The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-08 00:00:00

JU LY 8, 1847.

BRUSSELS AND DUTCH PAPERS.
BRUSSELS, JULY 6.—Their Majesties the King and
Queen are expected at the Palace at Lacken, on their
return from London, on Tuesday evening next. Their
Majesties will reach Ostend on Monday. Her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Kent is also expected at Brus-
sels in the course of a few days, on her return from
Germany.
" Leopold, King of the Belgians, to all persons present

and to come, greeting,
" On the proposition of the Minister of the Interior
and Finance,—We have decreed, and do further decree,
" Article I. The time fixed for the decrees of the 7th
and 20th March, 1847, for the free importation—first,
of flour and meal of all kinds—second, of cattle—are
passed for flour and meal of all kinds, till the Ist of
April, 1848 ; for cattle, till the Ist of September, 1847."

The frontier of the province of Luxembourg, are ex-
cepted from the present decree, in that relating to cattle.
There shall be charged a right of balance of ten cen-
times per 1,000 kilogrammes of flour and meal, and per
head of cattle.
Article 11. Our Minister of the Interior and of Fi-
nance, are charged, each in his proper department, with
the execution of the present decree.
Given at London, June 28, 1847.

LEOPOLD.
ANTWERP, JULY s.—ln the first six months of 1846,
"040 ships arrived at Antwerp, the tonnage of which
was 144,130 tons; in the first six months of this year we
had 878 ships, with a tonnage of 143,431 tons. Thus
there was 162 ships less, but only 699 tons less; there-
fore the ships which have arrived this year, have been
superior in tonnage to those of 1846.
Numbers of ships continue daily to arrive laden with
corn, and every facility is given them to unload their
cargoes, so that as little time as possible may be lost.

ATTEMPT TO ROB A POSTMAN.
A desperate attempt was made yesterday morning to
rob the old postman, who has been in the habit of con-
veying the bankers' letters and parcels from the Post-
office in St. Martin's-le-Grand to Lombard-street. The
following is the substance of the account of the attemit,
given at some of the banking-houses :
As Inspector Woodroffe, of the City police, was pass
ing, at about five minutes after eight, along Wood-
street, Cheapside, he was informed by a man that there
was a cry of murder in Mitre-court, a narrow passage
between Wood-street and Milk-street. He immediately
ran to the entrance of Mitre-court, the gate of which is
locked every night at eleven o'clock and opened at six in
the morning ; and finding that it was locked, he sus-
pected that there was foundation for the outcry, and
dispatched one of the men round to the gate in Wood-
street. It was then ascertained that the postman in-
trusted with the transmission of the Lombard-street walk,
and who was in the habit of passing through Mitre-court,
had been attacked by three men in the narrowest part of
the passage, that he had been struck by one of them
with a life preserver on the head, and knocked down,
and that the others endeavoured to drag away his bags
from him, but without effect, as he roared out " mur-
der" in such a manner as to strike his assailants with
the dread of detection. The thieves, who were, no
doubt, what were called " family men," escaped. When
they heard the strong lungs of the postman they ran
to the Wood-street gate, and, being supplied with a
skeleton key, they. pulled to the gate, locked it,
and got away just before the inspector was
informed of the alarm. _ The skeleton key and the

.ie-preserver were found by the officer. The poor post-
man bled profusely from the head, but although the vio-
lence used against him was very great, he grasped his
bags in the most determined manner, so that even those
who went to his assistance could not have got them from
him without great difficulty.
It is conjectured that the plan had been laid for some
time, and it was remarkable that the communications
from the correspondents of the bankers happened to be
unusually large yesterday morning.

A COMEDY IN REAL LIFE.—The residents of the
Sixth Avenue, near Thirty-second-street, were, on Wed-
nesday, treated to a very effective comedy by a couple of
amateur performers, who went through their parts so
well that it is generally believed they have had consider-
able practice in the same line. The main incidents of the
piece are as follows :—A gentleman went home to his
dinner, and, having suffered a trifling loss from a fall in
the stocks, was disposed to make up for it by venting
his disappointment upon the unoffending members of his
family. This is a very old practice among married
gentlemen, and wives ought by this time to be used with
it, as lobsters are to be boiled alive. But the wife of this
gentleman didn't exactly understand the mission ; and,
when he remarked that there was too much pepper in
the hot pie, and that the dinner generally was not fit for
a hog, she replied that, if she bad known it was to be
eaten by a hog, she would have made it fit for him.
This, of course, led to a spirited reply; and the lady at
last forgetting the humility so becoming in a wife,
jumped up in a passion, and dashed her plate on the
floor. "0, ho," exclaimed the husband, "if you are
going to play thatligarffewir-will be up withlpour So
he seized a tureen and smashed it against a crimson
sofa. The lady, not to be outdone, upsets the table,
and so smashes all the crockery at one blow, and then
dares her husband to go on. To show that he was as
full of spirit as his wife, the gentleman flings a water-
goblet at the French clock on the mantelpiece, over-
turns his wife upon the floor, and darts the chair on
which he was sitting through the window into the
street, and then tosses the mirror which hung in the room
after it. Having finished the work of destruction in-
side, he cashed into the street, and began to demolish
the chair and the remains of the mirror. While en-
gaged in this work, a body of M.P's., who had been sent
for, made their appearance, and took the spirited gen-
tleman into custody. He asserted his right to destroy
his property, and remonstrated with the M.P's. on their
impertinent interference. The officers of the law ad-
mitted his right to destroy his property, but denied the
lawfulness of his doing it in the street ; and for that
offence they took him off to the station-house, where we
lost sight of him, and remain in profound ignorance of
the winding-up of the comedy. From the turbulent and
unhappy conduct of this piece we see the wisdom of the
old dramatists in ending their comedies with a marriage,
instead of beginning their dramatic personages in that
blessed condition.—New York Mirror.

PROSPECTS OF THE HARVEST.—The weather has
again become most propitious, and never did England
appear more rich and beautiful than at this time. The
crops of every kind and everywhere are most luxuriant,
and we speak not as mere road-side spectators ; for we
have gone with practical men and extensive farmers
among the crops, and have heard and marked their opi-
nions of them ' • and they all agree that there never was
a time when the harvest was more abundant. On Tues-
day we saw three pieces of wheat at Cooksbridge, near
Lewes, belonging to Mr. Waters. The first was a piece
of Talavera wheat, which was out in full ear; the straw
strong and abundant; the ears as level as a bowling-
green, and every plant healthy and vigorous. Another
and much larger field of red wheat was also very
fine; the stems five feet high, and the ears level,
full, well formed, and in bloom; but the third, and
one of the finest pieces we ever saw, was a very large
field not reckoned very good land, and which has
been only brought into a good state of cultivation
within a year or two by under draining and proper
dressing. Here the stems were nearly six feet high;
the ears very full, fine, and in full bloom, and with fine
weather it will yield a most abundant return. Mr.
Ellmann, at Landport, has also a capital field of barley,
and another of wheat, lying together opposite his house.
But go in what direction you may, the crops almost
universally look well, except in some very poor land, or
where the land has been too highly dressed: for land
may be over as well as under manured. The beans,
peas, oats (with some exceptions), and barleys, look
as well as the wheats, and nowhere have we seen any
indication of the disease in the potatoes.—Brighton
Herald.

LIVERPOOL ELECTION.
The following handbill has been extensively cit..
culated :

" ELECTORS OF LIVERPOOL.

"In choosing your representatives, select no man who
will not pledge himself to a revision of of the money laws.
" So long as raw material, labour, and skill are abun-
dant in the country, or can be readily obtained, if we
possess a sufficient medium of exchange, we have the
elements of everything that is wsnted in human exist-
ence ; but if any of these are deficient, merchants and
traders are embarrassed, and workmen thrown out of
employment.
" Will you say we lack labour? Will you say we lack
skill or industry? Do we lack the raw material neces-
sary for our clothing or building, or land on which to
produce or procure food? If we lack none of these things,
and, besides, a large portion of the world is eager for our
productions, and anxious, upon fair terms, to exchange
theirs for ours, what do we lack but money and common
sense?—Not a contracted currency, which raises the price
of food when it ought to be cheapest, and reduces the
value of labour and of all manufactured articles, and
fills the pockets of the drones of society and the bul-
lionists. Oh, no!
" The Currency Bills of Sir Robert Peel have proved
the curse of the country; therefore no candidate ought
(for party reasons) to be supported who refuses to vote
for a modification of the same. "Z."

WISDOM OF THE EXCISE LAWS-
(Abridged from the Edinburgh News.)
A highly respectable paper-manufacturer near
Dover was lately subjected to one of those many annoy-
ances that the Excise-laws, as they now stand, unjustly
warrant. In order that those unacquainted with the
Excise-laws in regard to paper may understand the
hardship of this case, it may be necessary to premise that
the Excise duty on paper is levied by scale weight only,
and that the Excise officers themselvq weigh the paper.
It is a custom of the trade (introduced by stationers) to
mark each ream of paper one pound heavier than the
actual weight, and 10 per cent. on the actual weight is
allowed by law for this " making up." A hundred reams
were charged by the maker in question, and because
it happened that these hundred reams, in the bulk,
were a few ounces under the prescribed allow-
ance, they were instantly seized and carried off in
triumph, the officer himself sitting on the paper in the
waggon, as if some great fraud had been committed,
instead of a trifling inaccuracy in computation on the
part of some of the workpeople; and, be it observed, an
error which, even if intentional, could neither be pro-
ductive of benefit to the manufacturer or loss to the
revenue. Nevertheless, in addition to the loss of the
paper, which was enough indeed, a highly-principled
manufacturer, of thirty years' standing, had his hitherto
high reputation injured by a cartload of seized paper
being paraded through a populous neighbourhood to
the residence of the supervisor, no one but those
immediately concerned knowing the why or the where-
fore—the only construction that could be put on such an
exhibition being, that an attempt at fraud had been
detected. On sth November, 1842, a puncheon of spirits,
in the act of being lowered into the 'Princess Royal'
(a London steamer, lying at Granton and bound
for London), slipped from the slings and was smasked
to atoms at the bottom of the hold. The spirits con-
tained in it were of course dispersed over the whole vesr
sel by the violence of the concussion, and thence run-
ning down amongst the bilge water, were utterly lost.
This accident happened in the presence of many highly
respectable witnesses, and one might have imagined that
no duty would have been charged on spirits which had
thus never gone into consumption. The distiller accord-
ingly petitioned for remission of the duty, but was in-
stantly refused; he then sought that, at all events, he
should only be charged the Scotch duty of 3s 8d a
gallon, since, if the spirits were held to be consumed,
they were, at all events, consumed in Scotland. And
what was the reply ? Why, this, that the distiller
had intended these spirits for the London market,
and that, therefore, to the London market they
should go; or, at all events, that whether they went to
the London market or not, the distiller should pay the
duty upon them. Accordingly, the full English duty of
7s. 10d. per gallon was charged, and the distiller was
forced to pay to the Crown the sum of 651. 13s, Id. for
spirits which he had satisfactorily proved, by the oaths
of the parties in charge of the vessel, had not, and never
could have been consumed. The whole value of spirits,
exclusive of duty, was 151. 9s. 6d., and this loss one
might have supposed, was sufficiently heavy ; but no,
the Excise duties, amounting to 651. 13s. Id., must be
paid in addition, and the unfortunate .trader's loss was
thereby increased upwards of four hundred per cent.
by the exactions of the Excise. A seizure - as once
made by a supervisor of about fitlialitle pattels
of paper at a mill, because these were tied' up in
wrappers without labels being pasted' ikon them.
The Excise, at the time in question, did not low paper
to be put up in less quantities than a ream, and the
parcels referred to consisted of remnants of so many
different kinds, ran mg from one sheet, or quire up to
nineteen. They hadbeen tied up for no other purpose
than that of keeping them clean and in good order. It
only required the statement of this circumstance to the
Board of Excise, to procure the restoration of the
paper, though not without a good deal of trouble, and
after some weeks' delay ; but, in the meanwhile, the
trader had to endure all the odium consequent on the
fact, proclaimed abroad, of a seizure having been
made, without its being known that it proceeded from
excess of zeal in a contemptible officer ; the
manufacturer, besides, being greatly inconvenienced
by the want of specimens of the papers which he had
been previously making, in consequence of these rem-
nants having been carried away. This robbery was,
even sanctioned by the letter of the law. On the Bth of
August, 1844, an extensive fire happened at Leith
Distillery, when among other things, a considerable
quantity of spirits and wash was destroyed. One might
suppose that so great a calamity overtaking anindivi-
dual would be loss sufficient; but no, the Excise must
share with the devouring element in the amount of spoil
—4151. ls. 4d., duty on 2,264 gallons of spirits, which
the Excise assumed ought to have been produced, but
which never were produced, was levied on the unfortu-
nate distiller! If a distiller in Campbelton wishes to
export 20 puncheons of malt whisky to New York (and
Brother Jonathan, be it known, loves a drop of moun-
tain-dew), the excise regulations in regard to it are
somewhat amusing; for, if it be exported from Liver-
pool, the distiller pays Bd. a gallon more duty than if he
export it from Glasgow or Greenock. Upon 20
.pun-
cheons, this would amount to about 100/., no trifling
sum to pay for the privilege of exporting from the
Mersey instead of from the Clyde.