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expostulate against the act as a breach of commercial
amity; the parliament studied the interests of
England, and would not repeal laws to please a neighbor.
1
A naval war soon followed, which
Cromwell eager-
ly desired, and
Holland as earnestly endeavored to avoid.
The spirit of each people was kindled with the highest national enthusiasm; the commerce of the world was the prize contended for; the ocean was the scene of the conflict; and the annals of recorded time had never known so many great naval actions in such quick succession.
This was the war in which
Blake, and
Ayscue, and
De Ruyter, gained their glory; and
Tromp fixed a broom to his mast in bravado, as if to sweep the
English flag from the seas.
Cromwell was not disposed to trammel the industry of
Virginia, and
Maryland, and
New England.
His ambition aspired to make
England the commercial emporium of the world.
His plans extended to the possession of the harbors in the
Spanish Netherlands;
France was obliged to pledge her aid to conquer, and her consent to yield
Dunkirk, Mardyke and Gravelines; and
Dunkirk, in the summer of 1658, was given up to his ambassador by the
French king in person.
Nor was this all: he desired the chief harbors in the
North Sea, and the
Baltic; and an alliance with
Sweden, made not simply from a zeal for Protestantism, was to secure him
Bremen, and
Elsmore,
and Dantzig, as his reward.
2 In the
West Indies, his commanders planned the capture of
Jamaica, which
succeeded; and the attempt at the reduction of
Hispaniola, then the chief possession of
Spain among the
