Oetinger's autobiography was published by J. Hamberger in 1845. He published about seventy works, in which he expounded his theosophic views. A collected edition, Sämtliche Schriften (1st section, Homiletische Schriften, 5 vols., 1858-1866; 2nd section, Theosophische Werke, 6 vols., 1858-1863), was prepared by K. F. C. Ehmann, who also wrote Oetinger's Leben und Briefe (1859). See also C. A. Auberlen, Die Theosophie Friedr. Chr. Oetinger's (1847; 2nd ed., 1859), and Herzog, Friedrich Christoph Ötinger (1902). OEYNHAUSEN, a town and watering-place of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, on the Werre, situated just above its confluence with the Weser, 9 m. W. from Minden by the main line of railway from Hanover to Cologne, with a station on the Löhne-Hameln line. Pop. (1905) 3894. The place, which was formerly called Rehme, owes its development to the discovery in 1830 of its five famous salt springs, which are heavily charged with carbonic acid gas. The waters are used both for bathing and drinking, and are particularly efficacious for nervous disorders, rheumatism, gout and feminine complaints. OFFA, the most famous hero of the early Angli. He is said by the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith to have ruled over Angel, and the poem refers briefly to his victorious single combat, a story which is related at length by the Danish historians Saxo and Svend Aagesen. Offa (Uffo) is said to have been dumb or silent during his early years, and to have only recovered his speech when his aged father Wermund was threatened by the Saxons, who insolently demanded the cession of his kingdom. Offa undertook to fight against both the Saxon king 's son and a chosen champion at once. The combat took place at Rendsburg on an island in the Eider, and Offa succeeded in killing both his opponents. According to Widsith Offa's opponents belonged to a tribe or dynasty called Myrgingas, but both accounts state that he won a great kingdom as the result of his victory. A somewhat corrupt version of the same story is preserved in the Vitae duorum Offarum, where, however, the scene is transferred to England. It is very probable that the Offa whose marriage with a lady of murderous disposition is mentioned in Beowulf is the same person; and this story also appears in the Vitae duorum Offarum, though it is erroneously told of a later Offa, the famous king of Mercia. Offa of Mercia, however, was a descendant in the 12th generation of Offa, king of Angel. It is probable from this and other considerations that the early Offa lived in the latter part of the 4th century.

See H. M. Chadwick, Origin of the English Nation (Cambridge, 1907), where references to the original authorities will be found.

OFFA (d. 796), king of Mercia, obtained that kingdom in A.D. 757, after driving out Beornred, who had succeeded a few months earlier on the murder of Ethelbald. He traced his descent from Pybba, the father of Penda, through Eowa, brother of that king, his own father's name being Thingferth. In 779 he was at war with Cynewulf of Wessex from whom he wrested Bensington. It is not unlikely that the Thames became the boundary of the two kingdoms about this time. In 787 the power of Offa was displayed in a synod held at a place called Cealchyth. He deprived Jænberht, archbishop of Canterbury, of several of his suffragan sees, and assigned them to Lichfield, which, with the leave of the pope, he constituted as a separate archbishopric under Hygeberht. He also took advantage of this meeting to have his son Ecgferth consecrated as his colleague, and that prince subsequently signed charters as Rex Merciorum. In 789 Offa secured the alliance of Berhtric of Wessex by giving him his daughter Eadburg in marriage. In 794 he appears to have caused the death of Æthelberht of East Anglia, though some accounts ascribe the murder to Cynethryth, the wife of Offa. In 796 Offa died after a reign of thirty-nine years and was succeeded by his son Ecgferth. It is customary to ascribe to Offa a policy of limited scope, namely the establishment of Mercia in a position equal to that of Wessex and of Northumbria. This is supposed to be illustrated by his measures with regard to the see of Lichfield. It cannot be doubted, however, that at this time Mercia was a much more formidable power than Wessex. Offa, like most of his predecessors,

the Humber. He seems, however, not to have been contented with this position, and to have entertained the design of putting an end to the dependent kingdoms. At all events we hear of no kings of the Hwicce after about 780, and the kings of Sussex seem to have given up the royal title about the same time. Further, there is no evidence for any kings in Kent from 784 until after Offa's death. To Offa is ascribed by Asser, in his life of Alfred, the great fortification against the Welsh which is still known as "Offa's dike." It stretched from sea to sea and consisted of a wall and a rampart. An account of his Welsh campaigns is given in the Vitae duorum Offarum, but it is difficult to determine how far the stories there given have an historical basis.

See Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. J. Earle and C. Plummer (Oxford, 1899), s.a. 755, 777, 785, 787, 792, 794, 796, 836; W. de G. Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum (London, 1885-1893), vol. i.; Asser, Life of Alfred, ed. W. H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1904); Vitae duorum Offarum (in works of Matthew Paris, ed. W. Wats, London, 1640).

OFFAL, refuse or waste stuff, the "off fall," that which falls off (cf. Dutch afval, Ger. Abfall). The term is applied especially to the waste parts of an animal that has been slaughtered for food, to putrid flesh or carrion, and to waste fish, especially to the little ones that get caught in the nets with the larger and better fish, and are thrown away or used as manure. As applied to grain "offal" is used of grains too small or light for use for flour, and also in flour milling of the husk or bran of wheat with a certain amount of flour attaching, sold for feeding beasts (see FLOUR).

OFFENBACH, JACQUES (1819-1880), French composer of opéra bouffe, was born at Cologne, of German Jewish parents, on the 21st of June 1819. His talent for music was developed at a very early age; and in 1833 he was sent to Paris to study the violoncello at the conservatoire, where, under the care of Professor Vaslin, he became a fairly good performer. In 1834 he became a member of the orchestra of the Opéra Comique; and he turned his opportunities to good account, so that eventually he was made conductor at the Théâtre Français. There, in 1848, he made his first success as a composer in the Chanson de Fortunio in Alfred de Musset's play Le Chandelier. From this time forward his life became a ceaseless struggle for the attainment of popularity. His power of production was apparently inexhaustible. His first complete work, Pepito, was produced at the Opéra Comique in 1853. This was followed by a crowd of dramatic pieces of a light character, which daily gained in favour with Parisian audiences, and eventually effected a complete revolution in the popular taste of the period. Encouraged by these early successes, Offenbach boldly undertook the delicate task of entirely remodelling both the form and the style of the light musical pieces which had so long been welcomed with acclamation by the frequenters of the smaller theatres in Paris. With this purpose in view he obtained a lease of the Théâtre Comte in the Passage Choiseul, reopened it in 1855 under the title of the Bouffes Parisiens, and night after night attracted crowded audiences by a succession of brilliant, humorous trifles. Ludovic Halévy, the librettist, was associated with him from the first, but still more after 1860, when Halévy obtained Henri Meilhac's collaboration (see HALÉVY). Beginning with Les Deux Aveugles and Le Violoneux, the series of Offenbach's operettas was rapidly continued, until in 1867 its triumph culminated in La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein, perhaps the most popular opéra bouffe that ever was written, not excepting even his Orphée aux enfers, produced in 1858. From this time forward the success of Offenbach's pieces became an absolute certainty, and the new form of opéra bouffe, which he had gradually endowed with as much consistency as it was capable of assuming, was accepted as the only one worth cultivating. It found imitators in Lecocq and other aspirants of a younger generation, and Offenbach's works found their way to every town in Europe in which a theatre existed. Tuneful, gay and exhilarating, their want of refinement formed no obstacle to their popularity, and perhaps even contributed to it. In 1866 his own connexion with the Bouffes Parisiens ceased, and he wrote for various

Falstaff, some captains and colonels "misused the King's press damnably." All alike were most rigorously watched lest by showing imaginary men on their pay-sheets they should make undue profits. A muster was the production of a number of living men on parade corresponding to the number shown on the pay-roll. An inspection was an inspection not so much of the efficiency as of the numbers and the accounts of units. A full account of these practices, which were neither more nor less prevalent in England than elsewhere, will be found in J. W. Fortescue's History of the British Army, vol. i. So faithfully was the custom observed of requiring the showing of a man for a man's pay, that the grant of a special allowance to officers administering companies was often made in the form of allowing them to show imaginary John Does and Richard Roes on the pay-sheets.

The next step was taken when armies, instead of being raised for each campaign and from the qualified men who at each recruiting time offered themselves, became "standing" armies fed by untrained recruits. During the late 17th and the 18th centuries the crown supplied the recruits, and also the money for maintaining the forces, but the colonels and captains retained in a more or less restricted degree their proprietorship. Thus, the profits of military office without its earlier burdens were in time of peace considerable, and an officer's commission had therefore a "surrender value." The practice of buying and selling commissions was a natural consequence, and this continued long after the system of proprietary regiments and companies had disappeared. In England "purchase " endured until 1873, nearly a hundred years after it had ceased on the continent of Europe and more than fifty after the clothing, feeding and payment of the soldiers had been taken out of the colonels' hands. The purchase system, it should be mentioned, did not affect artillery and engineer officers, either in England or in the rest of Europe. These officers, who were rather semi-civil than military officials until about 1715, executed an office rather than a command-superintended gun-making, built fortresses and so on. As late as 1780 the right of a general officer promoted from the Royal Artillery to command troops of other arms was challenged. In its original form, therefore, the proprietary system was a most serious bar to efficiency. So long as war was chronic, and self-trained recruits were forthcoming, it had been a good working method of devolving responsibility. But, when drill and the handling of arms became more complicated, and, above all, when the supply of trained men died away, the state took recruiting out of the colonels' and captains' hands, and, as the individual officer had now nothing to offer the crown but his own potential military capacity (part of which resided in his social status, but by no means all), the crown was able to make him, in the full sense of the word, an oicer of itself. This was most fully seen in the reorganization of the French army by Louis XIV. and Louvois. The colonelcies and captaincies of horse and foot remained proprietary offices in the hands of the nobles but these offices were sinecures or almost sinecures. The colonels, in peace at any rate, were not expected to do regimental duty. They were at liberty to make such profits as they could make under a stringent inspection system. But they were expected to be the influential figure-heads of their regiments and to pay large sums for the privilege of being proprietors. This classification of officers into two bodies, the poorer which did the whole of the work, and the richer upon which the holding of a com'mission conferred an honour that birth or wealth did not confer, marks two very notable advances in the history of army organization, the professionalization of the officer and the creation of the prestige attaching to the holder of a commission because he holds it and not for any extraneous reason.

The distinction between working and quasi-honorary officers was much older, of course, than Louvois's reorganization. Moreover it extended to the highest ranks. About 1600 the general" of a European army was always a king, prince or nobleman. The lieutenant-general, by custom the commander of the cavalry, was also, as a rule, a noble, in 'Except in the Italian republics.

or

virtue of his command of the aristocratic arm. But the commander of the foot, the "sergeant-major-general " "major-general," was invariably a professional soldier. It was his duty to draw up the army (not merely the foot) for battle, and in other respects to act as chief of staff to the general. In the infantry regiment, the " sergeant-major " .or major was second-in-command and adjutant combined. Often, if not always, he was promoted from amongst the lieutenants and not the (proprietary) captains. The lieutenants were the backbone of the army.

"

Seventy years later, on the organization of the first great standing army by Louvois, the "proprietors," as mentioned above, were reduced to a minimum both in numbers and in military importance. The word "major" in its various meanings had come, in the French service, to imply staff functions. Thus the sergeant-major of infantry became the "adjudant-major." The sergeant-major-general, as commander of the foot, had disappeared and given place to numerous lieutenant-generals and "brigadiers," but as chief of the staff he survived for two hundred years. As late as 1870 the chief of staff of a French army bore the title of "the majorgeneral."

Moreover a new title had come into prominence, that of marshal or "field marshal." This marks one of the most important points in the evolution of the military officer, his classification by rank and not by the actual command he holds. In the 16th century an officer was a lieutenant of, not in, a particular regiment, and the higher officers were general, lieutenant-general and major-general of a particular army. When their army was disbanded they had no command and possessed therefore no rank-except of course when, as was usually the case, they were colonels of permanent regiments or governors of fortresses. Thus in the British army it was not until late in the 18th century that general officers received any pay as such. The introduction of a distinctively military rank of "marshal" or "field marshal," which took place in France and the empire in the first years of the 17th century, meant the establishment of a list of general officers, and the list spread downwards through the various regimental ranks, in proportion as the close proprietary system broke up, until it became the general army list of an army of to-day. At first field marshals were merely officers of high rank and experience, eligible for appointment to the offices of general, lieutenantgeneral, &c., in a particular army. On an army being formed, the list of field marshals was drawn upon, and the necessary number appointed. Thus an army of Gustavus Adolphus's time often included 6 or 8 field marshals as subordinate general officers. But soon armies grew larger, more mobile and more flexible and more general officers were needed. Thus fresh grades of general arose. The next rank below that of marshal, in France, was that of lieutenant-general, which had formerly implied the second-in-command of an army, and a little further back in history the king's lieutenant-general or military viceroy.3 Below the lieutenant-general was the maréchal de camp, the heir of the sergeant-major-general. In the imperial service the ranks were field marshal and lieutenant field marshal (both of which survive to the present day) and major-general. A further grade of general officer was created by Louis XIV., that of brigadier, and this completes the process of evolution, for the regimental system had already provided the lower titles.

The ranks of a modern army, with slight variations in title, are therefore as follows:

(Generaloberst), has come into existence or rather has been revived 1 of late years. Most of the holders of this rank have the honorary style of general-field-marshal.2

(b) General: in Germany and Russia, " 'general of infantry," general of cavalry," "general of artillery." In Austria generals of artillery and infantry were known by the historic title of Feldzeugmeister (ordnance-master) up to 1909, but the grade of general of infantry was created in that year, the old title being now restricted to generals of artillery. In France the highest grade of general officer is the "general of division." In the United States army the grade of full "general" has only been held by Washington, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan. (c) Lieutenant-general (except in France): in Austria the old title of lieutenant field marshal is retained. In the United States army the title "lieutenant-general," except within recent years, has been almost as rare as" general." Winfield Scott was a brevet lieutenantgeneral. The substantive rank was revived for Grant when he was placed in command of the Union Army in 1864. It was abolished

as an American rank in 1907.

(d) Major-general (in France, general of brigade): this is the highest grade normally found in the United States Army, generals and lieutenant-generals being promoted for special service only.3 (e) Brigadier-general, in the United States and (as a temporary rank only) in the British services.

The above are the five grades of higher officers. To all intents and purposes, no nation has more than four of these five ranks, while France and the United States, the great republics, have only two. The correspondence between rank and functions cannot be exactly laid down, but in general an officer of the rank of lieutenant-general commands an army corps and a major-general a division. Brigades are commanded by major-generals, brigadier-generals or colonels. Armies are as a rule commanded by field marshals or full generals. In France generals of division command divisions, corps, armies and groups of armies.

The above are classed as general officers. The "field officers " (French officiers supérieurs, German Stabsoffiziere) are as follows:

"

(a) Colonel.-This rank exists in its primitive significance in every army. It denotes a regimental commander, or an officer of corresponding status on the staff. In Great Britain, with the "linked battalion system, regiments of infantry do not work as units, and the executive command of battalions,, regiments of cavalry and brigades of field artillery is in the hands of lieutenant-colonels. Colonels of British regiments who are quasi-honorary (though no longer proprietary) chiefs are royal personages or general officers. Colonels in active employment as such are either on the staff, commanders of brigades or corresponding units, or otherwise extraregimentally employed.

(b) Lieutenant colonel: in Great Britain "the commanding officer" of a unit. Elsewhere, where the regiment and not the battalion is the executive unit, the lieutenant-colonel sometimes acts as second in command, sometimes commands one of the battalions. In Russia all the battalion leaders are lieutenant-colonels. (c) Major. This rank does not exist in Russia, and in France is replaced by chef de bataillon or chef d'escadron, colloquially commandant. In the British infantry he preserves some of the characteristics of the ancient sergeant-major," as a second in command with certain administrative duties. The junior majors command companies. In the cavalry the majors, other than the second-incommand, command squadrons; in the artillery they command batteries. In armies which have the regiment as the executive unit, majors command battalions ("wings of cavalry, " groups of artillery).

Lastly the "company officers" (called in France and Germany subaltern officers) are as follows:

(a) Captain (Germany and Austria, Hauptmann, cavalry Rittmeister); in the infantry of all countries, the company commander. In Russia there is a lower grade of captain called "staff-captain," and in Belgium there is the rank of "second-captain." In all countries except Great Britain captains command squadrons and batteries. Under the captain, with such commands and powers aз are delegated to them, are the subalterns, usually graded as

"

The 16th-century "colonel-general" was the commander of a whole section of the armed forces. In France there were several colonels-general, each of whom controlled several regiments, or indeed the whole of an "arm.' Their functions were rather those of a war office than those of a troop-leader. If they held high commands in a field army, it was by special appointment ad hoc. Colonels-general were also proprietors in France of one company in each regiment, whose services they accepted.

2 In Russia the rank of marshal has been long in abeyance.

In the Confederate service the grades were general for army commanders, lieutenant-general for corps commanders, majorgeneral for divisional commanders and brigadier-general for brigade commanders.

(b) Lieutenant (first lieutenant in U.S.A., Oberleutnant in Germany and Austria).

(c) Sub-lieutenant (second-lieutenant in Great Britain and U.S.A., Leutnant in Germany and Austria).

(d) Aspirants, or probationary young officers, not of full commissioned status.

The continental officer is on an average considerably older, rank for rank, than the British; but he is neither younger nor older in respect of command. In the huge "universal service" armies of to-day, the regimental officer of France or Germany commands, in war, on an average twice the number of men that are placed under the British officer of equal rank. Thus a German or French major of infantry has about 900 rifles to direct, while a British major may have either half a battalion, 450, or a double company, 220; a German captain commands a company of 250 rifles as against an English captain's

110 and so on. At the same time it must be remembered that at peace strength the continental battalion and company are maintained at little more than half their war strength, and the under-officering of European armies only makes itself seriously

felt on mobilization.

Infantry, lowest scale, other arms and branches higher, often considerably higher.

It must be noted that in France and Germany the major is a battalion commander, corresponding to the British lieutenantcolonel. But the significance of this table can only be realized when it is remembered that promotion is rapid in the British army and very slow in the others. The senior Oberleutnants of the German army are men of 37.to 38 years of age; the senior captains 47 to 48. In 1908 the youngest captains were 36, the youngest majors 45 years of age. As another illustration, the captain's maximum pay in the French army, £10 per annum less than a British captain's, is only given after 12 years' service in that rank, i.e. to a man of at least twenty years' service. The corresponding times for British regular officers in 1905 (when the effects of rapid promotions during the South African War were still felt) were 6 to 7 years from first commission to promotion to captain, and 14 to 19 years from first commission to promotion to major. In 1908, under more normal conditions, the times were 7 to 8 years to captain, 15 to 20 to major. In the Royal Engineers and the Indian army a subaltern is automatically promoted captain on completing 9 years' commissioned service, and a captain similarly promoted major after 18.

The process of development in the case of naval officers (see NAVY) present's many points of similarity, but also considerable differences. For from the first the naval officer could only offer to serve on the king's ship: he did not build a ship as a colonel raised a regiment, and thus there was no proprietary system. On the other hand the naval officer was even more of a simple office-holder than his comrade ashore. He had no rank apart from that which he held in the economy of the ship, and when the ship went out of commission the officers as well as the crew were disbanded. One feature of the proprietary system, however, appears in the navy organization; there was a marked distinction between the captain and the licutenant who led the combatants and the master and the master's mate who sailed the ship. But here there were fewer "vested interests," and instead of remaining in the condition, so to speak, of distinguished passengers, until finally eliminated by the "levelling " of the working class of officers, the lieutenants and captains were (in England) required to educate themselves thoroughly in the subjects of the sea officer's profession. When this process had gone on for two generations, that is, about 1670, the formation of a

up

3. Lieutenant-Generals

4. Major-Generals

Admirals of the Fleet

Admirals

Vice-Admirals.

Rear-Admirals.

Commodores

Sub-Lieutenants

1 But junior of the army rank.

divided into two parts: (I.) that which precedes the appointment to a commission; (II.) that which succeeds it.

1. Omitting those officers who obtain their commissions from the ranks, the training which precedes the appointment to a commission is subdivided into: (a) General Education; (b) Technical Instruction.

(a) General Education.-A fairly high standard of education is considered essential. Candidates from universities approved by the Army Council must have resided for three academic years at their university, and have taken a degree in any subject or group of subjects other than Theology, Medicine, Music and Commerce. A university candidate for a commission in the Royal Artillery must further be qualified in Mathematics. The obtaining of first-class honours is considered equivalent to one year's extra service in the army, and an officer can count that year for calculating his service towards his pension. University candidates are eligible for commissions in the Cavalry, Royal Artillery, Infantry, Indian Army and Army Service Corps. For other branches of the service special regulations are in force.

Those candidates who have not been at a university are examined

Engineer-in-Chief, if Engineer Vice-Admiral.
Inspectors-General of Hospitals and Fleets.
Engineer-in-Chief, if Engineer Rear-Admiral.
Engineer Rear-Admiral."

Deputy Inspectors-General of Hospitals and Fleets.
Secretaries to Admirals of the Fleet.
Paymasters-in-Chief.

Engineer Captains of 8 years'seniority in that rank.
Staff Captains of 4 years' seniority.

Staff Captains under 4 years' seniority (navigating branch).

Secretaries to Commanders-in-Chief, of 5 years' service as such.

Engineer Captains under 8 years' seniority in that rank.

Clerks.

Gunners.1
Boatswains.
Carpenters.1

Artificer Engineer.1
Head Schoolmaster.'
Head Wardmaster.1

But senior of the army rank.

of the subjects of examination. Candidates who fail to secure admission to these institutions, but satisfy the examiners that they are sufficiently well educated, can obtain commissions in the Special Reserve.

Candidates for commissions in the Royal Army Medical Corps and the Army Veterinary Corps are not required to pass an educational examination, the ordinary course of medical or veterinary education being deemed sufficient, but the Army Council may reject a candidate who shows any deficiency in his general education. Officers of the Colonial military forces wishing to obtain commissions in the British Army must either produce a school or college leaving certificate or pass an examination held by the Army Qualifying Board, or must show that they have passed one of certain recognized examinations.

(b) Technical Instruction.-In addition to general educational attainments, a fair knowledge of technical matters is expected from candidates.

For Cavalry, Infantry, Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery and Army Service Corps, an examination must be passed in administration and organization; military history, strategy and tactics; military