Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/461

 APPENDIX. ix

sembly sliall Interpose, by makinc^ these warrants receivable at the treasury, our citizens will suffer great injury, and be deprived of a facility enjoyed by the citizens of the other states.

The sum of money allowed by the assembly in their resolution of the 13th of June 1783, for compiling-, printing-, and binding the laws, has proved inadequate to the purpose; five hundred pounds having been expended in the printing, and two hundred and fifty engaged to be divided among the gentlemen who made the compilation; so that nothing is left to pay for the binding.

I caimot forbear informing the assembly, that many county courts have failed to recommend sheriffs in the months of June and July. In consequence' of this, many of the counties will be without sheriffs, in as much as, the exe- cutive think they have no power to issue commissions in such cases. As this evil threatens so many parts of the state with anarchy, I have no doubt of the legislature remedying it with all possible despatch.

I litive the honour to be, with great regard, Your most obedient,

Humble servant.

��P. HENTIY

��The Honourable the Speaker of the House of Delegates.

��Note C.

Judge Tucker, in his edition of Blackstone, having fallen into Mr. Ran- dolph's mistake, in regard to the case of Josiah Pliilips, the following note has been furnished to the author by the gentleman who was the chairman of Oie committee.

" The case of Josiah Philips, I find strangely represented by Judge Tucker and ilr. Edmund Randolph, and very negligently vindicated by Mr. Henry. That case is personally known to me, because 1 was of the legislature at the time, was one of those consulted by Mr. Henry, and had my share in the pass- age of the bill. I never before saw the observations of those gentlemen, which you quote on this case, and will now, therefore, briefly make some strictures on them.

" Judge Tucker, instead of a definition of the functions of bills of attainder, has given a just diatribe against their abuse. The occasion and proper office of a bill of attainder is this; when a person charged with a crime, withdraws from justice, or resists it by force, either in his own or a foreign countiy, no other means of bringing him to trial or punishment being practicable, a spe- cial act is passed by the legislature, adapted to the particular case; this pre- scribes to him a sufficient term to appear and submit to a trial by his peers, declares that his refusal to appear shall be taken a.s a confession of guilt, as in the ordinary case of an offender at the bar refusing to plead, and pro- nounces the sentence which would have been rcndej-ed on his confession or conviction in a court of law. No doubt that these acts of attainder have been

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