CHAP. 118.--An ACT to allow the voters of Northampton county to vote on a fence law.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That it shall be the duty of the county court of Northampton, or the judge the in vacation, within the period of four months after the passage this act, to submit to the qualified voters of each magisterial die of said county the question as to whether there shall, or shall be a fence law in either or all of said magisterial districts in county; said election to be held and conducted at such time places and in such manner under the existing election law of state, as said court or judge may by order prescribe.

2. If it shall appear from the returns of said election, that a majority of the voters in said election in either or all of the said magisterial districts is in favor of a no-fence law, then it shall not 6 lawful after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety seven, for the owner or manager of any horse, mule, swine, sheep, goat, or cattle of any description to permit the said animals to rung large beyond the limit or boundaries of their own lands; and if any of the animals enumerated herein shall thereafter be permitted or found going at large upon the lands of any person or persons other than the owner or manager of said animal or animals, shall be liable for all damage or injury done by the said animals to the owner or owners of the crops or lands upon which they trespass, and shall be subject to the provisions of sections twenty hundred and forty-two, twenty hundred and forty-nine, and twenty hundred and fifty of the code of Virginia, whether the said animal or animals wander from the premises of their owners in the district in which the trespass was committed, or from another district in said county.

3. Should it appear from the returns of said election that a majority of the voters thereof in either or all of the magisterial districts of said county is opposed to such a no-fence law, then thirty days after said election all fences within any or all of the said magisterial districts so voting, whether constructed of posts and boards or posts and wire, measuring forty-four inches high, or of mauled rails, measuring four feet high and through which stock cannot pass without breaking or destroying a rail or wire, shall be, and are hereby, declared to be a lawful fence or fences in and for said magisterial district
or districts of said county.

4. Before any election as aforesaid shall be held, the judge of the county court aforesaid shall cause the same to be published at least thirty days previous to the holding of such election by causing to be posted hand-bills at each voting precinct of said county.

5. All acts or parts of acts in conflict with this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

6. This act shall be in force from its passage.