The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-26 00:00:00

THE SOUND DUES.

COPENHAGEN, March 20.—You are aware that the
ground upon which the Government of the Unitsd
States has denounced the treaty of amity and commerce
with Denmark of the 26th of April, 1826,- is their u; -
willingness to surrender to any PoWerthe right of using
the ocean as the " highway of commerce," mid, to ac-
knowledge the right of Denmark to levy the Sound dues
—a right which the Ueited States have recigni,td from
the moment of their entering in'• the class of indepen-
dent nations until 1826, as a not privileged State, and as
a privileged State' from Vint year until the 1, .h of April,
1855, when they denounced the aheve-named, treaty.
Some of the most eminent American etatestucii—as
Daniel Webster and the celebrat?d Henry Wheaten
—formerly acknowledged the right of Denmark to levy
the Seund due*, as resting upon " immemorial usage,"
and sanctioned by numerous treaties ' • and the bet
writers on public ltvr—for example, B'yekershoel to d
Lord Stowell—consider the law of nations as derived
from the usage and, practice of mankind. The first
time the right of Denmark to levy tolls upon tee m r-
chant vessels passing the Sound nal the Belts has been
denied was in 1843, by the then American Secreta"y of
Stat-, Mr Upsh2r, who, in a report to President ; i:er
remarked "That Denmark could not demand this toll
upon any principle of natural or public law, nor upon
any other ground than ancient u age, which finds t 0
justification in the existing state of things. She renders
no eervice for this exaction, and"—this, I presume, ie
the princie al argument—" has not 'even the cairn of
power to enforce it." But Mr. Upshur died shortly
after, and his successor in office, Mr. Calhoun, the great
knew insult, entirely abandoned the stand taken by Mr.
Upshur in this question. Now, the new American
doctrine of public law might, perhaps he defended, at
least from an American point of view, if the Uiiited
States themselves acted up t ) it in their relations with
every other ration. But if you compare the course
pursued by the United States' Government in a recent
negotiation about the free navigation of the St. Law-
rence river with that which they have adopted in regard
to the Sound dues, you will perceive that the ja3 for.
tionis is the real principle of American public law. In
the neg )thition with Great Britain about the free navi-
gation t f the St. Lawrence the Unite-I States claimed
that the stipulations o' the Vienna treaties, "by -wh:ch
the navigation of the great European rivers had been
male free to all nations, were applicable per analogy
to the navigation of the St. La erence." In their ne-
gotiations with Denmark about the S mud dues the
United States (viz., Mr. Marcy, in his Oespatch to
the American Charge d'Affaires at C .penhagen, of
July 18, 1853) decidedly repudiate the i lea of elle% ir•g
any weight to the treaties of Vienna in regard to the
Sound dues question, and does not take any notice of
the fact that the Congress of Vienna, although makieg
fiee the navigation of the great European river=, left, the
right of Denmark to levy the &end dues entirely un-
touched. By the 4th article of the reciprocity treaty
with Great Britain of June sth, 1854, the United States
agreed :—"That the citizens end inhabitants of the
United States shall have the right to navigate the river
St. Lawrence, subject only to the same tolls and other
assessments as now arc or may hereafter be exacted of
her Majesty's said subjects, it being understood, how-
ever, that the British Govtrnment retains the right of
suspending this privilege on giving due notice thereof to
the Government of the Ueited Stitee." But to Den-
mark Mr. Marcy ta)ks in a high tone of the "free high-
way of nations," and refuses to have anything to do with
European public law and E iropEan balance of power.
When invited to the conferences shout the Sound dues,
held at present at Copenhagen, and where Austria, Bel-
gium, France, Great Britain, Holland, Oldenburgh,
Prussia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, and Russia are
represented, the United States declined taking a part 'n
them, and in all probability the question will be resolved
without their co-sp. ratio
In a recent meeting of the conference the Danish
Commissary, Mr. Blubme, submitted a propels' of capi-
talisation of the Sound dues, according to which Den-
mark should receive 35 millions of Danish six %Pars as
indemnity for the abolition of the tolls, on the following
conditions :
paPerilecrpaitneterinestthede
pinaytmhtent%taidc
to by the Powers represented in
"r. Th-:t all gm
tttrahheadtecoitannsfehdraelnnlacbsis,igagaDtrieeedonntrirke reserving to herself to event
separately with the Powers not represented as to their
quota share.
"(b.) That's sum of 2,335,088 rixdollars shall be con-
sidered an indemnity for the lighthouse dues, and
32,664412 rixdollars as compensation fur duties upon
goods.
-
"(c) That the payment of the quota share of each of
the represenlei Poe e ei shall he
guaranteed to Denmark
in a sa(i.factory manner." •
The Danish Commissary further stated that the above
named sum was the minimum of indemnity ehich Dan-
mark had the right of claiming.
According to this proposal, the Aare of Great Britain
t
72010 d, otnheey
carne
easbuomu
that of Prussia about 4,500,000 Danish rixdollers, that
006301. 11/ithe slh°iterrol°RCluDssaiallaisbhoumt
of Sweden and Norway about 2,000,000. that of the Ne-
t herlands 1,500,000, thee of France 1,250,000, that of
Belgium 300,000,000 rixdollars' that of Spain 1,000,000,
and so on, in pr ipottion -to the yearly average amount
of dues each State has paid in later years.
You will easily understand that it is of the greatest
importance to Denmark that this affair should be regu-
latel before the 14th of June, 18511, the prolonged term
of the expiration of the Danish-American treaty of 1826,
as after this time any extremity of violent measures may
-be feared, on the part of -the American Government.
The journals of the Union at least speak of seizing upon
the Danish West India Islands, especially St. Thomas's,
as reprisals against the Danish Governnaent, should it
exact the payment of Sound dues by AmerieLn vessels
peeling the Sound after-the expiration of the treaty of
1826. Many British subjects being settled in those
islands, and St. Thomas's being an important British
postal and packet station, it is to be supposed that the
British Government would not look with indifference
upon such an act of violence on the part of the United
States. But still it would be preferable that, .tie
Bound dues question being settled before the above-
named term, the threatened complication did notte*Feet

The 47,000/. of gold brought by the Lightning Ins
been taken to the Bank of England. In additioa to
the further sum of 250,000/. expected daily from Austra-
lia by the Blackwall, 61,704/. will be brought by the
Brilliant, which sailed from Geelong on the 26th of De-
cember.