NOTABLES, the name formerly given in France to persons of distinction and politi cal importance. As the states general were inconvenient to the despotism of the mon archy, the kings of the House of Valois adopted the expedient of calling in their stead 48semblies of the .Notables, the time of calling them and the composition of them being entirely dependent on the pleasure of the crown, by which also their whole proceedings were guided, so that they generally consented at once to whatever was proposed to them. They showed a particular readiness in granting subsidies, to which they them selves, as belonging to the privileged classes, were not to contribute. An Assembly of Notables, convened in Paris by Richelieu in 1620, and presided over by Gaston, brother of Louis VIII., consisted of only 35 members. For more than a century nod a half even this poor acknowledgment of any other mind or will iu the nation than that of the sovereign ceased to be made; but when the state of the finances brought the mcnarelly into difficulties and perils, Louis XVI., at the instigation of the minister Caloune, had recourse again to an Assembly of Notables, which met Feb. 22, 1787, and was dissolved May 25. it consisted of 137 members, among whom. were 7 princes of the blood, 9 dukes and peers, 8 marshals, 11 archbishops, 22 nobles, 8 councilors of state, 4 masters of requests, 37 judges, 12 deputies of the Pays d'Etats, the civil lieutenant, and 25 per sons belonging to the magistracy of different cities of the kingdom. Calonne's repre
sentations of the state of the finances induced the Notables to adopt many reforms in the matter of taxation; but no sooner was the assembly dissolved, than many of them joined the parliaments in opposition to resolutions adverse to their private interests, so that the king was compelled to determine upon assembling the states general. Necker, who had meanwhile been placed at the head of affairs, assembled the Notables again, Nov. 6, 1788, to consult them concerning the form in which the states general should be con vened. The Notables declared against every innovation, and so compelled the court to half measures which helped to prepare the way for the Revolution. The parliament of the new principality of Bulgaria is spoken of as the Assembly of the Notables.
NOTACANTHIDiE, a family of acantheropterons, fishes allied to the mackerels: indeed, they were formerly placed in the same family. (scomberida). , They have also been placed by recent writers in a separate order (opisfhomi). They have an elongated eel-like form, and the caudal extremity is surrounded, as in eels, by a continuous lin. The body is covered with very small cycloid scales, and the lateral line is well marked. They. are five species, 1. iwtoeanthus nasus, Greenland, 2. a. Bonapartii, 3. n. ilfediter ranetts, 4. a. Serspinus, Australia, 5. n. rissoanus, Mediterranean.