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First, That the Proprietor has the Appointment of Counsellors, is
too notorious to need any Proof.
Secondly, For Proof of the Proprietor's Power to remove Coun-
sellors, and consequently the Members of the Upper House, at his
Will and Pleasure, I must beg the Reader's Patience, while I lay
before him the famous Case of the late Thomas Bordley, Esq; as
far as it is pertinent to this Point, which stands as follows. —
Part of the Governor's Speech, Feb. 20, 1721.
Gentlemen of the Upper House of Assembly,
"In relation to Mr. Bordley, I must let you know, that my dis-
charging him from giving me farther Counsel, is not designed to
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affect him as a Member of your House, if, as such, he has a Right
to sit therein, which Point I desire you will enquire into, and inform
me of your Judgment therein, that Justice may be done." —
The Answer of the Upper House, Feb. 23, 1721.
"We find, by inspecting our Journals, that the Upper House of
Assembly for this Province, under a Proprietary Government, was
always composed of such Persons as were Members of his Lordship's
Honourable Council, and that, and that only, Qualification, is, and
has been thought necessary to impower any Person to act as a Mem-
ber of that House. We are therefore humbly of Opinion, in Refer-
ence to Mr. Bordley, that if he be legally discharged from being a
Member of His Lordship's Council, he is thereby disabled and
deprived of the Privilege of acting as a Member of the Upper House
of Assembly." Annapolis, February 23, 1721.
"Mr. Bordley (being sent for) appears, and being asked by His
Honour, whether he conceived and insisted on it, that by Virtue of
his Honour's Letter, of the Fifteenth of September last, he was
discharged from being a Member of the Council? answered, that
when he received the said Letter he did think so, and that he was
of the same Opinion still; and then withdrew." — After Mr. Bordley
had withdrawn, his Honour expressed himself as follows.
Gentlemen of the Upper House,
"As the Lord Proprietor has an undoubted Right to discharge
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as well as make a Counsellor, and that his Appointment of one is
the only Qualification by which he is a Member of your House; I am
of your Opinion, that Mr. Bordley's being discharged from the
Council, of course discharges him from the Upper House of As-
sembly. And as to the Legality of what is done, I have particular
Instructions from his Lordship relating to Mr. Bordley, with a full
Power of dismissing him.
Charles Calvert."
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