Maclaine, James Iredell, Abner Nash, Christopher Neale, Samuel Ashe, Waightstill Avery, Samuel Spencer, Jasper Charlton and John Penn, Esquires, be appointed to revise and consider all such statutes and acts of assembly as are, or have been in force and use in North Carolina, and to prepare such bills to be passed into laws as may be consistent with the genius of a free people, that form of government which we have adopted, and our local situation, and to lay the same before the next General Assembly for their approbation." It is not now known how many of these commissioners accepted this trust, or what share of its execution was borne by any one of them, but the fruits of their labors are manifest in the laws passed in the years immediately succeeding, laws which have received repeated encomiums for the ability and skill and accuracy with which they are drawn. The style of enactment was now changed, so as to read "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same," which style has ever since been continued.
By an act passed in 1715, it was declared that "the common law is, and shall be in force in this government," except such parts as relate to the practice in courts, which were to be supplied by the general court, subject to the approval of the governor and council. It is also declared that "all statute laws of England providing for the privileges of the people, as also all statute laws made for limitation of actions, and preventing of vexatious law suits, and for preventing immorality and fraud, and confirming inheritances and titles of land, are and shall be in force here, although this province or the plantations in general are not named."
By an act passed in 1749, the statutes of Great Britain which are to be in force are particularly enumerated, and the common law declared to be in force with certain exceptions. And by an act passed in 1778, reciting that " whereas doubts may arise upon the revolution in government whether any, and what laws continue in force here," it is enacted " That all such statutes, and such parts of the common law, as were heretofore in force and use within this territory, and all the acts of the late General Assemblies thereof, or so much of the said statutes, common law and acts of assembly, as are not destructive of, repugnant to, or inconsistent with the freedom and independence of this State and the form of government therein established, and which have not been otherwise provided for, in the whole or in part, not abrogated, repealed, expired or become obsolete, are hereby declared to be in full force in this State."
