The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-25 00:00:00

DUTCH PAPERS.

THE HAGUE, SEPT. 18.—Yesterday a Cabinet mes-
senger arrived here with dispatches from his Majesty
the King. It is now certain that his Majesty will not
return to this town before the 2.5:11 of this month. The
Leenio steamer, in which the King is to return, is to
be at Dusseldorf on the 21st.

According to a letter from New York, of the 21st of
August, the Secretary of the Treasury has given the
necessary instructions to the receivers of customs, im-
mediately to carry into efl' ct the Bill of the 3d of Au-
gust, by which exemption from duties on importation
is granted to Java coffee, coming from the Netherlands,
in Dutch or American ships, and to regulate the reim-
bursement of duties authorised by the said Bill.
THE HAGUE, SEPT. 22.—We borrow the following
afflicting details from a letter from Alort, addressed to
the Courrier d' Anvers :—All that has been stated of the
misery which prevails in the country is below the truth.
Half of the population live in the Irish fashion, that is
to say, on potatoes, vinegar, and water ; rye bread is too
dear. As for pork, which is scarce this year, it is banished
long since from the tables of the poorer classes.
The mortality is becoming frightful in several villages,
even those which lately enjoyed a certain degree of
prosperity. It exceeds by 50 per cent. that of the years
1842 and 1843. The long drought has dried up
most of the wells ; and, being forced to drink muddy
and unwholesome water instead of beer or milk,
our country people have almost all contracted disorders
in the stomach, to which many hundreds have fallen
victims. I have visited a cottage where the father,
mother, grandfather, and seven children were ill, lying
upon straw, badly attended, and abandoned by every-
body except a poor pastor and the physician of a neigh-
bouring commune. The pastor has nothing to give
them but consolation, and as for the physician, he is
overwhelmed with work, and three-quarters of his stock
of medicines are absorbed by his indigent patients.
The poor family of which I speak would be obliged
to sleep in the open air, if the burgomaster, to whom the
cottage belongs, had not excused them from paying
their rent for the last eighteen months. This sight was
very distressing, especially when the father said,—
"It is very fortunate that we are ill, for we are not
so hungry. What will become of us when we are
cured? " There are above a hundred such instances;
in all our villages the misery is becoming general. The
small farmers are ruined in giving alms. The large
farm near which I live is visited every week by 600 beggars;
each of these persons receives a centime or a potato
The farmer talks of abandoning his farm because he
cannot bear so heavy a burden. In our village, as in
many others, the rich inhabitants subscribe to give work
to our unfortunate countrymen These burdens are four
times heavier than the taxes. The women who are em-
ployed in spinning in the houses of the farmers work
from five in the morning till seven in the evening, for
which they receive four centimes and their food. In
some farms they are contented with their food alone;
this may do for them, but what becomes of their
children ?

MAESTRICHT, SEPT. 19.—The water in the Maese
has become so low, in consequence of the continued
drought, that steam-boats between this city and Rot-
terdatn have been obliged entirely to suspend their Toy-
age; and even the service between this city and Liege,
is attended with great difficulty.
HARDENBURG, SEPT, 17.—The River Vicht is so ex-
tremely low at this time, that it may be passed dry
shod at several places, a circumstance which never hap-
pened here in the memory of man.
AMSTERDAM, SEPT. 19.— BORNEO AND THE TREATY
or 1841.—" For some months past the island of Borneo
has become the subject of the most lively interest to all
civilised nations—the establishment of the English in
that island, the largest in the world, is a question which
rivets all eyes on the two nations which are most imme-
diately interested. Great Britain, whose influence in
the theatre of the world is already so powerful, will
gain inconceivably by the last acquisitions and their
consequences; and the Netherlands, which, though not
without influence in Asia, sees that influence daily more
restricted on all sides by the extensive encroachments of
a neighbour whose possessions and colonies spread more
and more over the terrestrial globe, the Netherlands'
colonial anti national interests, in the opinion of
many foreign statesmen, are exposed to the utmost
danger by the events of which Borneo is the theatre.
It may, therefore, not seem out of the way to inquire
what has latterly taken place in Borneo, and then to
examine whether those events ar.~ contrary or not to the
treaties between the Netherlands and Great Britain
which are still in force, and have been frequently ap-
pealed to by both parties." The Handelsblad adds long
extracts from Captain Keppel's account of his voyage to
Borneo and the journal of Mr. Brooke.
ZWOLLE, SEPT. 14.—This evening some families em-
barked here for Rotterdam, intending to proceed to North
America.

On Thursday next six families will embark from the
district of Hardenburg, with the intention of proceeding
to North America, with a capital of 3,000 florins ;
religious motives aro the cause of this emigration.
THE HAGUE, SEPT. 17.—• The Senate of the Free City
of Frankfort has just published a proclamation allowing
the importation of corn, duty free, into the territory of j
the Republic. The Government of Frankfort will pay
to the Zollverien the dirties chargeable on this corn,
according to the general tariff, which is common to all
States of the Union. This measure has become neces-
sary, in consequence of the very high price of provisions.
On the 12th of this month a decree of the Government
of Baden was published at Carlsruhe of the following
tenor:—
" Article I.—The existing regulations respecting the
importation of foreign corn cad pulse, shall remain in
force till the Ist of April, 1847.
" Article H.—Foreign flour, as well as foreign articles
made of corn and pulse, as also pearl barley, groats, flour
of buck wheat, are free from import duty from the Ist
of October of the present year, till the Ist of October,
1847."