The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-22 00:00:00

at this moment overcast. Mr. Attwood, whose ,
visions are of paper bullets, will make as few converts,
we hope, to his warlike as to his equitable adjustment
of the national difficulties. The motives of the' Brum-
magem Tyrtmus" are pretty obvious, and England will
scarcely be roused by his appeal in favour of one-pound
notes and Warwickshire gun-barrels ! But it becomes a
serious question for the country, whether personages of
the political calibre of Lord Palmerston, and some
others whom we could name, in high office, are not
sensible encouragements to other Powers to go to war
with England, whether she likes it or not. No more
bitter sarcasm could be delivered against that Noble
Lord than the reference made by Mr. P. M. Stewart,
on Friday last, to his Lordship's speech on the Polish
question in 1832, when he expressed a disbelief in the
bold and criminal designs then ascribed to Russia as
against the unfortunate Poles—just akin to his present
cynfidence, in the smooth and easy fashion after which
his diplomatic Lordship and his allies are now to dis-
pose of the embarrassments caused to us on the side of
Turkey. To keep a formidable naval force on foot we
acknowledge freely to be a sound measure, one by
' which peace may most probably be preserved, and the
risk of war avoided. Nor do we suppose that Minis-
ters, however stupid, will listen to the wild nonsense of
discarding all attention to the interests of our foreign
policy, as an excuse for breaking down the defengive
force of the empire. We repeat, therefore—keep a
• good fleet at sea ; but that is not sufficient—take care
who is at the helm. The disasters and disgraces of the
Whig warfare of 1806 will never be .wiped, out from•
• the stained standard of this empire) they are the only

military degradations we have suffered within the las
35 years.—Times.
Among the various important subjects alluded to in
the House of Commons, upon the discussion of Lord
Dudley Stuart's motion respecting Russia, there was
one of no slight interest in a mercantile as well as in a
political point of view ; we allude to the notice taken
-ofiithe union of customs' regulations, and 'commercial
imposts, throughout
_a great number of the German
States, which is. generally called the PrusSian, or
Prusso-Germanic-League. We are inclined to agree
with the Right -Hon. the President of the Board of
Trade, that the subject was rather irregularly intro-
duced into a discussion upon the designs of Russia ;
for, however profound and extensive the interference of
that Power may be in the purely diplomatic or military
affairs Of all the States of Europe-north of the Rhine;
there is no reason to suppose that she took any share
in the formation of this commercial. union. The opi-;
nion of the best informed persons upon questions
of foreign commerce is indeed exactly the
.reverse,
and it is believed that the Prusso-Germanie cus-
toms' league one of the few things which took
the crafty Ministers of Russia by. surprise. 'The
speech delivered • by the Right Hon. President,
which, he said, he was
_alone itn,Wccd to make by the
allusion of other Members to the 'Prussian league, is
in several respects a very curious- one. In the firA
place the remonstrance he made against the introduc-
tion of the topic at all, and particularly against the
:supposition that Russia could have had anything to i'6;
with it wort' all the appearance of anger,- and the
•
brief way in which he disposed of4h9 pretensions of
f the Portfolio, whose disclosures the Ministerial Papers
have of 'late b( en extolling to the skies, showed how
'very: little, sympathy he had upon this qnestioa
with the writers o these Papers. He could not
ooceive, 'he said, how the subject of the Prussia!)
leagne'should have found its way into the debate,
unless it had arisen from the statements contained
iu "an absurd publication called the PorVolio.7
Let .ohr readers bear' in mind that the publication so
contemptuously alluded to by the Minister is Very
bostile- -to Russian • views and Russian Diplu-
uu and - let
.the. marked enmity to it be compared
with the'subsequent tone of the Right Hon. Pim.-
dent's speech', when adverting directly to Russia.
He insisted strongly that. the trade with Russia was of
great importance to this country, and called upon the
Hon. Member for Tvnemouth to bear witness that it
was all carried on in •British vessels. He- tetuarks.d
that this was altogether through the grace and favour of
Russia, for there was nO freatfuor agreement by which
Russian or other foreign ships should be excluded from
the trade, lie then went on to censure, in very car-
' nest terms, the-strong language which Mainieen used
against Rus.sia. "It was nOt,".he said, "by calling
the people of a great nation barbarians, and assailing
- them by every species of abuse, that good-was to he
obtained ; " and he added,' that " to. create an7ry
feelings, and to embitter the sentiments of those with
whom it was our interest to stand well, was anything
but judicious." This is. remarkable language from
a member of the present Government especially when
we recollect that personS connected with that Govern-
ment have used the very bitterest expressions against
Russia• in the House of .Commons ;, and the Minis-
terial prints have added all the 'weight in their power
to *those expressions of hostile feeling. It may be worth
while, for many important reasons, to consider how it
happens that the Right Hon. Mr. Thomson should
feel so strongly the advantages of behig on good terms
with Russia, and deprecate so earnestly any language
or course of policy which might give offence to that
Power. But to return to the Prussian leacrue. The
Right Hon. President of the; Board of Trade does'not
seem to be quite so clear about its tendencies as lie
is respecting the impolicy of quarrelling with Russia.
He says that it limits the power of Prussia, because
when she stood alone she had it in her 'own power to
make what regulations she pleased, but now she can
only make them in conjunction with the other States.
He mentioned, also, the advantages of having only
one line of Custom-houses to pass, instead of a great
many, as heretofore. Here, again, we must say that
Mr. Thomson is able to see advantage where few but
himself would be so ingenious as to discover any.
But what is most curious is this—that while in
detail he denies that there is any disadvantage from
the-league, and endeavours to show that the results
will not be injurious; but beneficial, he afterwards ad-
mits, in general terms, that lie thinks the league,'upon
the whole, disadvantagtous to this country, and then
again, before he has done, he alleges that experience
has not shown that the 'league is disadvantageous to
the commerce of Great Britain. It is not very easy
to know what to make of such statements as these,
following close upon one another. The simple fact is,
that the tariff on British produce, to which so many
German States have bound themselves by this league,
is a tremendous increase on the duties formerly levied.
We do not see how any commercial man can dciiht
that this is disadvantageous, and when carried to a
great extent, as there seems reason to fear .that
it may be, very seriously and even alarmingly so.
If any one would be aware of the facts upon
the subject, we would refer him to an article
in Blackwood's Magazine for January, which,
though written in a flighty and over-vehement
style, is, notwithstanding, full of very important infor-
mation. Coming from such a quarter, this inforMation
may, we suppose, be fully depended upon. We learn
there that . the Prussian league, at the latter end of
1830, comprised only Prussia and Hesse. Darmstadt,
containing together 14,020,000 inhabitants, and that
a Hanoverian counter-league was in existence, in
which agreat many States joined, making altogether
14,130,000 inhabitants. But so active has the policy
of Prussia been, that at the close of 1835, the Prus-
sian league comprised Prussia, Bavaria, Wurtemburg,
Saxony, Baden, Nassau, Hesse Cassel, Hesse Darm-
stadt, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and other small States
not enumerated, making altogether upwards of
-25,000,000 of people, while the Hanoverian counter-
league had dwindled away to-nothing at all. Now
what is the nature of the Customs' regulations to
which the States comprised in the Prussian league
have agreed ? Instead of a moderate ad valorem
duty, which we understand to have been the former
regulation—a duty which did not amount to more
than 10 per cent—there is.-decreed a duty of ls. 6d.
rpeetrs, apoililnd all id recigoltittoonnpciaelcieco"..eod
s,oyse.lveNtSo,wv,ealvsettheeencso,sytelolf,ea-
piece of calico of four pounds weight is about 65., this
duty is equivalent to 100 per cent. The duty on fus--
tian comes to about 55 per cent., on cotton prints it is
from 40 to 50 per cent., but on cambrics and musliws
not quite 30. The duty on woollen or worsted goods
is 965. per 110 lbs.—on carpets 60s. for the same
weight. Cast iron work is to pay 3s. per 110 lbs.—
wrought iron work 18s., and fine hardware, 305., for
,
the same weight. Now these are tremendous duties,