ſir Edward Coke, is as a proper name, or name of baptiſm; and therefore when a private founder gives his college or hoſpital a name, he does it only as a godfather; and by that ſame name the king baptizes the incorporation[1].
II. After a corporation is ſo formed and named, it acquires many powers, rights, capacities, and incapacities, which we are next to conſider. Some of theſe are neceſſarily and inſeparably incident to every corporation; which incidents, as ſoon as a corporation is duly erected, are tacitly annexed of courſe[2]. As, 1. To have perpetual ſucceſſion. This is the very end of it's incorporation: for there cannot be a ſucceſſion for ever without an incorporation[3]; and therefore all aggregate corporations have a power neceſſarily implied of electing members in the room of ſuch as go off[4]. 2. To ſue or be ſued, implead or be impleaded, grant or receive, by it's corporate name, and do all other acts as natural perſons may. 3. To purchaſe lands, and hold them, for the benefit of themſelves and their ſucceſſors: which two are conſequential to the former. 4. To have a common ſeal. For a corporation, being an inviſible body, cannot manifeſt it's intentions by any perſonal act or oral diſcourſe: it therefore acts and ſpeaks only by it's common ſeal. For, though the particular members may expreſs their private conſents to any act, by words, or ſigning their names, yet this does not bind the corporation: it is the fixing of the ſeal, and that only, which unites the ſeveral aſſents of the individuals, who compoſe the community, and make one joint aſſent of the whole[5]. 5. To make by-laws or private ſtatutes for the better government of the corporation; which are binding upon themſelves, unleſs contrary to the laws of the land, and then they are void. This is alſo included by law in the very act of incorporation[6]: for, as natural reaſon is given to the natural body for the governing it, ſo by-laws or ſtatutes are a ſort of political reaſon to govern the body politic.
