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of murage, pannage, and pontage, throughout the kingdom (a).

MADOX gives a great number of inftances of such grants, and in the register there are many writs, particularly under the title de effendo quietum de Theolonio, commanding the obfervance of fimilar exemptions in favour of feveral collective bodies of men who were not incorporated (b).

THE privilege of conferring the degree of barrifter, poffeffed exclufively by the focieties of the Inns of Court, is an example of the fame kind exifting in modern times.

"BUT fuch a charter, at this day" (c), fays Coke, "cannot be granted to any but a corporation."

ANOTHER characteristic of a corporation is, 'that it may fue and be fued in its collective capacity; but in ancient times there are many inftances of other collective bodies fuing and being fued in the fame manner.

THUS, in the second year of King Edward the fecond, an action was brought in the Exchequer, by John de Vanne and his fellows, merchants of the company of the Ballardi of Lucca, against brother Thomas, of Doncaster, master of the house of St. Germain, in Scotland, for nine pounds due upon bond. The defendant pleaded payment of

I

(a) 1 Rol. Rep. 148. Firma Burgi, c. 11, f. 4. (b) Register, 258, b.-261, b. (c) 13 Jac.

Register, 259, a.
Vid. 1 Rol. Rep.

part

money;

and judgment paffed against

part of the
him for the refidue (a).

In the fame year of the fame King, Richard de Abyndon and Margery Criel fued the tenants of the hundred of Wicheford, in Cambridgeshire, for 89s. 6d. being their contingent part of a taillage affeffed during the voidance of the See of Ely. Ralph of Norwich, Bailiff of the liberty of the Bishop of Ely, appeared in behalf of the tenants, and pleaded, that the plaintiff Richard had been paid and fatisfied this very money; and he produced a patent letter of acquittance made by him: on which the tenants had judgment to be dismissed the court (b).

EVEN two diftinct bodies of men, of different descriptions, and having different interefts within the fame town, have been the oppofite parties to a fuit. Thus, in the forty-fourth year of Henry the third, Peter de Wakerlegh, and five others, who were "Prince Edward's men," in the town of Staunford, were attached to answer William Davifon and William Reynerfon, who fued for "the Abbot of Burgh's men," of the fame town, for that the defendants unjustly caused the plaintiffs to contribute with them, and others, who were the men of Prince Edward in that town, in taillages and other burthens, payable by the faid

(a) Firma Burgi, c.—s, 28.

(b) Ib. f. 31.

town,

town, beyond the fixth part of the said taillages and burthens, contrary to a concord made before the Barons of the Exchequer, about that affair, in the twenty-feventh year of Henry the third. The defendants came and pleaded, that they did not cause the plaintiffs to be diftrained, contrary to the said concord; but defired that it might remain in force.

THE power of fuing collective bodies of men, not incorporated, in fome particular cafes, has been likewife granted by act of parliament, where the remedy, by common law, was fuppofed not to be adequate to the injury sustained; of this kind is the action against the hundred, on the statute of Winchester, for not raising hue and cry (a); and such is the action given by the statute 8 H. 6, c. 27, to the inhabitants of Tewkesbury, in the county of Gloucester, against the commonalty of the foreft of Dean.

THE cafe of "Prince Edward's men," and "the Abbot of Burgh's men," before mentioned, is a proof, that the capacity of contracting in a collective capacity, was not, in ancient times, confined to a corporation.

DEFINITION and DESCRIPTION of a CORPORATION.

THE union of the feveral circumftances, mentioned in this comparison, between a corporation

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(a) Vid. 1 Term Rep. 72.

and.

and other communities, feems to conftitute the very effence of a corporation; from which, it is prefumed, the following definition will convey a pretty accurate idea of what a corporation is.

A CORPORATION then, or a body politic, or body incorporate, is a collection of many individuals, united into one body, under a special denomination, having perpetual fucceffion under an artificial form, and vested, by the policy of the law, with the capacity of acting, in feveral refpects, as an individual, particularly of taking and granting property, of contracting obligations, and of fuing and being fued, of enjoying privileges and immunities in common, and of exercising a variety of political rights, more or lefs extenfive, according to the defign of its inftitution, or the powers conferred upon it, either at the time of its creation, or at any subsequent period of its existence.

THE words corporation, and incorporation, are frequently confounded, particularly in the old books; the diftinction between them is this; a corporation is a political inftitution; incorporation is the act by which that inftitution is created.

A CORPORATION has been called "a mere capacity to fue and be fued, and to take and to grant" (a); which is as ridiculous as is would be

(a) Treby's Arg. in Qu. War. 3, 4.

to

to fay "that a man is a mere capacity to walk with two feet" (a). It is not a capacity, but a political perfon, in which many capacities refide.

A CORPORATION has also been called a franchife (b): the propriety of this appellation depends on the more or lefs extenfive meaning in which the word "franchife" is ufed; in its moft extenfive fenfe it expreffes every political right which can be enjoyed or exercised by a freeman; in this fenfe, the right of being tried by a jury, the right a man may have to an office, the right of voting at elections, may, with propriety, be called franchises; and in this sense, the right of acting, as a corporation, may be called a franchise, existing collectively in all the individuals of whom the corporation is compofed; in this fenfe, and in this fenfe alone, "the franchise of being a corporation," can have any precife meaning.

In a lefs general and more appropriate sense, the word "franchife" means a royal privilege in the hands of a fubject (c), by which he either receives fome profit, or has the exclufive exercife of fome right; of the first kind are the goods of felons, waifs, eftrays, wrecks, or the like; of the fecond

(a) Sawyer's Arg. in Qu. War. 11.

(b) Finch's Arg. per tot. Sawyer's Arg. 7, 8, 11, 12.

(c) Finch's Law, 164.

are

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