work," finds himself out of employment when there is no demand for his services. The capitalist, with his capital lying idle, whether in money or in mills, is a non-producer for want of demand for his peculiar products. Create a demand and at once the wheels start and capital and labor find employment. That each may have their just reward, division of property, and security to property rights must be secured, and to that end, intellectual and moral advancement are among the great helps and are the universal evidences of well-maintained and enterprising communities.

Consumption.

With gratification as the end of all processes of political economy, consumption follows production, destroying but not annihilating value. This consumption may be involuntary from natural decay, rust and waste; accidental from fire or flood, or such as come from whim of fancy or notion, such as clothing that has out-worn the fashion. Or it may be voluntary, such as is purposely destroyed for reproduction. And where capital is being destroyed, the amount, the kind, should be economically used only as necessity requires. All beyond that is uselesss, and extravagant expenditure, and neglect in utilizing the fragments may be equally extravagant in the loss of wealth with our use.

The labor employed should be selected with discretion and directed with judgment, remembering their time is money. Consumption for gratification includes the necessities of life, such as food and clothing, and these may be expanded to luxuries according to the circumstances of the consumer, intellectual-literature and art-social, entertainment of friends-moral and religious charities and general benevolence.

To spend the least and secure the most (fairly and justly) is the rule of economy in this as in any other line of consumption of value. Actual need and good judgment in our gratifications are considerations to be kept in view. Like the old adage in barter, "short profits and quick sales," so as a stimulus to production there must be quick and ample consumption.

Another field of consumption is that of a public character, for the support of government. Public buildings for government purposes, fortifications, payment of government officials, explorations and surveys, and educational, charitable, and penal institutions.

MR. CHAFRIN (whose "First Principles of Political Economy" has been selected for these observations) very aptly and compre

hensively reduces the subject of public consumption to two plain and simple rules:

1. The style and scale of national expenditures should be such as to command the respect and honorable pride of the people without useless display.

2. The methods of national expenditure should be such as to hold all agents of government to a direct and strict responsibility, and to insure the utmost fidelity in the discharge of all trusts.

Having considered capital and labor in the two relations, that of production and consumption, it may be interesting to note Mr. Lincoln's observations as given in his first message to Congress, on their respective interests in this country. He said, "Now there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from these are groundless. Many independent men everywhere in these States a few years back in their lives were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress and improvement of condition to all."

Webster, on the Credit System of the United States, said that the general doctrine of Political Economy was, "that wealth consisted in whatever was useful or convenient to man, and that labor was the producing cause of all this wealth." Admitting that to be true, he then asked the question, "what is labor," and answered it as follows: "In the sense of political writers, and in common language, it means human industry; in a philosophical view, it may receive a much more comprehensive meaning. It is not in that view human toil only, the mere action of thews and muscles; but it is any active agency which, working upon the materials with which the world is supplied, brings forth products useful or convenient to man. The materials of wealth are in the earth, in the seas, and in their natural and unaided productions. Labor obtains these materials, works upon them, and fashions them to human use."-Webster's Great Speeches, page 451.

**

IGNORANCE is no subject for blame-it rather needs further instruction. Claudius Apollinaris [A. D. 160-180.]

Kent, Vol. II, 268–289.

Law Studies.

Corporations. (Part I.)

September, 1890.

"A corporation is a franchise possessed by one or more individuals, who subsist as a body politic, under a special denomination, and are vested, by the policy of the law, with the capacity of perpetual succession, and of acting in several respects, however numerous the association may be, as a single individual."

"The object of the institution is to enable the members to act by one united will, and to continue their joint powers and property in the same body, undisturbed by the change of members, and without the necessity of perpetual conveyances, as the rights of members pass from one individual to another. All the individuals composing a corporation, and their successors, are considered in law but as one moral person, capable, under an artificial form, of taking and conveying property, contracting debts and duties, and of enjoying a variety of civil and political rights."

"One of the peculiar properties of a corporation is the power of perpetual succession; for in judgment of law, it is capable of indefinite duration. The rights and privileges of the corporation do not determine or vary upon the death or change of any of the individual members. They continue as long as the corporation endures. It is sometimes said that a corporation is an immortal, as well as an invisible and intangible being. But the immortality of a corporation means only its capacity to take in perpetual succession so long as the corporation exists. It is so far from being immortal that it is well known that most of the private corporations recently created by statute are limited in duration to a few years. There are many corporate bodies that are without limitation, and, consequently, capable of continuing so long as a succession of individual members of the corporation remains and can be kept up."

"It was chiefly for the purpose of clothing bodies of men in succession with the qualities and capacities of one single, artificial, and fictitious being that corporations were originally invented, and, for the same convenient purpose, they have been brought largely into use. By means of the corporation many individuals are capable of acting in perpetual succession like one single individual, without incurring any personal hazard or responsibility, or exposing any other property than what belongs to the corporation in its legal capacity."

I. Of the history of corporations.

Well known to the Roman law. Copied from the Greeks, but less indulgent in privileges. Viewed with jealousy, and unless ordained by a decree of the senate or emperor were deemed illicit. Dissolution of corporations in time of Julius Cæsar, and of Augustus. The proposed Nicomedian fire company. Resemblance of the English corporation laws to the Roman civil law. Classes of corporations. Dissolution by forfeiture, surrender or death. Corporations for learning unknown to the ancients. Effect of the revival of letters in the 13th century. Municipal corporations, for political and commercial purposes. Early evidences of monopoly. Check to feudalism. Benefits and evils contrasted.

"The demand for charters of incorporation is not merely for municipal purposes, but usually for the more private and special object of assisting individuals in their joint stock operations and enterprising efforts, directed to

the business of commerce, manufactures, and the various details of internal improvement. This branch of jurisprudence becomes, therefore, an object of curious as well as of deeply interesting research."

Incorporation acts are contracts between the government and the companies.

II. Of the various kinds of corporations, and how created.

Divided into aggregate and sole.

But few points of corporation law applicable to corporations sole. Quasi corporations. English division into ecclesiastical and lay. Called religious corporations with us. Lay, subdivided into eleemosynary and civil. Civil, divided into public and private. Corporations with us are created by statute. No particular form of words necessary to create a corporation. Acceptance of the charter by the members, or a majority of them at least,

III. Powers and capacities of corporations.

(1) Ordinary powers. (2) Of quasi corporations. Persons and associations who have a corporate capacity only for particular specified ends, but who can in that capacity sue and be sued as an artificial person. (3) Of corporations as trustees. A corporation is incapable of a personal act in its collective capacity. It cannot be considered as a moral agent, and therefore, it cannot commit a crime, or become a subject of punishment, or take an oath or appear in person or be arrested or outlawed. (4) Of their power to hold lands, and to sue and be sued. Statutes of mortmain in England, and how far in use in Pennsylvania. (5) Of their right to hold to charitable

uses.

Questions.

1. What is a corporation?

2. What is the special object of incorporation?

3. What is there peculiar about the early history of corporations among the Greeks and Romans?

4. How is a charter considered as between the government and the members of the corporation?

5. Into how many kinds were corporations divided under the early

writers ?

6. Give the distinctive characteristics of corporations aggregate-sole-ecclesiastical — lay eleemosynary—civil— public and private ?

7. How created in England and how in this country?

8. Does the securing of a charter by

its members alone make them a corporate body?

9. From what will the courts sometimes infer that an association is incorporated ?

10. Name the ordinary powers of a corporation?

11. What were Lord Holt's views as to the essence of a corporation ?

12. What is a quasi corporation, and give an illustration?

13. What are the only capacities and powers that a corporation has ?

14. Is a corporation capable of a personal act?

15. Can it be considered a moral agent?

16. Can a corporation be compelled to exercise a lawful trust, and how?

17. What was the common law inci