17 APRIL 1880, Page 3

The Bonaparte family is now divided against itself, on the

aubject of the dispersion of the Jesuits. Cardinal Bonaparte and Prince Lucien Bonaparte have both disapproved the recent letter of the present head of the family, Prince Jerome, and -of course the various newspapers of the Bonapartists have taken up the quarrel. The truth probably is, that Prince Jerome -was always more Red than Imperialist, and that he thinks he sees more chance of a democratic Empire hostile to the pre- -tensions of the Church, than of a Catholic Empire disposed -only to restrain her occasional extravagances. There it is barely possible that he may be right. But there is now so very little chance of either the one kind of empire or the other, that whether the Bonapartists are wise in hedging, so as to supply either sort of empire, if its lot were to spring out of the urn, with a suitable chief, or are unwise in quarrelling, it is hardly worth while even to consider.