Niveau de charpentier, Fr. a carpenter’s rule or level.
Niveau de paveur, Fr. a pavior’s level.
NIVELER, Fr. to level.
Niveler les eaux, Fr. to find the true level for conveying water.
Niveler le terrein, Fr. to find the true level of ground, and to ascertain the relative elevations of places.
Niveleur Fr. a leveller: it is likewise sometimes used to express a trifler; but it does not signify a leveller in the political sense which we apply the English word in these days; nor does it mean a Leveller belonging to a set of people in Oliver Cromwell’s army, who were for having an equal share in the administration of the government between the nobility and the commons.
NIZAM, Ind. a title which was bestowed by the great Mogul on one of his principal officers on his being appointed to the command and administration of a province. It became the title of an independent prince who ruled over Golconda about the year 1790; the British now rule over him. The word means, an adjuster, a regulator, an arranger, or manager, &c.
Nizam ul Moolc, Ind. the protector of the country.
NIZAMUT, the office of Nizam.
NOBILITY, from the Latin, Nobilitas. This word has been variously defined. It is, however, generally understood to signify illustrious descent, and conspicuousness of ancestors, with a succession of arms conferred on some one (and from him to his family) by the prince, by law, or by custom, as a reward for the good and virtuous actions of him that performed them. The only true purchase of nobility should therefore consist of great and good actions, which in proportion as they dignified and ennobled the original owner, become objects of important trust with every descendant; who either reflected them back by a laudable imitation, or shamefully abused the tenure by dishonorable practices. The futility of hereditary nobility is now universally acknowleged.