F JULIUS CAESAR, his memoirs of the Gallic and Civil
Wars, reckoned the most perfect model of narration that in such
circumstances was ever written, and a masterpiece.

COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY, a committee of nine created by the
French Convention, April 6, 1793, to concentrate the power of the
executive, "the conscience of Marat, who could see salvation in one thing
only, in the fall of 260,000 aristocrats' heads"; notable, therefore, for
its excesses in that line; was not suppressed till Oct. 19, 1796, on the
advent of the Directory to power.

COM`MODUS, LUCIUS AURELIUS, Roman emperor, son and successor of
Marcus Aurelius; carefully trained, but on his father's death threw up
the reins and gave himself over to every form of licentiousness; poison
administered by his mistress Marcia being slow in operating, he was
strangled to death by a hired athlete in 162.

COMMON LAW is law established by usage and confirmed by judicial
decision.

COMMON-SENSE, PHILOSOPHY OF, the philosophy which rests on the
principle that the perceptions of the senses reflect things as they
actually are irrespectively of them.

COMMUNE, THE, a revolutionary power installed in Paris after the
"admonitory" insurrection of March 18, 1871, and overthrown in the end of
May.

COMMUNISM, community of property in a State.

COMNE`NUS, name of a dynasty of six emperors of Constantinople.

COMO, LAKE OF, one of the chief lakes of Lombardy and the third in
size, at the foot of the Pennine Alps, 80 m. long and 21/2 at greatest
breadth; is traversed by the Adda, and is famed for the beauty and rich
variety of its scenery.

COMORIN, CAPE, a low sandy point, the most southerly of India, from
which the seaman is beckoned off by a peak 18 m. inland.

COMORO ISLES (63), an archipelago of four volcanic islands at the N.
of the channel of Mozambique; under the protectorate of France since
1886; the people are Mohammedans, and speak Arabic.

COMPARETTI, an Italian philologist; his writings are numerous; _b_.
1835.

COMPIEGNE (14), a quiet old town in the dep. of Oise, 50 m. NE. of
Paris; has some fine old churches, but the chief edifice is the palace,
built by St. Louis and rebuilt by Louis XIV., where the marriage of
Napoleon to Maria Louisa was celebrated; here Joan of Arc was made
prisoner in 1430, and Louis Napoleon had hunting ground.

COMPTON, HENRY, bishop of London, son of the Earl of Northampton;
fought bravely for