110 



NEEFS, PETER. 



KELSON, HORATIO. 



" Keeker's first resignation however was much to be regretted ; it was 

 a loss to France at a critical moment, and it was a great fault on bis 

 part, for be might have maintained himself in office ; but his uncon- 

 querable self-love prevented him. He fancied that they could not do 

 without him, and that he would be soon recalled, and thus become 

 all-powerful. He was mistaken ; and when at last he returned to 

 office, tbe situation of tbe state was greatly changed, and circumstances 

 had become such as to require talents very superior to his." (Droz, 

 'Histoire du Regne du Louis XVI.,' b. 11, 1839.) 



In 1787 Necker returned to Paris, where he wrote against Calonne, 

 who had just been dismissed from his office of comptroller-general of 

 the finances, and he was, in consequence, banished from the capita], 

 but was soon after recalled. In the following year (August 1788), on 

 tbe resignation of Brieune, and at the suggestion of that minister, 

 Louis XVI. appointed Necker director-general of finances, as the only 

 man capable of restoring order in the administration. The king had 

 already promised the convocation of the states-general, and Necker 

 urged him to keep his promise. But he failed as a statesman, in not 

 arranging beforehand a plan for the sittings of those states, so as to 

 prevent the collision that took place on their first meeting. In fact 

 Necker was a financier, but no general statesman ; he was a philo- 

 sopher and a man of letter*, but not a juriet or a legislator, and he 

 was thus considered by a man well qualified to judge of these matters. 

 [MIRABEAU.] His second ministry was short. Unable to check or 

 direct the popular storm, and not enjoying the confidence of the 

 court, Necker, unwilling to become a watchword of the agitators, 

 offered privately to Louis XVI. to quit his place and the kingdom, if 

 he thought his absence would tend to calm the public effervescence. 

 On the llth of July 1789 the king wrote him a confidentil note, 

 requesting him to set off quickly and privately. Necker obeyed, and 

 set off for Switzerland that very night. But this step, instead of 

 preventing, only precipitated the Revolution. After the taking of the 

 Bastille, tbe National Assembly demanded the recall of Necker, and 

 Louis complied. Necker was received in triumph, but his popularity 

 wag short-lived. He did not go far enough to please the movement- 

 men. In December of the following year, 1790, he gave in his 

 resignation to the National Assembly, which received it with cool 

 indifference. He (pent the remainder of his life in Switzerland, iu 

 retirement and study, and wrote several political tracts. He had 

 written, several years before, a work, 'De 1'Importance des Opinions 

 Religieuses.' He died in April 1804. His daughter became celebrated 

 as Madame <1e S'ael. [STAKI..J 



NEEFS, PETER, called 'the Old,' born at Antwerp in the year 

 1570, was a disciple of the elder Henry Steenwyck, whose manner he 

 closely imitated. He painted views of churches and convents, 

 especially interiors, preferring those in the Gothic style of architec- 

 ture. He possessed a profound knowledge of perspective, and 

 represented his subjects, with all their rich ornaments, and every 

 member of the architecture, with strict truth, and yet without betray- 

 ing the appearance of anxious labour. Every object in marked with 

 minute precision, and finished with an exquisite touch and a light 

 pencil. His bright clear pictures, in which be avoided the darkish 

 brown colouring sometimes observable in the works of bis master Steen- 

 wyck, are tbe must esteemed. Being an indifferent designer of figures, 

 he often got F. Francks, Van Thulden, Velvet Breughel, or Teniers, 

 to paint the figures ; those of the two last gr< ally enhance the value 

 of the pictures of Neefs. He died in 1651. Hia son PETEH MARTIN 

 (called 'the Your g') painted iu tbe same style, and chose tbe same 

 subjects as his father, but was by no means equal to him. 



NEER, ARNOLD VANDEK, born at Amsterdam in 1619, is well 

 known to connoisseurs and artists both by the peculiarity of his style 

 and by the handling and transparence of his landscapes. His subjects 

 are chiefly views of villages with fishermen's huts on the low banks of 

 rivers and canals. His pencilling is remarkably neat, his touch free 

 and clear, and his imitation of nature faithful. His reputation is 

 founded on his moonlight scenes, in which he has never been excelled, 

 and perhaps scarcely equalled. The lustre of his skies about the 

 moon, and the reflection of the beams on the water, whether calm or 

 slightly rippled, are admirable. His genuine pictures are highly 

 pri/, '1 all over Europe. In some instances they are rather too black, 

 probably from the effects of time. He died in lb'83. 



NEEU, EGLON HENDRICK. VANDER, son of the preceding, 

 was born at Amsterdam in 1643. He studied first under his father, 

 and afterwards under Jacob Vanloo. He was well versed in all the 

 branches of the art. In history, his composition is skilful and his 

 drawing correct ; his portraits both large and small are spirited and 

 well coloured ; and his conversations have all the excellencies of 

 Terburg. He lived first at Paris, then at Orange, and lastly at the 

 court of the elector palatine at Diisseldorf, where he died in 1703. 



NKHKMIAH, the author of one of the canonical books of the Old 

 Testament, gives what we may call his autobiography. He was the 

 son of Hachaliab, and filled the high and confidential office of cup- 

 bearer to Artaxerxen, king of J'eraia, then n siding at Susa. After his 

 countrymen bad been released by Cyrus, had returned to Jerusalem 

 under Zerubbabel, and were endeavouring to rebuild the Temple 

 under the guidance of Ezra, Nehemiah was informed of the inter- 

 ruptions occasioned by the intrigues of the enemies of the Jews, and 

 the oppressions and insults to which they were subjected. This 



BIOO. DIT. VOL. IV. 



intelligence occasioned a sadness which was remarked by his royal 

 master, who, when informed of the cause, sent him to Jerusalem as 

 civil governor, in succession to Zerubbabel, who died about this time, 

 B.C. 445. He zealously assisted Ezra in enforcing his religious reforms, 

 but his own special charge seems to have been to secure Jerusalem 

 from the attacks of foreign enemies, and to re-organise the civil 

 government. This he effected : he built walls and gates to the town, 

 with a palace for himself and future governors, iu despite of much 

 vexatious opposition ; each builder " with one of his hands wrought in 

 the work, and with the other hand held a weapon." The walls were 

 at length dedicated with much solemnity, and Ezra read the book of 

 the law. Nehemiah had obtained leave of absence from Artaxerxes 

 for twelve years, which were now expired ; he therefore appointed his 

 brother Hauani, with Hananiah the ruler of the palace, to be the civil 

 governors, and returned to Susa. During his residence he states that 

 he accepted of no salary as governor, and, in addition, kept a liberal 

 public table, at which a hundred and fifty visitors, Jews and strangers, 

 attended daily. Soon after his return to Susa, he learned that his 

 regulations were disregarded, the Temple service neglected, and the 

 Temple itself desecrated ; that the high-priest was corrupt, the sabbath. 

 profaned, and marriages with heathen women encouraged. He obtained 

 a re appointment to his former office, returned, and proceeded vigor- 

 ously to the correction of the evils grown up in hie absence. His 

 second residence continued about four years, till B.C. 420. The con- 

 tents of the book f Nehemiah are to a considerable extent the same 

 as that of Ezra, with which it was formerly united under the title of 

 the First and Second Books of Esdras [EZRA], and some writers have 

 contender!, though we think without foundation, that Ezra was the 

 author of both. 



NELEDINSKY-MELETZKY, YURII, the most eminent song- 

 writer Russia has yet produced, was boru in 1751. He served in the 

 campaigns against the Turks, from the year 1770 to 1774, and, after 

 the peace between the two countries, accompanied the Russian mission 

 to Constantinople. Subsequently an ollice in the civil department 

 was bestowed upon him by the emperor Paul, and in 1797-98 lie 

 accompanied that sovereign in his journey to Kazan and White Russia. 

 This last mark of the imperial favour was followed by others of a 

 more substantial nature, for an estate with several hundred peasants 

 was shortly after allotted to him as the reward of his services, besides 

 the order of St. Anue, to which that of St. Alexander Nevsky was 

 added in 1809. Though, considered singly, his songs and ballads may 

 appear merely elegant poetical trifles, and indicate no very high literary 

 effurt or ambition, they prove him to have possessed a decided taleut 

 for that species of composition, and the power of infusing into it a 

 gracefulness and charm for which the language afforded no previous 

 model". To great simplicity they unite great tenderness and warmth 

 of feeling. He died in 1829, at the age of seventy-eight. 



NELSON, HORATIO, son of Edmund Nelson, rector of Burnham 

 Thorpe, and Catherine his wife, was born at his father's residence in 

 Norfolk, on the 29th of September 1758. His mother died in 1767, 

 leaving eight children, for whom an early provision was desirable, on 

 account of the slender income of their father. Nelson had ucith. r 

 a strong frame nor a hardy constitution, yet his weakness did not 

 disincline him to leave home : he embraced willingly the opportunity 

 of going to sea, which was offered through the position iu the navy 

 which was held by his uncle, Captain Suckling, who had been appointed 

 to the Raisonuable, 61, in which Nelson was entered as midshipman. 

 Tbe Raisomiable was BOOU afterwards paid off, and service in a guard- 

 ship, to which his relation was appointed, being objectionable for a 

 boy, he entered the merchant service, and sought active employment 

 in an outward-bound West Indiaman. Mr. Southey says, " He returned 

 a good practical seaman, but with a hatred of the king's service, and a 

 saying then common nrnoug sailors, 'aft the most honour, forward the 

 better man.' " To remove this hatred, his uncle received him on board 

 his guard ship in the Thames, and though this service was lesa enter- 

 prising than might have been desired, it was advantageous to Nelson 

 in two respects : it enabled him to overcome his prejudice against the 

 navy, and to acquire skill in pilotage, which he afterwards turned to 

 good account. By his uncle's influence he obtained a rating on board 

 the Carcass, Captain Lutwidgc, in the North Polar expedition under 

 Captain Phipps : on his return he was placed on board the Seahorse, 

 and went to the East Indies in her, whence he was invalided. 



Recovering his health on the passage home, he was appointed 

 acting-lieutenant to the Worcester, aud subsequently lieutenant of 

 the Lowestoffe and the Bristol ; commander of the Badger, brig, in 

 December 1778; and post-captain to tbe Hinchinbroke, Juue 11, 1779. 

 He distinguished himself in the siege of Fort San Juan, Nicaragua, 

 and took the island of St. Baitolomeo. Pestilence reduced his crew 

 from 200 to 10 men, and Nelson, crippled by disease, was obliged to 

 return home. The Bath waters having restored him, he was appointed 

 to the Albemarle, in which he cruised during the winter of 1781-82 in 

 the. North Sea, whence he was ordered by Lord Sandwich to Quebec. 

 On this station he remained until peace was concluded, when he went 

 for a short time to St. Omer. He was appointed to the Boreas, 2S, 

 and sent to the Leeward Islands, iu March 1784. 



The Americans were then trading with the British colonies ou tho 

 footing of British subjects, but as they had become foreigners by then- 

 separation from Great Britain, and as such were not allowed to tni ' 



2 a 



