COMMON COUNCIL 



1515 



COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND 



Carriers of Passengers. Passenger carriers 

 are subject to a few special rules of law. 

 While they are ordinarily required to accept 

 as passengers any persons who offer to pay the 

 required fare, they need not carry drunken or 

 disorderly persons, or anybody with a con- 

 tagious disease, or fugitives from justice, or 

 those who board a train for the purpose of 

 committing crime. A person who has paid his 

 fare and conducts himself properly has a right 

 to ride to his destination; if he is forced to 

 leave the train, the carrier is liable for dam- 

 ages. In every case the burden lies on the 

 carrier to prove that he acted reasonably and 

 within his rights, and that his negligence did 

 not cause injury to the passenger. The carrier 

 is not held responsible for passengers in the 

 same degree as for goods, the assumption being 

 that passengers are able to take" some heed for 

 themselves. So far as human foresight can 

 ensure safety, however, a carrier is responsible 

 for the lives of his passengers. See INTERSTATE 

 COMMERCE ACT. W.F.Z. 



COMMON COUNCIL, the name applied to 

 the law-making body of a city or incorporated 

 town, which may consist of two chambers, but 

 is usually a single body. According to the 

 typical organization of a city, the municipality 

 is divided into districts called wards, each of 

 which elects two aldermen for terms of two 

 years, to form the city council. Usually one- 

 half the members of this body retire every 

 year. The chief executive officer is the mayor. 

 A village differs from a city in organization in 

 that the government is more simple. The vil- 

 lage is not divided into wards, and the govern- 

 ing body is known usually as the board of 

 trustees, six in number, elected by all the 

 voters, one-half retiring each year. The chief 

 executive officer is the president of the village. 



Canadian cities and incorporated towns have 

 councils consisting of from one to three "coun- 

 cillors, or aldermen, from each ward. The 

 legislative body of the village is also known 

 as the council, and the chief executive officer 

 may be a mayor or a reeve. See CITY; MAYOR. 



COMMON LAW, the law distinguished from 

 written or statutory law and derived from parts 

 of the English law which do not rest for their 

 authority on any express legislative act. Com- 

 mon law is therefore usually denned as the 

 unwritten law. In this sense common law con- 

 sists in rules and principles compiled from 

 reports of adjudged or judicially decided cases, 

 and from popular custom and usage, in contrast 

 to statute law, equity and the civil law in- 



herited by modern Europe and most of the 

 states of America from the Roman 'Empire. 



Common law is based primarily on customs 

 growing out of the wisdom and experiences of 

 mankind. In time these customs become recog- 

 nized as consistent, reasonable and established, 

 are sanctioned by the courts and are inter- 

 preted and made binding by the decisions of 

 the final courts of appeal. The United States 

 in the true sense has no common law. Federal 

 courts when acting as common-law courts fol- 

 low the law as it stands in the state where the 

 action arises, accepting common-law principles 

 wherever involved. The courts of each state 

 have relied on the English common law until 

 a fairly uniform system has developed through- 

 out the country. 



Related Subjects. The reader Is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Civil Law Law 



Equity Statute 



Also, for another body of laws, to CODE 

 NAPOLEON. 



COMMONS, HOUSE OF, the name given the 

 lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain. 

 See PARLIAMENT. 



COMMON SCHOOLS. See SCHOOLS, subtitle 

 Public Schools. 



COM'MONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, the 

 official name of the government of England 

 during the period when the power was in the 

 hands of the Parliamentary army and its 

 leader, Oliver Cromwell; that is, from the exe- 



IBLUE HIRED HH YELLO 



BANNER OF THE COMMONWEALTH 

 cution of Charles I, in 1649, to the restoration 

 of Charles II, in 1660. Though the name Com- 

 monwealth is usually associated with the entire 

 period when England was ruled without a king, 

 the government after 1653, when Cromwell 

 became Lord Protector, is also known as the 

 Protectorate. 



Related Subjects. The entire story of the 

 Commonwealth of England is summed up in 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Charles I England (History) 



Charles II Long Parliament 



Cromwell Restoration 



