COMMON SCHOOLS. 220 COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND. In the A"est these funds are generally large, arising from the sale of lands granted by the General Government, and, in some in- stances, also by the State. Such grants by the United States for school jjurposes amount to (18,000.000 acres, valued at more than $100,- 000,000. Before the Civil War there was no general and well-ordered system of common schools in the Southern States. But in their new constitutions they have made provision for them, and are now pressing forward the work. In 18C7 a National Bureau of Education I see Education, Commissioxer of) was establislied by Congress for the purpose of collecting sta- tistics and difl'using information on the whole subject, so as to aid the people of the United States in the adoption and support of the best school sj'stems, and to advance in other ways the cause of education throughout the land. While the ilassachusetts school law of 1049 had a compulsory feature, no effective system of eom])ulsory education was ever adopted in the United States before the reform in Massachu- setts that resulted from the efforts of Horace Mann (q.v.). At present (1902). thirty States, one Territory, and the District of Columbia, have laws making education compulsory, either at a public or an approved private school. In 1899- 1900 there were 1.5,341.-220 cliildren enrolled in the common schools of the United States, out of a total of 17.544,888 enrolled in all the schools. The enrollment in the common schools is about 69 out of every hundred children of school age. The average length of the period of attendance was 98 days out of a total length of 144.6 days for the school term. There were more than 421,- 000 teachers engaged in the common schools, and the total expense of such schools was $213,- 000.000. See Education; National Educa- tion, SvsTK^rs OF. COMMON SCOLD. One who, by the prac- tice of habitual scolding, disturbs the peace of the neighborliood. Scolding, in itself, is not ob- noxious to the law, and, so long as it is confined to the domestic hearth, it is damiuim absijue injuria, no matter how persistent and violent it may be. It is only when the practice is indulged in public and with such freciueney and under such circumstances as to threaten a breach of the peace that it becomes a public nuisance and punishable as such. The common law took cogni- zance of the offense and resorted to various devices, mostly of an unplea.sant nature, for the punishment of those convicted of it. Among these punishments were the stocks (q.v.). the ducking-stool (q.v.), and the branks (q.v.). the last named being, during the period of its appli- cation, the most efficacious. The practice of punishing common scolds survives, sporadically. in the United States, in some of which it is recognized in the penal statutes, but the punish- ment has been mitigated to fine and imprison- ment. Consult the authorities referred to under the title Crimixai. Law. COMMON SENSATION, or Common Feel- ing. A collective name for the sensations which make up our general sense of bodily health or ill health, well-being or ill-being. It includes e.g. the diffused sensations of the tactual sense: shiiddering. shivering, tingling, tickling, creep- ing, goose-flesh, pricking, pins and needles; sen- sations which can, in many cases, be set up as concomitant sensations to squeaking or sawing noises and the like. (See references under An- tipathy.) It includes, further, dizziness (see Static Sense) ; the sensations of muscular ex- ertion and fatigue; and the muscular and or- ganic pains. Indeed, on the theory that pain is aroused by over-intensive stimulation of any and every sense-organ (^Vundt, Phys. Psych., 1893), pain would be, literally, a sensation 'common' to the whole sensitive organism. Sometimes the two sensations of temperature are called common or general sensations; and the alimentary sensations of hunger, thirst, and nausea, as well as the respiratory sensations of stuffiness, of a "bracing' air, etc., are also cov- ered by the term. It is clear that the phrases "common sensation,' 'common feeling,' "general sense,' belong to a psychology that had not yet succeeded in analyzing the more massive com- ])Iexes of organic sensations, and in referring them to specific organs within the body. In the ]jresent state of our knowledge, there is no reason for their retention. Consult: Kuelpe, Outlines of Psychology (London, 1895); Titchener, Outline of Psijcholorjy (New York, 1809). See CUTANEOIS Sen.S.^TIOX. COMMON SENSE. A ])amphlet by Tliomas Paine, ))ublished in Pliiladelphia, ITTli. advocat- ing the separation of the United States from England. It was thought of sufficient impor- tance at the time to receive public notice from General Washington. COMMON SENSE, The Philosophy of. There are certain beliefs that have been supposed to be current among men in all ages, (^f these, a striking illustration is the belief in an exter- nal, material world, independent of any mind to perceive it. (.)ther such beliefs are those in the validity of the laws of identity, contradiction, and the excluded middle, in the truth of the axioms of mathematics, in the universality of causality, and in the eternal obligation of moral- ity. The philosophical acceptance of these be- liefs as self-evident and Ijeyond the reach of criticism is called common-sense philosophy. (See also Dogmatism.) Thomas Eeid (q.v.) was the most distinguished advocate of common sense as the final court of appeal on all matters philosophical, and he has been generally followed more or less closely by the philosophers of the Scottish School — Tames Beattie, Dugald Stew- art. Sir William Hamilton. Henry Calderwood, and .Tames McCosh. The untenability of this position is realized as soon as it is recognized that common opinion has often been shown to be mistaken. Xor will an appeal to 'an immediate deliverance of consciousness' do as a substitute for common sense, for an hallucination is as immediate a deliverance of consciousness as an ordinary perception is. Criticism is necessary for establishing the validity of every belief. (See IxxowLEDGE, THEORY OF). Consult: Seth. Scot- tish Philosophy (Edinburgh and London, 1890) ; ^IcCosh. Scottish Philosophy front Hutcheson to Urtmilton (London and New York. 1875) ; Sidg- wick. "The Philoso]^iv of Common Sense." in Mind. X. S.. vol. iv. (London. 1895). COMMON TIME. See Time. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA. See ArsTRAi.iAX Fedekatiox. COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND. The official designation of the Government of Ehg-
