Connection between Comets and Shooting-Stars.—| The connection between comets and shooting-stars and star-showers leads to a fascinating subject sufficiently shrouded in mystery for the exercise of the liveliest imagination. The identity of these three phenomena, or, at least, an intimate relation between them, seems well-nigh proven. Briefly and concisely as can be stated, the theory covering these phenomena is as follows: 1. The coma in its normal condition is composed of small discrete particles of matter in a solid state, to which Prof. H. A. Newton has very properly given the name meteoroids, which must in numbers exceed all human computation. 2. As the coma approaches the sun these meteoroids are drawn away from it on the sunny side by something analogous to tidal action, which is in the strictest sense a disintegrating process, and that the sun, in a way unknown to us, repels this matter back, which, flowing past the coma off into space, forms what we call the tail or train; this repulsion is, probably, of an electric nature. 3. These comets' tails never return to the coma, but each is left to pursue its individual journey round the sun in an elliptic, parabolic, or hyperbolic orbit, depending upon conditions too abstruse to discuss in a popular disquisition of the subject; this cast-off tail forms a portion of a ring which, receiving an accession at each return of the comet, eventually becomes continuous with a closed orbit. 4. Such rings, of which there are thousands-perhaps millions can be cognizable to us only when the earth in pursuing its journey round the sun passes through them, when occurs a meteoric shower of greater or less abundance, depending on whether the earth passes through a dense portion, as it did on Nov. 12, 1799, Nov. 13, 1833, and Nov. 14, 1866, and as it will on Nov. 15, 1899, or through a section more sparse, as is generally the case. 5. These meteoroids in the coma, by the sun's excessive heat (there being no atmosphere as on the earth to absorb it), exhale, by the decomposition of their surfaces, a gas which when subjected to spectrum analysis is found to contain hydrogen and the vapors of carbon, and sodium and a few other unidentified substances. This view is supported further by a reference to the well-known fact that some solids, for instance ice, evaporate at all temperatures. No body wholly gaseous can exist in space, and the same is true of a liquid. The inexorable law of diffusion in the first, and of evaporation in the second, would soon dissipate them through space. The nature and cause of the sun's selective repulsion -that is, why it should attract a comet as a whole and repel only a part-is a mystery too deep for explanation, and yet it seems to accord with what we see. It must not be forgotten that the smaller the particle of matter the greater is the ratio of surface to volume, and, as electrical repulsion acts not in proportion to mass, but to surface, while, on the contrary, attraction acts in proportion to mass regardless of surface, it seems worthy of consideration as offering a possible explanation of what is observed. This view of the matter, with, perhaps, some modifications, may throw a little light upon the manner in which a comet's tail is formed, also as to what it is, and what finally becomes of it. Over one hundred meteor streams and their radiants have been determined, but only two give rise to starshowers that attract general observation, and whose periodicities are strongly marked. They are called the August and November showers, and occur, in our age, on Aug. 9 to 11, and on Nov. 14, at which times the earth passes diagonally through the August and November rings respectively. The elements of these rings bear too close a resemblance to the comets of Swift and Tempel to be the result of chance, as indicated by the annexed table. Comets which have Passed nearest the Earth.-No comet, as far as known, has ever come in contact with the earth or mingled its substance with our atmosphere; yet it would seem that, of the millions which have appeared during past ages which have had their perihelion distances within the earth's orbit, some of them must have made very close approaches to the earth, if, indeed, they have not actually collided with it. The nearest approach ever observed was the comet of 1770 (Lexell's), which passed, on the same day as the earth, through a point but 168,000 miles distant from that occupied by the earth five hours later, but during that time the earth had moved 327,500 miles, or a distance equal to about 1 times the moon's distance. The comet, however, approached to within 1,400,000 miles of the earth, and subtended an angle of 2° 23', the largest apparent diameter yet observed in any comet. It has not been seen since 1770, although an orbit was computed for it of only 5 years, by which all the observations were satisfied. Perturbation by Jupiter is supposed to have changed its orbit to one of long period. Should it ever reappear, it is quite unlikely that it could be identified. Number of Comets.-The number of distinct comets belonging to our system must be very great. The number visible in each year is not at all uniform, in some years not any being observed, while sometimes several will appear in a single year. In 1858 there were 8 visible, and 9 in 1846, the greatest number ever seen in any one year. In 1845, 4 were visible at one time. The average annual number for the last 30 years has been a little less than 4, or 7000 comets since the Christian era. How many have escaped detection is of course unknown. An effort has been made to arrive mathematically at the number of comets which have their perihelia within the orbit of Neptune by the following train of reasoning. It is a matter of observation that 48 comets have had their perihelia within the orbit of Mercury. Assuming that comets are equally distributed through space (a rather uncertain quantity), and that the law of increase should be as the cube of the solar distances of Mercury and Neptune respectively, the formula will stand as follows: as the cube of Mercury's distance (= 1) is to the cube of Neptune's distance (78), so is 48 to the number sought, or 13: 783: 48: 22,778,496, the number of comets that are under the dominion of the sun and have their perihelia within the orbit of Neptune. If comets are equally distributed through space, no good reason can be assigned for so short a limitation as Neptune's distance; it should rather extend to the neutral point between the sun and the nearest star, say ten billion miles, or half the distance of Alpha Centauri. This would swell the number to mammoth proportions. Neither should the fundamental number be restricted to 48, for since the solar system existed the number which have made their perihelion passages within Mercury's orbit must have been many millions instead of only 48. These taken as the basis, the number would be too great to be expressed by any numerical notation comprehensible to man. Considered in the above light, Kepler's statement that comets are as numerous as the fishes in the sea" was more truthful than metaphorical. 66 The Great Comet of 1882.-Seldom has a comet excited the popular mind to so high a pitch, or united The above are not the only instances of more than one comet moving in a similar orbit. The great comet of 1881 had elements almost exactly like those of comet 1807, and, for a short time, was supposed to be a return of that comet. These have strengthened the theory, long entertained, that there are families of comets moving in similar orbits, which may, originally, have been a single comet. Increase in the number of bright Comets.-This century, thus far, has been distinguished above all others, as far as human record extends, in the unexampled number of comets which have appeared eminent for size, brightness, and length of train. The following summary of the number, seen during the four preceding centuries, compared with the number seen thus far during the present one, strikingly confirms the above statement, and, in the minds of some, raises the inquiry whether our solar system, in its journey through space, is not passing through a region more thickly strewn with comets. in itself so many unique and important points of inter- thrown off probably when near perihelion by the force est to the astronomer, as did this famous comet. It is (analogous, it may be, to tidal action) heretofore mena significant fact that during six of the twelve months tioned. If they were fragments of the great comet, it of 1882 there appeared three comets that were not marks an era which must ever be a memorable one in only visible to the unassisted eye but were seen in cometary astronomy, suggesting, as it does, the idea broad daylight, viz. Comet 1882 I. (Wells), the that all space may be filled with lost and disintegrated comet seen close to the sun during the total eclipse in comets. May of that year, and the one under discussion, generally called Comet 1882 II. The entire history of astronomy furnishes no instance of the successive appearance of three daylight comets. The eclipse comet, under the circumstances, could hardly be called a daylight comet, so, ignoring its claims to that distinction, and adding the very bright comet of 1881, it can be said that within a period of fifteen months the world has been treated to an exhibition of three daylight comets. Comet 1882, II., was discovered on Sept. 6, and became generally visible in the northern hemisphere after sunrise on Sept. 18, and, during that and the following day, was a conspicuous object without a telescope, and shone with a lustre probably never seen in any previous comet, although on the 18th it was only 3° from the sun. It was independently discovered by Mr. Common, of England, less than one degree from the sun, shining with intense lustre. The world is indebted to Mr. Gill, the astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope, for imparting the fact that two observers with separate instruments followed the comet close to the sun's limb, where, at 4h. 50min. 58 sec., on Sept. 17, it suddenly disappeared in transit across the sun's face. This remarkable observation was made only 1 hours before perihelion passage. During transit not a glimpse of it could be obtained, which is nearly sufficient proof that Pastorff's supposed observation of a comet on the sun's disk was simply a penumbral spot. A comet through which a tenth magnitude star can be seen undimmed would be very unlikely to be seen on the sun. The nucleus was large and bright, and, had it possessed any opacity, would undoubtedly have been seen (as it was carefully looked for), especially near the sun's limb, which is less bright than the central portion. The problem of the comet's orbit has caused much speculation and discussion, and the question at this writing is still unsolved. It has been supposed by many to be identical with several comets mentioned in history-notably those of 1668, 1843, and 1880-the reasons assigned being a close similarity of elements as indicated in the following table During the 15th century 3 bright comets appeared; during the 16th, 4; during the 17th, 6; during the 18th, 3, and, thus far during the 19th, 15. Halley's comet appeared twice in the 17th century, and once in each of the other centuries. If all the apparitions of Halley's be deducted from this list, on the ground of its being a periodic, it appears that only ten bright comets appeared during the four hundred years preceding this century, while during the last eighty-two years fifteen have been seen, at least eight of them having never been surpassed during the historic period. Those of this century appeared as follows: 1811; 1835, Halley's; 1843; 1847; 1853; 1858, Donati's; 1861, Tebbutt's; 1862, Swift's; 1865; 1874, Coggia's; 1880, Gould's; 1881, Tebbutt's; 1882, Wells'; 1882, Finlay's; 1883, Pons-Brooks. Nomenclature.-Much confusion exists in regard to this subject in consequence of astronomers having used different systems in their numbering. Some insist that they should in each year be numbered in the order of their discovery, using Roman numerals, as : Comet I., Comet II., etc., while others desire them to be numbered in the order of their arrival at perihelion. This double system works uncertainty and perplexity, and ought to be remedied. While no doubt can arise regarding the date of discovery of a comet, different computers may disagree about the time of its perihelion passage; one, perhaps, claiming that it occurred in the latter part of one year, and another in the beretrograde. retrograde. retrograde. retrograde. ginning of the next, thus creating confusion between 1668. 1813. 1880. 277 2 278 18 0.0055 277 23 π distance....... Motion 35.58 0.0047' (?) 1882. 276 14 346 7 * 37 59 0.081 indexes and catalogues. It has been proposed, and for a time was adopted, that comets be named in the Some uncertainty attaches to the elements assigned order of their discovery, by the letters a, b, c, etc., to the comet of 1668. We give the second of two sets while they should be designated in the order of their computed for it by Henderson. However, satisfactory perihelion passages by the Roman letters I, II, III, proof has accumulated that the above comets are not etc. This double system of numbering has many obidentical, but strangely enough have elements so similar jections, and has been abandoned by some of its origas to raise the presumption to a high degree of proba-inators. The most correct and simple way seems to bility that the three now pursuing the same path were be to follow the order of their discovery. For illustraoriginally one comet. The nucleus of the comet of tion of this, one of many reasons in favor of this sys1882 during visibility underwent many and unex- tem is given, viz. the famous comet of 1811 did not ampled changes. Several days after its perihelion passage it began to elongate, which process continued until it was merely a line nearly 100,000 miles in length, which, at times, exhibited several condensations of light. It was even affirmed by several astronomers that it separated itself into three distinct nuclei. Three observers report having seen in the immediate neighborhood of the coma several large though faint cometary masses, which have, with a good degree of probability, been supposed to be fragments of the comet itself, pass its perihelion until nearly six months after discovery. Had this six months carried the perihelion passage into the next year, how futile would have been the attempt to educate the popular or even the scientific world to the point of calling it the great comet of 1812, which the world had seen in all its glory in the autumn of 1811. There are objections to either system, but the numbering of them in the order of their discovery appears, from its simplicity, to be the most satisfactory. For other facts concerning Comets see articles on COM- high powers are made long-usually about sixteen times ETS and on ASTRONOMY in ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, their apertures. The longer the focus, the larger will See also an exhaustive article on Comets in Chambers' be the image of the object to be magnified by the eyeDescriptive Astronomy, 3d edition, which contains a complete list of all comets which have been observed, whose piece; and, the secondary spectrum remaining the orbits have been computed, extending from 370 B. C. to A. same, whether of short or long focus, it is plain that a D. 1875; also a catalogue of all those for which, from lack large image requires less magnifying than a small one of requisite observations, no orbit could be computed. See to get the same magnification of the object, and, of also Guillemin's World of Comets, translated from the French course, the secondary spectrum is magnified less, and by Glaisher, an extensive and entertaining work, Cooper's in the same ratio is less obtrusive. With comet-seekers, Cometic Orbits and Kirkwood's Comets and Meteors. For an elaborate discussion of the connection between comets and however, where high powers are never used, the aberstar showers, see articles by Prof. II. A. Newton on the rations are not sufficiently magnified to be generally "November Star Showers," in Silliman's Journal, May and noticeable. The powers commonly used range from 15 July, 1864, and on "Shooting Stars," same journal for to 35 diameters. March, 1865. (L. S.) COMET EYE-PIECE, a celestial eye-piece, which may be either a positive or a negative, with lenses of long focus and field-lens of large diameter; the former for obtaining a low power, the latter for securing a large field-two essentials for sweeping the heavens for telescopic comets. To secure that important desideratum, a large field, an eye-piece called a "comet eye-piece" is used. It must be remembered that the size of an object-glass does not, as many suppose, determine the size of the field of view. Other things being equal, a small glass gives the same sized field as a large one. A new and, in many respects, improved comet-seeker is coming into use. Its mechanical construction is so A comet eye-piece should give a field of at least 10 simple that the following brief description will cause it in diameter, which probably should be its largest limit to be understood: The tube is elbow-shaped, and divided of size, as the eye is unable to take in a field too large into two equal lengths joined at the middle at an angle without roaming over it and stopping the telescope, of 45°. At this junction is a prism or plain reflector which, in its sweeps, should be constantly though slow-placed at the same angle. At one end of the horizonly moved, that no precious time need be lost. The optical principles involved in the construction of a comet eye-piece are essentially the same as in all other celestial eye-pieces, the differences being those enumerated above-viz. lenses of low magnifying power and a field-lens (second from the eye) of large size. Such an eye-piece, if properly made and used upon a telescope of sufficient size whose aberrations are well corrected, will give a large, flat, and brilliant field. The writer has for many years used with great satisfaction a comet eye-piece whose field-lens is two inches in diameter, and its eye-lens an achromatic. It is of the Ramsden or positive variety, and called by the maker "periscopic." It brings out very faint nebula and comets which are beyond the reach of such eye-pieces as are usually made. The proper size of a field-lens depends on several circumstances. Its diameter should not be less than two inches, and probably two and a half inches is sufficiently large. To secure the best results the rack-tubes of comet-seekers should be made to allow the use of large eye-pieces—a suggestion seldom heeded by telescopemakers. (L. S.) COMET-SEEKER, a telescope differing in no essential particular from any other except in its short focus as compared with the size of its object-glass-usually called the objective and low magnifying power used. It is made short for celerity and ease of movement and for easy portability, and its low magnifying power secures a large area of field. This instrument may be either a refractor or reflector, and may be mounted either equatorially or altazimuthly as the observer desires, the latter mounting being the least expensive. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. If mounted equatorially, it is very difficult to sweep near the poles, and if altazimuthly, equally so to sweep near the zenith. The equatorially mounted comet-seeker with divided circles, and accurately adjusted to the latitude of the place of observation, possesses, however, one great advantage over the other, inasmuch as the position of a new comet can be easily, quickly, and exactly determined. This is important, as its place thus early ascertained can be used with two others subsequently obtained for computing the elements of its orbit." The aberrations in an objective, which the skill of the optician has as yet been unable to correct, called the "secondary spectrum" and also "irrationality of the spectrum," is governed in amount by the size of the objective alone, and not by its focal length. All refracting telescopes for all purposes could be made short were it not for this secondary spectrum, to get rid of which, as far as possible, refracting telescopes to be used with tal tube is the eye-piece, and at the opposite end of the perpendicular tube is the object-glass. To the horizontal tube is attached a handle for rotating the telescope, the object-glass sweeping the heavens from horizon to zenith while the observer sits at his ease looking constantly in a horizontal direction into the telescope. It possesses the advantage of ease and comfort to the observer, though attended by the loss of some light by reflection from the mirror. (L. S.) COMFORT, GEORGE FISK, an American educator and writer on æsthetics, was born at Berkshire, N. Y., Sept. 20, 1833. He graduated at Wesleyan University, Conn., in 1857, and taught the natural sciences at Amenia Seminary, N. Y., and Fort Plain Seminary, N. Y. In 1860 he went to Europe, and spent five years in travel, studying critically the educational systems, universities, art-schools, and museums of various countries, and giving special attention to philology, archæology, and the history of the fine arts. In 1865 he was chosen professor of modern languages and aesthetics in Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., but resigned this position in 1868 to devote himself to literary work. In 1869 he took an active part in organizing the American Philological Society, and was its secretary till 1875. In 1869 he assisted in establishing the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and was a trustee and a member of the executive committee of this institution until 1872, when he removed to Syracuse, N. Y., to accept the chair of æsthetics and the modern languages in the Syracuse University. In 1873, through his efforts, a college of fine arts was established in this university, and he has been dean of this college since its opening. Its success has proved the wisdom of the innovation of placing the fine arts on a basis co-ordinate with that of the classics and the sciences in American universities. Prof. Comfort is a member of the archæological institutes of Rome, Paris, and Berlin, as well as of learned societies in America. He has contributed to various encyclopædias, magazines, and reviews, as well as to the daily and weekly press. He has delivered many lectures, chiefly upon topics connected with artistic culture and education. He has published Esthetics in Collegiate Education (1867); Art-Museums in America (1870); a series of text-books for the study of the German language; Fine Arts in Collegiate Education (1875); The Land Troubles in Ireland (1881). He is also joint author with his wife of Woman's Education and Woman's Health (1875). It COMMINATION, a penitential service in the Church of England, used on the first day of Lent. is defined in the Book of Common Prayer as a denouncing of God's anger and judgment against sinners. It is a relic of the penance which for centuries after the Christian Church was fully established was required of those who had been convicted of grievous sins. These persons, when seeking restoration to the Church, came fasting and clad in sackcloth and ashes; after the penitential psalms were pronounced they were cast forth from the Church as unworthy of being admitted to the congregation. Again and again they came as before, and only after a long trial and ample proof of penitence were they by degrees admitted into participation in the services. At the time of the Reformation such practice had long been extinct. In compiling the Engfish Book of Common Prayer the present office was introduced to take the place of the former custom of marking the people with ashes on the first day of Lent. Martin Bucer, the German Reformer, who examined the English Prayer Book, approved the service, and at his suggestion it was directed to be used "at divers times in the year. Practically, it is never used except on Ash Wednesday, and the American Episcopal Prayer Book in the service for that day has omitted the Commination. See Vol. VI. p. 186 Am. ed. (p. 208 COMMONS. The continuity in America of the old English or Germanic system of land community is an interesting fact, which serves to connect American communal life with Edin. ed.). the earliest beginnings of Teutonic society. According to Tacitus, the ancient German communities took up land in proportion to the number of cultivators. These lands they afterwards divided among themselves, according to their rank or position in the community. He says they changed the situation of their plough-lands every year, while the remaining land was left common. This pictures historically the agrarian status of most Teutonic village communities as regards their communal domain. Doubtless the early Germans owned their house-lots in severalty, and doubtless they gradually acquired individual farms by allotment and consolidation, but for a long period, in a new or thinly-populated country, there would remain vast outlying tracts of common land. The village domain within the forest-clearing was the mark. This, itself, although subdivided and owned to a great extent in severalty, had certain communal characteristics. It was the collective domain of the village. It had common open spaces, of which village-greens, streets, and foot-paths are modern survivals. Without such forms of land community, no local society could exist without perpetual trespass upon individual rights. In addition to such fundamental commonage, Teutonic villages have been accustomed, down to recent times, to one or more of the following rights, called commons: to common wood in the surrounding forest, to common pasture, and to common grass-land. These rights are known in German as Wald, Weide, and Wiese, or wood, pasture, and meadow. Common rights to fishery and to the use of turf were also frequently claimed. Certain features of this ancient communal system are kept up to this day in the village communities of Germany, Switzerland, and Great Britain. In some parts of the English colonies in America, the old system was reproduced in absolute perfection. The Pilgrim fathers of Plymouth Colony, like the ancient Germans, took up a tract of land as a communal domain, and in proportion to the number of cultivators. This tract they divided among themselves, according to the size of their families. More usually, in New England settlements, the division was according to property-rights and the rank of the settlers. Very frequently, however, as in the town of Plymouth, lands, especially meadows, were allotted to heads of households, according to the size of their families. The agrarian community at Plymouth was not due to the existence of a partnership between the Pilgrim fathers and English capitalists, for the community survived the partnership. It was practically as independent of superior authority as were the agrarian communities of English tenants upon the manorial estate of their lord. Old usages went on undisturbed by colonial legislation. For many years after the founding of Plymouth upon the site of Indian corn-lands, which became the village mark, grasslands were assigned by lot in town-meeting. For years the wood was cut and hauled in common. For more than a century the undivided forests were known as commons. As late as 1710 Plymouth had within its communal jurisdiction over 30,000 acres of common land, and there still remain more than 200 acres of socalled "town-land," chiefly forest, whence, it is said, villagers sometimes help themselves in good old Teutonic fashion. 66 Survivals of the ancient system of commons, more especially of common pasture, have been traced throughout the limits of the old colony of Plymouth, and down to the very extremity of Cape Cod. In the old town of Sandwich there is still a parcel of land known as the "Town Neck." This is owned by a company of twenty-four proprietors, the descendants or heirs of the first settlers of the town, and this tract is managed to this day as a common field. Originally the Town Neck, like other common lands, belonged to the whole town. In the town records, under the date May 22, 1658, stands the following note: "If an inhabytant wanteth land to plant, hee may have some in the Towne Neck, or in the common for six yeare and noe longer." Later, in 1678, April 6, townsmen are given liberty to improve Neck lands" noe longer than ten yeares, and then to be at the townsmen's ordering againe.' In the year 1695 the use of the Town Neck was restricted to the heirs of original proprietors, and the land was staked out into thirty-eight lots. The lots were not fenced off, and the whole tract continued to lie as a common field, under the authority of the entire body of proprietors, like the arable lands of a Germanic village community. In 1695, April 4, it was agreed that the Town Neck should be improved for the future as a common field, until the major part of those interested should see cause otherwise to dispose or improve the same. common fence was to be made up, and a gate to be provided by the first of May. A field-driver or hayward was to keep the Town Neck clear of creatures, and to impound for trespass. In 1700 it was voted that the Neck be cleared of creatures by the 16th of April, and that no part of the land be improved for tillage other than by sowing. The The above case well illustrates the survival of common fields in the older English colonies. The system prevailed throughout New England, especially in Massachusetts and Connecticut. In the town of Salem there were no less than ten common fields of associated proprietors, who, by a vote of the majority, planted the same crop' in their respective fields, and fenced in common. The proprietors had individual rights, but those rights were subject to communal authority. In harvest-time, by the law of the colony of Massachusetts, all artisans and common laborers could be impressed by the town constable to worke by the day for their neighbours needing them in mowing, reaping, and inning. If any person so required by law to labor should refuse, he was compelled to forfeit, for "the use of the poor of the towne, double so much as such a dayes worke comes unto.' simply the revival of old English parish law. The records of the proprietary of Salem South Fields are still in existence, and contain curious evidence as to the continuity of ancient local customs. Associate tillage in the same common field was, however, only one phase of land community in New England. All three varieties of absolute commonage, wood, meadow and pasture, prevailed in Salem and in many other of the older towns. The woodland about Salem, as in ancient Plymouth, was long reserved for the commons of the towne, to serve it for wood and timber. If a townsman needed wood for fuel, fencing, or This was building purposes, he could have it freely within counterpart in the customs of cattle-herding in the reasonable limits, but the export of timber, boards, West, and in the practices of common pasturage and clapboards was strictly forbidden, unless the same which still obtain in many parts of the South. Almost had first been offered for sale to the selectmen, or, as everywhere survive certain communal usages, often they were often called in Salem, "the towne represent- with reference to individual land-holdings, farms, ative." The town of Salem, like many others, had plantations, estates, woodlands, swamps, and pastures. vast tracts of absolutely common meadow, where, as Forest and stream are still regarded, in many sections, in ancient Plymouth, a place was annually appointed as free to the hunter and the fisherman. Private where every man should mow. Long after the roads and foot-paths often become common to the division of the principal meadows among Salem house- public. Individual proprietors are not infrequently holders, according to the size of their families, the old influenced or controlled by neighborhood consideracustom of allotting bits of grass-land to individuals for tions in the management of their own land. A Misa year's tenure went on undisturbed. Throughout sissippi planter, who wanted to turn his plantation New England, the custom long obtained of allowing into a stock-farm, found himself prevented from so the cattle of all townsmen or commoners to feed in the doing by an injunction of the court, his neighbors conmeadows, after the grass crop had been gathered by tending that the sowing of grass-seed in a cotton disindividual owners. This custom survived in the trict would injure plantations adjoining the proposed older towns along the Connecticut River down to very stock-farm. Thus, occasionally even now, the soyrecent times. ereignty of the community over an individual domain is recognized by law or custom in the matter of what farmers may plant. Common pasture, next to town commons or village greens, seems to be the most enduring feature of ancient land community. In Salem, the Town Neck, now a public pleasure-ground, continued to be used as Further information upon the subject of "Commons" a home-pasture for milch cows until long after the may be obtained from an article in The Nation, January time when Salem became a city (1836). Boston Com10, 1878, by W. F. Allen, on The Survival of Land Commumon was thus used by its residents for many genera-versity Studies in Historical and Political Science, Vol. I., nity in New England, and from the Johns-Hopkins Unitions. There are, to this day, within the city limits No. 2, on The Germanic Origin of New England Towns, of Salem, 300 acres of common land, called the "Great and Nos. 9 and 10, on Village Communities of Cape Ann Pastures," owned by the heirs or descendants of the and Salem. (H. B. A.) original commoners. This is the last remnant of great tracts, once embracing 4000 acres, and extending COMMON LAW. The ancient common law of over the present limits of the towns of Peabody and England is generally considered by the See Vol. VI. Danvers. Concerning this tract it was voted by the p. 186 Am. jurists of the United States to have been town, in 1640, that none of the commons within the ed. (p. 208 imported hither by our forefathers, and to cattle-range should be granted to any individual use. Edin. ed.). constitute the basis of our present law. It But the increase of population and the claims of newwas a well-recognized doctrine of the comers to the rights of commonage led, in the course mother country "that whenever a new and uninhabof the 18th and 19th centuries, to the gradual break-ited country was found out by English subjects, as the up of the old system of communal land-tenure. The law is the birthright of every subject, so wherever history of this gradual break-up shows that precisely they go they carry their laws with them, and therefore the same questions which agitated the plebeians and such new-found country is to be governed by the laws patricians of Rome with regard to the ager publicus, of England, though after such country is inhabited by long disturbed the cottagers and commoners of this the English, acts of parliament made in England withlittle village republic. The cottagers were new-comers out naming the foreign plantations do not bind them." and landless men; the commoners were the descend- This principle has received express recognition by our ants of the original proprietors of the commons. The own courts. village patricians, in all the early New England towns, yielded slowly to the demands of the plebs, but the struggle was everywhere long and bitter. The agrarian history of New England has never been written, but it would constitute, if properly prepared, one of the most important and suggestive chapters, for it would describe that slow-moving, economic revolution, which has resulted in the establishment of freehold landtenure for all classes, and in a vast number of thriving communities, composed of independent proprietors, whose chief communal interests are based no longer on common lands but upon common schools. It must be observed, however, that the whole common law was not imported into this country. Much of that elaborate system had relation to matters purely local, which existed under the English political organization, or was based upon the triple relation of king, lords, and commons, or upon those peculiar social conditions, habits, and customs, obtaining in the mother land. Such portions of the law were evidently unapplicable to the condition and wants of the colonists. They are therefore not recognized as part of our jurisprudence. The doctrine of benefit of clergy has, for example, been pronounced in Indiana to be "the offspring of that Traces of the ancient system of land community are absurd and superstitious veneration for a privileged now cropping out in many different States of the order in society which unfortunately existed in those American Union, wherever students have taken ages of darkness when the persons of clergymen were pains to investigate the history of early land- considered sacred." It was therefore declared cerCommons existed in all early Teutonic settle-tainly not to have been adopted as the law of our ments in America, whether English or Dutch. They have been noted, not only throughout New England, but upon Long Island, in Nantucket, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. The glebe lands in Southern parishes are only an ecclesiastical phase of original parish commons, set off and administered by corporate boards for church purposes, as were town lands in New England for the support of schools and clergy. The court-greens in Southern county-towns are precisely the same in principle as village greens and town commons. The old town-pasture of Annapolis has a hundred parallels in the local history of New England. The early customs of this latter section with regard to cattle-ranges and common pasture have their modern tenure. VOL. II.-T. country. The doctrines of the common law with reference to poaching, with reference to the ancient methods of transferring land by livery of seisin and the like, and with reference to fencing, have all been pronounced inapplicable to this country, and are not therefore deemed to constitute any part of our jurisprudence. The States constituting the original thirteen colonies usually fix upon the date of their settlement as that at which the decisions and statutes made and declared in England ceased, proprio vigore, to form part of their common law. The other States, settled since the Declaration of Independence, usually fix upon the date of the earliest permanent English settlement in this country, viz., 1607. In many instances, however, |