McKIM v. ODOM.—3 BLAND. 413

* But however they may have been originated formerly or
elsewhere, it is certain that they can now only be estab- 417
lished here by the authority of the Legislature." The multitude of
bodies politic, that have been created either by the government of
the Province or of the Republic, most of which still subsist, may
be considered, in reference to their objects, as belonging to one or
other of three distinct classes.

The first kind are such as relate merely to the public police;
which, by assuming upon themselves some of the duties of the
State, in a partial or detailed form, and having neither power nor
property for the purposes of personal aggrandizement, can be con-
sidered in no other light than as the auxiliaries of the govern-
ment of the Republic: and consequently, as the secondary and
deputy trustees and servants of the people. The right to establish,
alter, or abolish such corporations, seems to be a principle evi-
dently inherent in the very nature of the institutions themselves;
since all mere municipal regulations must, from the nature of
things, be subject to the absolute control of the government.
These institutions being, in their nature, the auxiliaries of the
government in the great business of municipal rule, cannot have
the least pretension to sustain their privileges, or their existence
upon any thing like a contract between them and the government;
because there can be no reciprocity of stipulation; and because
their objects and duties are incompatible with every thing of the
nature of such a compact.

The power of acquiring and holding property, although almost
always given, is by no means a necessary incident to all corporations
of this class, they may be established without any such capacity;
as in the instance of the commissioners for emitting bills of credit.
1769, ch. 14, s. 6. The preservation of morals, and the adminis-
tration of justice are the chief ends for which government has
been instituted; and infancy, insanity, infirmity, and helpless

land, granted a charter incorporating the City of Annapolis.— Chancery Pro-
ceedings, lib, P. C. fol. 590; 1708, ch. 7.

The charter of the City of St. Mary's affords an example of what, in Eng-
land, are called close corporations; that is, where the major part of the per-
sons to whom the corporate powers have been granted, on the happening of
vacancies among them, have the right of themselves to appoint others to fill
such vacancies, without allowing to the inhabitants or corporators, in gene-
ral, any vote or choice in the selection of such new officers. An open cor-
poration of a city, &c., is where all the citizens or corporators have a vote
in the election of the officers of the corporation. Every one here, however,
must have observed, that although we have, in this State, at present, no close
corporations so constituted by their charter, there are, nevertheless, many in-
stances where so many proxies, of those who alone have a right to vote, are
gathered into a few hands, as, in practice, to make such bodies politic close
corporations, by means of which their then president and directors are con-
tinued in office.