Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1859-08-05
The Bonaparte Family.

1t has seldom fallen to the lotof man
to see such amazing vicissitudes of for
tune, affecting himself and family, as
has been Witnessed by cx-King Jerome
Bonaparte. The dreams of romance
have been excolled by the actual roali-
ties Of his life. He is the only survi-
wing brother of the illustrious Napoleon,
and was born in 1854 So long has the
latter been an historical character that,
at first, it appears almost possible that
the great conqucrer, who, after running
the most remarkable career Of twenty
years that the world ever saw, termina-
ted it BY his death, nearly forty years
ago, upon the rock. of St Helena, should
have a brother now occupying q high po-
sition in the French government,
OF all his family, he alone is permitted
to witness both their remarkable rise in
prosperity and fortune aud their conse-
quent tremendous downfall, and their
equally wonderful return to the height
of power and influence. His recollcc-
ton goes back to the time when the IA
mily of Bonaparte was not known beyond
the range of a few friends and acquain-
tances, and when its members, in private
life, were compelled to struggle in OBJ
security with penury and misfortune. lie
can recollect his mother, a widow, with
a large family Of children upon her hands,
and when it required stern conflict to
obtain for them the necessary means Of
subsistence. He was in early manhood
when the genius of-his brother first burst
upon the world, and opened to his rela.
tives visions Of power and splendor that
never, even in the widest flights of i'm.
agination, had they previously enter
tanned. He saw his brothers and sisters
placed, by the magic wand of Napoleon,
upon nearly all the thrones of Europe
and decked with diadems and coronets.
For the first time in the history Of
Europe was the extraordinary spectacle
observed of family of private citizens
parcelling thrones and crowns among
themselves as if they had been the mere
est baubles. Jerome was thirty-one
years old when the dark clouds of mis-.
fortune and disaster gathered black ant
heavy over the fortunes of his family
and when the storm came that sweep
them from their height Of grandeur and
glory into the depth OF humiliation and
debasement. He saw the star of the
Bonaparte destiny, so often npostrophised
by Napoleon, sink beneath the clouds,
apparently never to rise again. For
nearly forty years the blaekness Of night
enveloped it. Not one of the original
family saw this long night to close,
save jerome; as, before it again emerged
from the politica! horizon, ::hey were all
deceased. Jerome has had the rcmarka-
bic felicity to see the fortunes Of his IA
mily re-established under new Ma
polconic dynasty.
One of the chiefs Of the old empire,
he holds a similar position in the new.
He directs the counsels of the Regent
Empress Eugene, as he had previously
done those Of Maria Louisa. A great
historical monument Of the past is this
old King Jerome, who personally has
witnessed the most remarkable family
history that the world has ever seen. Il
is not yet finished He has not yet at
tained the most extreme old age, and il
is possible that he may see events affect
ing his family quite as startling and re-
markablc as those which have hitherto
characterized its r,-C Cincinnati En-
qu1er.