The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 334

OTAGO (153), the southernmost province in the South Island, New Zealand, somewhat less in size than Scotland, is mountainous and inaccessible in the W., but in the E. consists of good arable plains, where British crops and fruits grow well; the climate is temperate; timber abounds; there are gold, coal, iron, and copper mines, manufactures of woollen goods, iron, and soap, and exports wool, gold, cereals, and hides; founded in 1848 by the Otago a.s.sociation of the Free Church of Scotland, but immigration became general on the discovery of gold in 1861; education is promoted by the Government in a university and many colleges and secondary schools; the capital is Dunedin (23), the chief commercial city of New Zealand, the other princ.i.p.al towns being Invercargill, Port Chalmers, Oamaru, Milton, and Lawrence.

OTHMAN, the third caliph, who ruled from 614 to 636, was a.s.sa.s.sinated by Mohammed, son of Abu-Bekr.

OTHMAN or OSMAN I., surnamed the Conqueror the founder of the empire of the Ottoman Turks, born in Bithynia (1259-1326).

OTHO, Roman emperor, had been a companion of Nero; was created emperor by the Pretorian Guards in succession to Galba, but being defeated by the German legionaries, stabbed himself to death after a reign of three months (32-69).

OTIS, JAMES, American lawyer, born in Ma.s.sachusetts, distinguished as a ringleader in the revolution in the colonies against the mother-country that led to American independence, for which he had to pay with his life and the prior loss of his reason (1724-1783).

OTRANTO (2), a decayed seaport and fis.h.i.+ng town of SE. Italy, 52 m.

S. of Brindisi; founded by Greek colonists, it was in early times the chief port of trade with Greece; there is a cathedral and castle.

OTTAWA (44), capital of the Dominion of Canada, is situated 90 m. up the Ottawa River and its confluence with the St. Lawrence, between the Chaudiere and Rideau Falls. Here are the Parliament buildings, the Governor-General's residence, a Roman Catholic cathedral, numerous colleges and schools, and a great library. There is some flour-milling and some iron-working, but the chief industry is lumber felling. Half the people are French Roman Catholics. It became the capital of the Dominion in 1856, and in ten years after the government was installed in its new buildings.

OTTAWA RIVER, the largest tributary of the St. Lawrence, and one of the largest Canadian rivers, is 700 m. long; rising in the W. of Quebec, it flows W., then S., then SE., sometimes in a narrow channel, sometimes broadening even into lakes, receiving many tributaries, and pa.s.sing down rapids and falls, and joins the St. Lawrence at Montreal; down its waters are floated immense quant.i.ties of lumber.

OTTERBURN, a Northumberland village, 16 m. S. of the border, famous as the scene of a struggle on 19th August 1388 between the Douglases and the Percies, at which the Earl of Douglas lost his life, and Hotspur was taken prisoner. See CHEVY CHASE.

OTTO or ATTAR OF ROSES, an essential oil obtained by distilling rose leaves of certain species in water, of very strong odour, pleasant when diluted; is used for perfumery; it is made in India, Persia, Syria, and at Kezanlik, in Roumelia.

OTTOMANS, the name given to the Turks from OTHMAN (q. v.).

OTWAY, THOMAS, English dramatist, born in Suss.e.x, intended for the Church; took to the stage, failed as an actor, and became a playwright, his chief production in that line being "Alcibiades," "Don Carlos," "The Orphan," and "Venice Preserved," the latter two especially; he led a life of dissipation, and died miserably, from choking, it is said, in greedily swallowing a piece of bread when in a state of starvation (1651-1685).

OUBLIETTE, an underground cell, perfectly dark, in which prisoners were subjected to perpetual confinement, was so called as being a "place of forgetfulness," or where one is forgotten; they were often put secretly to death.

OUDENARDE, a town in Belgium, 15 m. S. of Ghent, scene of Marlborough's third victory over the French in 1708; it contains a 16th-century hotel de ville, with a fine tower, and some interesting churches.

OUDH (12,551), a province in the Bengal Presidency, occupying the basin of the Gumti, Gogra, and Rapti Rivers, and stretching from the N.

bank of the Ganges to the lower Himalayas; is a great alluvial plain, through which these rivers flow between natural embankments, affording irrigation by their marshes and overflows. The sole industry is agriculture; the crops are wheat and rice, which are exported by rail and river. The population is one of the densest in the world, the labouring cla.s.ses being very poor. The only large town is Lucknow (273), on the Gumti. One of the earliest centres of Aryan civilisation, Oudh became subject to the empire of Delhi in the 12th century, but was an independent State for a century prior to its annexation by the British in 1856.

OUDINOT, DUKE OF REGGIO, marshal of France, born at Bar-le-Duc; served with distinction under the Revolution and the Empire; led the retreat from Moscow, and was wounded; joined the Royalists after the fall of Napoleon, and died Governor of the Hotel des Invalides (1767-1847).

OUIDA, the pseudonym of Louise de la Ramee, English novelist, born at Bury St. Edmunds; resides chiefly at Florence; has written over a score of novels, "Under Two Flags" and "Moths" among the best; _b_. 1840.

OUSE, the name of several English rivers, of which the chief are (1) the Yorks.h.i.+re Ouse, flowing through the great Vale of York southwards to the Humber, receiving the Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe, and Aire from the W.

and the Derwent from the E., and having in its basin more great towns than any other river in the country; (2) the Great Ouse, rising in the S.

of Northamptons.h.i.+re, pursuing a winding course NE. through the plains of Buckingham, Bedford, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Norfolk to the Wash; and (3) the Suss.e.x Ouse.

OUTRAM, SIR JAMES, British general, surnamed by Napier the "Bayard of India," born in Derbys.h.i.+re, began his military career in Bombay, served in the Afghan War and the war with Persia, played an important part in the suppression of the Mutiny, marching to the relief of Lucknow, magnanimously waived his rank in favour of Havelock, and fought under him (1803-1863).

OVERBECK, FRIEDRICH, celebrated German painter, born at Lubeck; was head of the new Romantic or Pre-Raphaelite school of German art; had devoted himself to religious subjects, abjured Lutheranism, and joined the Roman Catholic Church; is famed for his frescoes "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem" and "St. Francis" in particular, still more than his oil-paintings; spent most of his life in Rome (1789-1869).

OVERBURY, SIR THOMAS, English gentleman, remembered chiefly from the circ.u.mstances of his death, having been poisoned in the Tower at the instance of Rochester and his wife for dissuading the former from marrying the latter, for which crime the princ.i.p.als were pardoned and the instruments suffered death; he was the author of certain works published after his death, and "The Wife," a poem, his "Characters," and "Crumbs from King James's Table" (1581-1613).

OVERLAND ROUTE, the route to Australia and the East across the European continent instead of round the Cape of Good Hope, was inaugurated by Lieutenant Waghorn in 1845, modified on the opening of the Suez Ca.n.a.l in 1869, and is now _via_ France, the Mont Cenis tunnel, Brindisi, the Levant, Suez Ca.n.a.l, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean.

OVERREACH, SIR GILES, a character in Ma.s.singer's play, "A New Way to Pay Old Debts."

OVERSTONE, BARON, English financier, represented Hythe; was made a peer in 1850; wrote on finances; was opposed to limited liability and the introduction of the decimal system; died immensely rich (1796-1883).

OVID (Publius Ovidius Naso), Roman poet of the Augustan age, born at Salmo, of equestrian rank, bred for the bar, and serving the State in the department of law for a time, threw it up for literature and a life of pleasure; was the author, among other works, of the "Amores," "Fasti,"

and the "Metamorphoses," the friend of Horace and Virgil, and the favourite of Augustus, but for some unknown reason fell under the displeasure of the latter, and was banished in his fiftieth year, to end his days among the swamps of Scythia, near the Black Sea (B.C. 43-18 A.D.).

OVIEDO (44), capital of the Spanish province of Asturias, near the river Nalon; is the seat of a university, library, and cathedral; it is the centre of the chief coal-field of Spain; in the neighbourhood are a gun-factory and many iron-works.

OWEN, JOHN, Puritan divine, born in Oxfords.h.i.+re, educated at Oxford; driven from the Church, became first a Presbyterian then an Independent; Cromwell made him chaplain for a sermon he preached the day after Charles I.'s execution, and he was presented in 1651 with the deanery of Christ Church, Oxford, and next year with the Vice-Chancellors.h.i.+p, but on the Restoration was deprived of both, after which, from 1657, he spent his life in retirement; wrote an exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, on the Holy Spirit, and many other works in exposition of the Puritan theology, which at one time were held in greater favour than they are now (1616-1683).

OWEN, SIR RICHARD, celebrated English naturalist and comparative anatomist, born in Lancaster; wrote extensively, especially on comparative anatomy and physiology, in which, as in everything that occupied him, he was an enthusiastic worker, being a disciple of Cuvier; did not oppose, but was careful not to commit himself to, Darwin's evolutionary theories; Carlyle, who had two hours' talk with him once, found him "a man of real ability who could tell him innumerable things"

(1804-1892).

OWEN, ROBERT, a Socialist reformer, born in Montgomerys.h.i.+re; became manager of a cotton mill at New Lanark, which he managed on Socialist principles, according to which all the profits in the business above five per cent, went to the workpeople; in furtherance of his principles he published his "New Views of Society," the "New Moral World," as well as pamphlets, lecturing upon them, moreover, both in England and America, but his schemes issued in practical failures, especially as proving too exclusively secular, and he in his old age turned his mind to spiritualism (1771-1858).

OWENS COLLEGE, Manchester, a non-sectarian university, founded by John Owens, a liberal Churchman, in 1846, and supported as well as extended by subsequent bequests, the medical school of which is one of the finest in the kingdom; of the students attending it in 1897-98, 639 were arts students, 99 women, and 418 medicals.

OXENFORD, JOHN, English man of letters and critic; translated Goethe's "Dichtung und Wahrheit," and "Echermann's Conversations with Goethe"; was dramatic critic for the _Times_, and wrote plays, as well as an "Ill.u.s.trated Book of French Songs" (1812-1877).