2.  Notice  of  Corporate  Meetings  at  Common  Law  and  under  the
English  Municipal  Corporations  Act  —  sees.  262-265.
3.  New  England  Town  Meetings ;  Requisites  of  Notice  and  Power
of  Adjournment —  sees.  266-269.
4.  Constitution  and  Meetings  of  Councils,  or  of  Select  Governing
Bodies,  and  herein  of  Quorums  and  Majorities ;  of  Integral  Parts ;
and  of  Stated,  Special,  and  Adjourned  Meetings  —  sees.  270-287.
5.  Mode  of  Proceeding  when  convened  —  sees.  288-292.
§  258  (196).  Common-Law  Requisites  of  a  Valid  Corporate
Meeting.  —  As  respects  their  mode  of  action,  municipal  corporations
in  this  country  are  of  two  general  classes.  In  the  one,  as  in  the
organization  of  towns  in  the  New  England  States,  heretofore  adverted
to,  all  of  the  qualified  inhabitants  meet,  act,  and  vote,  in  person}
In  the  other,  which  is  the  kind  that  prevails  generally  throughout
the  States,  and  even  in  many  of  the  larger  places  in  New  Englaud,
the  affairs  of  the  town  or  city  are  administered  by  a  select  or  repre-
sentative body,  usually  denominated  the  council,  and  which  is  elected
by  the  qualified  voters  of  the  incorporated  place,  not  assembled  to-
gether in  a  meeting,  but  at  an  election,  where  each  elector  votes
separately  and  by  ballot.2

§  259  (197).  Corporate  Meetings.  —  The  latter  class  of  corpo-
rations is  properly  municipal.  The  former  class  is  not  so  strictly
municipal  as  it  is  public  in  its  character.3  Where  there  is  a  council
or  governing  body,  the  inhabitants  or  voters,  in  their  natural  capacity,
have  no  power  to  act  for  or  to  bind  the  corporation,  but  the  corpora-

1  Ante,  chap.  ii.  sec.  28.  8  Ante,   chap.  i.  sec.  9;  chap.  ii.  sees.
2  Ante,  chap.  ii.  sec.  28  et  seq.;  chap.     22,  23,  and  note.
ix.  sec.  194  et  seq.
