where the application is made, by an order of record,
to designate one or more police stations in their
respective counties, and a captain and three or
more other persons as a police patrol on each
station, for the recapture of fugitive slaves;
which patrol shall be in service at such times, and
such stations as the court shall direct by their order
aforesaid; and the said court shall allow a reasonable
compensation, to be paid to the members of such
patrol; and for that purpose, the said court may
from time to time direct a levy on negroes now
taxed by law, at such rate per capita as the court
may think sufficient, to be collected and accounted
for by the sheriff as other county levies, and
to be called, “The fugitive slave tax.”
The owner of each fugitive slave in the act of
escaping beyond the limits of the commonwealth, to
a non-slave-holding state, and captured by the
patrol aforesaid, shall pay for each slave over
fifteen, and under forty-five years old, a reward
of One Hundred dollars; for each slave over five,
and under fifteen years old, the sum of sixty dollars;
and for all others, the sum of forty dollars.
Which reward shall be divided equally among the
members of the patrol retaking the slave and actually
on duty at the time; and to secure the payment
of said reward, the said patrol may retain possession
and use of the slave until the reward is paid or
secured to them.
(14.) The executive of this State may appoint one or more inspectors for the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, if he shall deem it expedient, for the due execution of this act. The inspectors so appointed to perform the same duties, and to be invested with the same powers in their respective districts, and receive the same fees, as pilots acting as inspectors in other parts of the State. A vessel subject to inspection under this law, departing from any of the above-named counties or rivers on her voyage to sea, shall be exempted from the payment of a fee for a second inspection by another officer, if provided with a certificate from the proper inspecting officer of that district; but if, after proceeding on her voyage, she returns to the port or place of departure, or enters any other port, river, or roadstead in the State, the said vessel shall be again inspected, and pay a fee of five dollars, as if she had undergone no previous examination and received no previous certificate.
If driven by stress of weather
to seek a harbor, and she has no
intercourse with the shore,
then, and in that case, no second
fee shall be paid by said
vessel.
(15.) For the better execution of the provisions of this act, in regard to the inspection, of vessels, the executive is hereby authorized and directed to appoint a chief inspector, to reside at Norfolk, whose duty it shall be, to direct and superintend the police, agents, or inspectors above referred to. He shall keep a record of all vessels engaged in the piloting business, together