COM 



COM 



COMMITMENT discharged. A person 

 legally committed, for a crime, certainly 

 appearing 1 to have been done by some per- 

 son or other, cannot be lawfully discharg- 

 ed but by the king 1 , till he be acquitted 

 upon his trial, or have an ignoramus 

 found by the grand jury, or none shall 

 prosecute him, on a proclamation for that 

 purpose by the justices of gaol delivery. 



COMMITTEE of Parliament, a certain 

 number of members appointed by the 

 House for the examination of a bill, mak- 

 ing report of an inquiry, process of the 

 house, &c. When a parliament is called, 

 and the speaker and members have taken 

 the oaths, there are committees appointed 

 to sit on certain days, viz. the commit- 

 tee of privileges and elections, of re- 

 ligion, of trade, &c. which are standing 

 committees. Sometimes the whole House 

 resolves itself into a committee, on which 

 occasion each person has a right to speak 

 and reply as often as he pleases, which is 

 not the case when a house is not in a 

 committee. 



COMMODORE, in maritime affairs, an 

 officer of the British navy, commissioned 

 by the Lords of the Admiralty, or by an ad- 

 miral, to command a squadron of men of 

 war in chief; during which time he bears 

 the rank of brigadier-general in the army, 

 and is distinguished from the inferior 

 ships of his squadron by a broad red 

 flag, or pendant, tapering towards the 

 outer end, and sometimes forked. The 

 title Commodore is given by courtesy to 

 the senior captain, where three or more 

 ships of war are cruizing in com- 

 pany. The word is also used to denote 

 the convoy ship in a fleet of merchant- 

 men, who carries a light in his top, to 

 conduct the rest, and keep them toge- 

 ther. 



COMMON, is a right of privilege which 

 one or more persons claim to take or 

 use, in some part or portion of that, which 

 another man's lands, waters, woods, 8tc. 

 naturally produce, without having an ab- 

 solute property in such lands, woods, 

 waters, &c. 



COMMOX latv, that body of rules re- 

 ceived as law in England, before any sta- 

 tute was enacted in parliament to alter 

 the same. 



The common law is grounded upon the 

 general customs of the realm, including 

 the law of nature, the law of God, and 

 the principles and maxims of law ; it is 

 also founded on reason, as said to be the 

 perfection of reason, acquired by long 

 study, observation, and experience, and 

 refined by the learned in all ages. It may 



likewise be said to be the common birth- 

 righ t that the subject has for the safeguard 

 and defence not only of his goods, lands, 

 and revenues, but of his wife, children, 

 life, fame, &c. Our common law, it is 

 said, after the heptarchy, was collected 

 together into a body by divers of our an- 

 cient kings, who commanded that it 

 should be observed through the king- 

 dom ; and it was therefore called common 

 law, because it was common to the whole 

 nation, and before only affected certain 

 parts thereof, being anciently called the 

 sole right, that is the right of the peo- 

 ple. 



The common law of England is, pro- 

 perly, the common customs of this king- 

 dom ; which, by length of time, have ob- 

 tained the force of laws. The goodness 

 of a custom depends upon its having been 

 used time out of mind; or, in the solem- 

 nity of our legal phrase, time whereof 

 the memory of man runneth not to the 

 contrary ; This gives it its weight and au- 

 thority ; and of this nature are the maxims 

 and customs which compose the common 

 law, or lex non scripta, of this kingdom. 

 This unwritten, or common law, is 

 properly distinguished into three kinds : 

 1. General customs, which are the uni- 

 versal rule of the whole kingdom, and 

 form the common law in its stricter and 

 more useful signification. 2. Particular 

 customs, which, for the most part, affect 

 only the inhabitants of particular dis- 

 tricts. 3. Certain particular laws, which 

 by custom are adopted and used by some 

 particular courts of pretty general and 

 extensive jurisdiction. 



COMMON place book, among the learn- 

 ed, denotes a register of what things oc- 

 cur worthy to be noted in the course of a 

 man's study, so disposed as that, among 

 a number of subjects, any one may be 

 easily found. Several persons have their 

 several methods of ordering them; but 

 that which is best recommended is Mr. 

 Locke's method, which he has published 

 in a letter to Mr. Toisnard, determined 

 thereto by the great conveniency and ad- 

 vantage he had found from it in twenty 

 years experience. The substance of this 

 method is as follows : 



The first page of the book, or, for more 

 room, the two first pages fronting each 

 other, are to serve for a kind of index to 

 the whole, and contain referencesto every- 

 place or matter therein ; in the commodi- 

 ous contrivance of this, so as it may ad- 

 mit of a sufficient variety of materials, 

 without confusion, all the si-crev of the 

 method consists. The manner of it, as 



