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share of the profits, without involving partnership liability. The contract must be in writing, and the lender ranks in a bankruptcy after other creditors. Commelyna'ceæ, an order of petaloid monocotyledons, all herbaceous, chiefly neotropical, of which a few species are cultivated in herbaceous borders on account of the beauty of their flowers, notably spiderwort, or Tradescantia (Virginica, and other species), Commelyna cœlestis, &c. Others are grown in hothouses, notably the peculiar Cochliostemma.

Commemoration, or ENCENIA, the great festival of the Oxford academic year, usually takes place on the third Wednesday after Trinity Sunday. It is of very ancient date, public exercises and recitations having been held from time immemorial in honour of the Act, or period when Masters of Arts and Doctors complete their degrees. The proceedings consist of a Latin oration in honour of founders and benefactors; the presentation of the honorary degree of D.C.L. to strangers eminent in science, politics, &c.; and the recitation of the Newdigate or English prize poem, the Latin prize poem, and the Latin and English prize essays. The more strictly academic and solemn portion of the proceedings was frequently wont to receive scanty attention from a great part of the audience; and the noisy humours of the gallery have often encroached on the stately periods of the public orator. In 1876 the undergraduates were removed from the special gallery they had hitherto occupied, and distributed amongst the general audience, which includes ladies and strangers as well as members of the university. Commencement' is the corresponding festival at Cambridge, where, however, it is of less general observance.

Commendam, an ancient manner of holding ecclesiastical benefices. When a living fell vacant by the preferment of its holder, it was commended by the crown to the care of a clerk, usually a bishop in one of the poorer sees, to hold till a proper pastor was provided for it. Such a living was called an ecclesia commendata, and was said to be held in commendam. A commendam in ecclesiastical law may be defined as the power of receiving and retaining a benefice contrary to positive law, by supreme authority. Holdings in commendam were abolished in 1836.-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 commendators for life, without any obligation to account. This abuse led in 1466 to a prohibition of all commendams except those granted by bishops for six months and under. See ABBOT. Commensalism (literally, at the same table'), the intimate, but never parasitic association of two different kinds of organisms, for the benefit of one, or very often of both. Of such advantageous partnerships there are so many different forms and degrees, that no precise definition of the term can be given. (1) Every one who has looked at shore animals must have observed how often mollusc shells, for instance, are covered with sponges, hydroids, worm-tubes, acorn-shells, and the like. But this is a purely external association, and depends simply on the fact that the shells afford convenient anchorage for the free-swimming embryos. In many cases no great advantage can accrue on either side. The habit is comparable to that of vegetable epiphytes upon trees. This grade might be spoken of as mainly external and unadvantageous association. (2) In other cases, however, the association, though probably accidental, brings its reward. When one sea-mat (Polyzoa) grows entangled with another of greater

COMMENSALISM

vigour, or when different kinds of polyps are similarly associated, and that is often, there may be distinct advantage to the weaker form, since without becoming a parasite it enjoys the privileges of a messmate. Or the advantage may take another form, when the associate is carried about by its bearer. Thus, Cirripedes are common upon whales, and have evidently an advantage both in security and continual freshness of feeding. ground over those which adhere to fixed objects. This grade might be distinguished as that of fixed external associates with the advantage on one side. (3) It is, however, evident that if a crab be covered with acorn-shells, or polyps, or sponges, there is no longer a one-sided, but a mutual advantage. It is well for the sedentary growth to be carried about continually to new pastures; but it is well also for the crab to be masked. Covered with a rich growth, either vegetable or animal, the crabs must appear all innocence, and like walking-woods of Birnam, can steal unnoticed upon their victims. A gasteropod may be similarly similar advantages. This grade may be described masked by polyps, and doubtless gives and reaps as that of fixed associates with mutual advantage, to this extent, at least, that the weaker animals are borne about, and the bearers are masked. (4) But a higher stage of fixed association is sometimes exhibited, that, namely, where the partnership is deliberate, where the masked bearer is Probably the most striking case of such deliberate not passively benefited, but is an active accomplice. partnership is that referred to (and illustrated) under the article ANEMONE-viz. the habit which some hermit crabs have of bearing about sea anemones on the mollusc shell which they inhabit, or even upon their claws. It would appear that in some cases the crustacean deliberately chooses its ally, induces it to fix itself on the shell or claw, and takes care not to leave it behind at the epochs of shell-changing. When deprived of its commensal, the crab is said to be restlessly ill at ease until another of the same species is forthcoming. Off some parts of the British coast, the beautiful sea-anemone (Adamsia palliata) is found enveloping the mollusc home of a hermit crab (Eupagurus prideauxii). The use of the sea-anemone as a mask, and also as equivalent to a stinging organ, is obvious enough, while the hermit crab returns the benefit by carrying about the sea-anemone and giving it a share of the spoil. This grade may therefore be described as deliberate partnership with mutual advantage.

So far only fixed commensals have been spoken of, but organisms may be constantly associated without being attached. Sometimes different organisms, both plant and animal, are found in almost constant association without any obvious connection obtaining between them. In many cases this companionship may be simply due to the fact that similar environmental conditions suit both. Small fishes are sometimes found as free commensals within sea-anemones; the Remora (q.v.) attaches itself temporarily to sharks and other fishes; the little crabs (Pinnotheres, &c.) found living freely inside various bivalves are probably true messmates, and similar habitual partnership is very common among crustaceans; a brittlestar is known to live as a free messmate on a crinoid; many worm-types are found in constant though free associations with other animals; and the same habit is exhibited by some Cœlenterates and Protozoa. Many of the insects which frequent plants are in strict sense commensals, feeding not on their hosts, but on other visitors, &c. In some cases they form an actual bodyguard.

Commensalism must, of course, be distinguished from Parasitism (q. v.), whether external or internal,

COMMENSURABLE

for in parasitism the one organism more or less directly preys upon the other. Yet it is evident that a commensal may readily degenerate into a parasite. Commensalism must also be distinguished from that most intimate kind of partnership known as Symbiosis (q.v.), and illustrated by the union of algoid and fungoid organisms to form a lichen, or by the occurrence of algae as constant internal associates of Radiolarians, some Colenterates, and some worm-types.

As part of the animate environment, commensals have influenced one another in very direct ways. See ENVIRONMENT; P. J. van Beneden's Animal Parasites and Messmates (1876); and Semper's Animal Life (1881).

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; or when both can be measured exactly by the same unit, however small.

Commentrey, a town in the French department of Allier, 211 miles S. of Paris by rail, is close to a great coal-field, and owes its rise to coal and iron works. Pop. 9316.

Commerce, CHAMBER OF. See CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, MERCANTILE LAW.-For the so-called Commercial System, see MERCANTILE SYSTEM.

Commercial Travellers. A commercial traveller (‘C.T.') is a person whose occupation is to transact business as the accredited travelling representative of a trading house to other trading houses. A further qualification is insisted upon by benevolent institutions connected with the body, in the rule that a traveller must have been on the road' for two years before he can claim benefit. A 'townsman or town traveller' is one who confines his efforts to a single town. In thirty years a fourfold increase in the number of commercial travellers is shown by the annexed statistics: In 1851 there were in England, 8378; in Scotland, 1017; in Ireland, 339; total, 9734. In 1881 there were in England, 35,570; in Scotland, 4793; in Ireland, 1558; total, 41,921. In the latter year, 878 of the total number were European foreigners; but at the present there is doubtless a much larger proportion. The death-rate of commercial travellers in 1881, though it shows a considerable improvement on that of 1871, was high (34 per 1000), or nearly 50 per cent. above that of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits. A very large proportion of deaths was due to diseases caused by intemperance. To this terrible Scourge must also be attributed the fact that the number of suicides is higher in this than in any occupation save one. Happily, of late years a marked improvement is noticeable, owing to the spread of temperance principles and an increased number of temperance hotels.

Of the later half of the 18th century in Britain 'many districts remained completely excluded, so that foreign products never reached them at all,' and 'even at the beginning of the 19th century the Yorkshire yeoman was ignorant of sugar, potatoes, and cotton.' It has been the work of the commercial traveller to materially assist in altering this state of things, and to bring about equality of distribution of produce, and corresponding equality of prices,' and generally to promote that facility of exchange which is the very soul of industry.' Commercial travelling in the specific sense is not an old institution. The commercial traveller,' bagman,' or 'rider' (in the United States, 'drummer') was the successor to the chapman' or travelling merchant, who carried with him not samples merely, but stock. Chaucer tells us that:

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The application of steam to machinery, the consequent rise of the factory system, increased facilities in banking, and improved means of locomotion, have made the commercial traveller an important factor in the commercial world. Within recent years a formidable competitor has entered the field in the person of the foreigner, whose superior education and commercial training have hitherto placed the British commercial traveller at a disadvantage. A further development of commercial travelling is before us; there is room especially for men possessing a thorough knowledge of foreign and colonial trade, and above all of modern languages.

There are several excellent institutions conof men like George Moore and George Stockdale. nected with the body, owing largely to the efforts

The Commercial Travellers' Schools for destitute

orphans and necessitous children were founded in

1845 the school at Pinner accommodates 360 children. The Commercial Travellers' Benevolent Institution was founded in 1849 for the relief of necessitous commercial travellers over the age of fifty-five years, being members, and for their widows. The relief is given in the form of an annuity of £50 to members, and £30 to their widows. The Commercial Travellers' Society of Scotland was founded in 1838 for the relief of members incapacitated by disease, accident, or infirmity, and for securing a payment at death. The British Commercial Travellers' Provident Society, like the last named, is based on the Friendly Societies Act. There is also a Commercial Travellers' Christian Association (1882); and the United Kingdom Commercial Travellers' Association (1883) has done good work in pushing forward hotel and railway reforms, and in promoting social intercourse among commercial travellers. A newspaper, On the Road, devoted entirely to the interests of commercial travellers, was established in 1883.

In the United States the number of commercial travellers has increased rapidly, till in 1890 it was computed that there were between 230,000 and 300,000. Amongst their benevolent associations are the Commercial Travellers' Association of New York (2000 members); the North-western Travelling Men's Association of Chicago (4000); one at St Louis (2100); an Order of Commercial Travellers, a secret society organised in 1888; also a Travellers' Protective Association (9000 members), for provid. ing against overcharges by railroads and hotels, &c. The organ of the travelling salesmen is The Merchant Traveller, published at Chicago.

Commination (Lat., 'threatening'), the 'denouncing of God's anger and judgments against sinners, read in the Anglican Church on AshWednesday (q.v.). A solemn service, at which penitents were expelled from the church, after instructions and prayers for their amendment, appears to have been held on the first day of Lent from a very early date, perhaps from the beginning of the 6th century; but the commination office used in the Church of England is rather a continuation of the medieval practice of reciting the articles of the sentence of cursing,' which were at one time read in the parish churches four times a year; only the opening exhortation to repentance was composed by the English Reformers. The present office is nearly the same as those found in the Sarum and York uses. The curses contained in Deut. xxvii. are read as statements, not as prayers; and the congregation answer 'Amen' to every sentence, as acknowledging the truth of what has been stated, rather than as confirming the curse. The American

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Prayer-book omits this office, but several prayers taken from it are appointed to be said on AshWednesday, at the end of the litany.

Commissariat is a name for the organised system whereby armies are provided with food, forage, fuel, quarters, and all other necessaries except warlike stores. In feudal times, soldiers were mainly dependent for food on their lords; but they lived very much by plunder. During the wars of the Crusades, the commissariat was so utterly neglected that thousands died of starvation. The first germ of the modern British commissariat appeared in the office of proviant-master in the time of Queen Elizabeth. Under Charles I., commis

saries were stationed in the different counties.

common.

Marlborough's troops were supplied by contract; he received a percentage, and peculation was very After many changes during the 18th century, a commissary-general was appointed in 1793 to superintend all contracts for food and forage, The dire experience of the Crimean war showed how inadequate the small existing establishment was to bear the strain of a campaign. In 1858 and 1859 the commissariat was newly organised; and remained, until 1870, a War-office department, under a commissary-general-in-chief.

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In 1870 it was merged with other supply depart ments in the great Control Department,' which, under the Surveyor-general of the Ordnance, performed all the civil administrative duties of the army, until its abolition in 1875. The 'Commissariat and Transport Department' was then formed, and administered by the Director of Supplies, an officer on the staff of the Surveyor-general at the War Office, the supply of warlike stores being placed under the Ordnance Store Department (q.v.). The reorganisation of the War Office in February 1888, while leaving the duties of these two departments unaltered, has placed them under the Quartermastergeneral. In India this has always been the case so far as the commissariat is concerned, which is officered by appointments from the combatant branch. The present British staff consists of 2 commissaries-general ranking as major-general, 10 deputy-commissaries-general with honorary rank of colonel, 62 assistant and 111 deputy-assistant commissaries-general with honorary rank of major and captain respectively, 40 quartermasters (honorary lieutenants), 3 adjutants, 1 paymaster, and 2 riding-masters. Their pay varies from 9s. 6d. a day in the lowest ranks to £1500 a year in the highest. There are 37 companies, having each a peace establishment of 2 officers, 123 of other ranks, 63 horses, and 12 wagons.

The war establishment laid down in 1888 for a commissariat and transport company with an infantry brigade is 5 officers, 192 non-commissioned officers and men, and 234 horses, and if with the headquarters of a division of infantry, 7 officers, 157 of other ranks, and 184 horses. The establishment for an Army Corps (q.v.) in the field, with three days' rations for the men, and two days' forage for the horses, is 60 officers, 2494 non-commissioned officers and men, 2796 horses, and 438 carriages. The wagons of the Army Medical and Ordnance Store Departments are horsed by the Transport Department. Camp equipment, fuel, forage, food, &c. are supplied by the commissariat, the actual cooking being done by the regimental cooks. Clothing is supplied by the government factory at Pimlico, and, like all other stores, brought to the army, if in the field, by the transport branch of this very important department.

The Indian commissariat is, as indicated above, a local department, varying in strength with the requirements of the moment. There is also a sinal local staff of 1 commissary, 3 deputies, and 1 assistant on the west coast of Africa.

COMMISSION

In the United States the army commissariat is administered by a commissary-general of subsistence, having the rank of brigadier-general; five assistant commissary-generals, ranking as colonels and lieutenant-colonels; eight commissioners of subsistence, ranking as majors, and twelve as captains. Their salaries are from $5500 to $2000.

the power and authority of another is committed. Commissary, in general, is any one to whom An ecclesiastical commissary is an officer of the bishop, who exercises spiritual jurisdiction in distant parts of the diocese. A military commissary is an officer charged with furnishing provisions and clothes to an army.

When the papal authority was abolished in Scotland, a supreme commissary court was established This court had jurisdiction in actions of divorce, in Edinburgh in 1563, by a grant of Queen Mary. declarators of marriage, nullity of marriage, and all actions which originally belonged to the bishops' ecclesiastical courts. conjoined with those of the Court of Session, and Its powers were gradually it was finally abolished in 1836, the small remains of its once important jurisdiction being united in the sheriff of Edinburgh. See Alexander on (1858), and Fraser on Husband and Wife. Practice of the Commissary Courts in Scotland

Commission. As a commercial term, commission is sometimes taken to be synonymous with Brokerage, but there is a distinction. Brokerage is the percentage paid to a passive intermediary in a transaction, who incurs no responsibility; commission is the percentage paid to an active agent in a transaction, who usually does incur some pecuniary and always some moral responsibility.

A commission as a certificate of rank is granted by the highest authority of a state. All military and naval commissions in Britain must be signed by the sovereign: but in the United States a commission may be issued by a governor of a state as well as by the president of the republic, commissions in the volunteers (or militia) being gener. ally granted by state governors. The appointment of justices of the peace in the United Kingdom is also made by a commission of the peace,' issued under the great seal. The great seal itself is in charge of a Lord-keeper, but is put into commission' when a change of ministers is taking place. This means that certain persons are appointed to exercise jointly, but without individual powers, the functions of the office. Another instance of the functions of a great public officer being delegated to others 'in commission' is that of the Lord High Admiral, who formerly had control of all naval affairs. This, however, is a permanent commission, although commissioners of Lords of the Admiralty change with every change of the ministry. An office in commission is an office in suspense. Yet, curiously enough, the phrase has a directly opposite meaning in naval affairs, for when a ship is ordered to be placed in commission,' it means that she shall be fully equipped and prepared for active service.

Permanent commissions are also constituted, not merely for the delegation of existing duties, but also for the execution of duties with which no person had been previously charged. As instances we may take the Civil Service Commission in 1855 (see CIVIL SERVICE); the Railway Commission, appointed in 1873 to carry out the act for the better regulation of railways passed in 1854, and to otherwise act as a sort of court of arbitration or appeal in disputes between railway companies; the Irish Land Commission, appointed to carry out some of the provisions regulating the land laws in Ireland; the Crofters Commission, appointed for five years from 1886 to fix fair rents for the Scotch

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