Stephen Johnson Field

“ There can be therefore no possible objection to the validity of the tax prescribed by the statute of New York, so far as it relates to its own corporations. Nor can there be any greater objection to a similar tax upon a foreign corporation doing business by its permission within the state. As to a foreign corporation,-and all corporations in states other than the state of its creation are deemed to be foreign corporations,-it can claim a right to do business in another state, to any extent, only subjedt to the conditions imposed by its laws. ”

“ Its creation (except where the corporation is sole) is the investing of two or more persons with the capacity to act as a single individual, with a common name, and the privilege of succession in its members without dissolution, and with a limited individual liability. The right and privilege, or the franchise, as it may be termed, of being a corporation, is of great value to its members, and is considered as property separate and distinct from the property which the corporation itself may acquire. ”

“ If the correctness of the conclusion could be questioned, and held not justified by the facts in evidence,-and they should be considered as showing only transactions of interstate commerce, and not business in the state independently of such commerce,-it would be impossible to overcome the force of the answer of the defendant, in which it alleges that in the years 1881 and 1882 it was a manufacturing company carrying on manufactures within the state of New York. ”