e conclusion is inevitable, that not one
acre of common land within an easy railway journey of the metropolis can
be spared.

AUTHORITIES.--Marshall, _Elementary and Practical Treatise on Landed
Property_ (London, 1804); F. W. Maitland, _Domesday Book and Beyond_
(Cambridge, 1897); _Borough and Township_ (Cambridge, 1898); F.
Seebohm, _The English Village Community_ (London, 1883); Williams,
Joshua, _Rights of Common_ (London, 1880); C. I. Elton, _A Treatise on
Commons and Waste Lands_ (1868); T. E. Scrutton, _On Commons and
Common Fields_ (1887); H. R. Woolrych, _Rights of Common_ (1850); G.
Shaw-Lefevre, _English Commons and Forests_ (London, 1894); Sir W.
Hunter, _The Preservation of Open Spaces_ (London, 1896); "The
Movements for the Inclosure and Preservation of Open Lands," _Journal
of the Royal Statistical Society_, vol. lx. part ii. (June 1897);
_Returns to House of Commons_ (1843), No. 325; (1870), No. 326;
(1874), No. 85; _Return of Landowners_ (1875); _Annual Reports of
Inclosure Commission and Board of Agriculture_; Revised Statutes and
Statutes at large. (R. H.*)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For the commons (_communitates_) in a socio-political sense see
REPRESENTATION and PARLIAMENT.

[2] There is an entry on the court rolls of the manor of Wimbledon of
the division amongst the inhabitants of the vill of the crab-apples
growing on the common.

COMMONWEALTH, a term generally synonymous with commonweal, i.e. public
welfare, but more particularly signifying a form of government in which
the general public have a direct voice. "The Commonwealth" is used in a
special sense to denote the period in English history between the
execution of Charles I. in 1649 and the Restoration in 1660.
Commonwealth is also the official designation in America of the states
of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. The Commonwealth
of Australia is the title of the federation of Australian colonies
carried out in 1900.

COMMUNE (Med. Lat. _communia_, Lat. _communis_, common), in its most
general sense, a group of persons acting together for purposes of
self-government, especially in towns. (See BOROUGH, and COMMUNE,
MEDIEVAL, below.) "Commune" (Fr. _commune_, Ital. _comune_, Ger.
_Gemeinde_, &c.) is now the term generally applied to the smallest
administrative division in many European countries. (See the sections
dealing with the administration of these countr