Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/836

 NAPLES— NAPOLEON.

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expeditionary force in the event of this country declaring war against Bussia — a contingency which was averted by the Treaty of Berlin.

NAPLES, BX-KiNo OP. (See Francis II.)

NAPOLEON, Pbincb Napoleon- Jo be ph-Ch able s-P a ul- Bona- PASTE, cousin to the emperor Napo- leon III., the second son of Jerome Bonaparte, by his second marriage with the Princess Frederika of Wiirtemburg, was born at Trieste, Sept. 9, 1822. His youth was passed at Vienna and Trieste, Florence and Bome, occasionally in Switzer- land, England, Spain, and in 1845 he obtained permission to visit Paris under the name of the Comte de Montfort, but was soon afterwards compelled to leave on account of his intrigues with the extreme democrats. After the revolution of Feb., 1848, Prince Napoleon re- turned, and the Corsicans elected him a member of the Constituent Assembly, in which he became leader of the extreme republican party known as the Mountson. His views, however, underwent a change, and in 1849 he was appointed Minis- ter Plenipotentiary at Madrid, but was shortly recalled for having quitted his post without authority. He was made a French prince, witii a seat in the Senate and Council of State, Dec. 23, 1853, and at the same time received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and the rank of General of Division. In 1854 he was appointed to a command in the expedition to tiie Crimea, and commanded an infantry division of reserve at the battles of Alma and Inkermann. On account of his sudden retirement from this post, ill-health being the excuse, the so- briquet of Plon-plon was given him by his countrymen. Prince Napo- leon is said to have furnished in- formation for a pamphlet reflecting on the conduct of the war, and com- menting somewhat too freely on the deliberations of the council of war which decided upon the Crimean

expedition. Though it was imme- diately suppressed by order of the French Government, it was pub- lished at Brussels, and was forth- with translated into English. In 1855 he was named President of the Imperial Commission of the Uni- versal Exhibition; and proved him- self a zealous and efficient member. In June, 1858, he was placed at the head of the new ministry for Algiers and the colonies, but speedily re- signed his appointment. He mar- ried the Princess Clotilde, da^hter of Victor Emmanuel, late kmg of Italy, Jan. 80, 1859, by whom he has two sons. Napoleon Victor Jerome Frederick, born July 18, 1862, and Napoleon Louis Joseph Jerome, born July 16, 1864, and one daughter, Marie L^titia Eugenie Catherine Adelaide, born Dec. 20, 1866. In the Italian campaign of 1859 he commanded the French army of reserve in the south of Italy, but was not engaged in any of the great battles. In the Senate in 1861 he made an attack upon the Orleans family, which was answered with spirit by the Due d'Aumale. Prince Napoleon, to the disgust of a great portion of the French army, declined to accept the challenge sent him by the duke on that occa- sion. He was president of the French Commission to represent France in the Great Exhibition at Kensington in 1862. In 1865 Prince Napoleon was appointed President of the Commissioners for the Uni- versal Exhibition at Paris in 1867, but resigned the post in conse- quence of a reprimand which he received from the emperor for a speech delivered in Corsica at the inauguration of a statue of the emperor Napoleon I., May 27, 1865. At the same time he gave up his appointments as member and vice- president of the Privy Council. This disgrace, however, was only of temporary duration, the prince being soon admitted again into the councils of the emperor, and in- trusted with important and delicate 3 a 2