OLMÜTZ (Czech, Olomouc or Holomauc), a town of Austria, in Moravia, 67 m. N.E. of Brünn by rail. Pop. (1900) 21,933, of which two-thirds are Germans. It is situated on the March, and is the ecclesiastical metropolis of Moravia. Until 1886 Olmütz was one of the strongest fortresses of Austria, but the fortifications have been removed, and their place is occupied by a town park, gardens and promenades. Like most Slavonic towns, it contains several large squares, the chief of which is adorned with a trinity column, 115 ft. high, erected in 1740. The most prominent church is the cathedral, a Gothic building of the 14th century, restored in 1883–1886, with a tower 328 ft. high and the biggest church-bell in Moravia. It contains the tomb of King Wenceslaus III., who was murdered here in 1306. The Mauritius church, a fine Gothic building of the 15th century, and the St Michael church are also worth mentioning. The principal secular building is the town-hall, completed in the 15th century, flanked on one side by a Gothic chapel, transformed now into a museum. It possesses a tower 250 ft. high, adorned with an astronomical clock, an artistic and famous work, executed by Anton Pohl in 1422. The old university, founded in 1570 and suppressed in 1858, is now represented by a theological seminary, which contains a very valuable library and an important collection of manuscripts and early prints. Olmütz is an important railway junction, and is the emporium of a busy mining and industrial district. Its industries include brewing and distilling and the manufacture of malt, sugar and starch.
Olmütz is said to occupy the site of a Roman fort founded in the imperial period, the original name of which, Mons Julii, has been gradually corrupted to the present form. At a later period Olmütz was long the capital of the Slavonic kingdom of Moravia, but it ceded that position to Brünn in 1640. The Mongols were defeated here in 1241 by Yaroslav von Sternberg. During the Thirty Years’ War it was occupied by the Swedes for eight years. The town was originally fortified by Maria Theresa during the wars with Frederick the Great, who besieged the town unsuccessfully for seven weeks in 1758. In 1848 Olmütz was the scene of the emperor Ferdinand’s abdication, and in 1850 an important conference took place here between Austrian and German statesmen. The bishopric of Olmütz was founded in 1073, and raised to the rank of an archbishopric in 1777. The bishops were created princes of the empire in 1588. The archbishop is the only one in the Austrian empire who is elected by the cathedral chapter.
See W. Müller, Geschichte der königlichen Hauptstadt Olmütz (2nd ed., Olmütz, 1895).
OLNEY, RICHARD (1835–), American statesman, was born at Oxford, Massachusetts, on the 15th of September 1835. He graduated from Brown University in 1856, and from the Law School of Harvard University in 1858. In 1859 he began the practice of law at Boston, Massachusetts, and attained a high position at the bar. He served in the state house of representatives in 1874, and in March 1893 became attorney-general of the United States in the cabinet of President Cleveland. In this position, during the strike of the railway employés in Chicago in 1894, he instructed the district attorneys to secure from the Federal Courts writs of injunction restraining the strikers from acts of violence, and thus set a precedent for “government by injunction.” He also advised the use of Federal troops to quell the disturbances in the city, on the ground that the government must prevent interference with its mails and with the general railway transportation between the states. Upon the death of Secretary W. Q. Gresham (1832–1895), Olney succeeded him as secretary of state on the 10th of June 1895. He became specially prominent in the controversy with Great Britain concerning the boundary dispute between the British and Venezuelan governments (see Venezuela), and in his correspondence with Lord Salisbury gave an extended interpretation to the Monroe Doctrine which went considerably beyond previous statements on the subject. In 1897, at the expiration of President Cleveland’s term, he returned to the practice of the law.
OLNEY, a market town in the Buckingham parliamentary division of Buckinghamshire, England, 59 m. N.W. by N. of London, on a branch of the Midland railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2634. It lies in the open valley of the Ouse on the north (left) bank of the river. The church of St Peter and St Paul is Decorated. It has a fine tower and spire; and the chancel has a northerly inclination from the alignment of the nave. The town is chiefly noted for its connexion with William Cowper, who came to live here in 1767 and remained until 1786, when he removed to the neighbouring village of Weston Underwood. His house and garden at Olney retain relics of the poet, and the house at Weston also remains. In the garden at Olney are his favourite seat and the house in which he kept his tame hares. John Newton, curate of Olney, had the assistance of Cowper in the production of the collection of Olney Hymns. The trade of Olney is principally agricultural; the town also shares in the manufacture of boots and shoes common to many places in the neighbouring county of Northampton.
OLNEY, a city and the county-seat of Richland county, Illinois, U.S.A., about 30 m. W. of Vincennes, Indiana. Pop. (1890) 3831; (1900) 4260 (235 foreign-born); (1910) 5011. Olney is served by the Baltimore & Ohio South-western, the Illinois Central, and the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railways, and is a terminus of the Ohio River Division of the last. It has a Carnegie library and a city park of 55 acres. Olney is an important shipping point for the agricultural products of this district; oil is found in the vicinity; and the city has various manufactures. The municipality owns its water-works. Olney was settled about 1842 and was first chartered as a city in 1867.
OLONETS, a government of north-western Russia, extending from Lake Ladoga almost to the White Sea, bounded W. by Finland, N. and E. by Archangel and Vologda, and S. by Novgorod and St Petersburg. The area is 57,422 sq. m., of which 6794 sq. m. are lakes. Its north-western portion belongs orographically and geologically to the Finland region; it is thickly dotted with hills reaching 1000 ft. in altitude, and diversified by numberless smaller ridges and hollows running from north-west to south-east. The rest of the government is a flat plateau sloping towards the marshy lowlands of the south. The geological structure is very varied. Granites, syenites and diorites, covered with Laurentian metamorphic slates, occur extensively in the north-west. Near Lake Onega they are overlain with Devonian sandstones and limestones, yielding marble and sandstone for building; to the south of that lake Carboniferous limestones and clays make their appearance. The whole is sheeted with boulder-clay, the bottom moraine of the great ice-sheet of the Glacial period. The entire region bears traces of glaciation, either in the shape of scratchings and elongated grooves on the rocks, or of eskers (åsar, selgas) running parallel to the glacial striations. Numberless lakes occupy the depressions, while a great many more have left evidences of their existence in the extensive marshes. Lake Onega covers 3764 sq. m., and reaches a depth of 400 ft. Lakes Zeg, Vyg, Lacha, Loksha, Tulos and Vodl cover from 140 to 480 sq. m. each, and their crustacean fauna indicates a former connexion with the Arctic Ocean. The south-eastern part of Lake Ladoga falls also within the government of Olonets. The rivers drain to the Baltic and White Sea basins. To the former system belong Lakes Ladoga and Onega, which are connected by the Svir and receive numerous streams; of these the Vytegra, which communicates with the Mariinsk canal-system, and the Oyat, an affluent of Lake Ladoga, are important for navigation. Large quantities of timber, fire-wood, stone, metal and flour are annually shipped on waters belonging to this government. The Onega river, which has its source in the south-east of the government and flows into the White Sea, is of minor importance. Sixty-three per cent of the area of Olonets is occupied by forests; those of the crown, maintained for shipbuilding purposes, extend to more than 800,000 acres. The climate is harsh and moist, the average yearly temperature at Petrozavodsk (61° 8′ N.) being 33.6° F. (12.0° in January, 57.4° in July); but the thermometer rarely falls below −30° F.
