Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/251

Rh N A S N A T 239 stone, coals, slate, a little silver, and a bed of malachite. Its manufactures, including cotton and woollen goods, are unimportant, but a brisk trade is carried on by rail and river in wine, timber, grain, and fruit. There are few places of importance besides the above-named spas ; Hb chst is the only manufacturing town. Wiesbaden, with 50,238 inhabitants, is the capital of the government district as it was of the duchy. In 1864 the duchy contained 468,311 inhabitants, of whom 242,000 were Protestants (including the reigning house), 215,000 Roman Catholics, and 7000 Jews. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction was in the hands of the Protestant bishop of Wiesbaden and the Roman Catholic bishop of Limburg. Education was amply pro vided for in numerous higher and lower schools. The annual revenue of the dukedom was about 4,000,000 guldens (400,000). It furnished a contingent of 6000 men to the army of the German Confederation. During the Koman period the district enclosed by the Lahn, the Main, and the Rhine was at first occupied by the Mattiaci and then by the Alemanni. The latter were subdued by the Franks under Clovis in 496, and at the partition of Verdun in 843 the country became part of the Eastern or German empire. Christianity seems to have been introduced in the 4th century. The founder of the house of Nassau is usually recognized in Count Otho of Laurenburg, brother of King Conrad I., who nourished on the banks of the Lahn in the 10th century. His successors afterwards took the title of counts of Nassau, from a castla which they erected on a steep hill overlooking the Lahn, and in 1192 transferred their allegiance from the archbishop of Treves to the emperor of Germany. In 1255 Walram and Otho, the two sons of Count Henry the Eich, divided between them their paternal inheritance, which had in the mean time been steadily increasing, and founded the tw,o Nassovian dynasties which have flourished down to our own times. The fortunes of the Othonian or younger branch have been the more brilliant, but belong properly to the history of Holland. In 1564 Count William of Nassau, the hero of the Dutch war of inde pendence, succeeded to the principality of Orange, which furnished the historical title of himself and his descendants. The house is now represented by the king of the Netherlands. Adolf of Nassau, the son of the founder of the elder or &quot;Walram line, and progenitor of the dukes of Nassau, became emperor of Germany in 1292, but was defeated and slain in 1298 by his rival Albert of Austria. In 1366 the head of the house was created a prince of the empire, and the Reformation was introduced in the second half of the 16th century. The territories of the house of Walram were frequently partitioned among various branch lines, few of which perpetuated themselves beyond a few generations. At the beginning of the 19th century we find two lines still nourishing Nassau-Ufingen and Nassau-Weilburg. Both these joined the Rhenish Confederation in 1806, and the prince of Nassau- Ufingen, as head of his family, received the ducal title from the hands of Napoleon. After the battle of Leipsic both princes threw in their lot with the allies. In 1816 the duke of Nassau-Ufingen died, and the prince of Weilburg succeeded to the whole of the Nassovian territory, with the title of duke of Nassau. This prince had already, in 1814, granted his subjects a limited constitution, providing for two representative chambers on a landed- property basis, and this came into force in 1818. The estates, however, came almost at once into collision with the duke on the question of the ducal domains, and the dissensions arising from this source were not compromised till 1834. In 1835 the duchy took an important step in the development of its material prosperity by joining the Zollverein. In 1848 Duke Adolf was compelled to yield to the temper of the times and grant a more liberal constitution, with a single chamber elected by universal suffrage ; but the follow ing years witnessed a series of reactionary measures which reduced matters to their former unsatisfactory condition. The duke adhered steadfastly to his Conservative principles, while his people showed their sympathies by returning one Liberal chamber after another. In 1866, though the chambers refused a vote of credit for military purposes, the duke espoused the cause of Austria, and in doing so sealed the fate of his duchy. A little later he was a fugitive before the Prussian troops, and on October 3d, 1866, Nassau was formally incorporated with the kingdom of Prussia. The little town of Nassau, on the right bank of the Lahn, 15 miles above Coblenz, is interesting as the birthplace of the cele brated Prussian statesman, Baron Stein. Adjacent are Burg Stein, his ancestral seat, and Burg Nassau, the cradle of the Nassovian dukes. Nassau is said to have existed as early as the 8th century under the name of Nasonga. Population (1880) 1786. ^See Schliephake, Geschichte von Nassau, 1866-76; Amoldi, GescMchle von Aassau-Oranien; the Annals of the&quot;Verein fur Nassauische Alterthumskunde nud Geschichtsforschung&quot;; Daniel, Handluch der Geographic, 5th ed., 1881. NASSAU, the capital of New Providence, and seat of government of the Bahama Islands, 25 5 36&quot; N. lat., 77 21 15&quot; W. long. At one time the town was noted as a great rendezvous for pirates. Its harbour, admitting vessels drawing 12 feet, acquired much importance during the blockade of the southern ports in the American War. The population of Nassau, principally negroes and coloured people, is about 8000, out of the total island population of 11,653. Nassau extends for 3 miles along the north shore. It is a very pretty town, celebrated for its healthy climate, and resorted to for sea-bathing by visitors from America. It has a Government house, a plain stone cathe dral, and several churches and chapels, and is a military station and a bishop s see. Numbers of the inhabitants support themselves by looking after wrecks. Preserved fruit in tins is exported, also woods, fruit, sponges, salt, &c. NASTURTIUM. The common water-cress (N. officinale), so largely used as a salad, may be taken as a representative of this genus of Cruciferge, a genus characterized, for the most part, by pinnately divided foliage, white or yellow cruciform flowers, and long pods with a double row of seeds. The embryo root is folded up along the edges of the cotyledons, accumbent. Four species are British, but the o nly one cultivated is the TV&quot;, officinale. Its flavour is due to an essential oil containing sulphur, its antiscorbutic properties to the presence of iodine, iron, and phosphates. Although now so largely consumed, it does not appear to have been cultivated in England prior to the present century, though in Germany, especially near Erfurt, it had been grown long previously. The plants are grown in shallow water in rows parallel to the direc tion of the current, and from 5 to 7 feet apart. It is essential that the water be free from impurity, especially sewage. To avoid this latter contingency cresses are sometimes grown in a north border, the soil being kept constantly moist; or they may be grown in pots in a frame or greenhouse, the pots being placed in a saucer of water, and the plants frequently watered. This plan was introduced by Mr Shirley Hibberd, and when the requisite attention is given is highly successful when commercial considerations are not a matter of primary importance. The name Nasturtium is also applied in gardens, but in correctly, to the species of Tropseolum. NATAL, a British colony on the south-east coast of Africa, situated nearly between 29 and 31 S. lat. and 29 and 32 E. long., is bounded on the N.E. by Zululand and the Transvaal, on the S.E. by the Indian Ocean, on the N.W. by the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, and on the S.W. by Basutoland, Griqualand East, and the country of the Fondas. It is of an irregular diamond shape, with a length of about 270 miles from north to south, and a breadth of 170 miles from east to west. The extent of sea-coast is about 150 miles, and its area is about 17,000 square miles, or 11,000,000 acres (one-third of the size of England). For several miles northward from the Bluff at Durban the coast is low, but well wooded, and broken in several places by the mouths of rivers and streams ; to the south of the Bluff it is of moderate elevation near the sea, the hills rising inland to a considerable height. Rich in verdure, and in the wet season clothed with bright green grass and clumps of trees and bushes, and diversified by numerous streams, the landscape indicates a country of great fertility of soil. From the coast to the western boundary of the colony the land rises by terraces or plateaus to an elevation of at least 4000 feet above the sea-level. For about 15 miles inland it is broken and hilly, and thickly covered with long grass, and in some parts studded with jungly bush and clumps of palm,