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 534: NTJMANTIA NUMIDIA cuted within its limits. The Kentucky resolu- tions of 1798 declared the constitution to he a compact; that "to this compact each state ac- ceded as a state, and is an integral party ; that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the powers delegated to itself, but that, as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measures of redress." To this it was added by the resolutions of 1799 that " a nullification by those sovereignties [the states] of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument [the constitution] is the rightful remedy." The election of Mr. Jefferson to the presidency in 1800 took away all occasion for any more distinct assertion of the doctrine at that time ; but in the contro- versy over the tariff near the close of the ad- ministration of John Q. Adams, Virginia reas- serted the right of each state to construe the federal constitution for itself; and in 1832 South Carolina undertook to give the doctrine practical effect by an ordinance adopted by a delegate convention chosen for the purpose, which declared the tariff acts of congress to be null and void, forbade the collection of duties within the state, required all persons holding office under the state to take an oath to sup- port the ordinance on pain of vacating their offices, pledged the people of the state to maintain the ordinance and not to submit to force, and declared any acts of the general government to enforce the tariff or to coerce the state to be inconsistent with her longer continuance in the Union, and that she would forthwith proceed to organize a separate gov- ernment. This ordinance was met by a proc- lamation of President Jackson in which he de- clared that " the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by an individual state, is incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, in- consistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great ob- jects for which it was formed," and pledged himself at all events to execute the laws. This threatening controversy was for the time al- layed by the compromise of Mr. Clay; but when dissatisfaction with federal affairs again led to its practical assertion, the states did not stop at the nullification of particular laws, but proceeded at once to declare their relations with the Union at an end. (See CALHOUN, JOHN C. ; CLAY, HENRY ; HAYNE, ROBERT Y. ; JACKSON, ANDREW ; and WEBSTER, DANIEL. See also CONFEDERATE STATES.) NUMANTIA, an ancient city of Spain, capital of the Arevaci, supposed to have been in His- pania Tarraconensis, on the present site of Puente de Don Guarray, on the Douro, 3 m. N. of Soria, Old Castile. It was the most im- portant place in all Celtiberia. After the fall of Carthage (146 B. 0.), the Numantines re- solved not to surrender to the Romans, and defeated in succession (140-137) Quintus Pom- peius, Popillius, Mancinus, and Lepidus, who were sent against them. Finally, Scipio Afri- canus the younger besieged them with 60,000 men. The Numantines, who numbered no more than 4,000 men able to bear arms, held out for 14 months, when, their provisions being ex- hausted and their sources of supply cut off, they set fire to their houses and killed their wives, their children, and themselves (133 B. C.). NUMA POMPILICS, an ante-historical king of Rome. After the death of Romulus there was an interregnum of a year, each of the senators in turn enjoying the regal prerogative ; but the people soon demanded the election of a king. When the senate had given its consent, a dis- pute arose between the Sabines and Romans as to which people the sovereign should be taken from ; and when it was agreed that he should be selected from among the Sabines, Numa Pompilius, of the town of Cures, was unani- mously chosen. His first care was the reforma- tion of the civil institutions. He divided the lands which Romulus had gained by conquest, founded the worship of Terminus, the god of boundaries, and divided the artisans according to their trades into nine companies. He was considered the author of the Roman ceremonial law. He regulated the duties of the pontiffs, who had charge of the enforcement of the laws relating to religion, the augurs, the flamens, the vestal virgins, and the Salii, and prescribed the rites of worship. He reigned 39 years, and in all that time, as Livy relates, there were no wars, famines, or plagues. He was buried under the Janiculum hill. At his death the nymph Egeria, who had been his guide and counsellor through life, melted away in tears, and was changed into a fountain. According to popular tradition he derived much of his knowledge from Pythagoras, which critics re- gard as an anachronism. The sacred books of Numa were said to have been buried near him, and to have been discovered 500 years after- ward (181 B. C.). NUMBERS, one of the canonical books of the Old Testament, and the fourth of the five books of Moses. It is called in the Hebrew canon Bemidbar, "in the desert," from a leading word in the first verse of the opening chapter, and describes the numbering of the children of Israel, the continuation of the laws given to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, the march through the wilderness, the rejection of a whole generation, and the entrance into the land of Canaan. Historically it comprehends a period of 38 years, opening with the second month of the second year after the exodus; but it is chiefly confined to the first and last of these years. For all questions relating to the authorship and authenticity of the book, see PENTATEUCH. MIIIDLV. an ancient country of northern Africa, corresponding nearly to the modern Algeria. In early times the country was oc-