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INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 385notwithstanding the troubles of the times, the navy had notbeen neglected either by Charles I. or his father. He hadmost scrupulously applied the sums granted for its support,and England,as a republic,stood both by land and sea in amore formidable attitude than she had done as a monarchy.The privateinterest of the Protector made it,no doubt,requisite that he should take an active part in foreign affairs,as well to afford vent to the excitement at home, as to givesplendour to his reign ; but, independently of this, a newinterest had been springing up, which, in progress of time,rapidly increased, and gradually gained a greater influenceupon the relations between England and the great powers ofthe continent, namely, the colonial interest.With the East Indies, England had, it is true, for sometime carried on a considerable trade, but as yetit had noterritorial possessions, and was confined to a few scatteredfactories. But even these already furnished occasions ofquarrel with Holland and Spain, whose jealousy would suffer no strangers to gaina footingthere. 1 But, properlyspeaking, the first colonies of the English were on the coastsof North America, and the West Indies; and they owedtheir origin chieflyto politicaland religious interests. Bandsof malcontents wandered across the ocean, and sought beyond its waters a freedom or security, which theynot, or imagined they did not, find at home. Thus arosethe numerous settlements in several of what are the UnitedStates, and in 1623, and 1624, in Barbadoes,either didSt. Christopher's, and some of the smaller islands, which the Spaniardshad not thoughtit worth their while to occupy.These foreign possessions always continued in a certainstate of dependence on the mother country, although this relation received different modifications. The mother countrywas therefore under the obligation of defending them, andas this was especially necessary againstthe continentalpowers, the colonial interest naturally became a mainspringin the continental politics of England. This state of thingswas at first caused by the absurd pretensions of the Spaniards,who, as the first discoverers of the new world, claimed the1Particularly in the year 1623, at Amboina, where the Dutch massacredthe English colonists in a horrid manner, under pretence that they were engaged in a conspiracy and also took the small island of Poleroon from jEngland.2 c