Indies into the channels of commerce and industry. His successor, Philip II., still uniting Spain and the Netherlands, undertook to crush the reformed faith in the latter states, and failed in a war of nearly half a century. This vast expense made Spain, the richest country of Europe, the poorest, still to the profit of commerce and the greater strength of Protestant lands. The United Netherlands became free Protestant states and remarkably prosperous. 4. The English people advanced in laying the foundations of a free constitution from the time of the Magna Charta in 1215. They became strongly Protestant, and finally their commons engaged in a contest with the king, Charles I., for the maintenance of popular rights. He resisted to the last extremity, and the commons precipitated a revolution that dethroned and beheaded him, and established a republic. This was premature and expired with the great leader, Cromwell, who had successfully headed it. Royal power was restored, but a few years later was rearranged and so modified as to be suited to the independent but moderate tendencies of the people. A certain part of the English people, however, aspired to more complete liberty than a monarchy could afford them, and passed over the sea to secure freedom of conscience and political enfranchisement in the New World. With the moderate and steady maintenance of their rights, characteristic of Englishmen, they were governed under charters from the English sovereigns who, for the sake of extending their dominions, allowed them much freedom. European governments could not conform to the demands of progress by loosening the bands of arbitrary rule, and the new colonies became the refuge of such as aspired to more liberal institutions, as well as of adventurers in search of gain. Thus the English colonies became the escape valve of European politics and society, the Appendix of the Reformation, and the Hope of Liberty. SECTION XVII. CONCLUSION.