PORONKT. 



CORPORATION. 



aid manslaughter or murder, or the said offence of being cieesnry to 

 murder, to appear at the next court of oyer and tonuiner, or gaol 

 delivery, or superior crimioal court of a county palatine, or great 

 imrinni. at which the trial U to be, then and there to proMoute or 

 gire evidence against the party charged ; and every iuch coroner ahall 

 certify and subscribe the came erideoce, and all such recognisances, 

 and also the inquisition before him taken, and shall deliver the same 

 to the proper officer of the court in which the trial U to be, before 

 or at the opening of the court" And by a subsequent section, 

 authority is giren to the court to which the inquisition ought to be 

 delivered to examine in a nummary manner into any offence com- 

 mitted by the coroner against the act, and to punish him by lino. The 

 r's inquisition may be removed into the Court of Queen's 

 and the facts found may be traversed by the personal repre- 

 of the deceased ; or the court may make it for any apparent 



For every inquisition taken in any place contributing to the county 

 rates, the coroner is entitled to a fee of 20., under the 25 George II. 

 c. 49. and by the 1 Viet. c. 63, to an addition of 6*. 8rf. He is also 

 entitled to !</. for every mile he is obliged to travel from his usual 

 place of abode for the purpose of taking it, to be paid by order of 

 sessions out of the county rates ; and by the 7 & 8 Viet. c. 92, coroners 

 may be paid travelling expenses, although in the exercise of their 

 discretion they may have deemed it unnecessary to hold an inquest. 

 By the act 6 ft 7 Will. IV. c. 89, the coroner is empowered to order 

 the attendance of legally-qualified medical practitioners upon an inqui- 

 sition of death, and to direct the performance of a pott mortem 

 examination ; and if the majority of the jury are dissatisfied with the 

 first examination, they may call upon the coroner to summon a second 

 medical witness, to perform a poet mortem examination, whether it has 

 been performed before or not. The same statute also, as amended by 

 the 1 Viet. c. 68, requires the coroner to pay a fee of one guinea to 

 i>uch witness, if he has not performed a pott mortem examination, 

 and of two guineas if be has performed such examination. Medical 

 practitioners are also liable to a penalty of 57. if they neglect to 



The act 1 Viet. e. 68, authorises the justices of the peace in England 

 and Wales, at their quarter-sessions, and the town councils of every 

 borough which hag a coroner's court, at their quarterly meetings, to 

 make a schedule of the fees, allowances, and disbursements which the 

 coroner is allowed to pay (except the fees payable to medical witnesses, 

 under 6 ft 7 Will IV. c. 89), on holding any inquest. This schedule 

 regulates for each county or division of a county the expenses to be 

 paid to the constable for summoning witnesses, ftc. There is usually 

 a small sum allowed to each juryman, generally 1*. 6rf. in counties and 

 It. in boroughs. 



The coroner has also occasionally to exercise a ministerial office, 

 where the sheriff is incapable of acting. Thus where an exception is 

 taken to the sheriff on the ground of partiality or interest, the king's 

 writs are directed to the coroners. This incident to the office of 

 coroners points distinctly to their ancient character as ministerial 

 officers of the crown. When acting for the sheriff the coroner is, by 

 the 7 ft 8 Viet, entitled to the same fees as the sheriff. 



By the Municipal Reform Act, 5 ft 6 Will. IV. c. 76, 62, the 

 council of every borough, to which a separate court of quarter sessions 

 has been granted, is empowered to appoint a fit person, not being an 

 alderman or councillor, to be coroner of the borough, who is to hold 

 his office during good behaviour. The fees and general duties of 

 Ixjrough coroners are the same as those of county coroners ; but the 

 former are required by the statute to moke an annual return to the 

 secretary of state of all inquests of death taken by them. [DEODAXD.] 

 (See Hawkins's ' Pleas of the Crown,' book ii. cap. 9 ; Burn's ' Justice, 

 tit ' Coroner ; ' and Jervis's ' Practical Treatise on the Office and 

 Duties of Coroners.') 



CORONET, an inferior kind of crown worn by the nobility. Of 

 coronets worn by foreign nobility much may be seen in Selden's ' Titles 

 of Honour,' and in Montfaucon ; see also Qough's ' Sepulchral Monu- 

 ments,' vol. i. pp. 133, 134. No coronets belonging to peers con be 

 found in England earlier than the time of Hi-nrv III. The coronet 

 seems at first to have been the distinctive mark of an earl. William 

 de Valence, earl of Pembroke, who died in 1304, and is buried in 

 Westminster Abbey, has only a plain fillet. Aymer de Valence, how- 

 erer, acknowledged by his treasurer the receipt of a coronet at his 

 creation of earl in 1319. (See Cough, 'Sep. Mon.,' i. p. 86, from 

 Selden's ' Tit. of Hon.') John of Eltham, second son of Edward HI., 

 who died hi 1384, and is also buried in Westminster Abbey, bos a 

 coronet on which are leaves ; it is the most ancient of the sort we 

 meet with. Edward the Black Prince, who is buried at Canterbury. 

 has his helmet adorned with a coronet of oak-leaves, formerly enriched 

 with paste, or false stones, of which the collets only remain. (Ibid. 

 L ! M i 



Of the coronets of the British nobility, as at present worn, all 

 surround caps of crimson velvet turned up with ermine. That of a 

 duke is a circle of gold, richly chased, having on the edge eight straw- 

 berry leaves of equal height : that of a marquess, a circle set round 

 with four strawberry leaves and as many pearls on pyramidal points 

 t>{ equal height alternately : the earl's coronet has eight pyramidal 

 points (five only being seen at a time), with as many pearls on the 



tup, (.laced alternately with as many strawberry leaves, lower than the 

 pearls. The viscount has only pearls, without any limited number, 

 placed on the circle itself all round. A baron has only six pearls set 

 at equal distances. Viscount* and barons had no coronets allowed 

 thrm till after Queen Elizabeth's reign ; the former had them granted 

 by king James I., the Utter by a grant from Charles II. in the 

 thirteenth year of his reign. In Sir Symonds D'Ewes's letter, giving 

 an account of the coronation of king Charles I., it is expressly said that 

 when the higher order of the peerage put on their coronets, the barons 

 sat bare. 



The coronet of the kings of arms is a plain circle of gold, bearing 

 sixteen leaves, eight of which are higher than the others : and on the 

 band, the motto " Miserere mei, Deus." 



CORPORAL (in the French service caporal), a non-commissioned 

 officer in a battalion of infantry. The word is derived from the 

 Italian ra/w, signifying a head ; and the title denotes that the person 

 who bore it was the chief of a small squadron or party. During the 

 reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, the corporal was a kind of brigade-major ; 

 he superintended the marches of the companies, and commanded the 

 troops who were sent out on skirmishing parties. But at present he is 

 immediately under the Serjeant ; he commands small guards, and places 

 and relieves the sentries. He falls into the ranks and does the same 

 duty as a private soldier, but his pay is rather higher. 



Lance-corporal, originally lanct-tj>r#ita , denoting a broken or spent 

 lance, was a term applied to a cavalry soldier who had broke 

 lance or lost his horse in action, and was subsequently retained as a 

 volunteer in the infantry till he could be remounted. He is now 

 merely a soldier who does the duty of a corporal, but without the pay, 

 )>ix\ i"iisly to obtaining the full appointment to that grade. 



The rank of corporal is indicated by two stripes on the arm, th.it f 

 lance-corporal by only one. 



CORPORATION. In the progress of European society the want 

 was early felt, of some means by which a permanent existence might 

 be given to undertakings, arts and crafts, to religious doctrines, system*, 

 or mysteries; to sanitary or other eleemosynary (foundations, and 

 other matters of permanent interest and importance to each succeeding 

 generation of men. Thus, if a trade or handicraft hod reached to 

 excellence, it became desirable to provide for keeping together its 

 professors, for the conservation of its secrets, and for imparting them 

 to a chosen few, who should in their turn perform the same duty to 

 others, thus, as it were, perpetually keeping the lamp trimmed and 

 burning. In this mode arose the idea of incorporation, or of esta- 

 blishing a fictitious person an invisible entity which should have 

 powers of holding property, and of doing various acts like a human 

 being, but having besides a perpetual duration and identity. Another 

 instance may be stated : if it was desired to perpetuate a system of 

 augury or divination, intended to aid in the government of future 

 generations, the idea of incorporation was resorted to ; in other words, 

 a body of persons was constituted with powers and under obligations 

 to provide in certain appointed ways and modes for the maintenance 

 of the body, by the election of a new member whenever a vacancy in 

 the existing members should occur, constituted also, with certain fixed 

 rules, as that the concerns of the body should be determined by the 

 majority of voices ; and this being done, property was vested in the 

 abstract person or continuous entity, from the proceeds of which the 

 expenses of the collective body were provided for. By this invention 

 there was always in being a holder of the property ; always a succession 

 of members to manage and apply it. The subtle idea of, in this way, 

 combining, in a metaphysical creation, the legal characters of the finite 

 being with the essentials of infinity, is undoubtedly attributable to the 

 Romans of the period which is usually assigned to the reign of Nmna 

 Pompilius. As society developed, the idea of establishing a continuous 

 identity was applied to a variety of purposes : it furnished munici- 

 palities with a form of government which never wore out ; charitable 

 foundations and trusts were secured to the use and benefit of the- 

 objects of them, as long as such objects should continue to be found ; 

 education was provided for, and learning; and religion kept alive 

 through times through which perhaps no other means would li.ivo 

 sufficed to carry them. It has been, however, in the shape of muni- 

 cipal incorporation that the idea has perhaps worked most conspicu- 

 ously for the benefit of mankind as regards times past ; the munici- 

 palities having no doubt been of the greatest sen-ice in preserving 

 liU-ity. in i herishing trade and manufactures, and diffusing generally 

 a :-piiit of liberty, self-reliance, and improvement among the pem 

 Europe in the early and middle ages of modern times. That the 

 Roman municipal system was never quite extinct in Europe in the 

 opinion of the most distinguished scholars, jurists, and historians 

 Niubuhr, Savigny, Ravnouard, Palgrave, Hallmn, and various Italian 

 authorities. In this country it k probable that the various municipal 

 and other corporations, which are mid in law to be corporatini 

 prescription that is having an origin sometime before then 



i I. nre traceable to the times of the Romans: thus Ln<lti, 

 York, Colchester, and many other cities and towns known to hare 

 been places of Roman residence, have ever been considered to have 

 been incorporated at some very early period; and the same is the 

 case of the stallingers of Sunderland, the dredgers of Whitslablr, 

 the free fishermen of Faversham, ftc. (For Corporations among the 

 Romans, see Heineccius, ' De Collegua et Corporibus Opificum,' Opera, 



