Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/340

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1 . The first was, the plea of payment generally, on which the plaintiff took issue; but it was not tried, the cause having gone off on the demurrers growing out of the subsequent pleadings.

2. In his second plea, the defendant relies on the act of sequestration passed by the legislature of Virginia during the revolutionary war, to wit, on the 20th of October, 1777; by which it was enacted, that " it should be lawful for any citizen of this commonwealth, owing money to a subject of Great Britain, to pay the same, or any part thereof, from time to time, as he should think fit, into the loan office of the state; taking thereout a certificate for the same in the name of the creditor, with an indorsement under the hand of the commissioner of the loan office, expressing the name of the payee, delivering such certificate to the governor and council, whose receipt should discharge him from so much of the debt:"—and the defendant exhibits the governor's receipt for 2151l. 18s. which he offers in bar, to so much of the plaintiff's demand.

3. In his third plea, he sets out the act of forfeiture, passed by the assembly on the 3d of May, 1779, whereby it was, among other things, enacted, "that all the property, real and personal, within the commonwealth, belonging at that time to any British subject should be deemed to be vested in the commonwealth;" as also the act of the 6th of May, 1 782, whereby it was enacted, "that no demand whatsoever, originally due to a subject of Great Britain, should be recoverable in any court in this commonwealth, although the same might be transferred to a citizen of this state, or to any other person capable of maintaining such action, unless the assignment had been or might be made for a valuable consideration bona fide paid before the first of May,