COM 



COM 



capsule tricoccous. One species, viz. 

 C. alterniflora, an annual, and a native of 

 Suratte. 



COMMA, among grammarians, a point 

 or character marked thus (,), serving to 

 denote a short stop, and to divide the 

 members of a period. 



COMMANDANT, in the army, is 

 that person who has the command of 

 a garrison, fort, castle, regiment, compa- 

 ny. &c. 



COMMANDER, in the navy, an officer 

 who has the command of a ship of war un- 

 der 20 guns, a sloop of war, armed ship, 

 or bomb- vessel. He is entitled Master 

 and Commander, and ranks with a Major 

 of the army. 



COMTTASTDER in Chief, is the chief 

 Admiral In any port, or on any sta- 

 tion, appointed to hold the command 

 over all other admirals within that juris- 

 diction. 



COMMELINA, in botany, so called in 

 honour of John and Casper Comelins, 

 two famous Dutch botanists, a genus of 

 the Triandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Ensatae. Junci, Jussieu. 

 Essential character : corolla six-petalled ; 

 nectaries three, cross-shaped, pedicelled. 

 There are twelve species, natives of warm 

 climates. 



COMMENDAM, in the ecclesiastical 

 law, the trust or administration of the 

 revenues of a benefice, given either to a 

 layman to hold, by way of depositum, 

 for six months, in order to repairs, &c. 

 or to an ecclesiastic, or beneficed person, 

 to perform the pastoral duties thereof, 

 till once the benefice is provided with a 

 regular incumbent. 



Commendams were formerly a very lau- 

 dable institution: for when an elective be- 

 nefice became vacant, for which the ordi- 

 nary could not, for some reason, immedi- 

 ately provide, the care of it was recom- 

 mended to some man of merit, who took 

 upon him the direction of it till the vacan- 

 cy was filled up, but enjoyed none of the 

 profits. 



At length it became a maxim among 

 the canonists, that a clerk might hold two 

 benefices, the one titular, and the other in 

 commendam : yet still the commendam 

 was to continue only till other provisions 

 were made ; and afterwards they began 

 to be given for a determinate time. 



COMMENSURABLE, among geome- 

 tricians, an appellation given to such quan- 

 tities as are measured by one and the same 

 common measure. 



COMMENSURABLE 7zum6er5,.whether inte- 

 gers or fractions, are such as can be mea- 



sured or divided by some other number, 

 without any remainder : such are 12 and 

 18, as bemg measured by 6 or 3. 



COMMERCE, the exchange of the na- 

 tural or artificial productions of a country 

 for those of another, either by barter or by 

 representative signs of their value : the 

 most general representative of the value 

 of other commodities being coin or bullion, 

 the profits of commerce are frequently es- 

 timated by the quantity of money it brings 

 into a country ; but a very beneficial fo- 

 reign trade muy be carried on without any 

 balance being payable in money, or the 

 balance may be absorbed by payments on 

 other accounts. The commerce of Great 

 Britain has long been in a very flourish- 

 ing state, and has become of unparalleled 

 extent, but the quantity of coin and bul- 

 lion in the country has not increased in 

 any considerable degree. 



Commerce, in a general point of view, 

 is usually distinguished into two kinds, 

 the commerce of import and of export ; 

 but there is little reason for this distinc- 

 tion, for whatever a nation imports, it 

 must have paid an equivalent for to the 

 country of which it is purchased, and 

 consequently the two branches are inti- 

 mately dependent, and could not exist 

 separately for any considerable period. 



The value obtained in foreign markets, 

 for the goods or manufactures which a 

 nation exports, repays the labour of pro- 

 curing or manufacturing them, with a 

 profit to the master manufacturer and to 

 the exporting merchant ; and this value 

 being invested in foreign produce, which 

 on importation affords a further profit to 

 the merchant, it is evident that the trans- 

 action, while it supports individuals, 

 makes a real addition to the wealth of the 

 country, by the greater value of the re- 

 turns imported beyond that of the goods 

 exported. Commerce, therefore, while it 

 is the means of procuring a mutual inter- 

 change of conveniencies between distant 

 countries, and of extending knowledge 

 and civilization over every part of the 

 globe, contributes essentially to the 

 strength and influence of the countries 

 by which it is encouraged. 



Superficial views on subjects of politi- 

 cal economy have inclined princes and 

 statesmen to the opinions, that wealth 

 consisted principally in gold and silver, 

 and that those metals could be brought 

 into a country which had no mines only 

 by the balance of trade, or by exporting 

 to a greater value than it imported ; com- 

 merce has therefore experienced public 

 encouragement, and, agreeable to the 



