M A C M A C 135 to all but material considerations. In liis evidence before the parliamentary committee on the state of Ireland in 1825 he stated opinions, afterwards more fully asserted in the Edinburgh Review, on the subject of Irish absenteeism, which tended to disgust persons of intelligence and right feeling with a science which, as interpreted by him, seemed to lead to practical absurdities, and in other quarters had, it is to be feared, the effect of supplying a plausible excuse for carelessness on the part of the rich and great with respect to the inferior classes of society. These opinions could not be justified even on strictly economic grounds, as has since been shown by Longficld and Senior. M Culloch had in him an element of intellectual wilfulness or perverse self-assertion, compared by his friends and admirers to the despotic dogmatism of Johnson, which both in conversation and in his writings led him into the enuncia tion and defence of paradoxes ; a notable example of this is furnished by the obstinacy with which to the last, in the teeth of evidence, he clung to the doctrine of the impolicy of cheap postage. M Culloch was deficient in literary taste, and never attained any high degree of excellence in style. His expression is often slipshod, and a certain coarseness in his images sometimes throws an air of vulgarity over his pages. His name will probably be less permanently associated with anything he has written on economic science, strictly so called, than with his great statistical and other compila tions. His Dictionary of Commerce and Commercial Navigation and his Statistical Account of the British Empire however they may be expanded and altered, as they have already been, in succes sive editions -will long remain imposing monuments of his extensive and varied knowledge and his indefatigable industry. Another useful work of reference, also the fruit of wide erudition and much labour, is his Literature of Political Economy. Though weak on the side of the foreign literature of the science, it is very valuable as a guide to British writers, and, in relation to its entire field, has not yet been superseded by any English book. The following is as complete a list of his publications as it lias been found possible to form :An Essay on the Reduction of the Interest on the National Debt, 1816 ; An Essay on the question of Reducing the Interest on the National Debt, 1S1G; A Discourse on the Rise, Progress, Peculiar Objects, and Importance of Poetical Economy, 1824; the article POLITICAL ECONOMY in the supplement to the Ctli edition of the Encyclopsedia Britannica, afterwards enlarged into The Principles of Political Economy, with a sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Science, 1830, and again 1843, 1849 (translated into French by Augustin Planchc, 1851); Dictionarii, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical, of Commerce and- Com mercial Navigation, 1832; Statistical Account of the British Empire, 1837; Dictionary, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the various Countries, Places, and Natural Objects in the World, 1841-42 (several editions of the last three have since appeared, and the first two of them have been reprinted in the United States, and translated into foreign languages) ; Statements illustrative of the Policy and probable Consequences of the proposed Repeal of the existing Corn- Laws and the Imposition in their stead of a moderate Fixed Duty on Foreign Corn, 1841; Memorandums on the proposed Importation of Foreign Beef and Livestock, 1842 ; A Treatise on the Principles and Practical Influence of Taxation and the Funding System, 1845; The Literature of Political Economy, 1845 ; A Treatise on the Succession to Property Vacant by Death, 1848 ; Treatise on the Circumstances lohich determine the Rate of Wages and the Condition of the Labouring Classes, 1851 (an earlier edition had appeared anonymously in 182G) ; Considerations on Partnership icith Limited Liability, 1856 ; perfaces and notes to a select collection, in 4 vols. of scarce and valuable economical tracts, reprinted at Lord Overstone s expense, 1856-59. He united in one volume (2d ed., 1859) a number of his minor Treatises and Essays on subjects connected with Economic Policy, many of which had appeared as articles in the Encyclopxdia Britannica, He also printed, for private distribution amongst his friends, a catalogue of his library, which contained a fine collection of books on his own special subjects, adding critical and bio graphical notices. He had edited in 1828 Smith s Wealth of A r ations, with a life of the author, an introductory discourse, notes, and supplemental dissertations ; this work he greatly enlarged and improved in the editions of 183S and 1850. In 1846 he edited Kicardo s works, with a notice of the life and writings of the author. (J. K. I.) MACDONALD, ETIENNE-JACQUES-JOSEPH-ALEXANDRE (1765-1840), duke of Taranto, and marshal of France, was born at Sancerre on November 17, 1765. His father came of an old Jacobite family, which had followed James II. to France, and was a near relative of the celebrated Flora Macdonald (1722-1790), the heroine whose courage and fidelity were at one critical period the sole means by which Prince Charles Edward was enabled to elude his enemies after the defeat of Culloden in 1746. In 1784 Macdonald joined the legion raised by the second Marshal Maillebois to support the revolutionary party in Holland against the Prus sians, and after it was disbanded he received a commission in the regiment of Dillon. On the breaking out of the Revolution, the regiment of Dillon remained eminently loyal, nearly all its officers emigrating with the princes, with the exception of Macdonald, who was in love with a Mademoiselle Jacob, whose father was enthusiastic for the doctrines of the Revolution. His love was successful, and directly after his marriage he was appointed aide- de-camp to General Dumouriez. He also distinguished himself at Jemmapes, and was promoted colonel in 1794. He refused to desert to the Austrians with Dumouriez, and as a reward was made general of brigade, and appointed to command the leading brigade in Pichegru s invasion of Holland. His knowledge of the country proved most useful, and he was instrumental in the capture of the Dutch fleet by the French hussars. In 1797 he was made general of division, and transferred first to the army of the Rhine and then to that of Italy. When he reached Italy, the peace of Campo Formio had been signed, and General Bonaparte had returned to France ; but, under the direction of Berthier, Macdonald first occupied Rome, of which he was made governor, and then in conjunction with Cham- pionnet he defeated General Mack, and revolutionized the kingdom of Naples under the title of the Parthenopsean Republic. When Suwaroff invaded northern Italy, and was winning back the conquests of Bonaparte, General Macdonald collected all the troops in the peninsula and moved northwards. With but 30,000 men he attacked, at the Trebbia, Suwaroff with 50,000, and after three days fighting, during which he held the Russians at bay, and gave time for Moreau to come up, he retired in good order to Genoa. After this gallant behaviour he was made governor of Versailles, and acquiesced in, if he did not co-operate in, the events of the 18th Brumaire. In 1800 he received the command of the army in Switzerland which was to maintain the communications between the armies of Germany and of Italy. He carried out his orders to the letter, and at last, in the winter of 1800-1, he was ordered to march over the Spliigen Pass. This achieve ment is fully described by Mathieu Dumas, who was chief of his staff, and is at least as noteworthy as Bonaparte s famous passage of the Saint Bernard before Marengo, though followed by no such successful battle. On his return to Paris he married the widow of General Joubert, and was appointed French plenipotentiary in Denmark. Returning in 1805 he associated himself with Moreau, and incurred the dislike of Napoleon, who did not include him in his first creation of marshals. Till 1809 he re mained without employment, but in that year Napoleon, hard pressed at Aspern, gave Macdonald the command of a division in the army of the viceroy of Italy which. was to march from Italy to his help. He led the army from Italy till its junction with Napoleon, and at Wagram commanded the attack on the Austrian centre which won the victory. Napoleon made him marshal of France on the field of battle, and presently created him duke of Taranto. In 1810 he served in Spain, and in 1812 he commanded the left wing of the grand army for the invasion of Russia. After sharing in the battles of Liitzen and Bautzen, he was ordered to invade Silesia, where Blucher defeated him with great loss at the Katzbach. After the terrible battle of Leipsic he was ordered with Prince Poniatowski to cover the evacuation of Leipsic, and after the blowing up of the bridge, he managed to swim the Elster, while Poniatowski was drowned. During the defen sive campaign of 1814 Macdonald again distinguished him- eelf, and was one of the marshals sent by Napoleon to take his abdication in favour of his son to Paris. When all were deserting their old master, Macdonald remained faithful to him. Macdonald was directed by Napoleon to give in his adherence to the new re gime, and was presented by him with the sabre of Murad Bey for his fidelity. He was made a peer of France at the Restoration, and, having once passed his word to the new order of things, remained faithful during the Hundred Days. In 1816 he became chancellor of the Legion of Honour, a post he held till 1831, and took a great part in the discussions in the House of Peers. In 1823 he married Mademoiselle de Bourgony, and at last had a son. Alexander, who succeeded on his death in 1840 as duke of Taranto. From 1830 his life was spent
in retirement at his country place Courcelles.