The Express.
London, England, 1856-07-07 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 7.

WE entirely °occur with a correepondent of the
Daily Aa ws from Lubeck, that the time has now coos
when Denmark must abolish the Transit Duties
she has imposed on the transit of goods through
the Duchies, as well as the Sound Dues, which she
has so long extorted from ships passing through the
mouths of the Baltic. He is quite cornet in hie
statement that the imposition of the Transit Does is
a gross violation of those ancient rights which the
Hansa Towns won from the German Empire; he
might have added, they are also at variance with all
those sound principles which sway modern com-
merce. Except in Austria and Denmark, there
- is not one European State in which transit
does now exist ; and in Austria they are Loa.
posed to eke out an insolvent revenue, while
In Denmark they have been resorted to in order to
protect and defend the Sound Dues. As, however,
the Committee of the House of Commons en the
Sound Dues bas turned its attentioa to the Danish
Transit Dues, there is, we trust, some °bases that
English diplomacy will again make a serious effort to
induce the Danish Cabinet to abrogate a tax which
inflicts a maximum injury on trade, and yields a
minimum revenue to the State.
The road which connects Hamburg on the Elbe with

Lhbeek on the Baltic, is one of the most ancient in

Europe; it is the shortest and most secure route from the
• West to the North; it the passage through the
Cattegat and the Belt, with its dangers, its ice, its
high freights and high rates of insurance ; it is tLe
natural mode of transit for all lighter and more
valuable articles. Already British goods to the extent
of 1,300,0001. a year use it ; and, if placed on the
same footing as roads in all other civilised countries,
its traffic would within three years be certainly trebled.
But, unfortunately for Lubeck and Hamburg in parti-
cular, and for trade in general, the road for about
half its distance pules through the German Dubin,
which diplomacy, to the manifest advantage of Ruda,
has insisted shall remain Danish. That gives Den-
mark complete power over this great arterial line of
European intercommunication; and most perversely
has Denmark used its power.
For many years previously to 1839 the Danish
Government, of malice prepense, rendered this road
impassable for all heavy goods, and would not allow
public conveyances to use it. At last, however, the
two free towns insisted on its improvement, and im-
proved it at thi it own cost. Then, for the first time
in history, Deem rk imposed Transit Dam, so
heavy in uncut that all the countries concerned
protested against the infliction. Newark yielded
a little to the general indiguatice ; she con-
ciliated Rossi• by exempting from any duels
those articles in the import of whisk Bessie enjoys
nearly • monopoly, but which from their
bulk would
Lord PALNEUTON for a while by equal rates on
goods liable to the duties, and by some modification
of the tariff. The Hanes Towns appealed to the
German Diet against any does on transit through
Holstein and Lewisburg seen infraction of their im-
perial privileges and of treaties ; but the Diet, ready
enough on all =maims to assist arbitrary princes,
had no sympathy with the free towns, and they
were obliged to submit.
They did sot, however, acquiesce patiently. They
fancied they saw • remedy for their grievance in
railway enterprise; and the cepitalists of LObeek sad
Hamburg constructed railroads, some 70 miles long,
scam the Duchies to =sweet the two town', Den-
mark not contributing one Wiese to the work. Bat
the railroads finished, the Transit Dees were imposed
on them se well as on the ordinary rude, and each Is
their pecuniary weight that they actually exceed the
cost of the transport of goods. Bo that Denmark pre-
vents the line being used to the extent it otherwise
would, and receives from the tolls it levies some
8,0001. a year, without rendering a Biagio service in
return, and iu flitting grievous injury ce corameree,and
preledicing in the most serious mow the literate
of the shareholders by whom mosey this most metal
work was muted. This conduct is so monstrous
that it would appear incredible were there not a very
intelligible reason for it.
The real and almost avowed object of Denmark in
introducing these Transit Duties was sad is toucan
the revenue, it derives from the Bowed Dues, by
interposing pecuniary obstacles to the transmission
of goods overland, by which the long voyage round
the Bound and the payment of the Bound Dues would
be avoided. That ibis is the reason. t►e hisser which
she has shown Rossi& from the first impurities
of these due would be evidence fungi ; far ori-
ginally they were applicable to ell goods, only those
coming from the west had to pay double rates, while
those from the east had merely a single rate to contend
against. On the suggestion of a retaliatory mew
UM
from Lord PAutaxerox, Denmark, however,
abandoned these differential rates. Bat she exempted
pitch, hemp, flax, hemmed, lisseed, lamp oil,
tallow, tar, &c., all Rlllllll4ll staples, from
payment of any dues. By this onosseica Reesia's
support of the fransit Due system was purchased.
Bat there is better evidence that by the Transit
Dees Denmark seeks to protect the Baud Dues,
than even the exemption of Russian exports. If the
reader will look at • railway map, he will see that
from • point midway between Hamburg and Lubeck,
the railway starts away at Bamboo for Berlin, and so
direct on to Breslau and Cracow, with SONS half
dozen links connecting it with other great railway
systems on either side. Were Denmark only seek-
ing re by means of these Transit Dees, they
would be distinguished by uniformity of amount,
regardless of the dm, inatioo of the goods on which
they were levied. The very reverse, however, is the
ease; for not only are Russian staples wholly
exempted; bat while the transit duty to and from
Hamburg and Lubeck is five ,killings Holstein cur-
ressey, and 6 per cent. thereon in the shape of fete,
or 4jd. • cwt.; to or from Prussia it is only one
stilling • cwt. on the rail, and for good' on the
made in that direction nothing at all. Mark the
scandalous injustice of this. The free towns of
Lubeck and Hamburg are taxed by Denmark
on • railway which they llionsoloo• mode, 181 48
extent equivalent to the freight, w►ilst Russia
is allowed by Denmark to pass over untaxed, and
Prussia, when lot brought into competition with the
Bound navigation, is passed for one-fifth the amount
extorted from the free towns. The thing is es UM.
strong that to state it, one would really suppose
would be to overthrow it.
The Danish Government knows vary well that the
imposition is untenable, and it purchased the aequi.
menses of the free towns for a while by la article in
the Treaty of July, 1840, whereby it undertook
to reduce the duty " whenever a Asap i.

the meditions of the traffic should acme
Now, no greater change could wear then that
which Denmark has itself proposed, the Adidas of
the Bound Dees on compensation. If the passage of
the Boned became free, and the existing or any doss
remained on the transit across Holstein and Lanes-
burg, the conveyance of goods by that rotate would
become practically impossible, foe *pyramid by
transit duty while the Bound was untaxed, the road
between Lubeck and Hamburg would n•awrily
have to be abandoned. If, therefore, in coming to an
arrangement as to the abolition of the Boned Da es
with Denmark, Lord CLARENDON do not provide
also for the abolition of these Transit Doss, be will
secure 'for a bad route, for light goods, a preference
over a good route, and seriously prejudice freedom of
trade.

The Danish Oovernment, long experience shows,
does not care two straws for the remonstrances of the

Hans. Towns on this or any other subject. Stronger
infloenoes most, therefore, be brought to bear on the
Cabinet of Copenhagen than any that Lubeck or
Hamburg can exert. No country has a deeper ia.
tweet in the question of free transit acmes the Duchies
than England. Already Hamburg sends yearly to La-
beak British manufactures and British colonial pro-
duce of the value of 1,300,0001.; from Lubeck they
are dispersed in steamers all over the Baltic; and it
only requires the abolition of these Transit Duties
very largely to increase this trade, and to give to
Lubeck all its natural and acquired advantages.
Roost= goods coming from the north scram the
Doilies are almost all free; Prussian goods pay only
one-fifth; but Hellish goods going to Lubeck are
charged with a pecuniary birchen equal to the rail-
way freight. Lord CLAIINDON has, therefore, an
irresistible case for interference. The subject
has been fully brought under the oousideration
of the Bound Dues Committee of the House of Com-
mons; sod it will not, we trust, be denied due
prominence in the Report of a Committee over which
so emioest a Free-trader as Mr. CHALLIS VILLILLS
presides. At all events, it is quite impassible that
the Bound Does can be settled without a concurrent
settlement of the Lubeck and Hamburg, and also the
Tonoingsen and Flensburg, Transit Duties; and it
will be our business to see that popular attention is
kept alive to the subject, should them be any indi-
cations of official apathy.