act of pressing or squeezing some matter together, so as to set its parts nearer to each other, and make it occupy less space. Compression properly differs from condensation, in as much as that the latter is performed by the action of cold, but the former by some external force.

Compton, Henry, Bishop of London, was the youngest son of Spencer, Earl of Northampton, and born in 1632. After the restoration of Charles II. he became cornet of a regiment of horse; but having soon afterwards quitted the army for the church, he was made Bishop of Oxford in 1674, and about a year thereafter translated to the see of London. He was intrusted with the education of the two princesses Mary and Anne, whom he also afterwards married to the Princes of Orange and Denmark; and their firmness in the Protestant religion was in a great measure owing to their tutor, to whom, when popery began to prevail at court, his steadfastness was imputed as an unpardonable crime. He was suspended from his ecclesiastical function by James II., but was restored on the Prince of Orange's invasion. He and the Bishop of Bristol constituted the majority for filling the vacant throne with a king; he performed the ceremony of the coronation, was appointed one of the commissioners for revising the liturgy, and laboured with much zeal to reconcile dissenters to the church. His spirit of moderation made him unpopular with the clergy, and in all probability checked his further promotion. He died in the year 1713.