Statement of Disbursements made under Joint Resolution No. 9, approved February 13, 1847: Nov. 1, 1847. P'd Gov. Greenly's order in favor of T. B. W. Stockton, $25 00 15 15 15 999 do do do do Lieut. J. M. Stewart, 400 00 do do do do Capt. Van Arman, 400 00 do on his receipt, a copy of which is hereto annex'd, 2514 26 $10,000 00 COPY OF GOV. GREENLY'S RECEIPT. EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Detroit, December 15, 1847. § Received of G. B. Cooper, State Treasurer, two thousand five hundred and fourteen 26-100 dollars, being the balance of the ten thousand dollars appropriation, made by joint resolution entitled joint resolutions on the existing war with Mexico, approved February 13, 1847, which remains unexpended at this date. WM. L. GREENLY. AUDITOR GENeral's Office, I hereby certify that the above is a correct statement of the disbursement of the ten thousand dollars appropriated by joint resolution No. 9, approved February 13, 1847, as appears from the orders and receipt of Gov. Greenly, on file in this office. H. L. WHIPPLE, Deputy Auditor General. No. 2. 1848. 1 OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL ON GENERAL ACTS OF INCORFORATION. To the Senate of the State of Michigan: By a resolution of your body, adopted on the 21st of this month, the Attorney General was requested to give to the Senate, at his earliest convenience, his opinion of the constitutionality of the bill to encourage the establishment of seminaries and institutions of learning. The main object of this bill is, to authorize, by an act of the Legislature, associations for the promotion of education; it proposes to authorize, in a prescribed mode, any number of persons, not less than three, to associate together for that purpose. The opinion requested, of the constitutionality of the provisions of this bill, has reference, I suppose, to its compatibility with that provision of the constitution of this State which declares that the Legislature shall pass no act of incorporation unless with the assent of at least twothirds of each House. This question has, in some very important respects, come under the consideration of the supreme court of this State. That tribunal has settled the question of the power of the Legislature to pass a general law authorizing the establishment, under its provisions, of an indefinite number of corporations. In the case of Green vs. Graves, 1 Douglass Mich. Reports 351, it was decided that, so much of the act to organize and regulate bauking associations, as purports to confer corporate rights upon the associations organized under its provisions, is in violation of this provision of the constitution. In that case, the court seemed to have no doubt, that the various associations, the progeny of that act, were corporations, and the principal question discussed and settled was this: Considering the associations to be corporations, was it competent for the Legislature so to create or authorize their creation, as to dispense with the two-thirds vote provided for in the constitution? This question was settled against the power of the Legislature, and must be considered the law of the land, whatever different adjudications upon similar constitutional provisions, may have been made by the judicial tribunals of other States, and whatever the practice of the Legislatures of other States, sanctioned by such adjudications, may be. I shall not, therefore, enter upon a review of the principles, upon which our own court has settled this question; I will only say, that, I heartily concur in the correctness of that judgment. It would seem, then, that the only question for present consideration is this Are the associations, the creation of which it is intended by this bill to authorize, corporations within the meaning of the constitution? Permit me to say, that I enter upon the investigation of this question under great difficulties, growing out of a non-access to law books; and that I shall be under the consequent necessity of examinining it more upon general principles, than by the lights emanating from decided cases. Mr. Kyd, the author of a work on corporations, thus defines a corporation: "A corporation or body politic, or body incorporate, is a collection of many individuals, united in one body under a special denomination, having perpetual succession, under an artificial form, and vested by the policy of the law, with a capacity of acting in several respects as an individual, particularly of taking and granting property, contracting obligations, and of suing and being sued; of enjoying privileges and immunities in common, and of exercising a variety of political rights, more or less extensive according to the design of its institution, or the powers conferred upon it, either at the time of its creation or at any subsequent period of its existence." Here we have a very plain and comprehensive definition of a corporation-a definition approved by Angel and Ames in their treatise on corporations. Let us examine these contemplated associations in reference to this definition, to see if they come within it. The association is to be a collection of individuals, united in one body. The bill says "that any three or more persons who may be |