CORPORA'TION. This, in England, is either aggregate or sole. A C. aggregate is a society of persons authorized by law to act as one person, and to perpetuate its existence by the admission of new members. Without such legal authority, the acts of the soci ety would be regarded only as the acts of the individuals, and the property of the society would descend to the heirs of the individual members. A C. sole consists of one person, and his successors, who are by law invested with the same capacities as a C. aggregate. The sovereign is a C. sole, and so is a bishop and the vicar of a parish, for these in the eye of the law never die, and each successive holder of the office takes the property belonging to lt, neither by conveyance nor by ordinary succession, but is vested in it by his mere holding of the office.
A C. could formerly be established only by charter from the crown or act of parlia ment, unless, indeed, it existed by immemorial prescription; but of late years the exigencies of commerce have led to the passing of various enactments, by compliance with which any society of persons may acquire for themselves the character of a cor poration. The particulars of these will be considered under the title Joixr-srocic COMPANIES. A C. always receives a eorpqrate name, by which it sues and is sued, and must possess a common seal, the affixing Of which IS the only competent way of affixing the signature of the corporation. The majority of the members of a C. are entitled to act in its name, and may, by a by-law, even delegate—except in the case of municipa: tbrporations—the power of acting in its name to a certain number of its members. For the acts of the C. none of its members are personally liable. A C. may hold lands stihject to the statutes of mortmain (q.v.)—and may be possessed, if a C. aggregate, of chattels; but a C. sole has not this privilege, unless it be the representative of a number of persons for whose benefit the chattels are held, But no C. can be either a trustee proper or an executor.
Corporations, whether aggregate or sole, are divided into ecclesiastical and lay, and tlie lay are subdivided into civil and eleemosynary. The ecclesiastical are Such as
are composed wholly of clergymen, in their ecclesiastical capacity. and are chiefly for the purpose of holding ecclesiastical. property. Civil corporations include municipal corporations, the universities, the colleges of physicians and surgeons, learned societies, and many trading companies incorporated. Eleemosynary corporations are for the administration of funds for charitable and pious purposes, such as hospitals, the colleges in universities, etc. An important consequence of these distinctions is the effect it has on the right of visiting a C. or exercising a legal superintendence over its proceedings. The crown is the visitor of the archbishops, each archbishop is the visitor of his suffragan bishops, and each bishop is the visitor of all the ecclesiastical corporations in his diocese. Civil corporations have no visitor, but the court of queen's bench is the authority entitled to restrain and direct them. Eleemosynary corporations are visited by the founder and his heirs,, or such persons as the founder appointed to be visitors; and in default of such persons, or of the founder's heirs, the court of chancery acts as visitor. Hospitals, if of ecclesiastical nature, are, however, subject to the visitation of the bishop.
A C. may be dissolved by the death of all its members, or of such number as leaves not enough to make new elections in the way the charter requires; by forfeiture of the charter, through breach of its conditions; by surrender of the charter; or by act of par liament. In all Such cases, the lands of the C. revert to their several donors, and the debts due by or to the C. are extinguished.
'Municipal dorporationS, formerly dependent on special charter alone, are now made uniform, and regulated by the 5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 76, and sonic subsequent acts. See MUNICIPAL CORPORATION.
As to public •corporations in Scotland, see Burton, Tows COUNCIL, FRIENDLY SOCIETIES; and as to private corporations for trading purposes, see BANK, LIABILITY (limited), PARTNERSHIP.