Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/497

 IN BK TIBUBCIO PABaOTT. 489 �ence of the corporation and its franchises and immunities, derived directly from the state, -were thus kept under its con- troL' But we added, ' that the rights and interests acquired hy the company, not constituting a part of the contract of in-' corporation, stand upon a different footing.' 96 U. S. e99." (The Italics are the learned justice's own.) �In Commonwealth v. Essex Co. 13 Gray, (Mass.) 239-253, Mr. Justice Shaw says : "It seems to us that this power must have some limit, though it is dif&cult to define it. * * * * Perhaps from these extreme cases — for extreme case are allowable to test a legal principle — the rule to be extracted is this : that where, under a power in a charter, rights have beei* aequired and become vested, no amendment or alteration of the charter can take away the property or rights which have become vested under a legitimate exercise of the power^ granted." Page 253. �"This rule," says Mr. Justice Strong, "has been recognized ever since." 99 U. S. 700-742. �The language of Mr. Justice Story in the Dartmouth College case, which, as before remarked, first led to the general in- sertion of the reservation clause in charters of incorporation, clearly indicates its object. �"When, " he observes, "a private corporation is thus created by the charter of the crown, it is subject to no other contre: on the part of the crown than what is expressly or implicitly reserved by the charter itself. Unless a power be reserve;! for this purpose, the crown cannot, in virtue of its preroga- tive, without the consent of the corporation, alter or amend the charter, or divest the corporation of any of its franchises, or add to them, or add to or diminish the number of the trustees, or remove any of the members, or change or control the administration of the funds, or compel the corporation to reeeive a new charter." 4 Wheat. 675. �"Probably," Mr. Justice Bradley observes, "in view of this somewhat unexpected application of the clause," (forbidding he States to impair the obligation of contracts,) "operating as it did to deprive the states of nearly ail legislative control over corporations of their own creation, the courte have. ��� �