Part 111

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.

Article XIII. and XIV. provided for those officers, who were actually in the service at the promulgation of the edict, in proportion as the prescribed periods were filled up. This provision related wholly to the personal service of officers; as no proof was acknowleged or received, relative to services done by their fathers or grandfathers, who might have retired from the army, or have died prior to the publication of the edict.

The XVth, or last article, was a sort of register, in which were preserved the different titles that enabled individuals to lay claim to military nobility.

The whole of this edict may be seen, page 206, in the 3d volume, _Des Elémens Militaires_.

The French emperor Bonaparte has instituted an order of nobility called the _legion of honor_, the political influence of which appears to be greater than any order ever established, even than that of the Jesuits. He has also adopted the ancient military title of _duke_; which he has hitherto conferred only on men who have merited renown by their military greatness. The title of _count_ is also established, and all the members of the legion of honor hold a rank corresponding with the knights of feudal institution. Private soldiers and tradesmen, for acts of public virtue, have been created members of the legion of honor.

NOEUD _de l’artificier_, _Fr._ a particular knot which artificers or fireworkers make use of to bind fusees together.

NOEUD _de charrue_, _Fr._ a particular knot or stress, which is used in the artillery when ropes are passed under carriages, for the purpose of raising any piece of ordnance that has been overturned. For the various knots used in military service, see the _Am. Mil. Library_, Art. ARTILLERY.

NOMADES, a tribe of wandering Arabs, so called in Asia.

NOMINAL, by name. Hence

NOMINAL _Call_ which corresponds with the French _appel nominatif_; and, in a military sense, with our _roll call_.

NOURRICE, _Fr._ a nurse. A female who attends the sick. This word is likewise used by the French to express the means of subsistence, &c. which are supplied by the agricultural part of a kingdom. Hence _une province est la nourrice d’une ville_; the town is fed by the country round it. _La Sicile est la nourrice de Rome._ Sicily is the nurse of Rome; meaning thereby that the latter was supplied with corn, &c. by the former.

NOURRIR. To feed. The French say familiarly, _la soupe nourrit le soldat_; broth feeds the soldier.

NOYAU, _Fr._ in English _mandril_, a long piece of iron, which is placed in the middle of a cannon mould, in order that the liquid metal may be poured round it, and the piece obtain an equal thickness on all sides.

NOYAU, _Fr._ likewise means the whole of the vacant space or bore of a cannon, under which are comprehended the diameter of the mouth, the vacant cylinder, the breech, and the vent.

With respect to bombs, grenades, and hollow balls, that which is called _noyau_ consists of a globular piece of earth, upon which the cover of bombs, grenades, and hollow balls, is cast. The metal is poured in between this cover and the _noyau_, after which the _noyau_ or core is broken, and the earth taken out.

NOWARRA, _Ind._ An establishment of boats, which is kept at Dacca, for a defence against the _Decoits_, _Mugs_, and other plunderers.

NUDDEE, _Ind._ The name for a rivulet.

NULLA, _Ind._ This term likewise signifies a rivulet, and means the place which was once the bed of a river.

NUMEROS, _Fr._ round pieces made of brass, or other metal, which were numbered and used in the old French service in the detail of guards. See MARON.

NURSE. A person, generally a female, whose whole business is to attend the sick in the general or regimental hospital. She is under the immediate direction of the surgeon, whose duty will be to prepare the slops and comforts for the sick, and occasionally to assist in administering medicines, cooking the victuals, washing, &c. and for every ten men confined to bed by fever, an additional nurse and orderly-man should be allowed. All the patients, who are able, are every morning and evening to assist in cleaning and airing the hospital, carrying away dirt, &c., and by every means to assist the helpless.

There are also serjeants, orderly-men, and nurses, in regiments of the line.

In every regimental hospital, a room should be appropriated to the accommodation of such convalescents, whose state of health will admit of their being placed on full diet. This hospital to be regularly visited by the surgeon once, twice, or oftener in the day, as circumstances may require.

A non-commissioned officer should be appointed to the particular charge of the convalescent hospital, with an orderly-man, and when the convalescents are numerous, more orderly-men are to be attached to it, to keep it clean.

It is particularly necessary that none of the hospital tables and orders, which are to be hung up in a conspicuous place in every regimental hospital, shall be defaced by any person whatever, nor taken down, but by the surgeon or serjeant, the latter of whom will explain the allowance ordered for those patients who are not themselves in a situation to read the table for the distribution of diet.

O.

O. This letter is generally used in the orderly books to signify orders, viz.

GL. O. General orders.

R. O. Regimental orders,

GN. O. Garrison orders.

B. O. Brigade orders.

OATH, a solemn asseveration made in the presence of a magistrate, and taken on the Bible, whereby an individual binds himself to observe certain conditions, or swears to specific facts which he knows of his own knowlege. Soldiers from time immemorial have been accustomed to take oaths of fidelity. These oaths were, however, observed with greater solemnity among the ancients than they are administered in modern armies, except upon very particular occasions. In the latter, indeed, it seldom or ever happens, that oaths are taken by bodies of soldiers, assembled for the purpose. Oaths are taken by men newly enlisted, but those oaths are individually administered, and separately taken. The military oath, on the contrary, among the Romans, was of a more general and impressive nature. Kennett, in his Roman Antiquities, page 188, gives the following account of it:--“The levies being finished, the tribunes of every legion chose out one whom they thought the fittest person, and gave him a solemn oath at large, the substance of which was, that he should oblige himself to obey the commanders in all things to the utmost of his power, be ready to attend whenever they ordered his appearance, and never to leave the army but by their consent. After he had ended, the whole legion, passing one by one, every man, in short, swore to the same effect, crying, as he went by, _Idem in me_. The same by me.”

OATH _of Allegiance_. See ALLEGIANCE.

OATS, a grain which constitutes a principal food of horses in Europe. The distribution of this article ought to be narrowly watched by every officer commanding a troop; since it is notorious, that government is frequently charged for quantities which are not delivered, by which means, the horse suffers, and the public are imposed upon.

OBEDIENCE, (_Obéissance_, _Fr._) Submission to the orders of a superior. The first principle which ought to be inculcated and impressed upon the mind of every officer and soldier is obedience to all lawful commands. It is the main spring, the soul and essence, of military duty.

_Preter obeissance_, _Fr._ To swear allegiance.

_Remettre dans l’obeissance_, _Fr._ To recall to duty.

OBEDIENCE _to orders_. An unequivocal performance of the several duties which are directed to be discharged by military men. All officers and soldiers are to pay obedience to the lawful orders of their superior officers.

OBEIR, _Fr._ See OBEY.

_To_ OBEY, in a military sense, is without question or hesitation, to conform zealously to all orders and instructions which are legally issued. It sometimes happens, that individuals are called upon (by mistake, or from the exigency of the service) out of what is called the regular roster. In either case they must cheerfully obey, and after they have performed their duty, they may remonstrate.

OBJECT, in a military sense, signifies the same as point, with respect to mere movements and evolutions. Thus in marching forward in line, &c. the leader of a squad, company, or battalion, must take two objects at least upon which he forms his perpendicular movement, and by which the whole body is regulated. In proportion as he advances he takes care to select intermediate and distant objects or points by which his march is governed. See MARCHING IN LINE.

OBLATE, any rotund figure flatted at the poles as a turnip, which is properly an _oblate spheroid_.

OBLIQUATION, OBLIQUITY, a deviation from the parallel or perpendicular line.

OBLIQUE, _or second flank_. The face of a bastion discovered from a part of the curtain, is so called.

OBLIQUE _projection_, is that wherein the direction of the striking body is not perpendicular to the body struck, which makes an oblique angle with the horizontal line.

OBLIQUE _deployments_. When the component parts of a column that is extending into line, deviate to the right or left, for the purpose of taking up an oblique position, its movements are called oblique deployments. This is thus executed, either by wheeling the line by quarter or half wheels toward the point directed in single files, sections, or platoons; so that the movement may be made perpendicular to the newly wheeled front, and the sections will form echellons; if files, they march by what is called the line of science.

OBLIQUE _fire or defence_, that which is under too great an angle, as is generally the defence of the second flank, which can never be so good as a defence in front. See _Oblique Firing_, at the word FIRINGS. See _Am. Mil. Lib. plates_.

OBLIQUE _percussion_, is that wherein the direction of the striking body is not perpendicular to the body struck, or is not in line with its centre of gravity.

Oblique _position_. A position taken in an oblique direction from the original line of formation. As described in oblique deployments.

OBLIQUE _radius_, a line extending from the centre to the exterior side of a polygon.

OBLIQUE STEP. This absurd and awkward contortion is deservedly exploded.

_To_ OBLIQUE, in a military sense, is to move forward to the right or left, in either of those directions, from a line.

_Pas_ OBLIQUE, _Fr._ Oblique step.

OBLIQUE _à droite_, _Fr._ Right oblique.

OBLIQUE _à gauche_, _Fr._ Left oblique.

_Feux_ OBLIQUES _à droite et à gauche_, oblique firings to the right and left.

_Marcher_ OBLIQUEMENT, _Fr._ To oblique, or march in an oblique direction.

OBLIVION. See AMNESTY.

OBLONG _Square_. See SQUARE.

OBSEDER, _Fr._ To besiege, to beset, to get possession of.

OBSEQUIES, (_Obséques_, _Fr._) See BURIALS.

OBSERVATION. See ARMY OF OBSERVATION.

_To be under_ OBSERVATION. To be carefully watched and looked after. _Etre vu de prés; etre suivi de prés._

OBSERVATOIRE, _Fr._ See OBSERVATORY.

OBSERVATORY, a building, public or private, which is erected and provided with all sorts of instruments, proper for astronomical observations, &c. The most noted observatories in Europe, are:

1. That of Tycho Brahe, a nobleman of Denmark, at Uraineberg, in the island of Wern, between the coasts of Schonen and Zealand, in the Baltic.

2. The observatory at Paris, which was erected by Louis XIV. This building stands in the Fauxbourg St. Germain, and is so constructed as to answer the four cardinal points of the world, east, west, north and south. The foundation is laid 80 feet below the ground, and the edifice carried as much above it. It contains three stories in height, and has a terrace at top, from whence the whole horizon appears flat. The stair-case of this observatory deserves notice, from the singularity of its construction, being in the form of a screw, and so contrived, that from the bottom there is a full sight of the stars that pass the zenith of this place.

3. The royal observatory at Greenwich, in England, which was founded by Charles the second.

4. The observatory at Pekin in China, which was erected by the late emperor, at the intercession of the Jesuits.

_To_ OBSERVE, to watch closely, &c. Hence, _to observe the motions of an enemy_, is to keep a good look out by means of small corps of armed men, or of intelligent and steady spies or scouts, and to be constantly in possession of his different movements. No man can be said to have the talents of an able general, who neglects to observe his enemy in all directions; for if it be his intention to attack, you may thwart him by previous manœuvres; and if you are liable to be attacked yourself, you may assume the best possible position, and prevent surprise, &c.

OBSESSION. The act of besieging.

OBSIDIONAL, belonging to a siege.

OBSIDIONAL _Crown_, (_couronne obsidionale_, _Fr._) a crown so called among the ancient Romans, which was bestowed upon a governor or general, who by his skill and exertions, either held out, or caused the siege to be raised of any town belonging to the republic. It was made from the grass which grew upon the spot, and was therefore called _gramineus_, from the Latin word _gramen_, signifying grass.

_Monnoie_ OBSIDIONALE, _Fr._ any substitute for coin, which has a value put upon it that is greater than its intrinsic worth; and a currency given, to answer the convenience of the inhabitants of a besieged place. _On a employé le cuir à faire des monnoies obsidionales._ The inhabitants made use of leather as a substitute for coin.