Private bodies regular, but unlawful, are those that unite themselves into one person representative, without any public authority at all: such as are the corporations of beggars, thieves and gipsies, the better to order their trade of begging and stealing; and the corporations of men, that by authority from any foreign person, unite themselves in another’s dominion, for the easier propagation of doctrines, and for making a party against the power of the commonwealth.

Irregular systems, in their nature but leagues, or sometimes mere concourse of people, without union to any particular design, not by obligation of one to another, but proceeding only from a similitude of wills and inclinations, become lawful or unlawful according to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of every particular man’s design therein: and his design is to be understood by the occasion.