any ill or bad conditioned tobaccoe. and shall offer to pay away the same to any person or persons, either for debts, merchandise or any other commodities, it shall be lawful for the commander of every plantation, with two or three discreete men of the said plantation, to burne the same. And the partie . . . shall be hereby barred from planting any tobacco un til he bee reedeemed by a General Assembly.
Second crop tobacco was not allowed to be marketed, nor the stocks, stems, nor top and bottom leaves of any allowed to be gath ered, the penalty being "that the servants be punished by whippinge and to bind over the master to the next quarter Court at James Citty." The use of tobacco had rapidly spread from the new to the old world and become general in all parts reached by commerce. Sir Walter Raleigh and the first adventurers acquired the use of it, and upon returning to England introduced it even into the court circle. It is told of the illustrious Raleigh, that "he tooke a pipe of tobaccoe a little before he went to the scaffolde." Suppos ing it to have been the best quality of Vir ginia leaf, he could hardly have spent his last moments in a more sensible and comfortable way, that is, from a material point of view. The whole process of planting, gathering, curing and exchanging tobacco was regu lated by laws that required a host of officials to supervise and enforce the execution of them. A great part of the legislation for a century and a half was devoted to this subject, such an important place did tobacco occupy in the economy of the colony. In general, however, the laws were few and simple, and existed in manuscript with out codification. They were made public at the end of the sittings of the Assembly by word of mouth, being read aloud by the clerk, and sometimes copies posted in his office. The representatives, also, returning home, acquainted their constituents with such as most concerned them. Under such primitive methods it is diffi
cult to imagine a more unpromising field for lawyers, and it is impossible to suppose there could have existed during the first hundred years of the colony any number and organization of the legal fraternity worthy to be dignified as " The Bar." Yet, that the craft did occupy the field, at least as early as 1642, is evident from the records, and they seem to have given the Assembly almost as much trouble as the Indians. In March, 1642, " It was enacted for the better regulating of Attorneys and the great fees exacted by them," that it should be unlawful for them to charge " for petition, declaration or answer and pleading, in the County Court not more than 20 Ibs. of to bacco or its equivalent, and not more than 50 Ibs. or its equivalent in the Quarter Court." The penalty for overcharging being a forfeit of 500 Ibs. of tobacco in the County Court, and looo Ibs. in the Quarter Court. They were licensed by the court in which they pleaded and could not have license for more courts than the Quarter Court and one County Court. And "it was further thought fitt, that no Attorney licensed as aforesaid shall refuse to be entertayned in any cause, provided he be not entertayned by the ad verse party, upon forfeiture of 250 Ibs. of tobaccoe in a County Court and 1000 Ibs. of tobaccoe in the Quarter Court, one moyety whereof shall come to the King's Majesty, and the other hälfe to the informer." The foregoing act and penalty did not apply to " such as shall be made special attor neys, nor to such as shall have letters of pro curation out of England." It must have been the habitual practice of the Attorneys to evade the law limiting their fees notwithstanding the heavy forfeitures, as the Assembly continued to legislate against them, and a battle was on, in which the resourcefulness of the attorneys was arrayed against that lawmaking body, in a struggle for their professional existence. At the session, November, 1645, the As sembly resolved,
