stood the tomb of Bishop Herbert, the founder. Of three circular apsidal chapels two remain; and in one-the Jesus chapel-the ancient colouring has been renewed. Two richly sculptured gateways lead to the cathedral-the Erpingham gate (1420) and the Ethelbert gateway (c. 1300). The bishop's palace and the deanery are buildings of high antiquity, but both have undergone many alterations. The latter has a well-restored chapel. A beautiful Early Decorated ruin in the palace garden, known as "Bishop Salmon's gateway," is supposed to have been the porch to the great hall (c. 1319). The diocese covers nearly all Norfolk, the greater part of Suffolk, and a small part of Cambridgeshire.

Of the remarkable number of churches, over forty in all, St Peter Mancroft is by many esteemed the finest parish church in England. Measuring 212 by 70 ft., it has a richly ornamented tower and flèche, 148 ft. high, with a beautiful peal of twelve bells, a long, light clerestory of thirty-four windows, a fine carved oak roof, a remarkable font cover, and the tomb of Sir Thomas Browne (d. 1682). The majority of the Norwich churches are of Perpendicular flint work, mostly of the 15th century. St Andrew, St Stephen, St Michael Coslany, with the fine Perpendicular Thorpe chapel, St John Maddermarket, St Lawrence, St Giles, with a tower 126 ft. high, St Gregory, St Helen, St Swithin, and St Michael at Plea (so called from the archdeacon's court held here) are also noticeable. The Roman Catholic church of St John the Baptist, begun in 1884 from designs by Sir G. G. Scott, occupies a commanding position outside St Giles's gate. At Carrow, E. of the city, there remain the hall, a decorated doorway, and other fragments of a Benedictine

nunnery.

The grammar school is a Decorated edifice, formerly a chapel of St John, of c. 1316, with a "carnary " or crypt below. Among its scholars were Sir Edward Coke, Lord Nelson, Raja Brooke and George Borrow, the traveller and author, in whose work Lavengro (chap. xiv.) occurs a noteworthy description of Norwich. St Andrew's Hall (124 by 64 ft.) is the seven-bayed nave of the Black Friars' church, rebuilt with the aid of the Erpinghams between 1440 and 1470. It is a splendid specimen of Perpendicular work, with its twenty-eight clerestory windows and chestnut hammer-beam roof, and has served since the Reformation as a public hall, in which from 1824 have been held the triennial musical festivals. It was restored in 1863. The guildhall, on the site of an carlier tolbooth, is a fine flint Perpendicular structure of 1408-1413; the mayor's council-chamber, with furniture of the time of Henry VIII., is an interesting specimen of a court of justice of that period. The city regalia, kept here, include several objects of historical interest, amongst them a sword of a Spanish admiral captured by Nelson, with his autograph letter presenting it to the city, and a curious figure formerly used in the procession of the mayor clect through the city. Other public buildings include a shire hall, within the castle precincts, corn exchange, agricultural hall, volunteer drill hall, barracks and gaol on Mousehold Heath, the Norfolk and Norwich Library, rebuilt in 1900 after a fire, and a theatre. Educational establishments, besides the grammar school, include the Norwich and Ely Diocesan Training College, and the Municipal Technical Institute. The museum in the castle contains collections of British birds, insects, fossils, antiquities, and MSS. and early books. The chief charitable institutions are the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, lunatic asylum, blind asylum and schools, Jenny Lind Infirmary for children, a soldiers' and sailors' institute, St Giles's or old men's hospital (an ancient foundation), and Doughty's Hospital (1687).

The principal industries include foundries and engineering works, iron and wire fence works, brewing, brick works, chemical works, tanneries, and the production of mustard, starch, and crêpe, gauze and lace; and there are large boot and shoe factories. The great cattle market lies below the castle. The municipal, county and parliamentary boroughs are coextensive. The parliamentary borough returns two members. The city is governed by a lord mayor (this title having been conferred in 1910), 16 aldermen and 48 councillors. Area, 7905 acres.

History. There is no conclusive evidence that Norwich (Northwic, Norwic) was an important settlement before the coming of the Angles. Caistor-by-Norwich, 4 m. S. of Norwich, is on the site of what was probably a Romano-British country town. A few Roman remains have been discovered in Norwich, itself, but not enough to indicate any real occupation or habitation. According to tradition Uffa made a fortification here about 570, but its history as a royal borough cannot be traced before the reign of Athelstan (924-940), when it possessed a mint. After being destroyed by the Danes Norwich enjoyed a period of prosperity under Danish influence and was one of the largest boroughs in the kingdom at the Conquest. Ralph de Guader, earl of East Anglia under William I., formed the nucleus of a French borough with different customs from the English, and after his forfeiture, which involved the ruin of many of the old burgesses, a masonry castle was built and the centre of burghal life gradually transferred to the new community west of it. By 1158, when Henry II. granted the burgesses a charter confirming their previous liberties, the two boroughs seem to have amalgamated. A fuller charter given by Richard I. in 1194 and confirmed by later sovereigns made Norwich a city enjoying the same liberties as London. From Henry IV. the citizens obtained a charter (1404), making their city a county with a mayor and two sheriffs instead of four bailiffs, and Henry V. added twenty-four aldermen and sixty common councilmen (1418). The cathedral precinct became parcel of the city at the Dissolution and in 1556 the neighbouring hamlets were incorporated in the county of Norwich. The charter of Charles II. (1683) remained in force till 1835, when one sheriff was removed and the number of aldermen, common councilmen and wards diminished. Since 1298 Norwich has been represented in parliament by two members. Two annual fairs, existing before 1332, were formally granted to the city in 1482. One was then held in Lent, the other began on the feast of the Commemoration of St Paul (the 30th of June). These have been succeeded by the Maunday Thursday horse and cattle fair, and the pleasure fairs of Easter and Christmas. The market, which must have existed before the Conquest, was held daily in the 13th century, when citizens enclosed stalls by royal licence. Edward III. made Norwich a staple town, and the importance of its trade in wool and worsted dates from his reign.

See Victoria County History, Norfolk; W. Hudson, Records of the City of Norwich (1906).

NORWICH, a village and the county-seat of Chenango county, New York, U.S.A., on the Chenango river, 42 m. N.Ë. of Binghamton. Pop. (1910 census), 7422. It is served by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and the New York, Ontario & Western railways. The village has three parks, two libraries-the Guernsey Memorial Library and the D. L. Follett Memorial Law Library-and the Chenango Valley Home for Aged Women. Norwich is in a dairying and farming region, where hops especially are grown; and there are bluestone quarries in the vicinity. There are a variety of manufactures, and the New York, Ontario & Western has repair shops and division headquarters here. The first settlement was made in 1792, and the village was incorporated in 1857.

NORWOOD, a southern district of London, England, partly in Surrey and partly in the county of London (metropolitan borough of Lambeth). The district is hilly and well wooded, hence the name. It is divided into Upper, Lower and South Norwood, all consisting principally of villa residences and detached houses inhabited by the better classes. Among numerous institutions are almshouses for the poor of St Saviour's, Southwark, opened at South Norwood in 1863, a Jewish convalescent home in 1869, and the Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind at Upper Norwood in 1872. At Gipsy Hill, Upper Norwood, lived Margaret Finch, queen of the Gipsies, who died in 1740 at the age of 100. and was buried in the church. yard at Beckenham.

NORWOOD, a township in Norfolk county, Massachusetts, about 14 m. S.W. of Boston. Pop. (1900) 5840 (1497 foreignborn); (1910) 8014; area about 10 sq. m. Norwood is served

it seems to be a syncretism of Isma'ilite doctrines and the ancient heathenism of Harrån. The ages of the world are seven in number, each of these having its own manifestation of deity, But the manifestation of the 7th age is not a Mahdi who is yet to come, but the historical person 'Ali ibn abu Ţălib. This is stated in the crudest form in Sura 11 of the Majmu: “I testify that there is no god but 'Ali ibn abu Ţălib.” 'Ali is also called

NORWOOD, a city of Hamilton county, Ohio, U.S.A., adjoining Cincinnati on the N. E. Pop. (1900), 6480 (718 foreign-born); (1910) 16,185. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio South Western and the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern railways, and by interurban electric railways. Norwood has various manufactures, but as one of the hill suburbs of Cincinnati it is primarily a place of residence. It has a Carnegie library (a branch of the public library of Cincinnati) and a Catholic maternity hospital. Norwood, originally called Sharpsburg, was settled about 1798, laid out as a town in 1873, incorporated as a village in 1888, and chartered as a city in 1903.

hence the Nosairis are also called the Ma'nawiyya. 'Ali created Mahomet, who is known as the Ism (“ Name "), and a trinity is formed by the addition of Salmän ul-Farisi, who is the Bab (" Door "), through whom the propaganda is made, and through whom one comes to God. A mysterious symbol much used in their ceremonies of initiation consists of the three letters 'Ain, Mim, Sin, these being the initials of 'Ali, Mahomet and Salman. Of these three, however, 'Ali is the supreme. In Sura 6 of the Majmu' the Nosairi says: "I make for the Door, I prostrate myself before the Name, I worship the Idea." Each of the seven manifestations of God in the ages of the world has been opposed by an adversary.

The Nosairis are divided into four sects. (1) The Haidaris (from the name haidari, “lion,” given to 'Ali on account of his valour) are the most advanced. (2) The Shamalis or Shamsis

NOSAIRIS (also known as Ansayrii, sometimes Ansariyeh), the people who inhabit the mountainous country of N. Syria, which is bounded on the S. by the north end of the Lebanon at the Nahr el-Kebir (Eleutherus), on the N. by Mt Casius, Antioch and the Nahr el-'Asi (Orontes). Various settlements of them. are found also in Antioch itself and in Tarsus, Adana, and a few other places, while in harvest time they come down as far as the Biq'a (Buka'a). From the time of Strabo until about two centuries ago, the country was famed for its wine, but now more for its tobacco (especially at Latakia). The total number of Nosairis inhabiting this country is variously estimated at from 120,000 to 150,000.

The origin of the name Nosairi is uncertain. Among the more possible explanations is that the name is derived from that of Mahommed ibn Nuşair, who was an Isma'ilite follower of the eleventh imam of the Shiites at the end of the 9th century. This view has been accepted by Nosairi writers, but they transfer Ibn Nuşair to the 7th century and make him the son of the vizier of Moawiya I., while another tradition (cf. Abulfeda, Geog. vol. ii. p. 11, No. 7) identifies him with Nuşair, a freedman of the caliph 'Ali. It is, however, noteworthy that Pliny (Hist. nat. v. 81) gives the name Nazerini to the inhabitants of this district. In this part of Syria paganism remained even up to the middle ages (cf. Archives de l'Orient latin, vol. ii. 2, p. 375), and there is a complete absence of churches of the 5th to the 7th centurics in these mountains. In the 7th century the Arabs invaded Syria, but do not seem to have got into these mountains. At the end of the 10th century, however, the Isma'flite propaganda won some success among the people. Their strongholds were taken by Raymond in 1999, and later Tancred

secured the very summits. In 1132-1140 the Assassins (q.v.) gained possession of their chief towns, but Saladin recovered them in 1188. In 1317 the sultan Bibars endeavoured to convert them to orthodox Islam, and built many mosques, but Ibn Batūta (i. 177) says they did not use them. A fatwa of Ibn Taimiyya (d. 1327) of this time shows that the Nosairis were regarded with fear and hatred by the orthodox. For the next 500 years they were given over to their own internal disputes, until they came under the power of Ibrahim Pasha In 1832. At the present time they are under the direct administration of the Turks.

The religion of the Nosairis seems to have been almost the same in the first years of the 5th century A.H. (11th century A.D.)

supreme god) is the heaven, Mahomet is the sun, Salman the moon. (3) On the other hand the Kalazis, so named from a sheik Mahommed ibn Kalazi (cf. E. Salisbury in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, viii. 237), or Qamaris, hold that the supreme god ('Ali) is the moon, not the sun. Their poetry addressed to the moon is translated by C. Huart in the Journal asiatique, ser. vii. vol. xiv. pp. 190 ff. (4) The Ghaibis are worshippers of the air, for God is invisible. In this they come nearer to the ordinary Isma'ilite doctrine. Religion is restricted among the Nosairis to the initiated, who must be adults over fifteen years of age and of Nosairi parentage. The initiator, who must not be a relative, becomes a spiritual father, and the relation cannot be broken except by his consent. The initiation consists of three stages. In the first the novice is received and told to meditate on the three mystic letters; in the second, after a period of forty days, he is taught the titles of the 16 suras of the Majma'; in the third, after seven or nine months (intended to correspond with the ordinary period of gestation), he is taught Suras 5, 6 and 9, learns the meaning of the three mystic letters and goes through a further period of instruction from his initiator. The initiated are divided into two classes, the sheiks, who are recruited from the families of sheiks only, and the ordinary members.

The Nosairis are believers in metempsychosis. The pious Nosairi takes his rank among the stars, but the body of the impious undergoes many transformations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-René Dussaud, Histoire de la religion des Nosairis (Paris, 1900); St Guyard, "Le Fatwa d'Ibn Taimiyyah sur les Nosairis," in Journal asiatique (ser. vi. vol. xviii. pp. 158 ff). List of forty Nosairi MSS. by J. Catafago in Journal asiatique (ser. vii. vol. viii. pp. 523 ff). C. Huart, "La Poésie religieuse des Nosairis," Journal asiatique (ser. vii. vol. xiv. pp. 190 ff). The Kitab ul Bakula, containing the Majmu, was put lished at Beirut, 1863, and transOr. Soc. (viii. 227-308). lated for the most part by E. Salisbury in the Journal of the Amer. (G. W. T.)

NOSARI, or NAVSARI, a town in India, in the state of Baroda, on the left bank of the Purna river, 147 m. by rail N. of Bombay. Pop. (1901), 21,451. It is an ancient place, known to Ptolemy as Nasaripa. It was one of the earliest settlements of the Parsees in Gujarat, after their banishment from Persia in the 12th century. It is still the home of their mobeds, or sacerdotal class, and contains their most venerated "fire temple." Many small industries are carried on, including the weaving of the kusti, or sacred thread of the Parsees. There is also considerable trade by both rail and water, for the river is navigable. The public buildings and the private houses, especially those in the suburbs, are unusually good.

NOSOLOGY (Gr. vooos, disease, and Moyos, science), that branch of medical science which deals with the classification of diseases; the term is applied also to a collection of diseases, and to the special character of a particular disease and the different opinions concerning it.

NOSSEN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, pleasantly situated on the Freiberger Mulde, 51 m. S.E. from Leipzig by the railway to Dresden via Döbeln, and at the junction of a line to Moldau. Pop. (1905), 4879. It possesses an ancient castle crowning a height above the river, and has extensive manufactures of boots and shoes, leather and paper. In the immediate vicinity are the ruins of the Cistercian monastery of Altenzella, or Altzella, founded in 1145, and a noted school of philosophy during the 13th-15th centuries. In the chapel, which was built in 1347 and restored in 1787, lie the remains of ten margraves of Meissen, members of the family of Wettin. The foundation was secularized in 1544. The valuable annals, Chronicon velere Cellense majus and Chronicon minus, giving a history of Saxony during the 13th and 14th centuries, were removed to the university library of Leipzig in 1544. They are printed in Band xvi. of the Monumenta Germaniae historica. scriptores (1859).

See E. Beyer, Das Cistercienstift und Kloster All-Celle (Dresden, 1855). NOSSI-BÉ, properly Nòsy-bé, i.c. "Great island," an island about 8 m. off the N.W coast of Madagascar, in 13° 23′ S., 48° 15′ E. It is 14 m. long by 10 broad, and has an area of 130 sq.m. Nossi-bé is volcanic, the N. and S. parts of older, the central part of more modern date. Besides a number of true volcanic craters (Lòkobé, the highest point, is 1486 ft. above the sea) there are numerous crater-lakes level with the ground (see Nature, March 1877, p. 417). The climate is similar to that of Mayotte (see COMORO ISLANDS), and the neighbouring islet of Nossi-komba, about 2000 ft. above the sea, serves for a sanatorium. Pop. (1902), 9291. Hellville, the chief town (so called after De Hell, governor of Réunion at the time of the French annexation), is a port of call for the Messageries Maritimes and a centre for the coasting trade along the western shores of Madagascar. There is excellent anchorage, and a pier 800 ft. long. The soil is very fertile, and there are forests of palms and bamboos. The chief products are coffee, sesame, the sugar-cane, cocoa, vanilla and tobacco. There are numerous sugar factories and rum distilleries.

In 1837 Tsioméko, chieftainess of one of the numerous divisions of the western Malagasy known under the common name of Sakalava, was expelled by the Hova and fled to Nossi-bé and Nossi-komba. Failing assistance from the imam of Muscat, she accepted French protection in 1840, ceding such rights as she possessed on the N.W. coast of the mainland. The French took possession in 1841, and in 1849 an unsuccessful attempt was made to expel them. The administration was entrusted to a subordinate of the governor of Mayotte until 1896, when Nossi-bé was placed under the administration of Madagascar (q.v.). (J. S1.*) NOSTALGIA (Gr. vooros, return home, and aλyos, grief), home-sickness, the desire when away to return home, amounting sometimes to a form of melancholia.

· NOSTRADAMUS (1503-1566), the assumed name of MICHEL DE NOTREDAME, a French astrologer, of Jewish origin, who was born at St Remi in Provence on the 13th of December 1503. After studying humanity and philosophy at Avignon, he took the degree of doctor of medicine at Montpellier in 1529. He settled at Agen, and in 1544 established himself at Salon near

distinction by his labours during outbreaks of the plague. In 1555 he published at Lyons a book of rhymed prophecies under the title of Centuries, which secured him the notice of Catherine de' Medici; and in 1558 he published an enlarged edition with a dedication to the king. The seeming fulfilment of some of his predictions increased his influence, and Charles IX. named him physician in ordinary. He died on the 2nd of July 1566. The Centuries of Nostradamus have been frequently reprinted, and have been the subject of many commentaries. In 1781 they prediction of the fall of the papacy. Nostradamus was the author of were condemned by the papal court, being supposed to contain a a number of smaller treatises. See Bareste, Nostradamus (Paris, 1840).

NOSTRUM (neuter of Lat. noster, our), the name given to preparations of which the ingredients are not made publicly known, a patent or quack" medicine; it is taken from the | label (" of our own make ") formerly attached to such medicines. NOTARY, or NOTARY PUBLIC. In Roman law the notarius was originally a slave or freedman who took notes (notae) of judicial proceedings in shorthand. The modern notary corresponds rather to the tabellio or tabularius than to the notarius. In canon law it was a maxim that his evidence was worth that of two unskilled witnesses.

The office of notary in England is a very ancient one. It is mentioned in the Statute of Provisors, 25 Edward III. stat. 4. The English notary is an ecclesiastical officer, nominated, since the Peterpence Dispensations Act 1533-1534, by the archbishop of Canterbury through the master of the faculties (now the judge of the provincial courts of Canterbury and York), in order to secure evidence as to the attestation of important documents. All registrars of ecclesiastical courts must be notaries. A notary's duties, however, are mainly secular. “The general functions of a notary consist in receiving all acts and contracts which must or are wished to be clothed with an authentic form; in conferring on such documents the required authenticity; in establishing their date; in preserving originals or minutes of them which, when prepared in the style and with the seal of the notary, obtain the name of original acts; and in giving authentic copies of such acts" (Brooke, On the Office of a Notary, chap. iii.). The act of a notary in authenticating or certifying a document is technically called a notarial act." In most countries the notarial act is received in evidence as a semi-judicial matter, and the certificate of a notary is probative of the facts certified. But English law does not recognize the notarial act to this extent. An English court will, in certain cases, take judicial notice of the seal of a notary, but not that the facts that he has certified are true, except in the case of a bill of exchange protested abroad.

The most important part of an English notary's duty is the noting and protest of foreign bills of exchange in case of nonacceptance or non-payment. This must be done by a notary in order that the holder may recover. He also prepares ship protests and protests relating to mercantile matters, and authenticates and certifies copies of documents and attests instruments to be sent abroad. The office of notary is now usually held by a solicitor. In London he must be free of the Scriveners' Company.

In Scotland, before the reign of James III., papal and imperial notaries practised until the 29th of November 1469, when an act was passed declaring that notaries should be made by the king. It would appear, however, that for some time afterwards there were in Scotland clerical and legal notaries-the instruments taken by the latter bearing faith in civil matters. In 1551 an act was passed directing sheriffs to bring or send both kinds of notaries to the lords of session to be examined; and in a statute, passed in 1555, it was ordained that no notary, "by whatsoever power he be created," should use the office " except he first present himself to the said lords, showing his creation, and be admitted by them thereto." It does not appear that this statute vested the right of making notaries in the court of session; but in 1563 it was by law declared that no person should take on him the office, under the pain of death, unless created by the sovereign's

special letters, and thereafter examined and admitted by the lords of session. Since then the Court of Session has in Scotland exercised exclusive authority on the admission of notaries in all legal matters, spiritual and temporal. The position of notaries in Scotland is somewhat higher than it is in England. In the United States, notaries are appointed by the governors of the states, and their authority to act is limited to the state to which they are appointed. They are state officers, and their duties in the main are attesting deeds and other instruments, and taking affidavits and depositions; all such documents which are intended to be used in the federal courts must have the notarial seal affixed. They also protest bills of exchange, and in some states they have the powers of a justice of the peace. In France, notaries receive all acts and contracts to which the parties thereto must give or desire to give the authenticity attached to the acts of a public authority; they certify the date, preserve the originals and give copies or duplicates. Notaries are nominated by the president of the republic on the recommendation of the keeper of the seals. They cannot act as notaries and practise as advocates, or hold any magisterial office, nor must they engage in business. Notaries are divided into three classes: those of towns which have a court of appeal; those of towns which have a court of first instance; those of the other towns and communes. The first and second classes can practise wherever the jurisdiction of their courts extends; the third class only in their canton. They must obtain the sanction of the minister of justice should they desire to change from one district to another. They must serve an apprenticeship of six years (with exceptions) to a notary of the class to which they desire to belong. Every notary is bound in a certain sum fixed by the government as security for the due discharge of his duties. Since 1896 the remuneration of the more important classes of notaries has been regulated by law. Each district has a chamber of notaries, which exercises disciplinary powers over its members.

In Germany, notaries are appointed by the president of the courts of law and the minister of justice in their respective states; they carry on their profession for their own benefit, and do not, except in Württemberg, receive any fixed salary, but take fees from the parties they represent. They may not refuse their services, save on good and sufficient ground. In some German states, notably Saxe-Weimar and Hesse-Darmstadt, there are no notaries. In Württemberg, Baden, Bavaria, Alsace-Lorraine, Rhenish Prussia and Austria, they form a distinct class, while in the other German states they generally combine the notarial office with that of advocate. There is no code of rules for the whole empire, the new Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch leaving it to each state to frame its own regulations.

NOTE (Lat. nota, mark, sign, from noscere, to know), a mark, particularly a sign by which a musical sound (also called a note) indicated in writing (see MUSICAL NOTATION). The term is also applied to an abstract or memorandum of documents, speeches, &c. This appears to have been first in legal use, especially in the process of the transfer of land by fine and recovery (see FINE). Further extensions of this meaning are to an explanation, comment or addition, added in the margin or at the foot of the page to a passage in a book, &c., or to a communication in writing shorter or less formal than a letter.

The ordinary distinction between note and letter is reversed in diplomacy. Diplomatic notes are written communications exchanged between diplomatic agents or between them and the ministers of foreign affairs of the government to which they are accredited; they differ from ordinary letters in having a more formal character and in dealing with matters of more immediate and definite importance: e.g. the notification of adhesion to a treaty, of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations after a war, &c. Sometimes, by agreement, a mere exchange of notes has the force of a convention. Collective notes are those signed by the representatives of several powers acting in concert. Sometimes identical notes are substituted for collective, i.e. notes identical as to form and substance, but signed and delivered separately by the representatives of the several powers. Thus in 1822, at the congress of Verona, in order to overcome the

objection of Great Britain to any interference of the European concert in Spain, identical notes were presented to the Spanish government instead of a collective note. Circular notes are those addressed by one power to the other powers generally, e.g. that addressed by Thiers (November 9, 1870), on the proposed armistice, to the representatives of the great powers accredited to the government of national defence. Confidential notes are directed to inspiring confidence by giving an explicit account of the views and intentions of the plenipotentiaries and their governments. Such a note was sent, for instance, by the plenipotentiaries of the allied powers at the conference of Poros, on the 8th of December 1828, to Capo d'Istria, the Greek president, to instruct him confidentially as to the results of their deliberations. The so-called notes verbales are unsigned, and are merely of the nature of memoranda (of conversations, &c.). Notes ad referendum are addressed by diplomatic agents to their own governments asking for fresh powers to deal with points not covered by their instructions, which they have had to "refer." Diplomatic notes are usually written in the third person; but this rule has not always been observed (see P. Pradier-Fodéré, Cours de droit diplomatique, Paris, 1899; vol. ii. p. 524).

For notes of hand or promissory notes see NEGOTIABLE INSTRU MENTS and BILL OF EXCHANGE, and for notes passing as currency see BANKS AND BANKING, BANK-NOTE and POST.

NOTHOMB, JEAN BAPTISTE, BARON (1805-1881), Belgian statesman and diplomat, was born at Messancy in Luxemburg on the 3rd of July 1805. He was educated at the Athenaeum of Luxemburg and the university of Liége. He was in Luxemburg when the revolution of August broke out, but was nominated a member of the commission appointed to draw up the constitution. He was a member of the national congress, and became secretary-general of the ministry of foreign affairs under Surlet de Chokier. He supported the candidature of the duke of Nemours, and joined in the proposal to offer the crown to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, being one of the delegates sent to London. When the Eighteen Articles were replaced by the Twenty-four less favourable to Belgium, he insisted on the necessity of compliance, and in 1839 he faced violent opposition to support the territorial cessions in Limburg and Luxemburg, which had remained an open question so long as Holland refused to acknowledge the Twenty-four Articles. His Essai historique et politique sur la révolution belge (1838) won for him the praise of Palmerston and the cross of the Legion of Honour from Louis Philippe. In 1837 he became minister of public works, and to him was largely due the rapid development of the Belgian railway system, and the increase in the mining industry. In 1840 he was sent as Belgian envoy to the Germanic confederation, and in 1841, on the fall of the Lebeau ministry, he organized the new cabinet, reserving for himself the portfolio of minister of the interior. In 1845 he was defeated, and retired from parliamentary life, but he held a number of diplomatic appointments before his death at Berlin on the 6th of September 1881. See T. Juste, Souvenirs du baron Nothomb (Brussels, 1882). NOTICE, a term primarily meaning knowledge (Lat. notilia), as in "judicial notice "; thence it comes to signify the means of bringing to knowledge, as in "notice to quit "; at last it may be used even for the actual writing by which notice is given. The most important legal uses of the word are judicial notice and the equitable doctrine of notice. Judicial notice is the recognition by courts of justice of certain facts or events without proof. Thus in England the courts take judicial notice of the existence of states and sovereigns recognized by the sovereign of England, of the dates of the calendar, the date and place of the sittings of the legislature, &c. The equitable doctrine of notice is that a person who purchases an estate, although for valuable consideration, after notice of a prior equitable right, will not be enabled by getting in the legal estate to defeat that right. On the other hand, a purchaser for valuable consideration without notice of an adverse title is as a rule protected in his enjoyment of the property. Other common uses of the word are notice to quit, i.e. a notice required to be given by landlord to tenant, or by tenant to landlord in order to terminate a tenancy