The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-06-19 00:00:00

THURSDAY „TUNE 19, 1856

source

Danish Sound Dues Committee com-
menced their work on Tuesday, and under very
favourable auspices. The first witness examined
was Mr. Bowitrso, Registrar of the Board of
Trade. This gentleman began with the Treaty of
Holland, dated 1544, and brought down the diplo-
matic history of the Dues to 1841. He then gave
us some rather valuable information with regard
to the late and present manipulation of revenue
from this source of taxation. Originally the
amount stipulated to be paid as Dues was limited
to one per cent., but it has now risen to two-and
a-half per cent., to which other charges have been
superadded, which are very nearly as much more.
Now, there is a vast difference between a tax of

one per cent. and 47, per cent. It forms a
serious item when spread over the ships and
merchandise of countries using the Sound, and

the largest trader in the Baltic. Deduct
or three-fourths from the Dues British

must to
she

with excessive weight on England, as

two-third

ships and goods now pay, and the Danish
charges would not be worth cavilling about, except
•. • _

on principle. Our quota towards the capitalisation
fund would not amount to 250,600/. if the treaties

THE

are rigidly observed. The proportional share now
demanded of us is set down in round numbers at
1,000,0001.

Before yielding a timid submission to such an
exorbitant demand, we would ask what particular
era or arrangement, does it date from? One per
cent, was the Sound charges agreed upon and pro-
vided for in the treaty of 1841. And, whatever
amount has been taken from us in excess of that
sum, we ought to be allowed credit for in the
final adjustment of the Dues. We might, with all
consistency, demand its re-payment. It is quite
certain that we never stipulated to pay more than
one per cent. ; but Mr. Bow RING states that " the
"practical effect of the treaty of 1811, in consequence
"of its complicated character, is to make us pay
" more than one per cent." Here our diplomatists
are again at fault, but what
to do with that? The Danish Government
must have known, for the last fifteen years,
what we agreed to pay, and that 47,- per cent.
was not one per cent. And the Cabinets we
have had at home within that time ought to have
looked to the unwarrantable embargoes Denmark
was laying on British shipping and merchandise.
Had the Chambers of Commerce remained silent,
and if America had not threatened to resist the
further payment of Dues after a certain day, the
Danes might have gone on mulcting our ship-
owners and merchants for ever without molesta-
tion ; and, what is more, 1,000,0001. of English
money would have been given, in all probability,
to the people who have been for years drawing
nearly four-fold more revenue from us than they
had any right to !
When Mr. B °WRING was asked by Mr. VILLIERS,
the Chairman of the Committee, whether there was
anything " unfair" on the part of the Danish
Government in carrying out the treaty, he replied,
" No ! I do not think that they ever charged more
" than appears on the face of the treaty itself." This
does not tally with this witness's statement with re-
spect to the Danish Government having consented to
a reduction of the Dues in 1841, and that" they took
" the average value of ships for the ten previous
" years, and made the reduction on that principle,''
which Mr. HUTT said " was to reluce all charges
"to a standard of one per cent." The avowed
object of the valuation and remodeling of the duty
was to obtain an abatement of the excessive im-
posts ; but now we are told by this witness, a
government employe, that the " practical effect" of
all we have done is to make us pay nearly four-fold
more than we actually agreed to ! After having
given publicity to these facts, the commercial com-
munity will be anxious to hear on what pretext
the Sound Dues Committee will venture to support
the capitalisation project. Confide recte agens will,
no cloullt, be their motto, and the public will most
unquestionably support them in that course.
But we must have no more consequences
of complicity to deplore. Denmark

have we

IS our

debtor. We have paid three times the amount we
undertook to pay her in Sound Dues ; and
if unjust and exorbitant taxation will not
be submitted to longer, she must accommodate
herself to the times, as well as all other Stees,
and obtain a revenue from a less unreasonable

THE public must have read with much regret
the many painful statements made in the course of

the debate on the army estimates in the House of
Commons on Tuesday. The laxity with which the
State accounts are prepared for Parliament, their
unintelliginle character, anti the preference shown
for forci

on mercenaries over the troops of England,
are all matters which must make a deep and lament-
able impression on the popular mind. If the
thoughtless official servant had to bear the burden

of the charges which these irregularities lead to,
there would be little room for complaint ; but where
their 'ls on the frugal and already

cad weight fa

over-taxed classes of the community, they become
insufferable. It appears from Mr. PEEL'S
speech that there are 21,719 foreign troops in the
British service, and their cost is, according to

Colonel DONNE, 601. per man, whereas our own sol-
diers only cost 151. or 101. Necessaries were also
given to the foreign legions which were not
bestowed upon our own troops. Sir DE LACY
EVANS complained loudly on this score, more espe
cially with regard to the extraordinary favour
shown to the German corps. With these re-
doubtable warriors, favouritism and toleration
have been carried to the last extremes of excess.
They are to be rewarded for the dangers they
have encountered in this peaceable land, not as the
gallant heroes who have served in the Crimean war
are to be, but as Germans really deserve. The
Foreigners are to get twelve months' pay when
they are disbanded, and a free passage to America
or the Cape, while our own Militia are to receive
only Ms., and are to be left to get abroad as
they can.

This is, to say the least of it, unfair, and it ought
to be rectified at once. It is equivalent to an
insult or reproach to the British army, and
injustice towards our militia. General Sir D. L.
EVANS spoke of it, as every British officer must, and
he evidently felt, as every soldier in her Majesty's
service must feel. And what must the gallant
veteran's emotion have been when he said distinctly
that, " there was a German influence exercised
"in this country which ought to be set aside.
" When they were disbanding the militia and the

troops of the line in the most ungrateful manner,

to send up German recruits, who had never fired
" a shot in the war, to be established as it would

" seem, permanently at Aldershott, was not a state
"of things which should be allowed to continue."
These sentiments were received by the House of
Commons, with sufficient approbation to show the
Ministry that their present policy, as regards.
the military affairs of the country, is thought
most objectionable. We wanted no foreign recruits
in our service, as we have stated all along, to aid
us in the late war. There was a superabundance
of English bone and sinew r,--ady for the ranks, if
proper bounties had been offered. We need not
have gone iu search of less, reliable materials, if we
had held out the same inducement at home as we
did abroad

Great and warlike Powers going to weak and
less determined nations for soldiers, is a novel and
dangerous expedient. The money spent in the
Turkish contingent can be justified, as the object
was to give the SULTAN, our Ally, the means of
defending his dominions, after the French and
British forces had been withdrawn. The Ottoman

required re-organising, and we undertook to
establish a nucleus from which the necessary
instruction might be imparted to the whole of the
Turkish forces. There was some show of reason
about such a design. But what did Great Britain
want with 21,000 Germans, Swiss, and Italians ?
Lancashire, alone, could have supplied double
that number of sterling Englismen, if s _
forward means had been taken to procure
them, and this i 3 a fact which it would
be well for some member of Parliament to
convey to Europe through the house of Commons
It is most impolitic in the present unsettled state
of the Continent to leave the world under the
impression that we are dependant on such paltry

traight

NORTHERN TIMES.-

aid for defence. A British army must necessarily
be a costly affair, and when we chose to find the

money to raise* its numerical strength to seven or
eight hundred thousand men, we can do it. These
are the truths which ought to be proclaimed to

surrounding States.

We want peace, and will forego much to keep it
now that we have it, but there is danger at all
times in a tacit admission of weakness, although
foreigners may doubt it, and know it to be
assumed. The recruiting system of England,
whether in time of peace or war, is most dis-
couraging, and is looked upon by all classes as
positively unjust and cruel, and to this system
alone may be ascribed our want of men in the hour
of need. The poor recruit gets literally nothing to
leave behind him with his relatives or friends, or
to take into his regiment. If he arrives at his
depot with a solitary shilling in his pocket, he
must be an old soldier before he has seen the

colour of his comrade's facings. We cannot, in
justice, attribute this source of military weakness
to " German influence ;" for it was in vogue for half
a century before we took council of Russia and
married the largest part of Germany. It is, in truth,
a purely national and orthodox piece of folly and
abuse, and since Sir DE LACY EVANS has directed
public attention to the subject, we hope he will
not lose sight of it until he has placed the country
in a position in which it will be totally independ-
ent of the services of foreign auxiliaries- The
English people have no objection whatever to the
Germans as neighbours ; but a German camp on
this Island is quite unnecessary, and Aldershott is
by far too near our hearths to be pleasant; and,
to preserve a good understanding between all
parties concerned in the debate of Tuesday last,
it would be well for the Government to take the
broad hints of the Commons, and not leave the
subjects alluded to to be taken up by less scrupul-
ous commentators, and more ardent leaders out of
doors.

THE COURT