acquainted with the value of some one or more of the chief articles of importation, subject to appraisement, to be employed in appraising goods in such manner as may be directed by the Secretary of the Treasury; who shall take an oath to examine such goods as the principal appraisers may direct, and report to them the true value thereof; whereupon the principal appraisers shall revise and correct the same, as they may judge proper. But if the collector shall deem any appraisement too low, he shall have power to order a new appraisement, either by the principal appraisers, or by three merchants designated by him for that purpose, and cause the duties to be charged accordingly.' Sec. 3. That after the 30th of September [1830] whenever goods, of which cotton or wool is a component part, of similar kind, but different quality, are found in the same package, if not imported from beyond the Cape of Good Hope, it shall be the duty of the appraisers to adopt the value of the best article contained in such package, as the average value of the whole; and if the owner, importer, consignee, or agent, shall consider the appraisement made by the appraisers or other persons designated by the collector, too high, he may apply to the collector, in writing, stating the reasons for his opinion, and having made oath that his appraisement is higher than the actual cost and proper charges on which duties is to be charged, and also, that he verily believes it is higher than the current value of the goods, including said charges, at the place of exportation, the collector shall designate. one merchant, skilled in the sale of such goods, and the owner, &c. may designate another, who, if they cannot agree, may designate an umpire, and when they or a majority of them, shall have agreed, they shall report the result to the collector, and if their appraisements shall not agree with that of the United States' appraisers, the collector shall decide between them.'

Sec. 4. This section, after provisions as to examining packages, and providing that, 'in case of fraud, the goods shall be forfeited,' repeals the 15th section of the supplementary act of March 1st, 1823, and also so much of any act of congress as imposes an additional duty or penalty of fifty per cent. on duties upon any goods which may be appraised at twenty-five per cent., or ten per cent., above their invoice prices.' Sec. 7. This section, after some provisions in relation to forfeitures, provides that the appraisers and assistant appraisers shall, in no case, receive any proportion of such forfeiture,' and that the Secretary of the Treasury shall be authorised to remit any such forfeiture, whenever he is of opinion that no fraud was intended.' Sec. 9. This section provides that when it shall be satisfactorily proved to the Secretary of the Treasury, that iron, imported for the purpose of being applied in the construction of any rail-road, or inclined plane, by any state or incorporated company, has been actually and perma

nently laid on any such railroad or inclined plane, he may allow a drawback of the duty, or refund the same, provided such drawback or repayment shall not reduce the duties below twenty-five per cent.; nor is it to be allowed upon any less quantity than twenty tons.

Appropriations. Twelve acts were passed making appropria

tions.

Private Claims, Relief, &c. One hundred and forty three acts were passed for the relief of individuals, making compensation to the states for disbursements during the last war, and providing for pensions to revolutionary soldiers. Great exertions were made, during the session, to dispose of claims of this description, and a great mass of them has thus been settled.

Thirty other acts were also passed upon miscellaneous subjects of too little interest to be particularly noticed.

Subjects brought before Congress and not acted upon. The most important subjects brought before congress and not acted on, were the following bills, viz. : 1. Fixing the ratio of representation. 2. Providing for further repairs of the Cumberland road. 3. Making an appropriation for public warehouses. 4. For promoting the growth and manufacture of silk. 5. For protecting the western frontier of the United States. 6. Extending the privilege of debenture to merchandize transported from the port of entry, by land or water. 7. Providing for the appointment of an assistant secretary of state. 8. For the improvement of the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi. 9. Providing for a uniform militia system. 10. Providing for the settlement of state claims for interest on advances in the last war. 11. To amend the act to reduce into one act, the several acts relating to the post office. 12. Abolishing brevet rank in the army. 13. To amend the act to set apart public lands for the encouragement of the cultivation of the vine and olive. These, with other bills of less importance, of a public and private nature, amounting in all to about three hundred, were left in different stages of their progress, without being finally acted upon.

Virginia.

The general assembly of this state, at the session commencing on the 7th December, 1829, passed one hundred and fifty-one acts, of which fifty-four are of a public and general nature,' and ninety-seven of a private and local nature,' and five resolutions were agreed to by both houses.

Ch. 1.-Taxes. This imposes taxes for the support of government for the year 1830, is an annual act, and nearly a transcript of former acts on the subject. On lands, 8 cents, for every $100 value; houses and town lots, $2 3 cents, for every

$100 yearly rent, or annual value; unoccupied houses and lots and unimproved lots in any town, 8 cents for every $100 value; on every slave above twelve years of age (except such as are exempted, in consequence of age or infirmity,) 35 cents; ordinary license, $18, and 7 per cent. on every $100 rent above $200; houses of private entertainment, 5 per cent. on the annual value, &c.; on every writ instituting a suit in a superior court, $1; subpoena in superior court of chancery, $1 50; certificate under the seal of any court of law or equity, $1; notarial certificates, $1 50; certificate under the seal of the commonwealth, $2; on licenses to sell merchandise by wholesale, $ 60; retail, $ 20; venders of lottery tickets, brokers, vendue masters, the same tax as in 1829; mechanics, &c., or other persons taxable as retail merchants, whose average sales per annum, of merchandise connected with his business, do not exceed the amount of sales of articles of his manufacture, $10; on every clock pedler, $20, in every county in which he shall trade; pedlers of dry goods, &c. $20, in each county or corporation; pedlers dealing in tin or pewter, $10; on every exhibitor of shows, $30, in every county or city in which they shall be exhibited.

Ch. 2.-Revenue, appropriations of. This act contains a great many specific appropriations, among which are the following: Expenses of the general assembly, $100,000; of the convention, $50,000; salaries of the penitentiary officers, $6,650; public guard in the city of Richmond, $15,000; Lunatic Hospital at Williamsburg, $10,000; reports of cases in the court of appeals $4,000.

Ch. 6.-Idiots. Prohibits the admission of idiots into either of the Lunatic Hospitals, and makes it the duty of the overseers of the poor of the respective counties, to provide for those who have no estate.

Ch. 8.-Library. Placed under the control of a joint committee of the two houses, to be annually appointed Librarians empowered to establish agencies for the sale of books and maps, constituting the library fund, to which is to be annually added, three hundred copies of the acts of assembly, and twenty-five copies of the journals of the two houses Librarians required to transmit one copy of each of the books, now constituting the library fund, or which may be added thereto, to William & Mary, Hampden, Sydney, and Washington Colleges.

Ch. 9.-Constitution. An act amending an act to organise a convention.' This act contains detailed provisions, prescribing the mode of submitting the constitution, as amended, to the voters; examination of the polls, and returns thereof to the executive, proclamation of the result, &c. [Votes for ratifying, 26,055, for rejecting, 15,563; majority for the constitution as amended, 10,492.] The general assembly under the new consti

tution, to be elected in October, and to meet at the capitol, in the city of Richmond, on the first Monday in December, 1830.

Ch's. 10, 11, 12.-Banks. Charter of the Bank of Virginia, extended for nine years and one month;-of the Bank of the Valley, eight years and one month;-of the North Western Bank to the first June, 1842.

Ch. 15.-Insolvents. Sales of effects of insolvent debtors by the sheriff's serjeant, &c., to be returned to the clerk's office, within sixty days thereafter, stating the amount made, the property sold, and price of each article, which return shall have the same effect as returns made on writs of fieri facias. The officers failing to make such return, subject to same fine as for failure to return a fieri facias.

Ch. 16.-Recorded Deeds. When original, lost, or mislaid, a duly certified copy from the records, may be recorded in any other county, &c. and have the same effect as if the original had been so recorded.

Ch. 17.-Slaves. This act facilitates the removal of slaves to Louisiana, by prescribing the certificates of freeholders, magistrates, and clerks of courts, corresponding with the regulations of the laws of Louisiana for the admission of slaves into that state. Ch. 48.-Randolph Macon College. Trustees incorporated. To be established at or near Boydton, in the county of Mecklinburg.

Ch. 49. The Norfolk Fire Insurance Company incorporated; capital $100,000, which may be extended to $250,000.

There are, among the public acts, one to prevent the destruction of oysters; two concerning the militia; four changing the terms of courts; twenty-two authorizing separate elections, &c.; and three relating to turnpike companies.

Private and Local Acts. The remarks in vol. 3, p. 398, on the acts of sess. 1828-9, are applicable to the acts of this session. There are three acts of Divorce-two inhibiting either party marrying during the life of the other, and one inhibiting the husband alone. Thirty-three acts incorporating companies for internal improvements; six authorizing lotteries for internal improvement; seven establishing towns; four establishing inspection of tobacco; one authorizing the appointment of commissioners to celebrate the rites of marriage, in the county of Greenbrier, there being 'no ordained minister of the gospel, in regular communion with any society of Christians, in a large portion of the county.'

of an

Resolutions.-No. 1. Senators instructed, and representatives requested to use their best exertions to procure the passage act of congress satisfying the claims of the officers, soldiers, and seamen of the Virginia state line, during the revolution. Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5, authorize certain surveys of roads, and examination of the James and Staunton rivers.

North Carolina.

At the session of the General Assembly of North Carolina, commenced November 16, 1829, at Raleigh, one hundred and forty-nine acts and forty-two resolutions were passed. Of the acts, thirty-four are public.

Ch. 5.-Sheriffs. Sheriffs are to be elected in each county, every two years by the free white men of the county, entitled to vote for members of the house of commons;' the person having the greatest number of votes is to be declared elected by the county court;' if no choice is made, the county court, a majority of the acting justices being present, is to choose from the persons having the greatest and equal number of votes, the person to act as sheriff.'

Ch. 33.-The sureties on sheriffs' bonds are to be liable for all fines imposed on sheriffs.

Ch. 6.-Sureties. When a judgment is rendered by a justice of the peace, upon any debt, for the payment of which any person is liable as surety, and the principal debtor desires to obtain a stay of execution, the original surety may cause his dissent to be entered by the justice; which shall absolve him from all liability to the security, who may stay the same;' and it is to be the duty of the officer, who may have the collection of the debt, to make the same out of the property of the principal debtor, and that of the security for the stay of execution, before he resorts to the property of the original security.'

Ch. 23. If a surety, or his representatives, discharge the whole or a part of the debt of the principal, the claim of such surety, or his representatives, 'against the executor or administrator of their principal, shall have the same priority against the assets, as belonged to the demand of the creditor, thus in whole or part discharged.'

Ch. 20.-Deeds of Trust and Mortgages. No deed of trust or mortgage, executed after July 4, 1830, is to 'be valid at law to pass any property as against creditors or purchasers, for a valuable consideration from the donor, bargainor, or mortgager, but from the registration of such deed of trust of mortgage, in the county where the land lieth; or in case of chattels, where the donor, bargainor, or mortgager resides;' or in case he resides out of the state, then in the county where the chattels, or some of them, are situate.' The clerks of the Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions are authorized to take the probate or acknowledgment of deeds of trust or mortgages at any time.' The register is to endorse, on each deed, the day on which it was delivered to him for registration, and the endorsement is to form a part of the registry. Registers not complying with the provisions of the act are to be liable in an action on the case to the party injured and also to be indicted in the Superior Court,' and fined at the discretion of the court.