NORTH, one of the four cardinal points of the world, being that point of the horizon which is directly opposite to the sun in meridian. The north wind is generaDv accompanied with a considerable degree of cold, and sometimes blows with almost irresistible fury. It is often mentioned by the classical authors under the name of Boreas, which is of Greek origin.

North, Dudley, Lord, the third baron of that accomplished family. He was one of the finest gentlemen in the court of King James; but in supporting that character he dissipated and gambled away the greater part of his fortune. In 1645 he appears to have acted with the parliament; and by them he was appointed administrator of the admiralty, in conjunction with the Earls of Northumberland, Essex, Warwick, and others. He lived to theaje of eighty-five; passed the latter part of his life in retirement; and wrote a small folio of miscellanies, in prose and verse, entitled a Forest Promiscuous of several Seasons’ Productions, in four parts, 1659.

North, Dudley, Lord, son of the preceding, was made knight of the Bath in 1616, when Charles was created Prince of Wales, and sat in many parliaments, till excluded by the prevailing party in the last, which condemned the king. From that period Lord North lived privately in the country, and towards the end of his life entertained himself with books, but, as his numerous issue required, with economy. He wrote a little tract, called Observations and Advices Economical, 12mo. His other works are, 1. Passages relating to the Long Parliament; 2. the History of the Life of Lord Edward North, the first baron of the family, addressed to his eldest son; and, 3. a volume of Essays.

North, Francis, Lord Guildford, lord-keeper of the great seal in the reigns of Charles II. and Janies II. was a third son of the second Dudley Lord North, baron of Kettling, and studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, whence he removed to the Middle Temple. He acquired French, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch, and became not only a good lawyer, but thoroughly conversant with history, mathematics, philosophy, and music. He was afterwards made the king’s solicitor-general, and chosen to represent the borough of Lynn in parliament. He succeeded Sir Heneage Finch in the office of attorney-general; and Lord Chief Justice Vaughan, in that of lord chief justice of the Common Pleas. He was afterwards made keeper of the great seal, and in 1683 was created a baron by the title of Lord Guildford. He died at his house at Wroxton in the year 1685. Lord Guildford wrote a philosophical essay on music; a paper on the gravitation of fluids in the bladders of fishes, printed in Lowthorp’s Abridgement of the Philosophical T ransactions; and some other pieces. - North, Frederick, Earl of Guildford, Lord North, lord warden and admiral of the Cinque Ports, governor of Dover Castle, lord lieutenant and custos rotulorum of Somersetshire, chancellor of the university of Oxford, recorder[7:16:249] of Gloucester and Taunton, an elder brother of the Trinity House, president of the Foundling Hospital and of the Asylum, a governor of the Turkey Company and of the Charter House, was born on the 13th of April 1732. On the 20th of May 1756, he married Miss Ann Speke, an heiress of the ancient family of Dillington in Somersetshire, by whom he left two sons and three daughters. His lordship succeeded the celebrated Charles Townsend as manager of the House of Commons and Chancellor of the Exchequer; and, in 1770, on the resignation of the Duke of Grafton, was made First Lord of the Treasury, in which office he continued until the close of the American war, or rather until the formation of the Rockingham ministry, which began the business of peace with the colonies. He was a man of strong mental faculties, and an orator of very considerable powers, enlivened and recommended by much pleasantry and amenity; but taking the helm at a time when the king’s party were unpopular, and when it was supposed that the Earl of Bute was the great engine by which the cabinet was moved, he continued in a state of great unpopularity until he resigned the seals. During the whole of his premiership, he studiously avoided imposing any taxes which could materially affect ,the lower class of people. The luxuries and not the necessaries of life were repeated objects of his budget. As a financier he stood high, even in the opinion of an opposition forming a combination of all the great talents in the kingdom; but being fatally wedded to the destructive plan of subduing the republican spirit of the Americans, his administration is marked by an immense waste of the public treasure, and a lavish expenditure of blood. The very last time he spoke in the senate, however, he defended that war, and said he was then, as he had formerly been, prepared to meet the minutest investigation as to his conduct in that contest, which nothing but the unforeseen intervention of France could have prevented from being crowned with success. His lordship was one of the firmest and most strenuous supporters of the constitution in church and state. He died on the 5th of August 1792.

North Cape, the most northerly promontory in Europe, situated on the coast of Norway. Long. 21. 0. E. Lat. 78. 0. N.

North Foreland, a cape or promontory of Kent, in the Isle of Thanet, four miles east of Margate. Between this and the South Foreland are the Downs, through which pass all ships bound to or from the west. Long. 1. 25. E. Lat. 51.25. N.

North Island, a small island in the Eastern Seas, near the east entrance of the Straits of Sunda, where those who go ashore for wood or water are in great danger from the treacherous Malays, who surprise and murder them. Lat. 5. 57. S. There are four other islands of this name in the Eastern Seas, namely, one near the west coast of Borneo, longitude 109. 5. east, latitude 1. 22. south; another near the north coast of Celebes, longitude 120. 48. east, latitude 5. 38. south; a third, a small island near the south-west coast of the island of Bouton, longitude 122. 50. east, latitudes. 33. south; and a fourth, an island on the north coast of New Holland, near the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria, included by Captain Flinders under the general appellation of Sir Edward Pellew’s Group. Long, of Pellew Cape, the northern extremity of the island, 137. 2. E. Lat. 16. 30½. S.

North Point Isles, several small islands near the northeast coast of New Holland, in latitude 22. S.

North Point Islet, a small island on the north coast of New Holland, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, near the island of Groote Eylandt. Long. 136. 45. E. Lat. 13. 37. S.

North Rocks, otherwise called St Patrick’s Rocks, from a seat of stone amongst them called St Patrick’s Chair, whence the rocks have taken this second name, are situated in the harbour of Donaghadee, in the county of Down, and province of Ulster, in Ireland. From north to south they are about two thirds of a league, between which is clear good ground. But care must be taken to avoid the south rock, on which many ships have perished; for it is overflowed by every tide, and no crew can save their lives if the wind blows high. This rock stands fully a mile from the shore.