Part 323 (2/2)
The interruption in the movement between the descent and ascent of the piston made it worthless for such purposes as Watt's invention is applied to; _d_. 1729.
NEWDIGATE, SIR ROGER, born in Warwicks.h.i.+re; represented Oxford in Parliament, and founded the Newdigate Prize for the best English poem by an undergraduate; the winners of it have since distinguished themselves, chiefly in letters (1719-1806).
NEWFOUNDLAND (198), the oldest island colony of Britain, situated at the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, North America; is about one-eighth larger than Ireland, and triangular in shape, the northern apex running close in to the coast of Labrador; inland the country is bleak, spa.r.s.ely populated, and ill cultivated; lakes and rivers abound; the deeply indented coast provides excellent harbourage for the large fis.h.i.+ng fleets that frequent it; minerals are found, including coal, iron, lead, and copper; agriculture and timber-felling are on the increase, but the fisheries--cod, salmon, herring, and seal--form the staple industry; the climate is more temperate than in Canada, although, subject to fogs; ST. JOHNS (q. v.) is the capital; discovered in 1497 by John Cabot, seized by the English in 1583, and finally ceded to Britain by the French (who retained certain fis.h.i.+ng rights) in 1713; Newfoundland possesses a responsible government, consisting of a popularly elected a.s.sembly and a Crown-appointed Governor, and exercises political rights over the adjoining coast territory of Labrador.
NEWGATE, a dark, gloomy prison in London, the original of which dates as far back as 1218; was two centuries afterwards rebuilt, and destroyed in the great fire of 1666; rebuilt in 1780; is now used only for prisoners awaiting trial during Sessions, and as a place of execution.
NEWMAN, JOHN HENRY, cardinal, born in London, son of a banker; educated at Ealing, studied at Trinity College, Oxford, and obtained a Fellows.h.i.+p in Oriel College in 1823; trained in evangelical beliefs, he gradually drifted into High-Church notions, and becoming vicar of St.
Mary's, the university church of Oxford, in 1826, started the Tractarian Movement in 1833, and, busy with his pen, wrote no fewer than 24 of the celebrated ”Tracts for the Times” in advocacy of High-Church teaching, till Tract XC., which he composed, overshot the mark, and he resigned his connection with the Church of England, and was received into the Catholic Church on the 28th October 1845; shortly after this he visited Rome, was ordained a priest, and after some stay there on his return became head of the Birmingham Oratory in 1849, where he spent over 40 of the years that remained of his life; the influence on Church matters which he exercised as university preacher at Oxford was very great, and made itself felt through the voluminous writings over the length and breadth of the Church; on his secession he continued to employ his pen in defence of his position, particularly in one work, now widely known, ent.i.tled ”Apologia pro Vita Sua”; what he wrote was for the time he lived in, and none of it, except certain of his hymns, is likely to endure; the religion he fought for and vindicated was an externally authenticated one, whereas all true religion derives itself and its evidences solely and wholly from within, and is powerless and virtually nothing except in so far as it roots itself there (1801-1890).
NEWMAN, FRANCIS WILLIAM, born in London, brother of the preceding, with whom he was wholly out of sympathy, and at the opposite pole; he was a theist in his religious opinions, and wrote in defence of them his princ.i.p.al works, ”The Soul: Her Sorrows and Aspirations,” and ”Phases of Faith” (1805-1897).
NEWPORT, 1, capital of the Isle of Wight (10), and near its centre; in its vicinity is Carisbrooke Castle, where Charles I. was imprisoned.
2, The largest town in Monmouth (54), at the mouth of the Usk, engaged in manufacture of various kinds, but chiefly as a port for the export of minerals, which is very large. 3, A town in Rhode Island, U.S., (19), a fas.h.i.+onable watering-place, as well as a manufacturing; was for a time the residence of Bishop Berkeley.
NEWSTEAD ABBEY, an abbey near Nottingham, founded by Henry II. by way of atonement for the murder of Thomas a Becket, which was given at the dissolution of the monasteries to an ancestor of Lord Byron, who lived in it and sold it, since which it has been restored.
NEWTON, SIR ISAAC, ill.u.s.trious natural philosopher, born in Woolsthorpe, near Grantham, in Lincolns.h.i.+re; entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1661, where he applied himself specially to the study of mathematics, invented the method of FLUXIONS (q. v.), and began to theorise on gravitation, graduating in 1667, and becoming professor of Mathematics in 1669; failing at first, from a mistaken measurement given of the earth's diameter, in his attempts to establish the theory referred to, he set himself to the construction of telescopes, and discovered the composition of light; shortly after this, hearing of a correction of the measurement required, he renewed his study of gravitation, and made his theory good in a series of papers communicated to the Royal Society, though it was not till 1687, encouraged by Halley, he gave the complete demonstration in his ”Principia” to the world; in 1695 he was made Warden of the Mint, and afterwards Master, a post he held till his death; his works were numerous, and he wrote on prophecy as well as treatises on science (1642-1727).
NEWTON, JOHN, English clergyman, born in London; after a wild youth was converted, entered the Church, and became curate of Olney, where he became acquainted with Cowper, and had, owing to his severe Calvinism, an influence over him not altogether for good, and was a.s.sociated with the production of the ”Olney Hymns”; wrote ”Cardiphonia” (1725-1807).
NEWTON, THOMAS, English divine; edited Milton's ”Paradise Lost” and ”Paradise Regained,” and notes, and wrote ”Dissertations on the Prophecies” (1704-1782).
NEY, MICHEL, peer and marshal of France, born at Sarrelouis, son of a cooper; entered the army as a private hussar in 1797; distinguished himself by his bravery in the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, and earned for himself from the army under Napoleon, and from Napoleon himself, the t.i.tle of the ”Brave of the braves”; on Napoleon's abdication in 1814 he attached himself to Louis XVIII., but on his return from Elba he joined Ins old master, and stood by him during the hundred days; on the second Restoration he was arrested, tried by his peers, and shot (1769-1815).
NGAMI, LAKE, a shallow sheet of water 50 m. long in S. Africa, on the borders of the Kalahari Desert, which is always changing its margin, is at one time, from the rains, sweet and drinkable, and at another time, from drought, saline; it is infested with crocodiles, and swarms with fish.
NIAGARA, a section of the St. Lawrence River, in N. America, extending between Lakes Erie and Ontario, having a descent throughout its course of 36 m. of 326 ft., the Falls, preceded and succeeded by rapids, being the largest in the world, the Canadian or Horse Shoe Fall being 2640 ft. wide, with a descent of 158 ft., and the American Fall being one-third of the width of the Canadian, and with a descent of over 162 ft.
NIAM-NIAM, a people of the E. Soudan, SE. of Darfur, occupying territory between the basins of the Nile and the Congo.
NIBELUNG, king of the Nibelungen, a mythical Burgundian tribe, the fabulous possessor of a h.o.a.rd of wealth so inexhaustible that ”twelve waggons in twelve days, at the rate of three journeys a day, could not carry it off,” and which he bequeathed to his two sons on his deathbed, by the vanquis.h.i.+ng of whom the h.o.a.rd fell into the hands of the redoubtable hero Siegfried.
NIBELUNGEN LIED (i. e. Lay of the Nibelungen), an old German epic, of date, it is presumed, earlier than the 12th century; it consists of two parts, the first ending with the murder of Siegfried by Hagen, his wresting of the h.o.a.rd (see _SUPRA_) from his widow, Kriemhild, and burying it at the bottom of the Rhine, and the second relating the vengeance of Kriemhild and the annihilation of the whole Burgundian race, Kriemhild included, to whom the treasure had originally belonged; to the latter part the name of the Nibelungen Not (or Distress) has been given.
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