The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-16 00:00:00

It was only when the First Consul became Em-
peror, and " when he was preparing for his family
the distribution of so many Royal and sudden
grandeurs to impose respect and dread of his
power on the Sovereigns of Europe," that the
marriage of his brother Jerome appeared, in the
words of M. Thiers, " opposed in the last degree to
his political designs."
The Emperor compelled his mother, Madame
Letizia, to sign a protest against her son's marriage,
as being contracted without her consent previously
obtained, and the Emperor himself issued a decree
forbidding it to be entered in the register of the
offices of State. The memoir shows at some length
that all this was of no effect towards annulling the
marriage.

Meantime Jerome Bonaparte and his young wife
left the United States for Europe. They landed at
Lisbon. Jerome proceeded to meet his brother, and
sent his wife on to Holland, where she was to wait
for him. He left Lisbon on the sth of April, 1805,
and it was the last time she saw her husband.
Several letters from Jerome to his wife are given
in the memoir, all breathing the warmest affection,
and expressive of the most unshaken fidelity. On
the 6th of May, 1805, the Emperor wrote thus to
his brother :

"Your union with Miss Paterson is null in the eyes of
religion and the law. Write to Miss Paterson to return to
America. I shall give her a pension of 60,000 f. on con-
dition that in no case shall she bear my name, to which she
has no right, by reason of the non-existence of the union.
Inform her, of yourself, that yon have not been able, and
that you cannot, change the nature of things."

The " nature of things" which Jerome could not
change was the elevation of the Bonaparte family to
the rank of sovereign families, but of recent date,
and subsequent to the marriage.
The Emperor addressed at the same time similar
injunctions to his brother Lucien (afterwards Prince
of Canino), " whose marriage, contracted with
Madame Jouberton some years previously, seemed
also disfigured by the same tnesalliance in the eyes
of the triumphant man who had just added to the
title of Emperor of the French that of King of
Italy." Lucien received a letter, declaring that
"Madame Lucien would never be recognised by the
Emperor, because her son might be called to in-
herit the throne, and the Emperor owed it to the
dignity of his crown not to expose this immense
inheritance to the issue of a marriage contracted
against his will."

Lucien was not the man his brother took him for;
to his threats he answered as follows :
" You conclude by tracing out for me the line of conduct
I ought to pursue—viz., to destroy the contract which has
united us for the last three years—to bring back to Paris my
wife changed into a concubine ; to separate my daughters
from their mother, who have found in her their parent ; to
acknowledge my two children illegitimate. And you call
that a simple preceeding I And you think that after having
divided a poor family, dishonoured my wife, disinherited
my children—that after having deprived them of their
name and their position, which isno longer mine, but theirs,
I should find compensation for so ranch baseness in the
graces and favours which you say would enable my illegi-
timate children to live honoured and happy I Sir, I respect
in you the organ of the Emperor. Know, however, that
rather than descend to such infamy I would immolate my
son and my daughter with my own hand. . . . More-
over—l am again writing to his Majesty—excepting the
sacrifice demanded of me, I am ready to make all others
that may be thought useful to France. My dignities belong
to the Emperor. The choice of tho place of my retreat be-
longs to him. When he commands me to change it I will
obey without a murmur ; if he requires it I will quit Europe,
but I will not quit my wife and children except with my life.
"Pesaro, May 25, 1805. " LUCIEN BONAPARTE."
Lucien refused to separate from his wife ; she
survived him, and their affection remained unal-
tered to the last. Meantime Madame Jerome
Bonaparte continued to receive from her husband
the same affectionate letters as before.

The Emperor next addressed himself to the
Pope (Pius VII.) and demanded a bull annulling the
marriage of his brother Jerome. He' descended to
wilful mis-statements of the case. Fol.- instance, he
said that Jerome had been only on month in
America when he married ; whereas he arrived in
May, and married on the 24th DeceLuber. He
alleged scruples of conscience, on the ground that
Miss Paterson was a Protestant ; " and," he said,
" it was important to France that a Protestant girl
should not be near the Emperor ;" whoreas, the
Princess of Wurtemberg, whom Jerome afterwards
married, at the instance of his brother, was a Pro-
testant. The Pope refused to annul the marriage.
" If we usurped an authority,' he said, which we do
not possess, we should become guilty of a most abominable
abuse before God's tribunal and the whole Church; and
your Majesty, in your justice, would not wish us to pro
nounce a judgment contrary to the testimony of our con-
science and the invariable principles of the Church.
Again an attempt was made to extort the bull,
and again the Pope refused.
Madame Jerome Bonaparte, who was ignorant of
what was going on against her, proceeded to

* Thin alludes to what is called the Conseil de Famille
the members of which, according to the memoir, were MAL
Abbatucci, Fould, Troplong, de Moray, Baroche, ano
General grnano.