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men, including troops and garrifons in Ireland; Gibraltar, Minorca, and America; but in time of war, there have been in British pay, natives and foreigners, above 150,000! The registered militia in England confifts of near 200,000.

The maritime ftate is nearly related to the former; though much more agreeable to the principles of our free conftitution. The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural ftrength; the floating bulwark of the ifland; an army, from which, however ftrong and powerful, no danger can ever be apprehended to liberty and accordingly it has been affiduously cultivated, even from the earlieft ages. To fo much perfection was our naval reputation arrived in the twelfth century, that the code of maritime laws, which are called the laws of Oleron, and are received by all nations in Europe, as the ground and fubftruction of all their marine conftitutions, was confeffedly compiled by our king Richard I. at the ifle of Oleron on the coaft of France, then part of the poffeffions of the crown of England. And yet, fo vaftly inferior were our ancestors in this point, to the prefent age, that even in the maritime reign of queen Elizabeth, Sir Edward Coke thinks it matter of boaft, that the royal navy of England then confifted of 33 fhips. The prefent condition of our marine is in great meafure owing to the falutary provifions of the ftatutes, called the navigation-acts; whereby the conftant increase of English fhipping and feamen was not only encouraged, but rendered unavoidably neceffary. The moft beneficial ftatute for the trade and commerce of thefe kingdoms is that navigation-act, the rudiments of which were first framed in 1650, with a narrow partial view: being intended to mortify the fugar islands, which were dilaffected to the parliament, and ftill held out for Charles II. by flopping the gainful trade which they then carried on with the Dutch; and at the fame

time to clip the wings of thofe our opulent and afpiring neighbours. This prohibited all fhips of foreign nations from trading with any English plantations without licence from the council of ftate. In 1651, the prohibition was extended alfo to the mother country; and no goods were fuffered to be imported into England, or any of its dependencies, in any other than English bottoms; or in the fhips of that European nation, of which the merchandize imported was the genuine growth or manufacture. At the restoration, the former provifions were continued, by ftatute 12 Car. II. c. 18. with this very material improvement, that the mafter and three fourths of the mariners fhall alfo be English fubjects.

The complement of feamen, in time of peace, ufually amounts to twelve or fifteen thousand. In time of war, they have amounted to no less than fixty thousand men. See at the end of this volume a lift of the royal navy of England, as it ftood at the end of the late war.

This navy is commonly divided into three fquadrons, namely, the red, white, and blue, which are fo termed from the difference of their colours. Each fquadron has its admiral; but the admiral of the red fquadron has the principal command of the whole, and is ftiled vice-admiral of Great Britain. Subject to each admiral is also a vice and a rear-admiral. But the fupreme command of our naval force is, next to the king, in the lords commiffioners of the admi ralty. We may venture to affirm that the British navy, during the late war, was able to cope with all the other fleets in Europe. In the courfe of a few years it entirely vanquished the whole naval power of France, difabled Spain, and kept the Dutch in

awe.

For the protection of the British empire, and the annoyance of our enemies, it was then divided into feveral powerful fquadrons, and fo judiciously ftationed, that while one fleet was fuccessfully bartering walls,

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hitherto reckoned impregnable, others were employed in fruftrating the defigns of France, and ef corting home the riches of the eastern and western worlds.

Notwithstanding our favourable fituation for a maritime power, it was not until the vast armament fent to fubdue this nation by Spain, in 1588, that the nation, by a vigorous effort, became fully fenfible of its true intereft and natural strength, which it has fince fo happily cultivated. This appears more fully by the fhort view of our naval tranfactions, which clofes this volume; and which, beginning with the reign of queen Elizabeth, is carried down to the of Versailles in 1763.

peace

An Hiftorical Account of the Policy and Trade of Great Britain.

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The prefent fyftem of English politics may properly be faid to have taken rife in the reign of queen Elizabeth. At this time the Proteftant religion was established, which naturally allied us to the reformed ftates, and made all the Popish powers our ene mies.

We began in the fame reign to extend our trade, by which it became neceffary for us alfo to watch the commercial progrefs, of our neighbours; and, if not to incommode and obftruct their traffic, to hinder them from impairing ours.

We then likewife fettled colonies in America, which was become the great fcene of European ambition; for, feeing with what treafures the Spaniards were annually enriched from Mexico and Peru, every nation imagined, that an American conqueft or plantation would certainly fill the mother country with gold and filver.

The difcoveries of new regions, which were then every day made, the profit of remote traffic, and the neceflity of long voyages, produced, in a few years,

a great

a great multiplication of fhipping. The fea was confidered as the wealthy element; and, by degrees, a new kind of fovereignty arofe, called naval do

minion.

As the chief trade of Europe, fo the chief maritime power was at firft in the hands of the Portuguefe and Spaniards, who, by a compact, to which the confent of other princes was not afked, had divided the newly discovered countries between them: but the crown of Portugal having fallen to the king of Spain, or being feized by him, he was mafter of the fhips of the two nations, with which he kept all the coafts of Europe in alarm, till the Armada, he had raised at a vaft expence for the conqueft of England, was destroyed; which put a ftop, and almoft an end, to the naval power of the Spaniards.

At this time the Dutch, who were oppreffed by the Spaniards, and feared yet greater evils than they felt, refolved no longer to endure the infolence of their masters; they therefore revolted; and after a ftruggle, in which they were affifted by the money and forces of Elizabeth, erected an independant and powerful commonwealth.

When the inhabitants of the Low Countries had formed their fyftem of government, and fome remiffion of the war gave them leifure to form fchemes of future profperity, they easily perceived that, as their territories were narrow, and their numbers fmall, they could preferve themselves only by that power which is the confequence of wealth; and that by a people whofe country produced only the neceffaries of life, wealth was not to be acquired, but from foreign dominions, and by the tranfportation of the products of one country into another.

From this neceffity, thus juftly estimated, arofe a plan of commerce, which was for many years profecuted with induftry and fuccefs, perhaps never feen in the world before; and by which the poor tenants of mud-walled viliages and impaffable bogs, erected

E 3

them

themselves into high and mighty states, who fet the greateft monarchs at defiance, whofe alliance was courted by the proudest, and whofe power

dreaded by the fierceft nations, By the establishment of this ftate, there arofe to England a new ally, and a new rival.

At this time, which feems to be the period deftined for the change of the face of Europe, France began first to rife into power, and from defending her own provinces with difficulty and fluctuating fuccefs, to threaten her neighbours with incroachments and devaftations. Henry IV. having, after a long fruggle, obtained the crown, found it easy to govern nobles, exhausted and wearied with a long civil war, and having compofed the difputes between the Proteftants and Papifts, fo as to obtain, at least, a truce for both parties, was at leifure to accumulate treasure, and raife forces which he propofed to have employed in a defign of fettling for ever the balance of Europe. Of this great scheme he lived not to fee the vanity, or feel the difappointment; for. he was murdered in the midst of his mighty preparations.

The French, however, were in this reign taught to know their own power; and the great defigns of a king, whofe wisdom they had fo long experienced, even though they were not brought to actual experiment, difpofed them to confider themselves as maf ters of the deftiny of their neighbours: and from that time he that fhall nicely examine their schemes and conduct, will find that they began to take an air of fuperiority, to which they had never pretended before; and that they have been always employed more or lefs openly, upon fchemes of dominion, though with frequent interruptions from domeftic troubles.

When Queen Elizabeth entered upon the government, the cultoms produced only 36,000 l. a year; at the reftoration, they were lett to farm for 400,000l. and produced. confiderably above double that fum before

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