George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Vol. 1, 17th edition.

[216] that it engrossed the commerce of the European

Chap. VI.}

nations themselves; English mariners sought employment in Dutch vessels, with which the ports of England were filled; English ships lay rotting at the wharves; English ship-building was an unprofitable vocation. The freedom and the enterprise of Holland had acquired maritime power, and skill, and wealth, such as the vast monopoly of Spain had never been able to command.

The causes of the commercial greatness of Holland were forgotten in envy at her success. She ceased to appear as the antagonist of Spain, and the gallant champion of the freedom of the seas; she was now envied as the successful rival. The eloquence of Grotius was neglected, as well as the pretensions of Spain disregarded; and the English government resolved to protect the English merchant. Cromwell desired to confirm the maritime power of his country; and St. John, a Puritan and a republican in theory, though never averse to a limited monarchy, devised the first act of navigation, which the politic Whitelocke introduced and carried through parliament. Hencefor-

1651.

ward, the commerce between England and her colonies, as well as between England and the rest of the world was to be conducted in ships solely owned, and principally manned, by Englishmen. Foreigners might bring to England nothing but the products of their own respective countries, or those of which their countries were the established staples. The act was leveled against Dutch commerce, and was but a protection of British shipping; it contained not one clause relating to a colonial monopoly, or specially injurious to an American colony. Of itself it inflicted no wound on Virginia or New England. In vain did the Dutch