By an Act passed in 1876, during the premiership of Sir Julius Vogel, the nine provinces of New Zealand were united, with one Parliament sitting at Wellington. The nine provincial Parliaments were abolished, their administrative functions being entrusted to road boards in the country districts and municipalities in the towns. Newcastle Programme. The platform of the Liberal party at the general election of 1892, based on resolutions passed at the meeting of the National Liberal Federation at Newcastle in October, 1891. The “planks” of the platform were Abolition of the House of Lords, Home Rule, Disestablishment of the Church in Wales, Taxation of Ground Values, and One Man One Vote. Newfoundland Fisheries. _See_ French Shore. Newport, Treaty of. The final attempt of the Parliament to come to terms with the King in 1648. Negotiations were opened at Newport, but the King contested every demand of the Parliament, and the Independents, supported by the Army, lost patience, and confined the King in Hurst Castle. Nicæa, Second Council of. An Œcumenical Council held during the reign of the Empress Irene, at which the decrees of the Council of Constantinople with regard to image-worship were reversed. Nichan-Sherif. A decree of the Sultan Ahmed I in 1604, granting the Venetians certain trading and navigating facilities in the Ottoman dominions. Nightmare of Europe. A sobriquet of the Great Napoleon. Nihilists. The Russian revolutionary society, an important section of which is in favour of physical force. Their position is perhaps best explained by the manifesto issued after the assassination of the Czar Alexander II in 1881, in which they declare their object to be the amelioration of the condition of the peasantry, and the introduction of more civilized methods of government. They go on to say that Russia demands a new system, and that, their peaceful efforts having only met with repression, they have been driven to adopt violent means to gain their ends. Nimeguen, Treaty of. A treaty signed in 1678, following the five years’ war of Louis XIV against Holland and Spain. Louis obtained Franche-Comté and sixteen fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands. Nîmes, Edict of. An edict issued in 1629, shortly after the fall of La Rochelle, which, while confirming the religious freedom granted to the Huguenots by the Edict of Nantes, deprived them of their special political status, and thus broke up the Huguenot League. Nine Articles, Constitution of. A constitution drawn up at Winburg in 1837 by the emigrant burghers who had settled between the Orange and the Vaal rivers after the Great Trek. A Volksraad was elected, and the burghers bound themselves to observe the old Roman-Dutch law, except when inconsistent with the articles of the constitution. Ninety-eight.