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