The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-11 00:00:00

NEW TARIFF OF THE GERMAN
LEAGUE.

An article appeared in many of the papers yester-
day, copied from the Leeds Mercury, representing
that the decisions of the Stutgard Congress have
been exceedingly hostile to English interests, and
insinuating, moreover, that our Government had been
overreached in this matter by Prussian diplomacy.
The following are stated in the paper as the alterations
about to be made in the duties upon English manu-
factures :
" 1. A small measure of duty on cotton warps.
"2. English and French quincaillerie goods—that
is, the hardware goods of Birmingham,. &c.—will be
placed under a considerably higher duty, probably an
addition of not less than 50 dollars per cwt.
"3, and most important. Manufactured goods of
worsted, worsted and cotton mixed, fancy woven and
printed, dyed and gray, are in future to pay a duty
of 50 dollars per cwt. The only exceptions under this
head are all plain worsted fabrics,—such as merinos,
saxonies, and lastings, which, together with woollen
cloths and plain kerseymere, will remain at the former
rate of duty, namely, 30 dollars per cwt."
As this information has been very widely dissemi-
nated, it may be worth while to ascertain, in the first
instance, the quarter from whence such ill-omened
news comes, and, in the next, to see how far, if it be
true, the alteration in the German tariff is likely to
affect English interests.
The statements in the article in question, it must
be recollected, are acknowledged to be only hearsay,

inasmuch as it is admitted that the resolutions of the
Congress were not then published, and we are in-
duced to believe that these statements have been
hastily made, from the fact that in the account which
the Hamburgh Correspondent gives of the matter,
nothing of the sort is mentioned.
That paper, which it must be allowed is generally
well informed on commercial subjects, upon the au-
thority of letters from Stutgard of the 26th of Sept.,
says--" The meeting of the Zoll Congress has come
to a close, and the discussions have ended. The result
of their deliberations is not yet known to the public
with any degree of certainty, but it is generally un-
derstood that the duties imposed in the tariff have not
been greatly altered."
Now, it is singular that if so important an altera-
tion had been determined upon, such a complete ig-
norance of the fact should have existed on the spot.
Official personages here connected with Germany
make no hesitation in expressing their disbelief of the
fact to the extent asserted.

It may, how ever, be useful to make the public ac-
quainted with what is really known here by well-in-
torined people as to the intention of Prussia,_as it is of
the utmost consequence that the community should
not be misled by the crude notions of the ignorant or
the interested statements of parties who put forth
such rumours to suit their own purposes, political or
otherwise.
.We therefore call attention to the follow-

ing facts, which may be implicitly relied on. --
The duty now paid by cotton manufactures in en-
tering the States of the League is 50 dollars (71. 10s.)
sterling per cwt. Woollen goods not fulled, and
goods made of woollen mixed with cotton or worsted,
pay 30 dollars (4/. 125.)
Now the proposition of Prussia at the present con-
ference is, that the manufactured goods of woollen,
not fulled, and of wool mixed with cotton, having
designs printed upon them, shall be considered as
cotton goods, liable to a duty of 7/. 10s. instead of
41. 10s.

Goods of that description, dyed only one colour,
remain as in the former tariff,- at 41. Us. per cwt.
The fact is, that when the present tariff was settled,
such articles were only known in the market dyed
white, or of one colour. The French first introduced
printed goods of the description called mousselin-de-
laine. England followed up the example, but pro-
duced an inferior description of article at a lower price.
The consequence was that they gradually came into
use in place of cotton goods of the same description,
the more so, as th 4 latter description of goods paid
2-sths per cent. more duty, although of less value
than the mousselin-de-laine.

Now the duties of the Zollverein not being levied
ad valorem, a change like that here represented could
not be met by a change of the official value as it would
be in England. The only remedy would, therefore,
be a more correct classification according to the
changed value, and this is simply the nature of the
Prussian proposal.
It must be recollected that as regards mousselin-
de-laine and other fabrics of wool mixed with cotton,

the general principle of the Union tariff prescribes
that mixed goods are to be rated not according to the
rate of the cheaper, but of the dearer material used in
its fabrication. This is an exception in the present
tariff which it is proposed to abolish.
The proposed alteration will not, it is supposed,
amount on an average to more than 10 per cent. ad
valorem, instead of 7 or 8 per cent., which is the
amount of the actual duty ; and the question then
becomes, what quantity or amount of goods is likely
to come under the operation of these altered duties ?
The amount of all the manufactured goods of this
description, and which comes under the head 11, title
C, of the tariff, Was in 1840 26,298 cwt., and in Iti4l
30,844 cwt., of which about two-thirds, or any 20,000
cwt., was English.
Now, it should be remembered that these figures
include every description of the article upon which
the increased duty is proposed to be laid, as well
figured and printed as plain, and if we take what we
understand is really the fact, that only about one-third
of the quantity was printed, and of such a description
as to come under the increased duty, it would he seen
that the great outcry in the Leeds Mermy is made
about art article upon which the alteration of the duty
upon all exported from this country will not impose a
larger sum than under 20,0001. at the utmost,
It must not be forgotten that, as before stated, goods
of one colour remain at the same duties as before.
It should further be romarked, as a matter of fair.
ness towards Prussia, that the greater portion of
mousselin-de-laines manufactured in Germany are
the manufactures of other States, Prussia herself
making but a very small quantity of the article,
We see no great reason to place more confidence in
the statement of the writer in the Le Nis Mercury, as
regards quincaillerie, or as he 'pleases to call them,
Birmingham goods. We repeat, there is no good
ground for the assertion that any great increase Is to
take place in the import duties on that description of
article.

We, however, have good reason to know that upon
iron and iron goods generally no change will talie
place ;nor upon cotton twist; and we believe that, on
the whole, it will be found that this country has
much less cause for complaint than is anticipated by
the writer in the -Leeds Mercury.
It will be found, when the tariff really does come
one, that the alteration in the duties, and the increase
upon some few articles, were but a tub thrown to the
whale, to amuse the smaller States, and to prevent the
imposition of heavy duties upon much more important
articles being insisted on.—Correspondent of the
Times.

THE LATE ACCIDENT ON BIRNAM-HILL,-.4V0 are
gratified to learn that Lady Peel has, at the sugges-
tion of Sir Robert, generously bestowed, out of a
fund which is at the disposal of the Lady of the First
Lord of the Treasury for charitable purposes, the
sum of five pounds per annum on the widow of the
unfortunate man, Daniel M'Lachlan, who was killed
by a fall from Birnam-hill on the night of her Ma-
jesty's arrival in this city, while tending the bonfire
on the hill, This is in addition to thirty pounds I*.
stowed by her Majesty out of her efinto purse.—
Perth Advertiser,