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    ment ought to try to make it re-enter in the pale of the old Monarchies . But this result will be more surely attained by a straightforward and frank policy , by loyalty in conduct , than by Royal alliances , which create a raise security , and often substitute famil y interests for those of the nation . Moreover , the example of the past has left in the mind-of the people superstitious feelings . It has not forgotten that for seventy years foreign Princesses have not mounted the throne but to behold their race dispossessed and proscribed b y war or by revolution . One woman alone seemed to bring happiness , and to live more than the others in the memory of the people—and that woman , the modest and good wife of General Bonaparte ,

    was not the issue of Eoyal blood . It must , however , be admitted that in 1810 the marriage of Napoleon I . with Marie Louise was a great event . It was a pledge for the future , a real satisfaction to the national pride , as the ancient and illustrious branch of the house of Austria , who had been so long at war with us , was seon to solicit the alliance of the elected chief of a new empire . Under the last reign , on the contrary , the amour propre of the country had to suffer , when the heir to the Crown solicited , fruitlessly , during several years , a princely alliance , to obtain it only in a secondary rank ana in a different religion . " When in presence of old Europe one is borne on by the force of a new principle to the height of ancient

    dynasties , it is not by giving an ancient character to one ' s escutcheon ( envieillissant son blasori ) , and by seeking to introduce oneself at all costs into a family , that one is accepted .,, It is rather by ever remembering one ' s origin , by preserving one ' s own character , and by adopting frankly in presence of Europe the position of parvenu—a glorious title when one obtains it by the free suffrages of a great people . Thus , obliged to depart from precedents followed to the present day , my marriage became a private affair , and there remained only the choice of the person . " She who has been the object of my preference is of distinguished birth . French in heart , by education , by the recollection of the blood shed by her father in the cause of the empire , she has , as a Spaniard , the advantage of not having in France a family to whom it might be necessary to ive honours and fortuneEndowed with all the

    g . qualities of the mind , she will be the ornament of the throne ; in the day of danger she would be one of its courageous supporters . A Catholic , she will address to heaven the same prayers with me for the happiness of France . In fine , by her grace and her goodness she will , I have the firm hope , endeavour to revive in the same position the virtues of the Empress Josephine . " I come , then , Messieurs , to announce to France that I have preferred the woman whom I love and whom I respect , to one who is unknown , and whose alliance would have had advantages mixed with sacrifices . Without disdaining any one I yet yield to my inclinations , but after having taken counsel from my reason and my convictions . In-fine , by placing the independence , the qualities of the heart , domestic happiness , above dynastic prejudices and the calculations of ambition , I shall not be less strong because I shall be more free .

    " Soon proceeding to Notre Dame , I shall present the impress to the people and to the army ; the confidence they have in me assures me of their sympathy , and you , Messieurs , on learning better to appreciate her whom I have chosen , you will allow that on this occasion also I have been inspired by Providence . " The moral of the message is absolutely that of the Fable . I have not chosen a princess of blood royal for rny bride because I have resolved to marry according to the impulse of my heart . Is it not the fox who could not reach the grapes , and said they were sour , and only fit for the vulgar ? Never was spite more manifest . The whole speech , in every phrase , in every word , betrays the deepest disappointment . Every turn of expression seems distilled in gall and venom , and in

    every syllable one catches the murmur of anger ill-suppressed . One perceives that the man is conscious of a mesalliance : that tins bourgeois marriage makes him secretly ashamed , and that vanity alone and wounded amour propre drive him to put a good face upon bad fortune . How bravely it sits upon him to scout dynastic alliances after having so long and so painfully manoeuvred to get them . ( Aprils les avoir si longtemps " briguees . " ) How amusing he is wlien he expresses his perfect disdain for princesses of royal blood , after having stooped to the meanest humblenesses to merit them—after having gone so far , anil sunk ho low , v . a to forbid the soil of France to the exiled Poles , ami that too , to win the good graces of the Emperor Nicholas , who only despises him the more .

    What a disuHtroiiH eflect in France nil thi . s creates ; what a severe judgment it draws down upon him . Not a sign of approbation . Not oven from his courtiers thi . s time ; not oven from his two most intimate counsellors , Peragny and Abatucei . Wholesale resignation of all his Ministers—new fall in the Funds . On the Bourse , just as the public securities were recovering faintly , discouragement and decline . Amazement and utter disapprobation in the diplomncy .

    Since last Saturday , Paris has nuddonly recovered the u « e of speech , to utter its , censure audibly . You have no idea what a rummage and uproar it has all made . In tlio very ministerial saloons men havedarod to speak out loud ( for the first timo sinco the momorablo 2 nd of Decemlwr ) what they contented themselves with whispering from car to ear before . Tlio danglers of tho Palace and tlio courtiers of the Empire m- « in coiiHtxirnation ; the public rub their hands , and—laugh ! And well they may , it y a do quoi ! You , too , will

    laugh when I tell you that it is the general belief , perhaps I should say the general certainty , that our bridegroom only marries Mdlle . de Monitjo because his " intentions" were not honoured with acceptance . ( O » n ' epouse Mdlle . de Montijo que parce gu ' on n ' a pu Vavoir autrement . ) % t is only after a long and fruitless siege that the fair beleaguered one marches out with all the honours of war ; indeed , it is the besieger that capitulates in this case , not the besieged .

    Stories are told of the famous curee by torchlight at Compiegne , and our aping friend is said to have on this occasion aped—not his uncle—but Louis XIV ., whose passages-at-arms with Mdlle . de la Valliere at . the Chateau de St . Germain you may have heard of . But on this occasion , how it fared with the window , rumour whispers not : certain it is that the proud and sprightly Andalusian proved far other than the soft and tender La Valliere . Of this tale there are two versions current . In one , the two brothers or brothersin-law of the fair lady figure as the Matamors of the Spanish comedy , while Bonaparte enacts the part of the " Knight of the Rueful Countenance . " The other version , without denying the intervention of the brothers , places them at the beginning instead of the denoument of the piece .

    However this may be ( and that nine-tenths of the floating rumours are wicked scandal who can doubt ?) the character of the new Empress is quite in harmony with her new position . She has a romantic spirit , and a soul of chivalry . Here are two traits which will give you some idea of her nature : Her eldest sister made a superb match in marrying the Due d'Albc ; Mdlle . Theba de Montijo then declared that she would surpass her sister , and would marry a crowned head , if it were but some petty German Princeling , furnishing a contingent of four men and a corporal to the forces of the Germanic Confederation . Another trait , equally

    characteristic , relates to the 2 nd of December , 1851 . At eleven o ' clock in the forenoon of that day , Mdlle . Theba presented herself at the Elysee to mark her name on the visiting book , as having come to compliment Bonaparte on his audacity . She was the first person ( and the only one ) that appeared at the Palace . Bonaparte , puzzled at this unheard-of act of admiration , sent orders that the visitor should be introduced , and gave a brief interview to the lady . He was said to be deeply touched at this strange enthusiasm of a young girl . He did not forget the visit of that day , as France will not forget him wlien the day of reckoning comes .

    For the last few days the Government journals have surpassed themselves in folly . The day befoi'e yesterday they made Mdlle . de Montijo a Countess , yesterday a Duchess , and to-day again a Countess . In order to mask the mesalliance of their master , they affect to embellish with titles the pedigree of the new Empress , and seek to transform the baptismal name Theba ( S Thebe ) into a title of dignity . Like tho sage of the fable , saved by a dolphin , who took the harbour of the Piraeus for a fish , they make Mdlle . de Montijo the Duchess ofTheba—a Duchy which never existed .

    Mdlle . Theba de Montijo is an Andalusian , and was born at Granada , in the country of the Alhambra . Her mother comes from tho Ivirkpatrick family of Closburn . She is daughter of a colonel of artillery , tlio late Count of Montsjo . The Litter , one of the best officers in the Spanish army , . served the French cause till tho year 1814 ; in other words , he . served in that heroic war of Spanish nationality asserting against tho despot of Franco its independence , and its liberty . The Count de Montijo ook arms against his own country ; unfaithful to Spain , he was always faithful to Franco . Tn tho campaign of 1814 , he served in France as colonel of artillery ; and

    even had tho honour to iiro tho last shots for the defence of Paris . On his return to Spain he sat in the Chamber of Procures , or Grandees of Spain , till hi . s death , which occurred in 18 . ' !' . ) . The Countess ol Montijo , his widow , after the full of Espartcro , became Camerera mayor , or surintendantts of Queen Isabella . Tho Montijo family is allied with most of the great families of Spain , among others , with the Gusman , the Leyva , tho Cordova , and tho'Lu Cerda . As far us aristocratic blood goes , Mdlle . tie Montijo is of higher birth than Bonaparte , who ( as wo know well enough ) is simply the bastard son of a French Creole and of a Dutch admiral . So much for origin .

    With regard to charms of person , Mdlle . de Montijo is not oho of those royal and sovereign beauties who seem to have been born to tho ditulcm , and before whoso native majesty every brow uncovers nnd every head bows down spell-bound ; neither is she ono of those dazzling angelic types which wo all aro wont to worship as tho ideal of more than mortal loveliness . She is not what you would call beautiful , or pretty . Sho is simply pleasing . Sho has tho proud air of a noblo lady , without tho beauty ono ascribes to noblo blood ; ami sho has all tho piquant of tho grisotto without tho sannfacon .

    She has , moreover , le geste Hire et la dedvolture cavaliere . Her features are destitute of character . She has your Spaniard's eye—the black eye of the Andalusian . Unfortunately , she is red-haired , and the French detest red hair ! The French people ' s hatred of poor Marie Antoinette—a blind , dark , unreasoning hatred as it was , which dragged that Unhappy Queen to the scaffold , sprang from that fatal antipathy to red hair ; now Marie Antoinette ' s hair was golden ! But you will say , by what magic spell did Mdlle . de Montijo captivate the heart of Bonaparte ? By the magic of her smile ! In sober truth , that smile of hers is an empire in itself : it is the smile of an enchantress —a triumphant smile ! But here am I lapsing- into the poetics , while events are all turning to 2 > rose .

    Bonaparte makes a bourgeois marriage — voila tout I He was anxious to bring his bachelor days to a close , and to have done with the irresponsible pranks and frolics of the vie de garqon . " I am determined to set the example of virtuous conduct , " lie lately told his courtiers . Virtue at the Court of France—virtue at the Court of Emperor Bonaparte —you may easily imagine how we shall all enjoy a hearty laugh at these new saints of ours . Since the word . " virtue" was let slip , wedlock lias become quite

    fashionable among the Court danglers . Old Jerome has confessed his left-handed marriage with the Marquise Bartolini , his son Jerome has demanded the hand of the granddaughter of Marshal Berthier * who replied that she would have married the Emperor , but that she did not aspire to a cadet of the Imperial family . The intimates , Pietri , Conneau , Chevreau , — all these old bachelors of another epoch , —are now looking out for wives . It is quite an epidemic at the Tuileries . But to return to our subject .

    Bonaparte , I was saying , has made a bourgeois marriage—a mesalliance—and all his courtiers are profoundly discouraged . In fact , the consequences of sucli a marriage are incalculable . He puts himself at once out of the pale of dynasties , under the ban of crowned heads ; lie stands forward before the European sovereigns as the representative of another principlehe stands forward as the champion of the principle of the sovereignty of peoples against the principle of the sovereignty of kings . If this position were only true , —

    if by his acts he had made himself the emancipator of peoples , taking advantage of the immense popularity attached to the name of Napoleon , if he had placed himself , with all France at his back , at the head of th e crusade of peoples against kings , what glory , what nobleness , what dignity would he not have achieved , — with what grandeur he might now have pronounced these words ! But it is quite otherwise . What has this man to do with rights or liberties , that he should flaunt defiance in the face of monarchs , while he turns his back upon peoples ?

    No one , even among his intimates , has failed to disapprove this perilous escapade . Persigny and Abatucei , to whom on Sunday last , previous to the meeting of the Council , Bonaparte had communicated his intentions of marriage , could not abstain from expressing their disapprobation . Next came the turn of tlio ministers . All were unanimous in declaring 1 this marriage an error , a great political error . So penetrated

    were the ministers with this truth , that on tho following day they met together and proposed to re-sign en ¦ masse . That was their lirsfc impulse , the first impulse of" men who are alarmed , nnd who seek to escape . Others pretond that the design of this collective resignation was to force Bonaparte to reconsider his decision . It wan M . Fould who then reminded his colleagues of the doggedness of the man they had to deal with , and demonstrated to them how futile would he their

    Hying in the face of that obstinacy only to precipitate the catastrophe . In tho ministerial salons , where all parties on this occasion at least , throwing oil" all sulleniiens and reserve , Hocked together from sheer curiosity , thorn was hut ; one voice ; tho ancient ; friends of the lOmpire Warned aloud the conduct ; of the ICniperor . One senator , tjuite in a passion , said to Persigny before 800 persons , " HomipnHe for a love a / lair (// our tine amourette ) , stakes our heads and his own . " Tlio iact is , that the men who threw themselves into the service of Bonaparte , in the regime that sprang from the coup d'etat , now begin tn feel tho ground trembling under

    their feet , and tlioir alniih looks like tho first ) signal for a general snuve qui pent . Even tho shopkeepers who have rallied to the government an ! not , less displeusod . They would havo greatly preferred a marriage with a reigning house . 15 ut in default of n dynastic alliance , they would havo consented to a marriage with a Frenchwoman , with some inhoriLrcHH , for example , of" oik ; of the great iuuucm of the Empire ; even a marriage with a simple daughter of tho jx'ople , bearing ii name made illustrious by popular virtues . But this nnuriugo with a young Spanish lady responds to none of tho idciva and Honthnontu of these

    Untitled Article

    January 29 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 99

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 29, 1853, page 99, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1971/page/3/