Assembly, shall be paid by the treasurer, on the twenty-fifth day of October next, out of the public money then in his hands, according to the directions and regulations in the said recited act mentioned, any thing in the said act to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.

III. And whereas the depredations of the French and their Indian allies, upon the frontiers of this dominion, have occasioned the greatest part of the inhabitants of the county of Hampshire to remove themselves, so that no court has been held, or is likely to be held, for the said county, by means whereof their burgesses wages cannot be paid pursuant to the directions of three acts of the General Assembly, made in the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth years of his majesty's reign, and it is reasonable that the wages of the said burgesses should be paid; Be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That the burgesses wages, for the said county, for the sessions in the said acts mentioned, shall be paid by the treasurer out of the public money in his hands, any thing in the said acts to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.

IV. And whereas the day appointed for holding the Sussex court court for the county of Sussex, is found to be very in- day altered, convenient to the inhabitants of the said county, for rendering the same more convenient, Be it enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That from and after the first day of December next, the court of the said county of Sussex be constantly held on the third Friday in every month, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

}

GEORGII II,

Regis Magnæ Britanniæ, Franciæ, et
Hiberniæ, tricesimo.

governor.

At a General Assembly, begun and held at Robert Binthe Capitol, in Williamsburg, on Thurs- widdie, esq. day the twenty-fifth day of March, in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of our sovereign Lord George II. by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, &c. and in the year of our Lord, 1756, and from thence continued by several prorogations to Thursday the fourteenth of April, in the thirtieth year of his majeɛty's reign, and in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and fiftyseven; being the third session of this Assembly.

CHAP. I.

An Act for granting an aid to his majesty for the better protection of this colony, and for other purposes therein mention

ed.

I. WHEREAS it is necessary, in this time of dan- Method of drafting. ger, that the forces now in the pay of this colony should be augmented, Be it therefore enacted, by the Lieutenant-Governor, Council, and Burgesses, of this present General Assembly, and it is hereby enacted by the author

2

ity of the same, That the forces now in this colony shall be augmented to one thousand two hundred and seventy, including non-commissioned officers: And for the more speedy raising the men that shall be wanted to complete that number, the sheriff of every county within this colony, and the serjeants of the city of Williamsburg and borough of Norfolk, shall cause to be summoned the several justices, and field officers, and captains of their respective counties, city and borough, to meet at the court-houses of the said counties, city and borough, respectively, within fifteen days after the passing of this act; which said justices, field-officers, and captains, or any number of them not less than seven, shall then and there hold a court, and examine and enquire into the occupation and employment of the several inhabitants of the said counties, city and borough, between the age of eighteen and fifty years, which examination shall be taken by the several muster-rolls (which the county-lieutenant or chief commanding officer is hereby required to lay before such court) and by such other methods of enquiry as to the said court shall seem expedient: And the said courts are hereby impowered and required to prick down all such able-bodied persons, within their respective jurisdictions, as shall be found loitering and neglecting to labor for reasonable wages; all who run from their habitations, leaving wives or children without suitable means for their subsistance, and all other idle, vagrant, or dissolute persons, wandering abroad without betaking themselves to some lawful employment; and all such who, in pursuance of the act of Assembly, made in the twenty-ninth year of his present majesty's reign, intituled, An act for raising the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds for the better protection of the inhabitants on the frontiers of this colony, and for other purposes therein mentioned, did receive the reward of ten pounds to enter into his majesty's service, and deserted the same before the expiration of the time directed by the said act. And in case a sufficient number of such persons, as are before described, cannot be found in any county, city or borough, to make up their respective quotas, according to the directions of this act, then the said courts are hereby impowered to prick down such able-bodied men, not being freeholders or house-keepers qualified to vote at an election of burgesses, as they shall think proper to

make up the same.
And such courts, to be held as
aforesaid, are hereby impowered and required to order
the sheriffs of the said counties, and serjeants of the
said city and borough, respectively, and such officers
of the militia, not being members of the said courts,
as they shall think proper, to bring before them the
several persons so pricked down as aforesaid, at a suc-
ceeding court to be held as aforesaid, within ten days
of the former; and such court shall then proceed to
draft out such, and so many of them, as shall be deem-
ed proper for the service aforesaid, in the following
proportion, that is to say, one man for every forty ef-
fective soldiers in the militia of each county, city and
borough. And where it shall so happen that the mi-
litia of any county, city or borough shall amount to
any number, so as to leave or afford twenty men over
and above the forties for which one man is to be draft-
ed, then such court shall draft one more for the said
twenty men as aforesaid.

II. And be it further enacted, by the authority afore- The oath to said, That the several courts, to be held as aforesaid, be taken by before they proceed to prick down and draft the sol- the court. diers, as is before directed, shall take the following oath, which shall be first administred to the first justice in the commission of the peace, present at such court, by any two of the members then present, and then by the said justice to the other members of the court, that is to say:

You shall swear that you will do equal right and justice to all men, according to the act of Assembly, intituled, An act for granting an aid to his majesty for the better protection of this colony, and for other purposes therein mentioned, without favor, affection, or partiality, so help you God.

III. And it is hereby further enacted, That every such Court to apcourt shall appoint some person to act as clerk, who point a clerk shall enter the proceedings of such court, and shall transmit the same to the clerk of the county, city or borough, to be by him recorded. And every justice, militia officer, sheriff, or serjeant that shall neglect or fail to do the duty by this act required of them respectively, shall forfeit and pay for every such failure or neglect the sum of twenty pounds, one moiety to our sovereign lord the king for the public use, and to be Penalty on paid to John Robinson, esquire, treasurer of this colo- court, &c. ny, or to the treasurer for the time being, appointed