ay be abolished by statute, but not by the mere authority
of the crown. It may also become extinct by the disappearance of all its
members or of any integral part, by surrender of charter if it is a
chartered society, by process of law, or by forfeiture of privileges.

The power of the majority to bind the society is one of the first
principles of corporation law, even in cases where the corporation has a
head. It is even said that only by an act of parliament can this rule
be avoided. The binding majority is that of the number present at a
corporate meeting duly summoned.

In corporations which have a head (as colleges), although the head
cannot veto the resolution of the majority, he is still considered an
integral part of the society, and his death suspends its existence, so
that a head cannot devise or bequeath to the corporation, nor can a
grant be made to a corporation during vacancy of the headship.

A corporation has power to make such regulations (by-laws) as are
necessary for carrying out its purposes, and these are binding on its
members and on persons within its local jurisdiction if it has any.

The power to acquire and hold land was incident to a corporation at
common law, but its restriction by the statutes of mortmain dates from a
very early period. The English law against mortmain was dictated by the
jealousy of the feudal lords, who lost the services they would otherwise
have been entitled to, when their land passed into the hands of a
perpetual corporation. The vast increase in the estates of
ecclesiastical corporations constituted by itself a danger which might
well justify the operation of the restricting statutes.

The Mortmain Acts applied only to cases of alienation _inter vivos_.
There was no power to devise lands by will until 32 Henry VIII. c. 1
(1540), and when the power was granted corporations were expressly
excluded from its benefits. No devise to a corporation, whether for its
own use or in trust, was allowed to be good; land so devised went to the
heir, either absolutely or charged with the trusts imposed upon it in
the abortive devise. A modification, however, was gradually wrought by
the judicial interpretations of the Charitable Trusts Act 1601, and it
was held that a devise to a corporation for a charitable purpose might
be a good devise, and would stand unless voided by the Mortmain Acts; so
that no corporation could take land, without a licence, for any purpose
or in any way; a