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 Roman Catholics. The chief industries are tanning, dyeing and the manufacture of damask linen woollen stuffs leather and beer.

In 1745, 1760 and 1779 engagements between the Austrians and Prussians took place near Neustadt, which on the last occasion was bombarded and set on fire.

NEUSTADT-AN-DER-HAARDT, a town of Germany, in the Bavarian Palatinate, picturesquely situated under the eastern slope of the Haardt Mountains and at the mouth of the valley of the Speyerbach, 14 m. W. of Spires, and at the junction of railway lines to Worms, Weissenburg and Monsheim. Pop. (1905) 18,576. It has four churches, two Evangelical and two Roman Catholic. The Protestant abbey church, a fine Gothic edifice dating from the 14th century, contains the tombs of several of the counts palatine of the Rhine. The Roman Catholic Ludwigskirche is a modern Gothic structure. The chief industries of the town are cloth, paper, furniture, soap, starch and hats. It has also breweries and distilleries. A brisk trade is carried on in wood, grain, fruit and wine, all of which are extensively produced in the vicinity. Neustadt, which became a town in 1275, is one of the centres of the Rhenish “grape-cure,” and thus attracts numerous visitors.

NEU-STETTIN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Pomerania, on the small Streitzig lake, 90 m. by rail N.E. of Stettin, at the junction of railways to Belgard, Posen and Stolpmiinde. Pop. (1905) 10,785. Its industries are iron-founding, dyeing, brewing and the manufacture of machinery, soap and matches, There is a considerable trade in cattle, grain and other agricultural produce, and in timber and spirits. Neu-Stettin was founded in 1313 by Wratislaus, duke of Pomerania, on the model of Stettin.

NEU-STRELITZ, a town of Germany, capital of the grand-duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, situated between two small lakes, the Zierker See and the Glambecker See, 60 m. N. of Berlin, on the railway to Stralsund, at the junction of lines to Warnemünde and Buschhof. Pop. (1905) 11,656. It is built in the form of a star, the eight rays converging on a market-place adorned with a statue of the grand-duke George (d. 1860). The ducal residence is a handsome edifice in a pseudo-classical style, with a library of 75,000 volumes, and collections of coins and antiquities. Other buildings are the churches (two Evangelical and one Roman Catholic), the Carolinum (a large hospital), the town hall, the barracks, the gymnasium and the theatre. Its manufactures are iron-ware, machinery, pottery, beer and mineral waters. Its trade, chiefly in corn, meal and timber, is facilitated by the Zierker See and by a canal connecting the town with the Havel and the Elde.

About 1 m. to the south lies Alt-Strelitz, the former capital of the duchy, a small town the inhabitants of which are employed in the manufacture of tobacco, leather and wax candles. Neu-Strelitz was not founded till 1726. In the vicinity is the château of Hohen-Zieritz, where Queen Louise of Prussia died in 1810.

NEUSTRIA, the old name given to the western kingdom of the Franks, as opposed to the eastern kingdom, (q.v.). The most ancient form of the word is Niuster, from niust, which would make the word signify the “most recent” conquests of the Franks. The word Neustria does not appear as early as the Historia Francorum of Gregory of Tours, but is found for the first time in Fredegarius. The kingdom of Chilperic was retrospectively given this name, and in contemporary usage it was given to the kingdom of Clovis II., as opposed to that of Sigebert III., the two sons of Dagobert; and after that, the princes reigning in the West were called kings of Neustria, and those reigning in the East, kings of Austrasia. Under the new Carolingian dynasty, Pippin and Charlemagne restored the unity of the Frankish realm, and then the word Neustria was restricted to the district between the Loire and the Seine, together with part of the diocese of Rouen north of the Seine; while Austrasia comprised only the Frankish dominions beyond the Rhine, perhaps with the addition of the three cities of Mainz, Worms and Spires on the left bank. The districts between Neustria and Austrasia were called Media Francia or simply Francia. In 843 Brittany took from Neustria the countships of Rennes and Nantes; and gradually the term Neustria came to be restricted to the district which was later called Normandy. Dudo of Saint Quentin, who flourished about the year 1000, gives the name Neustria to the lands ceded to Rollo and his followers during the 10th century. In the year 1663, the Père de Moustier gave to his work on the churches and abbeys of Normandy the title of Neustria pia.

At the time of Charlemagne, Lombardy was divided into five provinces: Neustria, Austrasia, Aemilia, Littoraria maris and Tuscia. Austrasia was the name given to eastern Lombardy, and Neustria that given to western Lombardy, the part last occupied by the Lombards.

NEUTITSCHEIN (Czech Nový Jičín), a town of Austria, in Moravia, 75 m. N.E. of Brünn by rail. Pop. (1900) 11,891, chiefly German. It is situated on a spur of the Carpathians, and on the banks of the Titsch, an affluent of the Oder. It is the chief place in the Kuhländchen, a fertile valley peopled by German settlers, who rear cattle and cultivate flax. At Neutitschein manufactures of woollen cloth, flannel, hats, carriages and tobacco are carried on; and it is also the centre of a brisk trade. The town was founded in 1311. Neutitschein was in 1790 the headquarters of the Austrian field-marshal Loudon, who died here in the same year and is buried in the parish church.

NEUTRALITY, the state or condition of being neutral (Lat. neuter, neither of two), of not being on or inclined to one side or another, particularly, in international law, the condition of a state which abstains from taking part in a dispute between other states. Neutrality is the most progressive branch of modern International Law. It is also that branch of International Law in which the practice of self-restraint takes the place of the direct sanctions of domestic law most effectively. The rapid changes it is undergoing are in fact bringing the state-system of the modern world nearer to the realization of the dream of many great writers and thinkers, of a community of nations just as much governed by legal methods as any community of civilized men. While the right of war was simply the right of the stronger, there was no room for neutral rights, for, without going back to the time of the ancients, the so-called rights of war and conquest are nothing but survivals of the right of brute strength. No nation or community down to comparatively recent times was treated as having a right to what it could not keep. It is the growth of a law of neutrality, through the modern possibility of concerted action among neutral states, which is bringing about improvement, and, though the signs of our times are not always reassuring, we have taken a long stride forward since Molloy, in his De Jure maritimo et navali (1680), wrote: “As a neuter neither purchases friends nor frees himself from enemies, so commonly he proves a prey to the victor; hence it is held more advantage to hazard in a conquest with a companion than to remain in a state wherein he is in all probability of being ruined by the one or the other.”

It was the great commercial communities, the Hansa in the north and Venice and the Mediterranean maritime republics in the south, which were first able to insist on some sort of regulation of the usages of war for their own protection. With the growth of intercourse among nations a further advance was made, by treaty stipulations entered into in time of peace, to provide rules for their guidance in the event of war, but it is only in our own time that the idea of a substantive neutral right has obtained recognition. To our own time belongs the final acceptance of the principle that the neutral flag protects an enemy’s goods except contraband, the conception of neutralization of territory, the abolition of fictitious blockades, the practice of declarations of