perfons effentially conftitute the body politic, fo all the operations and exercise of this right, are performed only by the natural perfons (a). WHEN it is faid that a corporation is immortal, we are to understand nothing more than that it is capable of an indefinite duration, and the authorities cited (b) to prove its immortality, do not warrant the conclufion drawn from them. If a man give lands, fays Sir Edward Coke (c), to a mayor and commonalty, or other body aggregate, confifting of many perfons capable, without naming fucceffors, the law conftrues it to be a fee fimple, because, in judgment of law, they never die: where the sense is plain that these natural perfons, though capable to take in their natural. capacities jointly, which the law would adjudge an eftate for lives; yet the grant being made to them in their corporate name, they take in that capacity, and the grant is not determinable on the death of any of the individuals, but continues as long as the corporation continues (d). IN fupport of this idea of the immortality of corporations, a paffage is alfo cited from Gro (a) 21 Ed. 4, 14, cited ibid. (b) Treby's Arg. 4, where he cites 1 Inft. 9 b. 3 Co. 60, a. 2 Bulftr. 233. 21 Ed. 4, 13. Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, c. 9, f. 3. (c) 1 Inft. 9. (d) Lawyer's Arg. Q. W. 12. tius (a); which, however, when fairly confidered, is fo far from juftifying the conclufion drawn from it, that it proceeds on the fuppofition that they may cease to exist (b). It has been faid, that a corporation aggregate has neither predeceffor nor fucceffor (c), an expreffion which probably arose from the comparifon of a corporation with a natural body, with refpect to its perfonal identity (d), and which means nothing more than that all the individual members that have exifted from the foundation to the present time, or that fhall ever hereafter exift, are but one perfon in law, in the fame manner as the river Thames is ftill the fame river, though the parts which compofe it are continually changing (e). (a) De Jure Belli et Pacis, lib. 3, c. 9, f. 3. (b) Si qua perfona, nullâ editâ voluntatis fignificatione, nullo confanguineo relicto, moriatur, omne jus quod habet, interit-f. 1.—Idem fi populus. Dixit Ifocrates, et, poft eum, Julianus Imperator, civitates effe immortales, id eft effe poffe, quia fcilicet populus eft ex eo corporum genere, quod ex diftantibus conftat, unique nomini fubjectum eft; quod habet-fpiritum unum-Is autem fpiritus, in populo eft vitæ civilis confociatio plena atque perfecta, cujus prima productio eft fummum imperium, vinculum per quod refpublica cohæret, fpiritus vitalis quem tot millia trahunt-f. 3. (c) 39 H. 6, 13. b. 14, cited 10 Co. 32 b. (d) Plane autem corpora hæc artificialia inftar habent corporis naturalis. Corpus naturale, idem effe non definit, particulis paulatim commutatis, una manente fpecie. Grot. ubi fup. (e) 1 Bl. Com. 468. Manet idem fluminis nomen, aqua tranfmiffa eft. Sicut et Ariftoteles, flumen populo comparans dixit, flumina eadem vocari quanquam alia fubeat femper aqua, alia decedat. Grot. ubi fupra. AMONG AMONG the political institutions of England, there are many inftances of the appropriation of particular revenues to the maintenance of a single perfon, filling fome particular station; and as thefe revenues belong to the perfon, not in his natural capacity, but in his public character, the right to them, after his death, vefts of course, not in his natural representative, but in the perfon who fucceeds him in that character; fuch perfons, therefore, have neceffarily, in their political capacity, perpe.tual fucceffion refembling that of corporations; and to give effect to this fucceffion, they must also neceffarily have the capacity of fuing and being fued in right of the office they hold, distinct from their capacity of fuing and being fued as private individuals. THERE are also inftances of perfons who hold particular offices, being vefted with the power of acting, in their public character, as trustees for others, which likewife involves the neceffity of their having perpetual fucceffion, and the power of fuing and being fued in their public character, as far as their truft is concerned. DISTRIBUTION of CORPORATIONS into their DIFFERENT KINDS. FROM their having perpetual fucceffion, and the capacity of fuing and being fued in their political character, fingle perfons of both thefe defcriptions, C 2 scriptions, have, without much propriety, been, uniformly, in the books of English law, called corporations; and from hence, corporations have been diftributed into two general claffes; corporations fole, and corporations aggregate of many (a); the defcription of each of these two claffes, and the distinction between them, will be fufficiently understood from what has been already faid, as will also, one general divifion of fole corporations into two kinds; those, where the person so denominated, has a corporate capacity for his own benefit; and those, where he acts only as a trustee for the benefit of others: of the first kind, those best known, and most commonly enumerated, are the King, archbishops, bifhops, certain deans, and prebendaries, all archdeacons, parsons, and vicars; and of the fame kind were chauntry priests, in the times of Popish fuperftition (b); of the fecond kind, the most familiar inftance is the chamberlain of the city of London, who may take a recognizance to himself and fucceffors, in his politic capacity, in truft for the orphans (c). BEFORE the diffolution of monafteries, corporations aggregate were divided into the two claffes of corporations aggregate of many persons capable, and corporations aggregate of one perfon (a) Co. Lit. 250, a. (b) Vid. 10 Co. 27, a, b. 28, a. (c) Vid. 1 Rol. Abr. 515. 4 Co. 65. Cro. El. 464. capable, 1 capable, and the reft incapable or dead in law (a). A mafter and fellows, or a master and scholars of a college (b), and a dean and chapter, are examples of the former kind; an abbot and monks, and a prior and monks, were examples of the latter: thofe of the former must fue and be fued by their aggregate name; but the abbot alone, or the prior alone, might fue and be fued alone in right of his houfe: Thus, when an abbot and convent were feised of land, and were afterwards diffeised of it, the abbot might have an affize in his own name without naming the convent, and a præcipe quod reddat was, in like manner, to be fued against the abbot alone; for as to civil purposes, a monk was totally incapacitated to act in his own right, and if he received a perfonal injury, or did an injury to another, he could not sue or be sued alone, but the sovereign of the house must, in both cases, have been joined with him (c); but he had a capacity to fill a spiritual office, as to be a vicar, or to be the abbot of another place than that of which he had been a fubordinate monk, or he might act in the right of another, as executor (d). And the abbot, as well as the fubordinate monks, was, as a natural perfon, (a) Co. Lit. 2, a. (b) Long quinto Ed. 4, 73 b. (c) 11 Aff. pl. 9. Bro. Corpor. 81. |