fighting went on between the French and the British colonists of New England, the Indians taking part, usually on the side of the French; in 1710 the province was finally captured by Great Britain and ceded to her in 1713 by the treaty of Utrecht, under the name of “Acadia or Nova Scotia,” the French remaining masters of Cape Breton. Perpetual quarrels went on concerning the boundaries of the district ceded; the English claim comprised the present Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, most of New Brunswick and the Gaspé peninsula, while the French restricted it to the S. half of what is now Nova Scotia. In 1749 Halifax was founded as a counterpoise to Louisbourg in Cape Breton, and over 4000 colonists sent out, but the French opposed the new settlers. In 1755 about 6000 French were suddenly seized by Governor Charles Laurence (d. 1760) and hurried into exile. After undergoing many sufferings, some eventually found their way back, while others settled in Cape Breton, or in distant Louisiana. By the treaty of Paris in 1763, France resigned all claim to the country. In 1769 Prince Edward Island (formerly Isle St Jean) was made a separate government. Meanwhile, immigration from the New England colonies had filled the fertile meadows left vacant by the Acadians. A later influx of American Loyalists led in 1784 to the erection of New Brunswick into a separate colony. In the same year, Cape Breton was also separated from Nova Scotia but reunited in 1820.
During the wars of the American and French revolutions Halifax grew apace. Hither, in June 1813, came the “Shannon” with her prize the “Chesapeake,” captured off Boston harbour. Meanwhile, between 1784 and 1828, a large Scottish emigration, chiefly from the Highlands, had settled in the counties around Pictou, and the lumbering industry rose to great proportions. Agriculture was for some time neglected, but in 1818 the letters of “Agricola” (John Young, 1773–1837) gave it an impetus. Representative institutions had been granted as early as 1758, but power long rested mainly in the hands of a Council of Twelve, comprising the chief justice, the Anglican bishop and other high officials. In 1848, after a long struggle, responsible government was won by the legislative assembly, led by Joseph Howe.
In these political struggles, education was often the battleground, the fight ending in 1864 in the establishment of free primary and secondary schools by Dr (afterwards Sir Charles) Tupper, and the re-organization on an undenominational basis of Dalhousie University (see Halifax). In 1867 the province entered the new Dominion of Canada. For some years afterwards an agitation in favour of repeal was maintained, but gradually died away. Since then its history is a record of uneventful progress.
Bibliography.—For history, see Duncan Campbell, Nova Scotia, (1873); T. C. Haliburton (“Sam Slick”), Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia (1829); Beamish Murdoch, History of Nova Scotia or Acadia (1865); Sir John Bourinot, Builders of Nova Scotia (1900). Consult L’Abbé H. R. Casgrain, Un Pèlerinage au pays d’Evangeline (1888), on the French side; F. Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, on the other. For general information, see S. E. Dawson, North America (1897); Sir Wm. Dawson, Acadian Geology (4th ed., 1891); J. C. Hopkins, Canada: an Encyclopaedia (6 vols., 1898–1899).
NOVATIANUS, Roman presbyter, and one of the earliest
antipopes, founder of the sect of the Novatiani or Novatians,
was born about the beginning of the 3rd century. On the
authority of Philostorgius (H.E. viii. 15) he has been called a
native of Phrygia, but perhaps the historian merely intended
to indicate the persistence of Novatianism in Phrygia at the
time when he wrote. Little is known of his life, and that only
from his opponents. His conversion is said to have taken place
after an intense mental struggle; he was baptized by sprinkling,
and without episcopal confirmation, when in hourly expectation
of death; and on his recovery his Christianity retained all the
gloomy character of its earliest stages. He was ordained at Rome
by Fabian, or perhaps by an earlier bishop; and during the
Decian persecution he maintained the view which excluded from
ecclesiastical communion all those (lapsi) who after baptism
had sacrificed to idols—a view which had frequently found
expression, and had caused the schism of Hippolytus. Bishop
Fabian suffered martyrdom in January 250, and, when Cornelius
was elected his successor in March or April 251, Novatian
objected on account of his known laxity on the above-mentioned
point of discipline, and allowed himself to be consecrated bishop
by the minority who shared his views. He and his followers
were excommunicated by the synod held at Rome in October
of the same year. He is said by Socrates (H.E. iv. 28) to have
suffered martyrdom under Valerian. After his death the
Novatians spread rapidly over the empire; they called themselves
καθαροί, or Puritans, and rebaptized their converts from
the Catholic view. The eighth canon of the council of Nice
provides in a liberal spirit for the readmission of the clergy of
the καθαροί to the Catholic Church, and the sect finally disappeared
some two centuries after its origin. Novatian has
sometimes been confounded with his contemporary Novatus,
a Carthaginian presbyter, who held similar views.
Novatian was the first Roman Christian who wrote to any considerable extent in Latin. Of his numerous writings three are extant: (1) a letter written in the name of the Roman clergy to Cyprian in 250; (2) a treatise in thirty-one chapters, De trinitate; (3) at letter written at the request of the Roman laity, De cibis judaicis. They are well-arranged compositions, written in an elegant and vigorous style. The best editions are by Welchman (Oxford, 1724) and by Jackson (London. 1728); they are translated in vol. ii. of Cyprian’s works in the Ante-Nicene Theol. Libr. (Edinburgh, 1869). The Novatian controversy can be advantageously studied in the Epistles of Cyprian.
NOVATION, a legal term derived from the Roman law, in
which novatio was of three kinds—substitution of a new
debtor (expromissio, or delegatio), of a new creditor (cessio
nominum vel actionum), or of a new contract. In English law
the term (though it occurs as early as Bracton) is scarcely
naturalized, the substitution of a new debtor or creditor being
generally called an assignment, and of a new contract a merger.
It is doubtful, however, whether merger applies except where
the substituted contract is one of a higher nature, as where a
contract under seal supersedes a simple contract. Where one
contract is replaced by another, it is of course necessary that the
new contract should be a valid contract, founded upon sufficient
consideration (see Contract). The extinction of the previous
contract is sufficient consideration. The question whether there
is a novation most frequently arises in the course of dealing
between a customer and a new partnership, and on the assignment
of the business of a life assurance company with reference to
the assent of the policyholders to the transfer of their policies.
The points on which novation turns are whether the new firm
or company has assumed the liability of the old, and whether,
the creditor has consented to accept the liability of the new
debtors and discharge the old. The question is one of fact in
each case. See especially the Life Assurance Companies Act 1872,
s. 7, where the word “novations” occurs in the marginal note to
the section, and so has quasi-statutory sanction. Scots law seems
to be more stringent than English law in the application of the
doctrine of novation, and to need stronger evidence of the
creditor's consent to the transfer of liability. In American law,
as in English, the term is something of a novelty, except in
Louisiana, where much of the civil law is retained.
NOVAYA ZEMLYA (Nova Zembla, “new land”), an Arctic
land off the coast of European Russia, to which it belongs,
consisting of two large islands separated by a narrow winding
channel, the Matochkin Shar. It lies between 70° 31′ and
77° 6′ N., and between 51° 35′ and 69° 2′ E. It forms an elongated
crescent, being nearly 600 m. long with a width of 30 to 90 m.,
and an area of about 36,000 sq. m. It separates the Barents
Sea on the W. from the Kara Sea on the E. With Vaygach
Island, between it and the mainland, Novaya Zemlya forms a
continuation of the Paë-Khoy hills. Vaygach is separated from
it by the Kara Strait, 30 m. wide, and from the continent by
the Yugor or Ugrian Strait, only 7 m. across. On the E. coast
of Novaya Zemlya, especially between the Matochkin Shar
and 75° N., there are a number of fjord-like inlets—such
as Chekina, Rasmyslov and Medvizhiy bays. The greater part
of the W. coast is fretted into bays and promontories, and a
large number of islets lie off it. At the S. extremity there are
a number of fjords and the wide bay of Sakhanikha. Then
