The Virginia Gazette

The following affair has made some noise in Paris: The Baroness de Bagge, who had been married upwards of 20 years to the Baron of that name, a Courlander by birth, but had been parted from him for some years past, and having abjured the Lutheran faith, had retired to a convent, lately instituted a suit against her husband, in order to annul their marriage, under the pretext of its not having been celebrated in the necessary forms. The Baron published a memorial in reply, wherein he set forth that, being a foreigner and a Protestant, he espoused a Protestant woman, whose father, though a Counsellor of the court of Hesse Cassel, was also a citizen of Geneva; that their marriage was celebrated in the presence of the Ambassadors of Poland and the States General, then residing at the court of France, according to the forms always used in the chapel of the Ambassador from the united provinces; and thence inferred that the Baroness had no shadow of right to dispute the validity of their marriage: and further that this cause came under the jurisdiction of the Council of State alone, and could not be judged by any of the inferior tribunals.

This famous cause was heard before the judges, for the last time, on Monday the 25th of January: Several ambassadors, and a great number of persons of all ranks, were present on the occasion. Mons. de Verges, the Attorney General, resumed his pleadings on this extraordinary affair, which he investigated with the utmost accuracy. He threw new lights on the subject; and after an exordium, which did equal justice to his head and heart, he proved, by a chain of incontestable facts and authorities, that the marriage was valid, and that the Baroness had no right to sue for a separation.

honour to foreign nations and his own, he entered into the discussion of the essential point of the question with great force and energy. He demonstrated that the Baroness de Bagge was an alien, (a fact which the had endeavoured to disprove, in order to obtain a verdict in her favour) that as such she was entitled to the privilege of being married in the Dutch Ambassador's chapel, and that being, both by her religion and birth, exempted from all submission to the laws of France, both ecclesiastical and civil, she was not justified in demanding the reversal of a marriage, which she had contracted with her own free will, and upon the faith of her vows. He said that it was very plain that this Lady's father's design had always been to subject her to the laws and religion of Geneva, which he was entitled to do, by the privileges granted to the Genevese by Henry the 4th, and that she had submitted without any repugnance, as her father died in 1762, and she did not make any attempt to prove her marriage illegal till 1771. Lastly, he set forth how necessary it was for the Judges to reject all applications for such reversals, which were always hurtful to the rights of mankind and the public honour; and concluded with moving the court, "that the demand made by the Baroness de Bagge be rejected." His conclusions were supported by such powerful reasons that every one present imagined the Judges would coincide in his opinion; nevertheless they required some time to deliberate on the verdict they should pass. They remained upwards of an hour and a half, in a room adjoining to the Great Chamber, and being returned to their seats, the first president pronounced the following sentence; "The court orders that the parties shall settle the matter between themselves, and produce their agreement in writing within the space of 8 days." This decision appeared very extraordinary, but it was perceived how difficult it would be for the Parliament to pass a final determination on this question. And as the affair now stands the Baron has gained his cause. The Baroness brought her husband a fortune of upwards of 100,000 livres per annum.