The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-02-26

The Case Or Bsmaparse against Bone pafte.
Our readers are well aware that Mr.. Js-
ROME BoxaraRrE, or Baltimore, upon the
death of his father, the ate King JEROME, ex.
monarch of Westphalia, brought suit In the
French Court TO establish his claim 70 be the
legitimate son of his father. Mr. BosAPARrE
r.iino uished in advance, all claim which he
might have TO any property left by the de-
Ceased his sole object being to establish the
validity of his fathers first marriage, and
thereby yindicate the fame Of his mo Their. In
the purs nit OF this object he has manifested a
,ieterminati ton Of purpose characteristic of the
family Whose name he bears, and Of the ma
tion to which that family originally belonged.
lie has done more he has shown that what
he considers his honor is dearer to him than
life itself, and that worldly wealth, high
place, and an unhounded future for his chill
dren, are as nothing in his eyes, compared
with the fame Of that mother who watched
over him III the years of his childhood, when
his father and his fathers house were dis
posed to cast him, like an unclaimed founding,
upon the world. Admirable as such conduct
Is, ii is not more admirable than that of the
venerable parent who is the occasion OF It,
Married when young and beautiful girl, The
admired of all circles into which she entered,
while tho youth of 4 whole nation were rea-
DIV to PROSTATE themselves at her feet, to The
most worthless scamp that ever disgraced
crown, she was forsaken by him from the
ba sest and most sordid motives, in strange
country among entire strangers, and was In
iebied for a refuge in the hour of her distress
10 the humanity OF a people with whom the
nation to which her husband belonged was
engaged in deadly war. Leaving her with
out the slightest rsmorse, for royal bride
who brought him larger dover, this para
gon of husbands afterwards had the mean
ness TO offer her an immense estate Ill West
phalia, as a balm to her wounded feelings
She treated his offer with silent contempt,
neither answering the letter in which it was
conveyed, nor permitting it TO be answered
by any one else in her name. She procured
divorce from the Legislature Of her native
State, and resumed the name she had
borne before her iil-starred marriage
But though in the full flush of her un-
common beauty, she encouraged 40 sui
| tors, and never once thought of changing her
| condition. Her whole thoughts were bent
| upon the education and future prospects OF
| her son, and the establishment, at some future
! day, OF his right to bear, without shame, the
name Of his father. She lived to see her great
| prosecutor overthoWn-to hear of his long
| agony upon the barren rock of st. Helena-to
see the nation which he governed expei
! from her bosom the family which had sue
! eeeied to the BoYAPAgTEs-- see those who
filled the places of this family reduced to exile
! in their turn-to see another French Republic
succeeded by another Empire, with another
| BoNAPARTg at its head. She has outliyed her
rival, and her husband-and now, numbering
| greatly more than the years allotted to man
| by the Psalmist, she crosses the ocean, with
! her son, to vindicate her rights and his in 4
| French Court of Justice There is something
| sublime, as we'll as romantic, in this; and
when critics carp at the incidents of romance
as improbable because surprising, are
prone to bid them read the story of ELIZABETH
PATTERSON.
or all the offences with which the first Ma
roLEoN has been charged, his conduct with
regard to this marriage was the most njusti-
fable. He first endeavored to obtain 4 di-
vorce from the Pope; but that Potentate, al
though absolutely within his power that
he had compelled him to come to Paris in or
der to crown him, as one of his predecessors
had crowned CHARLEAAGSB-although a few
years after he arr ested him in the very Va
tican and carried him n prisoner to Fon-
tainebleau-could not be in induced, either
by blandi shments threats, TO obey this
mandate; for 1t was nothing else. The mar
| riage, he said, was valid, in the eyes of God
and man. Nothing had occurred since its date
| to impair its binding force. As the head of
| the Church, as Prince, Christian, as
mar, he could not consent to perpetrate an
| act OF such gross injustice. Nor did he ever
| do it. Fooled in this quarter, an attempt was
| next made to show that JEROME was 4 minor,
! and could not, by the French law, con-
| tract a marriage without the consent of
| his mother, which he did not obtain
| But it was shown, on the other hand, that
| though by the French law a man was not of
| age un til he is twenty five for any other pur
| pose, yet for the purpose of contracting mar
| riage he was of age at eighteen. JEROME was
| nineteen and some months when he married
Miss PATTERSON, according TO the Emperor
own showing-twenty- two according to his
commission an officer in the Navy, as sworn
| to by the late General SAMUEL SMITH, of Bal
timore--the hero of M I'd Island-who had
examined it.
1t is highly probable that the French Court
| will decide against Mr.. BoEAPARTE. But
there are few men, whose hearts are in the
| right place. and fewer women, who will not
wish him the most complete success.