Civil Government of Virginia | Page 8

is a law-proceeding in a case where no crime is charged,
but such as for the recovering of a debt or for the settlement of a
difference relating to business matters. Perjury is the crime of wilfully
making a false oath. When a person appears as a witness in a court of
law he has to take an oath that he will tell the truth. If after taking such
oath he tells what he knows to be untrue, he is guilty of perjury.
A breach of the peace is any act of violence which causes public
disturbance, such as one person assaulting another and thereby causing
a quarrel or riot.
Contempt of court is disobedience to the orders or decrees or rules of a
court of law. Insult or violence to a judge in court would he criminal
contempt.
Salaries. The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
Delegates, each, $400; and the other members, each, $240 for
attendance and service at each regular session; at all extra sessions, the
President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates shall
receive, each, $240, and the other members, each, $120. Members are
entitled to mileage.
In addition to his salary each member of the Assembly receives ten
cents per mile for expenses of traveling to and from the sessions of the
Assembly. This allowance is called mileage.
Bills may originate in either of the two houses. No bill shall become a
law until it has been read on three different days in each house except
by a vote of four-fifths of the members voting in each house.
Every bill which shall have passed the Senate and House of Delegates

shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the Governor; if he
approve, he shall sign it and it is then a law, but if not, he shall return it
with his objections to the house in which it originated; who shall
proceed to reconsider it. If after such consideration two-thirds of the
members present shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent to the other
house, by which it shall be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds
of all the members present, it shall become a law, notwithstanding the
objections of the Governor.
He may also veto any particular item of an appropriation bill, but this
item may also be passed over his veto by a two-thirds vote of both
houses.
If any bill shall not be returned by the Governor within five days after it
shall have been presented to him, it shall be a law in like manner as if
he had signed it.
A bill is a draft or statement of a proposed law. A bill may originate in
either house--that is, it may be first proposed in either the Seriate or
House of Delegates. Any senator or delegate who wishes to have a new
law made must first put it in writing. Then he himself introduces or
proposes it in the house of which he is a member, or it may be
introduced by a committee.
A committee is a number of persons, usually not a large number,
appointed by a legislature or other body to take charge of and attend to
some particular business. The members of the House of Delegates and
of the Senate are divided into committees, and some special subject or
business is entrusted to each. For example, in the Senate there are
committees on Privileges and Elections, Public Institutions and
Education, and many other subjects; and in the House of Delegates
there are committees on Courts of Justice, Schools and Colleges, and
other subjects.
Usually proposals for new laws are referred for consideration to the
committee having charge of the subject or business to which the
proposed law relates. Committees in the Senate are elected by the
senators themselves; committees in the House of Delegates are
appointed by the speaker.
When a new law or bill is introduced it is either proposed by a
committee, or by some member and given for consideration to a
committee. In order to pass, it must be read three times on three

different days (once each day) in the house in which it originates.
The first reading is the formal placing or presenting of the bill before
the house. At the second reading the bill is discussed, and any member
who wishes to say anything for or against it is at liberty to do so.
Amendments may also be proposed at the second reading. An
amendment is an alteration or a change in the wording or matter of a
bill. After an amendment is discussed the house votes upon it, and if a
majority is for it, the change is made in the bill.
When all amendments are discussed