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

defeated by his own friends. He was opposed,
certainly, by the Marquis of NORMANBY j but he
was defeated by the Duke of WELLINGTON and
the Earl of RIPON. As he accused the Minis-
ters of being favourable to Popery, he must
henceforth class his own party as the enemies
of Protestantism and the allies of the Papacy.
What the Times and what the Standard
will say to this heavy blow, inflicted on them
and their party by their own friends, we can-
not possibly conjecture. On Friday the latter
denounced Lord BATHURST as having done
"many foolish things," and it included in them,
especially, the letters patent for incorporating St.
Nioolay, in Canada. Last night, however, the
Duke of WELLINGTON stated to the House of
Peers that he was in the Cabinet when these
letters patent were issued, that he knew very
well then what was going on, and that he must
have been cognizant of them at the time, though
he had forgotten them on Friday week, when
the Bishop of EXETER made his first speech so
that his race must also be regarded by the
Standard as one of those foolish Tories who,
in the good old Tory times, did a great many
foolish things. Again our Contemporary pre-
pared his readers for the result of last night's
debate by sneering at some " of those who call
themselves Conservatives, and are sillily called
Conservatives by others," whom he described
as conservative of nothing but their own paltry
titles. But now the Standard must class the
Duke of WELLINGTON with those who
are sillily called Conservatives by others,
for he took the course which the Standard de-
precated by its sneer, though it then hardly
supposed that such a course woull be followed
by the Duke of WELLINGTON.
Again, the Times has been labouring zealously in
the cause of the Bishop of EXETER, and, like the
rest of the bigots, was thrown overboard last
night by the Duke of WELLINGTON. No longer
ago than yesterday that journal drew a fine dis-
tinction between incorporating trustees, being
officials of the Roman Catholic Church, alias " a
certainßoman Catholic Bishop and certain Cures,',
and incorporating ecclesiastics themselves. We
were astonished at this boldness of assertion, even
in the Times, not to call it impudence but the
Duke of WELLINGTON, after having had the
benefit of this fine distinction, and after having
heard the Bishop of EXETER endeavour to
establish a perhaps still finer distinction between
the purposes of the two incorporations, the one
being to educate the people by Catholic priests,
and the other to teach them the Catholic reli-
gion—the Duke of WELLINGTON, laughing to
scorn the airy distinctions both of the

Bishop and the public writer, declared
that he saw no difference between the two, and
that he, having been a party to the letters patent,
could not oppose the ordinance. So his Grace
threw overboard the bigots both of the Bench
and the Press, and the good resolutions of his
more vigorous days having been recalled to him,
which he confessed he had forgotten, he .told
the Bishop, and be manfully told the Peers,
that he had been in error on Friday week. On
former occasions, the Duke has given the bigots
some severe back-handed blows, but never did
the whole crew so reel and rock under his
blows as they did last night. They expected
they had caught him in their net, and were pre-
paring to show him about as their last great
prize. Their hopes made their disappointment
the more bitter, and his refusal last night to sup-
port an address, which was artfully described as
intended to save Protestantism from the heaviest
blow struck at it since the Reformation, will
redound to the discredit of the bigots throughout
the empire.

We did not expect that the Post would an-
swer, though it notices, our article of last Fri-
day; and notices it to declare that it is wide of
the mark. Our Contemporary, we are afraid,
has forgotten what and whereabout the mark
was. It was assumed by our Contemporary that
the amount of exports was the measure of the
value of foreign trade, and, taking that test, he
treated with contempt the doctrines which would
promote it, and insisted on statesmen cherish-
ing agriculture, to the ruin of trade. We showed
that our Contemporary was thoroughly ignorant
of the nature of foreign trade, which, we proved,
gave value to agricultural produce, to which our
Contemporary placed it in opposition. We en-
tered into the controversy for the sake of esta-
blishing a principle, and pointing out that dread-
ful combination of ignorance and presumption
which is embodied into commercial restrictions.
We have not the smallest intention of flattering
the Post, when we describe it as much heaer
informed, and much more careful in its reason-
ing, ignorant though it be, than the herd of
country gentlemen, Right Hon. Members of
Parliament, Noble Lords, and Right Rev. Pre-
lates, who have made, and now uphold, restric-
tions on the production of wealth, the vast, com-
plicated, and beautiful phenomena of which they
are totally unacquainted with. To illustrate their
still greater deficiency, we pointed out the igno-
rance of the Post on a subject which it neverthe-
less aspired to regulate. That our Contemporary
can afford no answer to our remarks, is for us a
satisfactory proof that it is not easy to answer
them.

Mr. HUTT, who last year so successfully ex-
posed the injuries to which our commerce in
the Elbe was subject from the depredations of
Hanover, has very consistently followed up his
course of usefulness by performing a similar ser-
vice to our merchants, manufacturers, and ship-
owners in regard to the Danish exactions, called
the Sound Dues. We have before us a pam-
phlet on this subject by Mr. HUTT, called
" Sound Dues Considered," and we must
say that till we had read the elaborate history
of our treaties with Denmark, and of the
Denmark method of practically observing
them, we, could hardly have believed that so
gross and pernicious an abuse remained to
be redressed. " Sound Dues,' Mr. HUTT justly
observes, " in any shape are an opprobrium, but
Sound Dues aggravated by rapacity and bad
treatment are surely intolerable in a 'country
whose existence depends on the prosperity of her
commerce and the moral influence of her flag."
It was bad enough, God knows, and a pretty
significant indication of what a parental Govern-
ment we lived under in the old days of Tory
domination, to have conceded gratuitously to
Denmark a right to tax our trade and navigation
in the Sound, on any scale however limited, and
under any restrictions however severe. Small dues
for the lightage and buoyage of the narrow seas
between the Cattegat and the Baltic, is all the
tax that ever would have been granted to the
Crown of Denmark, had our rulers in 1814 either
considered or understood the importance of the
trading interests of Great Britain. Without a
struggle, a remonstrance, or a word, however,
the memorable Lord CASTLEREAGH signs away
the rights of his comitrymen to hold free inter-
course with the Baltic nations, and hands over
to the King of DENMARK for ever, as a clear un-
bought advantage, the power to impose taxes
and restraints on all British ships and cargoes
passing the Sound. Such was Toryism in its
hour of might !

We conceded to Denmark, as a right, the power
to levy heavy contributions on all our commerce
in the Baltic, and to inflict severe restraints and
penalties on our mariners, in order to secure the
payment of these contributions to the uttermost
farthing. We agree to pay, in addition, the salaries
of the Danish officers at Elsineur, who collect the
appointed tribute; and beside tribute and salaries
to pay lightage, buoyage, and beaconage on our
ships passing the Sound, to an extent, that over
and above defraying all the expenses of these
works and establishments, brings a net income of
considerable amount into the Danish Exchequer!
Yet all this does not satisfy the majesty of
Denmark.

Natuat infelix angusto limit°.

He craves for more, and obtains it by a profli-
crate violation of the Treaty by which he claims
any right to the Sound tolls at all. The amount
of the toll on each article is settled and deter-
mined by a formal tariff, which forms part of the
Treaty between the two nations, and Denmark is
therein forbidden to exact more than is pre-
scribed in the tariff, under any pretext what-

William Hutt, Esq., "M.R
Sound Dues Covisiderca) by
Ridgway, Lon4bn.