COM 



COM 



ftud down by Mr. Locke, will be conceiv- 

 ed from the following specimen, wherein 

 what is to be done in the book for all the 

 letters of the alphabet is here shewn in 

 the first four. 



The index of the common 'place book 

 being thus formed, it is ready for the tak- 

 ing down anything therein. 



In order to this, consider to what head 

 the thing you would enter is most na- 

 turally referred, and under which one 

 would be led to look for such a thing ; 

 in this head or word regard is to be had 

 to the initial letter, and the first vowel 

 that follows it ; which are the characteris- 

 tic letters whereon all the use of the in- 

 dex depends. 



Suppose, e, g. I would enter down a 

 passage that refers to the head beauty ; 

 B, 1 consider, is the initial letter, and e 

 the first vowel ; then looking upon the 

 index for the partition B, and therein 

 the line e ^which is the place for all 

 words whose initial is B, and the first 

 vowel e; as beauty, beneficence, bread, 

 bleeding, blemishes, &c.) and finding no 

 numbers already wrote to direct me to 

 any page of the book where words of 

 that characteristic have been entered, I 

 turn forward to the first blank page I 

 find, which, in afresh book, as this is sup- 

 posed to be, will be page 2, and here 

 write what I have occasion for on the 

 head beauty; beginning the head in the 

 margin, and indenting all the other sub- 



servient lines, that the head may stand out 

 and shew itself; this done, I enter the 

 page where ; t is wrote, viz. 3, in the space 

 B e: from which time the class B e be- 

 comes wholly in possession of the second 

 and third pages, which are consigned to 

 letters of this characteristic. 



Note. If the head be a monosyllable 

 beginning with a vowel, the vowel is at 

 the same time both the initial letter and 

 the characteristic vowel ; thus the word 

 Art is to be wrote in A a. Mr. Locke 

 omits three letters of the alphabet in his 

 index, viz. K, Y, and W, which are sup- 

 plied by C, I, and U, equivalent to them : 

 and as for Q, since it is always followed 

 by an u, he puts it in the first'place of Z : 

 and so has no Z u, which is a character- 

 istic that very rarely occurs. By thus 

 making Q the last of the index, its regu- 

 larity is preserved, without diminishing 

 its extent. Others choose to retain the 

 class Z w, and assign a place for Q u be- 

 low the index. 



If any imagine these hundred classes 

 are not sufficient to comprehend all 

 kinds of subjects without confusion, he 

 may follow the same method, and yet 

 augment the number to 500, by taking in 

 one more characteristic to them. 



But the inventor assures us, that in all 

 his collections, for a long series of years, 

 he never found any deficiency in the in- 

 dex as above laid down. 



COMMON Pleas is one of the King's 

 courts now held constantly in Westmin- 

 ster Hall, but in former times was movea- 

 ble. All civil causes, as well real as per- 

 sonal, are, or were formerly, tried in this 

 court, according to the strict law of the 

 land. In personal and mixed actions it 

 has a concurrent jurisdiction with the 

 King's Bench, but has no cognizance of 

 pleas of the crown. The actions belong- 

 ing to the Court of Common Pleas come 

 thither by original, as arrests and out- 

 lawries ; or by privilege or attachment 

 for or against privileged persons ; or out 

 of inferior courts, not of record, by pone, 

 recordari, accedas ad curiam, writ of 

 false judgment, &c. The chief judge of 

 this court is called Lord Chief Justice of 

 the Common Pleas, who is assisted by 

 three other judges : the other officers 

 of the court are, the custos brevium, who 

 is the chief clerk ; three prothonotaries 

 and their secondaries; the clerk of the 

 warrants, clerk of the essoins, fourteen 

 filazers, four exigentors, a clerk of the 

 juries, the chirographer, the clerk of the 

 King's silver, clerk of the treasury, clerk 

 of the seal, clerk of the outlawries, clerk 



