17 FEBRUARY 1900, Page 16

DRYDEN AND THE DUTCH.

[TO THE EDITOR. OP THE "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—These few lines of Dryden's in his "Satire on the Dutch" may not possibly be inappropriate to some English- men at the present time :— " The dotage of some Englishmen is such

To fawn on those who ruin them—the Dutch.

They shall have all, rather than make a war With those who of the same religion are."