16 HIS LORDSHIP'S PATRONAGE

proprietary period Baltimore twice obtained a legal opinion sup-
porting his right and twice limited fees by proclamation. ¹¹

Prior to the establishment of royal government the Assembly
enacted two comprehensive fee laws (1638/9 and 1676), and
the Lower House challenged His Lordship's right to concede fees
to those offices established without their consent. ¹² Further, in
May, 1692, they obliged Colonel Lionel Copley, the first crown
Governor, to promise that no fees should be altered save by act
of Assembly. ¹³ When in 1733 and again in 1770 Baltimore tried
to regulate fees by proclamation, the delegates protested vigor-
ously and often. They enjoyed, moreover, such popular support
that it is doubtful if these proclamations had any standing before
the courts.

The tedious fee controversies interest us only insofar as they
betrayed popular discontent, illustrated proprietary policy, and
affected officers' incomes. ¹⁴ Prior to 1704 popular protest was
not so much against fees legally established as against those of
offices erected solely by prerogative and against those unauthor-
ized by law. ¹⁵ Delegates proposed slight reductions in September,
1704, and more extensive ones in the summer of 1714. But from
1638/9 until 1719 fees once established usually persisted, for
successive acts and proclamations ordinarily did no more than to
confirm old fees and add new ones.

A law of June, 1719, after His Lordship's restoration, reduced
the fees of the Commissary General, the Deputy Secretary, and
the Clerk of the Council about a fourth, and effected smaller
reductions in those of the county clerks. It occasioned a lengthy

¹¹ See the opinion of Sergeant William Wynn, Jan. 15, 1730/1, and that of
Messrs. Thurlow, Wedderburn, and Dunning, about 1771 (Ibid., XXXII, 494-
501); also proclamations of April 14, 1733, and Nov. 24 and 26, 1770 (Ibid,
XXVIII, 31-44; LXIII, 109-11). The former proclamation seems to have been
suggested by Gov. Benedict Leonard Calvert; see his letter to Lord Baltimore,
Oct. 26, 1729 (Calvert Papers, II, 76-78).

¹² Cf. report of conference on grievances, April 20, 1669, and " Additionall
Articles... against the Lord Baltemore and his Deputies, " 1690, art. 1 (Archives
II, 169, 176; VIII, 219).

¹³Ibid., XIII, 382.

¹⁴ On these controversies see Mereness, op. cit., 373-400, and Barker op. cit.
chapters VII, VIII, IX, and X. .

¹⁵See note 12 above; also "Declaration Of the reason and motive for the
present appearing in arms, " 1689, and "Articles against the Deputies, Judges
and ministers of the Lord Baltemore, " 1690, arts. 5-7 (Archives, VIII, 104, 217)
The declaration of 1689, drawn to place His Lordship in as bad a light as
possible, contains the only reference to " Excessive Officers Fees, " as such prior to
1704.