JOINT STOCK COMPANY. 
tended transfers or assignments of such 
stock, not intended or designed by such 
charter to be raised or transferred, and all 
acting, or pretending to act, under any ob- 
solete charter become or voidable by non- 
user or abuser, or for want of making law- 
ful elections, which were necessary to con- 
tinue the corporation thereby intended, 
shall (as to all or any such acts, matters, 
and things as shall beaded, done, attempted, 
or endeavoured, or proceeded upon, after 
the said four-and-twentieth day of June' 5 
one thousand seven hundred and twenty) 
for ever, be deemed to be illegal and void, 
and shall not be practised, or, in anywise, 
put in execution. And further, the parties 
offending, by committing any of the acts 
above enumerated, and more particularly, 
the presuming or pretending to act as a cor- 
porate body, or to raise a trausferrable 
stock or stocks, or to make transfers or as- 
signments of any share or shares therein, 
without such legal authority as aforesaid, 
&c. shall be deemed to be a public nui- 
sance and nuisances : and all offenders 
therein, being thereof lawfully convicted, 
shall be liable to such fines and penalties 
as persons convicted for public nuisances 
are ; and moreover shall incur any further 
pains, penalties, and forfeitures, provided 
by the statute of provisions and pivemunire, 
made in the sixteenth year of the reign of 
King Richard the second. 
If any merchant or trader, at any time 
after the said four-and-twentieth day of 
June, one thousand seven hundred and 
twenty, shall suffer any particular damage 
in his, her, or their trade, commerce, or 
other lawful affairs, by occasion or means 
of any undertaking or attempt, matter, or 
thing, by this act declared to be unlawful, 
as aforesaid, and will sue to be relieved 
therein, then, and in every such case, such 
merchant or trader shall and may have his 
and their remedy for the same, by an action 
or actions to be grounded upon this statute, 
against the persons, societies, or partner- 
ships, or any of them, who, contrary to this 
act, shall be engaged or interested in any 
such unlawful undertaking or attempt ; and 
in every such action, the plaintiff shall or 
may recover treble damages, with full costs 
of suit. 
By s. 21, if any broker, or person acting 
as a broker, shall bargain, sell, buy, or pur- 
chase, or contract, or agree for the bargain- 
ing, &c. of any share or interest in any of 
the undertakings by the act declared ille- 
gal, he shall be rendered incapable of act- 
ing as a broker, and forfeit 500k, one moiety 
to the King, and the other to the informer. 
S. 25, this act is not to prohibit the car- 
rying on of any home or foreign trade in, 
partnership, in such manner as has been 
usually, and may be legally done, except 
in insurances, &c. 
These enactments have, for many yes.rs 
since the passing of them, in 1721, not been 
enforced, except in the instance of one Claf- 
wood, Michaelmas, 8 George I., Strange 
Rep. 472, and Lord Raymond, 1361, who 
was fined 51. and imprisoned during his Ma- 
jesty’s pleasure, for being the projector of 
an unlawful undertaking to trade to the 
North Sea. In the interval between that 
time and the present, (1808) many institu- 
tions have been formed and carried on in 
direct violation of the act, such as fire and 
life insurance companies, which are all be- 
neficial to the community, as they necessa- 
rily would be, if carried on with regularity 
and good faith. The success of these insti- 
tutions has given rise to many speculations 
in more recent times, which were not of 
such obvious utility ; and a Mr. Dodd, hav- 
ing projected a distillery, by a joint-stock 
company, became an object of jealousy to 
some private distillers, who applied to the 
court of King’s Bench for leave to file a 
criminal information against him; upon 
which the court pronounced him within tb.e 
words of the act, which prohibit the raising 
of joint-stock shares ; but refused to inter- 
fere, on account of the length of the time 
during which the statute had lain dor- 
mant. 
The words of this statute are so clear, 
that, to the writer of this article, it a ppears 
strange that they could ever be misunder- 
stood. They prohibit all combinu tions in 
trade, except partnerships and lavifnl cor- 
porations established by act of Pai liament, 
or royal charter ; and when the i lature of 
mercantile contracts is considered , the law 
could not safely do otherwise ; fo r it would 
leave the unwary open to the grossest 
frauds, and the most ruinous sel f-delusion. 
A corporation is not the mere 1 anciful es- 
sence which it is ignorantly deemed to be : 
it is a combination formed upon a strict 
view of legal principles, and the commerce 
of mankind ; upon the only pla n on which 
large bodies of men can be enal >led to con- 
tract with individuals. In trusti ng to a cor- 
poration, there must be a perm anent fund, 
out of which to answer all obligations, be- 
cause no individual is answers ble person- 
ally. Corporations must be cc nfined only, 
