ns of the British Empire were being laid in the Western
Continent. The "spacious times of great Elizabeth" had passed, but the
new national spirit born of those times stirred within the English
people. The Kingdom had enjoyed sixty years of domestic peace and
prosperity, and Englishmen were eager to enter the lists for a share in
the advantages which the New World offered to those who would venture
therein. Both landowning and landholding classes, gentry and tenant
farmers alike, were clamoring, the one for an increase of their landed
estates, the other for freedom from the feudal restraints which still
legally bound them. The land-hunger of neither class could be satisfied
in a narrow island where the law and the lawgivers were in favor of the
maintenance of feudal rights. The expectations of all were aroused by
visions of wealth from the El Dorados of the West, or of profit from
commercial enterprises which appealed to the cupidity of capitalists and
led to investments that promised speedy and ample returns. A desire to
improve social conditions and to solve the problem of the poor and the
vagrant, which had become acute since the dissolution of the
monasteries, was arousing the authorities to deal with the pauper and to
dispose of the criminal in such a way as to yield a profitable service
to the kingdom. England was full of resolute men, sea-dogs and soldiers
of fortune, captains on the land as well as the sea, who in times of
peace were seeking employment and profit and who needed an outlet for
their energies. Some of these continued in the service of kings and
princes in Europe; others conducted enterprises against the Spaniards in
the West Indies and along the Spanish Main; while still others, such as
John Smith and Miles Standish, became pioneers in the work of English
colonization.

But more important than the promptings of land-hunger and the desire for
wealth and adventure was the call made by a social and religious
movement which was but a phase of the general restlessness and popular
discontent. The Reformation, in which this movement had its origin, was
more than a revolt from the organization and doctrines of the mediaeval
church; it voiced the yearning of the middle classes for a position
commensurate with their growing prominence in the national life. Though
the feudal tenantry, given over to agriculture and bound by the
conventions of feudal law, were still perpetuating many of the old
customs, the tow