o several cases; a "common-place book"
is a collection of such passages or quotations arranged for reference
under general heads either alphabetically or on some method of
classification. To such a book the name _adversaria_ was given, which is
an adaptation of the Latin _adversaria scripta_, notes written on one
side, the side opposite (_adversus_), of a paper or book. From its
original meaning the word came to be used as meaning something
hackneyed, a platitude or truism, and so, as an adjective, equivalent to
trivial or ordinary. It was first spelled as two words, then with a
hyphen, and so still in the sense of a "common-place book."

COMMON PLEAS, COURT OF, formerly one of the three English common law
courts at Westminster--the other two being the king's bench and
exchequer. The court of common pleas was an offshoot of the Curia Regis
or king's council. Previous to Magna Carta, the king's council,
especially that portion of it which was charged with the management of
judicial and revenue business, followed the king's person. This, as far
as private litigation was concerned, caused great inconvenience to the
unfortunate suitors whose plaints awaited the attention of the court,
for they had, of necessity, also to follow the king from place to place,
or lose the opportunity of having their causes tried. Accordingly, Magna
Carta enacted that common pleas (_communia placita_) or causes between
subject and subject, should be held in some fixed place and not follow
the court. This place was fixed at Westminster. The court was presided
over by a chief (_capitalis justiciarius de communi banco_) and four
puisne judges. The jurisdiction of the common pleas was, by the
Judicature Act 1873, vested in the king's bench division of the High
Court of Justice.

COMMONS,[1]

Early history.

the term for the lands held in commonalty, a relic of the system on
which the lands of England were for the most part cultivated during the
middle ages. The country was divided into vills, or townships--often,
though not necessarily, or always, coterminous with the parish. In each
stood a cluster of houses, a village, in which dwelt the men of the
township, and around the village lay the arable fields and other lands,
which they worked as one common farm. Save for a few small inclosures
near the village--for gardens, orchards or paddocks for young stock--the
whole township was free from permanent fencing. The arable lands lay