MARSHAL MACMAHON DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9335, 19 October 1893, Page 5

MARSHAL MACMAHON DEAD.

A BRILLIANT CAREER. Press Association.—Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Paris, October 17. Marshal MacMahon is dead, aged 85 years. __ Marie Edme Patrick Maurice de MacMahon, Due de Magenta, a Marshal of France, ex-President of the French Republic, born at Sully, July 13, 1808, derived his descent from an Irish family who risked and lost all for the last of the Stuart kings. The MacMahons, carrying their national traditions, ancestral pride, and historic name to France, mingled their blood by marriage with the old nobility of their adopted country. When, in 1855, General Canroberb left the Crimea, General MacMahon, then in France, was selected by the Emperor to succeed him in command of a division ; and when the chiefs of the allied armies resolved on assaulting Sebastopol, September 8, they assigned to General MacMahon the perilous post of carrying the works of the MalakofF. For his brilliant success on this occasion he was made Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour ; and in 1856 was nominated a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath. General MacMahon, ; who took a conspicuous part in the Italian campaign in 1859, received the baton of a Marshal, and was created Duke of Magenta, in commemoration of that victory. He represented France at the coronation of William 111., of Prussia, in November, 1861, was nominated to the command of the 3rd corps de armee, October 14, 1862, and was nominated Governor-General of Algeria by decree, September 1, 1864. In this capacity he inaugurated a new system, the tendency of which was to create an Arab kingdom. It proved, however, a complete failure. On the breaking out of the war with Prussia, Marshal MacMahon was intrusted with the command of the First Army Corps, whose headquarters were at Strasburg. He was chief in command at the battle of Sedan (September 1), bub received a severe wound in the thigh at the beginning of the engagement, whereupon the command devolved on General Wimpffen, who signed the capitulation. MacMahon was made a prisoner of war, and conveyed into Germany. Having recovered from his wound, he leffe Wiesbaden for France, March 13,1871, i»,nd was nominated in the following month Com-mander-in-Chief of the Army at Versailles. He successfully conducted the siege of Paris against the Commune, and ably assisted M. Thiers in reorganising the army. On M. Thiers resigning the Presidency of the Republic, May 24, 1873, he was elected to the vacant office by the Assembly. Of the 392 members who voted 390 voted for Marshal MacMahon, who immediately afterwards accepted the Headship of the Executive.