The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-05 00:00:00

THE STADE DUTIES•

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Thy following document, drawn up by an able Ger-
man diplomatist, and intended to defend the claims of
the King of Hanover to the right of exacting " the
Stade Duties," has reached our hands.
" It is at a place called Brunshausen, near Stade,
in the duchy of Bremen, where the' offices for the toll
are established.

" The duchy of Bremen was formerly an Arch-
bishopric, which had been erected in the year 787,
by the Emperor Charles the Great. Already at that
period Stade belonged to the Bishopric of Bremen.
Even in the heathen times this place of ancient origin,
affording the greatest convenience for crossing the
river Elbe, had been considered as a remarkably fit
spot for settling at, in preference to the other locali-
ties, and in particular to that of Hamburgh.
" It was Charles the Great who first established
ship-passage duties (tolls) at the mouth of the Elbe',
and the then frequented harbour of Stade could not
be overlooked by the Emperor for that purpose.
" The laws ofiFranconia, and the capitularia of the
German kings and emperors, contain several regula-
tions respecting these ship-duties, as, according to the
constitution of the empire, duties of this kind belong
to the imperial privilege.
" The Emperor Louis the Pious gave the river-
duties in particular to the churches. The Archbishop
of Bremen obtained the Stade duties-for his church,
and it can be proved, by an official document, that
these duties were considered as a sea-duty for all ships
and merchandise passing up the river from the sea to-
wards Hamburgh, and that thi3 was the only toll that
existed between the sea and Hamburgh.
" The town of Hamburgh, the most violent oppo-
nent to the Stade duties, has herself afforded since
the twelfth century the most striking proof of the
legality of the said duties, by her constant claim of
the privilege of the Emperor Friedrich 1., dated 7th
May, 1188. This privilege was obtained by the
Count Adolphus of Schaumburg, at that time pos-
sessor of the town of Hamburgh, for the benefit of
the citizens of the old town of Hamburgh. It con-
tained the Emperor's permission and acknowledgment
of the right to levy dutias at Stade, and particularly
the confirmation of the right to levy toll on all ships
and goods coming from the sea, and passing the town
of Stade.

" The act mentions, however, that the Schaumburg-
burghers of the town of Hamburgh were to be exempt
from paying this toll. This exemption the Emperor
Friedrich I. had, in fact, no right to bestow, as he
had not asked the proprietor of the toll for his
sanction, and as the laws of the empire in-
terdicted the Emperor from granting exemptions from
tolls. Besides which the Stade in the year 1189 was
Church property, and by the Ronian civil and canon
law alienation of church property was strictly pro-
hibited. Although the Hamburgh citizens employed
all means to colour the privilege of 1189 thus obtained
by illegality, they never have been able to produce a
Papal brief in their favour. The Archbishops even
defended with arms the attack upon Church rights, and
obliged by
subsequently they were only force to yield
the freedom from paying toll pretended to by the
Hamburgh burghers.
From time immemorial, how-
ever, might has never been considered right.
" In the palmy days of the Hanseatic league, the
town of Hamburgh also attacked the rights of the
Archbishop's toll; so daring Was the league at the
time of its highest prosperity. It even went so far
as to oblige the Kings of Denmark to allow Hanseatic
ships to pass free at his ancient toll of Oresund.
Plenty of writers have tried to prove that these pro-
ceedings of the Hanseatic league were for the benefit
of Germany and of the whole civilised world, for-
getting the rights that were disregarded and trampled
in the dust by the overbearing insolence of the league.
They disregarded the Papal threats of assisting and
protecting the Church's rights, and, in a word, set at
naught the Emperor's authority and the laws of the
empire. Where a toll was inconvenient, they em-
f the laws of the empire, the
ployed force. In spite o
town of Hamburgh of its own will levied tell in their
harbour in the year 1422, at t 4 very time they re.•
fused to allow the Archbishop to levy toll at
Stade. It was from this time that the disputes
rose with Hamburgh about levying the toll at
Stade. In the middle of the sixteenth century
these encroachments assumed a very grave cha-
racter. On that account the powerful Emperor
Charles V., by an Imperial edict given at Brussels on
the Bth April, 1556, authorised the Bishops of Osna-
bruck and the Duke of Brunswick (Ernest) to sum-
mon the Senate of Hamburgh before them, and call
them to an account. Already, in the year 1563, the
disobedient town was again avoiding, and assisting
others to avoid, paying the duties of the Archbishop.
But Emperor Rudolph issued; in the year 1576, a strict