into his hands for collection, together with a copy of such list : or, if there be no such list, to certify that fact to the auditor, on or before the 1st day of Sept. in each year, such clerk shall, for every such failure, forfeit $50, recoverable on motion of the auditor in the general court on reasonable notice... The fine hereby imposed for failure to return any list of fines shall be in lieu of the fine heretofore imposed by law, and it shall not hereafter be the duty of the auditor to certify such failure to the colonel of the regiment. It shall be the duty of the sheriffs and other collectors of militia fines, to return a list of all insolvents, in relation to such fines, allowed by the respective courts of enquiry, to the auditor of public accounts, within eighteen months after such fines shall have been payable into the treasury : and no list of insolvents, not returned within that period, shall be allowed by the auditor : nor shall any such list hereafter returned to any court of enquiry be allowed by the auditor, unless the same shall be verified by the oath or affirmation of the sheriff or other collector, nor unless the court of enquiry shall certify that they believe the same to be correct, and that it ought to be allowed. All claims upon the militia fine fund, which shall not be paid by the sheriff, or other collector, and which shall be payable out of the public treasury, shall be presented within two years after allowance by the respective courts of enquiry, or be disallowed by the auditor.' 'This act shall be published and distributed by the Executive, together with the act to which it is amendatory, and one copy of the laws so to be published shall be furnished to each court of enquiry, to be kept and preserved by the clerk thereof.

133. An act, 'concerning the clerks of county and corporation courts.' requires each clerk to transmit the auditor annually an attested copy of the bond entered into by the sheriff or collector of the public revenue in his court, within ninety days after such bond shall have been taken : under a penalty of $150..... Copies of such bonds, heretofore entered into at any time since the 1st of January 1819, as have not been transmitted to the auditor, shall be transmitted to him, by the said clerks, on or before the 1st day of June next ; and any clerk failing herein shall be liable to the like fine.

134. An act,'to authorize the notes of the Bank of the Valley and its branches, and of the North Western Bank of Virginia, to be received in payment of the revenue of this commonwealth.'

135. An act, authorizing the executive to procure a sum of money for the use of the commonwealth, if the same should be found necessary to meet the public expenditures of the current year.' The loan is not to exceed eighty five thousand dollars, at a rate of interest not greater than six per centum per annum, and for a period not exceeding twelve months. If a sufficient sum of money cannot be so borrowed, the executive, with the consent of the board of directors of the literary fund, are to apply to that object any portion of the sinking fund, which would have been applicable to the payment of the principal of the debt due by the commonwealth to the literary fund.

136. An act, authorising Henry Hill to assume the surname of Newton.

137. An act, 'concerning the Lynchburg and Salem turnpike company.'

138. An act, 'to amend an act, entitled an act, ' concerning William Campbell.'

139. An act, 'concerning James Paxton.'

140. An act.'for paying the officers of the general assembly for their services during the present session.'

141. An act.' concerning the clerks of the several county courts within this commonwealth,' makes it their duty to furnish the executive, on or before the 31st of December, in each year, with a register of the acting magistrates in their respective counties, under a penalty of $100.

142. An act, 'farther to amend an act; entitled, ' an act for vesting in trustees certain lots and streets in the town of Fredericksburg, and for other purposes.'

143. An act' to amend an act, entitled 'an act to provide for the collection of taxes on licenses to merchants ; to hawkers and pedlars : to keepers of ordinaries and houses of private entertainment: on law process and certain other subjects.' provides, that, hereafter, when any hawker or pedlar shall obtain a license to sell goods of any description, from any court of record, the clerk shall affix the seal of the court to such license, for which he shall receive a fee of one dollar, in addition to the tax on the seal: that every such license shall be recorded in the court of each county or corporation in which the hawker or pedlar offers goods for sale, for which he shall pay one dollar to the clerk : and in case of failure, each hawker or pedlar shall be subject to the same penalty as if he had no such license.--Any person who shall offer for sale or barter, as a hawker or pedlar, any goods contrary to this act, or to the act of which it is amendatory, shall forfeit one hundred dollars, recoverable as in that act is provided.' Hereafter it shall not be lawful to grant any such license on payment of the tax thereon to the sergeant of any corporation: but before such license shall be granted, a receipt for such tax shall be produced from the sheriff or deputy sheriff or collector of the revenue for the county.-- Every master, owner or commander of a vessel, navigating water within the jurisdiction of this commonwealth, and every person on board such vessel, who shall sell or offer for sale, any goods, wares or merchandise, by retail, on board the said vessel, shall be considered as a hawker and pedlar, within the meaning of this act, and of the act to which this is amendatory : and every such master, &c. who shall sell, or offer for sale, any goods, &c. by retail, as aforesaid, within the jurisdiction of this Commonwealth, without having obtained a license, or without having recorded the same, may be prosecuted and punished by the justices of the court of any county or corporation, opposite the shore whereof such offence shall have been committed : provided that nothing in this act contained shall extend to the sale of any goods, &c. the growth, produce or manufacture of this State, or to the sale of any provisions or agricultural produce, the growth of any of the United States. Takes effect the first of June, eighteen hundred and twenty.

144. An act, 'to amend the act to reduce into one act the several acts concerning executions, and for the relief of insolvent debtors'--[This act was published in the last Enquirer.]

145 An act. 'concerning writs of error coram vobis, and for other purposes.'--By this act, writs of error coram vobis, and all other writs of error in civil cases, may be awarded, in vacation, by any judge of the court of appeals, or general court, or any superior court of law, or by any two justices of a county or corporation court, in the same manner, and upon the same conditions as such writs may be awarded by the said courts respectively in term time. Every such writ issued in pursuance of this act shall operate as a supersedeas. Every bond given upon taking an appeal, or upon the issuing of any writ of error or supersedeas, and all bonds and obligations, given for a good and valuable consideration, shall be as good and as available in law, though the obligee or obligees, or part of the obligees therein mentioned, be dead at the time of the execution thereof, as if such obligee or obligees had then been in full life: and every such bond or obligation may be proceeded on by the surviving obligee or obligees, or by the representatives of the decedent or decedents, in the same manner as if such decedent or decedents had been alive at the time of the execution thereof, and had immediately thereafter died.

146. An act. 'to amend an act, entitled, 'an act against embezzling of records, and for other purposes'--provides that, if any record, or parcel of the same, or any writ, return, panel, process or warrant of attorney in any court of record be stolen, or be wilfully and fraudulently taken away, withdrawn or avoided, by any clerk, or by any other person, such stealer, taker away, withdrawer or avoider, his procurers, counsellors and abettors, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and, if a slave, shall suffer death : but if such felon be free, he or she shall be sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary house for not less than five, nor more than fifteen years. If any officer of public trust in this commonwealth, or any other officer or director of any bank, chartered by this commonwealth, shall embezzle, or fraudulently convert to his use, or shall knowingly suffer any other person to embezzle or fraudulently convert to his or their use, any sum of money, bank note, bill, check, bond or other security or facility placed under his care or management by virtue of his office or place aforesaid, the person so offending, his aiders, abettors and counsellors, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and be sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary, for a term not less than three, nor more than ten years.

147 An act. 'authorizing the Governor with the advice of council, to commission Rawley Evans as sheriff of Monongalia county, and for other purposes.'

148. An act, 'to change the quarterly terms of Lewis County ; to the second Mondays in April and September in each year.'

149. An act, authorizing. the visitors of the University of Virginia to borrow money for finishing the buildings thereof.' Sum authorized to be borrowed is not to exceed $60,000; rate of interest not to exceed 6 per centum per annum. For payment of the interest and redemption of the principal, any part of the annual appropriation of $15,000 heretofore made by law to the said university, is to be pledged.

150. An Act, concerning the president and trustees of the Charles City Charity School.'

151. An act, to amend an act, entitled, an act to amend the act reducing into one the several acts concerning the inspection of lumber.' directs that all lumber brought into this state from any state or territory, shall be subject to the rules and regulations of inspection; save such lumber as may be specially exempted from inspection by any law, now in force.

152 An act.'giving farther time for the redemption of lands vested in the president and directors of the Literary Fund, and for other purposes,' allows two years from the 23d of February, 1820, for that purpose : such redemption is not to be by payment to any clerk, but into the treasury only The 41st and 42d sections of the act of February 9, 1814, shall continue in full force in relation to all such lands, in the same manner, as if they had never been offered for sale under the said act.

153 An act,' to amend an act, entitled.' an act to reduce into one act the several acts, and parts of acts, for establishing a penitentiary house, and for the punishment of crimes,' repeals the 40th section of that act.

154. An act. requiring the governor of this Commonwealth to transmit to the Secretary of State of the United States, copies of certain laws therein mentioned." Under this act four copies of the Statutes at Large, four copies of the Revisal of 1792, and of each subsequent Revisal, four copies of the Session Acts of 1818 and 1819, and annually thereafter of each session of Assembly ; one copy to be for the use of the two houses of Congress, one for the use of each of the two houses of Congress, one for the president of the United States, and one for the library of Congress.

155. An act, for the relief of Rachel Haines, widow and administratrix of Samuel Haines deceased.'

156 An act, 'concerning Charles Vivion.'

157 An act making provision for publishing reports of the decisions of the court of appeals,' authorizes and requires the Court to appoint a proper person to report the decisions of the said court, whose duty it shall be to publish on or before the 1st. day of January, 1821, and annually thereafter, a volume of reports, well printed on good paper, large octavo, and bound in calf. "with a full and complete index ; which volume shall contain the decisions of at least one year: that is to say, all cases decided in such year, as, in the opinion of any one judge of the said court shall be worth reporting ; and to deliver to the clerk of the council 600 copies of the said volume for the use of the commonwealth; printing, on his own account, not more than 400 copies additional, of the first edition of the work: whereby the Governor with the advice of council, shall direct the auditor to issue a warrant in favour of said reporter for the sum of 50 cents for every 100 pages contained in each copy of the said work, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. The said copies received on behalf of the commonwealth shall be distributed, as follows; viz. one copy to each clerk of the superior and inferior courts for the use of their respective courts; one copy to each of the judges of the court of appeals, general court, and superior courts of Chancery; one copy to the attorney general, and to each of the attorneys for the commonwealth in the superior or inferior courts ; and the remaining copies shall be sold for the public benefit, for the price of 1$ for every 100 pages, in such manner as the Executive shall order and direct The reporter so appointed shall hold his office during the pleasure of the court of appeals.

158 An act, 'to amend an act, entitled, 'an act reducing into one all acts, and parts of acts, concerning the superior courts of chancery, provides that, during any vacancy, by death, &c. in the office of marshal, process may be executed by the Sheriff, as formerly : and that the fee to the clerk of the general court and to the clerks of the superior courts of chancery for a search, shall be 12 1/2 cents, instead of 25 cents, as allowed in the New Revised Code.

159. An act,'to amend an act reducing into one the several acts prescribing the mode of ascertaining the taxable property, within this commonwealth, and of collecting the state revenue, provides, that the courts of the counties of Amherst, Berkeley, Cumberland, Fairfax, Goochland, Hampshire, Hardy, Isle of Wight, King & Queen, Louisa, Lancaster, Monongalia, Orange, Ohio, Prince Edward, Princess Anne, Prince William, Pendleton, Russell, Scott, Sussex and Stafford, shall hereafter be authorized to appoint one commissioner of the revenue only ; and the counties of Frederick, Fauquier and Loudoun to appoint two such commissioners only. The courts of the several counties aforesaid are authorized to allow each commissioner a sum not exceeding $200. The courts of Cabell, Giles, Nelson, Nicholas, Preston, Tazewell and Morgan are to appoint each one commissioner, whose compensation is to be the same as that allowed in the counties not specified in this act The commissioners for each county which has been established since the new assessment, are to apply to the commissioners of the counties of which such new counties were part, and, from the tables of assessment furnished by the auditor, compile a correct list of all the lands in such new county, in the form of those tables; a copy whereof shall be transmitted to the auditor on or before the 1st of September next, and the auditor is to correct his tables of assessment accordingly, striking from the list all such tracts of land as heretofore composed any part or the whole of such new counties ; and the table so furnished shall be of equal validity with the other tables in his office ; and he shall also charge the amount thereof in the same manner as that of other counties; and the commissioners of any such county, which composes part of a new county, shall also strike from their list of lands contained in such new counties.

160 An act changing the time of holding the superior courts of law in the county of Harrison.' to the 1st Monday in April and September, instead of the time heretofore prescribed by law.

161. An act to amend the act, to reduce into one the several acts concerning the Auditor and Treasurer provides, that the auditor of public accounts shall keep a general ledger of accounts, into which all the balances due to or from this Commonwealth shall be brought; and at the end of each fiscal year, the unsettled accounts on the said book shall be balanced and the balance carried forward to the books of the succeeding year. And it shall, moreover, be the duty of the auditor to lay before the General Assembly, at each session, a list of all unsettled claims due to or from this commonwealth, corresponding with the balances struck on his books at the termination of the last fiscal year, with such marginal notes as will show the nature of the debt, the steps taken to enforce payment and the prospect of collection in case of claims due to the commonwealth. The auditor shall on the last day of each quarter of the fiscal year in each year, compare the books of his office with those of the treasury department, and, after having carefully entered all the receipts and disbursements up to that time, strike the balance on his books, showing the amount of money in the hands of the treasurer due to the commonwealth and carry the said balance forward to the next year The Treasurer shall keep a general ledger of accounts into which he shall post all the receipts and disbursements at his office, arranging the receipts and disbursements under the heads to which they properly belong;--He shall open on the said ledger a general account of receipts and disbursements, which last mentioned account, he shall compare with the books kept by the auditor in his office on the last day of each quarter of the fiscal year in each year, and, after having made them to correspond shall strike the balance on the said account showing the amount at that time, in his hands, due to the commonwealth, which balance shall be carried forward on the books to the general account for the next quarter.-- The treasurer shall keep accounts on the books of his office with the different banks in which the public revenue or money is deposited, on which balances shall be struck at the aforesaid periods, showing the amount in bank to the credit of the commonwealth at the end of each quarter. And he shall moreover keep a general cash account, which shall be balanced at the aforesaid periods, showing the balance in the Treasury office at the end of each quarter The Executive shall appoint a committee of their body whose duty it shall be to repair to the treasury office at the end of each quarter aforesaid for the purpose of examining the settlement made by the auditor and treasurer, detecting errors in such settlement, if there be any, ascertaining the money on deposit in the Banks, and the money in the treasury such committee shall make report thereof to the Executive, and if it shall appear to their satisfaction that the treasurer has misapplied public money or treasure committed to his care, it shall be the duty of the Executive, and they are hereby required to remove him from office, and appoint a successor to continue in office until an appointment be made by the General Assembly The office hours for transacting business in the treasurer's and auditor's office, shall be as follows; from the first day of April to the first day of November, the office shall be open at daylight o'clock, and from the first day of November to the first day of April, they shall be opened at nine o'clock, and shall not close sooner than three o'clock, on any day.

162 An act, authorizing the Treasurer of this Commonwealth to appoint an Accountant and prescribing his duties.' authorizes and requires the Treasurer, as soon as possible, to employ a competent accountant, whose duty it shall be, under the superintendence of the Treasurer--1 To examine into and ascertain all sums of money which have been received from the government of the United States, by this commonwealth, for advances made or debts incurred by this state for the service of the United States, during the late war with Great Britain 2. To ascertain whether any such sums of money as aforesaid were paid how paid, to whom paid, and in what medium, whether bank notes, treasury notes, or specie. 3 To ascertain what portion of said sums was applied to the payment of the public debt of this commonwealth, what on to the purchase of stock, where the stock so purchased, the price given for each kind, and its present condition and value 4 To ascertain the amount of all dividends derived from the stock of the commonwealth in all turnpike and navigation companies to whom and when such dividends were paid since the 1st day of October 1819 : and in like manner to ascertain the dividends which have accrued and been paid to the commonwealth upon its stock in the Bank of the United States, the Bank of the Valley of Virginia, and the Northwestern Bank of Virginia. The accountant aforesaid shall compare the statements thus made by him, and the sums of money thus ascertained by him to have been paid to the commonwealth, with the books in the office of the treasury and in the auditor's office, & ascertain as far as practicable, the particular times at which any of the public money may have been misapplied, and the result of the whole, together with the various accounts which it may be necessary for him to make out he shall report to the governor and council, who after examining them, shall furnish the same to the treasurer of this commonwealth, for his direction and information, with regard to any suit which he may, in obedience to law, in titute against his predecessor in office. 2. For the services required by this act of the accountant aforesaid, he shall be allowed a compensation at the rate of 2000 dollars per annum during the time he shall be actually engaged in performing such services. 3. As soon as the governor and council shall have ascertained the compensation of the accountant aforesaid, agreeably to the foregoing section of this act, and certified the same, as well as that the services have been faithfully performed, to the auditor of public accounts he shall be, and he is hereby authorized to issue his warrant for the sum thus certified, in favor of the said accountant, on the treasurer, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.-- It shall be the duty of the said accountant to ascertain all sums of money which have been received by any officer or agent of the commonwealth, since the 1st day of October 1819, for the rents of lands belonging to the commonwealth, and warehouses within the same, stating the time when any such sums were paid, and to whom.