f the house,
petitions the governor to confirm the usual liberties and privileges of
assembly, namely, access to his person whenever they shall have
occasion; a freedom of speech and debate in the house, without being
farther accountable; a protection of their persons, and their servants
from arrest, &c. And these being granted by the governor, and the cause
of their meeting declared by him, they proceed to do business, choosing
committees, and in other things imitating as near as they can the
method of the honorable house of commons in England.

The laws having duly passed the house of burgesses, the council, and the
governor's assent, they are transmitted to the king by the next shipping
for his approbation, his majesty having another negative voice. But they
immediately become laws, and are in force upon the governor's first
passing them, and so remain if his majesty don't actually repeal them,
although he be not pleased to declare his royal assent, one way or
other.

There are no appointed times for their convention, but they are called
together whenever the exigencies of the country make it necessary, or
his majesty is pleased to order anything to be proposed to them.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE SUBDIVISIONS OF VIRGINIA.

Sec. 5. The country is divided into twenty-nine counties, and the counties,
as they are in bigness, into fewer or more parishes, as they are filled
with inhabitants.

The method of bounding the counties is at this time with respect to the
convenience of having each county limited to one single river, for its
trade and shipping, so that any one whose concerns are altogether in one
county, may not be obliged to seek his freight and shipping in more than
one river. Whereas at first, they were bounded with respect to the
circuit, and the propinquity of the extremes to one common centre, by
which means one county reached then quite across a neck of land from
river to river. But this way of bounding the counties being found more
inconvenient than the other, it was changed by a law into what it is
now.

Besides this division into counties and parishes, there are two other
subdivisions, which are subject to the rules and alterations made by the
county courts, namely: into precincts or burroughs, for the limits of
constables; and into precincts or walks, for the surveyors of highways.

Sec. 6. There is another division of the country into necks of land, which
are the boundaries of the escheators