The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-24 00:00:00

THE STADE DUTIES.

(FROM A .CORRESPONDENT.)
Our attention has been drawn to a pamphlet
recently published by Mr. HUTT, the Member for
Hull, relative to the collection of the Stade Duties
by the King of HANovER. Having read this
clear matter-of-fact statement with care, we must
repress our astonishment at two things—first, that
any nation in the world should have had the hardi-
hood to volunteer so much offence and injury to the
British flag ; and, secondly, that Great Britain
should so long have patiently submitted to it. Here
is a paltry German King, who has been heaping
for five-and-twenty years together a weight of arbi-
trary and vexatious restrictions upon British com-
merce in the Elbe, which NAPOLEON himself, in
the plenitude of his power, would scarcely have ex-
ceeded towards the most prostrate of his conquered
enemies. What have our Rulers been about ?
What have our Parliamentary Representatives been
doing all this time, that not a syllable of remon-
strance has been breathed by any one against this
outrage on our national interests and honour. That
our merchants have complained of it both often and
bitterly, Mr. HUTT has given us ample evidence
but till the Hon. Gentlemen himself brought the
matter under the consideration of the House of
Commons at the beginning of the present Session,
we cannot recollect that any individual whatever
among those who undertake to superintend and to
protect the public welfare, has ever bestowed on it
the least consideration. The Stade Duties, as
they have long been enforced, are a scandal and a
reproach to our Legislature. Nor is this all :
while we lament over the loss and detriment
which has thereby accrued to an important branch
of our national industry—while we denounce the
violations of which the Hanoverian Princes have
been guilty of the best interests of Great Bri-
tain—we must not shut our eyes to the fact that

public men in this country, who are specially bound
to vindicate our rights, and who might have removed
all these evils if they would, and did not, are accom-
plices in the crime. Let us state the case as we
find it in the work before us.

In 1709 the Duchy of Bremen, which includes

the town of Stade, was added to the Hanoverian
dominions of GEORGE 1., on Great Britain paying
as purchase money 150,0001. At that time the
owners of Stade were accustomed to levy certain
tolls on ships passing up the Elbe. These tolls
had been fixed by a treaty. Stade no sooner fell
into the hands of the House of GUELPH than
efforts were made to encroach on the rate of tolls,
the proceeds of which went to the account of the
private finances of the KING. The French stopped
all toll taking at Stade, when they got possession of the
North of Germany, at the beginning of this century ;
but when they were driven beyond the Rhine in
1813, the King of HANovEn resumed his privi-
lege. He resumed it with great impatience—he
increased the rate of the old tolls and invented new
ones. Among the many proceedings of the Congress
of Vienna in 1815, it must be noticed, to its credit,
that it suggested certain very excellent measures
for regulating commercial intercourse on the rivers of
Germany, and on the Elbe among the rest.
These regulations, if carried into effect, would
have deprived the King of HANOVER of all power
of arbitrarily taxing shipping on that river. Unfortu-
nately, the Congress left certain matters of detail to

be adjusted by the States bordering on the River,
and the King of HANOVER contrived so to con-
found and embarrass the negociations thus entered
into, in regard to the Stade tolls, that at the conclu-
sion of the business, he caused the final regulation
of them to be adjourned to a more convenient sea-
son, and due care has since been taken that this
convenient season should never arrive. By this
piece of dexterity, he has contrived to levy tolls and
impose restrictions, and enforce penalties on the
trade of the Elbe, aceordini to his own sweet will,
up to the present hour. It is almost worth while
for a Chancellor of the Exehequer to take-a trip to
Hamburg to observe what a clever and compre-
hensive tax-trap has been devised at Stade. It is
absolutely a fiscal curiosity, and valuable to King
ERN EST as it is ingenious, for it brings him in
nearly 100,0001. per annum--money collected at his
discretion, and disposed of at his pleasure. He also
enjoys thereby the exquisite satisfaction of holding
in subjection to his absolute control all the ships,
cargoes, and crews that venture into the Elbe. His
MAJESTY entertains a man-of-war supplied, we
believe, by Great Britain, anchored off Stade,
armed with guns, to play upon the trading
vessels and steam-boats that offend against his laws
or become disagreeable to his officer, and these guns
are not unfrequently resorted to ; and though ships
escape the distinction of being fired upon at Stade,
the Captain of every vessel proceeding up the river,
is required to execute a bond at that town, whereby
he engages to surrender his vessel and all on board
to the dictates of the Hanoverian officers ; and if
any irregularity, real or imaginary, is detected in
the ship's company, cargo, or papers, sinning
against the ordinances and pleasure of the Custom-
officers of Hanover, " the ship and all on board,"
says Mr. HUTT, " fall immzdiately under the tender
mercies of the Hanoverian authorities, by whom de-
tention, fine, and confiscation, penalties awarded,
on no intelligible principle, and enforced without
appeal, are dealt out as caprice or rapacity may
suggest."

This is a pleasant state of things beyond doubt
—it becomes a great nation, and is calculated to
inspire other countries with a profound respect for
the dignity, public spirit, and administrative energy
of Great Britain. It is the more deserving of at-
tention, says the writer, because every impediment
thrown in the way of our commerce on the Elbe
cements more strongly the commercial union insti-
tuted at Berlin, and because a shilling of impost
levied on the introduction of our manufactures into
Germany acts as a bounty to the productions of the
rival artizans of the Continent.

We trust that Mr. HUTT'S useful pamphlet will
be widely circulated, and carefully studied. We
particularly commend it to the attention of Lord
PALMERSTON.

*
The Stade Duties Considered, by William llutt, M. P.
Ridgway.

TIIE LION, A TALE OF TIIE COTERIES.—
We are requested to state that Mr. Colburn, of Great
Malborough-street, has this day published " The Lion,
a Tale of the Coteries," in 3 vols. post Bvo., which can be
had at all the Libraries. Mr. Colburn has also just pub.
lisbed the following new works of fiction:—l. Cranmer,
by a Member of the Roxburghe Club, 3 vols. •2. Fair
Rosamond, or the days of King Henry 11., by the author
of " Royston Gower," &c., 3 vols. 3. The Highland
Inn, 3 vols. 4. The Banished, edited by James
ilorier, Esq., author of " Hajji Baba," &c., in 3 vols.
5. The Phantom Ship, by Captain Marryat, 3 vols. ; and
6. The Youth of Shakspeare, by the author of " Shahs-
peare and his Friends," 3 vols.
39, ALBENIARLE-STREET, PICCADILLY.--
The Messrs. S. and B. Solomons, Opticians and Aurists
to the Royal Family, are happy to inform the public, that
after thirty years' practice they have succeeded in effecting
a most important improvement for Deafness and Defective
Vision. Their Invisible Voice Conductor is constructed
upon such a principle, that when fixed in the ears it is not
perceived, and in company most severe cases of deafness
are not in the least perceptible. The Messrs. Solomons are
highly gratified to find that numerous individuals of the
highest respectability are daily calling to express their
feelings of gratitude for the great benefit they have de-
rived. Their newly-invented Spectacle Lenses give relief
to weak, dim, and imperfect vision. It is particularly ne-
cessary to observe that the Messrs. S. have no connection
with persons of the same name, nor with any one who
have, and who are daily endeavouring to imitate them ;
their valuable improvements in the material are secret to
themselves, and are solely confined to their establishment,
39, Albemarle-street. No travellers are employed.
METROPOLITAN ANTI-BRIDGE TOLL As-
sociATlON.—A petition to Parliament and an address to
the Queen have been drawn up by the above association,
and are in course of signature at the various localities con-
nected with the Waterloo, Southwark, and Vauxhall
Midges. The prayer of the petition and of the address
is, that these bridges may be immediately thrown open for
the use of the public free of toll.