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the ftatute of 13 El. c. 10, it has been adjudged, that colleges are not barred by fine and non-claim; because it would have been of no effect to have prohibited them to bar the right of their colleges by conveyances made by the mafter and fellows themfelves, and to have left them power by their permiffion or fufferance, and non-claim, to bar it (a). Deans and chapters being within the ftatute of Elizabeth, the law with respect to them, on this point, must be the fame as with refpect to colleges.

BUT at common law, and much more fince the restraining ftatutes, though a bishop, dean, parfon, vicar, or prebendary do not make their entry or claim, nor bring their action to avoid a fine, within five years, but are remiss and negligent for that time, yet their fucceffors fhall not be bound for ever, because they have no abfolute eflate in their poffeffions (b).

SECTION IV.

To what Burthens Corporations are fubject. CORPORATIONS are fubject to the fame burthens, in the character of owners or occupiers of houses or lands, to which individuals are fubject in the fame character.

THUS, Lord Coke commenting on the word inhabitants, in the ftatute (c) made in the time of Henry the eighth for the repair of bridges, fays that every corporation and body politic, refiding in any county, riding, city, or town corporate, or having lands or tenements in any fhire, riding,

(a) Magdalen College cafe, 11 Co. 78. b. (b) Plow. 375, 538. 10 Co. 69 b. 71 a. 122, &c. (c) 22 H. 8, c. 5.

Vid. ante, page 122, &c.
Vid. ante, p. 108, 109,

city, or town corporate, quæ propriis manibus et fumptibus poffident et habent, are inhabitants within the purview of the ftatute (a).

So, if any general duty be impofed by parliament in refpect to houses and lands; corporations are liable in respect to their houses or lands in the fame manner as a private perfon: thus, where a duty was imposed on hearths (b), and officers with a conftable impowered to distrain, if the party refused to pay the duty by the space of an hour; and by a special verdict in an action of tref_ pafs, brought by the Ironmonger's Company, it was found that the company were seised in fee of five mefluages, in which were thirty-five hearths; that the company had never finished the meffuages, but that from the time of building they had ftood unoccupied: that the defendants, being lawfully authorised, had demanded the duty of the company, which they refufed to pay, on which the defendants took the diftrefs and kept it till the company paid the duty: the general queftion made was, whether the owner of a new house, uninhabited from the time of the building, ought to pay this duty? But no question was made, whether as a corporation they were liable to the tax; it was taken for granted, that if any owner would have been liable, they were so too (c).

On the fame principle, there is no doubt but they are subject to the land tax. So, a corporation seised in fee of lands for their own profit, are, within the meaning of 43 El. c. 2. inhabitants or occupiers of fuch lands, and in respect of them, liable in their corporate capacity to be rated to the poor (d).

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(c) Ironmonger's Company v. Naylor. 2 Mod. 185. T. Jones, 85. 1 Ventr. 311. 3 Keb. 719, cited Cowp. 84.

(d) Rex v. Gardner. Cowp. 79.

So,

So, they are fubject to fimilar charges impofed by the common law: thus, a corporation are rateable to the repairs of a church in respect of their corporate lands (a).

So, they may be bound exclufively to the repair of a highway, or of a bridge, or of a creek, by reason of the tenure of certain lands; fo, they may be compelled to do fo, by a general prefcription that they have been used to do fo from time immemorial, without an allegation that they used to do so, in refpect of the tenure of certain lands, or for any other confideration, because a corporation aggregate, in judgment of law, never dying, if they were ever bound to fuch a duty, they must continue to be fo; neither is it any plea that they have done it out of charity; for it fhall be prefumed they were bound to it for fome good confideration (b).

(a) Thursfield v. Jones. Sir T. Jones, 187.

(b) Vid. 2 Inft. 700. 1 Hawk. Leach. 369, 443. Cowp. 87. Mayor of Lynn v. Turner.

CHAP.

CHAP. III.

OF CORPORATIONS CONSIDERED IN RESPECT TO THEIR INTERNAL CONSTITUTION.

CORPORATIONS having been established at different periods, and with different views, the particular conftitution of each depends on the provisions of the charter, by which it was erected, or on the prescriptive usage which time has imperceptibly introduced. The bufinefs of this chapter, therefore, will be, not to defcribe the precife constitution of every corporation in the kingdom, or that of any one in particular, but to confider, under distinct heads, thofe fubjects which relate to the conftitution of any corporation whatever.

SECTION I.

Of the different ranks of perfons, members of Corporations.

IN corporations confifting of a fmall number of members without a head, there is usually no diftinction of rank, but all are equal in rights, privileges, and authority (a). In fmall corporations, too, which have a head, fuch as dean and chapter, there is generally no other diftinction of

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rank, but that between the head and the body at large, all the members of the latter being equal and co-ordinate.

In corporations whose members are more numeroushion. and whose concerns are more complicated, there are ufually dis some select bodies, which neceffarily gives rife to a diftinc-creat tion and gradation of ranks. Thus, in corporate towns,

the common freemen, forming the great mass of the cor- Excesan poration, may be faid to compose one rank, the livery in the city of London another, and in the greater number of cities and towns, the common councilmen, and aldermen, or fome equivalent descriptions, two others.-The common freemen have, in general, only the right of exercising their trade within the town, and enjoying the common privileges and franchises of the corporation, though sometimes the right of voting in elections: the livery are a

felect body, whose principal privilege is that of forming Con fome of the electoral affemblies of the corporation: the Cannclinar common councilmen have a more immediate concern in

the government, sometimes forming a constituent part of the legislative body, which is the case in London, and fometimes only a part of the general executive council: Nieruc the aldermen are ftill more select, forming what may be called the privy council of the corporation, and in general also a part of the common council.

A FREEMAN of a town differs from an inhabitant in this, that a freeman is a member of the corporation, and may or may not be an inhabitant of the town, and an inhabitant is fo called from the circumftance of local refidence, and may or may not be a member of the corporation.

THE terms citizen and burgess are generally synonymous with freeman; but fometimes "burgefs" is the defignation of a member of a felect body, distinct from the

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