But, notwithstanding all these, the great body of the inhabitants of the County was entirely undisturbed ; the labors of the day had been done, as they had previously been done, on the hundreds of homesteads, throughout the County ; political questions in which they felt no interest had not slackened the domestic or the out-door industries nor lessened the holiday or evening pleasures of by far the greater number ; and, with here and there a clearly perceptible change, the staid old agricultural County was undisturbed, in all its various relations. The Colonial officers continued to discharge their various duties, as their predecessors had done -- John Thomas, who had occupied the Bench of the Court of Common Pleas, since May, 1755, continued to discharge the duties of that office, as well as those of the other office of Representative of the County, in the General Assembly, without

Committees, and the extent to which they carried their new-found authority, although it relates peculiarly to Virginia, is entirely applicable to the methods and the extent of authority of similar Committees, in every other Colony : " The Associations first, in part, entered into, recom- " mended by the people of this Colony, and adopted by what is called '"the Continental Congress,' are now enforcing, throughout this coun- " try, with the greatest rigour. A Committee has been chosen in every "County, whose business it is to carry the Associolion of the Congress " into execution : which Committee assumes an authority to inspect the " books, invoices, and all other secrets of the trade and correspondence " of Merchants; to watch the conduct of every Inhabitant, without dis- " tinction ; and to send for all such as come under their suspicion, into "their presonce, to interrogate them respecting all matters which, at "their pleasure, they think fit objects of their inquiry, and to 'stig- " 'unitize,' as they term it, such as they find transgressing what they " are now hardy enough to call ' the Laws of the Congress,' which 'stig- "' maturing' is no other than iuviting the vongeanco of an outrageous "and lawless mob, to be exercised upon the unhappy victims."-- (The Earl of Dimmore to fte Eorl of Dartmouth, " Williamsburg," \Virgmia,~] "December 24, 1774," laid before the House of Commons.