2.  There was a process depending in the ordinary courts of justice, between two individuals of the name of Robinson and Fauntleroy, who were relations, of different descriptions, to one Robinson, a British subject, lately dead.  Each party claimed a right to inherit the lands of the decedent, according to the laws.  Their right should, by the constitution, have been decided by the judiciary courts; and it was actually depending before them.  One of the parties petitioned the Assembly, (I think it was in the year 1782,) who passed a law deciding the right in his favor.  In the following year, a Frenchman, master of a vessel, entered into port without complying with the laws established in such cases, whereby he incurred the forfeitures of the law to any person who would sue for them.  An individual instituted a legal process to recover these forfeitures, according to the law of the land.  The Frenchman petitioned the Assembly, who passed a law deciding the question of forfeiture in his favor.  These acts are occasional repeals of that part of the constitution, which forbids the same persons to exercise legislative and judiciary powers, at the same time.

3.  The Assembly is in the habitual exercise, during their sessions, of directing the Executive what to do.  There are few pages of their journals, which do not furnish proofs of this, and, consequently, instances of the legislative and executive powers exercised by the same persons, at the same time.  These things prove, that it has been the uninterrupted opinion of every Assembly, from that which passed the ordinance called the constitution, down to the present day, that their, acts may control that ordinance, and, of course, that the State of Virginia has no fixed constitution at all.

ARTICLE BY JEFFERSON:  ‘Etats Unis,’ FOR THE Encyclopedie Methodique

[The succeeding observations were made by Mr. Jefferson on an article entitled ‘Etats Unis,’ prepared for the Encyclopedie Methodique, and submitted to him before its publication.]

Page 8.  The malefactors sent to America were not sufficient in number to merit enumeration, as one class out of three, which peopled America.  It was at a late period of their history, that this practice began.  I have no book by me, which enables me to point out the date of its commencement.  But I do not think the whole number sent would amount to two thousand, and being principally men, eaten up with disease, they married seldom and propagated little.  I do not suppose that themselves and their descendants are, at present, four thousand, which is little more than one thousandth part of the whole inhabitants.