C O M 



34 



C O M 



Common 

 Law 



II 

 Como. 



tioiT. TliuSj in England, Glanvil, Fleta, Littleton, and 

 even so late a writer as Sir Edward Coke, are regarded 

 as oracles of the common law. However, the authority 

 of such writers depends chiefly upon the belief, that 

 they are the faithful reporters of cases which, either by 

 reason of their antiquity, or other causes of an acciden- 

 tal nature, are not now to be found upon record ; and 

 that they speak correctly the language of the maxims, 

 customs, and usages of the times to which they several- 

 ly relate. 



In most countries of modern Europe, the civil and 

 canon laws constitute likewise, more or less, a part 

 of the common law. " But," as remarked by Black- 

 stone, " all the strength which these laws have obtain- 

 ed in England, or in any of the other kingdoms of 

 Europe, is only because they have been admitted and 

 received by immemorial usage and custom in some par- 

 ticular cases, and some particular courts ; and then they 

 form a branch of the leges non scriplce, or customary 

 laws ; or else, because they are in some other cases in- 

 troduced by consent of parliament, and then they owe 

 their validity to the leges scriptce, or statute law." 



In Scotland, the words common law, appear to have 

 been sometimes used as synonymous with the civil or 

 Roman law. Thus in statute 1540, c. 69 ; 1585, c. 18; 

 1587, c. 31, they are so used; and sometimes they em- 

 ploy the civil and canon law together : as in 1 540, c. 

 80, and 1551, c. 22. It by no means follows, however, 

 that either of these bodies of foreign law ever constitu- 

 ted, indiscriminately, and of their own proper authori- 

 ty, the common law of the country. On the contrary, 

 when the common law proper to the country is meant, 

 the statutory phrase is, the common laws of this realm, 

 as in statute 1503, c. 79, and 1584, c. 131, where the 

 ancient maxims and usages of Scotland, whether origi- 

 nating in the Roman, the canon, or the feudal institu- 

 tions, or in whatever other source, are understood. So 

 that, in the former instances, the phrase seems to re- 

 solve into a mere inaccuracy of expression, (j. b.) 



COMMONS. See Parliament. 



COMMONWEALTH. See Britain. 



COMNENA Anna. See Anna Comnena. 



COMO, Comum, or Novocomum, is a town of Italy, 

 and capital of the department of Lario, beautifully si- 

 tuated on the southern extremity of the Larian Lake, 

 or the Lake of Como. Excepting towards the lake, it is 

 surrounded on all sides with fertile hills, and stands at 

 the bottom of three green and wooded conical emi- 

 nences, the middle one of which is crowned with a crest- 

 ed castle, stretching its ramparts dcwn the declivity. 



The houses are chiefly built of stone, and the public 

 edifices are magnificent. The cathedral, which was re- 

 paired at the expence of Innocent XI. is of a mixed 

 style of architecture, and is constructed of white mar- 

 ble. The front is in a light Gothic style ; the nave is 

 supported by Gothic arches; the choir and transepts 

 are adorned with composite pillars ; and the whole is 

 mrmounted with a dome over the centre. There is a 

 statue of Pliny the Younger, who was born in Como, 

 placed in a niche in the front of the cathedral, with 

 basso relievos, alluding to his writings, and inscriptions 

 in his honour on each side of the grand entrance. Be- 

 sides the cathedral, there are about 12 other churches, 

 seme of which are ornamental to the town. That of 

 St Giovanni is decorated with several columns, which are 

 supposed to have been taken from a portico which Pliny- 

 mentions as having been built by his wife's grandfather 

 Fabatus. There are likewise in Como three colleges of 

 considerable reputation, and three public libraries. 



Como is a town of great antiquity, and appears to Conro, 

 have been founded by a colony of Gauls under Brennus. S *T"~' 

 Its importance was increased by a colony of 500 

 Greeks, all of whom were persons of quality, who 

 were carried there by Julius Caesar. In the time of 

 Pliny it appears to have been a flourishing and opulent 

 city, surrounded with large and magnificent villas, and 

 decorated with temples, statues, porticoes, and pillared 

 gates. 



The inhabitants are very industrious, and have the 

 character of making good soldiers. Several manufac- 

 tures of cotton, silk, and velvet, are established in the 

 town, and a small trade is carried on with the Grisons. 

 Mr Eustace, who visited this town in 1 802, makes the 

 population 20,000, whereas Tynna, in his Almanack du 

 Commerce, pour 1811, where the population of French 

 towns is generally exaggerated, makes it only 7000. 

 East. Long. 9° 5' 41", North. Lat. 45° 48' 22". See the 

 Rev. John Chetwode Eustace's Classical Tour through 

 Italy, vol. ii. p. 363, &c. Lond. 1813; Viaggio ai tre 

 Laghi Maggiore, di Lugano, e di Como, 8fc. di Carlo 

 Amoretti. Milan, 1803; and Tableau Historique Sla- 

 tistique et Morale de la Haute Italie, par Ch. Denina, 

 p. 248, 388. Paris 1805. (*•) 



COMO, Lake of, the Lacns Larius of the ancients, 

 is a lake of Italy, which stretches between two chains of 

 mountains at the foot of the Alps. It is about fifty miles 

 long, from three to six broad, and from 40 to 600 feet 

 deep. It is of a serpentine form, and has its banks in- 

 dented with numerous creeks and harbours. It is sub- 

 ject to sudden squalls, and to violent and unexpected 

 swells. The lower regions of the mountains with which 

 the lake is encircled, are covered with olives> vines, and 

 orchards : the middle regions are encircled with groves 

 of lofty chesnuts, and the higher regions are either 

 downs or forests of pine and fir, the most elevated 

 ridges being either naked or crowned with perpetual 

 snow. " Their sides," says Mr Eustace, " are seldom 

 formed of one continued steep, but usually interrupted 

 by fields and levels, extending sometimes into wide 

 plains, which supply abundant space for every kind of 

 cultivation. These fertile plains are generally at one 

 third, and sometimes at two-thirds of the total eleva- 

 tion. On or near these levels are most of the towns 

 and villages that so beautifully diversify the sides of the 

 mountains. Various mines of iron, lead, and copper, 

 are now, as they were anciently, spread over the sur- 

 face of the Larian territory, and daily opened in the 

 bowels of its mountains ; besides quarries of beautiful : 

 marble, which supply Milan and all the neighbouring 

 cities with the materials and ornaments of their most 

 magnificent churches." 



At a village called Pliniana is the intermittent foun- 

 tain, so minutely described by Pliny. It bursts from a 

 rock in a small court behind the house, and increases 

 and decreases thrice every day, although the ebb and 

 flow are sometimes irregular. 



The principal places worthy of being noticed by a 

 traveller are, the little wooded island of St Giovanni, 

 the villages of Balbiano, Lenna, and Villa, the last of 

 which is supposed to be the site of Pliny's villa; the 

 promontory and village of Bellagio, the village of Ca* 

 denabbia, which should be the head quarters of a tra- 

 veller who wishes to explore the lake ; Bellano on the 

 opposite side of the lake ; the cavern of L'Orrido ; the 

 village of Capriano, supposed by some to be the real 

 situation of Pliny's lower villa, the stream and cascade of 

 Latte, and Menaggio from which there is a full view 

 of the lake from Bellagio to Garedona and Doma?©. 



