NICHOLAS I., czar of Russia, born at St. Petersburg, third son of Paul I., ascended the throne in 1825 in succession to Alexander I., his eldest brother; suppressed with rigour and not a little severity a formidable conspiracy which took form on his accession; took up arms against Persia and wrested Erivan from its sway, struggled against both the Poles and the Turks till his overbearing policy against the latter provoked a coalition of France, England, and Sardinia to their defence in the Crimean War, which was still going on when he died; in 1848 he aided Austria in the suppression of the Hungarian insurrection (1796-1855).

NICHOLAS II., czar of Russia, born in St. Petersburg, son of Alexander III., and his successor in Nov. 1894; was married on the month of his accession to Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt and granddaughter of Queen Victoria through the Princess Alice, while his mother is a sister of the Princess of Wales; his education under his father was conducted expressly with a view to what might be required of him on his accession to the throne; his ministers are in sympathy with himself, and he has already (1899) distinguished himself by putting his finger on the sore which is festering at the heart and is sucking up as a vampire the life’s blood of Europe; b.  May 18, 1868.

NICHOLSON, JOHN, an Indian officer, born in Dublin, son of a physician; served in the Sikh Wars, and at the outbreak of the Mutiny in 1857 in the Punjab crushed it in the bud; led the attack at the siege of Delhi, Sept. 14, but fell mortally wounded as the storming party were entering the Cabul Gate (1821-1857).

NICOBAR ISLANDS (7), a group of picturesque islands in the Indian Ocean, S. of the Andaman Islands and midway between Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula; 14 of the 20 islands are inhabited, chiefly by indigenous Indians and Malays; after being in the hands of Denmark for upwards of 100 years, they were annexed by Britain in 1869; trade is carried on with India in cocoa-nuts, ambergris, tortoise-shell, &c.

NICOLAITANS, a sect of heretics that arose in the Apostolic Church, presumed to have been a party of professing Christians of Gentile descent, who, after their profession, continued to take part in the heathen festivals, and to have contributed to break down the distinction between the Church and the world, so essential to the very existence of the faith they professed, founded, as it is, no less absolutely on No to the world than on Yea to God.  See EVERLASTING NO and EVERLASTING YEA.

NICOLE, PIERRE, French divine and moralist, born at Chartres, a PORT-ROYALIST (q. v.), friend of Arnauld and Pascal; was along with the former author of the famous “Port Royal Logic” (1625-1695).

NICOTINE, a poisonous alkaloid extracted from the leaves of the tobacco plant, is a colourless, oily liquid, readily soluble in water, and has a pungent odour.