The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-08 00:00:00

CORPORATIONS.

It may not be inopportune at the present moment, when all
the Corporate bodies in the country are threatened with anni-
hilation, to call the attention of our readers to their origin,
and to the mighty changes that have been effected by them
since their introduction into England. Blackstone says that
" the honour of originally inventing these political constitu-
tions entirely belongs to the Romans. They were introduced,"
(as Plutarch says,) by Numa ; who finding, upon his accession,
the city torn to pieces by the two rival factions of Sabines and
Romans, thought it a prudent and politic measure to subdivide
these two into many smaller ones, by instituting separate
societies of every manual trade and profession." Tliat they
were, resorted to by some of our early monarchs to curb the
violence of the barons, who scarce owned a nominal subjection
to the crown ; that they at different periods became a city of
refuge, sheltering alike the monarch and the people, is a fact
well known to every reader of English history. This expedi-
ent having answered the end proposed, these unions of the
many, to accomplish that which was too mighty for indivi-
dual enterprise were applied to other purposes, namely the
introduction of manufactures, and were mainly instrumental
in fostering the sciences and arts of civilized life, as
well as for the promotion of learning and religion ; and
we presume that few persons are prepared to deny that
" the Apothecaries' Company," " the Royal Colleges of
Surgeons and Physicians" are not, even in these days, of
some use. When our infant manufactures had grown up
to something like manhood, to find a market for them,
trading companies were incorporated, and hence the origin of
" the Bank of England," "the East India Company," and
others ; that these have been successful experiments, that they
have effected more than was hoped for by their founders, can-
not admit of a doubt. As the wealth of the country increased,
corporations were formed for insuring against the casualties of
life, and the destruction of property by fire or on the seas; for
constructing harbours, docks, bridges, and rail roads;, for
eleemosynary purposes, and for supplying the domestic con-
veniences of light and water. Thus then, the assertion is not
a bold one, that England would never have been so pre-emin-
ent in arts or in arms,—would never have become the emporiuin
of the world, but for the spur which these bodies have given to
individual exertion by showing what was possible to be done;
and that they were the primary cause, which has enlarged vil-
lages into towns containing populations of hundreds instead of
units, and turned sterile wastes and impassable bogs into fruit-
ful cornfields and pleasent pastures. The inducements to join
in these associations were the hope of profit, and the certainty
of possession which the perpetuity of existence given to them
insured.

In illustration of our argument, were we addressing the peo-
ple of England generally, we would say, ere you destroy those
bodies, look at Liverpool! See the wonderful change that has
been produced iu that place in the short space of thirty years—
a change so great, that a native, after an absence of twenty years,
would scarce recognise a single feature of the town. In address-
ing ourselves to its inhabitants, we ask who is the individual
Magician, that has built your markets, widened your streets,
and taken the lead in forwarding those other works that have
made your Town almost the commercial Capital of the world.
By some it may be answered that all Corporations were created
as a means to gain an end; that they should cease when the
end has been gained; that the scaffolding is useless when the
Tower is built; that its municipal powers have or may be
abused, and that some of our Freemen have been corrupted.
To these we answer, are all the ends gained that public bodies
only can effect? Is there no law extant to punish corruption?
and would it not, be wiser to convict and punish the guilty than
to declaim against the innocent?
Naturalists tell us that there are some animals who never be-
come ferocious until they have tasted blood. Any interference
with the rights of property, is of all others the most fearful.
Destroy. municipal bodies, and you open the door to a like
destruction of every other ; we would remind those who are
following these attacks how much easier it is to declaim than
to reason—and should there be among their leaders any holders
of bank stock, India bonds canal, or rail-road shares, we ask
them whether Pliillippe Egalite, when Ehe headed the French
revolution, expected to die by: the guillotine ? To the people
generally we would say, "If you destroy corporate property,
none other will be secure, and that the whole nation is a cor-
poration aggregate, crowned by a corporation sole.