Chap. 395.—An ACT to Regulate and Define the Jurisdiction of the
County and Circuit Courts, to Prescribe the Number of Terms of the
Circuit Courts, and to fix the Pay of County Judges,

In force April 2, 1873.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That the county
courts may grant letters of administration, admit wills to pro-
bate, appoint guardians, curators and committees, and shall
have jurisdiction to hear and determine all motions and other
matters made specially cognizable therein by any statute.

2. The county court shall likewise have jurisdiction of all
presentments, informations and indictments for misdemeanors.
3. The county court shall execute and enforce, by proper
process and in the manner provided by law, every judgment,
decree or order heretofore entered therein, and shall supervise, °
correct and enforce, in like manner, any rule taken, or order, e
entry or endorsement made, by the clerk of said court. m

4. The circuit court shall have the same Jurisdiction as is J
provided by law on the day before this act takes effect, and ¢
shall, in addition, have exclusive original jurisdiction for the 2
trial of indictments for felonies, and for cases of contested elec-
tions which may be cognizable by any court.

5. In every year there shall be three regular terms of the 1
circuit court in each county of this state; and special terms of §
circuit courts may be held as now provided by law.

6. All causes at law and in chancery pending in the county R
court on the day this act takes effect, of which said court has ¢
no jurisdiction under this act, shall be removed to the circuit
court for such county; and the clerk of the county court is
hereby directed to deliver to the clerk of the circuit court for
such county the original papers, complete, of all such causes
at law and in chancery so removed, with the copies of all rules
and orders made, not found in the said original papers, and a
statement of the costs incurred by each party therein, and x
shall enter on the order-book of the county court the disposition 7
made of said causes ; and the clerk of the circuit court is hereby p
directed to receive and file in the office of his said court the ¢
papers so removed, and the said causes shall stand, in all re-
spects, as they stood in the county courts, and like proceedings p
shall be had and process issued as if said causes had been ori- ©
ginally commenced in the circuit courts. The costs of such ¢
removal shall be borne equally by both parties. un

7. The county judge shall receive, after the first day of Jan- g
uary, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, a salary of two hun-
dred dollars, and an additional compensation of twenty dollars t:
for every thousand inhabitants over ten thousand, to be deter-
mined by reference to the census of eighteen hundred and
seventy, and afterwards to the last preceding official enume-
ration of the inhabitants of this state, and in such computation
the fraction of a thousand population shall not be counted;
which shall be a charge on the county and be levied, collected
and accounted for in the same manner that other county
expenses are; and when a judge is judge of more than one
county, each county in the district shall pay in proportion to
the inhabitants thereof, and the mileage allowed by law shall y
be a charge equally upon the counties of the district.

8. The judges of the county courts shall be privileged (if J
licensed lawyers) to appear as attorneys-at-law in any case not ?
pending in their courts, or which may be carried into or from w
their courts by appeal. |

9. Sections sixteen of chapter one hundred and fifty-seven, c:
and five of chapter one hundred and fifty-eight, of the Code of @
Virginia (edition of eighteen hundred and sixty), and three and ©
four of chapter thirty-eight of the Acts of Assembly of eighteen
hundred and sixty-nine-seventy, and all acts and parts of acts
in conflict or inconsistent with this act, are and shall be re-
pealed on and from the day this act goes into effect; and section
five of chapter ninety-four of the Acts of Assembly of eighteen
hundred and sixty-nine-seventy, is and shall be repealed after
the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-four.

10. It shall be the duty of the county judges elected under
the provisions of this act, in the exercise of the duty imposed
upon them by the twenty-fourth section of chapter seventy-six
of Acts of Assembly of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine—seventy,
to appoint at least one judge of election who can read and
write, at each election precinct in his county, from each polit-
ical party.

11. This act shall be in force on and from the first day of
August, eighteen hundred and seventy-three.