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WE Robert G. Scott and Alexander L. Botts, members of the executive council of Virginia, do hereby certify that the laws contained in the Tenth Volume of HENING'S Statutes at Large, have been by us examined and compared with the originals from which they were taken, from page 1 to page 320 inclusive, and have been found truly and accurately printed, except as to a list of Errata to the number of fourteen, at the end of the volume.

Given under our hands this 24th day of December, 1822. ROBERT G. SCOTT, ALEXANDER L. BOTTS.

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WE Peter V. Daniel and Robert G. Scott, members of the executive council of Virginia, do hereby certify that the laws contained in the Tenth Volume of HENING'S Statutes at Large, have been by us examined and, compared with the originals from which they were taken, from page 321 inclusive, to the end, and have been found truly and accurately printed, except as to a list of Errata to the number of ten at the end of the volume.

Given our hands this 24th day of December 1822.

P. V. DANIEL,

ROBERT G. SCOTT.

TO THE

Tenth Volume of the Statutes at Large.

DURING the period embraced by this volume, the Southern States was the theatre of the revolutionary war, and Virginia herself was actually invaded. To supply men and money, seems to have been the great business of the Legislature. The regular army was recruited by liberal bounties, by volunteers, and by drafts from the militia. For the assistance of our sister States of North and South Carolina, as well as to repel the invasion of our own State, the Militia were called out. New emissions of paper money were made, from time to time, to meet the exigencies of government; taxes were laid in certain enumerated commodities; and loans were authorised, payable in money, tobacco, hemp, or flour. Provisoins, clothing, waggons and horses, for the army, were procured either by an assessment among the divisions of the militia, or by impressment or purchase. So rapid was the depreciation of the paper money, that the wages of the members of the general assembly, the salaries of the officers of government, and the pay of others entitled to draw money from the treasury, except the army, were estimated in tobacco, and the value fixed by the grand juries, at the several terms of the general court. The pay of the army was settled by a scale of depreciation adjusted for that purpose. Finally, the paper money was called in, and funded at one for a thousand.

The very extensive powers conferred on the governor and council,* at this awful crisis, could only be justified by necessity, resulting from a state of war. Happily, such were the virtues of those called on to exercise the executive functions of the government, and such the patriotism of the great body of the people, that these extraordinary powers were never exerted, except when the public safety so imperiously required it; that the principal actors, instead of being censured, received the applauses of their country.

In this volume commences the commonwealth's land law; to which is prefixed an act for adjusting titles to unpatented lands, * See pa. 309, 413.

the rights to which, derived from the colonial government, were inchoate at the establishment of the commonwealth's land office.

At the end of the volume will be found some very important Resolutions and State Papers; particularly the correspondence between the commissioners of Pennsylvania and Virginia, on the subject of the disputed boundary between the two States; and papers in relation to the cession of the North Western Territory.‡ It will here be seen, that the great impediment to a ratification of the articles of confederation on the part of Maryland, (which was delayed until 1781) was the extensive western territories, held by some of the States; and the liberality of Virginia, in ceding her north western territory to the United States, will then be duly appreciated.

WILLIAM WALLER HENING.

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List of Governors of Virginia during the period comprised in this volume.

PATRICK HENRY, esq. continued governor until the Patrick Hen latter end of the May session 1779, and on the first day ry, esq. of June 1779, Thomas Jefferson, esq. was elected.

THOMAS JEFFERSON, esq. was governor until June Thomas Jef1781, when he resigned; and on the twelfth day of June ferson, esq. 1781, Thomas Nelson, junior, esq. was elected.

THOMAS NELSON, Jun. esq. continued governor un- Thomas Neltil the thirtieth of November 1781, when he resigned, son, jun. esq. and Benjamin Harrison, esq. was elected.

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Benjamin Harrison,

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