Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/671

N U K N U M 613 exercise of rights common to all Her Majesty s subjects " (Digest of the Criminal Law, p. 120). A common nui sance is punishable as a misdemeanour at common law, where no special provision is made by statute. In modern times many of the old common law nuisances have been the subject of legislation. For instance, under the Public Health Act, 1875, many nuisances are punishable by im position of a penalty after summary conviction, and local authorities are empowered to take measures for their sup pression. The same Act, 38 and 39 Viet. c. 55, in s. 16 gives a definition of nuisances for the purposes of the Act. In some cases the common law and statutory remedy appear to be concurrent. It is no defence for a master or employer that a nuisance is caused by the acts of his servants, if such acts are within the scope of their employ ment, even though such acts are done without his know ledge and contrary to his orders. Nor is it a defence that the nuisance has been in existence for a great length of time, for no lapse of time will legitimate a public nuisance. Examples of public nuisances are the obstruction of high ways, bridges, and navigable rivers, the keeping of dis orderly houses and gaming houses, and the carrying on of offensive trades. A private nuisance is an act or omission which causes inconvenience or damage to a private person, and is left to be redressed by action. It is not easy to define what amount of infringement of the rights of property will give a right of action. There must be some sensible diminution of these rights affecting the value or convenience of the property. " The real question in all the cases is the question of fact, whether the annoyance is such as materially to interfere with the ordinary comfort of human existence " (Lord Romilly in Crump v. Lambert, 1867). A private nuisance, differing in this respect from a public nuisance, may be legalized by uninterrupted use for twenty years. It used to be thought that, if a man knew there was a nuisance and went and lived near it, he could not recover, because, it was said, it is he that goes to the nuisance and not the nuisance to him. But such is not the law now. In such a case the newcomer has his civil remedy if the nuisance has not existed for twenty years, and of course his remedy at criminal law irrespective of time if the nuisance be public. The remedy for a public nuisance is by information, indictment, summary procedure, or abatement. An information lies in cases of great public importance, such as the obstruction of a navigable river by piers. In some matters the law allows the party to take the remedy into his own hands and to "abate" the nuisance. Thus, if a gate be placed across a highway, any person lawfully using the highway may remove the obstruction, provided that no breach of the peace is caused thereby. The remedy for a private nuisance is by mandamus, injunction, action for damages, or abate ment. An action lies in every case for a private nuisance ; it also lies where the nuisance is public, provided that the plaintiff can prove that he has sustained some special injury. In such a case the civil is in addition to the criminal remedy. In abating a private nuisance, care must be taken not to do more damage than is neces sary for the removal of the nuisance. In Scotland there is no recognized distinction between public and private nuisances. The law as to what constitutes a nuisance is substantially the same as in England. A list of statutory nui sances will be found in the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1867, 30 and 31 Viet. c. 101, s. 16. It resembles, but is not qiiite coincident with, the list in the English Public Health Act. The remedy for nuisance is by interdict or action. The American law on the subject is practically the same as the English law. NUKHA, a town of Russia in the Caucasian govern ment of Elizabethpol (formerly of Baku), and previous to 1819 the capital of the khanate of Sheki, lies 173 miles east-south-east of Tiflis, at the foot of the main chain of the Caucasus, the cupola of the church in the fortress being 2454 feet above the sea-level in 41 12 18" N. lat. and 47 12 7" E. lonw. The fortress is a four-cornered enclosure 3000 feet in circumference, erected by Hosein Khan in 1765, and contains the palace, built somewhat later in the original Persian style under the shadow of a splendid group of plane trees. The town contains four churches and thirty -one mosques. Most of its 3000 houses are built of mud and roofed with reed-thatch, which is well suited for the breeding of silkworms, but apt to catch fire. In 1861 the number of silk-winding establish ments Avas fifty, one of them with hundreds of basins in the European style, and worked by steam ; but owing to the ravages oiyattine the silk industry has greatly declined since 1864. At that time the trade of the town amounted to from two to three million roubles. In connexion with the silkworm plantation of Tsar-Abat (more than a mile long by 1^ furlongs broad, and enclosed by a stone wall) there was a Government school of sericulture up to 1863. The population of Nukha was 22,618 in 1861, and 20,917 in 1873 (mainly Tatars, but 3500 Armenians). Besides the town there were in the district (1442 square miles) twenty- one villages each with more than 1000 inhabitants. Nukha was a mere village up to the middle of the 18th century, when it was chosen by Hajji Tchelyabi, the founder of the khanate of Sheki, as his residence. The Russian occupation dates from 1807, though the annexation was not completed till 1819. NUMANTIA, a town in Hispania Tarraconensis, of great natural strength, is famous for the memorable siege by the Romans under Scipio Africanus the younger. The siege began in 134 B.C. ; the city was defended with the utmost bravery and tenacity, but after enduring the last extreme of famine the Spaniards were forced to surrender at discretion in 133. The inhabitants were sold as slaves and the town levelled to the ground. The victor was honoured with the title Numantinus by his countrymen. The site of Numantia is to be sought at or near the modern village of Puente de Garray, about four miles to the north of the town of Soria (Old Castile). NUMA POMPILIUS, the second of the legendary kings of Rome, was a Sabine, a native of Cures ; his father s name was Pompo and his wife was daughter of Tatius, the Sabine colleague of Romulus. His election, which was made by the Roman people and ratified by the senate, took place at the close of a year s interregnum, during which the sovereignty had been exercised by the members of the senate in rotation. He is represented as having been a quiet unambitious man (Tacita was his favourite muse) ; but even the ancients perceived the difficulty of making him a disciple of Pythagoras of Samos. His peaceful reign of forty-three years was marked by the creation of many of the most characteristic institutions of Rome ; it was he who set up the worship of the god Terminus, appointed the festival of Fides, built the temple of Janus, reorganized the calendar, fixed days of business and days of cessation therefrom, instituted the fla.mens of Mars and Quirinus, the virgins of Vesta, the salii, the fetiales, the pontifices ; in a word, the city which had been founded by means of violence and arms he siicceeded in " founding anew upon principles of justice, law, and morality." He derived his inspiration from Egeria or J^geria, his spouse, whom he used to meet unattended in the grove of the Camente, where a perennial spring gushed from a dark recess. He was above eighty when he died of a gentle decline. His daughter Pompilia, wife of the pontifex Numa Marcius, was the mother of Ancus Marcius. Livy (xl. 29) tells a curious story of the finding at the foot of the Janiculum in 181 B.C. of two stone chests, with inscriptions in Greek and Latin, one purporting to con tain the body of Numa and the other his books. The first when opened was found to be empty, but the second con tained fourteen books relating to philosophy and pontifical law, which, being perceived to have "a tendency to under-