ary,
forcibly end the remaining scruples felt at Madrid; while the United
States, with a feeble army and a rotting navy, were controlled by the
most peaceable and Franco-phil of their presidents, Thomas Jefferson.
The First Consul accordingly ordered an expedition to be prepared, as
if for the reinforcement of Leclerc in St. Domingo, though it was
really destined for New Orleans; and he instructed Talleyrand to
soothe or coerce the Court of Madrid into the final act of transfer.
The offer was therefore made by the latter (June 19th) in the name of
the First Consul that _in no case would Louisiana ever be alienated to
a Third Power_. When further delays supervened, Bonaparte, true to his
policy of continually raising his demands, required that Eastern and
Western Florida should also be ceded to him by Spain, on condition
that the young King of Etruria (for so Tuscany was now to be styled)
should regain his father's duchy of Parma.[200]

A word of explanation must here find place as to this singular
proposal. Parma had long been under French control; and, in March,
1801, by the secret Treaty of Madrid, the ruler of that duchy, whose
death seemed imminent, was to resign his claims thereto, provided that
his son should gain Etruria--as had been already provided for at St.
Ildefonso and Luneville. The duke was, however, allowed to keep his
duchy until his death, which occurred on October 9th, 1802; and it is
stated by our envoy in Paris to have been hastened by news of that
odious bargain.[201] His death now furnished Bonaparte with a good
occasion for seeking to win an immense area in the New World at the
expense of a small Italian duchy, which his troops could at any time
easily overrun. This consideration seems to have occurred even to
Charles IV.; he refused to barter the Floridas against Parma. The
re-establishment of his son-in-law in his paternal domains was
doubtless desirable, but not at the cost of so exacting a heriot as
East and West Florida.

From out this maze of sordid intrigues two or three facts challenge
our attention. Both Bonaparte and Charles IV. regarded the most
fertile waste lands then calling for the plough as fairly exchanged
against half a million of Tuscans; but the former feared the
resentment of the United States, and sought to postpone a rupture
until he could coerce them by overwhelming force. It is equally clear
that, had he succeeded in this enterprise, France might have gained a
great co