56 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



short jackets, according to each man's caprice or com- 

 fort, and all equally honorable. 



The pay of the Assembly-members was very recently 

 fixed at 18 Virginia shillings, or 3 Spanish dollars ; 

 which means to the state a daily expenditure of 525 

 dollars, and their sittings at times last 4-6 weeks with- 

 out reckoning time spent in going and coming. For- 

 merly their pay was only 10 shillings a day. But dur- 

 ing the war, nothing but paper-money being in circu- 

 lation, the members preferred to take 50 pounds of 

 tobacco per diem rather than accept their own cur- 

 rency. The Governor has 1000 Pd. a year, and the 

 Speaker of the Assembly 500 Pd. However little the 

 members may forget themselves, they seem unwilling 

 to be mindful of others. On one of these days a bill 

 was brought in, to allow those officers who had been 

 returned to the Assembly at the instance of all the 

 Virginia troops, the sum of 3 dollars a day for ex- 

 penses, the amount to be charged on their long-stand- 

 ing salary account; this very reasonable proposal was 

 resisted by all the members present until General Law- 

 son + arose and explained with emphasis the necessity 

 and justice of the measure. As in all other public and 

 private societies there are certain men who lead the 

 debate, and think and speak for the rest, so it is also 

 in these Assemblies. Among the orators here is a cer- 

 tain Mr. Henry who appears to have the greatest in- 

 fluence over the House. He has a high-flown and bold 

 delivery, deals more in words than in reasons, and not 

 so long ago was a country schoolmaster. Men of this 

 stamp, either naturally eloquent or become so through 

 their occupation, as e. g. lawyers, invariably take the 

 most active and influential part in these Assemblies; 



