OFFENBACH 



5826 



OFFICIAL REFEREE 



1685 the count made it his resi- 

 dence, and it remained under the 

 family until the Napoleonic Wars. 

 In 1816 it became part of Hesse. 

 Pop. 76,000. 



Offenbach, JACQUES (1819-80). 

 French composer. Of Jewish 

 family, he was born at Cologne, 

 June 21, 1819. 

 His musical 

 gifts led him 

 to become a 

 student in 

 Paris, and 

 after some 

 preliminary 

 experience he 

 was made con- 



ductor at the Theatre Fran9ais. 

 Soon he began to compose, and in 

 1853 his Pepito was produced. His 

 great successes were made in 

 operettas of the type known as 

 opera bouffe. He produced many 

 of them at his own theatre, the 

 Theatre Comte ; in all he wrote 

 over 70, the best known including 

 La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein, 

 Madame Favart, and Genevieve de 

 Brabant. Offenbach died Oct. 6, 

 1880. 



Offenburg. Town of Baden, 

 Germany, it stands on the right 

 bank of the Kinzig, 10 m. S.E. of 

 Strasbourg. It has a Gothic church, 

 and a monument to Sir Francis 

 Drake, supposed to have been 

 erected in honour of his having 

 introduced the potato into Europe. 

 The castle, destroyed by the French 

 in 1689, was rebuilt in 1834 by a 

 Russian nobleman. There are 

 manufactures of cotton, tobacco, 

 cigars, machines, brushes, stained 

 glass, dyes, and a trade in wine. 

 Offenburg became a corporate town 

 in 1223. Pop. 17,000. 



Offence. In law, generally, the 

 widest term used to describe 

 breaches both of the criminal law 

 and of regulations made for the 

 public good, e.g. Public Health 

 Acts. In England it is also used in 

 a narrower sense, to describe an 

 act which is not an indictable 

 crime or misdemeanour, but is 

 nevertheless punishable by fine, 

 imprisonment, or other penalty, 

 e.g. adulteration of food and drugs, 

 selling short weight or measure, 

 and breaches of town by-laws. . 



Offertory. Ecclesiastical term 

 for that part of the Holy Com- 

 munion service, in which the alms 

 and oblations of the congregation 

 are offered, and oblation of the 

 bread and wine is made at the altar 

 by the officiating priest. It is also 

 applied to the sentences read by the 



priest while the alms are being 

 collected. In the Anglican Church 

 these sentences have taken the 

 place of the antiphon or anthem, 

 called the offertory, which used to 

 be said or sung while the people 

 made their oblations. In early 

 times the offerings included the 

 bread and wine, as well as things 

 needful for the maintenance of 

 divine worship. The word offer- 

 tory is loosely applied to all church 

 collections. 



Office (Lat. officium). LiteraRy, 

 a service or duty. It is thus used 

 in ecclesiastical language, e.g. the 

 offices or services of the Church. 

 The Holy Office of the Inquisition 

 is a similar use. In secular matters 

 it means a position, especially one 

 carrying responsibility, instances 

 being the terms, office holders and 

 office seekers. If a member of 

 Parliament accepts an officfe of 

 profit under the crown he must 

 resign his seat. Office also means 

 the place where business is done. 

 The management of an office, with 

 the object of securing the maxi- 

 mum of efficiency, is a subject to 

 which much attention has been 

 paid in the U.S.A. and Great 

 Britain in the 20th century. It 

 includes the use of files, card 

 indexes, and other labour-saving 

 devices. 



Officer. A person serving in the 

 army, the marines, navy, or air 

 force on the terms of a commission 

 (q.v.) granted by the sovereign. 

 In a legal sense a military man is 

 either an officer or a soldier, and 

 the latter term embraces warrant 

 officers (q.v.) and non-commissioned 

 officers (q.v.). The symbol of 

 commissioned rank is a sword, of 

 which an officer is deprived when 

 placed in arrest. On active ser- 

 vice, for purposes of discipline 

 certain civilians who are permitted 

 to accompany the army are graded 

 so as to receive the treatment of 

 officers, e.g. a newspaper corre- 

 spondent would be dealt with in all 

 respects as an officer, if holding a 

 pass from the army commander 

 otherwise as a soldier. An officer 

 who resigns his commission be- 

 comes again, in a legal sense, a 

 civilian, but it is customary to 

 address him as belonging to the 

 rank he held on leaving the army. 



In peace time, an officer usually 

 wears plain clothes (called mufti) 

 when out of his quarters and off 

 duty. He receives his pay monthly 

 in advance through an army agent 

 (q.v.), buys his own uniform, and is 

 privileged to keep a soldier servant. 

 He must, if unmarried, live in 

 quarters (q.v.) and dine in mess 

 (q.v. ). In the cavalry and artillery, 

 and in the infantry, if his duties 

 require him to ride, an officer is 



now provided with a horse, a 

 groom, and forage. His pay is 

 supplemented by various allow- 

 ances, and by serving the required 

 number of years he is entitled to 

 retired pay or gratuity. In the 

 Indian army retired pay is called 

 pension. An officer must retire 

 at a fixed age according to rank, 

 but he may be permitted to 

 retire at any time after a certain 

 period of service, on a pension, 

 the latter varying according to 

 the term of service. See Captain ; 

 General ; Lieutenant ; Major, etc. 



Officer's Friend. Name given 

 to an officer who represents an 

 accused brother officer at a court- 

 martial. See Court Martial ; 

 Prisoner's Friend. 



Officers' Training Corps. In 

 Great Britain, an organization of 

 the Territorial Force attached to 

 universities and schools. In these 

 corps cadets are trained for com- 

 missions in the Special Reserve. 

 They are required to pass two 

 examinations before being granted 

 commissions. The officers are 

 generally members of the staff of 

 the university or school who hold 

 commissions in the Territorial 

 Force. The instruction includes 

 practical work and lectures on 

 military subjects. 



To supply the greatly increased 

 requirements in officers during the 

 Great War, special training corps 

 were organized in 1916, in which 

 suitable men from the ranks, selec- 

 ted by their commanding officers, 

 were trained for commissions. 



Official Receiver. Public 

 official who manages the affairs of 

 bankrupts, taking over their pro- 

 perty, realizing the assets, and 

 distributing the money to the 

 creditors. England and Wales are 

 divided into bankruptcy districts, 

 each with a receiver appointed by 

 the board of trade, while others 

 are attached to the bankruptcy 

 department of the high court of 

 justice in London. A trustee 

 appointed for a bankrupt's estate 

 is under the supervision of the 

 receiver. Official receivers per- 

 form similar duties in cases where 

 public companies become bank- 

 rupt. They were first appointed 

 under the Bankruptcy Act of 1883. 

 See Bankruptcy. 



Official Referee. Official of the 

 English high court of justice. He is 

 one of three subordinate judges, 

 whose business it is to try cases, 

 or hold inquiries involving long 

 investigations into accounts, etc. 

 They usually sit in London, but 

 an official referee may hold in- 

 quiries elsewhere, if that is the more 

 convenient course. An appeal lies 

 from an official referee to a divi- 

 sional court of the high court. 



