COMMUNIS, something that belongs to all alike; is owned or allowed by all; and not confined to this more than that. In this sense, common stands opposed to proper, peculiar, &c. Thus, the earth is said to be our common mother; in the first or golden age all things were in common, as well as the sun and elements: the name animal is common to man and beast; that of substance to body and spirit.

Communia, (i.e. quod ad omnes pertinet), in law, signifies that soil, the use whereof is common to a particular town or lordship; or it is a profit that a man hath in the land of another person, usually in common with others; or a right which a person hath to put his cattle to pasture into ground that is not his own. And there is not only common of pasture, but also common of pifcary, common of eftovers, common of turbary, &c. And in all cases of common, the law much respects the custom of the place; for there the rule is, consuetudo loci est observanda. See COMMONY.

COMMON Council. See COUNCIL.

COMMON Law, that body of law received as rules in parliament to alter the same. See LAW, Part II. No. 36.

COMMON-Place Book, is a register of what things occur, worthy to be noted, in the course of a man's thinking or study, so disposed as that among a number of subjects any one may be easily found. The advantages of making a common-place book are many: it not only makes a man read with accuracy and attention, but induces him intensively to think for himself, provided he considers it not so much as a register of sentiments that strike him in the course of reading, but as a register of his own thoughts upon various subjects. Many valuable thoughts occur even to men of no extraordinary genius. These, without the assistance of a common-place book, are generally lost both to himself and others. There are various methods of arranging common-place books; that of Mr Locke is as good as any that have hitherto been contrived.

The first page of the book you intend to take down their common-place in, is to serve as a kind of index to the whole, and to contain references to every place or matter therein: in the commodious contrivance of which index, so as it may admit of a sufficient copia or variety of materials, without any confusion, all the secret of the method consists.

In order to this, the first page, as already mentioned, or for more room, the two first pages that front each other, are to be divided by parallel lines into 25 equal parts; whereof every fifth line is to be distinguished by its colour or other circumstance. These lines are to be cut perpendicularly by others, drawn from top to bottom: and in the several spaces thereof the several letters of the alphabet, both capital and minuscule, are to be duly written.

The form of the lines and divisions, both horizontal and perpendicular, with the manner of writing the letters therein, will be conceived from the following specimen; wherein, what is to be done in the book for all the letters of the alphabet, is here shown in the first four, A, B, C, and D. The index to the common-place book thus formed, matters are ready for the taking down any thing therein.

In order to this, consider to what head the thing you would enter is most naturally referred; and under which one would be led to look for such a thing; in this head, or word, regard is had to the initial letter, and the first vowel that follows it; which are the characteristic letters whereon all the use of the index depends.

Suppose (e.g.) I would enter down a passage that refers to the head beauty. B, I 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 first letter is b, and the first vowel e; as beauty, beneficence, breed, breeding, blemisher), and finding no numbers already down to direct me to any page of the book where words of this characteristic have been entered, I turn forward to the first blank page I find (which, in a fresh book, as this is supposed to be, will be page 2d); and here write what I have occasion for on the head beauty; beginning the head in the margin, and indenting all the other subervient lines, that the head may stand out, and show itself; this done, I enter the page where it is written, viz. 2. in the index in the space Be; from which time the clas be becomes wholly in possession of the 2d and 3d pages, which are consigned to letters of this characteristic.

Had I found any page or number already entered in the space Be, I must have turned to the page, and have written my matter in what room was left therein: so, if after entering the passage on beauty, I should have occasion for benevolence, or the like, finding the number 2 already possessed of the space of this characteristic, I begin the passage on benevolence in the remainder of the page; which not containing the whole, I carry it on to page 3d, which is also for be; and add the number 3 in the index.

Common Pleas is one of the king's courts now held constantly in Westminster-hall, but in former times was moveable.

All civil causes, as well real as personal, 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 belonging to the court of common-pleas come thither by original, as arrests and outlawries; 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 effoins, 14 filazers, 4 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 of the enrolment of fines and recoveries, and clerk of the errors.

Common Prayer is the liturgy in the church of England; (See Liturgy.) Clergymen are to use the public form of prayers prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer: and refusing to do so, or using any other public prayers, are punishable by stat. i Eliz. c. ii.

Grammar, denotes the gender of nouns which are equally applicable to both sexes; thus parents, "a parent," is of the common gender.

Geometry, is applied to an angle, line, or the like, which belongs equally to two figures.

Common Divisor, a quantity or number which exactly divides two or more other quantities or numbers, without leaving any remainder.