The Express.
London, England, 1861-01-26 00:00:00

Of commercial matter% the Englishman, aa' :

lloth the import and export markets remain torpid, and
although, under the temporary stimulus of speculators,
tempted by the decline of 5 per cent. paper to a
discount, it has rr.•overed to the extent of four
atoms premium, there is no chance of perms-
sent improvement in the face of the knowledge
that large amounts in paper are coming ot.t, and a still
larger quantity is in the hands of holders here, who will
take the first clutiew of gettiug nut without The ac-
knowledged helplessness of our government in matters of

finance, the incapacity, carelessness, and want of tact in
their civilian serlista in the financial department,
and the saaarases that Sir Charles Wood's gift
to the Mysore princes is to be paid by investment of re-
suscitated paper, confiscated by government, in fact Wog
so much added to the national debt of the oountry, all tend
to increase the sensitiveness of the native capitalists, and
their conviction that another loan will become necessary.
And so, though the deposits and cash balances of our
banks are monthly increasing, government securities are •
drag, and money lies without investment.

As yet all was conjecture as to the probable yield
of the income tax. It is expected by the supremo
government that the net amount from this source
will be about one million sterling.

Mr. Reuter has received the following telegrams
ITALY.
THE BOMBARDMENT OF GAETA.
NAPLES, JAN. 25, 5 P.M.

Yesterday the bombardment of Gaeta was con-
tinued by the Sardinian fleet. Gaeta has suffered
much from the bombardment. The fire from the
batteries of the place is feeble.

General Cialdini has boat but few mem
A Sardinian gun-boat haus been damaged.
NAPLES, 240, Evr.vixo.

The bombardment of Gaeta continues.

Liberio Romano, Minister of the Interior, has ap-
pointed a commission for the publication of histo-
rical documents concerning the Bourbon dynasty
taken from the archives atNaples, and dating from
1790 until 1860.

DISTURBANCES AT ROME.
ROME, JAN. 22 (vii Marseilles).

Riotous demonstrations of a most serious cha-
racter have taken place in the Apollo Theatre.
The performance of "U Trovatore" has been pro-
hibited. Some students have been expelled from
the University for having distributed tricoloured
cockades.

ROME, JAN. 24.
One thousand Sardinians have attacked the con.
vent of Caaamali in the Roman States.

They dispersed the reactionary band, set fire to
the convent on the night of the 22nd inst., and
afterwards re-entered Neapolitan territory.
The monks saved themselves by flight before the
commencement of the attack.

HUNGARY.

PESTH, JAN. 25.
The Comitat of Pesth has reaolvol to firmly
maintain the laws of 1848.

The Comitat of Honth not only demands that a
responsible and independent Hungarian ministry
should ,be appointed before the opening of the
Diet, but also requests the annexation of the pro-
vinces formerly belonging to Hungary, and the
earliest possible convocation of the Diet at Peeth.

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

THE CASE OF PATERSON v. BONAPARTE.

(►BOY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, FRIDAY Emilia, 6 o'Culcic.

. _
I have this moment left the court where the
great case of Paterson v. Bonaparte is going on.
Berryer—the illustrious Berryer, who was called to
the bar just fifty years ago—spoke for four hours
and a half without a moment's interruption. 1
speak literally ; the court did not rise for refresh-
ment until he had done, at about half-past 3 o'clock.
I came away with great regret in the midst of M.
Allou's speech for Prince Napoleon in order to
send you those hurried lines by this evening's poet.
I must assume that by the publications made in
London you are already familiar with the leading
facts of the case, and in attempting to give a
sketch of the tenor of the arguments used to-day
I shall touch principally upon those points
which prior statements seem to leave iu
nets! of explanation. I may at once say
that the question whether Jerome Bonaparte,
when he married Miss Paterson, was 19 or 22, is
admitted on both sides to be unimportant. It is
clear that the new law of March, 1803, which al-
tered the provisions of that of 1792, was known in
the United States at the time of his marriage, that
he was bound by the new law, and was eves
affected by express notice of it given him by M.
Pichon, then the French chargi; d'affaires at Wash-
ington, who did his utmost to prevent the marriage
from taking place. It is equally clear that by this
new law ho was a minor so long as he was under
the age of 25, and that his marriage as a French
subject could notiregularly be solemnised without
the consent of his surviving parent (Madame
Letitia Bonaparte), which consent M. Berryer
admits there is no proof that he ever
obtained. The new law also provided that a
marriage of a French subject abroad should be
preceded by the publication of banns in France,
and that, it is admitted, was not dune in the present
case. The two great questions are—let. 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 Letitia
Bonaparte was made to sign boy Napoleou 1. was
good in form, as being a reclamation in the sense
of the code, and made in time in acooidance 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 mar-
riage having taken place. lam disposed to think,
judging from the tenor of the commencement of
K Allou's speech, that be himself will not, as a
lawyer, lay any great stress upon the various
shameful and self-contradictory devices which
Napoleon I. resorted to in order to have the
marriage annulled both civilly and religiously.
The assumption in the defendant's written plead.
lap that the matter has been decided by "sove-
reign power," may, I already feel persuaded, be
dismissed, as K Berryer dismisses it, as "idle
and derisory." The true questions, I repeat, are—.
1. Whether the marriage was void ab initio, and
2. Whether, supposing it to be only voidable, it
was avoided in legal form and in proper time.
The court to-day was as full as it could peed-
bly hold. Some tickets for reserved places had
been given by the President, but a considerable
space was still left, when the docirs were opened,
for a rush by young barristers and the general
public. There was no attempt to pack the audi-
ence, and many who had the patience to wait for
two or three hours at the door for admission, met
with the reward which they deserved. The pro-
ceedings were opened by M. Legrand, avati for
Mrs. Elizabeth Paterson, presenting the following
conclusions:

That it may plasm the tribunal to declare the marriage
contracted on Dec. 24, I tiO3, between the late Prince Jerome
and Elizabeth Paterson valid.

And also to take judicial cognisance (downer ark.) that
M. Bonaparte, while demanding that the marriage of lie.
amber 24, 1803, may be declared valid, has never had say
intention to contest, and does not now contest, the cirri
and political effects of the union contracted in 1807 by Ins
father with the Princess Catherine of Wertemburg.
M. Berryer, in his exordium, said :

The high authority of justice, whose majesty should
everywhere, and always, be respected, is a guarautee that
I will introduce no matter foreign to the cause. The
crowded state of the court is to me a warning
that, far from seeking to gratify vain curiosity,
I must confine myself to the strict discussion of
the legal question. I will abridge as far as possible
the statements already before you in my written memorial
—a memorial not published prematurely or containing state.
ments which can possibly be contested. [This was in
answer to a recent paragraph in the Men deur.] My client,
Mediae Paterson, the divorced wife and now the widow of
the late Prince Jerome Napoleon, has waited nevrly silty
years for this day, and now, faithful to the conduct from
which she has never swerved, she crosses the Atlantic at the
age of 75, and is here before you to ask the justice of a
French court. In recapitulating the facts of the
case, as stated in the memorial, M. Berryer dwelt
at peat length upon the recognition of M. Be.
naparte by all the imperial family during a long
series of years as their relation, arguing from this
fact that notoriety, in accordance with the register of his
baptism was, in the terms of the code, indisputable evidence
of his status as a legitimate child. He exposed the flagrant
contradiction of the imperial proceedings in pretending to
judge by a "family council "—a special tribunal, which
confessedly had no jurisdiction, except over members of
the imperial family that M. Bonaparte was no member of
it. He laboured at great length to show that the marriage
in question, although objected to at the time by the Freud,
• d'affaires, was not " clandestine," or male in
fraud of the French law;' that it was only voidable fur
want of proper publications and the maternal consent
that no legal step was ever taken to set the marriage aside,
and that the first Napoleou'edespetate attempts to treat the
marriage as void—his repeated decrees, containing implied
admissions that all his former acts against the marriage bad
boen inefficacious—his correspondence with the Pope, who
refused to annul the marriage—and 1113 rejection of the legal
opinion of the Arch-Chancellor Cantlocer4s, whose advice
he asked : all showed the knowledge of Napoleon I. that
nothing but a judicial decision—which it was now too late
to ask for—could set the marriage aside. He concluded by
expressing his belief that the judgment of the court would
confirm him in that respect for the bench which he had
cherished through a long life.

M. Allou—:a fluent and very good speaker, and
a first-rate advocate, although comparatively little
known—opened the case for Prince Napoleon. lie
was bold enough to say that the eloquent advocate
opposed to him had very little hopes of winning
his cause. The case was overlaid with romance,
which, from the lapse of tune, it was difficult to
refute. While speaking most respectfully of Miss
Paterson and her family, he could not help saying
the facts of the case bore out the statement to be
found in history, that she had said "If 1 can be
his wife but for an hour I will run the risk
She knew of the legal objections to the marriage—,
the settleineut provided for the case of its being
dissolved, and consequently alms had not contracted
it with "good faith" in the eye of the law.

The ball giveu at the Tuileries on Thursday was
very inunerottaly attended, but the royal mourning. of
Berlin and Stockholm kupt away a number of the foreign
diplomatic body. The Emperor and Empress retired sPou
after midnight. No imperial quadrille was danced. The
Emperor during the evening frequently conver....l with
ruwley, PAINS de Metternich, and M. *Mr the
ttpagielt Ausimuusdur.

I