nifested
their real feelings about Napoleon's presidency of the Italian
Republic, war would certainly have broken forth. But, as has been
seen, they preferred to assume the attitude of the ostrich, the worst
possible device both for the welfare of Europe and the interests of
Great Britain; for it convinced Napoleon that he could safely venture
on other interventions; and this he proceeded to do in the affairs of
Italy, Holland, and Switzerland.

On September 21st, 1802, appeared a _senatus consultum_ ordering the
incorporation of Piedmont in France. This important territory,
lessened by the annexation of its eastern parts to the Italian
Republic, had for five months been provisionally administered by a
French general as a military district of France. Its definite
incorporation in the great Republic now put an end to all hopes of
restoration of the House of Savoy. For the King of Sardinia, now an
exile in his island, the British Ministry had made some efforts at
Amiens; but, as it knew that the Czar and the First Consul had agreed
on offering him some suitable indemnity, the hope was cherished that
the new sovereign, Victor Emmanuel I., would be restored to his
mainland possessions. That hope was now at an end. In vain did Lord
Whitworth, our ambassador at Paris, seek to help the Russian envoy to
gain a fit indemnity. Sienna and its lands were named, as if in
derision; and though George III. and the Czar ceased not to press the
claims of the House of Savoy, yet no more tempting offer came from
Paris, except a hint that some part of European Turkey might be found
for him; and the young ruler nobly refused to barter for the petty
Siennese, or for some Turkish pachalic, his birthright to the lands
which, under a happier Victor Emmanuel, were to form the nucleus of a
United Italy.[219] A month after the absorption of Piedmont came the
annexation of Parma. The heir to that duchy, who was son-in-law to the
King of Spain, had been raised to the dignity of King of Etruria; and
in return for this aggrandizement in Europe, Charles IV. bartered away
to France the whole of Louisiana. Nevertheless, the First Consul kept
his troops in Parma, and on the death of the old duke in October,
1802, Parma and its dependencies were incorporated in the French
Republic.

The naval supremacy of France in the Mediterranean was also secured by
the annexation of the Isle of Elba with its excellent harbour of Porto
Ferrajo. Three deputies from Elb