Excerpt from The Navy and the Nation: Or Naval Warfare and Imperial DefenceThe England of Raleigh had a population of less than six millions, and a trade insignificant if measured by modern standards. Until after the Union of 1707, Scotland brought no strength to the national cause, while Ireland was a standing source of weakness. The young settlement of Virginia was not founded till 1606, and Jamaica was not wrested from Spain till 165 5. Relatively to France, Spain, and Austria, almost to Holland, England was a small State, with few resources. Her one hope of future greatness lay in the manifestation of sea power - in the gifts of what has been styled, with strange oblivion of the plain teaching of history, the unstable element. The British Empire of to-day embraces eleven millions of square miles, with a population approaching three hundred and fifty millions, and a sea-borne commerce whose annual value is at least sterling.' This stupendous development of three hundred years has been rendered possible solely by naval agencies. So abundantly has the sturdy faith of the Elizabethan seamen been justified by works.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.