Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/151

Ch . V 1 1 1 . ] Franchises. — Corporations, 131 volves to the King, to be exercised by the Chancellor in the same manner as where the King himself is the founder, sub- ject to the regulations of the founder, &c.' (a). The King being thus constituted, by the law, visitor of all civil corporations, the law has also appointed the place wherein he shall exercise this jurisdiction, which is the Court of King*s Bench ; where, and where only, all misbehaviours of this kind of corporations are inquired into and redressed, and all contro- versies decided. And this is the meaning of our lawyers, when they say that these civil corporations are liable to no visitation; that is, that the law having, by immemorial usage, appointed them to be visited and inspected by the King, their founder, in his Majesty's Court of King's Bench, according to the rules of the common law, they ought not to be visited elsewhere, or by any other authority {b). And this is so strictly true, that though the King, by his letters patent, had subjected the Col- lege of Physicians to the visitation of four very respectable persons, the Lord Chancellor, the two Chief Justices, and the Chief Baron ; though the College had accepted this charter with all possible marks of acquiescence, and had acted under it for near a century, yet, in 1753, the authority of this provi- sion coming in dispute, on an appeal preferred to these sup- posed visitors, they directed the legality of their own appoint- ment to be argued ; and as this College was merely a civil and not an eleemosynary foundation, they at length determined, upon several days' solemn debate, that they had no jurisdiction as visitors, and remitted the appellant (if aggrieved) to his regu- lar remedy in his Majesty's Court of King's Bench (c). A licence froin the King is necessary to enable a corpora- tion to purchase and'hold lands in mortmain [d). (a) 4 T. R. 233. 2 Ves. Jun. 609. by writs of error, it may be thought to {b) 1 Bla. Com. 481. This notion is want one of the essential marks of visi- perhaps too refined. The Court of torial power. lb. note (c). King's Bench (it maybe said), from its (c) 1 Bla. Com. 481, 2. general superintendent authority where {d) Co. Lit. 2. 7 & 8 Wm. 3. c. 3. other jurisdictions are deficient, has 1 Bla. Com.' 479. 2 Id. 268, &c. 1 power to regulate all corporations Wooddn. 494. A writ of ad qvorl dairt- where no special' visitor is appointed. num. is not usual on granting a licence But not in the light of visitor : for as to alienate in mortm*iin. Co. Lit. K'O, its judgments are liable to be reversed b,; Hargr. n. k2 It