CORPORATION

(Lat. corpus, body.) A body politic or incorporate; consisting of a person or persons having power to take and grant, <fcc. to himself or themselves and their succe ors. Corporations, in English Law, are divided,— 1. Into sole and aggregate. Sole corporations are such is consist of a single person who is constituted a corporation bylaw, for the purpose of enjoying certain advantages and incurring certain duties, transmi ible to his succe ors. Such is the parson of a living in respect of his benefice;a bishop, in respect of the ecclesiastical rights and property of his see; the king, . Corporations aggregate are such as consist of more individuals than one, and are kept up by a perpetual succe ion of members. 2. Into ecclesiastical and lay. Parsons, bishops, deans and chapters, are instances of the former. The latter are again subdivided in to civil and eleemosynary. Among the first are trading companies and municipal corporations; among the latter, hospitals, colleges in the universities, and similar establishments (which, however, were anciently esteemed ecclesiastical). By the law of England, corporations are erected only with the king's consent, expre or implied; and may exist by prescription, by letters patent, or by act of parliament. Bishops, parsons, , may indeed be said to exist as corporations by force of the common law; but some ancient municipal bodies, such as the corporation of London, are m a stricter sense corporations by prescription. Corporations byact of parliament may be created either expre ly, [s. 300]