Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

234

COMMUNE PLACITUM

COMMON WEAL

rather than the privileges of a class or the will of a monarch; or it may designate the body of citizens living under such a govern ment. Sometimes it may denote the corpo rate entity, or the government, of a jural so ciety (or state) possessing powers of self-gov ernment in respect of its immediate concerns, but forming an integral part of a larger gov ernment, (or nation.) In this latter sense, it is the official title of seveial of the United States, (as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts,) and would be appropriate to them all. In the former sense, the word was used to designate the English government during the protect orate of Cromwell. See GOVERNMENT; NA TION; STATE. COMMORANCY. The dwelling in any place as an inhabitant; which consists in usually lying there. 4 Bl. Comm. 273. In American law it is used to denote a mere temporary residence. 19 Pick. 247, 248. COMMORANT. Staying or abiding; dwelling temporarily in a place. COMMORIENTES. Several persons who perish at the same time in consequence of the same calamity. COMMORTH, or COMORTH. A con tribution which was gathered at marriages, and when young priests said or sung the first masses. Prohibited by 26 Hen. VIII. c. 6. Cowell. COMMOTE. Half a cantred or hundred in Wales, containing fifty villages. Also a great seignory or lordship, and may include one or divers manors. Co. Litt. 5. COMMUNE. A self-governing town oi village. The name given to the committee of the people in the French revolution of 1793; and again, in the revolutionary upris ing of 1871, it signified the attempt to estab lish absolute self-government in Paris, or the mass of those concerned in the attempt. In old French law, it signified any municipal cor poration. And in old English law, the com monalty or common people. COMMUNE CONCILIUM REGNI. The common council of the realm. One of the names of the English parliament. COMMUNE FORUM. The common place of justice. The seat of the principal courts, especially those that are fixed. COMMUNE FLACITUM. In old En. glish law. A common plea or civil action, such as an action of debt.

COMMON WEAL. The public or com mon good or welfare. COMMONABLE. Entitled to common. Commonable beasts are either beasts of the plow, as horses and oxen, or such as ma nure the land, as kine and sheep. Beasts not commonable are swine, goats, and the like. Co. Litt. 122a; 2 Bl. Comm. 33. COMMONAGE. In oid deeds. The right of common. See COMMON. COMMONALTY. In English, law. The great body of citizens; the mass of the people, excluding the nobility. In American law. The body of people composing a municipal corporation, exclud ing the corporate officers. COMMONANCE. The commoners, or tenants and inhabitants, who have the right of common or commoning in open field. Cowell. COMMONERS. In English law. Per sons having a right of common. So called because they have a right to pasture on the waste, in common with the lord. 2 H. Bl. 389. COMMONS. 1. The class of subjects in Great Britain exclusive of the royal iamily and the nobility. They are represented in parliament by the house of commons. 2. Part of the demesne land of a manor, (or land the property of which was in the lord,) which, being uncultivated, was termed the "lord's waste," and served for public roads and for common of pasture to the lord and his tenants. 2 Bl. Comm. 90. COMMONS HOUSE OP PARLIA MENT. In the English parliament. The lower house, so called because the commons of the realm, that is, the knights, citizens, and burgesses returned to parliament, repre senting the whole body of the commons, sit there. COMMONTY. In Scotch law. Land possessed in common by different proprietors, or by those having acquired rights of servi tude. Bell. COMMONWEALTH. The public or common weal or welfare. This cannot be regarded as a technical term of public law, though often used in political science. It gen erally designates, when so employed, a re publican frame of government,— one in which the welfare and rights of the entire mass of people are the mam consideration,

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