The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1861-01-29 00:00:00

the Qfficialitj ? Is it a 1eg,.1 authority in France after
after 1789 ? Is it a tribunal to decide on marriage
cases after the establishment of the civil code ? Is it
an ecclesiastical court? What a decision in that case
to appeal to it a twelvemonth after the refusal of the
Holy See to sanction the grounds of nullity the Emperor
had brought forward. There is no tribunal in existence
would ccrusider a sentence of the (!fficialitj binding.
But a powerful rifler 'till always find ready tools—a M.
Borlay (the present Secretary of the Council of State)
is always to be found who will pronounce Ittf illegal
sentence, and sanction an iniquity. The priest who
pronounced the dissolution of the marriage committed a
breach of all canon and civil laws, but his decision,
thotigh it may have deceived foreigners, aver deceived
any one in Ftancre. (M. Berryer here quoted a list of
authors and jurists, to' the effect that the Officialit6
when its jurisdiction was recognised b 7 law, 1. e. before

89, was only competent to decide cases in which the

wife sued the husband, and vice versa, but wholly
powerless to act on the application of two parties).
Now, before this so-called tribunal (he pursued) did
Madame Bonaparte appear ? No. Was Jerome Bona-
parte, her husband, heard ? No. To call the decision
of such d cOdlrt a sentence is to utter a falsehood. There
is nothing in the' decrees; nothing in the appeal to the
Pope, nothing in the pretended sentence of the Officialite,
that can be held as invalidating the marriage: Never-
th'eles's, We are told it is invalidated by the decision of
what is termed the Privy Council. I will say nothing
as to the competency of that council. When it sum-
moned M. Jerome Bonaparte before it that jurisdiction
admitted him to be possessed of the claim which its
decision attempts to deprive him of. I will row read
the conclusions laid before the Council by Prince
Napoleon :
"Whereas a decree of the 30th August, 1854, of the
Emperor Napoleon 111. states that M. Jerome Bona-
parte, born in London, of a French father, on the ith
July, 1805; is reinstated in his quality of Frenchman ;
and that a second decree, of Sept. 5,_ 1854, confers on
the son of the fornier a tank in the French army.
"Whereas these dectees are interpreted by some as
attributing a name and a filiation which cannot belong
to them legally.
" Whereas the son, born in England, of the union
contracted, on the 24th December, 1803, at Baltimore,
by Jerome Bonaparte with Mdlle. Eliz. Paterson, can-
not bear, in France or under the French law, any other
name than that of his mother..

" Whereas; in fadt, that this union, which has never
presented any of the characters of a legal marriage,
formed abroad by a young officer of nineteen without
the authorisation of his military chiefs and of the head
of his family, who was also the chief of the State, with-
out the consent of his mother and the preliminary pub-
lications in his own country, has been followed, as soon
as it was known in France, by an authentic protest on
the part of madame mother, of the 3.Ventose, An.
XIII., and by a decree of 11 Ventose of the same year
from the Emperor Napoleon 1., refusing all existence
to the pretended marriage of 1803, in taking from it
all effect out of respect for the violated civil law, and
also for the personal dignity of the chief of the state
and of the Majesty of the Throne.

" Considering that on 6th October, 1806, the Court
of Paris broke the said marriage, and declared that it
had not been contracted :
" Considering that the new situation created to Mdlle.
Paterson and Prince Jerome Bonaparte has been accepted
on both sides and followed by acts of execution of great
importance :

" That on the one hand Mdlle. Paterson, and her son
have nct since borne the name of Bonaparte in France.
6' That Mdlle. Paterson, up to the time of the Rcstora-
.

tion, received from the Emperor a pension of 60,000 f.,
which could only be considered as the price of her re-
signation :
" That on the other hand, and on the faith of the
absolute nullity of the pretended marriage of 1803, a
new family formed itself round Prince Jerome by his
alliance in 1807 with the Princess of Wurtemburg
"Whereas the children horn of that union, the only
legitimate one contracted by their author, and the only
one which can have any civil effect, have the quality to
attack the above quoted decrees, as far as they affect the
rights belonging exclusively to them, and to oppose in
all cases MM. Paterson from taking the name of Bona-
parte •

"Considering that the Imperial Family Council, esta-
blished by the Imperial statute of 21st June, 1858, and
which absorbs all other jurisdictions, is competent to
determine the real bearing of the decrees attacked, as it
is to solve the question of the usurpation of names,
whereas those decrees have not solved the question of
naturalisation, with regard to which no objection has
been made, but that they have not produced the effect
of legitimation in contradiction to the decree of 1805
and the declaration of the officialty of Paris of 1806 :

" Says that Madame Paterson cannot exercise any of
he tights which belong exclusively to legitimate filia-
tion :

" In consequence prohibits 31. Jerome Paterson and
his descendants from henceforth bearing the name of
Bonaparte, the provisions of the decree of 11 Ventose
An. hill. preserving, moreover, their full effect."

M. Bonaparte in his turn, laid conclusions before the
tribunal. He did not offer a demurrer. He merely
said—' Those who claim the nullity of the marriage are
not entitled to do so. According to the terms of the
Code Napoleon neither, madame mere nor Prince Jerome,
still living, nor Madame Paterson, had brought forward
such a suit—and if they do not no one can. The coun-
cil cannot, therefore, entertain the action, and his
Imperial Highness Prince Napoleon must be non-
suited.' The council, however, rendered a sentence
deciding that M. Jerome Bonaparte iihould retain the
name of Bonaparte, but that he should not have the
right to avail himself of the benefit of the 201st and
202 d articles of the Code N apoleon, relating to succes-
sion. The council do not pronounce any opinion as to
the validity of the marriage, well aware that they could
not do so without hearing either husband or wife. You
will have, gentlemen, to decide whether the claims of
my clients are well founded. I confidently leave the
cause in your hands. I am confident you will once
more give us the splendid example of the serene impas-
sibility of the administrators of justice, against which
the shifts and devices of arbitrary power crumble into
dust. You expound the law, and unjust pretensions
vanish. Those of Prince Napoleon will be dismissed.
Yes, that will be your decision, and I joyously expect
it. I, too, am an old auxiliary of justice. For many
years I have stood at this bar. I shall not leave it
without carrying away with me the feeling of respect
for justice and confidence in the bench, which has been
created and confirmed by a practice of fifty years."

It will be seen that the two great questions are-Ist.
Whether the marriage was void or only voidable ; and
2nd. Supposing it to be voidable only, whether the pro-
test against the marriage which Madame Letizia Bona-
parte was made to sign by Napoleon I. was good in
form, as being a reclamation in the sense of the code,
and made in time in accordance with the provision that
it should be made " within twelve months " of the time
when the parties, whose consent was requisite for a
regular marriage, " had knowledge " of the fact of the
marriage having taken place. On M. Berryer resuming
his seat, M. Allon, who is a ♦ery able lawyer, as well as
as an eloquent pleader, rose and addressed the Court on
behalf of Prince Napoleon and Princess Matilde. We
shall give the substance of his address in our next.

DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO MURDER A
WARDER IN CHESTER CASTLE.

On Saturday last Thomas O'Brien, an ill-looking fellow,
who is imprisoned in the Chester Castle, was brought up
before the county magistrates, in the chaplain's room at
the Castle, upon the charge of attempting to kill a warden
named Thomas Dunning. It appeared that on Tuesday
morning Dunning was in charge of the prisoners at exer-
cise in No. 6 yard. After they had walked once round,
the prisoner (Thomas O'Brien) and another prisoner
named Thomas Kaster, commenced talking and laughing
Dunning called them to order, but no attention was
paid to him, and he told Kaster to fall out of the ranks
and go to his cell. O'Brien immediately stepped for-
ward and said, " The man is not in fault, I caused him
to laugh." Kaster then went to his cell, and O'Brien
joined the men at exercise. Having gone round the
yard a second time, O'Brien said : "You may as well
send to my cell." Dunning said, " I shall do nothing
of the kind ;" but he went out of the yard towards his
cell. About eleven o'clock the same morning, Mr.
Manning went to the bottom of the stairs of No. 6
ward, and told Dunning to bring O'Brien and Kaster to
the governor. Dunning then opened O'Brien's cell and
said, " Now., O'Brien, this way." He then turned
round to unlock the door of Kaster's cell, which is
nearly opposite that in which O'Brien was confined, and
he had no sooner done so than he was struck from be-
hind on the left side of the head with a piece of iron,
which was hurled at him with great force by O'Brien.
Dunning turned quickly round, when he saw that
O'Brien had something in his hand (a stone), and was
in the act of picking up the piece of iron which had
bounced towards where he stood. Dunning, with great
presence of mind, shouted, " Mr. Manning," and ran
in the direction where he had seen him standing.
O'Brien followed after with the iron and stone, threat-
ening to knock his brains out, saying be would not be
content until he had his life. Dunning, at this time,
was quite giddy, through loss of blood. Mr. Manning
called to O'Brien to desist, and desired him not to com-
mit himself. The prisoner raised the iron, stood in a
menacing attitude, and said, " Only I have some respect
for you, I would knock your brains out." Kaster, who
was in the passage, said " Don't strike him ;" when
O'Brien called him a "skulk," and ran him along the pas-
sage for the purpose of striking him. Mr. Manning seized
the prisoner by both arms from behind, some of the
officers came to his assistance, and the prisoner was
safely secured. When the governor charged him with
wounding the officer, he said " I 'did it, and I'll not
deny it;" he then turned towards Dunning and said,
"Whether it is here or after I am discharged, your
sacred life I will have." Dunning is still under medical
treatment. The iron the prisoner used for his mur-
derous design is the " catch" belonging to the loom in
his cell, which weighs 211 b. Upon being asked if he
had anything to state, he replied that there was no mis-
take about his wanting to take Dunning's life, and if he
could do it, he would at that moment. Committed to
the assizes. At the last assizes he was sentenced to 18
months' imprisonment for committing burglaries in
Birkenhead and Liverpool, previous to which he had
been committed for four years' penal servitude.