​MACDONELL, JAMES (1841-1879), British journalist, was born at Dyce, Aberdeenshire. In 1858, after his father's death, he became clerk in a merchant's office. He began writing in the Aberdeen Free Press; in 1862 he was appointed to the staff of the Daily Review at Edinburgh, and at twenty two he became editor of the Northern Daily Express. In 1865 he went to London to accept a position on the staff of the Daily Telegraph, which he retained until 1875, being special correspondent in France in 1870 and 1871. In 1873 he became a leader-writer on The Times. He died in London on the 2nd of March 1879. His posthumous France since the First Empire, though incomplete, gave a clever and accurate account of the French politics of his time.