XVI INTRODUCTION. and Dublin"; and in the 31 & 32 Vict. c. 112, in which it is called "the Borough of the University of Dublin."* No precise form of words is required to make a corporation. The instance to which Sir Edward Coke refers, in order to sus- tain this position, is much to the purpose in the present discus- sion. Of the Corporations that have been established directly by the King's Charter, the guilds seem to have been among the most ancient. Cowell says that one of the meanings of the word 'guild' is, a "fraternity or company combined together by orders and laws made among themselves by the Prince's license." Sir E. Coke says that it signifies *' contubernium seu fraternitas incorporata." "I have seen" (he says) "the Char- ter made by King Henry I., textoribus Lond., by which he grants to them that they shall have guildam mercatoriam ; and a confirmation of it made by Henry II., by which Charters they were incorporated." In order to show that it was not necessary that a corporation aggregate should have a head, he relies on the case of the guilds as decisive. " For at first " (he says) "the greater part of Corporations were bodies with- out any head, by force of these words, guilda mercatoria." He had in a previous case stated that " the King may erect guildam mercatoriam, i.e. a fraternity or society or corporation of mer- chants, to the end that good order and rule might be by them observed for the increase and advancement of trade and mer- chandise." When a corporation has been duly created, there are inci- dents which are tacitly annexed. These include the privileges of suing and being sued, taking and granting property, and having a common seal. Although often expressly given, they may well be left out, for they are implied by law.
- In the Letters Patent of i Geo. trissiina Dubliniensis. See also 33
III., where the University of Oxford Geo. III. c. 21, s. 13: Letters Pa- is described as celeberrima Ac ademia tent 34 Geo. III.; 40 Geo. III. Oxoniensis, the University of Dub- c. 84, s. 11. References might be lin is described as Academia illus- multiplied.
