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OLfiRON" OLIPHANT 615 greatest breadth 7 m. ; pop. about 20,000. It belongs to the department of Charente-Infe- rieure, and has five ports, La Flotte, St. Martin, La Conarde, Loix, and Ars, besides the towns of Chateau and St. Pierre d'O16ron, the former of which is fortified. Except on the W. side, where it is much exposed, the island is generally fertile, producing grain, vegetables, and wine. Ship building and salt making are carried on. The island was successively the property of the counts of Anjou, the dukes of Aquitaine, the English, and the French. OLERON, Laws of. See LAW MERCHANT. OLGi, a Russian princess and saint of the Greek church, died in 969. She was the wife of Igor, grand duke of Kiev, the son of Rurik. Her husband fell in battle in 945, and she was regent for ten years during the minority of her son Sviatoslav. She became a Christian, and was baptized at Constantinople in 957 under the name of Helen, though her son remained a pagan. After her death she was canonized in the Greek church. Her festival is July 11 (23). OLIBMUM. See FRANKINCENSE. OLIER DE VERNEUIL, Jean Jaeqnes, a French priest, born in Paris, Sept. 20, 1608, died there, April 2, 1657. His father was secretary to Henry IV. Jean Jacques was connected with St. Vincent de Paul, and gave successful mis- sions in Auvergne. Refusing bishoprics, he took charge of the parish of St. Sulpice, Paris, which he reformed; and he founded in 1645 the seminary of St. Sulpice for the better train- ing of the clergy. He had in 1636, with five other gentlemen, formed the society of Mon- treal to colonize that island, which they pur- chased in 1640. A new city was soon found- ed, with convents, hospital, and schools, and the Sulpicians established a theological seminary and college, which still exist. Olier wrote a "Treatise on Holy Orders," " Christian Cate- chism of the Interior Life," and other works. The best life of him is by Faillon (Paris, 1853). OLI>, Stephen, an American clergyman, born in Leicester, Vt, March 3, 1797, died in Mid- dletown, Conn., Aug. 16, 1851. He graduated at Middlebury college, Vt., in 1820, and became a teacher in South Carolina. Entering the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, he was admitted to the South Carolina con- ference in 1824, and for two years was sta- tioned in Charleston. In 1827 he was sta- tioned at Athens, Ga., in a supernumerary re- lation, and in 1829 resumed his itinerant min- istry. He was professor of English literature in Franklin college from 1826 to 1832, when he became president of Randolph Macon col- lege. In 1837-'41 he travelled in Europe, Egypt, and Palestine. He was president of the Wesleyan university at Middletown, Conn., from 1842 until his death. He wrote " Travels in Egypt, Arabia Petrsea, and the Holy Land " (2 vols. 8vo, New York, 1843), and " Greece and the Golden Horn " (8vo, 1854). His " Works " appeared in 1852 (2 vols. 12mo), and his "Life and Letters" in 1853 (2 vols. 8vo). OLIPHMT, Carolina, Baroness N"airne, a Scot- tish poetess, born in the mansion of Gask, Perthshire, July 16, 1766, died there, Oct. 26, 1845. Because of her great beauty she was called in her youth "the flower of Strath- earn." Observing the general looseness and ribaldry in the songs of the peasantry, she at- tempted to write better words for the popular tunes, and the result was a considerable num- ber of songs which were at once recognized as among the finest in the language. The best known of these are " The Land o' the Leal," " Caller Herrin'," and " The Laird o' Cockpen." Her family had been devoted Jacobites, and she wrote several political songs of that character. All of her literary work was anonymous, and her authorship was kept a profound secret un- til within a few years of her death. After a long engagement, she married in June, 1806, her second cousin, Capt. William Murray Nairne, who by the removal of an attainder in 1824 became fifth Lord Nairne. They resided in Edinburgh. A selection from her songs, with accompaniments by Finlay Dun, was pub- lished about 1846, under the title of "Lays from Strathearn." A complete edition of her lyrical compositions was edited, with a life, by the Rev. Charles Rogers (Edinburgh, 1869). OLIPHANT, Laurence, an English author, born in 1829. He is the only son of Sir Anthony Oliphant, C. B., who was appointed chief jus- tice of Ceylon in 1838. He was educated in England, and at an early age went to Ceylon, where he made the acquaintance of Jung Ba- hadoor, the Nepaulese ambassador to London, who visited Ceylon in 1850 on his way home, and accompanied him to Katmandu, the cap- ital of Nepaul. On his return he published "A Journey to Katmandu" (London, 1852). He studied law at the university of Edin- burgh, and was admitted to the bar. In the latter part of 1852 he visited Russia, descended the Volga, traversed the country of the Don Cossacks, and spent some time in the Crimea. His second work, "The Russian Shores of the Black Sea" (London, 1853), appearing on the eve of the Crimean war, passed through four editions in a few months. Mr. Oliphant was soon after appointed private secretary to the earl of Elgin, then governor general of Canada, and went to Quebec, where he was made superintendent of Indian affairs. He travelled extensively both in the United States and in Central America, and published " Min- nesota, or the Far West" (London, 1855). He also published anonymously at this period a pamphlet entitled " The Coming Campaign," on the best mode of conducting the war with Russia. It was republished under the title of "The Trans-Caucasian Provinces the Proper Field of Operations for a Christian Army." After his return from America he went to Turkey, and as a correspondent of the press accompanied Omer Pasha in a campaign, of which he gave an account in "The Trans-Cau- casian Campaign of Omer Pasha " (London,