To salary of adjutant general, six hundred dollars.

To pay of janitor in executive office, one hundred and fifty dollars. To defray expenses of criminal charges, including witnesses', jurors' and jailors' fees, three thousand dollars.

To pay Thomas Hornbrook, James Bodley, and J. Hornbrook, committee for expenses incurred in inaugural celebration, three hundred and one dollars and sixty-four cents.

To pay expenses of elections in the county of Harrison, seventy-three dollars.

To pay, of commissioners of the revenue, three thousand dollars.

2. This act shall be in force from its passage.

CHAP. 34.-An ACT to authorize Suits in Ritchie county in Cases heretofore cognizable in the Courts of Calhoun county.

Passed August 5, 1863

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia :

1. Any action at law or suit in equity, which might, according to the one hundred and sixty-ninth chapter of the Code of Virginia, second edition, be brought in Calhoun éounty, may be brought either in that county or in Ritchie county.

2. This act shall be in force from its passage.

CHAP. 35.-An ACT admitting the county of Berkeley into, and making the same part of, this State.

Passed August 5, 1863.

WHEREAS, by an act of the general assembly of the state of Virginia, entitled "An act giving the consent of the state of Virginia to the county of Berkeley being admitted into and becoming part of the state of West Virginia," passed January thirty-first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, it was, among other things, enacted that polls should be opened and held on the fourth Thursday of May, then next, at the several places for holding elections in the said county for the purpose of taking the sense of the qualified voters thereof on the question of including the said county in the state of West Virginia; and if the governor of the said state of Virginia was of opinion that the said vote had been opened and held, and the result ascertained and certified pursuant to law, he should certify the result of the same under the seal of the said state of Virginia to the governor of this state; and if a majority of the votes given at the said polls should be in favor of the said county becoming part of this state, the same should become part of this state when admitted, with the consent of the legislature thereof: And whereas, Francis H. Peirpoint, governor of the commonwealth of Virginia, did, on the twenty-second day of July, in the present year, after reciting that polls were opened in the said county on Thursday, the twenty-eighth

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day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, for the purpose indicated in the above entitled act, certify under his hand and the less seal of the said commonwealth, that from the returns on file in the executive department thereof, a very large majority of the votes cast at the said election were in favor of the said county of Berkeley becoming part of the state of West Virginia: Therefore,

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia :

1. The county of Berkeley, lately constituting part of the commonwealth of Virginia, is hereby admitted into and made part of this state, and shall constitute part of the tenth senatorial district, and of the tenth judicial circuit, and shall at the election herein provided for, and at every annual state election thereafter, choose two members of the house of delegates.

2. It shall be the duty of the governor, so soon as he shall have reason to believe that an election can be properly held in the said county, to issue his proclamation directing an election to be held on such day as he shall appoint, at the several places for holding elections therein, for the election of two delegates, an assessor, a clerk of the circuit court, sheriff, prosecuting attorney, surveyor of lands, and recorder, and appointing three voters of the said county, any two of whom may act, and any one or more of whom may fill vacancies in their own body, who shall serve as superintendents of the said election.

3. The said superintendents shall, for every place of voting in the said county, appoint three commissioners, any two of whom may act, and a conductor, to superintend and conduct the election at the place for which they are appointed. They shall furnish the commissioners for each place of voting with the proper ballot-boxes, poll books and forms. But if at the time the polls should be opened at any place of voting, there shall be present but one commissioner willing to act, he shall associate with himself, as a commissioner, some freeholder of the county then present; and if there be no commissioner present willing to act, any two freeholders of the county present, and willing to act, shall be commissioners.

4. In all other respects the said election shall be conducted, and the result ascertained and returned according to the directions contained in clauses V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XVII, XIX, XX, and XXI, of an ordinance of the constitutional convention, entitled "An ordinance to provide for the organization of the state of West Virginia, passed February nineteenth, eighteen hundred and sixtythree. The secretary of the state shall prepare and forward in time, to the superintendents to be appointed as aforesaid, poll books and the proper forms of oaths and returns, and three printed copies of the constitution, as amended, for every place of voting in said county; and the said superintendents shall make proper distribution of the same.

5. The terms of office of the persons elected at the election herein directed to be held, shall commence as soon thereafter as they are

qualified, as required by law; but shall continue and be computed as if the same had begun on the first day of January last.

6. All officers acting within the said county by the authority of the laws of Virginia, and under the re-organized government thereof, at the time of the passage of this act, shall continue to exercise the powers and perform the duties of their respective offices, in the name and under the authority of the state of West Virginia, until the officers elected or appointed under this or any other act of this legislature for the discharge of similar duties, are qualified.

7. Clause X of the third section of an act entitled "an act to fix the terms of the several courts," passed at the present session of the legislature, is hereby repealed; and in place thereof it is hereby directed that the commencement of the terms of the circuit courts held in the several counties of the tenth circuit, shall be as follows: For the county of Pendleton, on the first day of March, and the same day of May, September and November; For the county of Hardy, on the tenth day of March, and the same day of May, September and November; For the county of Hampshire, on the twenty-third day of March, and the same day of May, September and November; For the county of Morgan, on the tenth day of April, and on the same day of June, October and December; For the county of Berkeley, on the sixteenth day of April, and on the same day of June, October and December.

8. The governor shall also appoint one person for each magisterial district of the said county of Berkeley, commissioners to divide the same into townships, under the provisions of an act passed at the present session of the legislature, entitled "an act to provide for the division into townships of the several counties of the state."

9. This act shall be in force from its passage.

CHAP. 36.-An ACT defining the powers and duties of Recorders in relation to Wills and Fiduciaries.

Passed September 3, 1863.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

1. The recorders of every county shall have the same power to hear ́proof of, and admit wills and authenticated copies thereof to probate; to appoint, take bonds from, and qualify or remove personal representatives, guardians, committees and curators; to require and take new bonds from them; to appoint commissioners to examine the bonds and accounts of fiduciaries and settle with them; to examine reports of such commissioners, confirm them in whole or in a qualified manner or recommit them, or order them to be recorded; and to order the distribution of what appears due on such accounts, that the county courts of the respective counties had on the nineteenth day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-three, with the qualification hereinafter provided.

2. Recorders shall not be allowed to empannel juries to settle ques. tions of fact in dispute before them.

3. When any will is presented to any recorder for probate, and a controversy is likely to arise in relation to its probate, the recorder shall, at the request of any person interested, without deciding the question of probate, transmit such will, and all papers therewith connected, to the clerk of the circuit court for his county.

4. Any person interested may within one year, or if such person be under disability, within one year after the same is removed, of right appeal to the circuit court from any order made by a recorder in relation to the probate of a will. In case of such appeal, the recorder shall transmit the will in dispute and all papers in his office in relation thereto, and copies of all orders made by him on the subject, to the clerk of the circuit court, on being requested to do so by the party taking the appeal. All the proceedings of recorders under the provisions of this act may be reviewed by the circuit courts within three years, or if the parties interested and wishing to have the same reviewed, be under disability, within three years after such disability is removed, upon petition or by bill in equity.

5. Nothing in this act contained shall be coustrued to take away from the circuit courts any jurisdiction they now have by law on the subjects referred to in this act.

6. In addition to the books of records now provided for by law, each recorder shall keep a book to be provided at the expense of his county, in which shall be entered and indexed all orders made by him under the provisions of this act.

7. All lists of deeds and other writings, and all commissioners' lists of fiduciaries and notices of settlements, required by law to be posted at the court house door on a county court day, shall be posted at such court house door on the second Monday in every month.

8. Every commissioner heretofore appointed by any county court, who had before him, on the nineteenth day of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, any bonds or accounts of any fiduciaries for exami nation or settlement, shall complete such examination or settlement, and make report of his proceedings and return the same to the recorder of his county; and every commissioner hereafter appointed by a recorder under the provisions of this act, shall, in the performance of his duties, be governed by the provisions of this act and the laws now in force, except that said commissioner shall make return of his reports to the recorder of his county.

9. The recorders of the several counties of this state shall make all orders and do all things required of them to be done under and by virtue of the first section of this act, in their respective offices, on the second Monday in each month, or on the Tuesday or Wednesday fol lowing.

10. The recorders shall be entitled for their services under the provisions of this act to the same fees that are now allowed by law to the clerks of the county courts for like services.

11. This act shall be in force from and after its

passage.

CHAP. 37.-An ACT to provide a remedy where Records or Papers are lost.

Passed September 9, 1863.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

1. Where any book containing judgments, decrees, orders or proceedings of a court, or proceedings at rules, is lost, and there can be again entered correctly, by means of any writing, any matters which were in such book, the court may cause its clerk to have such matters re-entered, and such entries shall have the same effect as the original entries.

2. Where any such book, or any book containing the record of wills, deeds or other papers, or where any paper filed in a clerk's or recorder's office, is lost, the clerk, or recorder, in whose office such book or paper was, upon the production to him of any original paper which was recorded in the said book or of any attested copy of the record thereof, or of an attested copy of any thing else in such book or of any paper so filed, shall, on application, record or file the same anew. The record shall show whether it is made from an original or a copy, and how the paper from which it was made was authenticated or attested. Such record shall have prima facie, the same effect that the record or paper for which it is substituted would have bad.

3. If in any cause, the original papers therein, or any of them, or the record for or in an appellate court, or any paper filed or connected with such record, be lost, the court wherein the cause is, or in which, but for such loss it would or ought to be, may docket the same; and on affidavit of such loss, the cause may be proceeded in, heard and determined, upon an authenticated copy of what is lost, or proof of the contents thereof, or if the cause be in an appellate court, upon a new record made up from the records and papers of the court below, and certified by the proper officer. The court may, however, in its discretion, require new pleadings to be made up in whole or in part; and the plaintiff instead of proceeding under this section, may commence and prosecute a new suit for the same matter; and such new suit may, if the former suit was in due time, be brought within one year after such loss, notwithstanding the expiration of the time within which suit must otherwise have been brought.

4. When any book or paper is obliterated, defaced or injured so as to be in whole or in part illegible, or is destroyed, or carried away and concealed, or is in the possession or control of armed rebels or a public enemy, it shall be deemed lost for the purposes of this act.

5. For any services of the clerk under the first section of this act, unless rendered necessary by his own neglect, the court shall allow him a reasonable compensation, which shall be chargeable on the county. For recording anew any will, deed or other paper, the recorder or clerk shall have the same fees as for the original record, to be paid by the party on whose application such new record is made. For replacing as aforesaid, the original papers in any cause or the record in an appellate court, the costs and expenses shall be ascer