land, Character of Charles II.an England less high-minded, less romantic, more ‘modern’, and more commonplace than before the war. The country was again set upon peace, order and money-getting. The King set a bad example in his private life, but in his public life he was not by any means a bad king. He was very clever, and had a keen eye for the interests of trade, of the colonies and of the Navy. The Cromwellians had bequeathed to him a very fine Navy; but too often he let it rot for want of spending money on it. His sailors were badly paid and badly cared for; he let his contractors swindle him, and he was too idle to look into small but important matters himself. Also he was always shockingly in want of money to spend upon pleasure, and, if Parliament would not give him enough, he was apt to ask the King of France to pay him large sums, in return for which he would promise to do something which that king wanted—not always to the honour of England. But, when he had got the money, Charles very seldom kept his promises to King Louis.
Englishmen’s dread of France,France was now taking the place in the eyes of Englishmen which Spain had held in the period 1560–1640, the place, that is, of the national bugbear and terror, whose vast army and vast wealth were to be used to help the Pope and to spread the Catholic faith. Englishmen wanted to fight King Louis, just as they had wanted to fight King Philip in James I’s days. Charles Il, and rivalry with the Dutch.however, saw that our real rivals were the Protestant Dutch, whose merchant-ships covered all seas, whose trading stations were all over the world. And, if you are to understand this, it is time that I told you something about the growth of our own Colonial Empire.
