MAC 



MAC 



1 contrived fiftioti. The fufFerers are not defcribed fo par- 

 ticularly as they ought to be, and the relations generally are 

 incredible. Befides, it is improbable that thefe feven brothers 

 Ihould have been examined, tortured, and (lain, one after 

 another, in the prefence of king Antiochus ; for fuch exami- 

 nations and executions are generally delegated to officers : 

 nor is it faid, or even hinted, where thefe perfons fuffered. 

 It has been faid, however, that the writer of the epiftle to 

 the Hebrews refers to this hidory, and thus affures us of its 

 truth. (Heb. xi. jj.) But it is very far from being clear 

 or certain, that there is a reference to this hiftory in that 

 text. Hallet, Lardner, and others, deny it. See Lardner's 

 Works, vol. xi. p. 269, &c. 



MACCHERINI, L.i Sigxora, in Biography, a female 

 Italian finger, engaged as firft woman at the Opera-houfe 

 in 1780, on a falfe report of her great abilities by her coun- 

 trymen in London, difappointed every hearer. 



MACCHIAVELLI, Nicholas, a celebrated political 

 writer and hiftorian, was born of a good family, at Florence, 

 in 1469. He firft diftinguifhed himfelf as a dramatic writer, 

 and produced plays that were afted with great applaufe at 

 Rome. Soon after he h^d entered public life, he was fup- 

 pofed to have participated in a confpiracy againll the houfe 

 and family of Medici ; bat being " put to the queftion" on 

 the fubjecl, he Imd the fo-.titude to endure tl\e torture with- 

 out uttering the flighteft confeffion, and was fet at liberty. 

 He was afterwards raifed to high honours in the ftate, and be- 

 came fecretary to the republic of Florence, the duties of 

 which high office he performed with great fideUty. He 

 was likewife employed in embaffies to king Lewis XH. of 

 France ; to the emperor Maximilian ; to the college of 

 cardinals ; to the pope, Julius H., and to other Italian 

 princes.. Notwiihltanding the revenues which mull have 

 accrued to him in theie important fituations, he left a large 

 family at his death in a (late of indigence, a circumftance 

 that proves he had afted with integrity, and that the love of 

 , money had no influence on his mind. He died in 1530. 

 Befides his plays, his chief works are, I. " The Golden 

 Afs," in imitation of Lucian and Apuleius ; 2. " Dif- 

 courfes on the firft Decade of Livy ;" 3. " A Hiftory of 

 Florence ;" 4.. " The Life of Caftruccio Caftracani ;" 

 5. " A Treatife on the Military Art ;" 6. " A Treatife 

 on the Emigration of the Northern Nations ;" 7. A Trea- 

 tife, entitled " Del Principe," the Prince. This famous 

 treatife was firft publiftied in 151 J, and was intended as a 

 fequel to his difcourif s on the tirft decade of Livy, which 

 difcourfes are replete with juft and profound reflections on 

 the principles of popular government, and exhibit him as a 

 warm friend of liberty ; but " The Prince" has been gene- 

 ; rally regarded as the manual of a tyrant ; all its maxims 

 and counfels being direfted to the maintenance of power, 

 however acquired, and by any means. It was dedicated 

 to a nephew of pope Leo X., was printed at Rome, re- 

 publiftied in other Italian cities, and was long read with 

 attention, and even applaufe, without cenfure or reply. 

 The practice of politicians at that time was fo much m 

 unifon with its maxims, that neither furprife nor detefta- 

 tion feems to have been excited by an open expofure of the 

 ufual arts of government. The writer's intention in this 

 work has been a matter of much controverfy ; fome have 

 held him up as an abandoned promoter of tyranny, and 

 others have maintained that he was its concealed but decided 

 enemy, v.ho meant to put " the people" on their guard 

 againft iti machinations. A modern critic, however, thinks 

 it probable, from the charafter of the man, that he wrote it 

 without any moral purpofe whatever ; and merely, hke a 

 mathematician demonftrating a problem, inveftigated the 

 12 



principles by which ufurped power might be maintained, 

 leaving the application to princes or fubjcdts, as chance 

 fliould direft. It has, neverthelefs, affixed to his name a 

 lafting iligma, and Machiavelifm is become a received ap- 

 pellation for perfidious and infamous pohtics. When once 

 the fyftem was cxpofed, a multitude of opponents to it 

 llarted up, in almoft every enlightened country on the globe ; 

 among whom, and one of the lateft, was Frederic the Great, 

 king of Pruffia, before he commenced thofe plans of aggran- 

 dizement, that he purfued very much in the fpirit of the 

 work which he had ably anfwered. Of the hiftorical writ- 

 ings of Machiavel, the " Life of Caftrucio Caftracani" is 

 confidered as partaking too much of the character of a 

 romance ; but his " Hiftory of Florence," comprifing the 

 events of that republic, between the years 1205 and 1494, 

 is a very valuable performance, and one of the earlieft of the 

 good Italian hiftories. It was written while the author 

 fuftained the office of hiftoriographer of the republic. He 

 has been charjjed with mifreprefentation ; but his cha- 

 rafter, as an hiftorian, has been ably vindicated, and his ftyle 

 and compofition, as a profe writer, are held in high eftima- 

 tion. His verfes do not rank among the firft, or even the 

 fecond rate produdtions of Italian poetry ; and his comedies, 

 however they might appear in pubHc rcprcfentation, are not 

 formod on the pureft models. The works of this writer 

 were collefted in two volumes 4to. in 1550, and they have 

 been repubhfhed in Amfterdam, London, and Paris. Gen. 

 Biog. See Machiavelism. 



MACCLESFIELD, called in ancient records Maxfield, 

 in Geography, a populous, corporate, and borough-town of 

 Cheftiirc, England, is built on the fide of a fteep hill, at the 

 diftance of 18 miles from Manchefter, and 166 from. London. 

 It is part of the parifli of Preftbrng, in the hundred of Mac- 

 clesfield. Radal, earlc; Chefter, firft conftituted it a borough; 

 and in or near the year 1 261, the prince of Wales, afterwards 

 king Edward I., made it a free borough, and granted the 

 burgeffes a mercatorial guild, and other privileges. By the 

 conditions of the charter thus obtained, the burgeffes were 

 required to grind only at the earl's mill, and to bake at 

 his oven. This oven, or bakehoufe, is ftill vefted in the 

 crown, and a leafe of it was granted, in 1791, for twenty- 

 four years and a half. By a charter of queen Elizabeth's, 

 the corporate body was to confift of 24 capital burgeffes ; 

 but a later charter, from king Charles II., names a town- 

 clerk, a coroner, two ferjeants at mace, &c. as part of the 

 corporation. Among other articles delivered into the 

 cuftody of the ferjeants at mace, in the year 1620, was " a 

 bridle for a curft queane." The market, which is held on 

 Mondays, was formerly very confiderable for corn, but has 

 declined. The annual fairs are five, principally for cloth, 

 cutlery, toys, and pedlars' ware. The filk and cotton trade 

 is carried on in this town to a confiderable extent; there being 

 nearly thirty filk mills, fome of them on a large fcale, and 

 about ten cotton faftories : a great quantity of goods 

 of both forts is alfo manufaftured in private houfes ; there 

 ai-e feveral muflin, filk-weaving, and twift faftories. The 

 weaving of filk handkerchiefs, and the making of ferret 

 and calico, are increafing manufaftures : here are five 

 or fix dye-houfes, principally for filk, a tape manufac- 

 tory, and a bleaching ground. According to the re- 

 turns made to parliament under the population act of 

 1800, the number of houfes was then 1527, the number of 

 inhabitants was ftated to be 8743, of whom 8509 were faid 

 to be employed chiefly in trade, manufactures, or in handi- 

 craft. The population has fince that period been confider- 

 ably increafed. In the year 1 791 , an aft was pafl'ed for inclof- 

 ing the commons and wafte grounds within the borough and 



manor 



