[Footnote: Stat. 15 H. VI. ch. 6. Stat 19 H. VII. ch. 7. Clark's Case, 5
Coke, 633, decided A. D. 1596. See Kyd on Corporations, ii. 107-110, where
authorities are collected. Child v. Hudson Bay Co., 2 P. W. 207.]
But discussion is futile; the proposition is self-evident, that an
association endowed with the capacity of acting like a single man, for
certain defined objects, which shall attempt other objects, or shall seek
to compass its ends by unlawful means, violates the condition upon which
its life has been granted, transcends the limits of its existence, and
forfeits its privileges; and that under such circumstances its ordinances
are void, and none are bound to yield them their obedience.
Approached thus from the standpoint of legal history, no doubt can exist
concerning the scope of the franchise secured by the Puritans for the
Massachusetts colony. The instrument obtained from Charles I. embodied
certain of their number in an English corporation, whose only lawful
business was the American trade, as the business of the East India Company
was trade in Hindostan. To enable them to act effectively, a tract of land
in New England, between the Merrimack and the Charles, was conveyed to
them, as the soil upon which a town stood was conveyed to the mayor and
commonalty. Within this territory they were authorized to established
their plantations and forts, which they were empowered to defend against
attack, as the Hanse merchants defended the Steel Yard in London.
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