severe hand to hand fighting. But, meantime, the two intact lines of infantry in the French centre had been moved to their left and formed the nucleus for the last great assault on Neerwinden, which proved too much for the exhausted defenders. They fell back slowly and steadily, defying pursuit, and the British Coldstream Guards even captured a colour. But at this crisis the initiative of a subordinate general, the famous military writer Feuquières (q.v.), converted the hard-won local success into a brilliant victory. William had begun to move troops from his centre and left to the right in order to meet the great assault on Neerwinden, and Feuquières, observing this, led the cavalry of the French centre once again straight at the entrenchments. This time the French squadrons, surprising the Allies in the act of manœuvring, rode over every body of troops they met, and nothing remained for the Allies but a hurried retreat over the Geete. A stubborn rearguard of British troops led by William himself alone saved the Allied army, of which all but the left wing was fought out and in disorder. Luxemburg had won his greatest victory, thanks in a measure to Feuquières’ exploit; but had the assaults on Neerwinden been made—as Napoleon would have made them—with one-half or two thirds of his forces instead of one-third, the victory would have been decisive, and Feuquières would have won his laurels, not in forcing the decision at the cost of using up his cavalry, but in annihilating the remnants of the Allied army in the pursuit. The material results of the battle were twelve thousand Allies (as against eight thousand French) killed, wounded and prisoners, and eighty guns and a great number of standards and colours taken by the French.
The battle of the 18th March 1793 marked the end of Dumouriez’s attempt to overrun the Low Countries and the beginning of the Allies’ invasion of France. The Austrians under Coburg, advancing from Maestricht in the direction of Brussels, encountered the heads of the hurriedly assembling French army at Tirlemont on the 15th of March, and took up a position between Neerwinden and Neerlanden. On the 18th, however, after a little preliminary fighting Coburg drew back a short distance and rearranged his army on a more extended front between Racour and Dormael, thus parrying the enveloping movement begun by the French from Tirlemont. Dumouriez was consequently compelled to fight after all on parallel fronts, and though in the villages themselves the individuality and enthusiasm of the French soldier compensated for his inadequate training and indiscipline, the greater part of the front of contact was open ground, where the superiority of the veteran Austrian regulars was unchallengeable. In these conditions an attempt to win a second Jemappes with numerical odds of 11 to 10 instead of 2 to 1 in favour of the attack was foredoomed to disaster, and the repulse of the Revolutionary Army was the signal for its almost complete dissolution. Neerwinden was a great disaster, but not a great battle. Its details merely show the impossibility of fighting on the 18th-century system with ill-trained troops. The methods by which such troops could compass victory, the way to fight a “sans culotte” battle, were not evolved until later.
NEES VON ESENBECK, CHRISTIAN GOTTFRIED (1776–1858), German botanist and entomologist, was born at Erbach on the 14th of February 1776, and was educated at Darmstadt and at Jena, where he took the degree of M.D. After spending some time in medical practice he was appointed professor of botany in Erlangen in 1816. Three years later he became professor of natural history in Bonn, and in 1831 he was appointed to the chair of botany in the university of Breslau. In 1848 he entered political life and made himself so obnoxious to the government that in 1851 he was deprived of his professorship, and in consequence the latter years of his life were spent in great poverty. He died in Breslau on the 16th of March 1858.
For about forty years he edited the Nova acta of the “Acad. Leopold-Carolina,” in which several of his own papers were published. His earliest memoirs dealt with the ichneumons, and he published a Monographie der Ichneumone in 2 vols. in 1828, and Hymenopterorum Ichneumonibus affinium monographiae, in 2 vols. in 1834. His other separate works include: Die Algen des süssen Wassers nach ihren Entwickelungsstufen dargestellt (1814); Das System der Pilze und Schwämme (1816); Naturgeschichte def europäischen Lebermoose, in 4 vols. (1833–1838); “Agrostologia Brasiliensis,” in the Flora Brasiliensis; and a Systema Laurinearum (1836). He also wrote numerous monographs in Flora, in Linnaea and in other scientific German magazines, either alone or along with other well-known botanists. His best-known works are those that deal with the Fungi, the Hepaticae and the Glumiferae, in all which groups he made valuable additions to knowledge.
His brother Theodor Friedrich Ludwig (1787–1837), inspector of the botanic gardens at Leiden, and afterwards professor of pharmacy at Bonn, also wrote numerous papers on botanical subjects, dealing more particularly with medicinal plants and their products.
NEFF, FELIX (1798–1829), Swiss Protestant divine and
philanthropist, was born at Geneva on the 8th of October
1798. Originally a sergeant of artillery, he decided in 1819 to
devote himself entirely to evangelistic work. He was ordained
to the ministry in 1822, and soon afterwards settled in the valley
of Freissinèires, where he laboured in the manner of J. F.
Oberlin, being at one and the same time pastor, schoolmaster,
engineer and agriculturist. He was so successful that he changed
the character of the district and its inhabitants. In 1827,
worn out by his labours, he was obliged to return to his native
place, where he died two years later.
NEGAPATAM, a seaport of British India, in the Tanjore
district of Madras, forming one municipality with Nagore,
a port 3 m. N. at the mouth of the Vettar river. Pop. (1901)
57,190. It carries on a brisk trade with the Straits Settlements
and Ceylon, Steamers running once a week to Colombo. The
chief export is rice. Negapatam is the terminus of a branch of
the South Indian railway, and contains large railway workshops.
It is also a depot for coolie emigration. Negapatam was one
of the earliest settlements of the Portuguese on the Coromandel
coast. It was taken by the Dutch in 1660, becoming their
chief possession in India, and by the English in 1781. From
1799 to 1845 it was the headquarters of Tanjore district. There
is a large population of Labbais, Mahommedans of mixed Arab
descent, who are keen traders. Jesuit and Wesleyan missions
are carried on.
NEGAUNEE, a city of Marquette county, Michigan, U.S.A.,
about 12 m. W. by S. of Marquette and 3 m. E. of Ishpeming,
in the N. part of the upper peninsula. Pop. (1904) 6797; (1910)
8460. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western, the Duluth,
South Shore & Atlantic, and the Lake Superior & Ishpeming
railways. It is built on a ridge called Iron Mountain, 1564 ft.
above sea-level, and under and near it are some of the most
productive iron-ore deposits in the state, the mining of which is
the principal industry of the city. The settlement of Negaunee
began about 1870, and the city was chartered in 1873. The
name is a Chippewa word meaning “first” or “he goes before,”
and is said to have been chosen at the request of the Pioneer
Iron Company as an equivalent for “Pioneer.”
NEGLIGENCE (Lat. negligentia, from negligere, to neglect,
literally “not to pick up”), a ground of civil law liability, and
in criminal law an element in several offences, the most conspicuous
of which is manslaughter by negligence. In order to establish
civil liability on the ground of negligence, three things must be
proved—a duty to take care, the absence of due care, and actual
damage caused directly by the absence of due care. Mere carelessness
gives no right of action unless the person injured can
show that there was a legal duty to take care. The duty may
be to the public in general, on the ground that any person who
does anything which may involve risk to the public is bound to
take due care to avoid the risk. For instance, in the words of Lord
Blackburn, “those who go personally or bring property where
they know that they or it may come into collision with the
persons or property of others have by law a duty cast upon
them to use reasonable care and skill to avoid such a collision.”
Where a special duty to an individual is alleged, the duty must
rest on a contract or undertaking or some similar specific ground.
Thus, where a surveyor has carelessly given incorrect progress
certificates, and a mortgagee who has had no contractual relation
with the surveyor has advanced money on the faith of the
certificate, the surveyor is not liable to the mortgagee in an action
of negligence; because he owed no duty to the mortgagee to be
careful. When a duty to take care is established, the degree of
care required is now determined by a well-ascertained standard.
This standard is the amount of care which would be exercised
