of the country, terminated in the establishment of a military despotism.  The institutions which had acted as restraints on the power of preceding sovereigns were superseded or abolished; the legislative, as well as the executive authority, fell into the grasp of the same individual; and the best rights of the people were made to depend on the mere pleasure of an adventurer, who, under the mask of dissimulation, had seized, and by the power of the sword retained, the government of three kingdoms.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Sagredo, who had lately arrived as ambassador extraordinary, thus describes the power of Cromwell:—­“Non fa caro del nome, gli basta possedere l’autorita e la potenza, senza comparazione majore non solo di quanti re siano stati in Inghilterra, ma di quanti monarchi stringono presentamente alcun scetro nel mondo.  Smentite le legge fondamentali del regno, egli e il solo legislatore:  tutti i governi escono dalle sue mane, e quelli del consiglio, per entrarvi, devono essere nominati da sua altezza, ne possono divenir grandi, se non da lui inalzati.  E perche alcuno non abbia modo di guadagnar autorita sopra l’armata, tutti gli avanzamenti, senza passar per alcun mezzo, sono da lui direttamente conosciuti.”—­Sagredo, MS.]

From domestic occurrences, we may now turn to those abroad.  During the last year, the two armaments which had so long engaged the attention of the European nations, had sailed from the English ports.  Their real, but secret, destination was to invade the American colonies and surprise the Plate fleet of Spain, the most ancient and faithful ally of the commonwealth.  To justify the measure, it was argued in the council that, since America was not named in the treaties of 1604 and 1630, hostilities in America would be no infraction of those treaties; that the Spaniards had committed depredations on the English commerce in the West Indies, and were consequently liable to reprisals; that they had gained possession of these countries by force against the will of the natives, and might, therefore, be justly dispossessed by force; and, lastly, that the conquest of these transatlantic territories would contribute to spread the light of the gospel among the Indians and to cramp the resources of popery in Europe.[1] That such flimsy pretences should satisfy the judgment of the protector is improbable; his mind was swayed by very different motives—­the prospect of reaping, at a small cost, an abundant harvest of wealth and glory, and the opportunity of

[Footnote 1:  Thurloe, i. 760, 761; ii. 54, 154, 570.  Ludlow, ii. 51, 105.  The article of the treaty of 1630, on which Cromwell rested his claim of a free trade to the Indies, was the first, establishing peace between all the subjects of the two crowns (subditos quoscumque); that which, the Spaniards alleged, was the seventh, in which as the king of Spain, would not consent to a free trade to America, it was confined to those countries in which, such free trade had been exercised before the war between Elizabeth of England and Philip of Spain—­words which excluded America as effectually as if it had been named.—­See Dumont, iv. part ii. p. 621.]