Citations:Dutch reckoning

English citations of Dutch reckoning

• 1811, William Cobbett, Parliamentary History of England, volume 7 (section 3 George I. 1717 &mdash: Proposal from the Bank of England), pages 467 468:

  Mr. Pulteney made a speech, wherein he shewed, That there had been great sums of money embezzled in this Expedition; that he could not fix the fraud upon any body; but that it plainly appeared, that the sum of upwards of 2,000/. was twice charged for the sameservice, viz. for transporting the Dutch Forces into Great Britain.

  [...]

  Mr. Hungerford spoke in favour of the lord Cadogan, and said, He wondered there was so much noise made about a Dutch reckoning; that by all that had been laid before them, the lord Cadogan appeared very innocent; and therefore he thought he deserved rather the praise, than the censure of the House.

• 1892, George Walter Thornbury, Old and New London: a Narrative of its History, its People, and its Places, volume V, page 453:

  Driver. And d'you think me so very shallow, captain, to leave the good of the nation and getting money to muddle it away here 'mongst fops, fiddlers, and furbeloes, where ev'ry thing's as dear as freeholders' votes, and a greater imposition than a Dutch reckoning? I am come hither, but it is to ferret out a frisking wife o' mine, one o' the giddy multitude that's rambled up to this ridiculous assembly.

• 2009, Georgette Heyer, Frederica, page 75:

  'That's better!' he said, still smiling, but very much more pleasantly. 'Rig Jane out in the first style of elegance, and send me a Dutch reckoning: I don't want to know the particulars.'

• (may not support the "bill" sense:)
• 1712, Roger Coke, A Detection Of The Court and State Of England During The Four Last Reigns, page 22:

  As if all Light of Reasoning were so shut up in Clavius his Brain, that because he does not see, the rest of Mankind must be blind; and what is that way of Reasoning that he betakes himself to, but by huddling the Principles of Geometry into Confusion, without order of method of Reasoning, to make a Conclusion, like a Dutch Reckoning of Allem-al?

• 1828, Death on Board-Wages, published in Tales of an Antiquary (volume 2 of 3) by Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street, London:

  "You knows we never took Mike's duds till you couldn't pay his charges any longer; and since we comes to that, there's two weeks of three shillings and sixpence due for your lodging in the Star-Chamber, for yourself and Master Lionel Falconer, which I supposes you means to pay with a Dutch reckoning: you sees I can speak some names right enough,—d'ye take me,—hey?" and with an ill-natured leer he left the hall.