Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/494

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478
The Rights
Book 1.

poration aggregate conſtituted without a head[1]: as the collegiate church of Southwell in Nottinghamſhire, which conſiſts only of prebendaries; and the governors of the Charter-houſe, London, who have no preſident or ſuperior, but are all of equal authority. In aggregate corporations alſo, the act of the major part is eſteemed the act of the whole[2]. By the civil law this major part muſt have conſiſted of two thirds of the whole; elſe no act could be performed[3]: which perhaps may be one reaſon why they required three at leaſt to make a corporation. But, with us, any majority is ſufficient to determine the act of the whole body. And whereas, notwithſtanding the law ſtood thus, ſome founders of corporations had made ſtatutes in derogation of the common law, making very frequently the unanimous aſſent of the ſociety to be neceſſary to any corporate act; (which king Henry VIII found to be a great obſtruction to his projected ſcheme of obtaining a ſurrender of the lands of eccleſiaſtical corporations) it was therefore enacted by ſtatute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 27. that all private ſtatutes ſhall be utterly void, whereby any grant or election, made by the head, with the concurrence of the major part of the body, is liable to be obſtructed by any one or more, being the minority: but this ſtatute extends not to any negative or neceſſary voice, given by the founder to the head of any ſuch fociety.

We before obſerved that it was incident to every corporation, to have a capacity to purchaſe lands for themſelves and ſucceſſors: and this is regularly true at the common law[4]. But they are excepted out of the ſtatute of wills[5]; ſo that no deviſe of lands to a corporation by will is good: except for charitable uſes, by ſtatute 43 Eliz. c. 4[6]. And alſo, by a great variety of ſtatutes[7], their privilege even of purchaſing from any living grantor is greatly abridged; ſo that now a corporation, either eccleſiaſtical or lay,

  1. 10 Rep. 30.
  2. Bro. Abr. tit. Corporation. 31. 34.
  3. Ff. 3. 4. 3.
  4. 10 Rep. 30.
  5. 34 Hen. VIII. c. 5.
  6. Hob. 136.
  7. From magna carta, 9 Hen. III. c. 36. to 9 Geo. II. c. 36.
muſt