Ch. 37.-Duelling. Any person, who shall wilfully or maliciously, and by previous agreement, fight a duel with any weapon or instrument, the probable consequence of which might be death, and shall kill his antagonist, or any other person, or inflict a wound, of which the person wounded shall die within three months, shall be guilty of murder and suffer death by hanging; and his aiders and abettors are subjected to the same punishment. s. 1. Persons having been concerned in a duel, are incapacitated for offices of trust or emolument, civil, military, legislative, executive, or judicial. s. 2. And persons entering upon such offices are required to take an oath that they have not been, and will not be, concerned in a duel. s. 3.

Ch. 39.-Teaching free Negroes and Mulattoes, or Slaves. Free negroes or mulattoes remaining in the state contrary to law, are liable to be sold by the sheriff. s. 1. Meetings of free negroes or mulattoes to learn reading or writing, are declared to be unlawful, and are to be dispersed, and the offenders subjected to corporeal punishment, not exceeding twenty lashes, at the discretion of a justice of the peace. s. 4. And white persons assembling with them for the purpose of instructing them, are liable to a fine not exceeding $50, and imprisonment not exceeding two months. s. 5. Any white person who, for pay, shall assemble with slaves, to teach them to read or write, shall be liable to a fine of not less than $10 or more than $100. s. 6.

Ch. 40.-Sabbath Breakers and Disturbers of Religious Worship. The part of the law of 1792 providing that any disturber of religious worship and sabbath-breaker, not able to pay the fine imposed by law, 'shall receive ten lashes upon his or her bare back, well laid on,' is repealed.

\ Ch. 43.—Pilotage. 'Every registered vessel owned by a citizen or citizens of the United States, or by the citizens or subjects of any foreign state, whose vessels are by treaty with the government of the United States, placed on the same footing as vessels of the United States, shall pay the following rates of pilotage, in lieu of those now established by law; to wit, from sea to Hampton Roads, $125 per foot; from Hampton Roads to sea, $1 per foot; from Hampton Roads to Norfolk and Portsmouth, 50 cents per foot; from Hampton Roads to Sleepy Hole or Look Out, 75 cents per foot; from Hampton Roads to Pagan Creek, 60 cents per foot; from Hampton Roads to James Town, or any place between Pagan Creek and James Town, $1 per foot; from Hampton Roads to City Point or Bermuda Hundred, or any place between James Town and City Point or Bermuda Hundred, $2 per

foot; from Hampton Roads to Turkey Island, $2 121 per foot; from Hampton Roads to Warwick, or any place between Turkey Island and Warwick, $2 80 per foot; from Hampton Roads to Richmond, $3 per foot; Provided, nevertheless, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to compel the master of any vessel as is above mentioned, after he shall have arrived at Bermuda Hundred, to employ a pilot between Bermuda Hundred and Richmond.' s. 1.

That all foreign vessels not placed by treaty with the government of the United States on the same footing as the vessels mentioned in the foregoing section, shall pay one fourth in addition to the rates of pilotage therein prescribed.' s. 2.

'That the same rates of pilotage may be demanded for conducting a vessel from each of the places mentioned in the first section of this act to Hampton Roads, as are demandable for conducting such vessel from Hampton Roads to the said places respectively.' s. 3.

'That the rates of pilotage for ships of war, whether American or foreign, shall be the same as for merchant vessels of like draught, with fifty cents per foot additional for all such ships of war drawing more than eighteen feet.' s. 4.

Ch. 45.-Taking Oysters. Persons not resident in Virginia are prohibited from taking oysters in the waters within the state; under a penalty of $100 for each offence; and a lien is given on the vessel and tackle used, to satisfy the judgment rendered for the penalty.

Ch. 46.-Killing Wild Deer, between the first days of January and September, is prohibited.

Ch. 47.-Red Foxes. The magistrates of each county are authorized to offer a reward for the destruction of red foxes.

Ch. 54.-Taxes. Lands are taxed eight cents on the value of $100; houses and lots 'in town' $2 on every $100 yearly rent; if 'improved,' but not rented or occupied,' eight cents on the value of $100, and the same if not improved;' the tax on every slave above twelve years old, and not exempted for age or infirmity, is twenty-five cents; on every stallion or jackass, twice the price at which he serves a mare by the season; other horses and mules, six cents; a license for a public house or ordinary, $18, and also seven per cent. on the excess of the rent or annual value of the premises occupied, over $200; a pleasure carriage, stage coach, jersey waggon, carryall, with the harnesses, one per cent. on the value, not to exceed $2 on a four-wheel riding or pleasure carriage, or to be less than $1 on each stage coach, jersey waggon, or

carryall, nor less than fifty cents on a two-wheel pleasure carriage; each writ of ejectment seventy-five cents; each subpoena in the superior court of chancery seventy-five cents; on each supersedeas, habeas corpus cum causa, filing appeal, &c. to superior court, and on each certiorari from the general court to the superior court, $150; on each declaration in ejectment in a county or corporation court, fifty cents; for each certificate under the seal of a court of chancery, $1; a certificate of a notary public, $125; each certificate under the seal of the commonwealth, $2; for licenses to sell by wholesale and retail, $60; to sell lottery tickets, $500; on moneys authorized to be raised by lotteries in the state, one per cent. to be paid before the tickets are sold; for license to hawk and peddle goods, $20; for a license to exhibit a show in any county, $30; for a license to a broker, $60; to sell silver or plated ware, $20; the tax on retail traders is reduced in case of small sales; for a license to a pedler of clocks in any county, $20.

Ch. 55.-The Excise and Export Duty on Tobacco is thirty cents on the hogshead.

Ch. 56.-Appropriations. For the General Assembly, $115,000; salaries and allowances to civil officers, $80,000; commissioners of the revenue and clerks, $28,500; criminal prosecutions and jails, $40,000; interest on the state debt and literary fund, $24,000; sinking fund, $500; contingent expenses of courts, including allowances to clerks, attorneys, sheriffs, and jailors, $30,000; pensions, $3,500; contingent fund, $10,000; militia, $12,000; internal expenses of the penitentiary, $4,000; salaries of officers of the penitentiary, $6,650; public guard in Richmond, $15,500; slaves executed and transported, $8,500; representation to Congress, to state senate, $1,500; public warehouses, $1,000; civil prosecutions, including clerks', sheriffs', and marshals' fees, $300; guard to the Lexington arsenal, $ 4,500; Western Lunatic Hospital, $8,500; that at Williamsburgh, $9,000; reports of cases in the courts of appeals, $4,000; governor's house and furniture, $5,374; and some other appropriations, amounting in the whole to $478,454.

Ch. 59.-Revocation of Licenses. Licenses to store keepers and grocers may be revoked during the year for which they were granted, upon good cause shown. s. 1.

Ch. 59.-Trading with Slaves without the consent of their masters is forbidden. s. 52.

Ch. 110.-Internal Improvement. 'The governor is authorized to employ a skilful engineer, whose duty it shall be, together with

the principal engineer of this state, during the present year, to examine James River from Richmond to Covington, and make an estimate of the probable cost of continuing the canal from Maiden's Adventure to Lynchburg; the probable cost of improving the river between those points by locks and dams; the probable cost of a railroad from Richmond to Lynchburg; to make a similar examination and estimate for the distance between Lynchburg and Covington; to examine the country between James and Jackson's Rivers, Roanoke and New Rivers, for the purpose of ascertaining the best route for a canal or railroad, between such points on those rivers as they may determine, and to make an estimate of the probable cost thereof, and to examine New River, from its point of union with the said canal or railroad, with a view to its improvement by each of the above modes, and to make an estimate of the probable cost thereof.'

Ch. 114. The ex-officio members of the board of public works are hereby authorized and required to direct the civil engineer of the state, or one of his assistants, during the present year, to examine and survey the Shenandoah River from its mouth to the highest point capable of navigation, and also the Shenandoah valley on each side of the Massanutten mountain, with a view of ascertaining the practicability and relative advantages and disadvantages of the improvement of said river by locks and dams, or by a canal, or of a railroad through the said valley ; and to estimate the cost of each method of improvement, and report the result of his examination to the said ex-officio members of said board, that such report may be laid before the next general assembly. s. 1. The said engineer, or one of his assistants, is also directed to survey, as soon as previous engagements will permit, the south branch of Potowmac, and report upon the practicability and expediency of its improvement by canal, locks and dams, or otherwise.' s. 2.

Ch. 117.—The board of public works, or the ex-officio members thereof, shall be, and they are hereby authorized and required to direct the civil engineer of the state, or such other as they may see fit to employ, at some period within the year eighteen hundred and thirty-one, to examine and survey Black Water River, from South Quay to its head, to ascertain the practicability of opening that river, and cutting a canal from Pagan Creek near Smithfield in Isle of Wight county, to some navigable point of said Black Water River, and from the head of the said Black Water River, to the Appomattax River, at or near the town of Petersburg; and to report the advantages and disadvantages thereof to the said

board, that such report may be laid before the general assembly.

s. 1.

Ch. 118.-The ex-officio members of the board of public works are hereby required to direct the public engineer, as soon as shall be consistent with his previous engagements, to examine and survey the country between the town of Suffolk in the county of Nansemond, and Roanoke River, opposite to the town of Weldon in the state of North Carolina, and report an estimate of the probable cost of constructing a railroad from the said town of Suffolk to the said Roanoke, together with all the information relative thereto, which he may think calculated to enable the legislature to form a full, fair, and correct idea of the practicability, cost, and usefulness of said road, the distance and the length of time necessary to make the road.' s. 1.

No. 6.-Resolution. The committee to whom was referred the resolution of the general assembly of Maryland, communicated by the governor, relative to the opening of a safe and direct navigation through the sounds which run parallel with the sea coast, by the construction of such canals as may be requisite for the purpose, between the Chesapeake bay at or near Cape Charles and Lewistown creek, on the bay of Delaware, and inviting the cooperation of this state and that of Delaware, in the improvement, respectfully report, that they have considered the resolution with the attention which it deserves, and duly appreciating the object proposed by it, beg leave to recommend the adoption of the following resolutions:

'Whereas the general assembly of Maryland have adopted a resolution communicated by the governor, relative to the opening of a safe and direct navigation through the sounds which run parallel with the sea coast, and by the construction of such canals as may be requisite for the purpose, between the Chesapeake bay at or near Cape Charles and Lewistown creek, on the bay of Delaware, and inviting the cooperation of this state and the state of Delaware, in the improvement: therefore,

Resolved by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the governor of the commonwealth be, and he is hereby authorized to appoint a commissioner, or to direct the engineer of the state to meet any commissioners or engineers, who may be appointed by the states of Maryland and Delaware, to make a survey of the said sounds, and an estimate of the probable expense of opening the navigation proposed, to be submitted to the general assembly for its consideration hereafter.'

No. 8.-Resolution. That the board of public works be re