The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-07-16

II has seldom fallen to the lot Of man In see
such amazing vieissitudes Of fortune, affecting
| nhuiseif mn and family, as has been witnessed by
Inc parsonage whose name heads this article.
lhe dreams Of romance have been excelled by
| the actual realities Of his life. He 10 the only
surviving brother of the illustrious Napoleon.
ana was born in l7s4. So long has the latter
oeeh an historical character that at first IL
| aPpears almost impossible that the great con i.
queror, who, after running the most remark
apie career OF twenty years that the world
ese. saw, terminated IL by his death, nearly
lof9 years ago, upon the rock Of st. Helena
should have a brother now occupying a high
position In the French Government
VI All ms family, he alone Is permitted to
Wives Dotn their remarkable rise in pros
perity and fortune and their subseo uent tre-
mehdous DOWNFALL, and their equally wonder.
ful return to the height Of power and influ.
ence. His recollection goes back to the time
S mnem ,he iamny OF Bonaparte was not known
beyond the range Of few friends and ac-
qualntances, and when its members. in pri-
yate life, were compelled to struggle in OBJ
scurity with penury and misfortune. He can
[ecoliect h,s HIotner, widow, with a large
1t required stern conflict to obtain for them
the necessary means of subsistence. He was
in early manhood when the genius of his
brother nrst burst upon the world, and opened
to his relatives visions Of power and splendor
that never, even in the widest fights Of i'm :
agination, had they previously entertained :
Hesaw his brothers and sisters placed by the
uaSiC WdHu VI NSpOleOn, upon nearly all tho
thrones Of Europe, and decked with tliadems
and coronets.
For the first time in the history of Europe
was the extraordinary spectacle observed of a
family OF private citizens parcelling thrones
ana crowns among themselves, as il they had
been the merest-baubles. Jerome was thirty
one years old when the dark clouds of misfor-
tune and disaster gathered black and heavy
over the fortunes of his family and when the
storm came that swept them from their height
OF grandeur and glory, into the depth Of hu
initiation and deba.ement He saw the star of
the I5onaparte destiny, SO often apostrophized
by Napoleon, sink beneath the clouds. ap.
parently never to rise again. For nearly forty
years, the blackness of night enveloped it,
Not one OF the original family saw this long
night to close save Jerome; az, before il
again emerged from the political horizon they
were all deceased. Jerome has had the re-
markable felicity to see the fortunes of his
family re-established under new Napoleonic
dynasty
One of the chiefs of the old empire. he holds
similar position in the new He direct. the
counsels OF the Regent Empress Eugene. as
ne mad previously done those Of Marin I,oui.,
great historical monument of the past is
TINS old King Jerome, who personally has wit
messed the most remarkable family history
that the world has ever seen. 1t is not vet
finished. He has not yet attained the most ex
treme old age, and it is possible that he NAV
see events affecting his family quite as starfl
ing and remarkable as those which have hith
erto characterized its career-Cineisnot; In.
qpirer.