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 616 OLIPHANT OLIVE 1856). In 1857, when Lord Elgin was sent as minister plenipotentiary to China, Mr. Oli- phant became his private secretary, and on his return published a " Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan " (London, 1860). In 1861, while acting as charge d'af- faires in Japan, he was severely wounded by assassins. He was elected to parliament from the Stirling boroughs in 1865, but resigned in 1868 to join in the attempt at religious and social reformation conducted by Thomas L. Harris, at Portland, Chautauqua co., N". Y., where he now (1875) resides. In 1870 he vis- ited Europe, and was for a time correspondent of the London " Times " in Paris. In 1873-'5 he had charge in the United States and British America of the interests of the direct cable com- pany, an ocean telegraph enterprise. He has also published a novel called "Patriots and Filibusters, or Incidents of Political and Ex- ploratory Travel " (London, 1861), and " Pic- cadilly " (1870). OLIPHANT, Margaret (WILSON), an English au- thoress, born in Liverpool about 1820. Her mother was Scotch, and most of Mrs. Oli- phant's tales relate to Scottish life. Her first novel, " Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland of Sunnyside " (1849), was imme- diately successful, and since then she has pub- lished "Merkland" (1851), "Adam Grarnie of Mossgray " (1852), " Harry Muir " (1853), "Magdalen Hepburn" (1854), " Liliesleaf " (1855), "Zaidee" (1856), "The Life of Ed- ward Irving " (2 vols., 1862), " Chronicles of Carlingford " (1863), " The Perpetual Curate " (1864), "A Son of the Soil" (1865), "Miss Majoribanks" (1866), "The Minister's Wife " (1869), " Historical Sketches of the Keign of George II." (2 vols., 1869), " Three Brothers " (1870), " A Rose in June " (1874), &c. OLIVA, Alexandra Joseph, a French sculptor, born at Saillagouse, department of Pyr6nees- Orientales, about 1824. He was a private in the army when his artistic talent attracted at- tention, and he went to Paris to study painting under Delestre. At the same time he modelled busts, which became celebrated, the finest be- ing those of the abbe Deguerry (1855), Bishop Gerbet and Father Ventura (1857), Francois Arago and Richard Cobden for the museum of Versailles, Cherubim (1864), the empress Eugenie (1870), Colbert and St. Vincent de Paul (1872), and Baron Silbert (1874). He has also executed many statues, the most cele- brated being that of the abbe Deguerry in the Madeleine (1873), and in 1874 he made one of the prince of Asturias, now king of Spain. OLIVAREZ, Gasparo de Guzman, count, a Span- ish statesman, born in Rome, Jan. 6, 1587, died in Toro, July 22, 1645. His father was am- bassador at the papal court of Sixtus V. He studied at the university of Salamanca, and was appointed gentleman of the bedchamber to the prince of Asturias, afterward Philip IV., who in 1621 bestowed upon Olivarez the title of duke of San Lucar, and appointed him min- ister in place of his uncle the duke of Uceda. Olivarez dismissed some of the best servants of the state to make room for his own crea- tures, and curtailed government expenses only to obtain the means of gratifying his taste for pomp and splendor. He aimed at reconquer- ing the provinces which Spain had recently lost, and restoring the kingdom to her old su- premacy in Europe ; but in this attempt he had to encounter the superior skill of the French minister Cardinal Richelieu. Availing himself of the expiration of the truce with Holland concluded in 1609, he reopened hostilities with the Dutch in 1621, but was unsuccessful, and the Spanish colonies were almost ruined. Mean- while Spain had been obliged to give up the Valtellina. Olivarez, nevertheless, attempted to make her influence felt in Italy and Ger- many, while he fostered troubles and conspira- cies in France ; but in these attempts he sig- nally failed. The Spanish troops sent to assist the Austrians against the German Protestants were worsted at nearly every point ; and final- ly the flame of insurrection, fanned by Riche- lieu's intrigues, broke out within the Spanish dominions. The province of Catalonia rebel- led in 1640, and at the same time Portugal threw off the Spanish yoke. Philip's eyes were finally opened, and he dismissed Olivarez in 1643, who was supplanted by his nephew, Don Luiz de Haro. For publishing his defence he was banished to Toro. OLIVE (Lat. oliva), the name of plants of the genus olea, and of the fruit of 0. Europcea. The olive family consists of trees and shrubs without milky juice, distinguished from other monopetalous plants with a free ovary by having two stamens, or always fewer than the divisions of the corolla; it includes the lilac, the privet, and the ash, and several less known plants. The genus olea has evergreen leaves and minute white flowers in small racemes or clusters, which are axillary and terminal ; the ovary is two-celled and two-ovuled, becoming in fruit a fleshy drupe with a hard two-celled stone, which is often only one-celled and one- seeded; the flesh of the drupe abounds in fixed oil. The common olive (0. Europcea) is one of the earliest trees mentioned in anti- quity; probably it was a native of Palestine, and perhaps of Greece, and it was introduced to other countries at a very early day ; it is largely cultivated in southern Europe, west- ern Asia, and northern Africa ; it was brought to South America and Mexico more than 200 years ago, and in various parts of California it was planted at the mission establishments, where some of the old groves still remain, notably that at San Diego, which is still in good bearing, and other plantations have re- cently been made there. In the Atlantic states the olive was introduced before the revolution, and at several times since ; it is perfectly hardy and fruitful in South Carolina ; the chief ob- stacle to its cultivation seems to be the fact that its crop matures just at the time when all