of a Captain. Being almost essentially Captains, they by courtesy receive that designation in the ordinary intercourse of society, but on strict professional business they are more specifically described. There are about 1000 Commanders in the Navy. The LIEUTENANTS in the Navy are, as the word implies, the immediate substitutes or deputies of the officers in command. Though the office of Lieutenant is less responsible, yet it is far more laborious than that of the Captain. He practises a general supervision of the whole ship, and attends particularly to proper cleanliness and regularity throughout the vessel. For this purpose he inspects every part of her once a day at least, and reports her condition to the Captain. Besides this, his duties, as they are strictly practical, involve considerable labour; as, for example, in stationing the men when the ship is commissioned; in exercising them at the guns; in regulating the expenditure of certain public stores; in taking the immediate command when coming to an anchor or getting under weigh; in granting leaves of absence when the ship is in port, &c. There are about 2750 Lieutenants in the Navy. Besides these officers, each vessel has a sailingmaster, surgeon, assistant-surgeon, purser, midshipmen, &c. Not only does the pay of each officer differ according to the class of vessel he commands, but the relative rank is also influenced, and it is therefore desirable to know the different classes and denominations of vessels in the Navy. There are 1. Rated ships, viz. : First Rate. All three-decked ships... all two-decked ships, the war complements of 15 19 .... 55 ing one of her Majesty's dock-yards; and all are under 400 and not less than 250 Sixth Rate.-Ships under 250 .... ..... 81 26 2. Sloops and bomb-vessels; all such as are commanded by Commanders ... 3. All other smaller vessels, such as are com manded by Lieutenants or inferior officers.. 225 Total of all classes ...... 443 For particulars respecting the relative precedence of the different ranks in the naval service of the country, the reader is referred to the article on the subject of Precedence in general. CORPORATE AUTHORITIES. "We bring you now to show what different things JOHNSON. Ir has been the practice to say that the monarch never dies, because the kingly office survives in his successor; and as a further manifestation of this official continuity, certain other rights and immunities, which are closely connected with the government of numbers, have been preserved from the extinction that would inevitably follow the death of their possessors, by conferring a sort of "legal immortality" upon the whole body in which these privileges are vested. By the perpetual succession which is maintained in the constituent elements of corporations, the integrity of the compound is preserved, while its laws and regulations are transmitted with its privileges for the guidance of those individuals who may in after years contribute to its constitution. The associated persons who, by an imaginary immortality, are invested with these continuous duties and immunities, are styled BODIES POLITIC, BODIES CORPORATE, OF CORPORATIONS; they are very numerous, and their objects have been either the advancement of religion, the diffusion of learning, or the encouragement of commerce. For these high purposes, they possess a perpetual identity; a capability of purchasing and holding landed property for themselves and successors; a power of contracting liabilities affecting them in common, or each member in proportion to his share; a right to sue and be sued, grant and receive, as a single person; being bound by their common seal, and in every other respect considered as possessing individuality. Corporations are either aggregate or sole. The former accords with the more usual definition of the word Corporation, viz. a number of persons united into one society, and preserved by a continual succession of members; of this kind are municipal bodies, universities, &c. A Corporation sole, on the other hand, consists of an individual and his successors, who, for the maintenance of perpetuity in the office they hold, are invested with the legal capacities already detailed as characterizing a corporate D d body, many of which are incompatible with the incidents of natural life; in this sense, kings and bishops are Corporations; so, likewise, are some deans and prebendaries, while every parson and vicar belongs to this class. Thus the endowments bestowed during the incumbency of an individual do not descend to his legal heirs, and they are quite unaffected by his debts; but are, from the privileges of his office, immutably entailed on his successor, and continue to recompense the performance of those duties for which they were originally appropriated. The following may be taken as a tabular view of the further subdivisions into which corporate bodies have been classed : The names which are applied to these different classes of Corporations sufficiently explain the characters of each sub-division, and any more detailed notice of them would be incompatible with the purposes of this volume. These introductory remarks on Corporations in general have only been intended. as preliminary to an account of the official titles which are connected with them, and to a brief view of the privileges belonging to their more important functionaries. The class of civil Corporations aggregate is, therefore, the only one which comes within the limits of the present article; and of these the most important are established for the purposes of municipal government. THE CITY OF LONDON may be first noticed as amongst the most interesting of the Corporations which confer official rank and title upon its members, and as presenting a construction little altered by the recent legislative enactments affecting other municipal bodies. The system of government is strictly representative and elective, and bears a striking analogy to the more general constitution of the realm. The City is divided into twenty-six wards, in each of which the resident freemen elect, for life, AN ALDERMAN, who is the representative of his particular ward, in an assembly called the Court of Aldermen. The court, however, enjoys the power of rejecting the individual thus chosen, and under these circumstances a new election takes place; when, if the same person be returned by a majority of votes, and the court are still opposed to his admission, the next on the poll is invested with the dignity: this proceeding may be appealed against in the Queen's Bench, and the reasons of rejection must be there substantiated. Of the twenty-six wards, one of them is styled Bridge Without, and was composed of the houses formerly standing on Old London Bridge; but, as neither the bridge nor the houses are now in existence, no Alderman can be returned for this division. The senior Alderman, however, is always removed from the ward in which he was chosen, and installed in the Bridge ward, while his former place is supplied by a new election. The Court of Aldermen is, therefore, a permanent body, elected for life; but its members have also a seat and voice in a larger assembly, which is chosen annually, and is called the Court of Common Council. THE COMMON-COUNCILMEN are chosen for the ensuing year on every St. Thomas' Day, viz. December 21, by the freemen of the several wards, but being eligible each year for re-election, few changes are made: they are two hundred and six in number, variously apportioned to the different wards, in aceordance with their extent. These, together with the twentysix aldermen, form a deliberative assembly of two hundred |