of both Houses to serve for terms of twelve years. The General Assembly may, for special reasons, provide for a special Court of Appeals. The State is divided into twenty-four judicial circuits, subject to change after 1906. A judge is chosen for each circuit by the joint vote of the two Houses to serve for a term of eight years. Cities having more than 10,000 inhabitants have in addition to the Circuit Court a Corporation Court. Cities with less than 10,000 inhabitants may continue such Corporation or Hustings Court as may be in existence or may abolish it by a vote of the electors. Judges of the City Court of Records are chosen by the joint vote of both Houses for terms of eight years. Judges may be removed by the concurrent vote of both Houses. There is an Attorney-General elected by the voters to serve for four years. The Legislature provides for the appointment or election of justices of the peace.
Local Government. In magisterial districts one supervisor is elected—the supervisors of all the districts constituting a Board of Supervisors for the county and having power to lay the county and district levies, etc. County and district officers are elected on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The Legislature provides by general laws for the organization and government of cities and towns.
Virginia sends ten members to the National House of Representatives. The capital is Richmond.
Population. The population of Virginia increased from 747,610 in 1790 to 1,065,116 in 1820; to 1,596,318 in 1860; in consequence of the Civil War and the division of the State it decreased to 1,225,163 in 1870. The figure then advanced to 1,512,565 in 1880, to 1,655,980 in 1890, and to 1,854,184 in 1900. The per cent. of gain in the last decade was 12, as against 20.7 for the nation. In the first three census decades Virginia ranked first in population, in 1870 tenth, and in 1900 seventeenth. There were in 1900 46.2 inhabitants to the square mile. The negroes numbered 660,722. For a number of years the percentage which the negro population constitutes of the total has been rapidly decreasing. There has been a large migration of negroes both to the North and to the South. The foreign born numbered only 19,461. The females (928,287) slightly outnumbered the males (925,897). Richmond, the capital and largest city, had a population in 1900 of 85,050. Other cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants are: Norfolk, 46,624; Petersburg, 21,810; Roanoke, 21,495; Newport News, 19,635; Lynchburg, 18,891; Portsmouth, 17,427; Danville, 16,520; and Alexandria, 14,528.
Militia. In 1900 the State had a population of militia age numbering 346,030. The organized militia in 1901 numbered 2331 men.
Religion. The different branches of the Methodist and the Baptist churches include the large majority of the church members in the State. Numerous other denominations are represented, the strongest being the Presbyterian, Episcopal, Disciples of Christ, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Dunkards.
Education. The present public school system of Virginia was inaugurated in 1870, and as a result the school attendance, which had been very low in the preceding years, rapidly increased. In 1870 the attendance was 59,000, while in 1871, after the new law went into operation, it reached 158,000. The system is under the control of a Superintendent of Public Instruction, elected for four years by a joint ballot of the General Assembly, and a Board of Education, composed of the Governor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Attorney-General. This board has general supervision of the State school fund and with the consent of the State Senate can remove county and city superintendents. The school fund is augmented by a tax of not less than 1 and not more than 5 mills on the dollar, apportioned among the various school districts according to the number of children of school age. All schools, excepting primary, must be in session at least five months, fifteen pupils being the minimum number required to constitute a school. Both white and colored pupils have equal educational privileges, although separate schools are maintained. The total population of school age in the census year 1900 was 704,771, consisting of 435,612 whites and 268,962 colored. Of the total number 301,330, or 42.2 per cent., were in attendance. Of the whites of school age 48.1 per cent. were in attendance, as against 32.6 per cent. of the colored of school age. Of the population ten years of age and upward, 22.9 per cent. were illiterate. The white illiterates formed 11.1 per cent. of the total white population, and the colored illiterates 44.6 of the total colored population.
The leading educational institutions are the College of William and Mary (q.v.), at Williamsburg; the University of Virginia (q.v.), at Charlottesville; Washington and Lee University (q.v.), at Lexington; Richmond College, at Richmond; Randolph-Macon College, at Ashland; Roanoke College, at Salem; Virginia Union University, at Richmond; Emory and Henry College, at Emory; Bridgewater College, at Bridgewater; Hampden-Sidney College, at Hampden-Sidney; and Fredericksburg College, at Fredericksburg. Normal courses are given at the College of William and Mary, the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, at Petersburg, and the State Female Normal School, at Farmville.
Charitable and Penal Institutions. There is an asylum for the deaf, dumb, and blind at Staunton, and an industrial reform school for white boys at Laurel. There are insane asylums for whites at Staunton, Williamsburg, and Marion, the number of inmates in September, 1900, aggregating 1918. An insane asylum for negroes at Petersburg had 868 inmates at the same date. There is a soldiers' home near Richmond. The State penitentiary, at Richmond, on October 1, 1899, had 224 white and 1039 colored convicts. There were also 56 white and 197 colored convicts on the State farm. The expense on account of the convicts is more than balanced by their earnings.
History. The name Virginia was given by Queen Elizabeth to the country explored by the expedition under Amadas and Barlow, sent out by Sir Walter Ralegh in 1584. (See North Carolina.) Virginia in history proper begins, however, with the grant by James I. on April 10, 1606, of territory two hundred miles wide, between 34° and 45° north latitude to two companies, usually called, from the residences of their chief incorporators, the London and the Ply-
