h _any vessel whatsoever_
that had cleared from a British port was to be excluded from all
harbours of the French Republic. Thus all commercial nations were
compelled, slowly but inevitably, to side with the master of the land
or the mistress of the seas.

In vain did the King of Prussia represent to Napoleon that Hanover was
not British territory, and that the neutrality of Germany was
infringed and its interests damaged by the French occupation of
Hanover and Cuxhaven. His protest was met by an offer from Napoleon to
evacuate Hanover, Taranto and Otranto, only at the time when England
should "evacuate Malta and the Mediterranean"; and though the special
Prussian envoy, Lombard, reported to his master that Napoleon was
"truth, loyalty, and friendship personified," yet he received not a
word that betokened real regard for the susceptibilities of Frederick
William III. or the commerce of his people.[270] For the present,
neither King nor Czar ventured on further remonstrances; but the First
Consul had sown seeds of discord which were to bear fruit in the Third
Coalition.

Having quartered 60,000 French troops on Naples and Hanover, Napoleon
could face with equanimity the costs of the war. Gigantic as they were,
they could be met from the purchase money of Louisiana, the taxation and
voluntary gifts of the French dominions, the subsidies of the Italian
and Ligurian Republics, and a contribution which he now exacted from
Spain.

Even before the outbreak of hostilities he had significantly reminded
Charles IV. that the Spanish marine was deteriorating, and her
arsenals and dockyards were idle: "But England is not asleep; she is
ever on the watch and will never rest until she has seized on the
colonies and commerce of the world."[271] For the present, however,
the loss of Trinidad and the sale of Louisiana rankled too deeply to
admit of Spain entering into another conflict, whence, as before,
Napoleon would doubtless gain the glory and leave to her the burden of
territorial sacrifices. In spite of his shameless relations to the
Queen of Spain, Godoy, the Spanish Minister, was not devoid of
patriotism; and he strove to evade the obligations which the treaty of
1796 imposed on Spain in case of an Anglo-French conflict. He embodied
the militia of the north of Spain and doubtless would have defied
Bonaparte's demands, had Russia and Prussia shown any disposition to
resist French aggressions. But those Powers were as yet whol