to
Massachusetts to convert the Indiands, then supposed by many to be a
remnant of the lost tribes of Israel; and after an exclusion of many
centuries (S222), he permitted the Jews to return to England, and even
to build a synagogue in London.

On the other hand, there are few of the cathedral or parish churches
of England which do not continue to testify to the Puritan army's
destructive hatred of everything savoring of the rule of either Pope
or bishop.[1] The empty niches, where some gracious image of the
Virgin or the figure of some saint once looked down; the patched
remnants of brilliant stained glass, once part of a picture telling
some Scripture story; the mutilated statues of noted men; the tombs,
hacked and hewed by pike and sword, because they bore some emblem or
expression of the old faith,--all these still bear witness to the fury
of the Puritan soldiers, who did not respect even the graves of their
ancestors, if those ancestors had once thought differently from
themselves.

[1] But part of this destruction occurred under Henry VIII and Edward
VI (SS352, 364)

459. Victories by Land and Sea; the Navigation Act (1651).

Yet during Cromwell's rule the country, notwithstanding all the
restrictions imposed by a stern military government, grew and
prospered. The English forces gained victories by land and sea, and
made the name of the Protector respected as that of Charles I had
never been.

At this period the carrying trade of the world, by sea, had fallen
into the hands of the Dutch, and Amsterdam had become a more important
center of exchange than London. The Commonwealth passed a measure
called the "Navigation Act"[2] (1651) to encourage British commerce.
It prohibited the importation or exportation of any goods into England
or its colonies in Dutch or other foreign vessels.

[2] The Navigation Act was renewed later. Though aimed at the Dutch,
this measure damaged the export trade of the American colonies for a
time.

Later, war with the Dutch broke out partly on account of questions of
trade, and partly because Royalist plotters found protection in
Holland. Then Cromwell created such a navy as the country had never
before possessed. Under the command of Admiral Blake, "the sea king,"
and Admiral Monk, the Dutch were finally beaten so thoroughly (1653)
that they bound themselves to ever after salute the English flag
wherever they should meet it on the seas. A war undertaken in
alliance with