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exclusive possessionof it,RISE OF THE CONTINENTALand the sole rightof tradingin itsseas. These claims were not relinquishedeven in time ofpeace and although after the treaty of 1604 these settle;ments obtained a little more peace, and therefore prosperedbetter, the Spaniardsexercised occasional acts of violenceand cruelty, which sufficiently proved that they had no intention of resigningtheir claims, and afforded at least one ofthe groundswhich determined Cromwell to chastise them,when he declared war againstthem in 1655.The whole system which the Protector adopted in regardto continental is politics, very comprehensive and complicated, and therefore not easy to include in one view. 1Hiswhole government show how important he considered it ;and although we cannot deny that private feelingsand objects influenced his measures, still it is clear that his mainobject was to make it a means of increasingthe commercialnavigation of England. The consequences of it were, thetwo foreign wars which he carried on ;viz. that with Holland (16521654), and that with Spain (16551657).Whatever other circumstances may have had their influence in the former of these, it was in reality a commercialwar, and the first in which England had engaged. The relation in which she stood to the West Indian colonies, wherethe Dutch were in possession of nearlyall the commerce ofthe British islands, and more especiallythat of Barbadoes,led to the passing of that famous Navigation Act, which notonly secured to the mother country the whole trade of thecolonies, but also forbade the introduction of European produce in any ships but those of the country from which itcame ;and thus gave the death-blow to the extensive carrying trade of Holland. This Act was therefore little lessthan a declaration of war. The relations between the twostates, however, had undergone a great change. Hollandhad all but secured the monopoly of the commerce of theworld, and Englandif she wished to have any share of it,could not avoid entering into a contest such as Cromwellengaged in. The dispute which arose respecting the rightsof the flag, unimportant as itmay appear, displaysin a re-1This is the part of Cromwell's history in which Hume has been the leastsuccessful. He omits the mention of all those leading principles of his po~Mcy, which the slightest glance at it will display.