COM 
ftTcii'y oi(e ot‘ whom has a voice in pariia- 
tnent, eitlier personally, or by his represen- 
tatives. In a free state, says judge Black- 
stone, evei-y man, who is supposed a free 
agent, ought to be in some measure his own 
governor ; and, therefore, a branch, at 
least, of the legislative power should reside 
in the whole body of the people. In so 
large a state as GUI's, it is therefore wisely 
contrived, that the people should do that 
by their representatives, which it is imprac- 
ticable to perform in person; representa- 
tives chosen by a number of minute and 
separate districts, wherein all the voters 
are, or easily may be, distinguished. 
Commons, in parliament, are the lower 
housCj consisting of knights elected by the 
counties, and of citizens and burgesses by 
the cities and borough towns. In tliese 
elections, anciently, all the people had 
votes ; but in the 8th and 10th of King 
Henry VI. for avoiding tumults, laws were 
enacted, that none should vote for knights 
but such as were freeholders, did reside in 
the county, and had forty shillings yearly 
revenue ; equivalent to near 201. a year of 
our present money; the persons elected 
for counties to be milites notabiles, at least 
esquires, or gentlemen fit for knight-hood ; 
native Englishmen, at least naturalized ; 
and twenty-one years of age : no judge, 
sheriff, or ecclesiastical peraon, to sit in the 
House for county, city, or borough. 
The House of Commons, in Fortescue’s 
time, who wrote during the reign of Henry 
VI. consisted of upwards of 300 members : 
in Sir Edward Coke’s time their number 
amounted to 493. At the time of the union 
with Scotland, in 1707, there were 513 
members for England and Wales, to which 
45 representatives for Scotland were ad- 
ded ; so that the whole number of members 
amounted to 558. In consequence of the 
union with Ireland in 1801, 100 members 
were added for that country ; and the whole 
House of Commons now consists of 658 
members. 
Commons, Doctors. See College of 
Civilians. 
■ COMMUNIBUS locis, a I.^tin term fre- 
quently used by philosophical writers, im- 
plying some medium or common relation 
between several places. Thus Dr. Keil 
supposes the ocean to be one quarter of 
a mile deep commwiihus locis, that is at a 
•medium, or taking one place with another. 
CoMMi'NiBus annis has the same mean- 
ing witli regard to time, that communibiis 
heis has with regard to places. 
COM 
COMMUNICATION of motion, the act 
■wherel)y a body at rest is put into motion 
by a moving body ; or, it is the acceleration 
of motion in a body already moving. See 
Mechanics. 
COMMUTATION, in law, the change 
of a penalty or punisinnent from a greater 
to a less ; as when death is commuted for 
banishment, &c. 
COMOCLADIA, in botany, a genus of 
the Triandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Terebintaceae, Jussieu. 
Essential character : calyx three-parted ; 
corolla three-parted ; drupe oblong, with a 
two-lobed nucleus. There are three spe- 
cies, natives of the West Indies. 
COMPANY, in commerce, an associa- 
tion formed for carrying on some branch 
of trade which requires a greater capital 
than private traders can usually command, 
or which is liable to engagements to which 
individual responsibility Is deemed inade- 
quate. In the infancy of commerce, al- 
most every branch of foreign trade was 
carried on by a particular company, which 
generally possessed exclusive privileges ; 
and such institutions were then necessary 
and beneticial ; but in modern times, when 
individuals have accumulated larger capi- 
tals, and the improvement of navigation 
facilitated commercial intercourse with all 
parts of the world, and the general practice 
of insurance reduced the risk of foreign 
voyages to a regular addition to the cost 
of commodities, there are very few branches 
of foreign trade which cannot be more ad- 
vantageously carried on by individuals, or 
private co-partnerships, than by public com- ' 
panies. 
When companies do not trade upon a 
common stock, but are obliged to admit 
any person properly qualified upon paying 
a certain fine, and agreeing to submit to 
the regulations of the company, each mem- 
ber trading upon his own stock, and at his 
own risk, tliey -are called regulated compa- 
nies. When they trade upon a joint stock, 
each member sharing in the common profit 
or loss in proportion to his share in this 
stock, they are called joint stock compa- 
nies. The regulated companies for foreign 
trade, which at present subsist in Great 
Britain, are the African Company, the 
'furkey, or Levant Company, the Russia 
Company, and the Eastland Company; they 
have, however, little more than a nominal 
existence, as any person may freely trade 
to these parts without being a member of 
•any company, on paying a very small addi- 
