CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 



1563 



CONTRACT 



found in a country occupied by French troops 

 was declared a prisoner of war; all merchandise 

 belonging to the English was made lawful 

 prize, and all trade in English goods was en- 

 tirely prohibited. No ship coming from Eng- 

 land or any English colony was allowed to 

 enter any French port. England was not long 

 in making reprisals, or retaliation. By a British 

 Order in Council, January 7, 1807, all neutral 

 vessels were prohibited from trading in any 

 French port or in any country in alliance with 

 France. France then directed the burning of 

 all captured British goods. With the breaking 

 up of Napoleon's power the system entirely 

 collapsed. On the English side the enforcement 

 of the Orders in Council gave offense to the 

 United States and was one of the principal 

 causes of the War of 1812. See BLOCKADE; 

 WAR OF 1812. 



CONTINUATION SCHOOLS. See SCHOOLS, 

 subtitle Special Schools. 



CONTRABAND, kon'traband, in commerce, 

 means trade forbidden by law; more directly, 

 it includes goods that a neutral is prohibited 

 by the laws of nations to furnish any coun- 

 try engaged in war, such as arms, ammunition, 

 military or naval supplies, or anything which 

 can be used in the manufacture of munitions of 

 war. Even foodstuffs may be declared con- 

 traband, in which event the civilian population, 

 as well as the army, may be made to suffer. 

 Unless there are special treaties denning ex- 

 actly what articles are contraband of war, the 

 interpretation of this law often leads to much 

 embarrassment. According to current practice 

 contraband of war is of two classes, absolute 

 contraband and conditional contraband, the 

 latter consisting of articles which are fit for but 

 not directly necessary to hostile uses. 



Another law, insisted on by England during 

 the wars with Napoleon, is that each belligerent 

 shall have a right to visit and examine neutral 

 ships to ascertain whether they carry any con- 

 traband of war which seems likely to be in- 

 tended for the enemy. During the War of the 

 Nations in 1915 England declared cotton to 

 be contraband, as its enemy, Germany, used 

 that important product in the manufacture of 

 explosives. A neutral country should be able 

 to carry on ordinary trade with people in any 

 of the belligerent nations, except when pre- 

 vented by blockade (which see). 



CONTRACT, kon'trakt, an agreement be- 

 tween two or more persons, whereby each of 

 the contracting parties binds himself to do or 

 not to do a particular thing. Such an obliga- 



tion is created and determined solely by the 

 will of the parties; the business of the law is 

 to give effect, as far as possible, to their plain 

 intention. All rules of the interpretation of 

 contracts are based on this fundamental prin- 

 ciple, and no government may in any way 

 modify a legal agreement. The making of a 

 contract involves two distinct acts; the making 

 of an offer and the accepting of the offer. Con- 

 tracts may be verbal or written, but contracts 

 to run for longer than a year must always be 

 in writing. 



Classification of Contracts. Contracts have 

 been divided into various groups under the 

 law, but for general purposes they may be 

 classified as express and implied. Express con- 

 tracts are those in which the provisions are 

 clearly stated (expressed) in the contract at 

 the time it is made. Implied contracts are 

 those in which some of the things to be done 

 are not specified but are left to the understand- 

 ing of the parties. In case of a dispute the pro- 

 visions of an implied agreement are deter- 

 mined by circumstantial evidence, showing 

 what the parties intended to contract. 



Requirements of a Legal Contract. A con- 

 tract to be legal must fulfil the following re- 

 quirements : 



(a) It must be made by competent parties. 

 Since the violation of a contract makes the of- 

 fender liable to the payment of damages, it is 

 important that only responsible persons be per- 

 mitted to enter into such agreements. A lunatic 

 or an idiot or a person so under the influence of 

 intoxicants as to be unable to exercise his free 

 will, cannot enter into a contract which the law 

 will uphold. Under the common law a contract 

 made by a married woman is also void, but this 

 disqualification has been removed by statute in 

 many countries. The contract of a person under 

 the age of twenty-one (legally an infant) is not 

 binding upon him, unless it be for something that 

 is necessary to life or intended to promote his 

 education. However, a minor's contract binds an 

 adult with whom he may enter into an agree- 

 ment. The minor may sue, but cannot be sued" 

 upon his contract, and he may repudiate or affirm 

 such contract when he becomes of legal age. 

 Contracts are also illegal and void if made be- 

 tween citizens of two countries which are at war. 

 (6) For an agreement to be legally binding 

 the assent to its terms must be real. That is, the 

 minds of both parties must be in accord. A con- 

 tract obtained by compulsion, fraud, misrepre- 

 sentation or through a clearly-proved mistake on 

 the part of the contracting parties cannot be en- 

 forced. 



(c) The thing which the persons entering into 

 the agreement contract to do must be lawful. Bet- 

 ting and gambling agreements, contracts in 

 which illegal rates of interest are imposed, and 

 agreements in restraint ' of trade are void. An 

 agreement in restraint of trade is one that tends 



