the destruction of the only rival fleet in being.

Europe, without navies, without shipping became for England a mere
westward projection of Asia, dominated by warlike peoples who
could always be set by the ears and made to fight upon points of
dynastic honour, while England appropriated the markets of mankind.
Thenceforth, for the best part of a century, while Europe was spent
in what, to the superior Britain were tribal conflicts, the seas and
coasts of the world lay open to the intrusions of his commerce, his
colonists, his finance, until there was seemingly nothing left outside
the two Americas worth laying hands on. This highly favoured maritime
position depends, however, upon an unnamed factor, the unchallenged
possession and use of which by England has been the true foundation
of her imperial greatness. Without Ireland there would be to-day
no British Empire. The vital importance of Ireland to England is
understood, but never proclaimed by every British statesman. To subdue
that western and ocean-closing island and to exploit its resources,
its people and, above all its position, to the sole advantage of the
eastern island, has been the set aim of every English Government from
the days of Henry VIII onwards. The vital importance of Ireland to
Europe is not and has not been understood by any European statesman.
To them it has not been a European island, a vital and necessary
element of European development, but an appanage of England, an island
beyond an island, a mere geographical expression in the titles of the
conqueror. Louis XIV, came nearest, perhaps, of European rulers to
realizing its importance in the conflict of European interests when
he sought to establish James II on its throne as rival to the monarch
of Great Britain and counterpoise to the British sovereignty in
the western seas. Montesquieu alone of French writers grasped the
importance of Ireland in the international affairs of his time, and he