The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-15 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

DUTCH PERS.

26q

12
101/2

211v2
138 v

TEI L TTER-sORTER S.
TO THE RIGHT IION. TH E EARL OF LONS-
DAL E, HER MAJESTY'S POST-MASTER
GENERAL,
The petition of the undersigned sub-sorters in the
General Yost-office,
Humbly showeth—That your petitioners are desirous
of availing themselves of your Lordship's kind permis-
sion to express their grievances, with unfeigned deference
to the constituted authorities of the office.
That your petitioners would humbly call your Lord-
ship's attention to the inequality of their present scale
of salary, and to its inadequacy as a remuneration for
their services.
That your petitioners were promoted to their present
office from that of the letter carriers for their good
conduct and aptness at performing the duty which has
now become both onerous and re-ponsible, and they
refer your Lordship with becoming pride to the fact that
they have never, in any one inst lice, forfeit, d that good
character, inasmuch as a criminal proechtion has never
been instituted against any one of tf.eir b .dy.
That your petitioners would cautiously avoid making
an invidious comperisen with other officers of the esta-
blishment, but they cannot refrain ft out painting out to
your Lordship's notice the similarity of some of their
duties to those of the clel ks, and the arduousness of
other duties in connexion with the letter-carriers.
That when the present scale of salary was made in the
year 1836 by your Lordship's predecessor, and the then
secretary, Sir Francis Freeling, it was an arrangement
which met with their sanction that there should be four
classes, at 801., 901.,1001., and 110/. per annum, and that any
subsequent increase in the sub-sorters should be equally
divided on each class. Thus all had a prospect of
ultimately rising to the senior class. But in con-
sequeuev of the number being increased from forty
to one hundred and nineteen, thirty of whom are on
the three higher classes, seventy-four on the 80/. class,
and fifteen who act as letter-carriers on the lowest class.
So that as there is little disparity in the ages of s our
humble petitioners, they are precluded from ever rising
above their present class after passing many years of very
active service.
Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray your Lord-
ship to place them on a scale of salary according to their
servitude ; so that each one may have the prospect of
rising to a senior class everyifive years.
That your petitioners' duties have increased two-fold
since 1836, and that the physical labours which now
devolve upon them are much heavier on account of the
increased facilities eiven to the public, and the vast ex-
tent of the London newspaper press; the arduous duty
of sorting which falls principally on your petitioners.
That your petitioners humbly but earnestly seek
amelioration of their excessive toil, of the injurious
nature of which your Lordship may be best apprised
by the fact that many of your humble petitioners are
labouring under serious bodily injury which they have
received in the performance of their duty, which can
never be pecuniarily compen,ated, but which your
Lordship may alleviate. As a peinfu. proof that ill
effects arise from their labours, they b g to refer your
Lordship to the bills of mortality for the last two years,
and to the present sanitary state of the office.
That your petitioners humbly wish your Lordship to
notice, that when they are disabled by sickness or other
casualties, a considerable portion of the salary is de
ducted. This your Lordship will please tt ct nsider
often retards their recovery and embarrasses them in
their circumstances ; they, therefore, pray your Lord-
ship to place them in the same position as other officers
under the Crown, and Brit your petitioners may have
the privilege of fourteen days in the year, without de-
ductions, of which your L irdship will please to deem
them not unworthy, after twelve months of hard service
in a confined and destructive atmosphere.
That your petitioners respectfully affirm that it is im-
possible to escape such evils under a continuation of such
circumstances, they therefore humbly pray your Lord-
ship to grant them—first, an adequate salary equal to
their years of servitude, responsibility, and tru-t; se-
condly, a modification of their duties, which at present
exceeds their energies, and destroys belh body and
mind; and lastly, that all extra duties performed by
your humble petitioners be remunerated on the same
principle as that allowed to other officers of the estab-
lish ment.

2 4 tit. '2
11 p

viz
38
3%
30

. . _ . .
223%

034
61/2
3
4%
2%

That your petitioners do most earnestly implore your
Lordship to take sucti steps as in your Lordship's wis-
dom may seem fit to meliorate their coodition—to give
happiness and contentment to their homes, and unab e
your petitioners to maintain their families in comfort
and respectability.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound,
August 5,1845. will ever pray, &c.

THE WEATHER AND THE HARVEST=---We rejoice
to learn, that during the last few days the most favour-
able weather has prevailed throolgho,it the Western
Counties. In Devonshire, S .mer%:etshire, and the
Western Counties generally, the harvest has ni,t on!y
commenced, but in many cases the crops have been
safely housed. The harvest of wheat is in general
abundant, and it has as yet received no plamage from the
weather. A week of fair weather would secure the
harvest throughout ths West of England.

Baron de Hugel, the \Vui temberg Minister, has left
town for Dover.

Sir c4eorge Cockburn had an interview with the Ear:
Dalhousie, yetreray, at the office of the Board of
Trzde.

TUE HAGUE, A tic/. 10.—His Majesty the King arrived here
yesterday afternoon from his visit to England. 3he Cycloop
steamer, which landed his .%iajesty yesterday morning at its
o'clock, performed the voyage from• Woolwich in sixteen and a
half hours.

AMSTERDAM, A tic. 10.—Accounts from Utrecht, Gro-
ningen, Bois-le-Duc, and other places, bring very unfavour-
able repot is respecting the potatoc crop. Some accounts say it
is a kind of epidemic disease, which continues to spread, and to
appear in different places which had hitherto been free. One
acc,amt from Bois-le-Duc says that the disease is none other
than a vast quantity of insects invisible by the naked eye, or
rather appearing like a brown dust covering all the leaves and
stems. An experienced farmer states that he has observed this
phenomenon not only on his potatoes, hut en the leaves of many
large trees, especially the oak and Canadian pines and poplars,
all which look sickly.
AMSTERDAM, Auc. 12.—The frandelsblad of this day 1-ias
an article headed " Vigilance," in which it says:—
" There are reports in circulation of events said to have
taken place out of Europe which seriously affect the honour
and the interest of the Netherlands. Though these reports
happily need confirmation, we think it the more necessary to
call attention to them, as in the rai,lst of civilised Europe an
event has made a great noise in which the honour and interest
of the Netherlands are also impiicated, and tor which the
Netherlands Government, far fron requiring reparation and
satisfaction, has been content with t e most worthless evasions.
We therefore consider it as our duty to notice some reports of
such events, to warn the Government not to suffer itself to be
imposed upon by any evasions or sophistries, when the honour
and the interest of the country are concerned. The reports
to which we allude relate to the conclusion of alliances and the
estafilishment of factories by European Governments in parts
of the Indian Archipelago, where the flag of the Netherlands is
recognised by the native princes and people as that of the
sovereign power. These reports state that some Englishmen
from Singapore are engaged in settling as merchants oo the
north-west coast of Borneo ; that the French Government has
taken possess on of the Soho Islands, situated near the north-
east coast of Borneo; and that the King of Denmark, to
indemnify himself for the loss of the establishment in the Gulf
of Bengal, which he has sold to Great Britain, means to found
other settlements arid forts on the coast of the island of Bahia
There is no doubt that all this is at variance with the rights and
claims to those islands acquired by the Netherlands in the
seventeenth century, when the Dutch East India
Company, by its moral superiority and its conquests,
was everywhere celebrated and respected in the islands and
continent of India. Since that time up to this day the nations
of that vast archipelago have always considered it an honoor
to look on the Dutch flag as that of Jan Company, under the
protection of which they think themselves safe, and are fend
of calling themselves Children of the Company.
" It is needless to prove how the rights and claims of the
'Netherlands are founded—whether on treaties or other acts of
submission; they must be raised in the eyes of all European
powers. According, also, to the opinions of the most eminent
British statesmen, they are also guaranteed by treaties between
the Netherlands and other European powers. It is, therefore,
the duty of our Government to preserve to the nation the pos-
sessive rights and claims which it has once required, and, in
doing this, it must not delay till it receives from Java a con-
firmation of these reports, when it may be too late to repair all
mischief. Let the Government act with dignity, and maintain
the honour and interest of the nation."
DUTCH FUNDS.—AMSTERDAM, Aug. 11.
Money. Bills.
Actual Debt, 2% per Cent • •• • • 64 64!4
ivitto, 3 per Cent •••. • • • • 77% 78"
Ditto. 4 per Cent... ... •• . • ..... 100% 101
Amort Syndic, 4% per Cent. •• • • • • • • 1. 0 101%
Ditto, 3% per Cent... • • • ..
Commercial Company, 4% per Cent .. 169% 170%
East India Loan, 4 per Cent •• • . 100% 100
Exchange on London, at sight .....• • • 12 22
Two months... •• .. •.•• • • • • 12 17
On Hamburg'', at sight •• • 35 Sil,4
Two m0nth5.......
On Paris .... • ....... 57 62%
Two months. .. .••• • • • • 57 56
—Dutch Papers, Aug. 12.
AUSTRIAN FUNDS.—VIENNA, Atm. 6.
5 per Cent. Metalliques • • • • • . • . 114
4 per Cent. ditto ••
3 per Cent. ditt0...... • • • • .• • . 78
Loan, 1834 . . .
Ditto, 1839 • • -•• • • • • • . 129
Bank Shares . •. • • • • • ..
Esterhazy's Loan • ....
RAILWAYS
The Northern, or Ferdinand
Vienna—Milan .......
Gloggnitz
Leghorn......
Pesth ..........
—Allgemeine Zeitung, Aug. 2