The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-16 00:00:00

ever. Yet so little has this solemn injunction
been respected, that there are but few articles of
commerce on which Denmark has not exacted
larger dues than the Treaty sanctions, and on
many of them the dues arc augmented more
than 500 vek cent.

Other stipulations which the Treatiescontained,
for the protection of commerce have been treated
by the King
of DENMARK in the same uncere-
monious manner. On our side there has been

nothing but submission. "These unllwful con.
tributions on our trade have been exacted," says
Mr. HUTT, " with all the confidence and regula-
rity of an unquestionable right." And for six-
and-twenty years this system of spoliation and
injury has been going on without obstruction !
To have been the first to point out and clearly and
earnestly to explain the economical and com-
.

mercial evils which it has heaped upon our coun-
try, is a merit due to the Member for Hull. We
trust that on Tuesday night he will complete, in the
House of Commons, the useful and honourable
task he has undertaken, and that, by insisting in
Parliament on the same important truths which
he has here placed befbre the public, he will at last
compel the attention of Government to the
wrongs imposed on the industry of our country.
We cannot conclude this notice better than with
Mr. HUTT'S OWTI words :

"it may be said that after all this is only a question of amount
of Sound Dues, that we have formally armed Denmark with a
right to collect them in some measure, and that such right
she is very unlikely to resign. Denmark would not, of course,
gratuitously relinquish an advantage which she holds by an in-
expugnable title— a solemn Treaty—but the Sound 'lax is so
obviously pernicious and oppressive, that it would be well for
our Government to enter Into negotiation with the Court of
Denmark for a fair commutation of it. The injury we suffer
by the Sound Dues is not to be estimated by the 80,000 i. or
100,0001. per annum, levied on our trade at Elsineur for the
benefit of the King of Denmark and his officers. The evils
arising from our goods being enhanced in the foreign market
and foreign goods in our ow n—ftom ships detained on their
voyage, and in a difficult and tempestuous sea—from restric-
tions, trammels, penalties, on the free operations of commerce,
are beyond all power of mca ure or computation. The very
circumstance that our commercial intercourse with the north
of Europe is checked and cramped by our own laws, and by
the laws of other nations, whit h we (;4.,rtnot control, is, in it-
self, a powerful reason why we should not suffer the measure of
exclusion and prohibi.ion to be completed by the acts of a fo-
reign State, which no man living can justify or approve. We
cannot control Denmark in the collection of her legal tariff.
That is true. But during the last quarter rf a century, Den-
mark has been acting on a tariff which is neither legal
nor defensible, and Great Britain, as well as Sweden and
Prussia, well know that the excessive dues collected at Elsi-
neur may be rightfully and reasonably, demanded back. In
truth, Denmark is not in circumstances to hold any very
haughty or unaccommodating language. It cannot escape
the sagacity of her Government that the Sound Dues, which
derive their origin from a period when every thing was settled
by the rude instrumentality of force, are little in harmony with
the principles which now regulate the affairs of the world, and
that the Sound Dues have now no foundation whatever but in
the faith of those Treaties, which have fixed the tolls to which
commerce shall be subject on passing the Sound. These are
not times in which any nation can be permitted to evade the
execution of Treaties, or to abolish one part of the stipula-
tions they contain, and interpret others according to its interest.
A Treaty from the moment that it is not faithfully and regu-
larly observed by the side interested in maintaining it, ceases
to be binding on the other."_

The most contradictory reports are in circula-

tion respecting the terms of relationship upon
which the great Powers at present stand with
regard to the Eastern question. We on Saturday
gave currency to a rumour that France has
joined the other Powers in signing a new Treaty
for maintaining the integrity of the Ottoman
empire. This rumour is given in the following
form by the Morning Herald of yesterday :
We have reason to believe that the protocol agreed to by the
conference of London for regulating the affairs of the east, and
for terminating the quintuple treaty of July, as well as the
treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, has been accepted by the French
Government. _

We have also reason to believe that it is the intention of M.
Guizot to make a communication of this nature to the Cham-
ber of Peers in the course of the debate on the Fortifications
Bill.

The result to he expected from this circumstance is, that
France, Austria, and Prussia will proceed to a gradual, if not
immediate disarming.
___

On the other hand, the Morning Post pub-

lishes a letter from a Correspondent at Paris,
which expressly states that France has refused
to sign the proposed Treaty. As this letter is as
recent as the rumour of Saturday, and enters into
some details in themselves highly interesting, we
quote it without curtailment:—

"PARIS, MARCH 13.

" At ten o'clock last night Count Harteg, an Attache of
the Austrian Embassy in Paris, left post for Vienna, via Frank-
fort on the Maine. This young diplomatist is bearer of im-
portant despatches sent by the Count d'Appony to his Govern-
ment, after a long conference which his Excellency had on
Thursday last with M. Guizot at the Foreign-off ce, relative to
the last firman of the Sultan, dated February 13. In this con-
ference M. Guizot explained the motives which would prevent
the French Cabinet from signing or adhering to the protocol
of London, dated the ....II instants,. which Itzd just been conimu-
nicated to him by the English Government. This protocol re-
presents,rs
es,the fir man as the result of the combined efforts of the
Pow
ers which the 15th of July Treaty. But M. Guizot
observed that he had reason to believe, from despatches
that he had received from M. de Saint Aulaire (French
Ambassador in Vienna), and from the Count I'ontois
(Constantinople), that Austria and Russia were far
from being satisfied at the form of the firman, because—to
make use of Prince Metternich's expression, which was in ac-
cor.lance also with the complaints of Baron de Sturmer and
M. de Titof (Austrian and Rus'ian Ambassadors inConstati-
_

- -
tinople)—this document had been forced by Lord Ponsonby
from the weakness of Reschid Paella. M. Guizot, it is said,
further remarked that the right reserved by the Porte to
choose Mehemet Ali's successor from his children was a
manifest contradiction with the principle of the absolute
heirship already recognised by the Sultan, and further-
more was at direct variance with the casus beiii placed in
M. Thiers's memorandum, which had been accepted as the
bisis of policy by the 29th of October Cabinet, now existing.
France, therefore, Guizot stated, must maintain her isola-
tion until the Austrian and Russian influence succeeded in ob-
taining a modification of the firman, so that the right of suc-
cession of Mehemet Ali's children might be laid down as ex-
pressed in the two memorandums of the 3d and Bth of October.
" Count d'Appony, who appeared to have hail his instruc-
tions in this respect, replied that he appreciated M. Guizot's
motives in refusing to sign the London protocol of the sth
instant, and he added that he hoped that the combined efforts
of Austria, Prussia, and Russia would obtain the modification
claimed by the Tuileries.

"It was consequently agreed between M. Guizot and the
Count d'Appony that the latter should communicate to Prince
Metternich the conference in question, and that the French
Cabinet should make no reply to Lord Palmerston's despatch,
dated March b, until Count d'Appony has received from Prince
Metternich fresh instructions as to the result of the proceed •
ings at Constantinople, to satisfy France as to the point at issue
in this new incident of the Eastern question.
" Count Hartig will wait at Vienna for the definitive reply
of the Austrian Cabinet, and on his return to Paris, which it

is expected will be in about a month, it is hoped that this ap-
parently interminable dispute will be arranged, at least so far
as regards Mehemet Ali."

Whether France has or has not signed the
new Treaty, it is satisfactory to be able to state
that the cause of peace and civilization is making
sure, if not very rapid progress. If France has
objected to the damn in the Imperial Firman
which reserves to the .Sultan the right of nomi-
nating MEHEMET ALfs successors to the Pacha-
lie of Egypt, the people pf England will tell her
that she is right in doing so. Lord PONSONBY
must rest content with the eon" of having driven
the VICEROY out of Syria. .Europe will not
tolerate the playing of that game io Egypt.