Ollivier

Ollivier, OLIVIER ÉMILE, French statesman, was born at Marseilles on 2d July 1825, and, having studied law at Paris, began to practise as an advocate in that city. By clever pleading he established a reputation at the bar, and after 1864 acquired influence as a member of the Legislative Assembly. In 1865 the viceroy of Egypt appointed him to a high juridical office in that country. But he still took an active interest in French politics, and in January 1870 Napoleon III. charged him to form a constitutional ministry. But the real authority of the ministers was practically nil. Ollivier was an unsuspecting tool in the hands of the Imperialists. 'With a light heart' he rushed his country into the war with Germany, himself to be overthrown, after the first battles, on 9th August. He withdrew to Italy. Ollivier has written books on Lamartine (1874) and Thiers (1879), and L'Eglise et l'État au Concile du Vatican (2 vols. 1879), Principes et Conduite (1875), Nouveau Manuel de Droit Ecclésiastique Français (1885); and his L'Empire Libéral (vol. i. 1894) was an apology for his administration, and an attempt to throw the blame of the war wholly on Germany.