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403 RISE OF THE CONTINENTALterests of the monarch, but also from those of the nation.At that time there were as yet no designs upon the dominion of the sea ;the only objects aimed at were the securityof the balance of power the confirmation of the advantageswhich had been gained by England and the maintenanceof the peace of Europe. The colonies however now beganto exert an influence upon continental politics, which mustnot hereafter remain unnoticed.But while the British cabinet was thus active in the westnew connexions arose in the east. The great war whichhad laid waste the northern part of this quarter of the globefor one-and-twenty years (1700 1721) was not without itsinfluence on England. GeorgeI. has been represented inalmost all the histories of England, as having upon this occasion exchanged the king for the elector ;and for the sakeof his German territories permitted himself to be mixed up,as king of England, in the strife which took place. Weought therefore to attempt what there is no longer anyreason to prevent, viz. an impartial consideration of thequestion, how far the interests of the English nation requiredthis interference of the king? how far the interests of thenation were the same as those of the electorate ? and howfar the consequences were advantageous or the reverse toGreat Britain ?It has already been shown that England had longno beenindifferent spectator of the proceedings of the northernpowers. The trade in the Baltic was the cause of this ;andafter it became considerable, the English could remain aslittle indifferent upon the subject as the Dutch, with whomthey shared it, though at that time very unequally. Besides,the geographical situation of the Baltic, which can only bereached by narrow straits, one only of which, the Sound, isperfectly navigable, made itby no means a matter of indifference in whose possession this passage, and with it themeans of entering this sea, should be.If any single power obtained the dominion, if, as hadmore than once happened in the times of the Swedish monarchy, any single state arose with such power as either actually to close that entrance, or by the imposition of heavytolls virtually to effect the same object, that branch of thecommerce and navigation of both England and Holland