the year of the restoration, Burk says there is an entire
chasm in the records; Hening, on the contrary, declares that, "in no
portion of the colonial records under the Commonwealth, are the
materials so copious as from 1656 to 1660." The editor of the Statutes
at Large is the better authority on this point.

The church government was settled by giving the people the entire
control of the vestry; while the appointment of ministers and church
wardens, the care of the poor, and parochial matters, were entrusted to
the people of each parish. An act was passed for the keeping holy the
Sabbath, and another against divulgers of false news. The ordinary
weight of a hogshead of tobacco at this time did not exceed three
hundred and fifty pounds, and its dimensions by law were forty-three
inches long and twenty-six wide. Letters, superscribed "For the Public
Service," were ordered to be conveyed from one plantation to another,
to the place of destination. A remedy was provided for servants
complaining of harsh usage, or of insufficient food or raiment. The
penalty for selling arms or ammunition to the Indians was the forfeiture
of the offender's whole estate. It was enacted that no sheriff, or
deputy sheriff, then called under-sheriff, should hold his office longer
than one year in any one county. The penalty of being reduced to
servitude was abolished. The twenty-second day of March and the
eighteenth of April were still kept as holy days, in commemoration of
the deliverance of the colonists from the bloody Indian massacres of
1622 and 1644. The planters were prohibited from encroaching upon the
lands of the Indians. The vessels of all nations were admitted into the
ports of Virginia; and an impost duty of ten shillings a hogshead was
laid on all tobacco exported, except that laden in English vessels, and
bound directly for England; from the payment of which duty vessels
belonging to Virginians were afterwards exempted. An act was passed to
prohibit the kidnapping of Indian children.

In the year 1656 all acts against mercenary attorneys were repealed; but
two years afterwards attorneys were again expelled from the
courts,[237:A] and no one was suffered to receive any compensation for
serving in that capacity. The governor and council made serious
opposition to this act, and the following communication was made to the
house of burgesses: "The governor and council will consent to this
proposition so far as shall be agreeable to