390 



COMPANY 



COMPASS 



other members a corporate body with perpetual 

 succession, a common seal, power to hold lands 

 without intervention of trustees, and a liability of 

 members for the time to pay calls on the shares, 

 and a liability of all members, past and present, to 

 contribute the amount of the uncalled capital in 

 the event of a liquidation, excluding such members 

 as have been a year out of the concern before the 

 winding up commences. Past members only cop- 

 tribute if present members cannot make up the 

 deficiency. Hence the lists A and B of contributories 

 so unpleasantly known in the mercantile world. 

 Contributories cannot 'set oft" or deduct from their 

 liability debts due to them by the company. But 

 the constitution, so defined by the memorandum 

 and articles of association, is elastic. By special 

 resolution of the shareholders i. e. a resolution 

 passed by three-fourths and afterwards confirmed, 

 which is also registered capital may be increased, 

 the amount of shares altered, the liability of directors 

 made unlimited. With the consent of the Board 

 of Trade, the company may even change its name. 



It is common to reserve to the directors power 

 to object to a transferee of shares, but where this is 

 not done, the directors are powerless to prevent the 

 common practice of transferring shares to persons 

 of no means just before a liquidation 'arrives, at 

 least where such transfer is out and out. After 

 liquidation no change can be made on the register 

 of shareholders, which decides the liabilities of 

 parties. Mistaken entries, however, may be recti- 

 fied by petition to the court, even after liquidation, 

 but it is then too late to raise an .action to set aside 

 a contract to take shares on the ground of fraud 

 or misrepresentation. The liquidation of the City 

 of Glasgow Bank (1878-82) called attention to the 

 fact that in Scotland, differing in this respect 

 from England, notice of trusts was taken in the 

 registers of companies, but this did not prevent 

 the trustees and executors who were so entered 

 from being held personally liable for the full 

 amount of the calls made. The necessity of keep- 

 ing a register of mortgages is a useful provision, 

 and every shareholder is entitled to obtain copies 

 of the annual accounts and of any special resolu- 

 tions passed. General meetings must be held at 

 least once a year. The Board of Trade have 

 power to order a systematic inspection of the 

 books and accounts of a company, if they are 

 asked to do so by one-fifth of the shareholders. 

 The strongest security reserved to the manage- 

 ment of a company for payment of calls is the 

 stringent power of forfeiture which is often exer- 

 cised with unfairness and severity. 



Upon the whole the statute of 1862 has been 

 beneficial in the development of trade ; but it 

 has also produced a great mass of dishonest specu- 

 lation, with which the common-law doctrines of 

 fraud and misrepresentation have not been adequate 

 to deal. The law will shortly be amended so as 

 to take further securities for the substantial char- 

 acter of business and for the punishment of dis- 

 honesty. For further information on this subject, 

 see LIQUIDATION. Als* see CORPORATION, GUILD, 

 LIVERY, and RAILWAYS. 



Company, in Military Organisation, is that 

 part of a Battalion (q.v.) which constitutes a 

 captain's command. In the British service there 

 are 8 companies in an infantry battalion on the 

 war establishment, each consisting of 3 officers 

 Captain (q.v.), lieutenant, and sub-lieutenant 

 5 sergeants, 2 drummers and buglers, 5 corporals, 

 108 privates, and 1 driver with 2 horses for the 

 company general service wagon. The men of the 

 Army Service Corps are also grouped in similar 

 companies (see COMMISSARIAT). The company is 

 both a tactical and administrative unit, and is 

 divided into two subdivisions of two sections each. 



Each company has its own arm and accoutrement 

 chests, and keeps its own books. 



In the Engineers the field company is commanded 

 by a major, with a captain and 4 lieutenants 

 under him, and a surgeon, all mounted. It also 

 has 2 sergeants, 1 artificer, 1 trumpeter, and 26 

 drivers, who are mounted, and 154 dismounted non- 

 commissioned officers and men. In a cavalry regi- 

 ment a captain's command is a Troop (q.v.); but 

 the corresponding artillery unit is a Battery (q.v.). 

 In the United States service an infantry battalion 

 consists of 2 or more companies, each officered by 

 a captain, a first and a second lieutenant, 5 ser- 

 geants, and 4 corporals. On a war footing a full 

 company of infantry consists of 101 officers and 

 men ; in time of peace of 3 commissioned officers 

 and 54 men. In the German army a company 

 comprises 249 combatants and 3 non-combatants, 

 under a captain, who is a mounted officer, and 3 

 subalterns. There are 4 such companies in each 

 battalion. The French, Russian, Austrian, and 

 Italian companies are similar in strength to the 

 German. See also BEARER COMPANY. 



Company, of a ship, is considered to include 

 the whole of the persons engaged on board, and 

 paid for specific duties exclusive, therefore, of 

 troops and passengers, but including naval officers 

 as well as crew. See CREW. 



Comparative Anatomy, as distinguished 

 from special anatomy (see ANATOMY), is the science 

 which examines and compares the structure of two 

 or more different kinds of animal, so as to discover 

 their points of resemblance and unlikeness ; and as 

 such it is a most important department of the science 

 of Biology (q.v.; see also CUVIER). In this work 

 the articles in the various groups of animals (see 

 BIRD, MAMMALS, REPTILES, &c.) deal with the 

 resembling and contrasted features of these groups. 

 ' Comparative ' is used in an analogous sense in 

 connection with philology and physiology. 



Comparetti, DOMENICO, philologist, was born 

 27th June 1835 at Rome. He studied the natural 

 sciences and mathematics, next held a post in a 

 library, and in 1859 was appointed to the chair of 

 Greek in the university of Pisa, which he exchanged 

 a few years later for the same chair in the Instituto 

 di Studii Superiori at Florence. His studies bore 

 fruit in frequent articles in the learned journals, 

 and in a series of learned works, among them one 

 on Greek dialects in South Italy (1866), on Virgil 

 the Magician (1872; trans. 1895), and on Homer 

 and Pisistratus ( 1881 ). With D'Ancona he edited 

 the Canti e Racconti del Popolo Italiano (1870-90), 

 and he settled in Rome. To English folklorists his 

 name is known from his Researches concerning the 

 Book o/Sindibad (Folklore Society, 1882). 



Compartment, a term in use in the Heraldry 

 of Scotland, applied generally to the panel or other 

 ornamental work placed below a shield on which 

 the supporters stand, with which is sometimes 

 intertwined the escrol in which the motto, or a 

 second motto, is placed. Great latitude is allowed 

 as to its form. 



Compass, M^RINJBR'S, is a magnetic instru- 

 ment used by mariners to indicate the direction of 

 the ship, with respect to the magnetic north and 

 south line, or, in other words, to give the azimuth 

 of the ship with respect to the magnetic meridian. 

 That the mariner may know his direction with 

 respect to the geographical meridian, he must know 

 the angle between the magnetic and geographical 

 meridians (see DECLINATION), and as this angle is 

 different in different years and at different places 

 on the surface of the globe, the mariner must be 

 able at any time to determine his position, when 

 his charts will give him the necessary data to 

 supplement his compass reading. 



