THE BUONAPARTES OF TO-DAY

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 4

THE BUONAPARTES OF TO-DAY

BY Richard Davey).

The most interesting member of the house of Buonaparte, as it now exists, is Prince Napoleon Victor Jerome Frederick, its acknowledged head, who is the eldest son of the late Prince Napoleon, his mother being Princess Clothildo of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel 11., first King of United Italy. The family of Buonaparte came originally from Tuscany, and settled in Corsica early in the seventeenth century. The writer of this article possess a very rare volume of Italian plays printed in Florence in 1508 by one Napoleon Buonaparte, evidently an ancestor of his great namesake. Charles Buonaparte, the Emperor’s father, was a handsome, fair-haired man of rather indolent character, who had married when very young the marvellously beautiful and "ener-

getic Laetitia Bamolino, a native of Corsica. In all probability it is from this excellent woman that the Buonapartes inherit both their beauty and their exceptional ability. Madame Mere, as her illustrious son called her. was an extraordinary woman, and the bust of her by Canova that stands over the magnificent chimney-piece in Prince Napoleon’s study in his Brussels house gives a fair idea of her stately beauty, which recalls by its classical regularity of feature and the noble pose of the head that of Livia. the mother of the Caesars, of whom there is a well-known bust in the British Museum. Napoleon I. resembled his mother in feature, but she was nearly twice his height, for like his lovely sisters, the petit caporal

was short, whereas his brother, King Jerome, the grandfather of Prince Napoleon, had a characteristically Buonaparte head aiid face on a tall and rather bulky frame. -

The Prince, who was born in 1862, is a tall, well-made man, and cannot be described otherwise than as exceedingly handsome. Since 1886, when a law was passed in the French Parliament exiling the Royalist and Buonaparte pretenders, he has resided quietly in Brussels. Here he hides- his time, and if he is summoned to the throne once occuped by the great Emperor and Napoleon 111. he will he found ready to assume the duties of that towering station with rare intelligence and dignity. It is impossible to he less obtrusively affected than this dignified and studious gentleman, who is one of the best-informed and most up-H-date men of the day. His father, with all his faults, was very intellectual, and the son has evidently inherited much of his brilliance, but tempered by a more thoughtful frame of mind, derived doubtless from his saintly mother. Princess Clotliildc. He is no idler. Seven o’clock is sure to find him stirring in the morning, and bv nine o’clock he has already attended to most of his correspondence, and be the weather foul or fine he takes his morning ride to the Bois de la Canibre. His Imperial Highness is a first-class shot-, but otherwise is little of a sports--man in our sense of the word. He can. ride to hounds, however, with any man, and is never so happy as when hoarhunting on his friend Count Zichy’s vast estate in Hungary. At one o’clock Prince Napoleon lunches, and early in the afternoon he drives for an hour or so. On his return he receives his friends and reads the leading French, Italian, German, and English papers and reviews. With him political and social economy are matters of profound study, and those who. like the writer, have had the honour of conversing with him, will confirm that his knowledge of current events is most remarkable and varied. His views are sensible and exceedingly liberal, and lie lias the advantage over most of his countrymen of speaking four languages, our own included. Having a very retentive memory lie can. when he chooses, speak authoritatively on most leading questions of political and social importance. In a word, he is a very able man. who lias many friends in every Court in Eurone, where he is well known. Our late Queen, who saw him nearly every year, liked him exceedingly. and the King has always entertained a sincere affection both for him and his brother. Prinee Louis. He also does, his cousin ti lP Tv iof Italy, and be is highly apnrociated bv the Emperor of Austria and the Czar. ' Once a year lie pays n visit, which lasts at least a month, to bis mother, the revered Princess Clothilda, at Moncalleri. near Turin.

. "English men and. women the most interesting member of this illustrious j bouse is the Empress Eugenie. When I Queen Victoria visited Paris shortly af- : ter the beautiful Mdlle. de Monti jo" had 1 married Napoleon TIT., sh e was eiw ; chanted uith the exf|uisite grace and ideal loveliness of the young Empress- j and likens her in her diary “to an on- I chanting fairy queen.” _ In those days ! t.ie Empress was certainly incomnara- 1 bly beautiful, and that which rendered j her s 0 peerless was the originalitv of her beauty, a blend, so to speak, of all | that is best in the fair-haired Scottish i race w,th the grace of the semi-Oriental Andalusian. She was. moreover, kindly I and good-natured, and fairlv accom- i n ished. Her father, tlm Count do! Mo'Hi.io, it will ho roniomhorocl. rnnr- ! rwd. carlv in +ho last oontnry Miss ! Uirl-natrk-k. a. Scotch lady, and dangh- 1 ter of the desoewiants of ; Scotch family which had fl Pf l f r mp Scotland during the Jacobite trophies during the seventeenth eepturv. This gentleman bad seen much active service h, ! Ins dnv. and. strange to relate, had a ! gold plate on his forehead, hi-dino pp one wound, and another skilfully in- I serted niece of the same metal kept his i •l a " ’’’ its place. He was a. greaflv re-*j sneered man and very gallant soldier. . 10 Empress’s mother must have been in her time if anything more beautiful than her daughter Eugenio, and it is much to her honour to remember that, when she died at a very advanced ace some years ago at Madrid, the poor fnsistod upon carrying her remains to their last, resting-place. The Empress bad one sister, the Ducbesse d’Albe. who died many years ago. England can never, forget- that the Prince Imperial lost his life in our service, and it is with a- sense 0 f loving protection that wo rc.loiee in the fact that the bereaved mother lias sought a tranquil asylum in our midst. Close to her house at Fnrnborough stands the mausoleum of her husband, Napoleon 111., and of her son. watched over by a group of pious monks of the Premonstratensian Order, who live in an adjacent monastery. May it bo long before tlio brave yet sorrowful. widow rests by their side. When the hour comes, and she in her turn passes away, her absence, from our midst will he keenly felt throughout the length find breadth of the empire which gave her as it has so many other illustrious exiles, protection and hospitality.— Cassell’s.”