The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-24 00:00:00

THE FRENCH EMPEROR'S MARRIAGE.
(From the Times.)
.4. -
The speech delivered by Lem* IsTapoleon on
Saturday last to the principal political bodies of
the Empire, and, in fact, to the Drench nation,
for the purpose of announcing his retolutiOn on the
subject of his marriage, has rather strengthened
thau altered the favourable opinion we have already
expressed of his choice. Indeed, we had antici-
pated on Friday several of the arguments by which
the Emperor now recommends the selection of his
Consort to the favour of the people. It is true
that a Government such as that which has arisen
in France, after a long series of revolutions, has
nothing in common with the older monarchies of
Europe ; and several attempts to connect them with
that country by the frail bends of a matrimonial
alliance have only ended in the misery, the exile,
or the death of princesses worthy at least of a more
tranquil fate. It is true that the protracted solici-
tations of an unsuccessful suitor are not consistent
with the dignity of an elected Sovereign, or of the
people who have raised him to that position ; and,
though the allusion to the marriage of the
Duke of Orleans is not generous in the lips
of one who has succeeded that family upon
the throne, it can hardly be doubted, in spite
of the personal merits of the Princess Helena of
Mecklenburgh, that this alliance iiras prejudicial
to the Orleans dynasty. Whatever may be Louis
Napoleon's other claims to the position he occupies,
he is unquestionably the grandson of' Josephine ;
and, although the name of that Einms§ in endeared
to the people of France by compassien7for the un-.
merited and cruel treatment she n with from
Napoleon, as much as by her own qualities, the
allusion to his ancestress comes the more gracefully
from the present Emperor, inasmuch as, in spite of
all the provisions to the contrary, the Imperial suc-
cession has reverted to the line of her Offspring.
Nothing, too, can be in better tone and temper than
the phrase in which the Emperor adopts the title
and position of a parvenu Sovereign, frankly bear-
, ing his origin in view, preserving his independent
character, and asserting his entire freedom from
the traditions of States in which the foundations of
society have not been subverted or the institutions
of monarchy overthrown. At the same time, these
arguments and declarations would proceed with
more weight from Louis Napoleon, if it were not
well known that he had been engaged for eight
months or more in the negotiation of divers Royal
alliances which had proved abortive, and if this final
determination had not happened to coincide with a
very strong personal predilection for a lady whom
he could only win by the offer of his hand.
Of the future Empress of the French we wish
to speak with the deference due to herself and to
her position, for it is impossible to have remarked
the attractions of her person, the distinction of her
manners, and the vivacity of her character—as
many of us must +have done in her visits to this
country, where she is no stranger—without feeling
a more than common interest in her extraordinary
destiny. To France, indeed, she has hitherto owed
little beyond the graces of her education, though she
is, of course, far better acquainted with the cha-
racter of the nation over which she is called to
reign than a Princess summoned from the stiff
nursery of a German principality. But she com-
bines by descent the energy of the Spanish and the
Scottish races, and, if the opinion we have formed
of her be correct, she is, as Louis Napoleon says of
her, fitted not only to adorn the throne, but
in the day of danger to defend it. Among the
long catalogue of names and titles of this
Castilian maiden, which we publish in another
column—including even the churches, religious
houses, and colleges, of which she is the patroness
—that of Palafox conspicuously occurs, for
the heroic defender of Saragossa against the
French invaders of Spain was, we believe, her
grandfather.. To go much further back; we are
assured by a high authority on Spanish genealo-
gies, that the true sangre azul of the great Alonzo
Perez de Guzman, who defended Tarifa in 1292,
flows in her veins ; and undoubtedly the first
Count de Ma was created about 1492 by Ferdi-
nand and Isabella for his gallant conduct befpre
Granada. The Count de Teba, father of the future
Empress, was a man of talent and science, but he
was crippled in his person, and we' suspect the
military exploits which are now attributed to him
in the ranks of the French army are confounded
with those of his brother, the Count de Montijo,
to whose title and large estates he eventually suc-
ceeded. When the Count de Teba was about to
marry Miss Kirkpatrick, the daughter of a Consul
at Malaga, it was necessary as he was a grandee of
Spain, to obtain the King's consent. The descent
of the Kirkpatrick& was rather less illustrious than
that of the defender of Tarifa, but the Scottish
heralds set to work with such diligence that a
suitable pedigree was produced, and Ferdinand
exclaimed, " Let the good man marry the daugh-
ter of Fingal." The issue of this marriage was the
lady who now attracts so large a share of the at-
tention of Europe.
In a significant passage of the speech delivered
by Louis Napoleon on this occasion, he takes the
opportunity of declaring his preference for an inde-
pendent position and a prospect of domestic happi-
ness to the prizes of dynastic ambition. The senti-
ment does him the more credit, inasmuch as it is
wholly opposed to the systematic policy of the Em-
peror, his uncle, which he has made on all other
occasions the model and rule of his conduct. Dy-
nastic ambition was the mania of the Emperor Na-
poleon, and it became the chief cause of his ruin ;
for, not content with repudiating "the good and
modest wife of General Bonaparte," in order to
marry into the family of the Caesars, it drove him
to place his brothers and relatives on all the thrones
of Western Europe. Probably it is for the benefit
of the world that the present Emperor of the
French lies under the influence of a milder passion.
Yet there are expressions in this very speech the
sting of which will be felt in several of the Courts
that it ever " solicited the alliance of
of Europe. The House of Austria will not acknow-
ledgethe elected chief of the new Empire ;" and more
than one princely family will feel the sneer not
undeservedly levelled at their antiquated pre-
tensions. Although Louis-Napoleon lays it down
as a maxim that it is the duty of every wise govern-
ment to endeavour to restore France to her place
within the pale of the elder monarchies, nothing
would seem to be further from his own hopes or
intentions at this very moment ; and it is easy to
trace, even in these guarded -expressions, a con-
sciousness of his own power over a new and formi-
dable element in the societies of Europe. The peo-
ple, the army, and the clergy are distinctly alluded
to as the natural and necessary guard of his
power, without whose assent the solemnity of these
nuptials would be incomplete. But as for the rest
erts' of the
of the world, and even the august bodies to which
this speech is addressed, they are told without
disguise that they will one day appreciate the
thbee
Emperor's choice better than they do at present.
We have already observed that the partisans of
ftehuisndmaarrmieangge
theare andoht,erfeonrtsthad
the most par
new Empire. But, in a case like this, where every-
thingmodetievfe apnredeeaeddivnengtisuraot
adventurous, new and
unexpected least as likely ,
to succeed as an old and inapplicable one •
and the
isspecula
ulterior consequences of this marriage will depend
in great part on the disposition, the judgment
and
the influence of the lady who is shortly to share
with Louis Napoleon the highest position in France.
We shall rejoice if any approach be made to a more
just, clement, and liberal spirit in the conduct of
public affairs. If the Court gains something in
respectability and decorum, and if the country
finds in its future Sovereign, not a wayward and
headstrong foreigner, but an enlightened and cou-
rageous mistress, this much is certain, that the
Countess de Teba, on whom this extraordinary lot
has fallen, is likely to play a considerable part in
the coming events of these stirring times.

(From the Morning Herald.)

The character of the proposed marriage of the
Emperor Napoleon 111. seems to have struck a
dormant chord in the imagination or the heart of
the European public. Except at Paris, where
jealousy may recoil and vanity rebel, the fair sex
will, we suspect, upon the whole, range themselves
with considerable energy on the side of the romantic
Monarch who prefers honour and true love to the
maddest, yet most solemn and most accredited
error in the matrimonial policy of courts.
A conventional statesmanship had for centuries
forbidden great potentates to dream of marrying
for affection, or for any motive except "to strengthen
their dynasties." Meantime, it is evident that
dynasties were not always strengthened by the
means thus taken ; and, indeed, it is a question
whether ever, except by accident, those means
effected their end. If in times very unlike those
in which we live, any two monarchs might be ex-
pected to be led by the ties of kindred to promote
each other's policy, it was at best only so long as
their several interests were reconcileable that any
such -expectation was even then entertained. To
make that scale in which is placed Royal or Impe-