His son, Friedrich August Nitzsch (b. 1832), was made professor ordinarius of theology at Giessen in 1868 and at Kiel in 1872. He was the author of Grundriss der christl. Dogmengeschichte (1870, incomplete) and Das System des Boëthius (1860), amongst other works.
Karl Nitzsch’s principal works are: System der christlichen Lehre (1829; 6th ed., 1851; Eng. trans., 1849), Praktische Theologie (1847–1860; 2nd ed., 1863–1868), Akademische Vorträge über christliche Glaubenslehre (1858) and several series of Predigten. “He took as his starting-point the fundamental thought of Schleiermacher, that religion is not doctrine but life, direct consciousness, feeling. At the same time he sought to bring religious feeling into closer connexion with knowledge and volition than Schleiermacher had done; he laid special stress—and justly—on the recognition of a necessary and radical union of religion with morality, treating both dogmatics and ethics together accordingly in his System der christlichen Lehre” (Otto Pfleiderer, Development of Theology, p. 123). His Protestantische Beantwortung, a reply to the Symbolik of Johann Adam Möhler (1796–1838), which originally appeared in the Studien u. Kritiken, of which he was one of the founders, may also be mentioned.
See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, and the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie; F. Lichtenberger, History of German Theology in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 185-196.
NIU-CHWANG, a city of China, in the Manchurian province
of Shêng-king (Liao-tung), in 40° 53′ N. and 122° 7′ E., about
35 m. (90 m. by water) from the coast of the Gulf of Liao-tung,
on what is now a small branch of the main eastern affluent of the
Liao-ho. The population is estimated at 80,000. The city
proper is a comparatively unimportant place with broken-down
walls, but it is surrounded by a number of large and flourishing
suburbs. About the beginning of the Ta-tsʽing dynasty (1644)
Niu-chwang was the chief port on the river, but in the reign of
Kʽien-lung, owing mainly to physical changes, it was supplanted
by Tʽien-chwang-tai farther down the stream, and towards the
close of the 18th century this had in turn to give place to Ying-tsze
still nearer the mouth. In ignorance of these facts Niu-chwang
(now scarcely to be reached by a flat-bottomed river boat) was
chosen as one of the ports to be opened to foreign trade by the
treaty of Tien-tsin; and, though Ying-tsze had of necessity
to be adopted as the site of the foreign settlements, Europeans
still continue to speak of it as the port of Niu-chwang. Ying-tsze
(otherwise known as Ying-kʽou, Niu-kʽou and in Mandarin as
Muh-kʽou-ying) lies on the left bank of the Liao-ho on the lowest
dry portion of the plain, not much above high-water mark.
The British settlement immediately above the town has a river
frontage of 1000 yds. opposite the deepest of the reaches, and runs
back to the highway leading to Niu-chwang. Off the mouth of
the river there is an extensive bar of hard mud which can only
be crossed by certain channels at high tide, when it is covered
by from 18 to 20 ft. of water; and the port is altogether closed
by ice for four or five months of the year, between November
and May. Niu-chwang has shown considerable vigour as a port
of trade, sharing in the general prosperity of the provinces
of Manchuria, of which it is the outlet. It was opened to foreign
trade in 1858. In 1864 the total value of trade was £934,374,
in 1878 £2,606,134, in 1898 £4,634,470, while in 1904 the figures
reached £5,950,895. The principal exports (29%) are beans,
bean-cake, bean-oil and wild silk. The bean-cake is a popular
article of food with the natives of Kwang-tung and Fuh-kien,
and is also largely employed for manuring the rice and sugar
fields in the neighbourhood of Shanghai, Amoy, Swatow, &c.
Of imports (71%) the principal are cotton yarn and cotton cloth,
most of the latter being drawn from the United States in preference
to English-made goods. The number of resident foreigners
is about 150. Railways connect the port with Tientsin and
Peking on the one hand, and with the Russian territories lying
to the north on the other. In 1895 Niu-chwang was occupied
by Japanese troops, and the town was included in the cession of
territory originally granted by the treaty of peace. By a supplementary
convention it was retroceded by the Japanese under
pressure of France and Russia. Niu-chwang suffered considerably
from the disturbances of 1900 and again during the Russo-Japanese
war. In 1900 the Russians defeated the Chinese
troops who attacked the town, and took possession of the port,
and administered affairs until they in their turn were driven
out by Japanese. At the conclusion of the war the Japanese
restored the port to China.
NIUÉ (Savage Island or Niué-Fekai, as the natives call it), an island in the South Pacific Ocean, 14 m. long by 10 m. wide, in 19° 10′ S., 169° 47, W. The entire island is an old coral reef upheaved 200 ft., honeycombed with caves and seamed with fissures. The soil, though thin, is, as in other limestone islands, very rich, and coco-nuts, tara, yams and bananas thrive. There is an abundant rainfall, but owing to the porous nature of the soil the water percolates into deep caves which have communication with the sea, and becomes brackish. The natives, a mixed Polynesian and Melanesian people of Samoan speech, are the most industrious in the Pacific, and many of the young men go as labourers to other islands. The consequent minority of men has
been destructive of the sexual morality of the women, which formerly stood high. The natives are keen traders, and though
uncouth in manners when compared with their nearest neighbours,
the Tongans and Samoans, are friendly to Europeans.
Their hostility to Captain Cook in 1774, which earned from him
the name of Savage for the island, was due to their fear of foreign
disease, a fear that has since been justified. The population
(4079 in 1901) is slightly decreasing. The natives are all Christians,
and the majority have learned to read and write, and to
speak a little English, under the tuition of the London Missionary
Society. They wear European clothes. The island became
a British protectorate on the 20th of April 1900, and was made
a dependency of New Zealand in October 1900, the native
government, of an elected “king” and a council of headmen,
being maintained. In 1900 there were thirteen Europeans on the
island. The exports are copra, fungus and straw hats, which
the women plait very cleverly.
See T. H. Hood, Notes of a Cruise in H.M.S. “Fawn” (Edinburgh, 1863); J. L. Brenchley, Jottings during the Cruise of the “Curaçao” (London, 1873); B. H. Thomson, Savage Island (London, 1902).
NIVELLES (Flem. Nyvel), a town of Belgium in the province of Brabant, situated on the Thines 19 m. S. of Brussels. Pop.
(1904) 12,109. It is a busy little place with many industries,
notably the manufacture of parchment. The town is supposed
to owe its origin to the foundation of a convent on the spot by
Itta or Iduberge, wife of Pippin of Landen. The Romanesque
church of St Gertrude, named after Itta’s daughter, dates
from the 11th century, but has been badly restored and is disfigured
by a heavy tower. On the top of the tower is the effigy
of a man in iron who strikes the hours with a hammer.
He is called by the townspeople Jean de Nivelles, a celebrated
baron of the 15th century whose title eventually became merged
in that of the count de Hornes (Horn). The church is supposed to
occupy the site of Itta’s convent. Close to Nivelles is Seneffe,
where Condé defeated William of Orange in 1674, and at Nivelles
itself the French under Marceau defeated the Austrians in
1794.
NIVERNAIS, LOUIS CHARLES BARBON MANCINI MAZARINI,
Duc de (1716–1798), French diplomatist and writer, was born in Paris on the 16th of December 1716, son of Philippe Jules François, duc de Nevers, and Maria Anne Spinola, and great-nephew of Cardinal Mazarin. He was educated at the College Louis le Grand, and married at the age of fourteen. He served in the campaigns in Italy (1733) and Bohemia (1740), but had to give up soldiering on account of his weak health. He was subsequently ambassador at Rome (1748–1752), Berlin (1755–1756) and London, where he negotiated the treaty of Paris (10th of February 1763). From 1787 to 1789 he was a member of the Council of State. He did not emigrate during the Revolution, but lost all his money and was imprisoned in 1793. He recovered his liberty after the fall of Robespierre, and died in Paris on the 25th of February 1798. In 1743 he was elected to the Academy for a poem entitled Délie, and from 1763 he devoted the greater part of his time to the administration of the duchy of Nevers and to belles-lettres. He wrote much and with great facility; but his writings are of little value, his Fables being his best pro-
