This was an action of covenant, brought September 21, 1886, by the Central Transportation Company, a corporation of Pennsylvania, against Pullman's Palace Car Company, a corporation of Illinois, to recover the sum of $198,000, due for the last three-quarters of the year ending July 1, 1886, according to the terms of an indenture of lease from the plaintiff of all its personal property to the defendant, dated February 17, 1870, and set forth in full in the declaration. The defendant filed several pleas, one of which was 'that said indenture of lease was void in law as between, the parties thereto, for the want of authority and corporate power on the part of the parties thereto to make and enter into said indenture of lease; and for that the same was in excess and in violation of the charters conferring the corporate powers on said plaintiff, and of the purpose of their incorporation.' The plaintiff filed a replication, traversing the averments of this plea. The plaintiff was originally incorporated December 26, 1862, by a certificate or charter, made, acknowledged, recorded, and filed in the office of the secretary of the commonwealth, as required by the general laws of Pennsylvania, which authorized companies to incorporate themselves, by voluntary act of the associates, 'for the purpose of carrying on the manufacture of woolen, cotton, flax, or silk goods, or of iron, paper, lumber, or salt,' or 'for the manufacture of articles from iron and other metals, or out of wood, iron, and other metals,' within the state, for a term not exceeding 20 years; and provided that every corporation so formed might by its corporate name purchase, hold, and convey real or personal property, 'necessary or convenient to enable the said company to carry on the business or operations named in such certificate;' and that its stock, property, and affairs should be managed by a board of directors, a majority of whom in all cases should be stockholders therein and citizens of the state; and authorized the directors, subject to the revision and approval of the stockholders, to make such by-laws for the management and disposition of its stock and affairs, 'and for carrying on all kinds of business within the objects and purposes of such company;' and forbade the company to use any part of its capital stock or other funds in the purchase of stock in any other corporation. St. Pa. April 7, 1849, No. 368, §§ 1, 3, 4, 8; Id. April 1, 1853, No. 186, § 2. In accordance with the requirements of those statutes, the plaintiff's certificate of incorporation or charter stated the object for which it was formed, 'the transportation of passengers in railroad cars constructed and to be owned by the said company in accordance with the several letters patent,' four in all, described by numbers and dates; the place where its chief operations were to be carried on, Philadelphia; the amount of its capital stock, $200,000; and its term of continuance, 20 years, the extreme limit allowed by the statutes. By a special act of the legislature of Pennsylvania of February 9, 1870, No. 94, entitled 'An act to extend the charter of the Central Transportation Company, to empower them to lease their property and increase their capital stock,' the plaintiff's charter was extended for 99 years from its expiration; and 'said company are hereby empowered to enter into contracts with corporations of this or any other state for the leasing or hiring and transfer to them, or any of them, of their railway cars and other personal property,' as well as 'to increase their present capital stock two hundred thousand dollars.' On February 17, 1870, eight days after the passage of that act, the indenture sued on was made by and between the plaintiff and the defendant, which had been incorporated three years before, with a capital stock of $100,000, by a special act of the egi slature of Illinois of February 22, 1867, (declared to be a public act,) 'to manufacture, construct, and purchase railway cars, with all convenient appendages and supplies for persons traveling therein, and the same' to 'sell or use, or permit to be used, in such manner and upon such terms as the said company may think fit and proper.'