OBITl'AIMKS. FOREIGN. (Ni:i; R i NORTH.) 



609 



prevailed by force of arms. Ho proved the strong- 

 est and ablest ruler that Persia had had fur a long 

 period. From the moment he ascended the throne 

 :idied the art of war. learned French and the 

 rn sciences, and gave his whole attention to 

 methods of government and administration. He 

 had to subdue a revolt in every province, and in 

 this he had the aid of his Grand Vizier, a states- 

 man of genius: but this Grand Vizier he dismissed 

 when he became master of the country, and after 

 putting a stop to all intrigues of the harem he sur- 

 rounded himself with ministers who were content 

 to be his executive officers. He was so good a 

 financier that he controlled in detail all the ex- 

 penditures of the Government, revising the accounts 

 and authorizing every payment. He \va- 

 lute a despot as any in the world, delegating none 

 of his powers to others, and able to master and 

 confound all the Oriental intrigues with which he 

 was surrounded. In 1873 he made a prolonged stay 

 in Europe as the guest of different courts, in 

 he visited Russia, and in 1889 he made a second 

 tour in Europe. Nasreddin was an artist, a poet, 

 and a voluminous writer. He possessed the largest 

 and most valuable collection of jewels in Hie world, 

 estimated to be worth from 75.000.000 to three 

 times that sum. and including the peacock throne 

 that was carried away from Delhi by Xadir Shah 

 and a globe of jewels made for the Shah at a 



~i.000.000. He had a considerable understand- 

 ing and appreciation of Western civilization, but 

 rned his own turbulent and fanatical people by 

 purely Asiatic methods. After defeating number- 

 less conspiracies and revolts, he was at length as- 

 ;ated while entering a shrine by a fanatic of 

 the Bain sect. He was disposed to lean upon Russia 

 when he first ascended the throne, and. relying upon 

 Russian support, he repeated his father's attempt to 

 re-establish Persian dominion over Herat. An Eng- 

 lish army landed in the Persian Gulf and defeated 

 his troops. From that time he adopted a more 

 friendly attitude toward England, but after the 

 Russians had annexed the khanates on his eastern 

 borders and extended their possessions in Armenia, 

 he shaped his policy under Russian influences once 

 more. 



Nearri. Cristoforo. an Italian economist, born 

 in Milan in 1809: died in Florence. Feb. 17. 1896. 

 He studied jurisprudence at Pavia. Gratz. and Vi- 

 enna, and became Professor of Constitutional Law at 

 Padua in 1841. In consequence of his participation 

 in the revolutionary movement of 1848 he lost his 

 chair and was compelled to remove to Turin, where 

 he became rector of the university, and subsequently 

 head of the consular department of the Ministry of 

 Foreign Affairs. In connection with this office he 

 traveled in Germany, England, and Russia, and 

 completely reorganized the consular service. He 

 wrote much on matters of international trade, and 

 endeavored to awaken commercial patriotism and 

 enterprise among his compatriots. He founded the 

 Italian Geographical Society at Florence, and for 

 the first five years was its president. He lived a 

 year at Hamburg, and after that devoted his atten- 

 tion to promoting explorations in Central Africa 

 and the polar regions. He wrote a history of ant- 

 arctic expeditions. 



Nemours. Louis Charles Philippe Raphael 

 d'Orleans. Due de. second son of Louis Philippe. 

 King of the French, born in Paris. Oct. 25. 1814: 

 died in Versailles. June 25. 1896. He received his 

 education in the college of Henri IV. was appointed 

 a colonel by Charles X when only a child, and rode 

 into Paris at the head of his regiment on Aug. 30, 

 1830. He was elected in February. 1831. King of 

 the Belgians, but his father declined on his behalf 

 this offer of the National Congress, as he did also a 

 VOL. xxxvi. 39 A 



similar offer of the throne of Greece at a later 

 period. The Due de Nemours -crved gallantly in 

 ' ia. and was promoted lieutenant general" i 

 1 s :'. 7. In l x lo he married the Prin- ::aof 



Saxe-Cuburi:. In 1*41 he ai_ r uin served in Africa. 

 On the death of the Due d'Orleans. Louis Philippe 

 submitted a bill appointing the Due de Nemours 

 Regent in case the throne devolved upon his broth- 

 er's infant heir, and this was carried against the 

 opposition of the Liberals, who objected to his cler- 

 ical and absolutist leanings. Owing to this law 

 the Duchesse d'Orleans. whom the Liberals had 

 favored, could not be proclaimed as Regent in 1848, 

 and thus the Due de Nemours was a contributory 

 cause of the revolution of February. He left France 

 and joined the other members of the exiled family 

 at Claremont. He was the first of the Orleanist 

 princes to recognize the Comte de Chambord as the 

 rightful King of France. In 1857 he was left a 

 widower with two <, n-; and two daughters. The 

 elder son, the Comte d'Eu. married the only child 

 of the Emperor of Brazil. The younger son is the 

 Due d'Aleneon. One daughter married Prince 

 Czartoryski. and died in 1893. and the other. Prin- 

 cess Blanche d'Orleans, is unmarried. The Due de 

 Nemours returned to France in 1870. and lived 

 quietly in Paris or Versailles, taking no part in 

 politics. In 1886. when pretenders were banished, 

 his name was struck off the army list. 



Nobel, Alfred, a Swedish inventor, died in San 

 Remo, Dec. 10. 1895. When nitroglycerin was al- 

 most abandoned as a practical explosive on account 

 of the frequent accidents that attended its use, he 

 conceived, in 1860. the idea of mixing it with sili- 

 ceous earth to moderate its force. To this com- 

 pound he gave the name of dynamite, and it 

 quickly took the place of other explosive sub- 

 stances for mining, engineering, and warlike pur- 

 poses throughout the world. M. Nobel left his 

 immense fortune as a fund for the furtherance of 

 scientific investigation and experimentation. 



North. John Thomas, an English capitalist, born 

 near Leeds. Jan. 30. 1842: died in London. May 5. 

 1 v .i. He was apprenticed, after receiving a meager 

 elementary education, to a firm of millwrights in 

 Leeds, and after eight years obtained a responsi- 

 ble place with the firm of Fowler in the same 

 town. He embraced an opportunity to go out to 

 Peru with his young wife to set up some machin- 

 ery, and remained in South America- to make his 

 fortune by his mechanical knowledge and specu- 

 lative bu-iness faculties. He made money by con- 

 densing sea water for domestic use in a rainless 

 Chilian town, and by various other ingenious en- 

 terprises, notably by working large guano deposits. 

 He was one of the first to see the commercial 

 value of the nitrate fields of Tarapaca. and for 

 twenty years he kept purchasing nitrate deposits. 

 He mastered every detail of the nitrate business, 

 erected works, built railroads, and became the 

 largest exporter of nitrate of soda. Before the 

 Chilian war he had returned to England. He 

 went back to look after his interests, and. foresee- 

 ing the results of the war. managed to preserve his 

 rights by raising the British Mag over his property 

 and by speculative purchases in a time of depre- 

 ciated' values multiplied his property many times. 

 Returning to England, he multiplied his fortune 

 again by starting and controlling the speculation 

 in the shares of nitrate works and nitrate rail- 

 roads. Col. North wa- carelessly liberal with his 

 money, and thus became a well-known and popu- 

 lar character in English society. He took great 

 pleasure in horse racing and maintained a large 

 stable. He took an interest in coursing also, and 

 bred some famous dogs. In 1*95 he presented him- 

 self as a Conservative candidate for Parliament in 



