O CONNOE
OEESTED
wrote in The Poor Man s Conservative. In
1837 he founded Bronterre s National
Beformer, and in 1838 The Operative. He
shared the vehemence of the early Chartist
movement, writing violent articles in the
Northern Star, and in 1840 he was sent to
prison for eighteen months. O Brien was,
however, opposed to physical force. He
was regarded as the scholar of the Chartist
movement, and he later edited The British
Statesman (1842), The National Beformer
(1845), and Beynolds s Newspaper (1848).
He published one volume of a Life of
Eobespierre (1837) and some poetry. In
a letter to Eobert Owen he says : " As
respects my allusions to religious respon
sibility, etc., I beg you to understand me,
not as pleading indulgence for my own
prejudices, but for those of others. If I
mistake not, your ideas and my own are
the same, or nearly so, on these subjects "
(Podmore s Bobert Oiven, p. 431). He
was a Theist. D. Dec. 23, 1864.
O CONNOR, General Arthur Condorcet,
B.A., Irish soldier. B. July 4, 1765. Ed. Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the Irish bar in 1788, but never practised. From 1791 to 1795 he was in the Irish Parliament, and he then joined the United Irishmen, and was prosecuted and im prisoned (1797). After his release he edited their organ, The Press, and he was again in prison from 1798 to 1803. O Connor had adopted the ideas of the French Deists and humanitarians in his youth, and after 1803 he transferred his services to France, entered the army, and became a general of division. In 1807 he married Condorcet s daughter, and added "Condorcet " to his name. He was natural ized in 1818. O Connor, who was a man of great ability, thoroughly agreed with Con dorcet. He, with F. Arago, edited his works (12 vols., 1847-49), and in some of his political writings used the pseudonym " A Stoic." In his later years, during the period of reaction, he edited a Eationalistic Journal de la liberte religieuse. D. Apr. 25, 1852.
563
ODGER, George, agitator. B. 1813.
Son of a Cornish miner, and a shoemaker
in his youth, Odger educated himself and
settled in London. He was an esteemed
worker in the early Trade Union movement
in the fifties. He joined the London
Trade Council at its formation in 1860,
and was its secretary from 1862 to 1872.
The English welcome to Garibaldi in 1864
was organized by him ; and he was one of
the most anti-clerical of the Labour leaders,
though he never wrote on religion. He
helped to found the International, and was
president of its General Council in 1870.
In 1872 he brought out Odger s Monthly,
which failed after the second issue, and he
published Bhymes for the People (1871),
and a number of political pamphlets.
D. Mar. 4, 1877.
OERSTED, Professor Hans Christian,
Danish physicist. B. Aug. 14, 1777. Ed. Copenhagen University. After teaching chemistry for a few years, Oersted spent some time (1801-1803) travelling from uni versity to university and studying under the most eminent professors in Europe, espe cially the great French chemists. In 1806 he was appointed professor of physics at Copenhagen University, and he continued the brilliant research which culminated in his discovery of electro-magnetism. In 1824 he founded the Danish Society for the Spread of Natural Science. He was called to the State Council in 1828, and was appointed head of the Copenhagen Polytechnic in the following year. Oersted, who had the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Sciences and was Perpetual Secretary of the Copenhagen Academy of Sciences, was one of the most eminent physicists of his time, and his name stands out in the history of science. He was a Pantheist, and in many of his works (especially Aanden i Naturen, 2 vols., 1849- 50) expounded his views on science and religion. His complete works were pub lished in 1850-51 ; and there are biographies by Hauch and Forchhammer. The citizens of Copenhagen erected a fine house for 564
