COMMON, that which belongs as a priv ilege or right equally to more than one, to many, or to the public at large; free to all; general; universal; public; having no separate owner; as, the common weal. In Scotts Law, common good, taken in its widest sense, signified all the properties of a corporation over which the magistrates had a power of administration "solely for hehoof of the corporation.* In the sense of that which is for the general public the Court of Common Pleas is often called the 'Common Bench.* "In common• has the legal sense of equal with another or with others, or for equal use or' participation by two or more. Hence the old expression "tenants in common° which is still in use.
The word is also applied to an open and' (generally) unenclosed space, the use of which is not restricted to any individual, but is free to the public or to a certain number. In most
of the cities and towns in the United States there are considerable tracts of land appro priated to public use. These commons were generally laid out with the cities or towns where they are found, either by the original pro pnetors or bv the early. inhabitants.
In logic the word is applied to terms or names, in opposition to individual, singular or proper. "'Common terms, therefore, are called (predicables) (namely, affirmatively predicable), from their capability- of being affirmed of others; a singular term, on the contrary, may be the subject of a proposition, but never the predi cate unless it be of a negative proposition (as for example, the first-born of Isaac was not Jacob); or, unless the subject and predicate be only two expressions for the same individual object, as in some of the above instances."