them into money, they must, within twelve months after the issuing of the commission, give twenty-one days notice to the creditors, of a meeting for a dividend, or distribution, at which time they are to produce their accounts, and verify them on oath, if required. A dividend of so much in the pound is then to be made equally and rateably to all who have already ascertained, or may then prove, their debts. Within eighteen months after the commission issued, a second and final dividend is to be made, unless all the effects were exhausted by the first. And if any surplus remain after satisfying all the creditors, it shall be restored to the bankrupt.
For a more complete account of the law now in force relative to bankrupts, we refer our readers to Mr. Cooke's Bankrupt Laws, 8vo. 2 vols. 16s. and to Mr. Cullen's Principles of Bankrupt Law, 8vo. 10s. 6d. in which the provisions of the legislature, and the judicial decisions, are fully and perspicuously stated.
COMMONS are waste lands or pastures, the use of which is common to the villages or towns in their vicinity.
Commons are certainly of considerable utility in their present state, if they be not too extensive. The poor may derive some benefit from them, without depriving the community of their labour; but when they extend to eight or ten miles in a straight line, and the surrounding country is but thinly inhabited, we conceive them to be extremely hurtful to society; inasmuch as they hold forth an irresistible temptation to sloth and idleness. Although they furnish pasture for a great number of sheep and young cattle, yet we doubt whether this advantage is not overbalanced by the loss which the nation necessarily sustains in being deprived of the labour of numerous persons, to whom they present the means of leading an idle life, and often wasting that time which might be occupied by more useful pursuits. Hence we devoutly hope, that a more general inclosure of the most extensive commons will soon be adopted; a measure which cannot fail to excite a spirit of emulation and improvement among the lower classes, and thus effectually to eradicate habits of indolence. And, if only one-third of such lands could be cultivated to raise grain, we may venture to say, that one acre, so employed, would produce more food than ten acres afford in their present state.
Independently of the great addition to the national wealth, such an inclosure will necessarily prove the means of employing many poor persons, who are starving for want of work, in various distant parts of the kingdom; while, the worthless and profligate consumers, especially from large cities, may, by the wisdom of the legislature, be thus reclaimed, and become useful members of that society, to which they have hitherto been a pest, and a burthen. See Farms.
COMPASS, is an instrument of considerable utility fur surveying land, dialling, &c. Its structure varies but little from that of the mariners' compass; for, instead of the needle being fitted into the card and playing on a pivot, in this instrument it plays alone; the card being drawn on the bottom of the box, and a circle divided into 300 degrees on the limb. It is
