NORFOLK. 
V 
171 
the state of Virginia. One of these laws, so 
injurious to commerce, was passed during the 
war. By this law it was enacted, that all mer¬ 
chants and planters in Virginia, who owed mo¬ 
ney to British merchants, should be exonerated 
from their debts, if they paid the money duo 
into the public treasury instead of sending it to 
Great Britain; and all such as stood indebted 
were invited to come forward, and give their 
money in this manner towards the support of 
the contest in which America was then en~ 
gaged. 
The treasury at first did not become much 
richer in consequence of this law ; for the Vir¬ 
ginian debtor, individually, could gain nothing, 
by paying the money that he owed into the 
treasury, as he had to pay the full sum which 
was due to the British merchant: on the con- 
i 
trary, he might lose considerably; his credit 
would be ruined in the eyes of the British 
merchant by such a measure, and it would be 
a great impediment to the renewal of a com¬ 
mercial intercourse between them after the 
conclusion of the war. 
However, when the continental paper mo¬ 
ney became so much depreciated, that one 
hundred paper dollars Were not worth one in 
silver, many of the people, who stood deeply 
indebted _ to the merchants in Great Britain, 
began to look upon the measure in a different 
