( o.MI'lKGNE 



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393 



OVMI.T of land generally takes the highest rent he 

 can olitain. In short, the industrial worhl is a 

 world of conflicting or competing inter 



As we have said, this system of competition is 

 an outcome of modern freedom, and the rise 

 of it may )>e historically traced. In medieval 

 times the relations of men were fixed by custom 

 or authority. Hut the restraints of custom and 

 authority were felt to l>e vexatious, oppressor, 

 and injurious, anil in the various spheres of human 

 activity, in religion, politics, ami economics, the 

 free individuality of men sought and found wider 

 roi mi to develop itself. This great movement lje t <;an 

 with the revival of learning, the discovery of 

 Ann-lira, ami the Protestant Reformation, ami has 

 been continued through the revolutions of the 

 17th, isth, and 19th centuries. In the industrial 

 sphere it means that whereas in former times a 

 man's calling, place of residence, and the remunera- 

 tion of his industry were fixed for him, he is now 

 at liberty to decide them for himself as best he 

 can. Each man is free to do the best he can for 

 himself, but as he finds numerous individuals who 

 exercise the same freedom within a limited field, 

 there arises the prevailing system of competition. 



No one conversant with the facts will deny that 

 the system of free competition has been attended 

 with enormous progress, and that it has acted as a 

 powerful stimulus to human energy and the spirit 

 of improvement. But the development of the 

 system has brought with it most important limita- 

 tions, some of which may be noted. While such a 

 system must always be limited by law and justice, 

 and the necessities of political union, legislation 

 has been obliged to provide special safeguards 

 against the evils of competition, notably in the 

 English Factory Acts. Tne English trades-unions 

 are an attempt to regulate competition in the 

 interest of labour. Employers' combinations have 

 a like object in the interest of the capitalist. 

 In America especially the development of ' trusts ' 

 tends to make competition a dead letter. These 

 trusts are combinations of capitalists with a view to 

 regulating prices. The protective system of coun- 

 tries like France, Germany, and the United States 

 is intended to maintain native industries against 

 British competition. Lately France and Germany 

 have imposed duties on cereals in order to protect 

 their agriculture against American competition. It 

 should be noted also that even yet custom is largely 

 influential in many spheres, and that not a few of 

 the evils of competition are mitigated by the 

 kindly feeling which prevails in all the relations of 

 life. Employers do not generally bring wages down 

 to the lowest level attainable by competition. Thus 

 in actual experience the competitive system is 

 modified by a great variety of influences. On the 

 other hand, the 'sweating system,' by which starva- 

 tion wages are given for long hours of hard work, 

 is rendered possible by the keen competition of 

 many, otherwise unemployed, for such unremuner- 

 ative lalxmr. 



Competition for f tuations in the public service 

 is very different from the system above described. 

 Competition as applied to the public service is 

 regulated by the state. The salaries in the various 

 grades, and the conditions of employment, are fixed 

 by authority. The chief material stimulus is the 

 hope of promotion. See CIVIL SERVICE. For the 

 ad vantages and disad vantages of competitive exam- 

 inations in education, see EDUCATION ; also the 

 Nineteenth Century, the Universal Review, &c., for 



1SSS. 



4'ompM'i:ii<', a quiet and old-fashioned but 

 picturesque town in the French department of 

 Oise, on the river Oise, a little l>elow its junction 

 with the Aisne, 52 miles NNE. of Paris by rail. 

 Of its churches three deserve notice, St Germain 



( I. .ih century), St Antoine (12th century), and St 

 Jacques (19th century). The hotel-de-ville w a 

 late Gothic edifice with a fine central Itelfry. 

 Hut the chief pride of Compicgne is it- palace, 

 built anew by Louis XV., and splendidly fitted 

 up by Napoleon, who often occupied it. Ite 

 facade towards the forest is 624 feet long. 

 From the gardens an arbour walk, 1000 yards 

 IH.L'. leads towards the beautiful forest of Com- 

 piegne, which was a favourite hunting-ground of 

 many of the kings of France. It extends to over 

 30,000 acres, and contains some fine oak timber. 

 The inhabitants of Compiegne manufacture canvas, 

 cordage, and sugar. Pop. (1872) 11,859; (1891) 

 12,353. Compiegne is mentioned in the times of 

 Clovis under the name of Compendium. It was at 

 the siege of this town, in 1430, that the Maid of 

 Orleans was captured ; and here, in 1810, Najioleon 

 first met Maria Louisa of Austria, on occasion of 

 their marriage. 



Complement of an angle is what it lacks to 

 make up 90 ; of an arc, to make up a quadrant ; 

 and hence, in Astronomy, the complement of a 

 star is its zenith-distance. In Music, two intervals, 

 which together make up an octave, are called com- 

 plementary (see INVERSION). In Arithmetic, if 

 any number is subtracted from the next higher 

 power of ten, the result is its complement. Thus 

 7 and 3 are complementary ; so are 63 and 37 ; 

 881 and 119; and 1 '4384386 is the complement to 

 8 '5615614. In Chromatics, red is the complement 

 of green, orange of blue, and yellow of violet. 



Complexion. See SKIN. 



Compline. See BREVIARY. 



Complutensian Bible. See ALCALA DK 

 HEN ARES and XIMENES. 



< om pony, or GOBONY. See BORDURE. 



Compositae. This is the richest of all natural 

 orders in species, these numbering about 10,000; it 

 is also the most widely distributed through all 

 regions of the globe, although most abundant in 

 temperate and subtropical climates ; and, further- 

 more, the richest in individuals, it having been 

 reckoned that about every tenth plant on the earth's 

 surface is a composite. The rationale of this may 

 be broadly seen (at least if we grant an individual 

 constitution and structure especially well adapted 

 to both vegetation and reproduction ), for we can 

 see that the consequent great number of healthy 

 individuals must be associated with active local 

 competition and survival of the fittest, and with 

 distribution of these over a wide area ; while this 

 again is at least one condition of considerable 

 differentiation of varieties, and so ultimately of 

 species. 



While popularly a daisy or dandelion is regarded 

 as a simple flower, the roughest examination suffices 

 to analyse this into an orderly assemblage, techni- 

 cally a capitulum of small but distinct florets ; 

 hence the beginner is apt, without more ado. to 

 refer all similar aggregates, say a head of Scabious 

 (Dipsacacea>) or Seapink ( Plumbaginacea- ) to the 

 Composit.v. We find, however, such aggregates 

 arising in all alliances, and naturally so ; racemes, 

 spikes, or umbels of flowers wholly distinct in 

 structure may all be shortened down into heads or 

 capitula, since reproductive development is tending 

 everywhere to check vegetative growth. We are 

 thus led to inquire of what forms are the composites 

 to l>e regarded as the reduced ineinliers, and the 

 evidence of comparative anatomy goes to j>r<>\e 

 their relationship to Campanulaceii' and their 

 irregular forms the Lol>eliaceje ; in a word, to view 

 the yellow ' tubular ' florets of our daisy as a head 

 of tiny bells, while the white strap-shaped or 

 ' ligulate ' ones of its ray, like all those of a dande- 

 lion, resemble the flowers of lobelia. 



