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 Roger Bacon’s reference to Neckam as a grammatical writer (in multis vera et utilia scripsit: sed inter auctores non potest  numerari) may be found in Brewer’s (Rolls Series) edition of Bacon’s Opera inedita, p. 457. See also Thomas Wright, Biographia Britannica literaria, Anglo-Norman Period, pp. 449–459 (1846: some points in this are modified in the 1863 edition of De nat. rer.); C. Raymond Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, iii. 508–509.

 NECKAR, a river of Germany, and a right-bank tributary of the Rhine, rises between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb, near Schwenningen, in Württemberg, at an altitude of 2287 ft. As far as Rottweil only a mountain stream, it here attains the volume of a river, flows N. as far as Horb, thence in a north-easterly direction, and with rapid current it passes Rottenburg and the university town of Tübingen, taking then a generally northerly course. From Esslingen the Neckar becomes broader and deeper and its valley very picturesque, and after passing Cannstatt, from which point it is navigable for small craft, it flows through vine-clad hills by the pleasant village of Marbach, Schiller’s birthplace, receives at Besigheim the waters of its most considerable tributary, the Enz, swirls down by Lauffen, and enters the beautiful vale of Heilbronn. Hence, between hills crowned by frequent feudal castles, it runs by Wimpfen and by Hornberg, where Götz von Berlichingen lived, to Eberbach, where it enters the sandstone formation of the Odenwald. It now takes a tortuous westerly course, and the scenery on its banks becomes more romantic. Winding down by Neckarsteinach and Neckargemünd between lofty wooded heights, it sweeps beneath the Königsstuhl (1900 ft.), washes the walls of Heidelberg, and now quitting the valley enters the plain of the Rhine and falls into that river from the right at Mannheim. Its length is 247 m., and its drainage area 4790 sq. m. Its more important tributaries are the Enz, Eschach and Glatt (left), and the Fils, Rems, Kocher and Jagst (right). It is navigable for small steamboats up to Heilbronn, for boats up to Cannstatt, and for rafts from Rottweil. It is the principal waterway of Württemberg, and is greatly used for floating down timber. From Rottenburg downwards its banks are almost everywhere planted with vineyards. Up to Frankfort it has been deepened and the channel otherwise improved. A committee, chiefly promoted by the Württemberg government and the Stuttgart chamber of commerce, reported in 1901 that it was both desirable and practicable to dredge the river and to canalize it, from Esslingen down to Mannheim, and that the cost would probably be between 2 and 2 millions sterling.

 NECKARGEMÜND, a town and climatic health resort of Germany, in the grand duchy of Baden, situated amid densely wooded hills, on the left bank of the Neckar, 6 m. E. from Heidelberg by the railway to Würzburg and at the junction of a line to Jagstfeld. Pop. (1905) 2200. It has an important trade in wine. The other industries are quarrying, tanning and shipbuilding, and there are electrical works. Neckargemünd, one of the favourite tourist resorts in the Neckar valley, was founded in the 10th century and became a free town in 1286. In 1395 it passed to the elector palatine and, together with the surrounding district, was apportioned to Baden in 1814.

 NECKER, JACQUES (1732–1804), French statesman, finance minister of Louis XVI., was born at Geneva in Switzerland. His father was a native of Cüstrin in Pomerania, and had, after the publication of some works on international law, been elected as professor of public law at Geneva, of which he became a citizen. Jacques Necker had been sent to Paris in 1747 to become a clerk in the bank of a friend of his father, M. Vernet. He soon afterwards established, with another Genevese, the famous bank of Thellusson & Necker. Thellusson superintended the bank in London (his grandson was made a peer as Lord Rendlesham), while Necker was managing partner in Paris. Both partners became very rich by loans to the treasury and speculations in grain. In 1763 Necker fell in love with Madame de Verménou, the widow of a French officer. But while on a visit to Geneva, Madame de Verménou met Suzanne Curchod, the daughter of a pastor near Lausanne, to whom Gibbon had been engaged, and brought her back as her companion to Paris in 1764. There Necker, transferring his love from the widow to the poor Swiss girl, married Suzanne before the end of the year. She encouraged her husband to try and make himself a public position. He accordingly became a syndic or director of the French East India Company, and, after showing his financial ability in its management, defended it in an able memoir against the attacks of A. Morellet in 1769. Meanwhile he had made interest with the French government by lending it money, and was appointed resident at Paris by the republic of Geneva. Madame Necker entertained the chief leaders of the political, financial and literary worlds of Paris, and her Fridays became as greatly frequented as the Mondays of Madame Geoffrin, or the Tuesdays of Madame Helvetius. In 1773 Necker won the prize of the Académie Française for an éloge on Colbert, and in 1775 published his Essai sur la législation et le commerce des grains, in which he attacked the free-trade policy of Turgot. His wife now believed he could get into office as a great financier, and made him give up his share in the bank, which he transferred to his brother Louis. In October 1776 Necker was made finance minister of France, though with the title only of director of the treasury, which, however, he changed in 1777 for that of director-general of the finances. He did great good in regulating the finances by attempting to divide the taille or poll tax more equally, by abolishing the “vingtième d’industrie,” and establishing monts de piété (establishments for loaning money on security). But his greatest financial measures were his attempt to fund the French debt and his establishment of annuities under the guarantee of the state. The operation of funding was too difficult to be suddenly accomplished, and Necker rather pointed out the right line to be followed than completed the operation. In all this he treated French finance rather as a banker than as a profound political economist, and thus fell far short of Turgot, who was the very greatest economist of his day. Politically he did not do much to stave off the coming Revolution, and his establishment of provincial assemblies was only a timid application of Turgot’s great scheme for the administrative reorganization of France. In 1781 he published his famous Compte rendu, in which he drew the balance sheet of France, and was dismissed from his office. Yet his dismissal was not really due to his book, but to the influence of Marie Antoinette, whose schemes for benefiting the duc de Guines he had thwarted. In retirement he occupied himself with literature, and with his only child, his daughter, who in 1786 married the ambassador of Sweden and became (q.v.). But neither Necker nor his wife cared to remain out of office, and in 1787 Necker was banished by “lettre de cachet” 40 leagues from Paris for attacking Calonne. In 1788 the country, which had at the bidding of the literary guests of Madame Necker come to believe that Necker was the only minister who could “stop the deficit,” as they said, demanded Necker’s recall, and in September 1788 he became once more director-general of the finances. Throughout the momentous months which followed the biography of Necker is part of the history of the (q.v.). Necker put a stop to the rebellion in Dauphiné by legalizing its assembly, and then set to work to arrange for the summons of the states general. Throughout the early months of 1789 he was regarded as the saviour of France, but his conduct at the meeting of the states general showed that he regarded it merely as an assembly which should grant money, not organize reforms. But as he had advised the calling of the states general, and the double representation of the third estate, and then permitted the orders to deliberate and vote in common, he was regarded as the cause of the Revolution by the court, and on July 11 was ordered to leave France at once. Necker’s dismissal brought about the taking of the Bastille, which induced the king to recall him. He was received with joy in every city he traversed, but at Paris he again proved to be no statesman. Believing that he could save France alone, he refused to act with Mirabeau or La Fayette. He caused the king’s acceptance of the suspensive veto, by which he sacrificed his chief prerogative in September, and destroyed all chance of a strong executive