“ The right of the plaintiff in error to exist as a corporation, and its authority, in that capacity, to conduct the particular business for which it was created, were granted subject to the condition that the privileges and franchises confered upon it should not be abused, or so employed as to defeat the ends for which it was established, and that, when so abused or misemployed, they might be withdrawn or reclaimed by the state in such a way and by such modes of procedure as were consistent with law. ”

“ It is stated by Chancellor Kent, in his Commentaries (vol. 2, p. 378, Comstock's ed.) , that there were two modes of proceeding judicially to ascertain and enforce the forfeiture of a charter for default or abuse of power; the one by scire facias, the other by information in the nature of a quo warranto; both these modes of proceeding against corporations being at the instance and on behalf of the government. The state must be a party to the prosecution, for the judgment is that the parties be ousted, and the franchises seized into the hands of the government. ”

“ We are restricted by the settled limits of our jurisdiction to the specific inquiry whether the statute themselves, upon which the judgment below rests, impair the obligation of any contract which the company or its policyholders had with the state, or infringe any right secured by the national Constitution. ”

“ To this it is sufficient to reply in the language of the court in Mumma v. Potomao Co. 8 Pet. 281, 287, 8 L. ed. 945, 948, where it was said: 'A corporation, by the very terms and nature of its political existence, is subject to a dissolution, by a surrender of its corporate franchises, and by a forfeiture of them for wilful misuse and nonuse. ”

“ There must be at least color of ground for such averment, otherwise a Federal question might be set up in almost any case, and the jurisdiction of this court invoked simply for the purpose of delay.'
Again, in Hamblin v. Western Land Co. 147 U.S. 531, 37 L. ed. 267, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 353, upon a like motion to dismiss the writ of error, the court said: 'It is doubtful whether there is a Federal question in this case. A real, and not a fictitious, Federal question is essential to the jurisdiction of this court over the judgment of state courts,'-citing the two cases just above referred to. ”

“ The action of the state may or may not have affected the intrinsic value of the company's policies; that would depend somewhat on the manner in which its affairs have been conducted, upon the amount of profits it has realized from business, and upon its actual condition when this suit was instituted ”