COMFREY-COMINES. atmosphere. 2. Though the thickness of the tail of a C. may be millions of miles, and its length of course much greater, the comets have never been observed to cause any sensible disturbance of the planetary motions, though approaching near enough to be themselves so much affected as to change the entire character of the orbit. 3. The curvature of the tails, and the acceleration of the periodic time, in the case of Encke's C., indicate their being affected by a resisting medium, which has never been observed to have the slightest influence on the planetary periods, though so long observed. Even the nuclei of comets appear to be of extremely small density. This may be inferred, though with less force than regards the tails, from the two last considerations above mentioned; and, moreover, there are reliable accounts of stars of a very low order of magnitude being seen through the nuclei themselves. Comets have been alternately regarded with terror and with welcome in the popular mind. The appearance of Halley's C., in 1456, just as the Turks had become masters of Constantinople, and threatened an advance into Europe, was regarded by Christendom with a superstitious dread, and to the Ave Maria was added the prayer: Lord save us from the devil, the Turk, and the comet.' At Constantinople, the occurrence of a lunar eclipse at the same time, increased the portentousness of the event. The discoveries of science of the magnitude of the space filled by their bodies, and their prodigious velocity, together with the confessed impossibility of always predicting their approach, produced fears of another kind, which have sometimes been, especially in France, extravagantly exaggerated in the public mind. The groundlessness of such alarms, from the extreme improbability of collision with the nucleus, the probable innocuousness of a contact advertised as the C. wines. It is scarcely worth while, however, to follow further speculation on these subjects, and it has been considered preferable to confine this article chiefly to the description of the general characteristics of comets, and the facts respecting them afforded by science. COMFREY (Symphytum), a genus of plants of the natural order Boraginea, distinguished by a 5-cleft or 5-partite calyx, and a corolla enlarged upwards, its throat closed by awlshaped scales. The species, which are not numerous, are natives of Europe and the north of Asia. They are perennial plants of coarse appearance, although occasionally to be seen in flower-borders. S. officinale (the CoмMON C.) and S. tuberosum are natives of Britain, frequent in shady and moist places. S. officinale was formerly much esteemed as a vulnerary, on account of its astringency. Its young leaves and its blanched shoots are also occasionally used as boiled vegetables. The Prickly C. (S. asperrimum), a native of Siberia, 6-10 feet in height, has been highly recommended for feeding cattle. Common Comfrey. COMINES, or COMYNES, PHILIPPE DE, Sieur d'Argenton, a French statesman, and the author of some very interesting and valuable Memoirs, was born at the castle of Comines, not far from Lille, in 1445. After receiving a careful education, he passed into the court of Burgundy about 1466, and attached himself particularly to Charles the Bold (then Comte de Charolais). In 1472, C., who was anything but punctilious in his notions of honour, entered the service of Louis XI, the rival and enemy of Charles, who immediately covered him with honours, and made him one of his most confidential advisers. He proved himself a very suitable agent for carrying out the designs of the crafty monarch; but after the death of Louis, by his adherence to the party of the Duke of Orleans, C. incurred the displeasure of the government of Anne of Beaujeu, and was sentenced to a forfeiture of a fourth of his estates and to ten years' banishment. This punishment, however, does not seem to have been carried out, for after a few years we find C. again employed in important affairs of diplomacy. Though engaged in the service of Charles VIII. and the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis XII., C. failed to win the confidence of these masters. He died at his castle of Argenton, October 17, 1509. C.'s Memoirs are admirably written, and afford abundant proof that he possessed a clear, acute, and vigorous mind. He seems to have looked keenly into the heart of every man who crossed him in life, and with cool, severe anatomy, dissects him for the benefit of Appearance of Halley's Comet at Constantinople in 1456. with the extremely attenuated surrounding matter, and, possibly, to the greater part of the world, of a collision with the nucleus itself, will be sufficiently evident from what has been said above. It is probable that already, on many occasions, some of the attenuated vapour in the tail of comets must have come within the earth's attraction, and been absorbed in its atmosphere. Whether the effect is deleterious or salubrious, or whether it has any perceptible influence at all, is only matter of speculation. The salubrity of cometary influence is now a popular idea; and the vintages of 1811 and 1858 were favourable seasons, whose produce is often COMISO-COMMANDITE. posterity. The best edition of his Memoirs was edited by Mdlle. Dupont (3 vols., Par. 1840-47). COMI'SO, a town of Sicily, in the province of Syracuse, about 40 miles west-south-west of the city of that name. It has paper manufactures, and a population of 20,000. varieties do not exist. The term syntonic comes from the Greek, and means equal-sounding. COMMANDA'NT, in Military matters, is a temporary commander, in place of the real chief; such as a captain-commandant, lieutenant-commandant, &c. In foreign armies, the designation is more frequently applied than in the British, especially to the commanders of garrisons. COMITIA (Lat. cum, with or together, and ire, to go) were the legal or constitutional meetings of the Roman people, convened by a magistrate, for the COMMA'NDER, in the British Navy, is an officer purpose of putting a question to the vote. This next under a captain in rank, and serves either as definition at least comprehends all the C., except second in command in a large ship, or in independent the C. Calata, where the people were merely present command of a vessel smaller than the sixth rate. In as spectators. There were several kinds of C. (C. matters of etiquette, he ranks with a lieutenantcenturiata, C. tributa, &c.) held for different pur- colonel in the army. There were, in 1873, 155 poses; and according to the mode of constituting commanders in commission, with pay of £1 per day; the C., the preponderance lay with the patricians or while there were 154 on half-pay, but eligible for rewith the plebeians. employment, and 326 on retired half-pay; but the CO'MITY OF NATIONS-more frequently whole list of those employed, or eligible for employmentioned by its Latin equivalent, comitas gentium ment, is to be reduced to 200. In 1880 there were -is that species of international legal courtesy by 140 commanders in commission, and 146 staffwhich the laws and institutions of one country are commanders and navigating-lieutenants. 6 Retire recognised and given effect to by those of another.ment is optional at the age of 45; and compulsory In the silence of any positive rule,' says Mr Justice at 50, or after 5 years without employment. Story, 'affirming, or denying, or restraining the COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF is the highest staff operation of foreign laws, courts of justice presume appointment in the British army. It is held by the the tacit adoption of them by their own government, general commanding all the forces in India, and unless they are repugnant to its policy or prejudicial would probably be given to the leader of any large to its interests. From the existence of so great a army in the field, whether abroad or at home. number of independent states on the continent of Formerly, the army at home was administered by an Europe, and of federated states in America, the officer of this rank; but since the death of the Duke comitas gentium is more called into play in these of Wellington in 1852, the military administration countries than in our own, and it has consequently has vested in an officer holding no higher commission been more extensively discussed by their legal writers. See Story's Conflict of Laws. See INTERNATIONAL LAW. CO'MMA, in the mathematical study of sound, is applied to two small intervals, which, by comparison and calculation, arise as the difference between the proportions of certain other intervals of the diatonic scale. The larger, but seldomer occurring C. is called the C. ditonicum, or the Pythagorean C., being the difference between the true octave, whose ratio is 2:1, and the interval which arises when the octave is obtained by tuning a progression of twelve perfect fifths, or arithmetically by adding their values together; by which process it is found that the last sound is greater than the true octave in the proportion of 531,441 to 524,288. The smaller C., C. syntonum, or C. of Didymus, is-First, the difference between the large whole tone, the ratio of which is 9:8, and the small whole tone 9: 10, which is found in the compound of these ratios produced by multiplying together respectively their antecedents, 9 and 9, and their consequents, 8 and 10, to be 81: 80. Second, The difference between the great limma, 27: 25, and the great half-tone, 15: 16, which is found by the same process, and then reducing the resulting ratio to its least terms, to be also 81: 80. Third, The difference between the diesis, 128: 125, and the diaschisma, 2048: 2025, which by the same process gives 81: 80; and lastly, the difference between the small limma, 135: 128, and the small half-tone, 24: 25, which again gives the proportions 81 80. The difference between the C. ditonicum and the C.syntonum is exactly the schisma; therefore, the aggregate of the diaschisma and schisma, if they be added together, is neither more nor less than the syntonic comma. This C., again added to the diaschisma, makes up the diesis, and added to the great half-tone, makes up the great limma. It follows therefore that, practically, two enharmonic tones in perfect tune never differ by a syntonic C., and it is wrong to say that d flat is higher than c sharp by a C., while the real difference is that of a diesis, 128: 125. In the equal-tempered scale, these than that of 'General on the Staff;" who is called The A naval C. is the chief admiral at any port or station. COMMANDITE, SOCIÉTÉ EN, or PARTNERSHIP IN, an expression used for at least two centuries in France, to express a partnership in which one may advance capital without taking charge of the business, or may become a 'sleeping partner,' as it is called in this country. The term owes its origin to the old meaning in the commercial nomenclature of France of the word command, which was applied to one person authorising another to transact business for him. The working partner had a commande from him who merely advanced capital. The term has acquired importance of late in political COMMELYNACEÆ COMMISSARY. economy, because the law of France could exempt the beginning of the 8th c., there was an office of the sleeping partners from responsibility beyond the this kind for public penitents on the first day of amount they might agree to be responsible for. On Lent; but from various causes, the penitential the other hand, by the law of the United King- discipline became extinct, both in the Eastern and dom, down to the passing of the limited liability Western Churches, and the office for Ash-Wednesday act, every partner of a company was liable for all (so called from the penitents coming clad in sackits debts. Hence, in the discussions about the cloth and ashes) is the only memorial of it left. The question, whether it would be prudent to relax office, as used in the Church of England, is nearly this law, and permit persons to invest money in the same as those found in the Salisbury and York trading companies without undergoing this respon- missals. The curses contained in Deut. xxvii. against sibility, such companies were called 'partnerships impenitent sinners are read, and the congregation in commandite.' answer' Amen' to every sentence, as acknowledging the justice of the sentences. See Bingham's Antiquities. COMMELYNA'CEÆ, a natural order of endogenous plants, consisting of herbaceous plants, with flat, narrow leaves, usually sheathing at the base. COMMISSARIAT is a name for the organised The calyx is 3-partite; the petals three, sometimes system whereby armies are provided with food, and cohering at the base. The stamens are six, inserted daily necessaries other than those connected with under the ovary, which is 3-celled; the style is single. actual warfare. Among the ancients the Romans The fruit is a capsule, with 2-3 cells and 2-3 attended best to the C.; the quæstors were the valves, bursting through the middle of the valves. commissaries. In feudal times, the soldiers were The seeds are often in pairs, inserted by their whole mainly dependent for food on their lords; but they side on the inner angle of the cell; the embryo lies lived very much by plunder. During the wars of in a cavity of the albumen. The order contains the Crusades, the C. was so utterly neglected, that more than 260 known species, natives chiefly of thousands died of starvation. warm climates; but a few occur in North America. None are European. Tradescantia Virginica, or SPIDER-WORT, common in our flower-gardens, is a familiar example of the order. Commelyna cœlestis is a fine ornament of our flower-gardens. treatment is somewhat like that of the dahlia. The COMMEMORATION. See SUPP., Vol. X. COMMENDAM. When a clerk is promoted to a bishopric, all his other preferments become void from the moment of consecration; but a method was devised by which the substantial interest in the living was retained by its being commended to the care of a bishop (called the commendatory) by the crown, till a proper pastor should be provided for it. Such a living was called an ecclesia commendata, and it was said to be held in commendam. The holding on this title might be really temporary for one, two, or three years, or it might be perpetual. By 6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 77, s. 18, it is provided that no ecclesiastical dignity, office, or benefice shall be held in C. by any bishop, unless he shall have held the same when the act passed. -Stephen, iii. 37. COMMENDATORS, in Scotland, in Roman Catholic times, were stewards appointed to levy the fruits of a benefice during a vacancy. They were mere trustees; but gradually the pope assumed the power of appointing C. for life, without any obligation to account. This was chiefly intended as a cloak for the plurality of benefices, and to evade the canon of the second council of Nice, by which one benefice only was allowed to be given to one and the same churchman; but all commendators were by our law prohibited, even during popery, by 1466, c. 3, except those that should be granted by bishops for a term not exceeding six months.'Erskine's Instit., vol. i. p. 98, Ivory's edit. See ABBOT. COMMENSURABLE. Two quantities or numbers are said to be commensurable which are of the same kind, and each of which contains a third quantity or number a certain number of times without remainder. See INCOMMENSURABLE MAGNITUDES. COMMERCIAL LAW. See MERCANTILE LAW. COMMINATION is from the Lat. comminor, to threaten, and is the name given to a penitential service used in the primitive church. In the earliest ages, those who were guilty of grievous and notorious sins were put out of the church, until, on their repentance, and after long trial, they were restored to full communion. It seems that, at least from appeared in the office of proviant-master, in the In 1870, the Commissariat was merged with other supply departments in the great Control Department,' which, under the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, performed all the civil administrative duties of the army. In Dec. 1875, the Control Department fell from its high estate, and the Commissariat and Transport Department' arose from its ashes. Its duties are the provision of food, fuel, lodging, and transport: a function on which it is needless to say the very existence of the army depends. The Department is administered by the Director of Supplies, at the War Office, who is an officer on the missariat officers are commissary-general (ranking staff of the Surveyor-General. The ranks of Comas brigadier-general), deputy-commissary-general (as colonel), assistant commissary-general (as lieut.colonel), commissary (as major), deputy-commissary (as captain), assistant-commissary (as lieutenant), and sub-assistant commissary. CO'MMISSARY, in general, is any one to whom the power and authority of another is committed. In this sense it is nearly equivalent to commissioner. In ecclesiastical law, a C. is an officer appointed by a bishop to exercise jurisdiction in parts of the diocese which are so distant from the episcopal city that the people cannot be conveniently summoned to attend the principal court. When the papal authority, and all jurisdiction which flowed from it, was abolished in Scotland, by the Acts 1560 and 1567, a supreme C. court was established in Edinburgh, by a grant of Queen Mary, dated February 8, 1563. This court had jurisdiction in actions of divorce, declarators of marriage, nullity of marriage, and all actions which originally belonged to the bishop's ecclesiastical courts. Its powers were gradually conjoined with COMMISSION-COMMITTEE. those of the Court of Session, and it was finally or mandatories of creditors; but any disqualification abolished in 1836 (6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 41), the for the office of trustee also unfits for this office. small remains of its once important jurisdiction COMMISSIONS, ARMY, are warrants for serving being united in the sheriff of Edinburgh. The the crown in certain military offices. Those holding inferior commissariats, which had usually been such authority are called commissioned officers. Noncommensurate with the dioceses, were dealt with commissioned officers form a step intermediate by a previous statute (4 Geo. IV., c. 97), each between commissioned officers and private soldiers. county being erected into a separate commissariat, First commissions in the probationary rank of subof which the sheriff was commissary. The juris- lieutenant are granted by competitive examination diction of these courts so conjoined with that of open to every British subject of proper age and sheriffs was, in 1876, finally transferred to the character. Subsequent-i. e., higher-commissions sheriffs absolutely, and the separation between the are given, up to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, by two sets of officers ended, except in the case of the selection tempered by seniority.' The commission Commissary Clerk of Edinburgh. See Alexander on of colonel is attained by service only, and commisPractice of the Commissary Courts in Scotland, 1858, sions as major-general, lieutenant-general, and which gives a very interesting sketch of the history, general, follow by pure seniority. These remarks constitution, and jurisdiction of these courts. apply to cavalry and infantry only: commissions in COMMISSION, a writing, in the form of a the Artillery and Engineers are obtained-first, by warrant or letter-patent (see PATENT), authorising passing a severe course of study at Woolwich one or more persons to perform duties or exercise Academy, admission to which is by open compepowers belonging to another, or to others. Instru- tition; later commissions by seniority entirely. ments of delegation, bearing this title, are issued by Before November 1, 1871, commissions in the cavalry the crown to officers in the army and navy, judges, and infantry were partly obtained by purchase, justices of the peace, and others. under the system, now abolished, called the PURAnother class of commissions are those granted CHASE-SYSTEM. The prices of commissions rose sometimes by the crown, and sometimes by parlia- gradually from the time of Charles II. until the ment, to a body of persons, either to inquire into the Russian war of 1853, when the regulation prices were condition of certain institutions or branches of the as follows: public service, or to exercise certain powers, or execute certain measures for their improvement. Persons holding such commissions, deriving no other title from their appointment, are called commissioners; e. g., the English Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the Commissioners for the Relief of the Poor, the Commissioners for the Affairs of India, the Emigration Commissioners, &c. COMMISSION DEL CRE'DERÉ. CREDERE COMMISSION. Rank Regulation Price Diff, in value between the several Com. in succession LIFE GUARDS, Lieutenant-colonel, £7250 Major, 5350 £1900 Captain, 3500 1850 Lieutenant, COMMISSION MERCHANT, or AGENT, called also a broker, or factor, is a person employed to sell goods consigned or delivered to him by another who is called his principal, for a certain percentage, commonly called his commission or (The prices of cavalry commissions were reduced in 1861 to factorage. As the goods thus received are said to be consigned, the C. M. or agent is often called a consignee. COMMISSION OF ASSEMBLY. See GENERAL ASSEMBLY. COMMISSIONAIRES are a class of attendants at continental hotels, who perform certain miscellaneous services. Employed to attend at the arrival of railway-trains and steam-boats to secure customers, they wait to take charge of luggage, see it passed through the hands of the custom-house officers, and send it on to the hotel; for all which service they charge a fee. They likewise procure visés to passports, and act as valets-de-place. Lately, a body of C. has been established in London, and also in Edinburgh, consisting of maimed soldiers who have retired with a pension, and are of unexceptional character. Lieutenant, COMMISSIONER, in Scotch Bankruptcy. This COMMITMENT is the imprisonment of any office has little or no resemblance to that of the judge in England bearing once such a title. In Scot-person by warrant or order. When C. is by land, three commissioners are appointed by the before trial, the confinement of the accused, warrant of a magistrate after examination and creditors to advise, and in certain cases to superin- being for safe custody and not for punishment, is tend the trustee, who is the party charged with the regulated by special statutes as to diet, optional employment, visits, &c. C. may be for trial or further examination. It is also used with reference to imprisonment of debtors in certain cases under realisation and distribution of the estate. The com missioners audit the trustee's accounts, they fix his remuneration, and they have to ascertain that the moneys collected by him have been duly lodged in bank. They themselves are not entitled to remuneration; and they cannot purchase any portion of the estate. Their qualification is to be creditors, the Debtors Act, 1869. COMMITTEE (Fr. comité), a portion, generally consisting of not less than three members, selected COMMODORE-COMMON. from a more numerous body, to whom some special physical strength, and exhibited it in gladiatorial act to be performed, or investigation to be made, combats. For each of these exhibitions, he charged is committed. But though a C. usually consists of the state an enormous sum. He used also to several members of the body by which it is appointed, sing, dance, play, act the buffoon, the pedlar, or it may consist of one member, or, what is more the horse-dealer, and engage in all the filthy and frequent, of the whole members acting in a different horrible orgies of Egyptian sacrifice. A glutton, a capacity from that which usually belongs to them. debauchee, who wallowed in the most sensual This latter form of C. is known in parliament as a abominations, he yet demanded to be worshipped C. of the whole House. In order to mark the dis- as a god, and assumed the title of Hercules tinction between the House itself and the same Romanus. Many plots were devised against the life body when thus resolved into C., the Speaker in the of this mingled monster and madman, and at last Commons, and the Chancellor in the Lords, as soon one of them accomplished its purpose. His mistress, as the C. is formed, leave the chair, which is Marcia, in concert with the prefect Laetus and occupied by the Chairman of C., a paid official, the imperial chamberlain Eclectus, after they had who is appointed at the commencement of every failed in an attempt to poison him, caused him parliament. In the Commons, moreover, the mace, to be strangled by Narcissus, a famous athlete, which usually lies on the table, is put under it when on the 31st of December 192. the House goes into committee. Of committees of the whole House, the most familiar examples are Committees of Supply (q. v.) and of Ways and Means (q. v.). The vote of a C. is of no force till it has been reported to and received by the House. In the case of every public bill, moreover, a C. of the whole House is constituted after the second, and before the third reading, in order that the details of the measure may be more carefully adjusted. In private bills, analogous functions are performed by select committees. Occasional matters requiring special investigation are also remitted to select committees. These, for the most part, conduct their investigations in public; but there are instances also in which the public safety seems to require secrecy, in which they deliberate with closed doors, and they are then called Secret Committees. In 1883, the House delegated part of its functions to Grand or Standing Committees one for law affairs, the other for trade, shipping, and manufactures. Bills are in every case to be committed to them by order of the House. Each committee has from 60 to 80 members, nominated by the committee of selection; and the procedure is as in select committees. CO'MMODORE, in the Navy, is a rank intermediate between an admiral and a captain. It is not permanent, but is bestowed for a time on a captain. Usually, a C. commands more ships than one, detached from a fleet on some special service; he hoists at that time a pendant. If a C. of the first class, his pendant is broad and red, pointed at the outer end; if of the second class, blue. A C. is privileged to have a commander under him in his ship, in the same way as an admiral is privileged to have a captain. The C., in matters of etiquette, ranks on a level with a brigadier-general in the army. CO'MMODUS, LUCIUS AURELIUS, a Roman emperor, born 161 A.D., was the son of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. When he was summoned to the throne on his father's decease, 17th March 180, he manifested a shameful eagerness to plunge into the dissipations of Rome. At that period he was successfully fighting the Marcomanni and other tribes on the Upper Danube, and, not to be balked of his anticipated pleasures, he has tily concluded a treaty with the barbarians, and, reached the capital in the beginning of the autumn. The cruelty to which he was always prone, was especially called into action after a conspiracy by his sister Lucilla against his life had been discovered in the year 183. Nearly all who, by virtue, ability, and learning, had risen to honour during his father's lifetime, were sacrificed to appease his savage jealousy of the good and the great. Gross prodigality in the expenditure of the resources of the state on the amusements of the amphitheatre also marked his reign. He was proud of his own CO'MMON, in Law. This is one of the numerous instances in which a different meaning is attached to the same term in the legal systems of England and Scotland. In England, a C., as defined by Blackstone, is a profit which a man hath in the land of another, as to feed his beasts, to catch fish, to dig turf, to cut wood, or the like.' In Scotland, again, where the law has adopted the divisions, and followed the nomenclature of the civil law, and of the legal systems of continental Europe, all these profits, or rights to derive profit, are known as Servitudes (q. v.), whereas a C., or Commonty, as it is more frequently called, is a common right of property existing in several individuals, frequently the inhabitants of a whole village, in a piece of ground. In each individual, the right of course is limited, so as in reality to amount to little more than a servitude; but there is no over-lord, the land is not the land of another, but the land of the community as a body. The division of C. lands, or those over which C. is claimed, among the parties possessed of such rights, or the permission to the owner to enclose the lands on making compensation to the owners of C. rights, has been the subject of regulation by a very great number of statutes. Many of these are private acts, but the 6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 115 laid down general rules for effecting the purpose in future, without the necessity of obtaining an act of parliament, where the consent of two-thirds of the parties interested could be obtained, and the C. to be enclosed lay more than ten miles from London, and a specified distance from any other large town. By a subsequent statute (8 and 9 Vict. c. 118, amended by ENCLOSURE COMMISSIONERS) is appointed to inquire several later acts), a Board of Commissioners (see into the propriety of any proposed enclosure or partition, and to report to parliament, which then may pass a public act authorising the proceedings. This is the course generally adopted. In Scotland, commonties or commons were made divisible by an action in the Court of Session, at the instance of any having interest, by the stat. 1695, c. 38. On the subject of enclosing commons, Mr J. S. Mill (Dissertations and Discussions, vol. ii. p. 213) expresses the following decided opinion: We must needs think, also, that there is something out of joint, when so much is said of the value of refining and humanising tastes to the labouringpeople-when it is proposed to plant parks and lay out gardens for them, that they may enjoy more freely nature's gift alike to rich and poor, of sun, sky, and vegetation; and along with this a counterprogress is constantly going on of stopping up paths and enclosing commons. Is not this another case of giving with one hand and taking back more largely with the other? We look with the utmost jealousy upon any further enclosure of commons. In the |