1858.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES.           315

dent and Secretary, to make the following communication to
your Excellency:

At that meeting, there was informally laid before the Board
a copy of an order recently passed by the honorable House of
Delegates, which receites that, by the Act of 1827, Ch. 205,
incorporating the Hospital, it is provided that said Hospital
shall be managed by a Board of Visitors therein named, con-
sisting of one person from each county, and eleven from Bal-
timore city; and that in case of the death, refusal to accept,
resignation or removal from their respective counties or city,
of said Visitors, the fact shall be certified by the Secretary of
said Board to the Governor, and such vacancies filled by per-
sons to be by him appointed ;" and the order then proceeds
to request your Excellency to furnish to said House "a list of
the persons now constituting the said Board—said list to show
the respective residences of said Visitors, and the date and
manner of their appointment, and also what vacancies, if any,
exist in said Board." As your Excellency has intimated a
wish to be informed of the facts of the case, the Board have
instructed us fully to state them, so far as their own know-
ledge enables them to do so.

It is proper, however, that we should, in the first place, call
the attention of your Excellency to the construction which,
by said order of the House of Delegates, is given to the char-
ter of the Hospital, as it differs in material and important re-
spects from that which has been always given and acted on by
the Board since their incorporation, thirty years ago.

The order of the House of Delegates, recites only the first
part of the 5th section of the charter, and entirely omits the
latter part, which the Board consider very important, and
explanatory of the whole section. The language of the con-
cluding portion of the section is as follows:—"If, after the
election of President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer,
as is hereinbefore first directed, said President, Vice-Presi-
dent, Secretary and Treasurer, or any of said Visitors, shall
die, resign., remove from the city of Baltimore or counties, re-
spectively as aforesaid, or in conformity to the by-laws, and
regulations which said President and Visitors may make and
ordain, be removed from their several respective places, then
an election shall be held to supply their places, for the residue
of the term respectively, according to the rules, regulations
and by-laws which may be made therefor." The construc-
tion which the Board have always placed on the charter is,
that if before the first election of President, &c., a vacancy
had occurred, such vacancy should have been reported to the
Governor and by him be filled; but that whenever any
vacancy occurs after such first election, then it is to be filled,
not by the Governor, but by an election held by the Board.