Viewed from the present, the long growing ,nd carefully nourished hatreds, which settied their disputes in the English Channel in 1588, were mainly important to the worhl at large because, in- directly, they involved the fate of America. Had Spain, and not Engl,nd, been victorious, the Americ,u coutiuent might still have developed into a congeries of republican states; but we may be sure th;t the prevailing republicanism of those states would have been rather of the central than of the northern American type, and we may well doubt whether a republican union, such as was founded under Washington, and kept together under Lincoln, would have been ever possible in the New hVorld.

Before publicly putting forth her ;;'hole strength against England, Spain more than once tried to injure her enemy by sun'eptitious blows. In 1580,'" for example, Munster was in the throes of civil w', and the opportunity seemed a good one for dispatching from Corunna a little expedition to foment the rebellion against the English power. ItMians as ;;-ell as Spaniards took part in it. They htnded at Smerwick, in Dingle Bay, in September; but Arthur, E;rl Grey de Wilton, who, as Iord-]Lieutenant, had gone to Ireland e'lier in the same year with a large body of picked troops, speedily m;de hinmelf m,ster of a fort which h,d been built on the coast in the previous year by J;nnes Fitzlnaurice and a feeble Papal force, and which was occupied hy the new invaders, hardly one of whom escaped to tell the stoL'v. In his preface to Vol. XII. of the new series of Acts of the Privy Council of England, 5Ir. J. I{. l)asent notes a curious coincidence in connection with this abortive invasion.

"On some unknown day a in 1550," he says, "the lPelka, soon to be re-named the Golden llid, which had sailed with her consorts from Plyluouth in NOVeluher, 1577, returned alone to England, laden with the 1,1under of the Spanish settlements in the Pacific, and cast anchor in Plymouth S,.,nnd after circumnavigating the globe, thus nan'owly escaping, as she crossed the mouth of the Bay, the Spanish squadrou which bore the invaders from C,,runna to Dingle. As these luckless invaders, who could show no commission from Philip, were treated by Grey, so, no doubt, would the Spaniards have teated Drake, who had no commission k,,lU Elizal,eth .... q'he 81uerwick invasion ft,llowing so soon after that of James Fitzmaurice no doubt rendered it difficult for the Spanish ambassador to press his complaints against Drake."

In 1578 iIartin Fmbiser again attempted a N.W. passage. See. Chap. XVI. a In this year Charles Jackman and Arthur Pett sought a N.XV. passage. Chap. XVI.

Generally said t, have been September 26th. 
She had, in fact, been so re-named in August) 157,q. 
In 1582 Edwal Fenton set out on his voyage to Soth America, and in 1583 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert set out on his expedition to Newlbundland. 2ce Chap. XVL