The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-13 00:00:00

and the Russians have takeiooicare that the
Danube shall be 'flutists clauses., contrary to their
promises, and even existing treatise. But the abates
of the Stade and Sound Dues come much nearer home,
and ought to be taken in hand by the British govern.
ment vigorously, and without loss of time:
Before exposing the monstrous arrogance and
arbitrary conduct of the Hanoverian government offi-
cials, I would beg permission to give a brief historical
sketch of the origin of these vexatious Stade Dues, in
order that the British public may be enabled tojudge
what legal right Hanover has to demand this toll,
and on what a flimsy foundation the whole syitem is
based.

It was about the middle of the eleventh century
that Hamburg, about a couple of hundred years after
its foundation by Charlemagne, had become a place
of considerable importance, and was even then the
great mart of foreign commerce in the north of Ger-
many, in spite of the depredations of the Northmeu,
Sea Kings, and, other marine freebooters who infested
the North Sea, to say nothing of the inland knights
and nobles, who, with more or less show of pretended
right, levied arbitrary contributions on the peaceful
traders on the Elbe, Rhine, and other riven of Ger.
many. The introduction of Christianity had by
degrees a favourable influence on this barbarous state
of things, and commerce developed itself as the lose-
corky of the seas diminished. But it was also owing
to the introduction of Christianity that the rising
spirit of trade was fettered by many of those feudal
privil, gee granted by zealous sovereigns for
the benefit of Mother Church, and which still
survive the wreck of moat of the institutions of the
dark middle ages. It was a principle laid down by
the Suabian Emperors that the right of levying tolls
belonged exclusively to the sovereign, who alone had
the power to delegate the authority to churchmen or
laymen.
Generosity to the church, and especially to the
monastic establishments, which in those ages were
the seats of learning and literature, was generally
considered the greatest virtue in a sovereign; and
grants of lands and tolls and other privileges were
showered upon the monasteries with liberal hand,
and frequently without any great regard to the
rights and property of other parties. Under the
Saxon Emperors of Germany but few restrictions on
commerce were introduced, and this is probably the
reason that it flourished so much then. It was only
at a later date, and under the Franconian Emperors,
that the numerous grants of river tolls on verse's
navigating the Rhine, Danube, and Elbe were so
plentifully made, chiefly for the support
ban of the
convents that sprung up on the of those
rivers.

It was to one of these grants—and that, too, to the
Bishop of Hamburg—that commerce was indebted
for the first introduction of the Stade dues. The
Emperor Conrad, "in grateful remembrance of the
Divine grace by which he was raised to the dignity
of emperor," felt it to be his conscientious duty to
pay particular attention to the well-being of the
church throughout the whole of the holy empire; and
therefore, "for the benefit of his soul," empowered
Bezelinus, Archbishop of Hamburg, by • charter
dated 10th December, 1038, to found a new market
at a place called Stade, on ecclesiastical territory, if
needful and profitable, granting him the jurisdiction
and right of mint, toll, and other emoluments it might
produce.t
It was from the profit arising from this market at
Stade that the Archbishop was enabled to build the
Cathedral at Hamburg of stone (it had till then been
only a wooden one), to construct for himself a suit-
able residence, and to surround the town with walls
strong enough to resist the incursions of the sur-
rounding barbarians. The expressions market, toll,
and mint (mercatus, theloneum, moneta), implied
nothing more than similar ones in all the other
charters of the period, the toll naturally having re-
ference to the goods actually brought to market. But
the transition from the market toll to the dues levied
on passing vessels is easily explained. The estab-
lishment of a new market at Stade was probably
considered desirable, to evade the barbarous
hordes which swarmed on the other aide of the
Elbe, and to draw some ,of the commerce of the

country to the new mart. Against this arrangement
no objection could be raised, es both places were
under the government of the same dignitary. But
as, in spite of the new market at Stade, the commerce
continued to concentrate itself at Hamburg, it appears
exceedingly natural that the merchants should by
degrees have found it to their interest to compromise
for their obligation to unload their vessels at the
month of the Schwinge, and carry their goods up to
Stade--a distance of two or three miles—by the
payment of a fine or toll. The expression in the
charter, "if needful and useful" (ri guando rei
neceasitas eaposeat vel Waite:), ought not to be
overlooked, u the direct meaning implies that if the
object in view was not attained—in other words, if
the proposed market should turn out a failure, which
it was—then of course the grant was abolished. The
charter of confirmation granted by Conrad's successor,
the Emperor Henry. IIL, and bearing the date of
May, 1040 (which is still extant), makes, also, no
mention of an Elbe toll, bat uses the same words si
in the original grant.
The exact period when this market toll was trans.
formed into a river one is not known ; at least there
are no documents or writings in the archives at
Hamburg that throw-any light on the subject.

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rat publicise Sans °Miners potorit, pratibatte lianiburgensi
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