Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/324

310 aſſembly, nor in any caſe of treaſon, felony, or other crime which ſhould ſubject the party to infamous puniſhment.

In all caſes depending before any court, other than thoſe of impeachments, of appeals, and military courts, facts put in iſſue ſhall be tried by jury, and in all courts whatever witneſſes ſhall give teſtimony viva voce in open court, wherever their attendance can be procured: and all parties ſhall be allowed counſel and compulſory proceſs for their witneſſes.

Fines, amercements, and terms of impriſonment left indefinite by the law, other than for contempts, ſhall be fixed by the jury, triers of the offence.

The governor, two councillors of ſtate, and a judge from each of the ſuperior courts of chancery, common law, and admiralty, ſhall be a council to reviſe all bills which ſhall have paſſed both houſes of aſſembly, in which council the governor, when preſent, ſhall preſide. Every bill before it becomes a law, ſhall be preſented to this council, who ſhall have a right to adviſe its rejection, returning the bill, with their advice and reaſons in writing, to the houſe in which it originated, who ſhall proceed to reconſider the ſaid bill. But if after ſuch reconſideration, two thirds of the houſe ſhall be of opinion the bill ſhould paſs finally, they ſhall paſs and ſend it, with the advice and written reaſons of the ſaid council of reviſion to the other houſe, wherein, if two thirds alſo ſhall be of opinion it ſhould paſs finally, it ſhall thereupon become law; otherwiſe it ſhall not.

If any bill, preſented to the ſaid council, be not, within one week (e v x cluſive of the day of