The occupier of a small tenement who did not pay poor rates directly, but compounded with his landlord, who was responsible for the rate to the authorities. During the debates on the Reform Bill of 1867, the question of his enfranchisement was very hotly contested, and in the end the compound householder was abolished, and every name put on the rate book.
Compounders.
The name given to the more moderate section of the English Jacobites in 1692. They desired a restoration of the Stuarts, but accompanied by a general amnesty. The non-compounders, who would listen to no suggestions of moderation, were, however, more powerful at St. Germains.
Compromise, The.
A document signed in 1566 by some 2,000 nobles and gentlemen of the Netherlands, by which the signatories bound themselves to offer the most strenuous resistance to the Inquisition, while loyally supporting the sovereignty of Philip II.
Compromise Act.
An Omnibus Act passed by Congress in 1850. It provided for the admission to the Union of California as a state, and of New Mexico and Utah as territories, for the settlement of the boundaries of Texas, the return of fugitive slaves to the owners, and the suppression of the slave trade in the district of Columbia.
Compte Rendu.
A manifesto by the Moderate party in the French Chamber, drawn up by Odilon Barrot in May, 1832. It denounced the Ministry for continuing the Restoration rather than the Revolution, and complained of the institution of hereditary peerages, the excessive civil list, and the extravagant expenditure on the army. With regard to foreign policy it pointed out that, through lack of firmness, the Government was abandoning Italy to Austria and Poland to Russia.