Section 63. "Municipal corporations being created chiefly for governmental purposes and for the attainment of local objects merely, the general rule is that they cannot purchase and hold real estate beyond their territorial limits, unless this power is conferred by the legislature."4 Municipal corporations, however, are frequently granted power to acquire and hold land outside their territorial limits for certain purposes, as for example hospitals, pest houses, etc. A municipal corporation is regarded much as an individual or private corporation in transactions affecting the ownership of its property.

3 "Municipal and public corporations may be the objects of public and private bounty. This is reasonable and just. They are in law clothed with the power of individuality. They are placed by law under various obligations and duties. Legacies of personal property devises of real property, and gifts of either species of property directly to the corporation, and for its own use and benefit, intended to and which have the effect to ease them of their obligations or lighten the burdens of their citizens, are valid in law, in the absence of disabling or restraining statutes. Thus a conveyance of land to a town or other pubilc corporation for benevolent or public purposes, as for a site for a school house, city or town house and the like, is based upon a sufficient consideration, and such conveyances are liberally construed in support of the object contemplated." 2 Dillon, Mun. Corp. (4th Ed.), Par. 566. 4 Dillon, Mun. Corp. (3rd Ed.), Vol. 2, Par. 565; Denton vs. Jackson, 2 Johns. Ch. (N. Y.), 320; North Hempstead vs. Hempstead, 2 Wend. (N. Y.), 131; Hopk., 594; Riley vs. Rochester, 9 N. Y. (5 Seld.), 1853, reversing S. C, 13 Barb., 321; Girard vs. New Orleans, 2 La. An., 897; Chambers vs. St. Louis, 29 Mo., 543, 1850; Bullock vs. Curry, 2 Met. (Ky.), 171; Concord vs. Boscawen, 17 N. H., 465.