30 NOVEMBER 1945, Page 16

.dg IF THE WORST COMES TO THE WORST" your note

in The Spectator of November 9th you refer to the suggestion that the phrase should really be—" If the worse comes to the worst," and you add—" Perhaps it should, though I have never seen it in that form." I should have said the same myself until yesterday when I came upon this very phrase when reading John C. Miller's Origins of the American Revolution. There, on p. 95, with reference to the proposed imposition of the Stamp Act—the people declared that "if the least Injury was ofered to him (i.e., Patrick Henry) they'd stand by him to the last Drop of their blood. Some of them mutter betwixt their teeth, let the worse Come to the tvorst we'd Call the ffrench to our succour." I thought this niight 'interest you.—Yours faithfully,