e
partition.[189]

Then there were the vexed questions of the indemnities claimed by
George III. for the Houses of Orange and of Savoy. In his interview
with Cornwallis, Bonaparte had effusively promised to do his utmost
for the ex-Stadholder, though he refused to consider the case of the
King of Sardinia, who, he averred, had offended him by appealing to
the Czar. The territorial interests of France in Italy doubtless
offered a more potent argument to the First Consul: after practically
annexing Piedmont and dominating the peninsula, he could ill brook
the presence on the mainland of a king whom he had already sacrificed
to his astute and masterful policy. The case of the Prince of Orange
was different. He was a victim to the triumph of French and democratic
influence in the Dutch Netherlands. George III. felt a deep interest
in this unfortunate prince and made a strong appeal to the better
instincts of Bonaparte on his behalf. Indeed, it is probable that
England had acquiesced in the consolidation of French influence at the
Hague, in the hope that her complaisance would lead the First Consul
to assure him some position worthy of so ancient a House. But though
Cornwallis pressed the Batavian Republic on behalf of its exiled
chief, yet the question was finally adjourned by the XVIIIth clause of
the definitive Treaty of Amiens; and the scion of that famous House
had to take his share in the forthcoming scramble for the clerical
domains of Germany.[190]

For the still more difficult cause of the House of Savoy the British
Government made honest but unavailing efforts, firmly refusing to
recognize the newest creations of Bonaparte in Italy, namely, the
Kingdom of Etruria and the Ligurian Republic, until he indemnified the
House of Savoy. Our recognition was withheld for the reasons that
prompt every bargainer to refuse satisfaction to his antagonist until
an equal concession is accorded. This game was played by both Powers
at Amiens, and with little other result than mutual exasperation. Yet
here, too, the balance of gain naturally accrued to Bonaparte; for he
required the British Ministry to recognize existing facts in Etruria
and Liguria, while Cornwallis had to champion the cause of exiles and
of an order that seemed for ever to have vanished. To pit the
non-existent against the actual was a task far above the powers of
British statesmanship; yet that was to be its task for the next
decade, while the forces of the li