ad fludendum, but ad celebrandum divina. It is true there have been fome members of fuch foundations, who have made proficiency in arts, have written learned tracts, and improved human knowledge; but this was not the purpose of their inftitution, for it is not study, but celebratio divinorum, which makes an ecclefiaftical corporation; nor does the injunction to pray constitute an ecclefiaftical foundation; for that was implied as concomitant to all ftudies: if the injunction of faying their prayers were to make a corporation fpiritual, there was hardly any one of those which, beyond all doubt, were lay hofpitals, but would have been spiritual (a).

THE knights of St. John of Jerufalem, though religious, were not ecclefiaftical, but lay corporations (b).

LAY corporations are again fubdivided into two claffes, eleemofynary and civil. Eleemofynary corporations are fuch as are conftituted for the perpetual distribution of the free alms, or bounty of the founder of them, to fuch perfons as he has directed (c). Thefe are of two general defcriptions: hospitals for the maintenance and relief of poor and impotent perfons; and colleges for the promotion of learning, and the support of persons

(a) Vid. Raym. 108, 109. (c) 1 Bl. Comment. 471.

(b) Goldb. 393. et seq.

engaged

engaged in literary pursuits, of which the greater number are within the universities, and form component parts of these larger corporations; and others are out of the universities, and not neceffarily connected with them.

"Or hofpitals," fays Sir Edward Coke, "fome are corporations aggregate of many, as of mafter, or warden, and his confreres; fome, where the mafter or warden hath alone the estate of inheritance in him, and the brethren or fisters power to confent, having a college or common feal" (a).

BETWEEN fuch hofpitals as these, and colleges either in the universities or out of them, there is no difference in legal confideration; the difference is only in degree; for, where, in an hofpital, the master and poor are incorporated, it is a college, having a common seal by which it acts, although it have not the name of a college (b). But there are other hofpitals " where the master or warden hath the estate in him, but where there is no college or common feal," and which, therefore, cannot properly be confidered as corporations, the master or warden being merely a trustee for the house.

THERE are other hofpitals, where the poor, who are the objects of the founder's bounty, are not (b) Per Holt. Skinner, 484. themselves

(a) Co. Lit. 342, a.

themselves incorporated, but the corporate fucceffion is vefted in trustees under various denonominations, who, of course, have no beneficial intereft, but are only employed as inftruments to effectuate the purposes of the institution; of this description is Sutton's Hofpital, commonly called the Charter House (a); and most other hospitals of modern creation; but these, says Lord Coke, are not legal hofpitals (6).

THERE are alfo many other corporations, resembling hospitals, of this last description, which are neither colleges nor hofpitals, but which may be claffed under the head of eleemofynary corporations, as their object is, by means of trustees incorporated, to carry into execution fome public charity; fuch is the corporation created in the reign of Queen Anne (c), under the name of " the governor of the bounty of Queen Anne, for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor clergy;" and fuch are many corporations of trustees for the education of children at free fchools, and many others, for various purposes.

CIVIL Corporations are established for a variety of temporal purposes. Thus a corporate capacity

(a) 10 Co. 1, 35.

(b) 10 Co. 31, a.

(c) 2 Ann. c. 11. 5 Ann. c. 24. 6 Ann. c. 27. 1 Geo. 1, ft. 2,

C. IO.

3 Geo. 1, c. 10.

is

is given to the King, to prevent, in general, the poffibility of an interregnum or vacancy of the throne, and to preferve entire the poffeffions of the crown; for immediately on the demife of one King, his fucceffor is in full poffeffion of the regal rights and dignity (a). Other civil corporations are established for the purpose of local government, fuch as the corporations of cities and towns, under the names of Mayor and Commonalty, Bailiffs and Burgeffes, and other fimilar denominations; and to this class seem properly to belong the general corporate bodies of the two universities, which, whatever may have been the notion of former times with respect to them, are now univerfally confidered as lay corporations with temporal rights, not as eleemofynary foundations, as particular colleges are, though ftipends are annexed to particular magiftrates and profeffors; for these are rewards pro opera et labore, in the fame manner as the ftanding falaries of particular officers in other corporations which are confeffedly not eleemofynary, but civil (b). Other corporations are established for the maintenance and regulation of fome particular object of public policy; fuch as the Corporation of the Trinity House for regulating navigation (c), the Bank,

(a) 1 Bl. Com. 470. (b) 3 Bur. 1652, 1656. 1 Bl. Com. 471. () Sawyer's Arg. Quo. War. 9.

and

and the different Infurance Companies in London; others for the regulation of trade, manufactures, and commerce, fuch as the Eaft India Company, and the companies of trades in London and other towns; others for the advancement of fcience in general, or fome particular branches of it; fuch are the College of Physicians and the Company of Surgeons in London for the improvement of the medical fcience; the Royal Society for the advancement of natural knowledge; the Society of Antiquarians for promoting the ftudy of antiquities; and the Royal Academy of Arts for cultivating painting and fculpture.

THERE are alfo fome corporations which have a corporate capacity only to fome particular purpofe. Thus the churchwardens may take goods in fucceffion to the use of the parishioners (a); fo, if a gift of chattels be made to the parishioners, it is good, and the churchwardens fhall have an action for them, the gift being for the use of the church (b). They have the cuftody of the ornaments of the church, as the plate and bells, and an action of trefpafs has been maintained by them against the parson for breaking the bells; though the parfon pleaded that he and others purchased the bells with their own

(a) 20 Ed. 4. 2 Bro. Corp. 60.

(b) 37 H. 6, 30. Bro. Corpor, 73.

confidered to be

money,