The Sun.
London, England, 1832-08-20 00:00:00

itIRIT OF VTR PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The free navigation—of the Scheldt and the
unrestricted trade of Antwerp form an English
interest,—,form, we may add, an European in-
terest,—as. well as a Belgic. It could scarcely
be more injurious to our trade, or more
inconsistent Vf tf 1 our Maritime rights, to pro-
pose the shOting of the Sound, than the closing
of the Sell elrlt. We are, therefore, convinced
that no British Minister would listen for a mo-
ment to such a proposition as that lately made
by the Xing of Holland to the London Con-
ferencse for imposing tolls on o: o• shipping in
that river, even though he were no member of
the Conference itself, acting for Belgium, which
had submitted to our propositions, but were
eolely commissioned to act for British interests
end rights. So long as the whole course of the
Scheldt belonged to one Power,—so long as
William of the Netherlands possessed all' the
ports on its hanks, he might effectually close it,
by denying to his subjects permission to trade
with any other nation whatever. He might
have issued an edict forbidding all foreign com-
merce ; and, whatever his own people would
have lost by such oppression, foreigners would
have had no right to complain. But it.
is a different matter since the legal separa-
tion of the two sets of Netherland provinces
was effected, by the interference of the great
Powers. He has now no right to decide for
both, and if Belgium desires to continue an un-
restricted trade, it is our right and our interest,
as «ell as that of the Belgic Government, to
resist a policy which would subject us to the
payment of a Dutch tribute. Nothing could be
more ominous for our own or Belgic rights, on
this occasion, than the adoption, in the case of
the Scheldt, of a reference to the treaty for re-
gulating the navigation of the Rhine. It
will be remembered that the navigation of that
river was declared free by the treaty of Vienna,
but it was only on the 31st of March, 1831-
16 years afterwards—that a convention was con-
cluded at Mentz for giving effect to the gene-
ral principle laid down in that European Act.
Nay, the river Commissioners of Mentz have
been six years in bringing their labours to a ter-
mination ; and even in the first Year of the trial,
the complaints of the States interested are so
loud and numerous, that the labours of the Corn--
mission will have again to begin. Holland, after
prolonging the negotiation and defeating the treaty
till a new revelation had occurred at home; and
a new state of things in France, has at length
ermsented to an arrangement, only from the
difficulties of her position. To show how little
the parties are agreed on the principle of their
recent convention, we shall only quote its pre-
amble. It will he seen by that preamble, that the
King of the Netherlands on cue side, and the
states bordering on the upper part of the Rhine
on the other, are obliged to declare their differ-
ence of opinion, and to reserve their respective
rights for a future decision. " The framing of
a definitive code of regulations for the navigation
of the Rhine, according to the dispositions of
the act of the Congress of Vienna, having encoun-
tered difficulties, in consequence of the manner
in which the riverain Governments have under-
stood the application of the principles of that
act to vessels corning from Germany and tra-
versing the Low Countries to the sea and vice
versa ; because, on the one part, his Majesty
the King of the Netherlands maintained that his
rights of sovereinty extended, without any re-
striction, to the sea that bathes his States, even
where it mixes with the waters of the Rhine.
and that according the Conferences preparatory
to the treaty of Vienna, the Leek alone should be
regarded as the continuation of that river in the
Low Countries ; while, on the other hand, his
Majesty the King of Prussia, his Majesty
the Kinr of Bavaria, and his Royal Highnes'
the Archduke of Hesse, maintained that the
act of the Congress of Vienna introduced re-
strictions into those rights, as far as they were
applicable to vessels passing from the Rhine into
the sea, and rice versrl ; and that, under the de-
nomination of the Rhine, the said act had in-
cluded all the course, all the branches, and all
the mouths of that river in the Low Countries,
without any distinction—views, to which his
.Majesty, the King of the French, and his
Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Baden hays
given their adhesion ; the riverain States having
judged it proper to leave untouched all the ques-
tions arising out of the general principles of the
act of the Congress of Vienna relative to the
navigation of the Rhine, as well as the conse-
quences which may be deduced from them, and
to concert measures and regulations which can
no longer be dispensed with under the express
reserve, how ever, that this agreementshall not pre-
judice the rights or principles maintained by one
.ride or the other." Such is the result of 16 years'
4isf;ussion on the interpretation of the Vienna treaty
as applied to the Rhine I Would any man, who
is not disposed at once shut up the Scheldt,
propose that the rights and principles of the
parties, which are here more opposed than in the
Ormer case, and of greater consequence to each,
should undergo a similar process ? The Dutch
project, indeed, seems to anticipate this objec-
tion of delay, and therefore its authors endea-
vour to 101 l suspicion by declaring that the King
pf Holland is willing, in the first instance, to
adopt provisionally the regulations aged tariff
of duties contained in the recent Convention
of .Mentz. These regulations, as we have above
stated, have been already the sulsject of' loud
complaints, and these duties, we contend, would
be an absolute prohibition of all trade. The tariff
for the navigation of the Rhine agreed upon b)
Commission of Mentz, and consigned to
their recent Convention, imposes a duty of 2
francs Ter quintal fitr ascending the river, and 1
franc 33 centimes for descending it, for the dis-
tance between Strasburg and the Dutch territory.
This distance is computed at 143 leagues. The
fax upon a ton of merchandise thus transported
from the frontiers of Holland to Strasburg
would be forty francs, or about a guinea and
a half. Applying this principle to the navi-
gation of the Scheldt, and calculating the space
of water to be traversed in the Dutch territory
between Flushing and Antwerp to be 18
leagues, the proportion of duty by the Mentz tariff
would amount to between nine and ten francs
a ton, or nearly 401. sterling, on a small vessel
of 100 tons,—a sum in tribute money to Hol-
land, which would Often exceed the whole ad-
vantages of the freight, or profits of the adven-
ture. Add to this excessive toll duty, the
stoppage of the vessel to be searched. by Dutch
officers,—the vexatious delays to which it night
be subjected,—the trifling irregularities of which
rival or hostile agents might take advantage to
interrupt the trade, and nothing would be
;t, want-
' • 'o secure to the merchants of Rotterdam
le
and Amsterdam all the benefits of the mono-
poly which they derived from the closing of the
eldt by the treaty of Aitinster. But the claim
of Holland in the project of treaty submitted to
the Conference, does not end with the payment
of the toll or Few, however exorbitant that

may he, 41r however effectually that alone would
have accomplished the object of the Dutch. His
Dutch Majesty has the modesty to propose like-
wise the exclusive pilotage of the river :he offers
to attend exclusively to the buoys, and insists
upon enjoying exclusively its fishery. The con-
sequence would be, that no Belgians would be
allowed to learn the pilotage of their own first of
rivers ; the buoys might he neglected,and the Bel.
Mans would have no power to intefere,—and for
the enjoyment of a dish of fresh sea-fish, they
would be exclusively indebted to their Dutch
neighbours. The sovereignty claimed by the
King of Holland over the mouth of the Scheldt
would cover entirely all these demands, and
would make Antwerp as dependent upon
Dutch regulations as Utrecht or Nimeguen.
But with the fishery we have nothing to do. It
is an interest exclusively Belgian ; while those
measures that affect the navigation of the
Scheldt,—though in the first instance Belgian,
—affect the trading interests of all nations,—
particularly ours, which are the most extensive
of all. And be it remarked, in conclusion, that
the transit trade to Germany,—the ac-
tivity of commerce in the interior waters of Bel-
gium,—the advantage of the canal communica-
tion through Holland, in diffusing our produce,
and that of other nations, by the Rhine to
Rhenish Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, and Switzer-
land, all depend upon the free navigation of the
Scheldt. We are, therefore, confident, that our
Minister in the Conference will listen to no mo-
dification of the treaty of the '24 articles, so far
as the Scheldt is concerned, and that he will re-
sist every new attempt to renew the treaty
of Munster. It would be absurd to allege,
if such regulations are introduced, that the
navigation is free to all nations, by con-
forming to the rules laid down in the Convention
of the riverain Powers. In looking back at the
convention of Mentz, which we consider an act
prohibitory of the entrance of foreign shipping
into the Rhine, by the restrictions which it im-
poses on that shipping, we find it stated, that
la navigation n' est interdite a personae, " its
navigation is forbidden to " nobody ;" but the
• exceptions afterwards sanctioned close it against
every body except the subjects of the powers on
its banks.* The treaty of Vienna contains the
same barren general proposition in its 109th ar-
ticle-f- ; but the interpretation of that article has
always been left to the six States whose territory
the river washes, and the Rhinish shipping has
been practically reserved for their subjects alone.
The Dutch project gives a hint that it intends
the same restrictions on the Scheidt, for it states
that "the proposed duties shall be the same on
Belgic as on Dutch trade;" meaning, no doubt,
to make its own conditions respecting duties on
the shipping of other nations visiting the port of
Ant werp.— Times.
We foresee that serious consequences will
result from the attempts at intimidating the elec-
tors now being made throughout the country, if
the ballot be not soon resorted to as a peace-
maker. At a meeting of the southern districts
of Edinburgh, on Monday last, Mr. Aber-
cromby (late Chief Baron) alluding to the
attempts to intimidate in Scotland, observed—
'. fir law, as it now stands, bas given the elective ft an-
cliise to electors, to he exercised as freely and indepen-
dently as any other property or legal right; and no man
has a right to interfere with and control another in the
way of intimidation or other undue means. Ido not mean
to exclude reason and argument ; that is all fair; but
beyond this the min who interferes with his neighbour's
exercise of the elective franchise is an intrudrr. He does
not violate the letter, hut he certainly violates the spirit of
the lacy. .The Betio in Bill was passed to put down the
power of the aristocracy in nomination boroughs; but if,
,s bile it does so in its terms, these are defeated, and the
aristocracy, instead of direct nomination, come with a tail
procured by threats and intimidations, this is directly the
reverse of the law, which meant that the elective franchise
s`muld be enjoyed as an absolute and indefeasible property,
nd the law must protect that as much as any other. I
have great faith in the force and influence ef public opi.
alga denouncing, all illegal attempts to deprive individuals
of their right. Reason and argument are all fair, hut the
argument of force—the assumption of power to affect
tent oral interests, is unjust and oppressive, and if carried
to any extent, it must be checked. It is an indefen-
sible outrage on justice and common sense. What
man or woman—for the ladies, too, I am told, are very
',usy at this sort of work—would not shrink to be held up
by name in the public prints? They know that it is wrong,
and therefore they will shrink from exposure."
lists of persons attempting to intimidate
were to be published in the newspapers—and
it would not surprise us if this were done—the
consequences would be most serious to all those
so held up to public execration. The men
and woman so marked out would be exposed
to many evils, which we decline pointing out,
lest we should be thought to encourage what all
might in turn regret, and which it might be
much easier to begin than to terminate. The
people of property who act in such a manner as
to drive the people, in self-defence, to measures
which we have only obscurely indicated, must
be little less than insane. The rich arc only
powerful through the law ; physically speaking,
they are feeble, from their smallness of number.
But the attempts to intimidate must inevitably
lead to anarchical proceedings, which all may
lament, but which the rich in particular would
lament in sackcloth and ashes. There is another
evil connected with the exposure of names. It
opens a door to the gratification of malice. A man
who hears a grudge against another may seek to
he revenged in this way. The unfair and avarici-
ous tradesman might place the loss of a customer,
not to his extravagant prices or the badness of
his commodities, to his want of skill, &c., but
to his vote. Besides jealousy and suspicion would
he at work. A man might suppose a customer
left him on account of his vote, when he left
him from accident or caprice, from a preference
to some other dealer, &c. A door would un-
questionably be opened to great injustice ; but
we need not say, that if the midi people do not
seek to divest themselves of the perilous power
over voters which an open election gives them,
they will be made to suffer severely. In an in-
telligent age like this, men are quick in devising
means of self-protection and agression. We
should say that the rich are more deeply inte-
rested in supporting the ballot than the pour, for
they will unquestionably be the victims, in many
cases, of jealousy and suspicion of a self-inte-
est, always on the watch. Without the ballot,
society will be torn to pieces, by the loose given
to bad passions. Mr. Ahercromby thus argued
respecting the supposed finality of the Refbrm
Bill interposing a tar to any necessary change ;
" I am no enemy to the repeal of the Septennial Act,
but the question must be viewed with reference to the
pcsent time. The enactment of that law was a strong
and violent measure when it seas passed. You will all re-
collect that when Ministers brought forward the Reim m
Bill, they laid aside the two questions of Triennial Parlia-
ments and Vote by Ballot; ana many supported them in
nmrybig it through who would otherwi•e have been ad-
verse. It is idle, however, to talk of that Lill, or any
other, being a final measure. It is nonsense. For nu
* The ad article of the treaty of Mentz is the following :
" Ships belonging to the subjects of the riecrain States, and
making part of the Rhenish navigation, shall not be obliged to
tranship their cargoes, or break bulk, in pa,sing from the wa-
ters of the Rhine into the sea, or vice versa, through the king-
dom of the Netherlands." All foreign ships arc, of course,
excepted. Is not this a prohibition?
t La navigation * * sera entierknent libre, et ne pourra
i•tre interdite a peraonne.