CHARTER.
The governour of our said province for the time being shall have authority
from time to time at his discretion to assemble and call together the
councillors or assistants of our said province for the time being and that
the said governour with the said assistants or councillors or seaven of
them at the least shall and may from time to time hold and keep a councill
for the ordering and directing the affaires of our said province.
CONSTITUTION.
The governour shall have authority, from time to time at his discretion,
to assemble and call together the councillors of this commonwealth for the
time being; and the governour, with the said councillors, or five of them
at least, shall, and may, from time to time, hold and keep a council, for
the ordering and directing the affairs of the commonwealth, agreeably to
the constitution and the laws of the land.
* * * * *
The clause concerning the council is curious as an instance of the
survival of an antiquated form. In the province the body had a use, for it
was a regular upper chamber; but when, in 1779, a senate was added, it
became an anomalous and meaningless third house; yet it is still regularly
elected, though its inutility is obvious. So long ago as 1814 John Adams
had become very tired of it; he then wrote: "This constitution, which
existed in my handwriting, made the governor annually elective, gave him
the executive power, shackled with a council, that I now wish was
annihilated.
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