violent end, passed the first Navigation Act, of which Ranke says: "Of
all the acts ever passed in Parliament, it is perhaps the one which
brought about the most important results for England and the
world."[59:1]

The Navigation Act provided "that all goods from countries beyond Europe
should be imported into England in English ships only; and all European
goods either in English ships or in ships belonging to the countries
from which these articles originally came."

This was a challenge indeed.

Another perpetual source of irritation was the Right of Search, that is,
the right of stopping neutral ships and searching their cargoes for
contraband. England asserted this right as against the Dutch, who, as
the world's carriers, were most subject to the right, and not
unnaturally denied its existence.

War was declared in 1652, and made the fame of two great admirals, Blake
and Van Tromp. Oliver's spirit was felt on the seas, and before many
months were over England had captured more than a thousand Dutch trading
vessels, and brought business to a standstill in Amsterdam--then the
great centre of commercial interests. When six short years afterwards
the news of Cromwell's death reached that city, its inhabitants greatly
rejoiced, crowding the streets and crying "the Devil is dead."

Andrew Marvell was impregnated with the new ideas about sea-power. A
great reader and converser with the best intellects of his time, and a
Hull man, he had probably early grasped the significance of Bacon's
illuminating saying in the famous essay on the _True Greatness of