Chapter Nation of Gentlemen to Nebo of N by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Nation of Gentlemen to Nebo

Nation of Gentlemen So George IV. called the Scotch when, in 1822, he visited that country.

Nation of Shopkeepers Napoleon was not the first to call the English “a nation of shopkeepers” in contempt.

National Anthem Both the music and words were composed by Dr. Henry Carey in 1740. However, in Antwerp cathedral is a MS. copy of it which affirms that the words and music were by Dr. John Bull; adding that it was composed on the occasion of the discovery of Gunpowder Plot, to which the words “frustrate their knavish tricks” especially allude.

National Anthems
   Of AUSTRIA. Haydn's Hymn to the Emperor.
   BELGIAN. The Brabanconne.
   DENMARK. Song of Danebrog [a flag with a white cross, which fell from heaven in the 13th century at the prayer of Waldemar II.].
   ENGLAND. Rule Britannia, words by Thomson, music by Handel, and God Save the King. (See above.)
   FRANCE. Ancient, the Chanson de Roland. Since the Revolution, the Marseillaise and the Chant du Départ.
   GERMANY. Arndt's Des Deutschen Vaterland: “Heil Dir im Siegeskranz.”
   HUNGARY. The Rakoczy March.
   ITALY. Daghela Avanti un Passo [i.e. Move a step onward], 1821. Garibaldi's warlike Hymn, and Godfredo Mameli's Italian Brethren, Italy has Awaked, composed by Mercantini.
   RUSSIA. God Protect the Czar.
   SCOTLAND. Several Jacobite songs, the most popular being The King shall Enjoy his own Again, When the King Comes o'er the Water, and Lilliburlero of 1688.

National Colours (See Colours .)

National Convention The assembly of deputies which assumed the government of France on the overthrow of the throne in 1792. It succeeded the National Assembly.

National Debt Money borrowed by the Government, on the security of the taxes, which are pledged to the lenders for the payment of interest.
   The National Debt in William III.'s reign was £15,730,439.
   At the commencement of the American war, £128,583,635.
   At the close thereof, £249,851,628.
   At the close of the French war, £840,850,491.
   Cancelled between 1817 and 1854, £85,538,790.
   Created by Crimean war, £68,623,199.
   In 1866, £802,842,949.
   In 1872 it was £792,740,000.
   In 1875 it was £714,797,715.
   In 1879 it was £702,430,594.
   In 1892 it was £677,679,571.
   In 1893 it was £671,042,842.

National Exhibition So Douglas Jerrold called a public execution at the Old Bailey. These scandals were abolished in 1868. Executions now take place in the prison yard.

National Workshops - The English name of “Ateliers nationaux,” established by the French provisional government in February, 1848, and which were abolished in three months, after a sanguinary contest.

Native In feudal times, one born a serf. After the Conquest, the natives were the serfs of the Normans. Wat Tyler said to Richard II.:

“The firste peticion was that he scholde make alle men fre thro Ynglonde and quiete, so that there scholde not be eny native man after that time.”- Higden: Polychronicon, viii. 457.

Nativity (The) means Christmas Day, the anniversary of the birth of Jesus.
   The Cave of the Nativity is under the chancel of the “church of the Nativity.” In the recess, a few feet above the ground is a stone slab with a star cut in it, to mark the spot where the Saviour was born. Near it is a hollow scraped out of the rock, said to be the place where the infant Jesus was laid.
   To cast a man's nativity is to construct a plan or map out of the position, etc., of the twelve houses which belong to him, and to explain the scheme.

Natty Tidy, methodical, and neat. (Italian netto, French net, Welsh nith.)

Natty Bumppo called “Leather Stocking.” He appears in five of Fenimore Cooper's novels: as the Deerslayer; the Pathfinder; the Hawk-eye (La Longue Carabine), in the Last of the Mohicans; Natty Bumppo, in the Pioneers; and the Trapper in the Prairie, in which he dies.