profit by the sudden expansion of commerce and the spirit of
exploration which followed on the discovery of America and of the
passage round the Cape. Other causes concurred, but their whole
prosperity stood on the sea power to which their poverty gave birth.
Their food, their clothing, the raw material for their manufactures,
the very timber and hemp with which they built and rigged their ships
(and they built nearly as many as all Europe besides), were imported;
and when a disastrous war with England in 1653 and 1654 had lasted
eighteen months, and their shipping business was stopped, it is said
"the sources of revenue which had always maintained the riches of the
State, such as fisheries and commerce, were almost dry. Workshops were
closed, work was suspended. The Zuyder Zee became a forest of masts;
the country was full of beggars; grass grew in the streets, and in
Amsterdam fifteen hundred houses were untenanted." A humiliating peace
alone saved them from ruin.

This sorrowful result shows the weakness of a country depending wholly
upon sources external to itself for the part it is playing in the
world. With large deductions, owing to differences of conditions which
need not here be spoken of, the case of Holland then has strong points
of resemblance to that of Great Britain now; and they are true
prophets, though they seem to be having small honor in their own
country, who warn her that the continuance of her prosperity at home
depends primarily upon maintaining her power abroad. Men may be
discontented at the lack of political privilege; they will be yet more
uneasy if they come to lack bread. It is of more interest to Americans
to note that the result to France, regarded as a power of the sea,
caused by the extent, delightfulness, and richness of the land, has
been reproduced in the United States. In the beginning, their
forefathers held a narrow strip of land upon the sea, fertile in parts