The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-24 00:00:00

POPULATION RETURNS.

We have had so many inquiries for The Sun,
containing an abstract of the Population Returns,
that we shall republish the tables, with consider-
able additions, TO-MORROW.

THE RAILWAY SUN
IS NOW RE-PUBLISHING,
PRICE SIXPENCE.

TUE CHINA SUN,

AND THE
PARLIAMENTARY SUN
ARE STILL ON SALE,
PRICE SIXPENCE EACH.
Sun Office, Dec. 24, 1841.

THE WEATHER—NOON, DECEMBER 23.
. .
ROYAL. CALLERY OF SCIENCE, ADELAIDE-STREET.
T/lernlonieter... 41 1 highest 4l 1 Lowest 3l
I3arjnicter. S W.—Freezing Point 22 Deg.

HIGH WATER AT I.ONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
M rrnrw 35 mfmt.ttas after 9 I Evening IG minutia after 10

Thus Mr. CHRISTOPHER presumes to found an
argument in favour of plundering the people, on
the asserted fact that the price of wheat has
varied less in England than in all the countries
of Europe, since 1815, except Sweden. In them,
however, communication is difficult, and the
peculiarities of one province cannot correct those
of another; while in England communication is
very much facilitated, and there is little differ-
ence of price between Brighton and Inverness.
Everybody knows, too, that wheat is the staple
food of England, and rye of most of the other
countries which Mr.CHaisTopitEß enumerates. In
them wheat is more an article of commerce and
speculation than, as it is here, of general consump-
tion. Had Mr. CHRISTOPHER compared the
variations in the price of wheat in them to the
variations in the price of tallow here, he would
have made a fairer comparison. But that might
not have served his personal views, and to the
selfishness and ignorance of his class, truth, as
well as the public welfare, are sacrificed.

Our readers are aware that his Majesty of
HANOVER, whose dominions skirt one side of the
Elbe for a few miles, levies a heavy toll on all
ships and goods entering that great artery of
Northern Germany. As a justification of this
toll he neither keeps up lights, buoys, nor bea-
cons, nor in any way facilitates or improves the
river, the navigation of which is impeded by
banks which might be removed. He has no ex-
cuse nor pretext whatever for levying the toll,
except that it has been for many years sub-
mitted to.

Originally it was one of those tolls very nume-
rous on every river of Germany, which every
strong-handed robber-Baron, whose castle com-
manded a flowing stream, levied on those who
used the water. It was a tax or compensation
which they consented to pay to some robber,
rather than be stopped and rifled. Stade served
its original owners as such a castle, and far back
in the night of time some Sea King, having fixed
himself there, stopped all vessels entering the
Elbe and plundered them. To escape his depre-
dations they consented to pay something, and
that sort of exaction, under terror of being plun-
dered, has been continued by the successive
owners of Stade to this day.
Out of deference to the Elector of Hanover, as
long as he sat on our throne, Great Britain
submitted patiently to the extortion. When the
countries fell under different monarchs the Stade
dues were remonstrated against, but respect for
old usages forbad the Government putting an
end to the toll with a strong hand. Its vexa-
tions, therefore, were the subjects of a negotia-
tion which has now been several months in
progress.

Yesterday advices from Hamburgh informed
us, that new difficulties have arisen in the nego-
tiations between England and Hanover for the
reduction of the Stade dues. His Hanoverian
MAJESTY, it is said, is willing to decrease the
duties payable by the riverian states, but declines
to make any concession in favour of transmarine
countries; he will, in short, treat the impost
quoad the former as a river tax, and therefore
subject to the provisions of the treaty of Vienna ;
while in reference to sea-borne commerce
his MAJESTY insists that it is a sea toll,
and consequently not cognisable under the treaty.
If this representation be correct, his Majesty of
HANOVER is resolved to defend his plunder by
a quibble, and the negotiator henceforth em-
ployed should be a man-of-war. Hanover has
no right whatever to this toll, except by our con-
sent, and the instant our consent is withdrawn
its right ceases. If it should levy the toll after
a refusal and resistance, a vessel of war stationed
in the Elbe should secure its free passage to all
her MAJESTY'S vessels. It is unworthy of Great
Britain to meet such quibbling with any other
answer than a demand for the total abolition of
the toll, and a positive refusal to pay it. Prince
ERNEST relies, we presume, on his friends the
Tories, and is persuaded that they will compel
English merchants to submit to have a portion of
their property confiscated to swell his Exchequer.

A case which occurred yesterday in the Vice-
Chancellors' Court, illustrates the mode by which
the mistakes of professional men are made to
operate as a heavy tax on suitors. In the cause
of the " Attorney-General v. the Greenwich
Railway," an application was made to the Court
to allow the words of a decree to be altered. It
was admitted by the Registrar that he had writ-
ten down the words of the decree from memory,
and that the Vice-Chancellor had actually
used words which the Registrar had omitted.
They were of great importance, for, as he had
stated them, they compelled the Attorney-
General to proceed by indictment, whereas
the words used left it optional with him so to
proceed. The decree, as written and recorded,
was, in fact, different from the decree as pro-
nounced in Court; nevertheless, the application
to make the written record conform to the actual
decree was refused, because to rectify the ad-
mitted error " would establish a dangerous pre-
cedent." The Court could not possibly survive
the plan of correcting errors without additional
payment. The case must, therefore, be re-heard,
solicitors must be, again employed, counsel again
feed, the clerks of the Courts even must be paid
4gain, because it would establish a dangerous
precedent in the Court of Chancery to do an act
of justice without making the clients pay for it !
Errors, it may be expected, will be in proportion
to Courts and causes, and thus, whether the new
Courts satisfy the suitors or
ot, they will be
sure to increase the emoluments of the legal
profession.

e publish Mr, f'e c
osrTnoluwEsß. ' s
Tsuggestions
t
from those which the Honour-
slßl
for an alteration of th
once October 25th
t2stthhe,
differ essentially
noticed in The
able Gentleman threw
at Boston, and which we
while now he is
Sun, except that he was then.
amongst his consti-
tuents, duty should be 205.,
uncertain whether it should be 20s or 30s.
ss, fixed duty as
scale for tl
He
has since that time been much
appear notittmioe:i
tuents, and if they approve of his
against the public, with a sliding
advantage of the farmer, they
approve of so low a maximum duty as 203,
one great consolation, however, to find that
Mr. CHRISTOPHER is of opinion that the law, as
it exists at present, cannot be maintained.

Madrid papers of the 14th inst. have reached
us. We have given in our Foreign Summary all
that is most important in their contents. Bands
of robbers continue to invest the great roads in
the neighbourhood of the capital, but as the Go-
vernment is taking active measures to put them
down, we expect soon to hear of their dis-

appearance.

The Five per Cents. were done at the Madrid
Bourse on the 14th inst. at 331 for cash, and 341
at 60 days.

It was well and generally known in Paris on
Tuesday that the Court of Peers had con-

, They mean, it is said, to propose some modifica-
tion of the Corn-laws; let them learn a little mo-
desty and a little forbearance by the humi-
liating confession of failure, which such a proposi-
tion implies.
There is no reason to apprehend that they
will be over-modest. Our selfish and incorri-
gible Corn-law-makers are not to be daunted by
any failure, and seem only to be stimulated by the
confession of blunders to blunder anew.
Mr. CHRISTOPHER, for example, while he ad-
mitted that "it is impossible for human inge-
nuity to devise any system that shall regulate
the price of corn, because the farmer is obliged
to cultivate the land at certain seasons, and it is
only in the hand of the Almighty Power that
guides the whirlwind and directs the storm to
decide whether we shall have a good harvest or
a bad one." Yet he proposes to regulate this
price which cannot be regulated, and to fix the
price of corn as nearly as possible between 565.
and 655. It makes the heart sink to know that
such inconsistent, meddling, selfish men have
the regulation of public affairs, and the making
of laws for society, of the immense phenomena
of which their minds do not take in one thou-
sandth part.

if,ct
ef '
etir\ 0 ighd woci
44,1'161'
•-,- 4 • -' -•-•
•