proof, he shall be fined 100 lbs. of tobacco, half to the informer, and half to the poor of the parish. 1670.-None but freeholders and housekeepers shall have any voice in the election of Burgesses-every county not sending two Burgesses to every session of the Assembly, shall be fined 10,000 lbs. of tobacco, to the use of the public. 1676.-The allowance of every Burgess for the future, shall be 120 lbs. of tobacco and cask, per day; to commence two days before every Assembly, and continue two days after. And for their travelling charges, there shall be allowed to those that come by land, 10 lbs. of tobacco per day for every horse so used. And for water passage, they shall be allowed proportionably. 1679. The first offence of hog stealing, shall be punished according to the former law; upon a second conviction, the offender shall stand two hours in the pillory, and lose his ears; and for the third offence, he shall be tried by the laws of England, as in case of felony. 1680.-No licensed attorney shall demand or receive, for bringing any cause to judgment in the general court, more than 500 lbs. of tobacco and cask; and in the county court, 150 lbs. of tobacco and cask; which fees are allowed him without any pre-agreement. If any attorney shall refuse to plead any cause in the respective courts aforesaid, for the aforesaid fees, he shall forfeit as much as his fees should have been. LIFE IN WESTERN VIRGINIA. Much of Western Virginia is yet a new country, and thinly settled; and in some of the more remote and inaccessible counties, the manner of living and the habits of the people are quite primitive. Many of these mountain counties are so far from markets, that it is a common saying among the inhabitants that they can only sell those things which will "walk away"-meaning cattle, horses, swine, &c. Of the latter, immense droves are sent to the east annually from this country, and Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio. The feeding of the swine, as they pass through the country in the autumn of each year, supplies a market for much of the corn which is produced. Aside from this, there is but little inducement for each one to raise more grain than his own family will consume; and consequently, there is but little room for enterprise on the part of the agriculturist. His products, when they sell at all, bring but a trivial sum. For instance, corn, the chief product, brings but from 17 to 25 cents per bushel; oats, 12 1-2 cts. do.; pork, beef, and venison, $2 to $2 50 neat per 100 lbs.; and other things in proportion. This pay, too, is frequently in store-goods, on which the merchant, owing to his small amount of custom, charges heavy profits. For foreign luxuries, the agriculturist pays the highest prices, the expense of transportation from the north-where they are usually purchased by the merchant--to the wild parts of Western Virginia, being 3 or 4 cents per pound: so for bulky articles, as sugar, coffee, &c., the consumer is obliged to pay several cents a pound more than an inhabitant of the older portions of the state. He, however, graduates his wants to his means; and although he may not have the fine house, equipage, dress, &c., of the wealthy planter, yet he leads a manly life, and breathes the pure air of the hills with the contented spirit of a freeman. Living "Far from the maddening crowd's ignoble strife, His sober wishes never learn to stray; He keeps the noiseless tenor of his way." The inhabitants of the mountain counties are almost perfectly independent. Many a young man with but a few worldly goods, marries, and, with an axe on one shoulder and a rifle on the other, goes into the recesses of the mountains, where land can be had for almost nothing. In a few days he has a log-house and a small clearing. Visit him some fine day thirty years afterwards, and you will find he has eight or ten childrenthe usual number here-a hardy, healthy set; forty or fifty acres cleared, mostly culti vated in corn; a rude square log bin, built in cob-house fashion, and filled with corn in the cob, stands beside his cabin; near it is a similar structure, in which is a horse; and scattered about are half a dozen hay-ricks; an immense drove of hogs, and some cattle, are roaming at large in the adjoining forest. And if it is what is called "mast year" -that is, if the forests abound in nuts, acorns, &c.--these animals will be found to be very fat, and display evidence of good living Enter the dwelling. The lady of the house, and all her children, are attired in homespun. Her dress is large, of convenient form, and entirely free from the fashionable lacing universal elsewhere. It is confined together with buttons, instead of hooks and eyes. She looks strong and healthy-so do her daughters--and as rosy and blooming as flowers by the way-side." Her sons, too, are a sturdy-looking set, who soon (if not now) will be enabled to fell a tree or shoot a deer with facility. The house and furniture are exceedingly plain and simple, and, with the exception of what belongs to the cupboard, principally manufactured in the neighborhood. The husband is absent, hunting. At certain seasons of the year, what time he can spare from his little farm he passes in the excitement of the chase, and sells the skins of his game. Soon he enters with a buck or bear he has shot, (for he is a skilful marksman,) or perhaps some other game. He is fifty years of age, yet in his prime-a stout, athletic man; his countenance is bronzed by exposure, and his frame seems almost of iron; he is robed in a hunting-shirt of picturesque form, made, too, of homespun, and ornamented with variegated fringe; and a pair of moccasins are on his feet. He receives you with a blunt, honest welcome, and as he gives you his hand, his heart goes with it; for he looks upon you as a friend; he has passed his life among the mountains, in the midst of a simple-hearted people, who have but little practical knowledge of the deceit which those living in densely-populated communities, among the competitive avocations of society, are tempted to practice. His wife prepares dinner. A neat white cloth is spread, and soon the table is covered with good things. On it is a plate of hot corn-bread, preserves of various kinds, bacon, venison, and more than probable three varieties of meat. Your host may ask a blessing-thanks to the itinerating system of the Methodists, which has even reached this remote spot-his wife pours you out a "dish of coffee," the great luxury of the country, and frequently used at every meal: it is thickened with cream-not milk-and sweetened with sugar from the maple grove just front of the house. The host bids you help yourself, and, if not squeamish, you go into it," and enjoy that plain, substantial meal better than you ever did a dinner at Astor's. 66 Now mount your nag and be off! As you descend the mountain-path faintly discerned before you, and breathe the pure, fresh air of the hills, cast your eyes upon the most impressive of scenes, for Nature is there in all her glory. Far down in the valley, to the right, winds a lovely stream; there hid by the foliage overarching its bright waters -anon it appears in a clearing-again, concealed by a sweep of the mountain you are descending still beyond, it seems diminished to a silvery thread. To the right and front is a huge mountain, in luxuriant verdure, at places curving far into the plain,—and at those points, and at the summits, bathed in a sea of golden light,-at others, receding, thrown into dark, sombre, forbidding shades. Beyond are mountains piled on mountains, like an uptossed sea of ridges, until they melt away in distance, and imagination fancies others still farther on. High in blue ether float yon clouds of snowy white, and far above them, in majestic flight, sails the bird of the mountain, with an air as wild, as free, as the spirit of liberty. How every thing is rejoicing all around! Innumerable songsters are warbling sweetest music; those wild flowers, with scarce the morning dew from off their lips, are opening their bright cheeks to the sun; and even the tiny insects flitting through the air, join in the universal hallelujah! Now fast losing the scene, you are entering the dark, solemn forest, densely matted above with vines, almost excluding the light of day. You are soon at the base of the mountains, and from the copse before you out starts a deer! the graceful animal pricks up its ears, distends its nostrils in fear, and, gathering its slender limbs ready for a spring, then bounds away, over hillocks and through ravines, and is seen no more. The stream, broad and shallow, is wending its way across your road with gentle murmurings,-splash! splash! goes your horse's feet into the water; forty times in ten miles does it cross your road, and in various places for many hundred yards your course is directly through it. There are no bridges upon it: there are comparatively few in Western Virginia. The above picture of a mountaineer, with a sketch of the wild and romantic scenery among which he lives, is a common, though not a universal one; but between him and the wealthy inhabitant of a large village, who lives in the enjoyment of every blessing, are all grades. Many cannot read or write, and many that can, know nothing of geography and other branches. The country is too thinly settled to carry out a system of common schools, although the state makes liberal appropriations for that purpose. The mountaineer who lives not within half a day's travel of a school-house, cannot afford, like the wealthy lowland planter, to hire a private instructor, and pay him a heavy salary. Among these mountain fastnesses is much latent talent, which requires only an opportunity for its development. Many of the people are of Scotch-Irish descent, and possess the bravery and other noble traits of their ancestry. Almost entirely isolated from the world, fashion, with her iron sway, has not stereotyped manners, modes of thought, and expression; and, therefore, an amusing originality and ingenuity in metaphor is frequently displayed. The educated of this mountain region are often men of high intelligence, fine address, and are possessed of all that which gives zest to social intercourse. To further illustrate the subject we are upon, the manners and customs of the mountaineers, we will introduce an article-already elsewhere published by us-giving our adventures in one of the wildest counties in the state: Towards the close of an autumnal day, while travelling through this thinly-settled region, I came up with a substantial looking farmer, leaning on a fence by the road-side. I accompanied him to his house to spend the night. It stood in a field, a quarter of a mile from the road, and was one of the better sort of log-dwellings, inasmuch as it had two stories and two or three small windows. In its rear was a small log structure, about fifteen feet square, the weaving-shop of the family. On entering the house, I found a numerous family, all clothed in substantial garments of their own manufacture. The floor was unadorned by a carpet, and the room devoid of superfluous furniture; yet all that necessity required to make them comfortable. One needs but little experience like this to discover how few are our real wants, how easily most luxuries of dress, equipage, and furniture can be dispensed with. After my arrival, two or three chickens were knocked down in the yard, and ere long supper was ready. It consisted of chickens, bacon, hoe-cake, and buckwheat cakes. Our beverage was milk, which is used at all meals in Virginia, and coffee thickened with cream and sweetened by maple sugar. Soon as it grew dark, my hostess took down a small candle-mould for three candles, hanging from the wall on a frame-work just in front of the fire-place, in company with a rifle, long strings of dried pumpkins, and other articles of household property. With this, she "run" her lights for the evening. On retiring, I was conducted to the room overhead, to which I ascended by stairs out of doors. My bed-fellow was the county sheriff, a young man of about my age; and as we lay together, a fine field was had for astronomical observations through the chinks of the logs. On my informing him that this was one of the first log dwellings in which I had ever spent a night, he regarded me with astonishment, and proceeded to enlighten me upon life in the backwoods, giving |