The next great service which Elizabeth rendered to England was a development of its resources,—­ever a primal effort with wise statesmen, with such administrators as Sully, Colbert, Richelieu.  The policy of her Government was not the policy of aggrandizement in war, which has ever provoked jealousies and hatreds in other nations, and led to dangerous combinations, and sowed the seed of future wars.  The policy of Napoleon was retaliated in the conquests of Prussia in our day; and the policy of Prussia may yet lead to its future dismemberment, in spite of the imperial realm shaped by Bismarck.  “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again,”—­an eternal law, binding both individuals and nations, from which there is no escape.  The government of Elizabeth did not desire or aim at foreign conquests,—­the great error of European statesmen on the Continent; it sought the establishment of the monarchy at home, and the development of the various industries of the nation, since in these industries are both power and wealth.  Commerce was encouraged, and she girt her island around with those “wooden walls” which have proved England’s impregnable defence against every subsequent combination of tyrants and conquerors.  The East India Company was formed, and the fisheries of Newfoundland established.  It was under Elizabeth’s auspices that Frobisher penetrated to the Polar Sea, that Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe, that Sir Walter Raleigh colonized Virginia, and that Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempted to discover ’a northwestern passage to India.  Manufactories were set up for serges, so that wool was no longer exported, but the raw material was consumed at home.  A colony of Flemish weavers was planted in the heart of England.  The prosperity of dyers and cloth-dressers and weavers dates from this reign, although some attempts at manufactures were made in the reign of Edward III.  A refuge was given to persecuted foreigners, and work was found for them to do.  Pasture-land was converted to tillage,—­not, as is now the case, to parks for the wealthy classes.  Labor was made respectable, and enterprise of all kinds was stimulated.  Wealth was sought in industry and economy, rather than in mines of gold and silver; so that wealth was doubled during this reign, and the population increased from four millions to six millions.  All the old debts of the Crown were paid, both principal and interest, and the debased coin was called in at a great sacrifice to the royal revenue.  The arbitrary management of commerce by foreign merchants was broken up, and weights and measures were duly regulated.  The Queen did not revoke monopolies, it is true; the principles of political economy were not then sufficiently understood.  But even monopolies, which disgraced the old Roman world, and are a disgrace to any age, were not so gigantic and demoralizing in those times as in our own, under our free institutions; they were not used to corrupt legislation and bribe judges and prevent justice, but simply to enrich politicians and favorites, and as a reward for distinguished services.