Virginia

One of the thirteen original United States. The name was given to the colony in honor of Queen Elizabeth. In 1606, James I. granted letters patent for planting colonies in Virginia. The government prescribed was that each should have a council, consisting of thirteen persons, appointed by the king, to govern and order all matters according to laws and instructions given them by the king. There was also a council in England, of thirteen persons, appointed by the crown to have the supervising, managing, and direction of all matters that should concern the government of the colonies. This charter was followed by royal instructions dated the 20th November, 1606. See 1 Hening, Va. Stat. 76. 671. Under this charter a settlement was made at Jamestown in 1607, by the first colony. Upon the petition of the company, a new charter was granted by king James, on the 23d May, 1609, to the treasurer and company of the first (or southern) colony for the further enlargement and explanation of the privileges of that company. 1 Hening, Stat. 80. This charter granted to the company in absolute property the lands extending from Cape or Point Comfort (at the mouth of James River) along the sea-coast two hundred miles to the northward, and from the same point along the sea-coast two hundred miles to the southward, and up into the land throughout, from sea to sea, west and northwest, and, also, all Islands lying within one hundred miles of the coast of both seas of the precinct aforesaid. A new council In England was established, with power to the company to fill all vacancies therein by election. On the 12th of March, 16 n /ia. king James granted a third charter to the first company, enlarging its domain so as to include all Islands within three hundred leagues from its borders on the coast of either sea. In 1612, a considerable proportion of lands previously held and cultivated in common was divided into three-acre lots and a lot appropriated in absolute right to each individual. Not long afterwards, fifty acres were surveyed and delivered to each of the colonists. In 1618, by a change of the constitution of the colony, burgesses elected by the people were made a branch of the legislature. Up to this time the settlement had been gradually Increasing in number, and in 1624, upon a writ of quo warranto, a judgment was obtained dissolving the company and revesting its power in the crown. In 1651 the plantation of Virginia came, by formal act, under the obedience and government of the commonwealth of England, the colony, however, still retaining Its former constitution. A new charter was to be granted, and many important privileges were secured. In 1680 a chafnge was made in the colonial government, divesting the burgesses of the exercise of judicial power in the last resort, as had before that time been practised by that body and allowing appeals from Judgments of the general courts, composed of the governor and council, to the king in council, where the matter in controversy exceeded the value of £300 sterling. Marshall, Col. 163; 1 Campb. 337. * By the treaty of 1763, all the conquests made by the French in North America, including the terri- Virginia seems never to have been precisely fixed and accurately adjusted in any written memoriale that are now accessible. The powers exercised by the burgesses varied at different periods. The periods of their election and the length of time they continued In office it is difficult to ascertain from the records of colonial history, and the qualifications of voters to elect them varied much at different periods. See Rev. Code 38, Leigh’s note; 2 Burk, App. 1. On the 12th of June, 1776, a declaration of rights pertaining to the people, as a basis and foundation of government, was adopted by the convention. This declaration still remains a part of the Virginia Code. On the 29th of June, 1776, Virginia adopted a constitution by a unanimous vote of the convention. The Articles of Confederation were not finally adopted by congress until the 16th of November, 1777, and were adopted, subject to the ratification of the states. These articles were laid before the Virginia Assembly on the 9th of December, 1777, and on the 15th unanimously assented to. In compliance with the recommendation of congress, by a resolution of September 6, 1780, Virginia, by an act passed the 2d of January, 1781, proffered a cession of her western lands. The cession was finally completed and accepted in 1784. Virginia as early as 1785 prepared to erect Kentucky into a state,' and this was finally effected in June, 1792. The state constitution framed and adopted by Virginia in 1776 gave way to a second that was framed in convention, adopted by the people, and went into operation in 1830. This second constitution was superseded by a third, which was framed In convention of 1851, and, being adopted by the people, took effect in 1852. A convention assembled at Alexandria February 13, 1864, composed of delegates from such portions of Virginia as were then within the lines of the Union army and had not been included In the recently formed state of West Virginia. This convention adopted a constitution April 11, 1864, but it whs not submitted to the people for ratification. A constitution of the state was framed by a convention called under the reconstruction act of congress which met at Richmond and completed its labors in 1868. Under the authority of an act of congress approved April 10, 1869, the instrument was submitted to the vote of the people and adopted. The present constitution was adopted in 1902. As to litigation between Virginia and West Virginia, see West Virginia. VI R I LI A (Hat). The privy members of a man, to cut off which was felony at common law, though the party consented to it. Bract lib. 3, p. 144. VIRTUTE OFFICII (Lat.). By virtue if his office. VIS (Lat. force). Any kind of force, violence, or disturbance relating to a man's person or his property. A person does anything by force (vis) when he does what he is forbidden to do by, the owner. Hunter, Rom. L. 252. VIS IMPRESS A (Lat.). Immediate force; original force. This phrase is applied to cases of trespass when a question arises whether an injury has been caused by a direct force or one which is indirect When the original force, or vis impress *, had ceased to act before the injury commenced, then there is no force, the effect is mediate, and the proper remedy is trespass on the case. When the injury is immediate consequence of the force, or vis proxima, trespass vi et armis lies; 3 Bouvler, Inst n. 3483. This term is used in the civil law in nearly the same way that the words act of God (g. v.) are used in the common law, but for some purposes it is a wider phrase; 1 C. P. Div. 429. Generally, no one is responsible for an accident which arises from the vis major; but a man may be so where he has, stipulated that he would, and when he has been guilty of a fraud or deceit; 2 Kent 448. A loss by vis major^ is one that results immediately from a natural cause without the intervention of man, and could not have been prevented by the exercise of prudence, diligence, and care. The George Sliiras, 61 Fed. 300, 9 C. C. A. 511, 17 U. S. App. 528. See Act of God; Peril of the Sea.