But national courts are bound to take notice without proof of the laws of each of the States.[311] The principle is thus laid down by Chief Justice Marshall: “The laws of a foreign nation, designed only for the direction of its own affairs, are not to be noticed by the courts of other countries, unless proved as facts.”[312] For national purposes embraced by the Constitution, the States and their citizens are one, united under the same sovereign authority, and governed by the same laws. In all other respects the States are necessarily foreign to and independent of each other,—their constitutions and forms of government being, although republican, altogether different, as are their laws and institutions.[313] In government, jurisdiction is co-extensive with sovereignty. Faith, credit, public acts, records, or judicial proceedings that are valid in a State are, when proved, valid in every other State, and Congress possesses the power to prescribe by general laws the manner and the effect of proof. This supreme power is incidental, as well as necessary, to national sovereignty as realized in “the more perfect Union.”[314] 122. The citizens of each State are entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.[315] But a corporation is not a citizen, being but an artificial person created by the Legislature and possessing only the powers and attributes which the Legislature has prescribed.[316] This conclusion is inevitable from the principle of jurisdiction. No State can create or give powers to a corporation in another State, or powers that will be valid there. A corporation created by a Legislature has powers and privileges only within the jurisdiction of that Legislature; or, as is said: “The corporation being the mere creation of local law, can have no legal existence beyond the limits of the sovereignty where created.”[317] Thus a State may admit or exclude foreign corporations, and the corporation cannot maintain a claim of citizenship to right to enter the State. 123. The words “privileges and immunities of citizens” are of comprehensive meaning as determined by the courts from time to time as issues (cases or controversies) come before them. The clause in the Constitution plainly and unmistakably secures and protects the right of a citizen of one State to pass into any other State of the Union for the purpose of enjoying in lawful commerce, trade, or business, without molestation; to acquire personal property; to take and hold real estate; to maintain actions in the courts of the State, and to be exempt from any higher taxes or excises than are imposed by the State upon its own citizens.[318] Or, as the principle is further stated: the sole purpose of the constitutional provision is