The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-17 00:00:00

DUTCH AND GERMAN PAPERS.

:g Ccur,hit :
"klamnuncrt, ,JUNE 7.—A friend has communicated
to us the following intelligence from Singapore to 'the
9th of April, and from Batavia to the 12th of March,
which have come overland. It was said that in the be-
ginning of ;larch there were new and great embarrass-
ments at Batavia, in consequence of which all' the mer-
chants' houses in that place insisted that the exchange
debts should be converted into value in account current,
in order to be paid at periods to be afterwards fixed.
This. sacrifice, required by the shareholders of the Bank,
has caused a great sensation. The necessity of this
measure is proved by the fact that the Bank shares,
which two years ago were not to be had for 1.800 florins,
might have been had for 10 florins, if the capitalisation
had not been adopted. This has been done, and all neces-
sary steps have been taken to render the payment
of the debts as easy as possible, and it is thus
that not only the shareholders, but the Bank
itself arc relieved from their embarrassments. The
time for payment .was not yet fixed, bat it was supposed
that it would be seven years with six per cent. interest,
and the clause that such debtors should not discount
with the Bank. On the 24th of February a revolt sud-
denly broke out in Sumatra, in consequence of which
the only road to the north by the mountains was inter-
cepted by the natives. Fort Ducock was invested, and had
water fur only five days ; the inhabitants of Tigsblas,
near Padang, were still quiet, but the Europeans re-
mained seven miles from Padang, and all the ships were
detained in order to take them on board in case of

danger."
We have received from Batavia direct news of the 6th
of March, the authenticity of which we answer for, and
which say that five great commercial houses in that city.
have stopped payment, and that the general embarrass-
ments which has been thereby caused had led to a gene-
ral assembly of the proprietors of the Java Bank, in
which it was resolved that the bank should withdraw
and destroy all the papers of the hankers' houses, and
should debit them fbr the amount with six per cent.
interest to be gradually repaid at intervals to be deter-
mined, the said houses engaging not to put any new
paper into circulation till the liquidation shall be en ,lee.
This arrangement has given great satisfaction at Batavia,
and his Excellency the Governor-General has guaran-
teed the permanent circulation of the Bank paper.
No mention is made in this last account of an insur-
rection in Batavia, as spoken of in the Hamburgh Cou-
rant; however, we do not positively know whether news
from Sumatra of the 24th of February, could have been
received at Batavia on the 6th of March. We learn
from persons acquainted with the country that so im-
portant a piece of news might have been received at Ba-
tavia in the time specified.
AMSTERDAM, JUNE 14.—We are still of an opinion
that if there had been such a serious revolt in Sumatra
est the 24th of Febreary, it must have certainly have been
known at Batavia on the Gth of March, of which day we
communicated direct accounts from that city, which
make no mention of ft.—Hans/Ash/ad, Juno 14 and 15,
HAMBURGH, JUNE 1.--LCouncillor Von Hufenden,
Hanoverian Deputy in the Stade Commission, left our
city a few clays ago, and returned to Hanover. The two
English Deputies, Messrs. Ward and Hanbury, are still
here. The negotiations are not concluded, as has been
reported, but merely delayed for some time, because the
Ilanoverian Government objects to the great reduction
of the Stade toll which is required by Great Britain. It
seems that Mr. Ward entirely disputes the validity of
the rate of the toll existing since 1821, whereas Hanover
affirms that it was approved by the Commission which
met at Dresden in the same year. It is therefore be,
fieved that the Elbe Navigation Commission will b:.
assembled this year either at Dresden or Magdeburg,
when the question of the Stale toll will be the subject
of further negotiation. (We refer to the following
letter) :
HAMBITIIGH, JUNE 3.—We hasten to acquaint you
with an event respecting the Stade toll which will not a
little surprise the mercantile world. Though this is only
one of the many irregularities in levying the Stade toll
it appears the more important at a moment when s
Commission has been appointed to examine into an-
tiquated rights. It appeared that in April, 1840, th,
English brig Thornly, Captain Forman, arrived at Ham-
burgh, with a cargo of various goods, from Liverpool.
among which was a parcel of East India coruscos nuts.
on which the receiver of the Stade toll charged after the
bill of lading from Liverpool, according the value therein
noted. It appears farther that in May, 1841, that
about thirteen months later, the came ship came again to
Hamburgh with a cargo of coals, on which occasion the
captain was informed, on the part of Hanover, that in
the preceding year he had violated the regulations of
Stade because the noted value of the nuts was much be-
low die market price, and, therefore, he was to pay the
difference of the toll for the higher value, and to pay a
fine besides. The captain endeavoured to prove his in-
nocence, by observing that he was only the conveyor of
the nuts and had no further knowledge of their value
than the bill of lading afforded, which is the
more natural, as bills of lading have generally the words,
" The contents, &c., unknown." This circumstance
alone ought immediately to have exculpated him. For.
supposing there had been reasons to levy a penalty, it
could not be on the captain, but rather on the shipper or
the receiver of the goods, against whom, after so long
an interval, no action for further payment can be brought..
Clear as these reasons are, they are rejected with con-
tempt by the Ilanoverian Ministers, and, at the same
time, notice was given to Captain Forman that he must
submit, or that the certificate of the return, without
which he could not pass Brunhaunens would be refined
till he had either paid the sum demanded or given se-
curity for it. As he found, in the end, that all remon-
strances were vain, and that neither the English Consul
nor Mr. Ward could immediately obtain justice for him,
he was obliged to yield in order to avoid further annoy-
ance and loss of time, or to engage in a law suit, the re-
sult of which would have been unfavourable to him. These
are the main facts; but what is most worthy of notice
is the circumstance that Captain Foreman showed to the
Hanoverian authorities a letter from Mr. Preston, Secre-
tary to the Stade Commission, in which Mr. Ward ex-
pressed his regret that he could not assist him while
negotiations were pending, but that,' nevertheless, he un-
equivocally declared that the British Government did
not allow the Crown of Hanover any right to make esti-
mates of the value of goods at its own pleasure. or to
inflict arbitrary penalties ; that he hoped the time
was not distant when British and foreign ships
would be freed from the irregular exactions of the Stade
toll, such has had occurred in the present case of which
the captain very justly complains. So much is certain
that the right to enforce arbitrary estimates after a lapse
of a year, and to inflict penalties for violations of the
regulations which cannot be proved, puts an end to the
security of persons and property and exposes the mer-
chant, shipowner, or captain, to official despotism, ignor-
ance, and hostile treatment. If Hanover possessed the
right to fix a higher value upon goods after an interval
of thirteen months, because the price had risen in the
mean time, then on the other hand the receiver must
have a right to require an indemnity from the Custom
House if the price had fallen, and it is evident what con-
fusion would arise from such a'state of things. These
evils owe their origin to the concession of Hamburg!' to
allow a Hanoverian Custom House in its own boundary,
and to permit its officers freely to inspect the registers
of the Custom-house of the city. Though it is evident
that such a system must soon be broken up, if the nume-
rous adversaries of it would seriously set about it, the
long continuance of it is another melancholy proof of the
wound which former divisions have inflicted on our dig-
nity and our interest.
DUTCH FUNDS.—Amar;coAm, JUNIt 14
Mom,.
A-anal Debt, 2% per Cent
-Mtn, ditto 5 per ce,t.
A t svadic, 44, per cent 9' tOU
Ditto, ditto, 3i4 per cent 733, ;4
Commercial Company, per cent V3I4
Ditto (1125 and 1,437) 5 per cent.
Loan 1837, 5 per cent.
Exchange on London, One month l2 714
Two months . 11 E7)9
Dutch Papers, June 15.
PRUSSIA N FUN 1)5. BERLIN, JUNE 11
Bills
St. Schttld. Sch., 4 pee cpnt.
Prubsim Eng;!sh Loan, 114311, 4 per cent. 101?
Exchange en London, three months... 6 tB%
—4'rutsian State Gazette, June

Money
1U3;4

BRITISH COLONIES AND COM-

MERGE.

(From the New York Morning Courier and Enquirer.)
. Important as was the intelligence which we received
by the last Steamer, that the initiatory steps had been
taken in the British Parliament for the repeal of the,
Corn-laws, it is not more important than the indications
at the same time given of the intention of that Govern
ment, to abolish her-exclusive Colonial system ; indeed
if time can sanction error, or national pride and preju
dice plant it deep .in the soil, the latter is by far the
most remarkable change.
We do not speak of either of these changes as im-
mediate, but as inevitable. The Corn-laws however,
we think will be at once abolished, but then an im-
port duty will at the same time be imposed, though a
duty not so high as to prevent importations ; for it is
to this duty the Ministers look as the means of sup •
plying the deficiency in the revenue. Neither will a
total change in the Colonial system at once be intro-
duced ; for however palpably inconsistent that system
may now appear with the welfare of the parent
country and her colonies, too many interests have grown
up under it, to permit them at once to be stricken down.
The differential duties, or duties in favour of the Colo-
nies, though diminished, will not be abolished, yet will
they be so much diminished, as to take from the Colonies
the exclusive supply of their home market, a conclusion
1 more than justified by the fact, that the Ministers also
calculate upon the duties which will be paid on foreign
Colonial produce, as a source of revenue.
It is, however, in the grounds on which these modi-
fications of the British colonial system are brought
for,vard, in the overwhelming arguments by which
they are supported, that we seek the indubitable evi-
dence of the approaching dissolution of the system
itself: The exclusive • principle involves continual
sacrifices on the part of both, on the one quite as odious
ias on the other, plants the seeds of disunion,
and nourishes them, until the colony seeks relief
by separation. The evidence given to the House of
Commons by the under Secretaries of the Board of
Trade, is most conclusive on this point. The
sacrifices made by the people of England to favour
Colonial timber, are traced from the imposing struc-
ture of a ship of war, down to the mean accommoda-
tions of the peasant's Init. The effect of the attempt
to confine the people of England to the consump-
tion of the produce of their own West India Colonies.
perishing too under the death-blows of abolition, are
shown in the privations it imposes on the poor, in its
invasion on the comforts of the domestic hearth, and the
encouragement it gives to intemperance. These are
arguments comprehended by the humblest capacity,
which carry conviction to the minds of those even who
are not yet prepared to receive the great truths political
economy now inculcates.

And as to the colonies themselves, "I have lived in