Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/489

 Ch. 18. whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary; and therefore are looked upon in law to be well created. For though the members thereof can hew no legal charter of incorporation, yet in caes of uch high antiquity the law preumes there once was one; and that by the variety of accidents, which a length of time may produce, the charter is lot or detroyed. The methods, by which the king's conent is exprely given, are either by act of parliament or charter. By act of parliament, of which the royal aent is a neceary ingredient, corporations may undoubtedly be created : but it is obervable, that mot of thoe tatutes, which are uually cited as having created corporations, do either confirm uch as have been before created by the king; as in the cae of the college of phyicians, erected by charter 10 Hen. VIII, which charter was afterwards confirmed in parliament ; or, they permit the king to erect a corporation in futuro with uch and uch powers; as is the cae of the bank of England , and the ociety of the Britih fihery. So that the immediate creative act is uually performed by the king alone, in virtue of his royal prerogative.

the other methods therefore whereby corporations exit, by common law, by precription, and by act of parliament, are for the mot part reducible to this of the king's letters patent, or charter of incorporation. The king's creation may be performed by the words "creamus, erigimus, fundamus, incorporamus," or the like. Nay it is held, that if the king grants to a et of men to have gildam mercatoriam, a mercantile meeting or aembly, this is alone ufficient to incorporate and etablih them for ever. Rh