one place, from whence arife cities and towns; and others are established from a fimilarity of pursuit in many individuals, whether collected into one place, or difperfed over different parts of the country. AMONG the inftitutions of almost all the states of modern Europe, but among none more than thofe of England, many of these collective bodies of men, under the names of bodies politic, bodies corporate, or corporations, make a confpicuous figure. Ar their first introduction, they were little more than an improvement on the communities which had grown up imperceptibly, without any pofitive inftitution; and, for a confiderable period, the fhade which separated the one from the other, was of a touch fo delicate as to require the most minute attention, and the most discerning eye, to diftinguish. ONE effential characteristic of a corporation is an indefinite duration, by a continued acceffion of new members to fupply the place of those who are removed by death, or other means, which, in the language of the law, is called perpetual fucceffion: but this is not peculiar to corporations; other aggregate bodies of men are capable of the fame perpetual continuance, and for the fame natural and intrinfic reafon. Thus, the 6 the inhabitants of a county, of a hundred, of a manor, of a parish, or of a town not corporate, like Birmingham or Manchester, have perpetual fucceffion, as much as the corporation of the city of London. Even a voluntary affociation of private individuals, for any the most trifling purpose, is capable of perpetual fucceffion, may be indefinitely continued as long as there is an accession of new members, and may, with equal propriety, be called the fame fociety at the distance of any number of years, though not one of the original members remain, as the corporation of the city of London is called the fame corporation which was known by that name a hundred or five hundred years ago. BUT the diftinction between the fucceffion of a community, not corporate, and that of a corporation, is this; that the first has fucceffion in a natural manner, as one generation fucceeds another; the second has fucceffion as a community modified, or put into a particular form, and under a 1pecial denomination, as of mayor and commonalty, bailiffs and commonalty, or the like, which is a complex kind of fucceffion, being both natural and artificial (a). It is another characteristic of a corporation, that it is capable in its collective capacity of poffeffing (a) Madox, Firma Burgi, c. 2, f. 17, page 50. property, and tranfmitting it in perpetual fucceffion; but this, in ancient times, was not peculiar to a corporation: Madox, in his Firma Burgi (a), gives a variety of inftances, of towns not corporate, holding their town at ferm in the fame manner as towns corporate: The ferm was a certain annual rent in lieu of the duties which the King was intitled to levy on a variety of accounts within the towns within his demefnes; when, therefore, he demifed thefe duties to the townfmen at a certain rent, it was neceffarily implied that they were capable of enjoying property in their collective capacity (b). IN Dyer (c), there is a note, that it was held in the Star Chamber, by Bromley Chief Justice, Sir John Baker and others, "that if the Queen (d), at that time, by her charter, will grant land to the good men of the town of Islington rendering rent, without saying to hold to them, their heirs and fucceffors, this is a good corporation perpetual, to this intent only and to no other, because a rent is referved, and the King may have a remedy for his rent" (e). But without the rent referved, it is faid, the grant is void, unless they were incorporated before; because, say the books, (a) C. 3. (b) Id. c. 11, f. 3. (c) 100. pl. 70. (e) Per Geo, Croke, 2 Rol. Rep. 155. the the King is deceived in his grant (a); and, in the cafe where a rent is reserved, it is faid, they are only tenants at will, and if the King will release, or grant to them the rent and fee farm, it feems that the corporation is diffolved, ipfo facto, for the rent and farm was the caufe of their ability to be a corporation" (b). WHATEVER obfervation may be made on the ufe of the word corporation in these two cafes, or, however unfatisfactory the reafon for the diftinction between them, on account of the refervation of rent in the one, and the non-refervation of it in the other, it is perfectly clear that it was not conceived to be neceffary that a collective body of men should be previously incorporated in order to enable them to take a grant of land, and that it was fufficient that they were known by fome general description. This opinion is confirmed by Lord Coke, in a paffage in which he says, " The parishioners, or inhabitants, or probi homines of Dale, or church-wardens, are not capable to purchafe lands, but goods they are, unless it were in antient time when fuch grants were allowed” (c). THERE feems, indeed, no reason in the nature of things, why fuch grants should not have been (a) 7 Ed. 4, 30. 21 Ed. 4, 56, 59. 4 Inft. 297. 2 H. 7, 13. 70. 12 H. 7, 8. 37 H. 6, 30. B 3 1 Rol. 513. 10 H. 4, 3 b. 4,3 allowed; allowed; there is certainly no metaphyfical diffi culty attending the tranfmiffion of landed property through a feries of individuals in their collective capacity, without the fupport of a pofitive inftitution: It has, however, been long an eftablished maxim of the English law, that land, granted to a community or aggregate body of men, not incorporated, cannot, by virtue of the original grant alone, be tranfmitted to their fucceffors (a). It is difficult to account for the establishment of this rule; it can hardly be fupposed to have been introduced on reasons of political expediency; for, by means of renewed conveyances, the fame property may be continued in fucceffion to any community through any indefinite period. The societies of the Inns of Court are not corporations; yet, in their collective capacities, they have held the property of the ground on which the chambers are built, ever fince they were established. The rule may, perhaps, have arisen from the law of jointenancy, and its incident of survivorship, by which, if land be purchased by feveral, to them and their heirs, it does not go to the heirs of all, but to the heirs of the survivor; this, however, is not, altogether, a fatisfactory derivation of the rule, for a purchase, by a community, would be in its collective capacity, with an (a) Vid. 10 Co. 26 b. intention |