every manual trade and profeſſion. They were afterwards much conſidered by the civil law[1], in which they were called univerſitates, as forming one whole out of many individuals; or collegia, from being gathered together: they were adopted alſo by the canon law, for the maintenance of eccleſiaſtical diſcipline; and from them our ſpiritual corporations are derived. But our laws have conſiderably refined and improved upon the invention, according to the uſual genius of the Engliſh nation: particularly with regard to ſole corporations, conſiſting of one perſon only, of which the Roman lawyers had no notion; their maxim being that "tres faciunt collegium[2]." Though they held, that if a corporation, originally conſiſting of three perſons, be reduced to one, "ſi univerſitas ad unum redit," it may ſtill ſubſiſt as a corporation, "et ſtet nomen univerſitatis[3]."
Before we proceed to treat of the ſeveral incidents of corporations, as regarded by the laws of England, let us firſt take a view of the ſeveral ſorts of them; and then we ſhall be better enabled to apprehend their reſpective qualities.
The firſt diviſion of corporations is into aggregate and ſole. Corporations aggregate conſiſt of many perſons united together into one ſociety, and are kept up by a perpetual ſucceſſion of members, ſo as to continue for ever: of which kind are the mayor and commonalty of a city, the head and fellows of a college, the dean and chapter of a cathedral church. Corporations ſole conſiſt of one perſon only and his ſucceſſors, in ſome particular ſtation, who are incorporated by law, in order to give them ſome legal capacities and advantages, particularly that of perpetuity, which in their natural perſons they could not have had. In this ſenſe the king is a ſole corporation[4]: ſo is a biſhop: ſo are ſome deans, and prebendaries, diſtinct from their ſeveral chapters: and ſo is every parſon and vicar. And the neceſſity, or at leaſt uſe, of this inſtitution will be very apparent, if we
