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* OCTROI. 733 ODD FELLOWS. of Europe, on articles of food which were brought past the barrier or entrance of a city or town. The octroi came eventually to be levied in money, and was abolished in France at the Eevolution. In 1700, however, it was reestablished, under the pretext that it was required for jjurposes of charity, and since then it has been successively changed and modihed. The proceeds of the octroi duty which is at present levied at the gates of the French towns are divided so that one-tenth goes to the national treasury, and the rest to local expenses. These duties are allowed on drinks, eatables, fuel, fodder, and building ma- terials. A new octroi must be established by statute, and every increase in the rates requires the approval of the higher authorities. The oc- troi duties are not popular, since they increase considerablj' the cost of living in towns and cities; but it would be difficult to abolish them, since the towns depend upon them very largely for revenue. Outside of France they are found also in Italj', and in a few towns of Bavaria and Austria. O'CUBTIY, Eugene (1796-1862). One of the most distinguished of Gaelic scholars. He was born at Dunaha, County Clare, Ireland, in 1706, and worked as a boy on his father's farm. From 1834 to 1837 he was employed in the topographical and liistorical section of the Ordnance Survey. Then for many years he was chiefly occupied in copying important Irish manuscripts for the Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College ( Dublin) .the British jMu- seum, and other institutions. In this way O'Curry acquired a knowledge of the contents of Irish manuscripts that has been seldom equaled. He piddished nothing, however, till he was well past middle life. In 1851 he contributed to a work by Dr. Reeves, a translation of some Irish poems in the Codex Maelbriahte. In 1853 he became a member of the council of the newly organized Celtic Society, which two years later published an edition b}' him of the Battle of Magh Lenna and Tochmarc Momera. In 1855-56 he gave his fix'st course of lectures as professor of Irish his- tory and archreology in the Catholic University at Dublin. The lectures were pul^ished in 1860 under the title. The Mntui.icript Materials of Irish History. From 1857 till 1802. the year of his death, he continued to lecture at the uni- versity, and the material of his courses was after- wards gathered together in two volumes. Oji the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish Peo- ple, edited bv W. K. Sullivan and published in 1873. O'CYDROME. A form of rail. See Yek.. ODAL, or tJDAL (from Icel. oJ>ri/, AS. epel, OHG. uodil, hereditary possession : connected with Icel. a])Bi, OHG. adal. Ger. Adel. race, no- bility). The name of an ancient system of land tenure in northern Europe, in which the land was held absolutely, and not from a superior, as was the case where feudalism prevailed. The odal tenure prevails to this day to a large extent in the Orkney and Shetland islands, the right to land being complete, without writing, by undis- turbed possession proved l>y witnesses before an inquest. Consult Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, vol. i. (6th ed., Oxford, 1897). ODD FELLOWS, Inpependent Oruer of. . fraternal benevolent order, probably founded in England early in the eighteenth century, but in what precise year the records do not show. The ancient guilds had degenerated into social and convivial clubs, and were replaced by work- ingmen's beneficial societies, out of which were later evolved the Odd Fellows, or Friendly So- cieties. The earliest record of any of these societies available is that of Aristarchus Lodge No. of the Order of Odd Fellows, which met in 1748 at the Globe Tavern, London. There were many orders of Odd Fellows in England at the beginning of the nineteenth century, of which the Imperial Odd Fellows of Nottingham ; the Ancient Noble Odd Fellows, Bolton: the Grand United Odd Fellows, Sheffield ; Economical Odd Fellows, Leeds; National Odd Fellows, Salford; and the London United Odd Fellows were the principal ones. Between these there were no official or friendly relations existing. The enact- ment of severe laws by the English Parliament against secret associations in the last years of the eighteenth century tended to retard the progress of friendly societies, and the Odd Fellows ac- cordingly suspended public operations. In 1803 the London Union Odd Fellows Society was organized by some of the city lodges under the title of the Grand Lodge of England, and it succeeded in establishing its authorit.y over the greater part of the Odd Fellow societies in the United Kingdom. A member of one of the city lodges had meantime, in 1800, removed to Man- chester, and, having received a dispensation to form a lodge in the latter city, the first Victory Lodge was created, and it immediately declared its independence of the CJrand Lodge of England. This was the beginning of the movement for independence. In 1810 a union was effected at Salford between a social club and the Prince Regent Lodge of Odd Fellows, and out of it arose the Lord Abercrombie Lodge, based on the prin- ciples of mutual relief to the members, an im- proved financial system, and other new features. Several of the existing lodges, including Victory Lodge of Jlanchester, gave in their adlierence to the new movement, and in 1811 the Lord Aber- crombie Lodge assumed supremacy over the lodges working on the new s,vstem, proclaiming itself as the 'Lord Abercrombie Cirand Lodge of Independent Odd Fellows,' a step which led to considerable opposition among the older lodges of the order. In 1813 a convention was called of the lodges in and around Manchester in sympathy with the new movement. An organiza- tion of the lodges was efl'ected. and the title 'The JIanchester Unity of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows' adopted. In 1814 a formal or- ganization was effected, a grand committee or district grand lodge was provided, a form of government adopted, and a grand master and a deput.v grand master appointed. The formation of ))rovincial districts with a provincial district grand master for each was the most important act of the session of the grand convention of 1815. The adoption of a funeral fund s,vstem was part of the work of the annual session of 1816. The question of adopting degrees into the order was also discussed, the degrees of White, Royal Blue, and Scarlet being estab- lished. The Patriarchal, the Covenant, and Re- membrance degrees were added later. In 1819 the question of a site for the central government of the order was settled by the establishment of <a movable committee to hold annual sessions at points agreed upon at a preceding session. In 1822 the first grand movable committee con-