Consul, was yesterday* married to Miss Patterson of that city. The
effect of this measure on the mind of the First Consul, is not for me to
suppose; but as it might occur to him _primâ facie_, that the executive
of the United States ought to have prevented it, I have thought it
advisable to mention the subject to you, that if necessary, you may by
explanations set that idea to rights. You know that by our laws, all
persons are free to enter into marriage, if of twenty-one years of age,
no one having a power to restrain it, not even their parents; and that
under that age, no one can prevent it but the parent or guardian. The
lady is under age, and the parents, placed between her affections
which were strongly fixed, and the considerations opposing the measure,
yielded with pain and anxiety to the former.

* November 8. It is now said that it did not take place on
the 3rd, but will this day.

Mr. Patterson is the President of the bank of Baltimore, the wealthiest
man in Maryland, perhaps in the United States, except Mr. Carroll; a man
of great virtue and respectability; the mother is the sister of the lady
of General Samuel Smith; and, consequently, the station of the family in
society is with the first of the United States. These circumstances fix
rank in a country where there are no hereditary titles. Your treaty has
obtained nearly a general approbation. The federalists spoke and voted
against it, but they are now so reduced in their numbers as to be
nothing. The question on its ratification in the Senate was decided by
twenty-four against seven, which was ten more than enough. The vote in
the House of Representatives for making provision for its execution,
was carried by eighty-nine against twenty-three, which was a majority
of sixty-six, and the necessary bills are going through the Houses
by greater majorities. Mr. Pichon, according to instructions from his