Page:Revised Statutes of the State of North Carolina - Volume 1.djvu/11

Rh 1693. By one of its provisions the eldest Lord Proprietor was called Palatine, and the style of the enactments by the Grand, or as it was afterwards called the General, Assembly, during the whole of the Proprietary government was thus—"Be it enacted by his Excellency the Palatine and the rest of the true and absolute Lords Proprietors of Carolina, by and with the advice and consent of the rest of the members of the General Assembly now met at for the northeast part of the said province, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same." The acts were signed by the governor, by the deputies of the Lords Proprietors, each proprietor having one deputy, and by the speaker of the house of delegates. No record is to be found in any of our public offices of acts prior to the session of "a General Biennial Assembly, held at the house of Captain Richard Sanderson at Little River, begun the seventeenth day of November 1715 and continued, by several adjournments, until the nineteenth day of January 1716." It seems that a revisal of all the acts of assembly up to that period had been made under the directions of an act of the preceding session, which is not now extant. A manuscript copy of the acts of 1715, much mutilated, is on file in the office of the secretary of state of North Carolina. Among these acts is one entitled "An Act for confirmation of  laws passed this session of Assembly and for repealing all former laws not herein particularly expressed." After this preamble "Whereas in pursuance to an Act of Assembly made and ratified sixth day of November last past the ancient standing laws of this Government have been carefully revised," it enacts "That all laws heretofore made within this province, such only excepted as by their particular titles are hereby expressly continued and revived, are and stand hereby repealed, annulled and void, and that all laws now made, passed and confirmed this present session of Assembly, together with such other as are hereafter mentioned to be continued, shall be of full force and shall be henceforward deemed taken and adjudged as the body of the laws of this Government and no other heretofore made." It then provides for rights acquired under the acts repealed, specifies the acts to be continued in force, and goes on to declare—"That the chief justice and the clerk of each and every precinct court shall take care that the transcript or book of laws deposited in his or their custody shall be constantly laid upon the court table during the sitting of the court for the perusal of such members of the court or other persons litigating the causes therein as shall have occasion so to do"—and also "that the clerk of each court shall at the next court after receipt thereof publicly and in open court read over the same so yearly at