I will never
depart, as regards Portugal, from the _ultimatum_ addressed to M.
d'Araujo, and that the _status quo ante bellum_ for Portugal must
amount, for Spain, to the restitution of Trinidad; for France, to
the restitution of Martinique and Tobago; and for Batavia [Holland],
to that of Curacoa and some other small American isles."[173]

In other words, if Portugal at the close of this whipped-up war
retained her present possessions, then England must renounce her
claims to Trinidad, Martinique, Tobago, Curacoa, etc.: and he summed
up his contention in the statement that "in signing this treaty
Charles IV. has consented to the loss of Trinidad." Further pressure
on Portugal compelled her to cede part of Northern Brazil to France
and to pay her 20,000,000 francs.

A still more striking light is thrown on Bonaparte's diplomatic
methods by the following question, addressed to Lord Hawkesbury on
June 15th:

"If, supposing that the French Government should accede to the
arrangements proposed for the East Indies by England, and should
adopt the _status quo ante bellum_ for Portugal, the King of
England would consent to the re-establishment of the _status quo_
in the Mediterranean and in America."

The British Minister in his reply of June 25th explained what the
phrase _status quo ante bellum_ in regard to the Mediterranean would
really imply. It would necessitate, not merely the evacuation of Egypt
by the French, but also that of the Kingdom of Sardinia (including
Nice), the Duchy of Tuscany, and the independence of the rest of the
peninsula. He had already offered that we should evacuate Minorca; but
he now stated that, if France retained her influence over Italy,
England would claim Malta as a set-off to the vast extension of French
territorial influence, and in order to protect English commerce in
those seas: for the rest, the British Government could not regard the
maintenance of the integrity of Portugal as an equivalent to the
surrender by Great Britain of her West Indian conquests, especially as
France had acquired further portions of Saint Domingo. Nevertheless he
offered to restore Trinidad to Spain, if she would reinstate Portugal
in the frontier strip of Olivenza; and, on August 5th, he told Otto
that we would give up Malta if it became independent.

Meanwhile events were, on the whole, favourable to Great Britain. She
made peace with Russia on favourable