If necessary, a maritime force could easily be sent from hence to the mouth of the Elbe or of the Tagus.

But the English Kings had no envoy at the Court of Agra or Pekin.

There was seldom a single English man of war within ten thousand miles of the Bay of Bengal or of the Gulf of Siam.
As our merchants could not, in those remote seas, be protected by their Sovereign, they must protect themselves, and must, for that end, exercise some of the rights of sovereignty.

They must have forts, garrisons and armed ships.

They must have power to send and receive embassies, to make a treaty of alliance with one Asiatic prince, to wage war on another.