11.1h COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA. LTo THE EDITOR or THE "
SPECTATOR.") Sin,—In your issue of July 9th you query if the Houdon statue should not have been inscribed as from the Dominion of Vir- ginia rather than, as it reads, from the Comonwealth of Vir- ginia, referring to the prevalent impression that, among the United States, only Massachusetts is properly to be called a commonwealth. But Virginia was such even before the deck- ration of independence at Philadelphia on July 4th, 1776. Virginia virtually declared independence on June 29th, 1776, when its convention adopted its first constitution. In that constitution it provided that all grants and writs should run in the name of the Commonwealth of Virginia; also that indict- ments conclude with the formula "against the peace and dignity of the commonwealth." From the adoption of this con- stitution the legal and official designation has been the " commonwealth," not the dominion "of Virginia." The form of legislation appears in an Act of 1802 which regulated the Tennessee boundary. After certain recitals the act ran Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia that said boundary line between this State and the State of Tennessee as laid down, fixed, and ascertained by the said commissioners above-named in their said report above recited shall be, and is hereby fully and absolutely, to all intents and purposes whatever, ratified, estab- lished and confirmed on the part of this Commonwealth, as the true, certain, and real boundary line between the said States." —Laws of Virginia, 1802-3, c. 39, see Virginia v. Tennessee, 148 U.S. reports, 503-513.
This recent and happy addition to the objects in Trafalgar Square, therefore, does not bear an inaccurate title or any mis- description of the political status of the donor.—I am, Sir, &c., HARRINGTON PUTNAM.
Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, Brooklyn, N.Y., July 29th.
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