Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/710

* NORKISTOWN. 610 NORTH. buildings and places of interest are the county court house, municipal building, high school, ilasonic Temple, ilontgomery Cemetery, with a tomb of Geu. V. S. Hancock and a shaft to Gen. John F. Hartranft, the Schuylkill J5ridge (1829), and Valley Forge, but six miles distant. Norris- town is in a rich agricultural and mining re- gion, and has extensive manufactures of glass, wire, screws, iron, hosiery, knitting machines, shirts, etc. The government is administered by a burgess, elected every three years, and a xmi- camcral council, which controls elections of sub- ordinate municipal departments. The borough owns and operates its electric light plant. Found- ed in 1785 and named in honor of Isaac Xorris, who had formerly owned a large part of the land in tills vicinity, Norristown was incorporated as a borough in 1812, its popilation then being about .jUO. It was enlarged in 1853. It is claimed that the earliest settlement here was in 1088 by Friends from Wales. Population, in 18;K), rst.Tni : in 1900, 22,265. NORRKOPING, nOr'che-ping. A seaport on the east coast of Sweden, situated at the head of the Bri'ivik, 75 miles southwest of Stockholm (Map: Sweden, G 7). It is regularly laid out with streets crossing at right angles, and has several beautiful parks, squares, and promenades. There are many fine modern buildings, among the best of which are the almost palatial public schools, the new Church of Saint Matthew, the city hall, and the labor lyceum. The ilotala, which Hows through the town, is extensively utilized for water power, and Norrkoping is one of the foremost nuiuufacturing towns of Sweden. In 1900 there were 175 factories, whose products for the year were valued at $9.0.50.000. The most imj)ortant nuuiufactures are woolen and cotton textiles, paper, tapestries, and sugar. Norrkoping is also one of the most im])ortant commercial ports in the country. Us harbor admits the largest vessels. The shipping in 1899 amounted to nearly 375,000 tons. The chief ex- ports are manufactured goods, grain, wood, and dairy products. Population, in 1890, 32,826; in 19ll(i. 41.008. NORRLAND, nOr'lant. The northernmost and largest, but least populous, of the three historical divisions of Sweden. It extends south as far as Gelle. and has an area of 80,785 sijuare iiiib-. Willi a pnpiilali.)!! in liKll of 800,254. NORSEMEN, or NORTHMEN. See Nor- ma n.s. NORSE MYTHOLOGY. See ,EsiR; Scan- dinavian .Mythology. NORTH, (iiiRisTOPiiER. The pseudonym of tlic part author of the yoctes Amhrosianw, John Wilscn ((|.v.). NORTH, Francis, Baron Guilford (1637-85). A celebrated English jurist. He was born No- vember 2, l(i37. the third son of the fourth Lord North. Prejudiced against Presbyterians by the sternness of his early teachers. North was con- firnie<I in this feeling by Dr. Stevens, a sturdy Royalist, heail of the school at Bury Saint Ed- mund, where he finished his preparation for col- lege. Matriculated at Saint .tohn's College. Cam- bridge, he withdrew in two years to become a student of law in the Middle Temple. He was admitted to its practice in 1601, and as he had always been n slident of great application, he soon gained a high rank at the bar. Inde»d, his rise in favor at the Court was so rapid that he has been accused of using unworthy means to gain his end. He became Solicitor-General in 1071, Attorney-Cieneral in 1073, and Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1675. In 1682 he was made Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. With other members of the Court party he was hostile to Titus Gates, and as juilge ruled in such a manner against Stephen College that it aided in securing a death .sentence. This act constitutes the most serious blot on his fame as a judge, for in most cases his decisions were marked by their ability and justice. He was a Royalist, true to Charles II. at all times. In 1083 he entered the House of Lords as Baron Guilford, but took little part in its proceed- ings. He was a man of vast knowledge and wide culture, an excellent musician, a patron of artists, and a friend of natural 'sciences, yet withal too complaisant to the corruptions of his day. As a lawyer his ability and learning were undoubted, and his decisions did much to in- crease the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Picas. Consult Roger North, The Lives of the yorths (London, 1890). NORTH, Frederick. Lord, Earl of Guilford (1732-92). An English statesman. He was a son of Baron Guilford. After a course at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, and a period of Continental travel. North was at the age of twenty-two sent to the House of Commons as member from Banburv. a borough controlled by his father. From 1759 until the fall of the Rockingham IMinistry in 1765 he held the posi- tion of a junior lord of the treasury. In Dc- cendjcr, 1766, after a short tenure of the office of paymaster, he was admitted as a member of the Prix-j- Council. His ability won for him, in ilarch. 1767, an ofTer of the chancellorship of the exchequer, which he at first declined, but upon the death of Townshend in September finally accepted. With this post went the leadership of the House of Commons, for which he was well qualified by his eloquence, good humor, wit, and readiness of resource. His attitude on the Townshend tea tax, however, was one of the immediate causes of the American war. It was North's own boast that as a member of the Commons he had "voted against all popular and in favor of all unpopular measures." In 1770 he succeeded the Duke of Grafton as Prime Minister. He was called by Horace Walpole the ostensible Minister: for the real Minister was King (Jeorge III. It has since been proved that North as early as 1776 believed that the unyielding policy he was pursuing with regard to the American colonies would end in ruin to the King and to the country: yet in the face of the powerful opposition of Fox and Burke, he allowed his own convictions to be overborne by the obstinacy of King George's ultra-Tory purpose. In 1778 he was forced to a renunciation of the right to tax the colonies; but the concession came too late, and in 1782. finding it impossible to carry on the war any longer, he resigni'd. With North's retirement came to an end George III.'s scheme of governing the country by his own will, and of ruling the House of Commons. Soon, however, Fox entered into a coalition with North, against whom he had for so many years in- veighed. North and Fox took olTice imdcr the