8831. VIRGINIA, Division of counties.
—In what terms reconcilable to Majesty, and
at the same time to truth, shall we speak of a
late instruction to the Governor of the Colony
of Virginia, by which he is forbidden to assent
to any law for the division of a county, unless
the new county will consent to have no representative
in Assembly? That Colony has as yet
affixed no boundary to the westward. Their
western counties, therefore, are of an indefinite
extent. Some of them are actually seated
many hundred miles from their eastern limits.
Is it possible, then, that his Majesty can have
bestowed a single thought on the situation of
those people, who, in order to obtain justice for
injuries, however great or small, must, by the
laws of that Colony, attend their county court,
at such a distance, with all their witnesses,
monthly, till their litigation be determined?—
Rights of British America. Washington ed. i, 136.
Ford ed., i, 441.
(1774)
