is very generally accepted as embracing those houses which,
under the Public Health and other Acts, must be registered and
inspected. The provisions of the Public Health Act 1875 are that every
urban and rural district council must keep registers showing the names
and residences of the keepers of all common lodging-houses in their
districts, the situation of every such house, and the number of lodgers
authorized by them to be received therein. They may require the keeper
to affix and keep undefaced and legible a notice with the words
"registered common lodging-house" in some conspicuous place on the
outside of the house, and may make by-laws fixing the number of lodgers,
for the separation of the sexes, for promoting cleanliness and
ventilation, for the giving of notices and the taking of precautions in
case of any infectious disease, and generally for the well ordering of
such houses. The keeper of a common lodging-house is required to
limewash the walls and ceilings twice a year--in April and October--and
to provide a proper water-supply. The whole of the house must be open at
all times to the inspection of any officer of a council. The county of
London (except the city) is under the Common Lodging Houses Acts 1851
and 1853, with the Sanitary Act 1866 and the Sanitary Law Amendment Act
1874. The administration of these acts was, from 1851 to 1894, in the
hands of the chief commissioner of police, when it was transferred to
the London County Council.

COMMON ORDER, BOOK OF, sometimes called _The Order of Geneva_ or _Knox's
Liturgy_, a directory for public worship in the Reformed Church in
Scotland. In 1557 the Scottish Protestant lords in council enjoined the
use of the English Common Prayer, i.e. the Second Book of Edward VI.
Meanwhile, at Frankfort, among British Protestant refugees, a
controversy was going on between the upholders of the English liturgy
and the French Reformed Order of Worship respectively. By way of
compromise John Knox and other ministers drew up a new liturgy based
upon earlier Continental Reformed Services, which was not deemed
satisfactory, but which on his removal to Geneva he published in 1556
for the use of the English congregations in that city. The Geneva book
made its way to Scotland, and was used here and there by Reformed
congregations. Knox's return in 1559 strengthened its position, and in
1562 the General Assembly enjoined the uniform use of it as the "Book of
Our Common Order