ghteenth century.

"Nowhere had resentment against 'perfide Albion' penetrated
national feeling more deeply than in the Netherlands. Between the
Dutch and English characters there is absolute incompatibility."

As a rule, I attach little faith to such generalities; in this case, I
am sure, rightly. Forgetting his dictum of "absolute incompatibility"
(p. 449), Dr. Kuyper, at p. 520, shows that, as far as he is concerned,
it is only relative; for in speaking of England, he goes on to say:--

"Were I not a Dutchman, I should prefer to be one of her sons. Her
habitual veracity is above suspicion; the sense of duty and justice
is innate in her. Her constitutional institutions are universally
imitated. Nowhere else do we find the sense of self-respect more
largely developed."

Dr. Kuyper further admits that the "incompatibility" is relative as far
as Afrikanders are concerned, it is only "absolute" as applied to the
Boers. After giving us this example of the consistency of his views, Dr.
Kuyper speaks of the English as being "unobservant." A reproach somewhat
unexpected, when directed against the countrymen of Darwin. As a proof,
he presents us with this metaphor, equally unexpected from the pen of a
Dutchman--a dweller of the plains:--

"Because, in winter, the English had only seen in these
insignificant river beds a harmless thread of frozen water, they
took no thought of the formidable torrent which the thawing of the
snow, in spring, would send rushing down to inundate their banks."

"The torrent" is of course the war now going on. Lord Roberts seems to
be successfully coping with the "inundation."

3.--_"The Crime."_

Dr. Kuyper approves of the "Petition of Rights" of 1881. It sets forth
that the South African Dutch do not recognise the cession made by the
King of Holland in 1814; it does not admit that he had the right to
"sell them like a flock of sheep." There have been Boers in rebellion
since 1816.

One of these was a man named Bezuidenhout. In resisting a Sheriff who
tried to arrest him, he was shot. His friends summoned to their aid a
Kaffir Chief, named Gaika. The English authorities condemned five of the
insurgents to be hanged. The rope broke. They were hanged over again.

Dr. Kuyper, and the "Petition of Rights" found their indictment of the
British upon this event which they denominate "the Crime." The scene of
the execution was named "