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304 POLITICAL CONSEQUENCESDutch ;and how much more rapid even mightit have beenhad it been freed at the right moment from the fetters ofmonopoly May not ! this, however, which must be allowedas regards the Dutch, be also fairly alleged, although in aless degree, of the English? Was it not during the reign ofElizabeth that the Drakes and Howards of England unfurledher flag upon the most distant seas? Was it not the spirit ofProtestantism which gave them the victory over theinvincible armada, and thus enabled them to lay the foundationsof that dominion of the seas, and that systemof universalcommerce, to which no previous ages ever offered a parallel?Finally, was it not this spiritwhich animated the free maritime towns of Germany, and raised them to an eminence,which even in the times of general revolution secured tothem the respect of the firstpowers of Europe ? We mayreason, therefore, as we choose upon the progress whichcommerce would have made without the Reformation, butthis much must always be admitted, viz. that to the Reformation it owes the speed of its growth, and the/07^2 which itsubsequently assumed.The Colonies are so closely connected with commercehaving been founded with a view to its convenience thatthey appear hardly to require any separate mention. If wehave shown that without the Reformation there would havebeen no Dutch East India trade, there would without it havebeen no colony at the Cape or at Batavia. I am the morewilling, however, to leave all further prosecution of this inquiry to the writers of commercial history, because itmighteasily lead me to the consideration of questions foreign tomy present purpose, and even expose me to the imputationof wishing to attribute to the Reformation consequences tooremote to be traced. Nevertheless, the Reformation had soimmediate an influence, in another way, and in another quarter of the globe, upon the origin and progress of a colonialstate, now flourishing and mighty, and which appears destined in future centuries toguide the commerce of theworld, that I cannot pass over this circumstance in silence.Who were those exiles who set themselves down upon thecoasts of a new world, in the forests of North America, because in that older land from which they came they werenot suffered to worship their God after their own fashion?