​MORELLET, ANDRÉ (1727-1819), French economist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Lyons on the 7th of March 1727. He was one of the-last survivors of the philosophers, and in this character he figures in many memoirs, such as Mme de Rémusat's. 'He was educated by the']esuits in his native town, and at the Sorbonne; he then took holy orders, but his designation of abbé was the chief thing clerical about him. He had a ready and biting wit, and Voltaire called him “L'Abbé Mord-les.” His work was chiefly occasional, and the most notable parts of it were a smart pamphlet in answer to Charles PaJlissot's scurrilous play Les Philosophes (which procured him a short sojourn in the Bastille for an alleged libel on Palissot's patroness, the princess de Robeck), and a reply to Galiani's Commerce des blés (1770). Later, he made himself useful in quasi-diplomatic communications with English statesmen, and was pensioned, being, moreover, elected a member of the Academy in 1785. A year before his death in Paris on the 12th of January 1819 he"brought out four volumes of Mélanges de-littéralure et de philosophic du X VI I I ' siécle, composed chiefly of selections from his former publications, and after his death appeared his valuable Mémoires sur le X VI I I' siécle et la Révolution (2 vols., 1821).

A bibliography of his numerous works is given in Quérard's La Frizrrce littéraire, vol. vi.; see also Sainte-Beuve, Causer'ies'du' lundi, vol. i.