Part 328

NIVEAU d’eau, Fr. a water level. This instrument is extremely simple, and of great use to engineers in the construction of works.

NIVEAU de charpentier, Fr. a carpenter’s rule or level.

NIVEAU de paveur, Fr. a pavior’s level.

NIVELER, Fr. to level.

NIVELER les eaux, Fr. to find the true level for conveying water.

NIVELER le terrein, Fr. to find the true level of ground, and to ascertain the relative elevations of places.

NIVELEUR Fr. a leveller: it is likewise sometimes used to express a trifler; but it does not signify a leveller in the political sense which we apply the English word in these days; nor does it mean a Leveller belonging to a set of people in Oliver Cromwell’s army, who were for having an equal share in the administration of the government between the nobility and the commons.

NIZAM, Ind. a title which was bestowed by the great Mogul on one of his principal officers on his being appointed to the command and administration of a province. It became the title of an independent prince who ruled over Golconda about the year 1790; the British now rule over him. The word means, an adjuster, a regulator, an arranger, or manager, &c.

NIZAM ul Moolc, Ind. the protector of the country.

NIZAMUT, the office of Nizam.

NOBILITY, from the Latin, Nobilitas. This word has been variously defined. It is, however, generally understood to signify illustrious descent, and conspicuousness of ancestors, with a succession of arms conferred on some one (and from him to his family) by the prince, by law, or by custom, as a reward for the good and virtuous actions of him that performed them. The only true purchase of nobility should therefore consist of great and good actions, which in proportion as they dignified and ennobled the original owner, become objects of important trust with every descendant; who either reflected them back by a laudable imitation, or shamefully abused the tenure by dishonorable practices. The futility of hereditary nobility is now universally acknowleged.

NOBILITY likewise means in Europe, a quality that dignifies, or renders a person noble: particularly that raises a person possessed of it above a peasant or a commoner. The quality or degree of a nobleman; also the whole body of noblemen separated from the commons.

Nobility also means name, reputation, renown. N. Bailey in his fourth edition of the New Universal Etymological Dictionary, has the following curious passages on this word:--

NOBILITY. The Italians thus satyrised nobility: the dukes and earls of Germany, (every son of a duke being a duke, and every daughter of a dutchess being a dutchess) the dons of Spain, the monsieurs of France, the bishops of Italy, (every city having a bishop) the nobility of Hungary, the lairds of Scotland, the knights of Naples, and the younger brethren of England, make all together a poor company. He then classes nobility under five specific heads, viz.

Divine NOBILITY, which is also called heavenly, or theological nobility, and relates to the supposed original of the soul.

Human or worldly NOBILITY, which regards blood, and a genealogy of many ancestors. This nobility is purely accidental, and depends upon the birth. This is called political or hereditary, and becomes the right of individuals, be their merit, virtue, or capacity what they may.

Moral NOBILITY, refers only to virtue, is purely personal, and depends on our own free will. It is also called philosophical; but is not hereditary, except by the influence of example, which render it the general inheritance of all good men.

Dative NOBILITY, is such as has been acquired by some merits, or deeds, and has been conferred by the prince, &c.

Native NOBILITY, is what passes from father to son, and makes the son noble, because his father was so. Of this species of nobility consists the British house of lords; to which occasional additions are made by purchased peerages. The justly celebrated Thomas Paine has characterised the futility of what is called nobility by a happy pun, calling them no-ability.

NOBLES, NOBLEMEN, are the grandees of any kingdom or nation, by whatsoever title they are distinguished. Honorary distinctions have been very ancient. The Greeks distinguished their people into three ranks, viz. Noblemen, land-holders, or farmers, and tradesmen. The first were indulged with great privileges, and wore the figure of a grasshopper, as a badge of honor, in their hair. The Romans wore a half moon upon their shoes.

Among the Romans, those persons were called nobles who preserved the statues of their ancestors in their courts or cabinets. The faces of these statues were painted to resemble life. But it was necessary to be descended from the ancient magistrates, called curules, to be entitled to have these statues. They were exhibited to the public on festival days, and when any of the family died, they were carried in solemn procession before the corpse: so that under these circumstances, an individual might be a patrician without being actually of noble blood or extraction.

That person was called noble in France, who first received a letter patent constituting him such, and who thus gave rise to the nobility of his descendants. Those born of him bore the title of gentilhomme, or gentleman, Un ancien gentilhomme, or gentleman of some standing, was stiled homme de condition, or a person of condition. Those gentlemen who were descended from illustrious houses were called, men of quality, gens de qualité.

In England those only are called nobles or noblemen, who have the title of duke, marquis, earl, viscount, lord or baron; which titles either descend to individuals from family-right, are gratuitously conferred upon them by the prince, (who is called the fountain of honor) or are obtained by the price of gold. The hereditary tenure becomes equally solid in all these instances, though not equally estimable, unless the title be itself ennobled by some great and good actions of the possessor. By those, and those only, can a purchased title be converted into sterling gold from base metal.

NOBLESSE. See NOBILITY.

NOBLESSE militaire, Fr. Military nobility. Although most of the orders may be considered as appendages which confer a species of military nobility, especially that of the British garter, which was instituted by king Edward III. on the 19th of January, 1344, yet the British cannot be strictly said to have among them, that species of military nobility or distinction that was peculiarly known in France, &c. under the immediate title of noblesse militaire. In order to reward military merit, an edict was issued by the French court at Fontainbleau, in November 1750, and enregistered on the 25th of the same month by the parliament of Paris, whereby a noblesse militaire, or military nobility, was created; the acquisition of which depended wholly upon martial character, but did not require any letter patent for the purpose of ennobling the individual.

By the first article of this perpetual and irrevocable edict, as it was then stated, it was decreed, that no person, serving in the capacity and quality of officer in any of the king’s troops, should be liable to the land or poll tax, so long as he continued in that situation. 2dly. That by virtue of this edict, and from the date thereof, all general officers, not being otherwise ennobled, but being actually and bonâ fide in the service, should be considered as noble, and remain so, together with their children born, or to be born in lawful wedlock. 3dly. That in future the rank of general officer should of itself be sufficient to confer the full right of nobility upon all those who should arrive at that degree of military promotion; and that their heirs and successors, as well as their children, actually born and lawfully begotten, should be entitled to the same distinction; and that all general officers should enjoy all the rights and privileges of nobility from the date of their commissions. In articles IV. V. VI. and VII. it was specifically provided upon what conditions those officers, who were not noble, and were inferior in rank to that of maréchal de camp, but who had been created chevaliers or knights of the royal and military order of St. Louis, and who should retire from the service after having been in the army during thirty years without intermission, were to be exempted from the payment of the land or poll tax, and how the same privileges was to be transferred to their sons, provided they were in the service. By the eighth article it was enacted, that those officers who had risen to the rank of captain and were chevaliers or knights of the order of St. Louis, but who were disabled by wound, or diseases contracted in the service, should not be obliged to fill up the period of thirty years as prescribed in the recited articles. By article IX. it was provided, that when any officer, not under the rank of captain, died in the actual exercise of the functions, or bearing the commission of captain, the services he had already rendered should be of use to his sons, lawfully begotten, who were either in the service or were intended for it.

It was specified in articles X. and XI. that every officer, born in wedlock, whose father and grandfather had been exempted from the land or poll tax, should be noble, in his own right, provided he got created a chevalier or knight of St. Louis, had served the prescribed period, or was entitled to the exemption mentioned in article VIII. that if he should die in the service, he would be considered as having acquired the rank of nobility, and that the title so obtained should descend, as matter of right, to the children, lawfully begotten, of such officers as had acquired it. It further specified, that even those who should have been born previous to their father’s being ennobled, were entitled to the same privilege.

Article XII. pointed out the method by which proofs of military nobility were to be exhibited in conformity to the then existing edict.