What shall we think then of the
greater, but especially of the navy royal, of which some one vessel is
worth two of the other, as the shipwrights have often told me? It is
possible that some covetous person, hearing this report, will either
not credit it at all, or suppose money so employed to be nothing
profitable to the queen's coffers: as a good husband said once when he
heard there should be a provision made for armour, wishing the queen's
money to be rather laid out to some speedier return of gain unto her
grace, "because the realm (saith he) is in case good enough," and so
peradventure he thought. But if, as by store of armour for the defence
of the country, he had likewise understanded that the good keeping of
the sea is the safeguard of our land, he would have altered his
censure, and soon given over his judgment. For in times past, when our
nation made small account of navigation, how soon did the Romans, then
the Saxons, and last of all the Danes, invade this island? whose
cruelty in the end enforced our countrymen, as it were even against
their wills, to provide for ships from other places, and build at home
of their own whereby their enemies were oftentimes distressed.
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