Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/197

Rh the monarchy, and ordinances of conve n tion and acts of aſſembly enacted ſince the eſtabliſhment of the republic. The following variations from the Britiſh model are perhaps worthy of being ſpecified.

Debtors unable to pay their debts, and making faithful delivery of their whole effects, are releaſed from confinement, and their perſons for ever diſcharged from reſtraint for ſuch previous debts: but any property they may afterwards acquire will be ſubject to their creditors.

The poor unable to ſupport themſelves, are maintained by an aſſeſſment on the tytheable perſons in their pariſh. This aſſeſſment is levied and adminiſtered by twelve perſons in each pariſh, called veſtrymen, originally choſen by the houſekeepers of the pariſh, but afterwards filling vacancies in their own body by their own choice. Theſe are uſually the moſt diſcreet farmers, ſo diſtributed through their pariſh, that every part of it may be under the immediate eye of ſome one of them. They are well acquainted with the details and economy of private life, and they find ſufficient inducements to execute their charge well, in their philanthropy, in the approbation of their neighbors, and the diſtinction which that gives them. The poor who have neither property, friends, nor ſtrength to labor, are boarded in the houſes of good farmers, to whom a ſtipulated ſum is annually paid. To thoſe who are able to help themſelves a little, or have friends from whom they derive ſome ſuccors, inadequate howe w v er to their full maintenance, ſupplementary aids are given which enable them to live comfortably in their own houſes, or in the houſes of their friends. Vagabonds without viſible property or vocation, are