The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-12 00:00:00

nected with the press. 'He could say with respect to such im-
peachment of his veracity, if such an insinuation had been in-
tended, that it was in itself a l'alsellood.—( Hear.) No dis-
covery could be made that could have impeached his veracity,
but, on the contrary, would have shotvn the utter ignorance of
him who sought to impeach it. It could not hare bdured his
'vanity, because he had never disavowed that, at one period of
his life, he did conduct a public journal, which had been
sometimes alluded to in that House ; on the contrary,
he had felt then as he would now, proud of such an applica-
tion of those talents, be they more or less, which Providence
had blessed him with.---( A laugh.) It had been also said
that his origin was humble. He only wished the person who
bad made use of that expression had looked back to the
founder of his own tamily—a humble practitioner in the law
neither had any one member of his race been distin-
guished by any act, until his Majesty, unfortunately as
he (Mr. Walter) thought, had called him to his councils.
But if the secresy of their private lives were to be invaded,
and laid before the public, he trusted that his accuser would
be found to have been the more foolish fellow of the two.—
(Great laughter, and cries of hear, hear.) He moved the
question of which he had given notice, namely, that the hour
at which business was to commence should be stated in the
public notices as well as the hour at which Mr. Speaker was
to take the chair; but as he had merely given notice of this
in order to bring forward a matter personal to himself, he
should withdraw the motion.
Colonel SIBTHORP rose, but was interrupted by
The SPEAKER, who asked the Hon. and Gallant Mem-
bcr if he intended to move any thing?
Colonel SIBTHORP replied in the negative, and imme-
diately sat down.
TRADE WITH JAVA.

Mr. P. M. STEWART had to bring before the House the
substance of a petition of great importance to the mercantile
interests of the country, which had been presented by him
on the `ith June ; and he regretted that so important a peti-
tion had been presented at so late a period of the session. It
had been signed by all the principal manufacturers and mer-
chants of Glasgow in the course of a few hours, and it related
to the conduct of the Dutch with regard to the Colony of
Java, ceded to them by the English in 1814. The petition
set forth the particular agreement that had been entered into
with them on that cession, and which was most favourable to
the trade of England, from the liberal way in which she had
given up the colony; but the terms of that agreement
had been violated in such a way as to have almost destroyed
the trade of England with that colony. The petitioners con.
eluded by praying that steps would be taken to put an end to a
system which was derogatory to the character of this country,
and most injurious to her commercial interests. It appeared
that in 1811 the island of Jiva had been taken from the
Dutch, it being then under the same Government as the Cape
of Good Hope, taken in the same war, and it was afterwards
ceded to the Dutch, they pay- ing a million sterling for what
was termed in domestic parlance the fixtures of the island.
The principle laid down in the Treaty was, that all goods
coming in Dutch ships should pay a duty of six per cent.
and all goods coming in other ships 8 per cent. That arrange.
ment had been made in 1816. In the year 1818, the Dutch
Commissioners being jealous of the trade the English were
carrying on, raised the per centage on goods brought by Dutch
vessels to 8 per cent,, and on all others, including English, to
16 per cent. Notwithstanding that the English still kept the
lead, and a proclamation was issued by the Governor, taking
off all the duty on goods imported in Dutch vessels, and leav-
ing the duty of 16 per cent. upon English and other goods ;
even after this disadvantage two-thirds of the trade remained
in the hands of the English, which raised the jealousy of the
Dutch to such a pitch, that in 1824 the then notorious Gover-
nor, by proclamation, raised the duties upon English goods to
24 per cent., while the whole was taken off Dutch goods ;
and this high duty was not imposed only upon those goods
which were afterwards imported, but actually on those then
in bond in the island. Then came the treaty of March, 1824,
the violation of which was complained of by every merchant
and manufacturer in England. That treaty was founded upon
the basis of free trade. It provided that the duty levied on
English goods should not be more than double that imposed
upon Dutch goods, and that where there was no duty upon
Dutch goods the English should pay no more than 6
per cent. Now the Dutch goods were free, and English
goods were burdened with a duty of 25 per cent., which
prove the mode of levying it was raised to from 30 to 40
per cent. The merchants now came and prayed the Manse
and the Government to have that treaty faithfully acted upon.
He had read word for word of that treaty, which was, of all
treaties entered into by this country, the one that ought to be
the least misunderstood. The object of that treaty was free
trade, and lie was sure his Noble Friend would give it. He
was sorry to say that the feeling that existed before that treaty
existed now ; in fact, the mercantile interests of the country
had been duped, which he was sure they would not be much
longer by the exertions of the Noble Lord and his Right
Honourable Friend the Secretary of the Board of Trade.
The question now was, whether the Dutch Treaty, which had
laid down for their own interpretation that the flag was to re-
gulate the principle and not the origin of the goods, was to be
carried into effect or not. They had interpreted the Treaty
in another manner, however; when they wished to encourage
the manufactures of Ghent, they raised the duty on all
the articles which were manufactured in this country.
He would only ask the Noble Lord to satisfy not himself, but
the great commercial and manufacturing interests of this coun-
try, by telling them that they should have not only redress
,for the future with regard to this great and growing trade,
which amounted to many millions, but also that they should
have compensation for the past, for the unjust and unfair way
in which they had been treated by the Dutch Government.
He was sure that the Noble Lord would not only insist upon
satisfaction, but that practically British interests would be vin-
dicated, and that they should hear no more of such flagrant
violations of the rights of their fellow subjects, and of the dig-
nity of the Crown. He would conclude by moving as an
amendment to the Order of the Day, that the petition pre-
sented on the 27th of June be taken into consideraton.
Lord PALMERSTON said that his Hon. Friend had un-
doubtedly called the attention of the House to a very great
grievance which this country had sustained from the hands of
the Dutch Government.—( Hear, bear.) It could not be de-
nied that for a course of years the Dutch Government had
distinctly violated the stipulations of a solemn treaty.
(Loud cheers.) As his Honourable Friend had so well
explained in what those violations consisted, he (Lord P.)
would not intrude upon the House, or take up their time in
recapitulating that complete and clear explanation. He had
stated most justly and truly that, whereas by the Treaty all
articles chartered by British subjects in British ships should
pay a certain duty in proportion to the duty imposed upon
articles imported in Dutch ships—in those eases the Dutch
authorities had exacted from British subjects a higher amount
of duty than by the treaty they were authorised to exact.
This subject had been matter of representation from the British,.
Government for a greatnumber of years past, and therefore hiss
Hon. Friend was entitled to come to that House to ask some
explanation on the part of the Government to satisfy him that
there was a fair prospect that the grievances of our fellow-
subjects in this respect would be redressed, and that the time
had arrived at which this House ought to interfere to obtain
redress.-(Hear, hear.) He thought he would satisfy the
Honourable Gentleman that at present no step was required
to be taken by the House, because he believed he was
at present in a condition to state to his Honourable
Friend, that of late a disposition had been manifested by the
DutcheGovernment to do justice in this matter. The Dutch
Government at last having been forced to admit that the
practice which had been pursued of levying duties was not
consistent with the treaty, they wished to render the practice,
at least in one reepect, conformable to the treaty, and
that a proper proportion of duties should be established.
Where our Government paid 25 per cent. the Dutch would pay
124, and where the Dutch paid no duty at all we should only
pay 6 per cent. But there was one subject of difference
existing between the two Governments. The Dutch
Government had declared that they interpreted the treaty
as establishing a criterion of the difference of duties—
the nationality of the articles imported. He contended
on the other hand, that the criterion for the difference of duty
was not the nationality of the articles imported, but the na-
tionality of the merchants, and ships by which the articles were
imported--( Hear.) Whether the one interpretation or the
other would be most in favour of tho industry and interests of
this country he would not take upon himself to determine.
He agreed with his lion. Friend that the English Govern-
ment, in restoring the colony of Java to the Dutch, had done
an act of splendid national generosity—( Hear, hear)—
because the Dutch would have no right to complain if
the British Government, having taken the island in a war in
which Holland was opposed to us had retained possession of it.
His Hon. Friend was, he thought, entitled to say that the
Dutch Government had not shewn that they entertained
a proper sense of the generosity of England is systematically
and for so long a period of time depriving us of those national
advantages which had been conferred by the treaty of 1824.
It was often a reproach to the Dutch that in the conduct of
of their colonial possessions, they were actuated by a narrow
view to their own interests, which was not creditable to their
national character. Wherever they had colonies they were
the most exclusive of all monopolists. Of that principle,
which was more or less the policy of every nation, they had no
right to complain, but they certainly had when a nation de-
parted from those engagements which she had most solemnly
pledged herself to fulfil. A negociation had been entered
into with the Duteh Government, and lie by no means
despaired that they should succeed in obtaining redress ;
and that their trade would be carried on in strict accordance
with the terms of the treaty. That being the case, he was
sure his Hon. Friend and the House would feel that it would
be not only departing from the usual practice of Parlia-
ment, but most inconvenient, if the House would inter-
fere between the Government and a pending negociation.
If the Government succeeded in their object, it would be
better than to have the interposition of Parliament. If they
failed, it would be their duty to lay before Parliament what
liiiaed
%traakse,np however,
lce,and then ask for their opinion on the matter.
encouraged to hope, front the manner
in which the negotiations had lately been conducted, that
Holland would act with good faith, and would do full justice
to England.
Mr. HUME was very glad his Hon. Friend had brought
this matter before the House, for a grosser breach of engage-
went had never taken place, and lie thought the Government
had been very negligent in not forcing its fulfilment. In 1824,
he and Sir Charles Forbes told the Government of that day how
vilely, they were deceiving themselves and the country. No
treaty had ever been executed in India by Holland, and he then
stated that it would not. In 1816, Lord Castlereagh gave away
the most valuable possession we had in India. Java was the
only island which could support herself, and yield a revenue.
They ought to have waited the arrival of Sir Stamford Rat-
ifies, who was well acquainted with the whole subject. In
place of doing so, they acted with guilty participation, and
gave up one of the most valuable of our conquests.
Six months did not go by after the passing of that treaty be.,