Re: OT: Dutch/Junk/Dim S(ui)m

Roger Mills scripsit:

> First day on the job, a co-worker recited a wonderful little quatrain about
> the Dutch, of which I only remember the last line---
Probably George Canning (1770-1827, Prime Minister of the U.K. for a
few months of 1827).  In 1826 he sent a coded dispatch to the British
Ambassador to the Netherlands:

        In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch
        Is giving too little and asking too much;
        With equal protection the French are content
        So we'll lay on Dutch bottoms just twenty percent.

The last line refers to imposing import taxes; a "bottom" is by metonymy
a cargo vessel.

--
John Cowan       http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        <jcowan@...>
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  `Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)

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