The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 13, 1859.

THE NAVIGATION OF THE RIVER

ELBE.

The following is an extract from the annual
report of the Board of Commerce of Hamburg, dated
December 31, 1858 :
" One of the questions which have particularly
occupied the attention of the Board of Commerce
during the past year refers to the Elbe tolls. Its
importance to our commercial prosperity, and the
peculiar position in which it has been placed by the
recent negotiations of the Elbe-bordering, states,
impose upon this the duty of stating their views in
the present report more fully than in other times. _
" The great international treaty concluded between
the five European powers and some other states
at Vienna, in 1814 (the Vienna Congress Act), laid
down, in the arts. 100 to 116, the general princi-
ples upon which the navigation of European rivers,
traversing different states, was to be regulated;
and the Elbe is expressly enumerated among these
rivers. The fundamental stipulation is, that the
navigation of the rivers along their whole course,
from the point where they become navigable to
their mouth, shall be entirely free, and shall not in
respect to commerce be prohibited to any one ; and
with regard to the duties on navigation the 11th
article stipulates that the tariff shall be regulated
in such a manner as to encourage commerce by
facilitating the navigation.
"It is obvious that moderate duties, if they are
only levied as an equivalent for the careful main-
tenance and improvement of the stream, are more'
advantageous to commerce and navigation than no
duties 'would be, if concurrently the stream was
neglected. The above important stipulation can
only be read in this sense. The act does not con-
tain a single'word about financial appropriation of
duties on these rivers to the detriment of interests
of navigation. They Were to be levied for the pur-
poses of encouraging commerce by facilitating
navigation.
" ow has this wise international stipulation been
carried out on the Elbe? The convention for the
navigation of the Elbe, concluded at Dresden in
1821, which fixed the normal Elbe toll at 271 gros-
chen per cwt. of Hamburg weight, paid in sub-
stance but little regard to the above stipulations.
So far, however, their influence prevailed that the
30th article gave this positive engagement, that
from time to time revising commissions should meet,
to take into consideration any measures or regula-
tions which, according to subsequent experience,
might flirther facilitate commerce and navigation.
The additional conventions concluded at Hamburg
in 1814, and at Dresden in 1844, have, however,
done little to carry out the principles of 1814. The
tax formerly levied upon the vessel was abolished
in 1844, but in its stead the normal toll was raised
to 31 sibergroschen 11 pfenn. per cwt. At that
time Hamburg remonstrated against the tax as
exorbitant, but its remonstrances were met by the
excuse that the navigation on the Elbe was, not-
withstanding, increasing; that other competing
routes were still more expensive, and the thorough
improvement of the stream would require for the
next few years a large outlay. During the 12 years
that have since passed these circumstances have
undergone material changes. The transit dues by
land in the Zollvereen.have beer considerably re-
duced on both sides of the Elbe ; railroads have
been constructed, branching off to all places in the
district formerly supplied by the Elbe navigation ;
the duties on the Weser have been totally abolished ;
and, finally, the Sound Dues ceased on Ist April,
1857. Notwithstanding these serious changes no
conventional reductions of the excessive Elbe tolls
has been obtained, the stream has not been at all
improved—on the contrary, it has been allowed to
grow worse and worse in- spite of all promise.
" The third conferences at Magdeburg, 1850-54,
only led to some insufficient palliative measures ;
and if Prussia; Saxony, and Austria had not already
previously introduced some modifications in
,their
portions of the river, the whole Elbe navigation
would have been totally ruined for all important
articles of commerce.

" More recently, and particularly since the abo-
lition of the Sound Dues, the traffic on the Elbe
became so oppressed by Hanoverian, Mecklenburg,
and Lauenburg tolls, that it was thought impossible
that the conferences, which were again to meet at
Hamburg in June last, would refuse relief. The
former objections to modifications of the alleged
prosperity of the Elbe navigation at all events could
now no longer be opposed against a thorough re-
form of the Elbe tariff, in face of the fact, that the
more important branches of the Elbe traffic have
been entirely driven away from the Elbe by the
pressure of the Elbe tolls. What facts could be
more convincing than the following ?
" The conventional normal Elbe toll from Ham-
'burg to Magdeburg amounts to 17 silbergroschen
4 pfenn. per cwt., the railway freight to that place
(inclusive of transit dues) to about 8k silbergroschen,
the Elbe toll to Dresden 29 silbergrosehen 10 pfenn.;
the railway freight to that place, 19 silbergroschen ;
the Elbe toll to Prague, 33 silbergroschen 11 pfenn.
the railway freight, 29 silbergroschen.
" Even taking into account the facilities so
liberally granted by Prussia, Saxony, and Austria,
the disproportion remains still bad enough. It still
leaves the Elbe the most oppressed of navigable
rivers. On the distance from Lauenburg to Witten-
berge, a course of 75 English miles, on which the
river freight amounts at the utmost to two or three
silbergroschen per cwt., Hanover, Mecklenburg, and
Denmark actually levy 6 silbergrosehen 5 pfenn. as
their normal Elbe toil, that is, two or three times
more than the whole freight ; and yet the stream
in this part is kept in a lamentable condition.
" As to the practical consequences of these oppres-
sive duties it. will be sufficient to point out this fact
that the Elbe traffic in goods, paying the full and

the half-amount of the normal 1011, has fallen from
2,033,000 cwts. in. 1845, to 294,000 cwts. in 1857,
or to one-seventh of what it was 12 years ago.,
" Prussia, at the beginning of the last conferences,
in acknowledging the treaty-obligation of the
Riverain States to remedy the present grievances,
to her credit, made a proposition which would have
given real relief. It was to reduce the duty on all
articles paying 1-sth and more to 1-10th of the
present tariff duty, and those paying at present
1-20th to 1-40th. This proposition was adopted
without reserve by Austria, Saxony, and Hamburg,
but was frustrated by the obstinate refusal of Hano-
ver and Mecklenburg,. The two latter states even
refused to entertain the modified proposition of
Denmark, to reduce the duty on the articles paying
the full amount of the Elbe toll to one-half, and the
duty on cotton and zinc to one-fourth. The only
concession offered by Hapover and Mecklenburg
was to reduce by a temporary and revocable ar-
• rangement the duty on goods going to and coming
from Prussia and Saxony to two-thirds of the pre-
sent tariff, and to grant a further reduction on goods
passing without transhipment to Bohemia. Expe7
rience havingproved that the navigation is not able
to bear even one-half of the tariff duty, it is evident
that the proposed reduction to two-thirds was quite
insufficient. The Board of Commerce therefore,
upon being consulted by the Senate, declined to
assent to such an arrangement. Not only Hamburg
but also the other Riverain States declared the
propositions of Hanover and Mecklenburg unac-
ceptable, and insisted upon the original propositions
of Prussia, as that required by the stipulations of
the Vienna Treaty and Art. 30 of the Act on the
Elbe navigation, and as altogether necessary for
the maintenance of the traffic on the Elbe. But
Hanover and Mecklenburg obstinately rejected this
fulfilment of their treaty engagements, and after
six months of negotiations the Riverain Commis-
sion of 1858 broke up without any result.
" It remains Row to be seen what can and must be
done ? For the moment Hanover and Mecklenburg
have succeeded in maintaining the present exorbi-
tant Elbe tolls, in order to promote their railway
interests to the detriment of the river navigation.
It has then come to this state of things, that the

present Elbe tolls are retained not merely as for-
merly, for the sake of the revenue derived from
them, but avowedly for the sake of interests en-
tirely unconnected with the navigation of the river.
If the Elbe traffic enjoyed the facilities which were
intended by the treaties, and thereby should again
revive, so as to enable a proper steam tug service to
be organised, the Hanoverian railroads might lose
some traffic, and the Mecklenburg transit dues on
the Berlin-Hamburg railway might become intole-
rable. These apprehensions may be well founded
to some extent. But how can they. justify the
smaller Itiverain States, not only in injuring the
important interests of other States, but in violating
treaty engagements sanctioned by the interna-
tional conventions of all Europe ?
" It is the constant refusal • of Hanover and
Mecklenburg to reduce the Elbe tolls that has
chiefly caused the ruin of a formerly prosperous
river traffic, hindered the development of the in-
dustrial and commercial resources of the districts
of the Upper Elbe, especially of Bohemia, and
diverted the trade artificially into less advanta-
geous channels, which would not have been selected
had not the navigation of the Elbe been practically
closed up for important 'branches of commerce.
" The Prussian and. Austrian Governments, be-.
longirig both to the contracting parties of the Vienna

I Congress Act, have now formally acknowledged
t hat the continuance of the present state of the
Elbe navigation is in direct contradiction-1. To
the convention of the Riverain States, which pro-
mised such further facilities for commerce and
navigation as subsequent experience might require.
2. To the laws of the German Confederation, which
guaranteed the stipulations of the Vienna Congress
Act for the freedom of rivers ; and finally-, 3d, to
the international stipulations of the above act,
which provided that the tariff should be regulated
so as to encourage commerce by facilitating navi-
gation.
"In the face of such well-founded claims, the re-
sistance of some Riverain States, consulting only
their own particular interests and their own con-
venience, must ultimately yield, if the German
powers, in vindicating the general interests of Ger-
many, materially concerned in this question, took
at once efficacious steps to carry out fully the stipu-
lations of the above treaties, or if the Germanic
Diet, upon an appeal against the violation of these
treaties, should direct redress to -be given. - But if
these hopes should fail, the foreign powers, having
signed and guaranteed the treaty of Vienna, may
be called upon to secure 'in favour of the commerce
of all nations, to the Elbe, those advantages which
were stipulated by international treaties, and
which have hitherto been illegally withheld by
some of the Riverain States.

"It would be an error to suppose that the pres-
sure of these river tolls-falls exclusively upon the
countries bordering on-the Elbe ;- the commerce of
foreign nations is equally prejudiced by them indi-
rectly, in so, far as their goods on the. Elbe are sub-
jected to these oppressive tolls, or obliged to go by
more costly "routes to avoid them.
" The aggregate amount of the Upper Elbe tolls
levied by Hanover, Mecklenburg, and Denmark,
in addition to the transit dues on the Berlin-Ham-
burg Railway, which notoriously are the river
tolls transferred to the railroad, and with the
Stade toll, which •comes likewise under the opera-
tion of the Vienna Treaty, has yielded during the
decade, 1848 to '1857,a revenue of nearly 9 millions
of thalers, or £1,350,000 sterling, of which sum the
British commerce at least paid four millions, or
£600,000, falling not only on the British exports
to Germany, but as well on the British imports
from Germany. What extensive commercial in-
tercourse might spring up between Great Britain
and the industrious and fertile dominions of the
Austrian empire, if this its most. important river
communication to the north was opened to com-
merce by, the removal of the oppressive river tolls ?"
Ar'e the interests of large and powerful nations,
equally solicitous about the development of their
resources as the protection of their commerce, to be
permanently injured, only because it is convenient
to some of the Riverain States to refuse the fulfil-
ment of their treaty-engagements ?, It is time that
such an abuse should come to an end.

' " The Board of Commerce trusts thdt the Govern•
ment of Hamburg will endeavour by all means to
obtain a regulation of the Elbe navigation in accord-
ance with the treaties. But at the, same time, it is to
be hoped that when• the conimereial and legal posi-
tion of the question is more universally understood,
public opinion will declare itself strongly, against
the continuation of -stieli illCkal obstacles to com-
mercial intercourse, and demand their immediate
removal. The representatives: of conunercial com-
munities beyond Hamburg, equally interested in
the commerce of the Elbe, will urge their Govern-
ments to claim energetically that the stipulations of
the, Vienna Congress guaranteed to all , nations,, be
applied also to the Elbe.
"'The Stade toll was mentioned above as coming
also under the act of the Vienna Congress.. This
tax, is levied at present under a separate convention,
concluded between the Riverain States of the Elbe,
simultaneously with the additional Elbe Act, in
1844. The accession, of Hamburg ~to that conven-
tion was literally extorted, for. Hamburg had
struggled against an arrangement, which was con-
trary as well to the Vienna Act as to former treaties.
The Stade toll has become still more obnoxious to
Hamburg since Hanover, not satisfied with levying
this tax without rendering an equivalent for the
benefit of navigation, now uses it unfairly as a dif-
ferential duty to the detriment of Hamburg. It is
certainly not to be complained of, if neighbouring
ports rise by competition upon equal terms, for se-
veral ports on the same river may prosper at the
side of each other as commerce expands and com-
petition adds to the energy of all. But it is not
competition upon fair and equal terms, if Hanover
on the one side diverts trade to the Harburg rail-
ways by keeping up the exorbitant Upper Elbe
tolls, and on the other side exempts from them all
cargoes landed at Harburg. It is the highest in-
justice, that whilst Hamburg is oppressed by those
tolls and provides, nevertheless alone, all the money
for the maintenance of the Lower Elbe, the com-
merce of Harburg should profit by these river works
without contributing to their expense, and more-
over be exempted from the Stade tolls, which Ha-
noVer:levies upon the commerce of foreign countries
without any equivalent.
" For Hamburg it is therefore a favourable cir-
cumstance, that foreign States will no longer be
bound to pay this passage toll, imposed by the con-
vention of 1844, contrary to the Vienna Treaty,
when their special treaties with Hanover expire.
It is most gratifying that those views have pre-
vailed during the past year in England, and that
notice for the termination of the treaty of 1844 be-
tween Great Britain and Hanover has been given.
In the report of the committee appointed in the
House of Commons on the Stade tolls, the following
resolutions were agreed upon :
" 10. That it does net appear that any service
whatever is rendered by Hanover in return for the
tax levied upon the commerce of Great Britain.
" 11. That if the treaty of 1844, by which the
United Kingdom is. bound for a limited period to
assent to the payment of the Stade toll, were deter-
mined by notice pursuant to the terms thereof, but
little injury or inconvenience would arise to the
trade of this country.'
" In consequence of these resolutions and the
evidence taken before the committee, especially the
decisive statements of Sir Emerson Tennent, Secre-
tary to the Board of Trade, it may be hoped that
notwithstanding the counter efforts of Hanover, the
British Government will adhere to the resolutions
of the committee, and refuse the further payment
of the Stade tolls at the termination of the treaty
of 1844. If one powerful nation once refuses to
assent to this unjustifiable tax, the whole toll must
cease, all the treaties with regard to the Stade toll
containing the clause of the most favoured nation,
so that when the cargoes under one flag can no
longer be subjected to the payment, all other flags
are entitled to the same exemption. The Stade toll
and the ether Elbe tolls are closely connected, and
the further negotiations cannot fail to lead to the con-
viction that all the Elbe tolls must be regulated
according to the Vienna Congress Act. So long as
the Riverain States were, or appeared to be, unani-
mous on the maintenance of the present tolls, and
these did not actually drive away the traffic from
its natural course, the foreign nations had no in-
ducement to notice the non-fulfilment of the inter-
national stipulations, but since the Riverain Com-
missions have been broken up, the state of this
question has been entirely changed, and the conse-
quences cannot fail to come."

A curious book might be written on the abuse
by mankind of the noblest gift of Providence in the
injury and destruction of great rivers. Of all the
beneficent contrivances which adapt the planet we
inhabit to the use and abode of man, there
is no one which we should view with more
gratitude and admiration than the rivers which
drain, fertilize, and enrich the more favoured
regions of the world. Yet there is no gift of Pro-
vidence which man has more scandalously abused.
Last summer we were continually lamenting the
miserable state of Father Thames ; if we have not
turned his waters into blood, we have, at any rate,
succeeded in killing all his fish, and have begun at
last to undergo ourselves the disagreeable results of
the nuisance we have created. The Rhine is forced
to find its way into the sea by a sluice, and the
wrongs of the Mersey have for several years firmed
a prominent subject of Parliamentary investigation.
But no river that we are acquainted with has suf-
fered the same amount of ill•usage as the Elbe.
This noble river, rising in the mountains of Bohemia,
and forming an excellent communication between
the rich countries and the heart of Germany and the
ocean which bears the German name, seems to have
been selected to show what man can do to counter-
act by the most paltry arts and miserable expedients
the beneficent intentions of the Creator. Some eight
hundred years ago the Elbe was laid under contri-
bution for the purpose of building a cathedral,
and a market toll granted for that purpose has
become, in the shape of the Stade Dues, a heavy
passing toll on all ships sailing up the river. The
Elbe has had to undergo its share of feudal tyran-
nies from the rude population who have dwelt upon
its banks, and in these later days the exactions
levied upon its traffic amply replace all that
could be extorted by robber barons or rapacious
corporations.
At last it seemed that the long period of oppres-
sion was drawing to a close. The .Congress of

Vienna in 1814 laid down for the guidance of the
great Powers, and thus virtually incorporated into
the public law of Europe, the general principles
upon which the navigation of rivers passing through
different States should be regulated. Those prin-
ciples were, that the navigation of rivers along
their whole course, from the points where they
become navigable to their mouths, shall be entirely
feee, and shall not in respect of commerce be pro-
hibited to any one ; and, further that the tariff of
duties on navigation shall be regulated in such a
manner as to encourage commerce by facilitating
navigation. If we read these two principles
together,—the first, the freedom of commerce, and
the next the subordination of the tariff to the
maintenance of that freedom, it seems to result
that, so far as commerce is concerned, the public
law of Europe now considers all rivers as free high-
ways, and that it tolerates no duties on those who
pass.over those highways, except such as shall be
honestly and fairly applied to the purpose of im-
proving the navigation. The friends of the Elbe
can desire 'no more. Whatever is necessary to
maintain the banks, to keep the stream free from
obstruction, and do whatever else is required for
the facility of transit they cannot possibly object
to ; but they have a. right to say' that to make a
profit out of the navigation of ,the Elbe, or, still
more, to lay on tolls with the view of driving com 7
meree from its waters into other channels, is a
direct violation of the pril
i
Treaty of Vickna. In this,
ciples laid down by the
as in many other eases,
the sound principle of international law has been
suffered to fall into abeyance, or rather to be grossly
violated, for -want of soiree competent executive ,
authority whose duty it should be to put it into
execution. The management of the River Elbe
fell into the hands of the Riverain States, who
were supposed, though, we believe, very erro-
neously, to have interests which would induce them
to take all necessary steps for preserving the free
navigation of the river. The free city of amburg,
which lives and has its being in free trade, has
indeed been uniform and unceasing in its efforts to
emancipate the Elbe from the tyranny of its op-
pressors ; but, unhappily, its remonstrances were
little attended to. In 1821 the river toll was fixed
at 271 groschen per cwt., which was raised in 1844
to 31 silver groschen 11 pfennings, or more than
3s. per cwt. The sums thus collected amount
altogether to £1,300,000 per annum, of which
£600,000 are paid by the trade of Great Britain.
For this vast expenditure nothing whatever is done
for the improvement of the river. It is considered'
fair booty levied on the unfortunate trader, and is
applied without remorse in relief of the Exchequers
of the different States among whom it is divided.
But since these duties were imposed a vast change
has taken place in the means of transit. The
Zollverein has lowered its - duties. There is a
railway on each bank of the Elbe, which actually
carries goods'at a lower rate than the dues which
are imposed for passing up the river amount to.
The Elbe toll from Hamburg to Magdeburg amounts
to 17 groschen 4 pfennings per hundredweight ;
the railway freight for the same distance to about
one half that sum. The Elbe toll to Dresden is in
proportion to the railway freight as three to two,
and the Elbe toll to Prague exceeds the railway
freight by nearly five groschen, or 6d. a-hundred-
weight, so that, so far from ofering facilities to
commerce, the Riverain States levy in the shape of
tolls a tribute on goods passing up the Elbe con-
siderably larger than the cost of their transit itself.
- Of course, the effect of this must be to expel
traffic from the Elbe, and give it to the railways, for
the benefit of which these iniquitous dues are
avowedly imposed. The States that have been
able to work out all this 'mischief are scarcely
entitled from their power or their posi-
tion to the bad eminence which they have ob-
tained. It is neither Prussia nor Austria that
has thus skilfully applied the tourniquet to the
great artery of Northern Europe ; the Powers
that have sanctioned and enforced this extortion
are the potent kingdom of Hanover and the mighty
Duchy of Mecklenburg. The motives in each case
are peculiarly shabby. Mecklenburg receives a toll
on the Hamburg-Berlin Railway, which she is
apprehensive could no longer be levied if the Elbe
were opened to fair competition . Hanover remits
the Stade tolls to all vessels resorting to her own
port of Harburg, and thus, while Hamburg defrays
at its own cost the expenses of maintaining the
navigation of the Lower Elbe, Hanover not only
avails herself of this expenditure for the purposes
of her trade, but levies a tax on Hamburg, for
which she receives no equivalent, and remits the
tax to her own citizens. We have before shown
that the Stade Dues are imposed in defiance of the
law of nations, and we therefore rejoice that, as the
recent Congress of the Riverain Powers has sepa-
rated without giving any redress on any part of
this question, the British Government has given
notice of the termination of the treaty with Han-
over by which we are bound to the payment of
these dues, and that this step will be followed by a
distinct refusal to, pay them in future. It is also
high time that the great Powers, parties to the
treaty of Vienna, should come to the rescue of its
violated stipulations, and prove to the satisfaction
of the King of Hanover and the Grand Duke of
Mecklenburg that at least on thersubject of free-
dom of commerce opinion in Europe has not retro-
graded between 1815 and 1859.—Times.