SIR W. TEMPLE ON "A BELGIC CIRCLE IN THE EMPIRE."
LTO TRIO EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR:1 Sia,—Your article on "The Question of Holland" (Spectator,
May 6th) contains the suggestive statement that, according to Germanophils, "if Holland would only consent to enter the Empire upon the terms of Bavaria, the dominions of the
house of Nassau would be far safer than at present." It is remarkable that such a question (mutatia mutatulis) was dis-
cussed in the time of Sir William Temple, as he tells us in his "Observations upon the United Provinces of the Nether- lands," a treatise which Macaulay has pronounced to be "a masterpiece in its kind." It is, indeed, admitted in that work that if the United Provinces were forced to become a mere province of some great kingdom, their statesmen would think it the least evil to be subject to England. But the author adds :—
"Before they come to such an extremity, they will first seek to be admitted, as a Belgic Circle, in the Empire (which they were of old), and thereby receive the protection of that mighty body, which (as far as great and smaller things may be compared) seems the likest their own State in its main constitutions, but especially in the freedom or sovereignty of the imperial cities. And this I have often heard their Ministers speak of, as their last refuge, in case of being threatened by too strong and fatal a conjuncture. And, if this should happen, the trade of the Provinces would rather be preserved or increased than any way broken or destroyed, by such an alteration of their State, because
—I am, Sir, 81,c., LIONEL A. TOLLEXACH E.
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