NEHEMIAH (Heb. for “Yah[weh] comforts”), governor of Judaea under Artaxerxes (apparently A. Longimanus, 465–424 B.C.). The book of Nehemiah is really part of the same work with the book of Ezra, though it embodies certain memoirs of Nehemiah in which he writes in the first person. Apart from what is related in this book we possess little information about Nehemiah. The hymn of praise by Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus xlix. 13) extols his fame for rebuilding the desolate city of Jerusalem and for raising up fresh homes for the downtrodden people. According to other traditions he restored the temple-service and founded a collection of historical documents (2 Macc. i. 18-36, ii. 13). See further Ezra and Nehemiah (Books), Jews: History §§ 21 seq.
NEIGHBOUR (O. Eng. néahgebúr, from néah, “nigh,” “near”) and gebúr, “boor,” literally “dweller,” “husbandman”; cf. Dan. and Swed. nabo, Ger. Nachbar), properly one who lives in
a house close to one, hence any one of a number of persons living
in the same locality. From Biblical associations (Luke x. 27) the word is used widely of one’s fellow-men.
NEILE, RICHARD (1562–1640), English divine, was educated
at Westminster school and at St John’s College, Cambridge.
His first important preferment was as dean of Westminster
(1605); afterwards he held successively the bishoprics of
Rochester (1608), Lichfield (1610), Lincoln (1614), Durham
(1617) and Winchester (1628), and the archbishopric of York
(1631). When at Rochester he appointed William Laud as his
chaplain and gave him several valuable preferments. His
political activity while bishop of Durham was rewarded with a
privy councillorship in 1627. Neile sat regularly in the courts
of star-chamber and high commission. His correspondence
with Laud and with Sir Dudley Carleton and Sir Francis Windebank
(Charles I.’s secretaries of state) are valuable sources for
the history of the time.
NEILL, JAMES GEORGE SMITH (1810–1857), British
soldier, was born near Ayr, Scotland, on the 26th of May 1810, and educated at Glasgow University. Entering the service of
the East India Company in 1827, he received his lieutenant’s
commission a year later. From 1828 to 1852 he was mainly
employed in duty with his regiment, the 1st Madras Europeans (of
which he wrote a Historical Record), but gained some experience
on the general and the personal staffs as D.A.A.G. and as aide-de-camp.
In 1850 he received his majority, and two years later
set out for the Burmese War with the regiment. He served
throughout the war with distinction, became second-in-command
to Cheape, and took part in the minor operations which followed,
receiving the brevet of lieutenant-colonel. In June 1854 he was
appointed second-in-command to Sir Robert Vivian to organize
the Turkish contingent for the Crimean War. Early in 1857 he
returned to India. Six weeks after his arrival came the news that
all northern India was aflame with revolt. Neill acted promptly;
he left Madras with his regiment at a moment’s notice, and proceeded
to Benares. The day after his arrival he completely and
ruthlessly crushed the mutineers (4th June 1857). He next
turned his attention to Allahabad, where a handful of Europeans
still held out in the fort against the rebels. From the 6th to
the 15th of June his men forced their way under conditions of heat
and of opposition that would have appalled any but a real
leader of men, and the place, “the most precious in India at
that moment,” as Lord Canning wrote, was saved. Neill received
his reward in an army colonelcy and appointment of
aide-de-camp to the queen. Allahabad was soon made the concentration
of Havelock’s column. The two officers, through
a misunderstanding in their respective instructions, disagreed,
and when Havelock went on from Cawnpore (which
Neill had reoccupied shortly before) he left his subordinate
there to command the lines of communication. At Cawnpore,
while the traces of the massacre were yet fresh, Neill inflicted
the death penalty on all his prisoners with the most merciless
rigour. Meanwhile, Havelock, in spite of a succession of victories,
had been compelled to fall back for lack of men; and Neill
criticized his superior’s action with a total want of restraint.
A second expedition had the same fate, and Neill himself was now
attacked, though by his own exertions and Havelock’s victory at Bithor (16th August) the tension on the communications
was ended. Havelock’s men returned to Cawnpore, and cholera
broke out there, whereupon Neill again committed himself to
criticisms, this time addressed to the commander-in-chief and
to Outram, who was on the way with reinforcements. In spite of
these very grave acts of insubordination, Havelock gave his
rival a brigade command in the final advance. The famous
march from Cawnpore to Lucknow began on September 19th, on
the 21st there was a sharp fight, on the 22nd incessant rain, on
the 23rd intense heat. On the 23rd the fighting opened with the
assault on the Alum Bagh, Neill at the head of the leading
brigade recklessly exposing himself. Next day he was again
heavily engaged, and on the 25th he led the great attack on
Lucknow itself. The fury of his assault carried everything
before it, and his men were entering the city when a bullet killed
their commander. Strict as he was, he was loved not less than
feared, and throughout the British dominions he had established
a name as a skilful and extraordinarily energetic commander.
The rank and precedence of the wife of a K.C.B. was given to
his widow, and memorials have been erected in India and at Ayr.
See J. W. Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers (1889); and J. C. Marshman, Life of Havelock (1867).
NEILSON, ADELAIDE (1846–1880), English actress, whose
real name was Elizabeth Ann Brown, was born in Leeds, the
daughter of an actress, and her childhood and early youth were
passed in poverty and menial work. In 1865 she appeared in
Margate as Julia in The Hunchback, a character with which her
name was long to be associated. For the next few years she
played at several London and provincial theatres in various
parts, including Rosalind, Amy Robsart and Rebecca (in Ivanhoe),
Beatrice, Viola and Isabella (in Measure for Measure). In 1872
she visited America, where her beauty and talent made her a
great favourite, and she returned year after year. She died on
the 15th of August 1880. Miss Neilson was married to Philip
Henry Lee, but was divorced in 1877.
NEISSE, three rivers of Germany. (1) The Glatzer Neisse
rises on the Schneegebirge, at an altitude of 1400 ft., flows
north past Glatz, turns east and pierces the Eulengebirge in
the Wartha pass, then continues east as far as the town of Neisse,
and after that flows north-east until at an altitude of 453 ft.
it joins the Oder between Oppeln and Brieg. Owing to its
torrential character the greater part of its course is only used
for floating down timber. It abounds in fish, and its total length
is 121 m. (2) The Lausitzer or Görlitzer Neisse rises near
Reichenberg in Bohemia, on the south side of the Riesengebirge,
at an altitude of 1130 ft., flows north past Reichenberg, Görlitz,
Forst and Guben, and enters the Oder above Fürstenberg
at an altitude of 105 ft. Its length is 140 m., of which less than
40 m. are navigable. (3) The Wütende Neisse is a tributary of the Katzbach.
NEISSE, a town and fortress of Germany, in the province of Prussian Silesia, at the junction of the Neisse and the Biela, 32 m. by rail S.W. of Oppeln. Pop. (1905) 25,394 (mostly Roman Catholics) including a garrison of about 5000. It consists of the town proper, on the right bank of the Neisse, and the Friedrichstadt on the left. The Roman Catholic parish church of St James (Jakobikirche) dates mainly from the 13th century,
but was finished in 1430. The chief secular buildings are the old episcopal residence, the new town hall, the old Rathaus, with a tower 205 ft. in height (1499), the beautiful Renaissance Kämmerei (exchequer) with a high gabled roof ornamented with frescoes, and the theatre. A considerable trade is carried on in agricultural products.
Neisse, one of the oldest towns in Silesia, is said to have been founded in the 10th century, and afterwards became the capital of a principality of its own name, which was incorporated with the bishopric of Breslau about 1200. Its first walls were erected in 1350, and enabled it to repel an attack of the Hussites in 1424. It was thrice besieged during the Thirty Years’ War. The end of the first Silesian War left Neisse in the hands of Frederick the Great, who laid the foundations of its modern fortifications.
