To the Honorable the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia

The Petition of the Inhabitants of the Counties of Fairfax and Loudoun humbly sheweth that in consequence of the high price of wheat and flour for some years occasioned by the Eueopean War, the cultivation of Tobacco in the aforesaid Counties became almost totally neglected, and owing to that neglect the Propriators of the Tobacco Warehouses in the Town of Alexandria Petitioned the Assembly in the year 1793 to discontinue the Inspection because the very small quantity of Tobacco then made in the aforesaid Counties and brought to the warehouses afforded for small compensation [unclear] but now the uncertainty of making good crops of wheat added to the high prices of Tobacco occasions the cultivation of that article to be highly increased that it is suggested by several whose opinions may be relied on, that the quantity of Tobacco this year made in the aforesaid Counties far exceeds that of many former years - Your Petitioners therefore sensible of the great advantage of bringing their Tobacco to the Alexandria Inspection pray your honorable Body that the same may be regularly reestablished because by its being lodged there they will receive a superior price for the following reasons -

The Merchants can almost at any season of the year ship it, and the charge of craftage from other warehouses at Alexandria where it must ultimately come being generally sold to Merchants there) will be avoided, of course every circumstance that affords convenience to the Merchant & deminishes the charges on the Tobacco, must operate to the benefit of the planters, and under those ideas the proprietors of the Alexandria warehouses have been solicited to agree (if leave should be obtained from the assembly) to re-establish the Inspection to which they have consented, sanctioned then by their approbation and the ware Houses being in the Completest order, your Petitioners humbly pray the Assembly to pass a law which shall again establish a Tobacco Inspection in the Town of Alexandria, and they with a greater hope of success make the application since to grant it will afford them a considerable [unclear] , Your Petitioners then humbly hoping that their application is both reasonable and just, pray the Legislature may [unclear] the same [unclear] consideration, and they as in duty bound will ever pray, etc. Alexandria 22 Octobr 1798

James Patton {and pages of other signers]