Ruler of the seas, she everywhere obstructed its highways.

The enemies' fleets could not join; no great fleet could get out, or if it did, it was only to meet at once, with uninured officers and crews, those who were veterans in gales and warfare.

Save in the case of Minorca, she carefully held her own sea-bases and eagerly seized those of the enemy.

What a lion in the path was Gibraltar to the French squadrons of Toulon and Brest! What hope for French succor to Canada, when the English fleet had Louisburg under its lee?
The one nation that gained in this war was that which used the sea in peace to earn its wealth, and ruled it in war by the extent of its navy, by the number of its subjects who lived on the sea or by the sea, and by its numerous bases of operations scattered over the globe.
Yet it must be observed that these bases themselves would have lost their value if their communications remained obstructed.

Therefore the French lost Louisburg, Martinique, Pondicherry; so England herself lost Minorca.