Chapter XVI: Act 1899: are other codes of law designed for incorporation in special (2)

The Arabic geographer, Edrisi, who lived about 1100, is said by Boucher to give an account, though in a confused manner, of the polarity of the magnet (Hallam, _Mid. Ages_, vol. iii. chap. 9, part 2); but the earliest definite mention as yet known of the use of the mariner's compass in the middle ages occurs in a treatise entitled _De utensilibus_, written by Alexander Neckam in the 12th century. He speaks there of a needle carried on board ship which, being placed on a pivot, and allowed to take its own position of repose, shows mariners their course when the polar star is hidden. In another work, _De naturis rerum_, lib. ii. c. 89, he writes,--"Mariners at sea, when, through cloudy weather in the day which hides the sun, or through the darkness of the night, they lose the knowledge of the quarter of the world to which they are sailing, touch a needle with the magnet, which will turn round till, on its motion ceasing, its point will be directed towards the north" (W. Chappell, _Nature_, No. 346, June 15, 1876). The magnetical needle, and its suspension on a stick or straw in water, are clearly described in _La Bible Guiot_, a poem probably of the 13th century, by Guiot de Provins, wherein we are told that through the magnet (_la manette_ or _l'amaniere_), an ugly brown stone to which iron turns of its own accord, mariners possess an art that cannot fail them. A needle touched by it, and floated by a stick on water, turns its point towards the pole-star, and a light being placed near the needle on dark nights, the proper course is known (_Hist. litteraire de la France_, tom. ix. p. 199; Barbazan, _Fabliaux_, tom. ii. p. 328). Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, bishop of Acon in Palestine, in his _History_ (cap. 89), written about the year 1218, speaks of the magnetic needle as "most necessary for such as sail the sea";[1] and another French crusader, his contemporary, Vincent de Beauvais, states that the adamant (lodestone) is found in Arabia, and mentions a method of using a needle magnetized by it which is similar to that described by Kibdjaki. In 1248 Hugo de Bercy notes a change in the construction of compasses, which are now supported on two floats in a glass cup. From quotations given by Antonio Capmany (_Questiones Criticas_) from the _De contemplatione_ of Raimon Lull, of the date 1272, it appears that the latter was well acquainted with the use of the magnet at sea;[2] and before the middle of the 13th century Gauthier d'Espinois alludes to its polarity, as if generally known, in the lines:--

"Tous autresi comme l'aimant decoit [detourne]
L'aiguillette par force de vertu,
A ma dame tor le mont [monde] retenue
Qui sa beaute connoit et apercoit."

Guido Guinizzelli, a poet of the same period, writes:--"In those parts under the north are the mountains of lodestone, which give the virtue to the air of attracting iron; but because it [the lodestone] is far off, [it] wishes to have the help of a similar stone to make it [the virtue] work, and to direct the needle towards the star."[3] Brunetto Latini also makes reference to the compass in his encyclopaedia _Livres dou tresor_, composed about 1260 (Livre i. pt. ii. ch. cxx.):--"Por ce nagent li marinier a l'enseigne des estoiles qui i sont, que il apelent tramontaines, et les gens qui sont en Europe et es parties deca nagent a la tramontaine de septentrion, et li autre nagent a cele de midi. Et qui n'en set la verite, praigne une pierre d'aimant, et troverez que ele a ij faces: l'une qui gist vers l'une tramontaine, et l'autre gist vers l'autre. Et a chascune des ij faces la pointe d'une aguille vers cele tramontaine a cui cele face gist. Et por ce seroient li marinier deceu se il ne se preissent garde" (p. 147, Paris edition, 1863). Dante (_Paradiso_, xii. 28-30) mentions the pointing of the magnetic needle toward the pole star. In Scandinavian records there is a reference to the nautical use of the magnet in the _Hauksbok_, the last edition of the _Landnamabok_ (Book of the Colonization of Iceland):--"Floki, son of Vilgerd, instituted a great sacrifice, and consecrated three ravens which should show him the way (to Iceland); for at that time no men sailing the high seas had lodestones up in northern lands."

Haukr Erlendsson, who wrote this paragraph about 1300, died in 1334; his edition was founded on material in two earlier works, that of Styrmir Karason (who died 1245), which is lost, and that of Hurla Thordson (died 1284) which has no such paragraph. All that is certain is a knowledge of the nautical use of the magnet at the end of the 13th century. From T. Torfaeus we learn that the compass, fitted into a box, was already in use among the Norwegians about the middle of the 13th century (_Hist. rer. Norvegicarum_, iv. c. 4, p. 345, Hafniae, 1711); and it is probable that the use of the magnet at sea was known in Scotland at or shortly subsequent to that time, though King Robert, in crossing from Arran to Carrick in 1306, as Barbour writing in 1375 informs us, "na nedill had na stane," but steered by a fire on the shore. Roger Bacon (_Opus majus_ and _Opus minus_, 1266-1267) was acquainted with the properties of the lodestone, and wrote that if set so that it can turn freely (swimming on water) it points toward the poles; but he stated that this was not due to the pole-star, but to the influence of the northern region of the heavens.

The earliest unquestionable description of a pivoted compass is that contained in the remarkable _Epistola de magnete_ of Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt, written at Lucera in 1269 to Sigerus de Foncaucourt. (First printed edition Augsburg, 1558. See also Bertelli in Boncompagni's _Bollettino di bibliografia_, t. i., or S. P. Thompson in _Proc. British Academy_, vol. ii.) Of this work twenty-eight MSS. exist; seven of them being at Oxford. The first part of the epistle deals generally with magnetic attractions and repulsions, with the polarity of the stone, and with the supposed influence of the poles of the heavens upon the poles of the stone. In the second part Peregrinus describes first an improved floating compass with fiducial line, a circle graduated with 90 degrees to each quadrant, and provided with movable sights for taking bearings. He then describes a new compass with a needle thrust through a pivoted axis, placed in a box with transparent cover, cross index of brass or silver, divided circle, and an external "rule" or alhidade provided with a pair of sights. In the Leiden MS. of this work, which for long was erroneously ascribed to one Peter Adsiger, is a spurious passage, long believed to mention the variation of the compass.

Prior to this clear description of a pivoted compass by Peregrinus in 1269, the Italian sailors had used the floating magnet, probably introduced into this region of the Mediterranean by traders belonging to the port of Amalfi, as commemorated in the line of the poet Panormita:--

"Prima dedit nautis usum magnetis Amalphis."

This opinion is supported by the historian Flavius Blondus in his _Italia illustrata_, written about 1450, who adds that its certain origin is unknown. In 1511 Baptista Pio in his _Commentary_ repeats the opinion as to the invention of the use of the magnet at Amalfi as related by Flavius. Gyraldus, writing in 1540 (_Libellus de re nautica_), misunderstanding this reference, declared that this observation of the direction of the magnet to the poles had been handed down as discovered "by a certain Flavius." From this passage arose a legend, which took shape only in the 17th century, that the compass was invented in the year 1302 by a person to whom was given the fictitious name of Flavio Gioja, of Amalfi.

From the above it will have been evident that, as Barlowe remarks concerning the compass, "the lame tale of one Flavius at Amelphus, in the kingdome of Naples, for to have devised it, is of very slender probabilitie"; and as regards the assertion of Dr Gilbert, of Colchester (_De magnete_, p. 4, 1600), that Marco Polo introduced the compass into Italy from the East in 1260,[4] we need only quote the words of Sir H. Yule (_Book of Marco Polo_):--"Respecting the mariner's compass and gunpowder, I shall say nothing, as no one now, I believe, imagines Marco to have had anything to do with their introduction."

When, and by whom, the compass card was added is a matter of conjecture. Certainly the _Rosa Ventorum_, or _Wind-rose_, is far older than the compass itself; and the naming of the eight principal "winds" goes back to the Temple of the Winds in Athens built by Andronicus Cyrrhestes. The earliest known wind-roses on the _portulani_ or sailing charts of the Mediterranean pilots have almost invariably the eight principal points marked with the initials of the principal winds, Tramontano, Greco, Levante, Scirocco, Ostro, Africo (or Libeccio), Ponente and Maestro, or with a cross instead of L, to mark the east point. The north point, indicated in some of the oldest compass cards with a broad arrow-head or a spear, as well as with a T for Tramontano, gradually developed by a combination of these, about 1492, into a _fleur de lis_, still universal. The cross at the east continued even in British compasses till about 1700. Wind-roses with these characteristics are found in Venetian and Genoese charts of early 14th century, and are depicted similarly by the Spanish navigators. The naming of the intermediate subdivisions making up the thirty-two points or rhumbs of the compass card is probably due to Flemish navigators; but they were recognized even in the time of Chaucer, who in 1391 wrote, "Now is thin Orisonte departed in xxiiii partiez by thi azymutz, in significacion of xxiiii partiez of the world: al be it so that ship men rikne thilke partiez in xxxii" (_Treatise on the Astrolabe_, ed. Skeat, Early English Text Soc., London, 1872). The mounting of the card upon the needle or "flie," so as to turn with it, is probably of Amalphian origin. Da Buti, the Dante commentator, in 1380 says the sailors use a compass at the middle of which is pivoted a wheel of light paper to turn on its pivot, on which wheel the needle is fixed and the star (wind-rose) painted. The placing of the card at the bottom of the box, fixed, below the needle, was practised by the compass-makers of Nuremberg in the 16th century, and by Stevinus of Bruges about 1600. The gimbals or rings for suspension hinged at right-angles to one another, have been erroneously attributed to Cardan, the proper term being _cardine_, that is hinged or pivoted. The earliest description of them is about 1604. The term _binnacle_, originally _bittacle_, is a corruption of the Portuguese abitacolo, to denote the housing enclosing the compass, probably originating with the Portuguese navigators.

The improvement of the compass has been but a slow process. _The Libel of English Policie_, a poem of the first half of the 15th century, says with reference to Iceland (chap. x.)--

"Out of Bristowe, and costes many one,
Men haue practised by nedle and by stone
Thider wardes within a litle while."

Hakluyt, _Principal Navigations_, p. 201 (London, 1599).

From this it would seem that the compasses used at that time by English mariners were of a very primitive description. Barlowe, in his treatise _Magnetical Advertisements_, printed in 1616 (p. 66), complains that "the Compasse needle, being the most admirable and usefull instrument of the whole world, is both amongst ours and other nations for the most part, so bungerly and absurdly contrived, as nothing more." The form he recommends for the needle is that of "a true circle, having his Axis going out beyond the circle, at each end narrow and narrower, unto a reasonable sharpe point, and being pure steele as the circle it selfe is, having in the middest a convenient receptacle to place the capitell in." In 1750 Dr Gowan Knight found that the needles of merchant-ships were made of two pieces of steel bent in the middle and united in the shape of a rhombus, and proposed to substitute straight steel bars of small breadth, suspended edgewise and hardened throughout. He also showed that the Chinese mode of suspending the needle conduces most to sensibility. In 1820 Peter Barlow reported to the Admiralty that half the compasses in the British Navy were mere lumber and ought to be destroyed. He introduced a pattern having four or five parallel straight strips of magnetized steel fixed under a card, a form which remained the standard admiralty type until the introduction of the modern Thomson (Kelvin) compass in 1876. (F. H. B.; S. P. T.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Adamas in India reperitur ... Ferrum occulta quadam natura ad se
trahit. Acus ferrea postquam adamantem contigerit, ad stellam
septentrionalem ... semper convertitur, unde valde necessarius est
navigantibus in mari.

[2] Sicut acus per naturam vertitur ad septentrionem dum sit tacta a
magnete.--Sicut acus nautica dirigit marinarios in sua navigatione.

[3] Ginguene, _Hist. lit. de l'Italie_, t. i. p. 413.

[4] "According to all the texts he returned to Venice in 1295 or, as
is more probable, in 1296."--Yule.

COMPASS PLANT, a native of the North American prairies, which takes its name from the position assumed by the leaves. These turn their edges to north and south, thus avoiding the excessive mid-day heat, while getting the full benefit of the morning and evening rays. The plant is known botanically as _Silphium laciniatum_, and belongs to the natural order Compositae. Another member of the same order, _Lactuca Scariola_, which has been regarded as the origin of the cultivated lettuce (_L. sativa_), behaves in the same way when growing in dry exposed places; it is a native of Europe and northern Asia which has got introduced into North America.

COMPAYRE, JULES GABRIEL (1843- ), French educationalist, was born at Albi. He entered the Ecole Normale Superieure in 1862 and became professor of philosophy. In 1876 he was appointed professor in the Faculty of Letters of Toulouse, and upon the creation of the Ecole normale d'institutrices at Fontenay aux Roses he became teacher of pedagogy (1880). From 1881 to 1889 he was deputy for Lavaur in the chamber, and took an active part in the discussions on public education. Defeated at the elections of 1889, he was appointed rector of the academy of Poitiers in 1890, and five years later to the academy of Lyons. His principal publications are his _Histoire critique des doctrines de l'education en France_ (1879); _Elements d'education civique_ (1881), a work placed on the index at Rome, but very widely read in the primary schools of France; _Cours de pedagogie theorique et pratique_ (1885, 13th ed., 1897); _The Intellectual and Moral Development of the Child_, in English (2 vols., New York, 1896-1902); and a series of monographs on _Les Grands Educateurs_.

COMPENSATION (from Lat. _compensare_, to weigh one thing against another), a term applied in English law to a number of different forms of legal reparation; e.g. under the Forfeiture Act 1870 (s. 4), for loss of property caused by felony, or--under the Riot (Damages) Act 1886--to persons whose property has been stolen, destroyed or injured by rioters (see RIOT). It is due, under the Agricultural Holdings Acts 1883-1906, for agricultural improvements (see LANDLORD AND TENANT; cf. also Allotments and Small Holdings), and under the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906 to workmen, in respect of accidents in the course of their employment (see EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY); and under the Licensing Act 1904, to the payments to be made on the extinction of licences to sell intoxicants. The term "Compensation water" is used to describe the water given from a reservoir in compensation for water abstracted from a stream, under statutory powers, in connexion with public works (see WATER SUPPLY). As to the use of the word "compensation" in horology, see CLOCK; WATCH.

Compensation, in its most familiar sense, is however a _nomen juris_ for the reparation or satisfaction made to the owners of property which is taken by the state or by local authorities or by the promoters of parliamentary undertakings, under statutory authority, for public purposes. There are two main legal theories on which such appropriation of private property is justified. The American may be taken as a representative illustration of the one, and the English of the other. Though not included in the definition of "eminent domain," the necessity for compensation is recognized as incidental to that power. (See Eminent Domain, under which the American law of compensation, and the closely allied doctrine of _expropriation pour cause d'utilite_ publique of French law, and the law of other continental countries, are discussed.) The rule of English constitutional law, on the other hand, is that the property of the citizen cannot be seized for purposes which are really "public" without a fair pecuniary equivalent being given to him; and, as the money for such compensation must come from parliament, the practical result is that the seizure can only be effected under legislative authority. An action for illegal interference with the property of the subject is not maintainable against officials of the crown or government sued in their official capacity or as an official body. But crown officials may be sued in their individual capacity for such interference, even if they acted with the authority of the government (cp. _Raleigh_ v. _Goschen_ [1898], 1 Ch. 73).

_Law of England._--Down to 1845 every act authorizing the purchase of lands had, in addition to a number of common form clauses, a variety of special clauses framed with a view to meeting the particular circumstances with which it dealt. In 1845, however, a statute based on the recommendations of a select committee, appointed in the preceding year, was passed; the object being to diminish the bulk of the special acts, and to introduce uniformity into private bill legislation by classifying the common form clauses, embodying them in general statutes, and facilitating their incorporation into the special statutes by reference. The statute by which this change was initiated was the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act 1845; and the policy has been continued by a series of later statutes which, together with the act of 1845, are now grouped under the generic title of the Lands Clauses Acts.

The public purposes for which lands are taken are threefold. Certain public departments, such as the war office and the admiralty, may acquire lands for national purposes (see the Defence Acts 1842 to 1873; and the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act 1860, s. 7). Local authorities are enabled to exercise similar powers for an enormous variety of municipal purposes, e.g. the housing of the working classes, the improvement of towns, and elementary and secondary education. Lastly, the promoters of public undertakings of a commercial character, such as railways and harbours, carry on their operations under statutes in which the provisions of the Lands Clauses Acts are incorporated.

Lands may be taken under the Lands Clauses Acts either by agreement or compulsorily. The first step in the proceedings is a "notice to treat," or intimation by the promoters of their readiness to purchase the land, coupled with a demand for particulars as to the estate and the interests in it. The landowner on whom the notice is served may meet it by agreeing to sell, and the terms may then be settled by consent of the parties themselves, or by arbitration, if they decide to have recourse to that mode of adjusting the difficulty. If the property claimed is a house, or other building or manufactory, the owner has a statutory right to require the promoters by a counternotice to take the whole, even although a part would serve their purpose. This rule, however, is, in modern acts, often modified by special clauses. On receipt of the counter-notice the promoters must either assent to the requirement contained in it, or abandon their notice to treat. On the other hand, if the landowner fails within twenty-one days after receipt of the notice to treat to give the particulars which it requires, the promoters may proceed to exercise their compulsory powers and to obtain assessment of the compensation to be paid. As a general rule, it is a condition precedent to the exercise of these powers by a company that the capital of the undertaking should be fully subscribed. Compensation, under the Lands Clauses Acts, is assessed in four different modes:--(1) by justices, where the claim does not exceed L50, or a claimant who has no greater interest than that of a tenant for a year, or from year to year, is required to give up possession before the expiration of his tenancy; (2) by arbitration (a) when the claim exceeds L50, and the claimant desires arbitration, and the interest is not a yearly tenancy, (b) when the amount has been ascertained by a surveyor, and the claimant is dissatisfied, (c) when superfluous lands are to be sold, and the parties entitled to pre-emption and the promoters cannot agree as to the price. (Lands become "superfluous" if taken compulsorily on an erroneous estimate of the area needed, or if part only was needed and the owner compelled the promoters under the power above mentioned to take the whole, or in cases of abandonment); (3) by a jury, when the claim exceeds L50, and (a) the claimant does not signify his desire for arbitration, or no award has been made within the prescribed time, or (b) the claimant applies in writing for trial by jury; (4) by surveyors, nominated by justices, where the owner is under disability, or does not appear at the appointed time, or the claim is in respect of commonable rights, and a committee has not been appointed to treat with the promoters.

Promoters are not allowed without the consent of the owner to enter upon lands which are the subject of proceedings under the Lands Clauses Acts, except for the purpose of making a survey, unless they have executed a statutory bond and made a deposit, at the Law Courts Branch of the Bank of England, as security for the performance of the conditions of the bond.

_Measure of Value._--(1) Where land is taken, the basis on which compensation is assessed is the commercial value of the land to the owner at the date of the notice to treat. Potential value may be taken into account, and also good-will of the property in a business. This rule, however, excludes any consideration of the principle of "betterment." (2) Where land, although not taken, is "injuriously affected" by the works of the promoters, compensation is payable for loss or damage resulting from any act, legalized by the promoters' statutory powers, which would otherwise have been actionable, or caused by the execution (not the use) of the works authorized by the undertaking.

The following examples of how land may be "injuriously affected," so as to give a right to compensation under the acts, may be given:--narrowing or obstructing a highway which is the nearest access to the lands in question; interference with a right of way; substantial interference with ancient lights; noise of children outside a board school.

_Scotland and Ireland._--The Lands Clauses Act 1845 extends to Ireland. There is a Scots enactment similar in character (Lands Clauses [Scotland] Act 1845). The principles and practice of the law of compensation are substantially the same throughout the United Kingdom.

_India and the British Colonies._--Legislation analogous to the Lands Clauses Acts is in force in India (Land Acquisition Act 1894 [Act I of 1894]) and in most of the colonies (see western Australia, Lands Resumption Act 1894 [58 Vict. No. 33], Victoria, Lands Compensation Act 1890 [54 Vict. No. 1109]; New Zealand, Public Works Act 1894 [58 Vict. No. 42]; Ontario [Revised Stats. 1897, c. 37]).

AUTHORITIES.--_English Law_: Balfour Browne and Allan, _Compensation_
(2nd ed., London, 1903); Cripps, _Compensation_ (5th edition, London,
1905); Hudson, _Compensation_ (London, 1906); Boyle and Waghorn,
_Compensation_ (London, 1903); Lloyd, _Compensation_ (6th ed. by
Brooks, London, 1895); Clifford, _Private Bill Legislation_, London,
1885 (vol. i.), 1887 (vol. ii.) _Scots Law_: Deas, _Law of Railways in
Scotland_ (ed. by Ferguson; Edinburgh, 1897); Rankine, _Law of
Landownership_ (3rd ed., 1891). (A. W. R.)

COMPIEGNE, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Oise, 52 m. N.N.E. of Paris on the Northern railway between Paris and St Quentin. Pop. (1906) 14,052. The town, which is a favourite summer resort, stands on the north-west border of the forest of Compiegne and on the left bank of the Oise, less than 1 m. below its confluence with the Aisne. The river is crossed by a bridge built in the reign of Louis XV. The Rue Solferino, a continuation of the bridge ending at the Place de l'Hotel de Ville, is the busy street of the town; elsewhere, except on market days, the streets are quiet. The hotel de ville, with a graceful facade surmounted by a lofty belfry, is in the late Gothic style of the early 16th century and was completed in modern times. Of the churches, St Antoine (13th and 16th centuries) with some fine Renaissance stained glass, and St Jacques (13th and 15th centuries), need alone be mentioned. The remains of the ancient abbey of St Corneille are used as a military storehouse. Compiegne, from a very early period until 1870, was the occasional residence of the French kings. Its palace, one of the most magnificent structures of its kind, was erected, chiefly by Louis XV. and Louis XVI., on the site of a chateau of King Charles V. of France. It now serves as an art museum. It has two facades, one overlooking the Place du Palais and the town, the other, more imposing, facing towards a fine park and the forest, which is chiefly of oak and beech and covers over 36,000 acres. Compiegne is the seat of a subprefect, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a communal college, library and hospital. The industries comprise boat-building, rope-making, steam-sawing, distilling and the manufacture of chocolate, machinery and sacks and coarse coverings, and at Margny, a suburb, there are manufactures of chemicals and felt hats. Asparagus is cultivated in the environs. There is considerable trade in timber and coal, chiefly river-borne.

Compiegne, or as it is called in the Latin chronicles, Compendium, seems originally to have been a hunting-lodge of the early Frankish kings. It was enriched by Charles the Bald with two castles, and a Benedictine abbey dedicated to Saint Corneille, the monks of which retained down to the 18th century the privilege of acting for three days as lords of Compiegne, with full power to release prisoners, condemn the guilty, and even inflict sentence of death. It was in Compiegne that King Louis I. the Debonair was deposed in 833; and at the siege of the town in 1430 Joan of Arc was taken prisoner by the English. A monument to her faces the hotel de ville. In 1624 the town gave its name to a treaty of alliance concluded by Richelieu with the Dutch; and it was in the palace that Louis XV. gave welcome to Marie Antoinette, that Napoleon I. received Marie Louise of Austria, that Louis XVIII. entertained the emperor Alexander of Russia, and that Leopold I., king of the Belgians, was married to the princess Louise. In 1814 Compiegne offered a stubborn resistance to the Prussian troops. Under Napoleon III. it was the annual resort of the court during the hunting season. From 1870 to 1871 it was one of the headquarters of the German army.

COMPLEMENT (Lat. _complementum_, from _complere_, to fill up), that which fills up or completes anything, e.g. the number of men necessary to man a ship. In geometry, the complement of an angle is the difference between the angle and a right angle; the complements of a parallelogram are formed by drawing parallel to adjacent sides of a parallelogram two lines intersecting on a diagonal; four parallelograms are thus formed, and the two not about the diagonal of the original parallelogram are the complements of the parallelogram. In analysis, a complementary function is a partial solution to a differential equation (q.v.); complementary operators are reciprocal or inverse operators, i.e. two operations A and B are complementary when both operating on the same figure or function leave it unchanged. A "complementary colour" is one which produces white when mixed with another (see COLOUR). In Spanish the word _cumplimento_ was used in a particular sense of the fulfilment of the duties of polite behaviour and courtesy, and it came through the French and Italian forms into use in English, with a change in spelling to "compliment," with the sense of an act of politeness, especially of a polite expression of praise, or of social regard and greetings. The word "comply," meaning to act in accordance with wishes, orders or conditions, is also derived from the same origin, but in sense is connected with "ply" or "pliant," from Lat. _plicare_, to bend, with the idea of subserviently yielding to the wishes of another.

COMPLUVIUM (from Lat. _compluere_, to flow together, i.e. in reference to the rain being collected and falling through), in architecture, the Latin term for the open space left in the roof of the atrium of a Roman house for lighting it and the rooms round (see CAVAEDIUM).

COMPOSITAE, the name given to the largest natural order of flowering plants, containing about one-tenth of the whole number and characterized by the crowding of the flowers into heads. The order is cosmopolitan, and the plants show considerable variety in habit. The great majority, including most British representatives, are herbaceous, but in the warmer parts of the world shrubs and arborescent forms also occur; the latter are characteristic of the flora of oceanic islands. In herbaceous plants the leaves are often arranged in a rosette on a much shortened stem, as in dandelion, daisy and others; when the stem is elongated the leaves are generally alternate. The root is generally thickened, sometimes, as in dahlia, tuberous; root and stem contain oil passages, or, as in lettuce and dandelion, a milky white latex. The flowers are crowded in heads (_capitula_) which are surrounded by an involucre of green bracts,--these protect the head of flowers in the bud stage, performing the usual function of a calyx. The enlarged top of the axis, the receptacle, is flat, convex or conical, and the flowers open in centripetal succession. In many cases, as in the sunflower or daisy, the outer or ray-florets are larger and more conspicuous than the inner, or disk-florets; in other cases, as in dandelion, the florets are all alike. Ray-florets when present are usually pistillate, but neuter in some genera (as _Centaurea_); the disk-florets are hermaphrodite. The flower is epigynous; the calyx is sometimes absent, or is represented by a rim on the top of the ovary, or takes the form of hairs or bristles which enlarge in the fruiting stage to form the pappus by means of which the seed is dispersed. The corolla, of five united petals, is regular and tubular in shape as in the disk-florets, or irregular when it is either strap-shaped (ligulate), as in the ray-florets of daisy, &c., or all the florets of dandelion, or more rarely two-lipped. The five stamens are attached to the interior of the corolla-tube; the filaments are free; the anthers are joined (syngenesious) to form a tube round the single style, which ends in a pair of stigmas. The inferior ovary contains one ovule (attached to the base of the chamber), and ripens to form a dry one-seeded fruit; the seed is filled with the straight embryo.

1. Flower head of Marigold. 3. Head of fruits, nat. size.
2. Same in vertical section. 4. A single fruit.]

The flower-heads are an admirable example of an adaptation for pollination by aid of insects. The crowding of the flowers in heads ensures the pollination of a large number as the result of a single insect visit. Honey is secreted at the base of the style, and is protected from rain or dew and the visits of short-lipped insects by the corolla-tube, the length of which is correlated with the length of proboscis of the visiting insect. When the flower opens, the two stigmas are pressed together below the tube formed by the anthers, the latter split on the inside, and the pollen fills the tube; the style gradually lengthens and carries the pollen out of the anther tube, and finally the stigmas spread and expose their receptive surface which has hitherto been hidden, the two being pressed together. Thus the life history of the flower falls into two stages, an earlier or male and a later or female. This favours cross-pollination as compared with self-pollination. In many cases there is a third stage, as in dandelion, where the stigmas finally curl back so that they touch any pollen grains which have been left on the style, thus ensuring self-pollination if cross-pollination has not been effected.

The devices for distribution of the fruit are very varied. Frequently there is a hairy or silky pappus forming a tuft of hairs, as in thistle or coltsfoot, or a parachute-like structure as in dandelion; these render the fruit sufficiently light to be carried by the wind. In _Bidens_ the pappus consists of two or more stiff-barbed bristles which cause the fruit to cling to the coats of animals. Occasionally, as in sunflower or daisy, the fruits bear no special appendage and remain on the head until jerked off.

Compositae are generally considered to represent the most highly developed order of flowering plants. By the massing of the flowers in heads great economy is effected in the material required for one flower, as conspicuousness is ensured by the association; economy of time on the part of the pollinating insect is also effected, as a large number of flowers are visited at one time. The floral mechanism is both simple and effective, favouring cross-pollination, but ensuring self-pollination should that fail. The means of seed-distribution are also very effective.

A few members of the order are of economic value, e.g. _Lactuca_ (lettuce; q.v.), _Cichorium_ (chicory; q.v.), _Cynara_ (artichoke and cardoon; q.v.), _Helianthus_ (Jerusalem artichoke). Many are cultivated as garden or greenhouse plants, such as _Solidago_ (golden rod), _Ageratum_, Aster (q.v.) (Michaelmas daisy), _Helichrysum_ (everlasting), _Zinnia, Rudbeckia, Helianthus_ (sunflower), _Coreopsis_, Dahlia (q.v.), _Tagetes_ (French and African marigold), _Gaillardia, Achillea_ (yarrow), _Chrysanthemum, Pyrethrum_ (feverfew; now generally included under _Chrysanthemum_), _Tanacetum_ (tansy), _Arnica, Doronicum, Cineraria Calendula_ (common marigold) (fig. 1), _Echinops_ (globe thistle), _Centaurea_ (cornflower) (fig. 2). Some are of medicinal value, such as _Anthemis_ (chamomile), _Artemisia_ (wormwood), _Tussilago_ (coltsfoot), _Arnica_. Insect powder is prepared from species of _Pyrethrum_.

1. Disk-floret. 3. Ray-floret.
2. Same cut vertically. 4. Fruit with pappus.]

The order is divided into two suborders:--_Tubuliflorae_, characterized by absence of latex, and the florets of the disk being not ligulate, and _Liguliflorae_, characterized by presence of latex and all the florets being ligulate. The first suborder contains the majority of the genera, and is divided into a number of tribes, characterized by the form of the anthers and styles, the presence or absence of scales on the receptacle, and the similarity or otherwise of the florets of one and the same head. The order is well represented in Britain, in which forty-two genera are native. These include some of the commonest weeds, such as dandelion (_Taraxacum Dens-leonis_), daisy (_Bellis perennis_), groundsel (fig. 3) (_Senecio vulgaris_) and ragwort (_S. Jacobaea_); coltsfoot (_Tussilago Farfara_) is one of the earliest plants to flower, and other genera are _Chrysanthemum_ (ox-eye daisy and corn-marigold), _Arctium_ (burdock), _Centaurea_ (knapweed and cornflower), _Carduus_ and _Cnicus_ (thistles), _Hieracium_ (hawkweed), _Sonchus_ (sow-thistle), _Achillea_ (yarrow, or milfoil, and sneezewort), _Eupatorium_ (hemp-agrimony), _Gnaphalium_ (cudweed), _Erigeron_ (fleabane), _Solidago_ (golden-rod), _Anthemis_ (may-weed and chamomile), _Cichorium_ (chicory), _Lapsana_ (nipplewort), _Crepis_ (hawk's-beard), _Hypochaeris_ (cat's-ear), and _Tragopogon_ (goat's-beard).

COMPOSITE ORDER, in architecture, a compound of the Ionic and Corinthian orders (see ORDER), the chief characteristic of which is found in the capital (q.v.), where a double row of acanthus leaves, similar to those carved round the Corinthian capital, has been added under the Ionic volutes. The richer decoration of the Ionic capital had already been employed in those of the Erechtheum, where the necking was carved with the palmette or honeysuckle. Similar decorated Ionic capitals were found in the forum of Trajan. The earliest example of the Composite capital is found in the arch of Titus at Rome. The entablature was borrowed from that of the Corinthian order.

COMPOSITION (Lat. _compositio_, from _componere_, to put together), the action of putting together and combining, and the product of such action. There are many applications of the word. In philology it is used of the putting together of two distinct words to form a single word; and in grammar, of the combination of words into sentences, and sentences into periods, and then applied to the result of such combination, and to the art of producing a work in prose or verse, or to the work itself. In music "composition" is used both of the art of combining musical sounds in accordance with the rules of musical form, and, more generally, of the whole art of creation or invention. The name "composer" is thus particularly applied to the musical creator in general. In the other fine arts the word is more strictly used of the balanced arrangement of the parts of a picture, of a piece of sculpture or a building, so that they should form one harmonious whole. The word also means an agreement or an adjustment of differences between two or more parties, and is thus the best general term to describe the agreement, often called by the equivalent German word "Ausgleich," between Austria and Hungary in 1867. A more particular use is the legal one, for an agreement by which a creditor agrees to take from his debtor a sum less than his debt in satisfaction of the whole (see BANKRUPTCY). In logic "composition" is the name given to a fallacy of equivocation, where what is true distributively of each member of a class is inferred to be true of the whole class collectively. The fallacy of "division" is the converse of this, where what is true of a term used collectively is inferred to be true of its several parts. A common source of these errors in reasoning is the confusion between the collective and distributive meanings of the word "all." Composition, often shortened to "compo," is the name given to many materials compounded of more than one substance, and is used in various trades and manufactures, as in building, for a mixture, such as stucco, cement and plaster, for covering walls, &c., often made to represent stone or marble; a similar moulded compound is employed to represent carved wood.

COMPOUND (from Lat. _componere_, to combine or put together), a combination of various elements, substances or ingredients, so as to form one composite whole. A "chemical compound" is a substance which can be resolved into simple constituents, as opposed to an element which cannot be so resolved (see CHEMISTRY); a word is said to be a "compound" when it is made up of different words or parts of different words. The term is also used in an adjectival form with many applications; a "compound engine" is one where the expansion of the steam is effected in two or more stages (see STEAM-ENGINE); in zoology, the "compound eye" possessed by insects and crustacea is one which is made up of several _ocelli_ or simple eyes, set together so that the whole has the appearance of being faceted (see EYE); in botany, the "compound leaf" has two or more separate blades on a common leaf-stalk; in surgery, in a "compound fracture" the skin is broken as well as the bone, and there is a communication between the two. There are many mathematical and arithmetical uses of the term, particularly of those forms of addition, multiplication, division and subtraction which deal with quantities of more than one denomination. Compound interest is interest paid upon interest, the accumulation of interest forming, as it were, a secondary principal. The verb "to compound" is used of the arrangement or settlement of differences, and especially of an agreement made to accept or to pay part of a debt in full discharge of the whole, and thus of the arrangement made by an insolvent debtor with his creditors (see BANKRUPTCY); similarly of the substitution of one payment for annual or other periodic payments,--thus subscriptions, university or other dues, &c., may be "compounded"; a particular instance of this is the system of "compounding" for rates, where the occupier of premises pays an increased rent, and the owner makes himself responsible for the payment of the rates. The householder who thus compounds with the owner of the premises he occupies is known as a "compound householder." The payment of poor rate forming part of the qualification necessary for the parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom, various statutes, leading up to the Compound Householders Act 1851, have enabled such occupiers to claim to be placed on the rate. In law, to compound a felony is to agree with the felon not to prosecute him for his crime, in return for valuable consideration, or, in the case of a theft, on return of the goods stolen. Such an agreement is a misdemeanour and is punishable with fine and imprisonment.

The name "compounders" was given during the reign of William III. of England to the members of a Jacobite faction, who were prepared to restore James II. to the throne, on the condition of an amnesty and an undertaking to preserve the constitution. Until 1853, in the university of Oxford, those possessing private incomes of a certain amount paid special dues for their degrees, and were known as Grand and Petty Compounders.

The corruption "compound" (from the Malay _kampung_ or _kampong_, a quarter of a village) is the name applied to the enclosed ground, whether garden or waste, which surrounds an Anglo-Indian house. In India the European quarter, as a rule, is separate from the native quarter, and consists of a number of single houses, each standing in a compound, sometimes many acres in extent.

COMPOUND PIER, the architectural term given to a clustered column or pier which consists of a centre mass or newel, to which engaged or semi-detached shafts have been attached, in order to perform, or to suggest the performance of, certain definite structural objects, such as to carry arches of additional orders, or to support the transverse or diagonal ribs of a vault, or the tie beam of an important roof. In these cases, though performing different functions, the drums of the pier are often cut out of one stone. There are, however, cases where the shafts are detached from the pier and coupled to it by armulets at regular heights, as in the Early English period.

COMPRADOR (a Portuguese word used in the East, derived from the Lat. _comparare_, to procure), originally a native servant in European households in the East, but now the name given to the native managers in European business houses in China, and also to native contractors supplying ships in the Philippines and elsewhere in the East.

COMPRESSION, in astronomy, the deviation of a heavenly body from the spherical form, called also the "ellipticity." It is numerically expressed by the ratio of the differences of the axes to the major axis of the spheroid. The compression or "flattening" of the earth is about 1/298, which means that the ratio of the equatorial to the polar axis is 298:297 (see Earth, Figure of the). In engineering the term is applied to the arrangement by which the exhaust valve of a steam-engine is made to close, shutting a portion of the exhaust steam in the cylinder, before the stroke of the piston is quite complete. This steam being compressed as the stroke is completed, a cushion is formed against which the piston does work while its velocity is being rapidly reduced, and thus the stresses in the mechanism due to the inertia of the reciprocating parts are lessened. This compression, moreover, obviates the shock which would otherwise be caused by the admission of the fresh steam for the return stroke. In internal combustion engines it is a necessary condition of economy to compress the explosive mixture before it is ignited: in the Otto cycle, for instance, the second stroke of the piston effects the compression of the charge which has been drawn into the cylinder by the first forward stroke.

COMPROMISE (pronounced _compr[)o]mize_; through Fr. from Lat. _compromittere_), a term, meaning strictly a joint agreement, which has come to signify such a settlement as involves a mutual adjustment, with a surrender of part of each party's claim. From the element of danger involved has arisen an invidious sense of the word, imputing discredit, so that being "compromised" commonly means injured in reputation.

COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1850, in American history, a series of measures the object of which was the settlement of five questions in dispute between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States. Three of these questions grew out of the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of western territory as a result of the Mexican War. The settlers who had flocked to California after the discovery of gold in 1848 adopted an anti-slavery state constitution on the 13th of October 1849, and applied for admission into the Union. In the second place it was necessary to form a territorial government for the remainder of the territory acquired from Mexico, including that now occupied by Nevada and Utah, and parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. The fundamental issue was in regard to the admission of slavery into, or the exclusion of slavery from, this region. Thirdly, there was a dispute over the western boundary of Texas. Should the Rio Grande be the line of division north of Mexico, or should an arbitrary boundary be established farther to the eastward; in other words, should a considerable part of the new territory be certainly opened to slavery as a part of Texas, or possibly closed to it as a part of the organized territorial section? Underlying all of these issues was of course the great moral and political problem as to whether slavery was to be confined to the south-eastern section of the country or be permitted to spread to the Pacific. The two questions not growing out of the Mexican War were in regard to the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and the passage of a new fugitive slave law.

Congress met on the 3rd of December 1849. Neither faction was strong enough in both houses to carry out its own programme, and it seemed for a time that nothing would be done. On the 29th of January 1850 Henry Clay presented the famous resolution which constituted the basis of the ultimate compromise. His idea was to combine the more conservative elements of both sections in favour of a settlement which would concede the Southern view on two questions, the Northern view on two, and balance the fifth. Daniel Webster supported the plan in his great speech of the 7th of March, although in doing so he alienated many of his former admirers. Opposed to the conservatives were the extremists of the North, led by William H. Seward and Salmon P. Chase, and those of the South, led by Jefferson Davis. Most of the measures were rejected and the whole plan seemed likely to fail, when the situation was changed by the death of President Taylor and the accession of Millard Fillmore on the 9th of July 1850. The influence of the administration was now thrown in favour of the compromise. Under a tacit understanding of the moderates to vote together, five separate bills were passed, and were signed by the president between 9th and 20th September 1850. California was admitted as a free state, and the slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia; these were concessions to the North. New Mexico (then including the present Arizona) and Utah were organized without any prohibition of slavery (each being left free to decide for or against, on admission to statehood), and a rigid fugitive slave law was enacted; these were concessions to the South. Texas (q.v.) was compelled to give up much of the western land to which it had a good claim, and received in return $10,000,000.

This legislation had several important results. It helped to postpone secession and Civil War for a decade, during which time the North-West was growing more wealthy and more populous, and was being brought into closer relations with the North-East. It divided the Whigs into "Cotton Whigs" and "Conscience Whigs," and in time led to the downfall of the party. In the third place, the rejection of the Wilmot Proviso and the acceptance (as regards New Mexico and Utah) of "Squatter Sovereignty" meant the adoption of a new principle in dealing with slavery in the territories, which, although it did not apply to the same territory, was antagonistic to the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The sequel was the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854. Fourthly, the enforcement of the fugitive slave law aroused a feeling of bitterness in the North which helped eventually to bring on the war, and helped to make it, when it came, quite as much an anti-slavery crusade as a struggle for the preservation of the Union. Finally, although Clay for his support of the compromises and Seward and Chase for their opposition have gained in reputation, Webster has been selected as the special target for hostile criticism. The Compromise Measures are sometimes spoken of collectively as the Omnibus Bill, owing to their having been grouped originally--when first reported (May 8) to the Senate--into one bill.

The best account of the above Compromises is to be found in J. F.
Rhodes, _History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850_,
vol. i. (New York, 1896). (W. R. S.*)

COMPSA (mod. _Conza_), an ancient city of the Hirpini, near the sources of the Aufidus, on the boundary of Lucania and not far from that of Apulia, on a ridge 1998 ft. above sea-level. It was betrayed to Hannibal in 216 B.C. after the defeat of Cannae, but recaptured two years later. It was probably occupied by Sulla in 89 B.C., and was the scene of the death of T. Annius Milo in 48 B.C. Most authorities (cf. Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_, Stuttgart, 1901, iv. 797) refer Caes. _Bell. civ._ iii. 22, and Plin. _Hist. Nat._ ii. 147, to this place, supposing the MSS. to be corrupt. The usual identification of the site of Milo's death with Cassano on the Gulf of Taranto must therefore be rejected. In imperial times, as inscriptions show, it was a _municipium_, but it lay far from any of the main high-roads. There are no important ancient remains.

COMPTON, HENRY (1632-1713), English divine, was the sixth and youngest son of the second earl of Northampton. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, and then travelled in Europe. After the restoration of Charles II. he became cornet in a regiment of horse, but soon quitted the army for the church. After a further period of study at Cambridge and again at Oxford, he held various livings. He was made bishop of Oxford in 1674, and in the following year was translated to the see of London. He was also appointed a member of the Privy Council, and entrusted with the education of the two princesses--Mary and Anne. He showed a liberality most unusual at the time to Protestant dissenters, whom he wished to reunite with the established church. He held several conferences on the subject with the clergy of his diocese; and in the hope of influencing candid minds by means of the opinions of unbiassed foreigners, he obtained letters treating of the question (since printed at the end of Stillingfleet's _Unreasonableness of Separation_) from Le Moyne; professor of divinity at Leiden, and the famous French Protestant divine, Jean Claude. But to Roman Catholicism he was strongly opposed. On the accession of James II. he consequently lost his seat in the council and his deanery in the Chapel Royal; and for his firmness in refusing to suspend John Sharp, rector of St Giles's-in-the-Fields, whose anti-papal writings had rendered him obnoxious to the king, he was himself suspended. At the Revolution Compton embraced the cause of William and Mary; he performed the ceremony of their coronation; his old position was restored to him; and among other appointments, he was chosen as one of the commissioners for revising the liturgy. During the reign of Anne he remained a member of the privy council, and was one of the commissioners appointed to arrange the terms of the union of England and Scotland; but, to his bitter disappointment, his claims to the primacy were twice passed over. He died at Fulham on the 7th of July 1713. He had conspicuous defects both in spirit and intellect, but was benevolent and philanthropic. He was a successful botanist. He published, besides several theological works, _A Translation from the Italian of the Life of Donna Olympia Maladichini, who governed the Church during the time of Pope Innocent X., which was from the year 1644 to 1655_ (1667), and _A Translation from the French of the Jesuits' Intrigues_ (1669).