442 



FARMERS' REGISTER— COMMERCIAL REPORT. 



ty hereby required of him by law, eliall forfeit and 

 pay a sum not less than ten, nor exceeding thirty 

 dollars. And the survej'ors of the roads now 

 acting, or that may be hereafter appointed, shall 

 be entitled to receive such reasonable compensa- 

 tion, to be adjudged of by their respective county 

 courts, not exceeding one dollar twenty-five cents 

 for every day they may be necessarily em])loyed 

 in working on, and repairing the said roads, to be 

 paid them out of the county levy. 



8. 'The courts of the several counties shall have 

 full power to levy so much money as Avill be ne- 

 cessary^ to pay for the removal, by gunpowder, of 

 tlie obstructions of rock from the public road; and 

 to apply the same in such manner tor the purpose 

 aforesaid, as they may deem expedient.' 



9. Where a briJge or cause}' shall be necessary, 

 and the surveyor, with his assistants, cannot 

 make or maintain tlie same, the court of the coun- 

 ty are empowered and required to contract for the 

 building and repairing such bridge or causey, and 

 to levy the charge thereof in their county levy." 



The first and most obvious objection to the law, 

 is the inequality and injustice of the manner in 

 which the people are taxed for this great and im- 

 portant public work. It is altogether a poll tax — 

 a tax levied upon the laborers of the countrj', with- 

 out regard to the property of the tax payers — ex- 

 cept in this, that the owner of laboring slaves usu- 

 ally is richer than his neighbor who owns none — 

 though the possession of that kind of property is 

 very i"ar from being a correct measure of wealth. 

 A merchant, manufacturer, or capitalist, (as such) 

 pays not a cent towards the making and repairing 

 our roads, though either may make as much use 

 of them as the farmer and slave holder. The 

 large wagon owner, where capital is altogether 

 employed in the transportation ol" commodities, 

 and the great mail contractors, and stage coach 

 owners, who make more use of, and derive more 

 profit from the roads than any other persons, are 

 alike free from all contribution for their repairs and 

 preservation. This is as impolitic as it is unjust — 

 and like many other unjust taxes, it is so badly 

 paid, that those exempted from payment by law 

 become in fact the greatest suflerers. The labor 

 lor repairing roads is sparingly and grudgingly 

 given, and so injudiciously applied, (tor reasons 

 which will hereafter be considered,) that it renders 

 a still less amount of service: and the consequence 

 is, that those who most use the roads, are com- 

 pelled to pay a heavier tax in extra force of team, 

 than would pay their fair proportion of the expense 

 necessary to keep the roads in the best condition. 

 In this way, we may fairly estimate our roads as 

 among the most expensive in the world, (where 

 natural advantages are equal,) although the mo- 

 ney and labor judiciously bestowed for their re- 

 pairs make a very small amount. This general 

 truth will be evident to every one who has much 

 practical acquaintance with the existing evils, 

 though we may differ widely as to estimates of 

 cost. But there can be little doubt, that any kind 

 of .'air and careful estimates will lead to this con- 

 clusion — that the present system of repairing roads 

 IS as injudicious as unjust — is wasteful of the means 

 applied, and yet ineffectual: and that it is required 

 by the interest of all classes — those exempted by 

 the law from road labor, ae well as those who i 



are taxed to provide it — that a total change of law, 

 and of the mode of operation should be made. 



A small exception exists in the law, on the sta- 

 tute book, but not in its actual operation, to the en- 

 tire exemption of a large part of the community 

 from contributing to the repairs of public roads. 

 The law requires road labor from "all male labor- 

 ing persons, of the age of sixteen years or more, 

 except such as are masters of ttoo or more male 

 slaves of the age of sixteen years or more." Now 

 what is meant precisely by "laboiing persons," I 

 do not pretend to know: and if the taw was new, 

 and the phrase first so applied, the construction 

 might cause much difficulty. But in practice, it 

 has never been applied to require road labor (or 

 substitutes, or fines in deftiult,) of any who were 

 employed in other than ^eZd fa6or. As the white 

 field laborers in Lower Virginia are, unfortunate- 

 ly, very few, the hardship of subjecting these few 

 to road labor was the more glaring — and latterly, 

 they have no longer been called upon for this ser- 

 vice — and thus they are exemf)ied, not by an 

 amendment of the law, but by the neglect of its 

 provisions by the surveyors of the roads. In the 

 mountain region, where white laborers are far 

 more numerous, compared to slaves, this mode of 

 repeal, by non-enforcement, has not yet taken 

 place. This odious feature of the law was made 

 much use of by the advocates for the change of 

 of our former constitution, to show that the poor 

 had not their proper weight in the government. 

 But as if it had served its only use, and might be 

 wanted to serve the same purpose again, no effort 

 has been since made to change this part of the 

 law — a change, by the way, Avhich might have 

 been obtained as easily under the old as under the 

 new constitution, and which is practically (though 

 illegally) made in that part of the State where the 

 influence of the poor man is said to be least. 



MONTHLY COMMERCIAL REPORT. 



There has been nothing particularly interesting 

 in the commercial operations of the present month, 

 with the exception of those in the great staple 

 article, cotton; the price of which has continued to 

 advance, until it has reached 16 cents in the 

 Petersburg market. This advance is caused by 

 the statements made of extensive injury to the 

 crops, particularly in the Southern Atlantic States, 

 and which was also reported to be the case with 

 those on the Mississippi — but the latter report is 

 contradicted, and some difference of opinion now 

 exists whether the price will be supported, or whe- 

 ther a further advance will ensue. The quantity 

 consumed in Europe is steadily on the increase, 

 and should the recent attempts to supply the Chi- 

 nese market with British cotton goods prove suc- 

 cessful and profitable, a further increase may be 

 counted on, which would prevent a recurrence of 

 very low prices until the production shall overtake 

 the demand. 



The season for extensive operations in tobacco 

 has passed, but the price of the article is maintain- 

 ed, and the quantity remaining in this country is 

 smaller than usual. 



The short crop of wheat in Virginia has had no 

 eflect on the price in the Northern ports, where the 

 immense increase of supplies from the west, 

 through the New York Canal, have flnnished 



