The leading case on this subject is _Phillips v. Bury_. This was an
ejectment brought to recover the rectory-house, &c. of Exeter College in
Oxford. The question was whether the plaintiff or defendant was legal
rector. Exeter College was founded by an individual, and incorporated by a
charter granted by Queen Elizabeth. The controversy turned upon the power
of the visitor, and, in the discussion of the cause, the nature of college
charters and corporations was very fully considered.

Lord Holt's judgment is that that college was a _private
corporation_, and that the founder had a right to appoint a visitor,
and to give him such power as he saw fit.

The learned Bishop Stillingfleet's argument in the same cause, as a member
of the House of Lords, when it was there heard, exhibits very clearly the
nature of colleges and similar corporations. It is to the following
effect. "That colleges, although founded by private persons, are yet
incorporated by the king's charter; but although the kings by their
charter made the colleges to be such in law, that is, to be legal
corporations, yet they left to the particular founders authority to
appoint what statutes they thought fit for the regulation of them. And not
only the statutes, but the appointment of visitors, was left to them, and
the manner of government, and the several conditions on which any persons
were to be made or continue partakers of their bounty."

These opinions received the sanction of the House of Lords, and they seem
to be settled and undoubted law.

"There is nothing better established," says Lord Commissioner Eyre, "than
that this court does not entertain a general jurisdiction, or regulate and
control charities _established by charter_. There the establishment