464 



CORPORATION CORPS. 



ceeding must be defined, for by these the metaphy- 

 sical abstract entity, cal led ft corporation, Mili-i. ; 

 and tin- persons by whom this artificial conventional 

 engine is operated cease to act as corporators the. 

 moment they pass Ix-yond the limits of the objects 

 and powers of the institution. Corporations are 

 created either by prescription or cliarter, but most 

 commonly by the latter. The British government, 

 and, indeed, most of the oilier governments of 

 Europe, are corporations by prescription. All the 

 American governments are corporations created by 

 charters, vte., their constitutions. So private cor- 

 porations may be established in either of these ways, 

 and, whether by one or the other, they derive their 

 powers anil franchises, either directly or indirectly, 

 from the sovereign power of the state. 



The improvements, among the moderns, in civil 

 liberty, arts, and commerce, took their rise in private 

 corporations. In the first volume of Robertson's 

 Charles V. will be found a very good historical view 

 of the manner in which municipal corporations and 

 communities contributed to the amelioration of the 

 condition of the great mass of the population in the 

 western part of Europe*, The several governments, 

 established after the dissolution of the Roman em- 

 pire, had degenerated into a system of oppression, 

 and the great body of the people Were reduced to a 

 state of actual servitude ; and the condition of those 

 dignified with the name of freemen was little prefer- 

 able to that of the others. Nor was this oppression 

 confined to the people inhabiting the country. Cities 

 and villages found it necessary to acknowledge de- 

 pendence on some powerful lord, on whom they reli- 

 ed for protection. The inhabitants could not dispose 

 of the effects acquired by their own industry, either, 

 during life, by deed, or, at their decease, by will. 

 They had no right to appoint guardians to their chil- 

 dren, and were not permitted to marry without pur- 

 chasing the consent of their superior lord. If they 

 once commenced a suit in the lord's court, they durst 

 not terminate it by compromise, because this would 

 deprive the lord of the perquisites due to him on pass- 

 ing sentence. Services of various kinds, no less 

 disgraceful than oppressive, were exacted from them 

 without mercy or moderation. The cities of Italy, 

 being situated at a distance from their German 

 superiors, whereby the ties of subjection were weak- 

 ened, found it comparatively easy to extricate them- 

 selves from their political and commercial thraldom ; 

 and they were stimulated to the attempt by the ex- 

 citement, revival of trade, and influx of wealth, 

 occasioned by the crusades. The spirit which ani- 

 mated the Italian cities spread itself into Germany 

 and France, where the dilapidation and exhaustion 

 of the wealth of the sovereigns and nobles, occasion- 

 ed by the repeated and obstinate prosecution of these 

 religious wars, put it in the power of the towns to 

 extort, or to purchase at a low rate, exemption from 

 any species of military oppression, servitude, and 

 merciless exaction. 



In some stipulated composition, the sovereign or 

 baron granted charters of community (see Communi- 

 ty), guaranteeing certain privileges in regard to per- 

 sonal liberty, municipal government and judicial 

 administration. These charters, though on a limited 

 scale, were equivalent, in character, to what are 

 called constitutions in the United States ; and the 

 term is still retained, on the continent of Europe, in 

 the same application : thus the limitations to which 

 the Bourbons submitted when restored to the throne 

 of France, are called the charter. As the most impor- 

 tant immunities and privileges granted in these char- 

 ters wece, in effect, limitations of the legislative and 

 executive power of the sovereigns, they would very 

 naturally attempt co retract them, when a favourable 



opportunity offered ; and this they did, and some- 

 times with success ; but the corporations had one 

 great advantage, in resisting these encroachments, 

 in consequence of the struggles between the sove- 

 reigns and nobles ; for the free cities, being very 

 useful allies to either side of these contests, were 

 treated with greater forl>earance, so that the general 

 tendency was -to the enlargement and establishment 

 of the rights and privileges of the citizen, and the 

 restraint and regulation of the power of the sove- 

 reign. This voluntary association of small communi- 

 ties, which proved so powerful an engine in rearing 

 the present political fabrics in Christendom, is no 

 less efficient as an engine of political revolution and 

 demolition ; and it may be used with equal success for 

 the best or the most pernicious purposes, as every age 

 and country have frequent opportunities of witness- 

 ing. Charters of incorporation for mere economical 

 purposes, as the construction of roads and canals, 

 and carrying on of banking, insurance, manufactures, 

 &c., are more frequent in the United States of Ame- 

 rica than in any other country. 



Corporations are erected for undertakings which, 

 in Britain, are conducted by joint stock companies; 

 and, in some of the states, the character of these 

 bodies has been modified by the laws, where their 

 object is the conducting of some branch of industry, 

 so as to render them either limited or absolute co- 

 partnerships, in respect to the joint liability of the 

 individual members for the engagements of the com- 

 pany, though they still retain the character of cor- 

 porations, in respect to the capacity to conduct busi- 

 ness, notwithstanding the decease of any members, 

 which, in ordinary copartnerships, usually effects a 

 dissolution. 



CORPORATION and TEST ACTS. The cor- 

 poration act, passed in the 13th Charles II., 1661, 

 prevented any person from being legally elected to 

 any office belonging to the government of any city or 

 corporation in England, unless he had, within the 

 twelvemonth preceding, received the sacrament nt 

 the Lord's supper, according to the rites of the 

 church of England ; and enjoined him to take the 

 oaths of allegiance and supremacy when he took 

 the oath of office. The test act, 25 Charles II., 

 1673, required all officers, civil and military, to take 

 the oaths, and make the declaration against transub- 

 stantiation, in the courts of kind's bench or chancery, 

 within six months after their admission ; and also 

 within the same time, to receive the sacrament of the 

 Lord's supper, according to the usage of the church 

 of England, in some public church. The corpora- 

 tion act was principally directed against Protestant 

 non-conformists ; the test act against Roman Catho- 

 lics. In the year 1828, they were both abolished. 



CORPOSANT, or CORPO SANTO (Italian, 

 holy body) ; the electric flame which sometimes ap 

 pears on the tops of the masts of vessels, and is also 

 called Castor and Pollux, and St Elmo's Jire. 



CORPS (French for body] a word often used in 

 military language, many of the terms of which are 

 derived from the French, they h;iving begun the or- 

 ganization of armies on the system which now pre- 

 vails. The term is applied to various kinds of divi- 

 sions of troops. 



Corps cCarmee is one of the largest divisions of an 

 army (the German Heeresabtheilung). 



Corps de garde ; a post occupied by a body of 

 men on watch ; also the body which occupies it. 



Corps de reserve ; a body of troops kept out of the 

 action, with a view of being brought forward, if the 

 troops previously engaged are beaten, or cannot fol- 

 low up their victory ,"or are disorganized. 



Corps volant (a flying body) is a body intended 

 for rapid movements. It is always rather small. 



