Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1853).djvu/250

234 The judgment of no Inferior Court shall be final, in any civil case, of greater value than 50 bushels of wheat, as last rated in the General Court for settling the allowance to the members of the General Assembly, nor in any case of treason, felony, or other crime which would subject the party to infamous punishment.

In all causes 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 their 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 (exclusive of the day of presenting it) returned by them, with their advice of rejection and reasons, to the house wherein it originated, or to the clerk of the said house, in case of its adjournment over the expiration of the week, it shall be law from the expiration of the week, and shall then be demandable by the clerk of the House of Delegates, to be filed of record in his office.

The bills which they approve shall become law from the time of such approbation, and shall then be returned to, or demandable by, the clerk of the House of Delegates, to be filed of record in his office.

A bill rejected on advice of the Council of Revision may again be proposed, during the same session of Assembly, with such alterations as will render it conformable to their advice.