Orleans, to Spain. By the treaty negotiated with Spain by Lucien
Bonaparte in 1800 her share was given back to France. On the 80th
April 1803 Napoleon sold the whole to the United States for
80,000,000 francs (L 3,260,000), to the intense anger of his
brothers Joseph and Lucien. Lucien was especially proud of having
obtained the cession for which Napoleon was, at that time, very
anxious; but both brothers were horrified when Napoleon disclosed
how little he cared for constitutional forms by telling them that if
the Legislature, as his brothers threatened, would not ratify the
treaty, he would do without the ratification; see Iung's Letter,
tome ii. p. 128.

Napoleon's most obvious motives were want of money and the certainty
of the seizure of the province by England, as the rupture with her
was now certain. But there was perhaps another cause. The States
had already been on the point of seizing the province from Spain,
which had interfered with their trade (Hinton's United States, p.
435, and Thiers tome iv, p. 320).

Of the sum to be paid, 20,000,000 were to go to the States, to cover
the illegal seizures of American ships by the French navy, a matter
which was not settled for many years later. The remaining
80,000,000 were employed in the preparations for the invasion of
England; see Thiers, tome iv. pp. 320 and 326, and Lanfrey, tome
iii. p. 48. The transaction is a remarkable one, as forming the
final withdrawal of France from North America (with the exception of
some islands on the Newfoundland coast), where she had once held
such a proud position. It also eventually made an addition to the
number of slave States.]--

They cost more than they produce; and they will escape from us, some time
or other, as all colonies ultimately do from the parent country. Our
whole colonial system is absurd; it forces us to pay for colonial produce
at a rate nearly double that for which it may be purchased from our
neighbours.

When Lord Hawkesbury consented to evacuate Malta, on condition that it
should be independent of France and Great Britain, he must have been
aware that such a condition would never be fulfilled. He cared little
for the order of St. John, and he should have put, by way of postscript,
at the bottom of his note, "We will keep Malta in spite of you."
I always told the First Consul that if he were in the situation of the
English he