Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/837

Rh E X E E X E 801 estate is exhausted by due and proper payments before all the debts are cleared off, the unsatisfied creditors cannot re cover. (5) After the debts come the legacies, which must be paid as far as the estate will extend. An executor cannot exercise a preference in the payment of his own legacy. (6) The residue of the estate must be paid to the person named in the will as residuary legatee. If there is no will or no residuary legatee named, the residue falls to be distributed among the next of kin, under the statute of distributions (see INTESTACY). It was held at one time that in default of a residuary legatee the residue fell to the executor himself, but now nothing less than the expressed intention of the testator can give it to him. An executor de son tort (of his own wrong) is one who in termeddles with the estate of a deceased without authority. He thereby makes himself liable to all the trouble of an executorship without any of its profits. If an executor is under age or abroad when he is appointed, temporary administration durante minor e estate, or durante absentia, may be granted to another. An executor of an executor becomes the executor of the first testator. If, however, an executor dies intestate before completing the administration of the estate, an adminis trator de bonis non must be appointed. This is also the case where an administrator dies before the administration is complete. (E. B.) EXELMANS, RENT JOSEPH ISIDORE (1775-1852), a distinguished French general, was born at Bar-le-Duc, November 13, 1775. He volunteered into the 3d battalion of the Meuse in 1791, became lieutenant in 1797, and in 1798 was attached as aide-de-camp to General Eble In his first campaign in Italy he greatly distinguished himself ; and in April 1799 he was rewarded for bis services by the grade of captain in the 16th regiment of dragoons. In the same year he took part with honour in several battles connected with the conquest of Naples, and was pro moted to the rank of major; and in 1801 he became aid de-camp to General Murat. He was named chief of a squadron in 1803, and he accompanied Murat in the Austrian, Prussian, and Polish campaigns of 1805, 1806, and 1807. At the passage of the Danube, and in the battle of Wertingen, he specially distinguished himself; he was made colonel of the 1st regiment of chasseurs for the valour which he displayed at Austerlitz ; and after the battle of Eylau in 1807 he obtained the rank of brigadier- general. In 1808 he accompanied Murat to Spain, but was there made prisoner and conveyed to England. On regaining his liberty in 1811 he went to Naples, where King Murat appointed him grand master of horse ; but when Murat became estranged from Napoleon, Exelmans left his court and joined the French army. Napoleon was then entering on his Russian campaign, and gave him wel come and immediate employment as a general of division. He was present at the battle of Moscow, and in the famous retreat from that city his steadfast courage was conspicu ously manifested on several occasions. In 1813 he received, for services in the campaign of Saxony, the decoration of the Legion of Honour ; and in 1814 he reaped additional glory by his intrepidity and skill in the campaign of France. When the Bjurbons were restored in 1815 he retained his position in the army, but this did not prevent Napoleon on his return from Elba from intrusting him with the command of the 2d army corps. After the second Restoration he was proscribed, and lived in Belgium, and subsequently in Nassau, till 1819, when he was recalled to France. In the following year he was appointed to an inspector-general ship of cavalry; and after the July revolution of 1830 he received from Louis Philippe the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, and was created a peer of France. In the House of Peers he denounced the execution of Marshal Ney as an &quot;abominable assassination.** At the revolution of 1848 Exelmans was one of the adherents of Louis Napoleon ; and in 1851 he was, in recognition of his long and brilliant military career, raised to the dignity of a marshal of France. His death, 10th July 1852, was the result of a fall from his horse. EXETER, the chief town of Devonshire, in England, a city which is a county in itself, and a municipal and parlia mentary borough, stands on the Exe, about ten miles north west of the mouth of the river, where it opens to the English Channel. The distance of Exeter from London is 194 miles. The ancient city (round which suburbs have extended) occupies a broad ridge of land, which rises steeply from the left bank of the Exe. At the head of the ridge is the castle, on the site of a great British earthwork. This was the stronghold of Caer Isc (so named from the river Isc or Exe, meaning water) ; and the British town became the Isca Damnoniorum of the Romans, just as Isca Silurum was the Roman name of Caerleon on the Usk, in South Wales. Roman coins, tesselated pave ments, pottery, and sepulchral urns have been found from time to time, proving that the station was one of import ance. It was one of the few cities in Britain which were not deserted at the time of the Saxon Conquest; and when Athelstan came westward about 926, he found Exanceasler, the &quot; Chester &quot; or fortified town on the Exe, as the Saxons called it, occupied by Britons and Saxons cequo jure. The ground plan of the city indicates its Plan of Exeter. Romano-British origin, since the principal streets cross each other nearly in the centre. The main or High Street is, in fact, a portion of the Roman road which extended from the eastern border of the county to the Tamar. Exeter was more than once attacked by the Northmen; but the walls which had been constructed by Athelstan greatly protected the &quot;burgh;&quot; and in 1050 the episcopal see of Devon shire, which had been founded at Crediton aVmt 910, was removed, for greater security, to Exeter. The position of Exeter, and its importance as the prin cipal city of the western peninsula, have affected the whole course of its history, and led to its numerous sieges. In 1068 the Conqueror appeared before Exeter, beleaguered it VIII. 101