226 COR 
may be reftrained and qualified, or the vlfitor may be 
directed by.the flatute to do particular afts, in which 
inflance lie has no difcretion as vilitor; as where the 
flatutes direft the vifitor to appoint one of two perfons, 
nominated by the fellows, to be the mafter of a college, 
the court of king’s bench will examine the nomination 
of the fellows, and, if correct, will compel the vifitor to 
appoint one of the two. 2 Term Rep. 290. New ingrafted 
fellowships, if no flatutes are given by the founders of 
them, muft follow the. original foundation, and are fub- 
jeft to the fame difeipline and judicature. It is the duty 
of the vifitor, in every inflance, to effeftuate the inten¬ 
tion of the founder, as far as he can colleft it from the 
flatutes, and the nature of the inftitution ; and in the 
exercife of this jurifdidlion, he is free from all controul. 
Lord Mansfield has declared, that the villtatorial power, 
if properly exercifed, without expence or delay, is ufe- 
ful and convenient to colleges ; and it is now lettled 
and eftablifhed, that the jurifdiftion of a vifitor is fum- 
mary, and without appeal from it. 1 Burr. 200. 
A corporation maybe dilfolved, for it is created upon 
a trull; and if that be broken it is forfeited. 4 Mod. 58. 
Corporations are dilfolved by forfeiture of their charter, 
mifufer, &c. upon the writ quo warranto brought; by fur- 
render, or by act of parliament; and if they neglect to 
choofe officers, or make falfe eledtions, it is a - forfeiture 
of the corporation. yRcp.)). Corporations may be dif- 
folved in leveral ways, which diffolution is the civil 
death of the corporation; and in this cafe their lands and 
tenements fhall revert to the perfon, or his heirs, who 
granted them to tire corporation ; for the law doth annex 
a condition to every fuch grant, that if the corporation 
be dilfolved, the grantor fhall have the lands again, be- 
caufe the caufe of the grant faileth. Co. Lit. 13. The 
grant is indeed only during the life of the corporation, 
which may endure for ever ; but, when that life is deter¬ 
mined by the diffolution of the body politic, the grantor 
takes it back by reverfion, as in the cafe ^of every other 
grant for life. The debts of a corporation, either to or 
from it, are totally extinguifhed by its diffolution ; fo 
that the members thereof cannot recover, or be charged 
with them,-in their natural capacities. 1 Lev. 237. 
A corporation may be dilfolved : 1. By aft of parlia¬ 
ment, which'is boundlefs in its operations. 2. By the 
natural death of all its members, in cafe of an aggregate 
corporation. 3. By furrender of its franchifes into the 
hands-ef the king, which is a kind of fuicide. 4. By for¬ 
feiture of its charter, through negligence or abufe ol its 
franchife ; in which cafe the law judges that.the body 
politic has broken the condition upon which it was in¬ 
corporated, and therefore the incorporation is void. And 
the regular courfe is to bring an information in nature 
of a writ of quo warranto, to enquire by what warrant the 
members now exercife their corporative power, having 
forfeited it by fuch and fuch proceedings. The exertion 
of this aft of lave, for the purpofes of the date, in the 
reign of Charles and James the Second, particularly by 
feizing the charter of the city of London, gave great ana 
juft offence, though, perhaps, in ftriftnefs of law, the 
proceedings in mod of them were fufficiently regular; 
but the judgment againft that of London was reverfed 
by aft of parliament, 2 Will, and Mary, c. 8. after the 
revolution; and, by the fame datute it is enabled, that 
the franchifes of the city of London fhall never more be 
forfeited for any caufe whatfoever. And, becaufe by the 
common law, corporations were diffolved, in cafe the 
mayor or head officer was not duly elected on the day 
appointed in the charter, or edablifhed by prefeription, 
js is now provided, by 11 Geo. I. c. 4. that no corpora¬ 
tion fhall be dilfolved for any default to choofe a mayor, 
&c. but the eleftors are dill fo proceed to eleftion; and, 
if no eleftion be made, the court of king’s bench fhall 
iffu’e a mandamus requiring the eleftors to choofe fuch 
mayor or head officer. By 2 Ann. c. 20. where perfons 
intrude into the office of mayor, &c. of a corporation, a 
COR 
quo warranto {hall be brought againd the ufurpers, who 
fhall be ouded, and fined; and none are to execute an 
office in a corporation for more than a year. 
To prevent improper conduft in trading-corporations 
in eleftions, and in difpofing of the joint-dock, it is, by 
7 Geo. III. c. 48. enabled, that no member of fuch cor¬ 
porations fir all be admitted to vote in the general courts , 
until he fhall have been fix months in poffeffion of the 
dock necelfary to qualify him ; unlefs it comes to him by 
bequed, marriage, fuccedion, or fettlement. And, by the 
fame datute, only one half-yearly dividend is to be made 
by one general court, five months at lead from the pre¬ 
ceding declaration of a dividend; and queftions for in- 
creafing the dividend are to be decided by ballot. To 
facilitate the proceedings in cafes of mandamus and quo 
warranto, and to prevent any undue advantage on either 
fide, the 12 Geo. III. c. 21. provides, that where any 
perfon fhall be entitled to be admitted a freeman of any 
corporation, and fhall apply to the proper officer to be 
admitted, and fir all give notice of his intention to move 
the court of king’s-bench for a mandamus in cafe of re- 
fufal, the officer fhall pay all the cofts of the application. 
And the fame flatute enafts, that the proper officer fhall, 
on the demand of two freemen, permit them and their 
agents to infpeft the entries of admiflion of freemen, 
and to take copies and extracts, under penalty of one 
hundred pounds. 
COR'POR ATURE,/. [from corpus, Lat. ] The flate 
of being embodied. 
CORPO'REAL. adj. [ corporcus, Lat.] Having abody; 
not immaterial; not fpiritual. See Corporal. — Hav¬ 
ing furveyed the image of God in the foul, we are not 
to omit thofe characters that God imprinted upon the 
b-ody, as much as a fpiritual fubflance could be pictured 
upon a corporeal. South. 
The courfe is finifh’d which thy fates decreed, 
And thou from thy corporeal prifon freed. 1 Dryden. 
It is ufed by Swift inaccurately for corporal. — I am not 
in a condition to make a true flep even on Aimfbtiry 
Downs ; and I declare, that a corporeal falfe flep is worfe 
than a political one. Swift. 
CORPORE'ITY, J. [from corporeus, Lat.] Materia¬ 
lity; the quality of being embodied ; the flate of having 
a body ; bodilinefs.—Since philofophy affirmeth, that we 
are middle fubftances between the foul and the body, they 
mu ft admit of fome corporeity, which fuppofeth weight or 
gravity. Brown. —It is the faying of divine Plato, that 
man is nature’s horizon, dividing betwixt the upper he- 
mifphere of immaterial intellects, and this lower of cor¬ 
poreity. Glanville. 
CORPORIFICA'TION, f. The aft of giving body 
or palpability. 
To CORPO'RIFY, v. a. [from corpus, Lat.] To em¬ 
body ; to infpilfate into body. Not ufed. —A certain fpi- 
rituous fubflance, extrafted out of it, is miflaken for the 
fpirit of the world corporified. Boyle. 
CORPS, or Corpse,/. [ corps, Fr. corpus, Lat.] A 
body : 
That lewd ribauld 
Laid firft his filthy hands on virgin cieene, 
To fpoil her dainty corfe, fo fair and fheene, 
Of chaflity and honour virginal. Spenfer. 
A body, in contempt: 
Though plentious, all too little feems 
To fluff this man, this vaft unhide-bound corps. Milton. 
A carcafe ; a dead body ; a corfe : 
There was the murder’d carps in covert laid, 
And violent death in thoufand fhapes difplay’d. Dryden . 
The body, in oppofition to the foul: 
Cold numbnefs flreight bereaves 
Her corps of fenfe, and th’ air her foul receives. Denham. 
In military tactics, a divilicm, battalion, or body of forces. 
