The Sun.
London, England, 1819-12-29 00:00:00

DUTCH PAPERS.

STUTGARD, DEC. I I is affirmed that the
budget of the kingdom is to be the. only subject
of the deliberations, of the Assembly of the States,
which is to meet in January; and that whey► this
is concluded, the Assembly will be prorogued, and
be called together again in the month of May.

HANOVER, DEC. 15.—The reduction about to
be made in the Hanoverian Infantry is very con-
siderable. Before the invasion by the French,
when the population of Hanover amounted to
800,000 souls, the infantry consisted of 39 regi-
ments. Now that the population of the kingdom
amounts to 1,300,000 souls, the infantry is to
consist of only 12 regiments, or 24 battalions,
being just the number of troops required as the
contingent to.the Army of the Confederation.
The Prince Regent having purchased the coun-
try of Spiegelberg of the government of the Ne-
therlands, a loan is opened to raise the purchase-
money.

STOCKHOLM, Dac. 10.—A very important-ques-
tion has lately been discussed by the Royal Board
of Trade. The Governments of North America
and of the Netherlands have both made applica-
tion to our Government for the abolition of what
is called " The Bill of Productions.", This bill
is an ordinance of nearly a hundred 'years stand-
ing, prohibiting the subjects of Foreign, States
from importing into the Swedish ports* any
goods, except such as-may lie considered as plo•
ductions of their own country. The Board of
Trade, in the reporr, which it has drawn up,
accordibg to the orders given to it, declares
that the maintenance of 'Oils ordinance is of the
utmost importance to the kingdoM, anti that it is
the palladium of the Swedish-comme'rce.
other hand, Baron Edelerititz, President of fife
same Board, declares himself individually to be of
a directly contrary opinion. He sees in this or-
dinance an injurious obstacle to• a free and na-
tural
.commercial intercourse ; and xemhi'rits, that
if by this constraint: some advantage, accrues to
the ship-owners,. which: he,
.however, does not
concede, yet this advantage must not befounded
upon a tax laid on all the commercial part of the
nati,,ri This memorial 'of Baron Edelcrant;
is distinguished as: well by the solidity of the rea-
soning, as by, the fine style which it peculiar to
him. This affair is now laid before his Majesty
for his opinion and tiecision.•
HAGUE, Dac. 19.,=i-Welearn that the King txus
introduced further.Keduct,ions in the_prpences of
the war department, of which we 'trope soon to
.
eive the 'narticulars. • I

HONEST JOHN—You have been so completely
engaged in Parliamentary Debates, for. some time
past, that. I have refrained frOiriluldressing you.—
But you are a clever, intelligent fellow, JOHNNY,
and your boys and girls are a " thinking" family,
and you must have a little politics to give a relish
to your pot of porter.. God knows it has been in
want of a relish long enough, notwithstanding
that Ministers took off the War Malt Tax to•re-
lieve you. So my honest old. Friend, you and I
must have a little chat about those Rights, and
Liberties, and Privileges, of which you lately
have heard so much,—so much, indeed, that a
plain thinkink man must have..supposed that nei-
ther time nor space could set bounds to them

If one could now be surprised, JOHNNY, at the
tergiversation and daily inconsistency of those
who profess to be your best friends and instruc-
tors, that feeling would be most powerfully ex-
cited by the doctrines of the new school respect•
ing Legitimacy. It is rather a whimsical circum•
stance that those who affect to sneer at the Legi."
limacy of Regal Rights, are the very people who
talk loudest to you of your rights and your priei.
leges, inherited from your ancestors. But, Jou NNY,
you must be .well aware, especially at these
Christmas times,-of the propriety and convenience
of the old adage, that " what is sauce for the
goose is sauce for the.. gander ;" so that if yota
expect that sattention shall be paid to your claims
by inheritance, you must allow equal respect to
the claims of others, at least as .well founded as

your own.
Indeed, my honest Friend, I cannot help
ing sometimes to bear some of your younger
branches bowing of their, ancestorial claims to
rightS with which their antestcrs had nothing to
do; when, for instance, the descendants of French
silk-weavers at Norwich or.atSritalfields talk of
their inheritance of Magna Charta,—just as a cerr
tain late lamented legal ToliJician was always

coupled by his Whiggish friends vvith the Bill of
Rights, and the transactions of IGBS, though his
ancestors about that period were very honestly
employed•making wstchcs at Geneva !
Bat it is happy for BRITAIN, and honourable to
Britons, that the humblest individual, the moment
he sets toot on Brilish ground, enjoys that liberty
for.whicli Reitiilis, from the earliest antiquity,

have contended in the field and in the Senate ;
yet it is not the less curious, that although the
individual has a right to claim that for which
Britons have fought and conquered, have_ bled
and died, have spoken and voted, have dined and
toasted bumpers, still has he no claim to a parish
settlement ! So you see, JOHNNY, that British
.Rights are not unlimited, and consequently that
the who wishes to contend for his share of those
rights, will do well fiist to ascertain what is the
sum. total, and to what specific glare he is
-entitled.

To run over those rights rapidly, we may enu.
merate Security of Person and of Property ; Trial
by Jury ; Control of the Public Expenditure;

Liberty of the Preis ; and the Habeas Corpus.
But these are not on. of very old date ; and it
may afford you and me, JOHNNY, bob amusement
and instruction, to investigate their origin, rise,
progress, and present state of activity.
It seems, My good friend, to be a principlein-

Brent in the "British heart, to ser a higher value

upon inherited riglos, than even upon such as may
be self-acquired:- The principle is a noble one, and
the OriOn. of our Public Virtue. Such is the
plain' histOried view the case. If I were to

treat it poetically,. 1 would say that remoteness
of antiquity acts,on,the mind like a secret charm;
like the lofty mountain -whose • head is lost in
clotilg., -and whiefrprettits sublimity by its uncer.
tails altitude•; ,tiv,,-,11,kp-ohjects dim discovered in
the far.stretche4l:,bOrizon; vivhose rugged ()pinny*
are softened ipAtd Obscurity •in distance, it
forms a liaCk-groyiud for the !logic scenery of hu-
man, ,th.ivikich the light and shade are so in-
timately- blended; that the weary eye delights to
uudistarbed by the glare and glitter
.cd objects-,;yet the judicious observer,
'Whether the scene is in nature, or on the canvass,
is not offinded slitiulirtl4o24intl of divine beauty,
or or th:e•Zl'li'int.Painter, by one bright ray of
sunshine, break-.:in' upon these softened tints, if
this':one ray should. harmonize with the general
'effect 1--In this pint of viewAhtn, JOHNNY, I
,
shall indulge your 'aid ;in a subsequent
'Epistle, I shall lead yotrto cotrter4late the Rights
and Liberties which,existed in thieltappyisland at
the period when,we h9d it first mentioned in the
annals of antiquity, w=en the Ronan legions
-were first able to come tind see, n'it to con-
quer ; anal when;soon attet,':we find:4'A3ritons"
designated by the Roman_ Net as " alnico!, divid-
ed from all the rest of the 'world." then,
good JOHNNY',