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and uncompromising devotion to his coun- try's welfare." ' "**

iriall of the ITine Hostages, a dis- tinguished warrior, reigned over Ireland, according to the Four 3f asters, from 379 to 405. He carried his victorious arms into different parts of Ireland, Britain, and Gaul, and derived his name " Naoighial- lach," from the hostages held captive for the good behaviour of districts he had con- quered. A Eoman poet, Claudian, is by some believed to have referred to his ex- peditions in the lines :

" Totam cum Scotus lemen, Moyit, et infesto spumavit remige Tethys."

It has been suggested that St. Patrick may have been brought to Ireland among the captives taken in one of Niall's foreign incursions. He was assassinated in Gaul in 405, by Eochaidh, King of Leinster, whom he had exiled. Niall was succeeded in the sovereignty by Dathi. The O'Neills and other Irish families trace their ancestry to Niall. '34 171

Niall Gltindtibh, Monarch of Ireland, 914 to 919, Lord of Aileach, a descendant of the preceding. In 910 he and the men of Aileach were defeated in a great battle at Crossakeel, in Meath, by Flann Sinna, In 914, on Flann's death, Niall assumed the supreme power, and in the summer of next year fought an indecisive battle against the Northmen, who had arrived in great numbers, and established them- selves at Dublin and other seaports. In October 919 he fell in an encounter with them at Elilmashoge, near Eathfarnham ; when they extended their plundering ex- peditions into aU parts of the country. Niall's queen was Gormlaith [see Gorm- laith] " a very fair, virtuous, and learned damosell." '34

Nicholson, John, Brigadier-General, son of an Irish physician, Dr. Alexander Nicholson, was born in Dublin, nth De- cember I ''jr. He lost his father when eight years old, whereupon his mother re- moved to Lisbum, and most of his educa- tion was received at Dungannon School. In 1837 he obtained an appointment as ensign in the Indian army, and joined the 41st Native Infantry at Benares. He took part in the Affghan war, in 1842, saw some severe fighting, and endured a miser- able captivity of some months. On the 6th November in the same year his brother Alexander was killed in action in India. In 1846 he was appointed one of two mili- tary instructors to Gholab Singh's army in Cashmere, and next year assistant to Sir Henry Lawrence, Eesident at Lahore. There his great executive abilities became ■apparent, and he was entrusted by his 360

chief with several important missions. In the spring of 1848 the Sikh war broke out, and he specially distinguished himself at Attock and the Marguila Pass. His services at Chillianwallah and Guzerat were fully acknowledged in Lord Gough's dispatches. In 1849, when the Punjaub became a British province. Captain Nichol- son, then but twenty-eight, was appointed a Deputy-Commissioner under the Lahore Board, of which Sir Henry Lawrence was President. In 1850 he left for home on furlough — on his way engaging in an un- successful plot to liberate Kossuth from captivity in a Turkish fortress. On his return to India next year, he was reap- pointed to his old post in the Punjaub, and did good service as an administrator and governor for several years. The break- ing out of the mutiny in May 1857 found him Colonel Nicholson, at Peshawur. He acted with the greatest promptitude, removed a large treasure to a place of safety, dismissed some native regiments under circumstances that required con- summate tact and decision, and at Mur- dan, on 25th May, helped to put to rout a force of the mutineers. On this occasion he was fully twenty hours in the saddle, traversed not less than sev^aty miles, and cut down many fugitives with his own hand. On 22nd June hr took command of a movable column for the relief of Delhi, annihilated a large force of the enemy at Trimmoo, and effected a junction with the small band of British at Delhi on 14th August. Ten days afterwards he fought the battle of Nujufgurh, in which between 3,000 and 4,000 of the mutineers were slain. Already he had been created Brigadier-General. On 14th September, while heading an attack on a Sepoy posi- tion, he was mortally wounded ; and died on the 23rd (1857), aged 35. Sir John Lawrence, writing a few weeks later to his brother. Lieutenant Charles Nicholson, who lost a foot in the same engagement, said : " His loss is a national misfortune ;" and he remarked in a despatch : " He was an otficer equal to any emergency. . . His services since the mutiny broke out have not been surpassed by those of any other officer in this part of India." Brigadier- General Nicholson, like his friend and fellow-countryman Sir Henry Lawrence, who fell shortly before him, was of a deeply religious cast of mind. He was never married. A pension of ,£500 a year was granted by the East India Company to his mother ; and it was officially announced that had he survived he would have been created a Knight Commander of the Bath.