The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-10-04 00:00:00

MARINE INSURANCE

Return to an address to his Majesty, dated 24th Mav, 1833;
• for return of any information received from his Majesty's
consuls .resident at Havre de Grace, Antwerp, Amsterdam,
Rotterdam, and Hamburgh, relative to the amounts charged,
as duties or municipal imposts, either by stamp or otherwise,
on policies for marine insurancei at the said ports respec.
tively; and that, in the- absence of such information, •his
Majesty will be pleased to call fur such information front his
said consuls, and direct the same to be laid before the house.'
No. 1.--HA VRE DE GRACE.
Mr.. Consul Gordon to John Backhouse, Esq. &c. i•
Sir,—Agreeably to the circular from .the oreigo-office, (Ede-d
time pith Say of June current,-directing site to procure and trans-
mit a return -" of the amount charged as duties or municipal
imposts, either by stamps or otherwise, -on policies for marine
insurance at the port of •Havre," I beg to state that there are
no duties or municipal imposts charged in this port upon policies
for marine insurance, except the government stamp of 25 cen-
times, equal•atthe parof exchange of 2;5f. 25c., to lid. I am, &c.
:Havre 28th June, 1833. • , . A. GORDON, Consul..
No. 2.—A N TWERP.
On policies of mariue insurance at Antwerp there are no
other expenses than those of brokerage, as the insurance must
be made by law through a sworn broker, which are paid at the
rate of 8 per cent., when the prime of insurance is. above 1
ber cent., anti at ie rate of 10 per cent. whenever the'prime is
low the 1 per cent. The cost of the policy of insurance is
If. 65c. Netherland money. for the stamp, which never varies;
and when it is necessary. (in case of discussion between the
parties) to have it registered at the stamp office, the cost of
registration amounts to from If. to 3f. There exists no stamp
or municipal tax on the same. -
HOCHEPIED LA RPENT, Consul:
Antwerp, June 13.
No. 3.—AMSTER DA M.
•The only duty to which marine insurances are.subjected at
Amsterdam is a government stamp of ak, with 38 per cent. ad-
ditional thereon, making together 83c. or about ls. sd. sterling.
A printed policy, including the stamp, therefore, costs no more
than If. 41k. or about 2s: 4d. and is valid tbr all marine insu-
rances, without limitation of their amount.
Amsterdam, June 10.
No. 4.— ROTTERDAM.
In this country marine policies, as well as all other officialdocuments, documents, must be written on printed or stamped paper, which
may be done on one of two different sizes, the smaller of which
is 30 cents. (equal to 6d.), and the larger 60 cents. (equal to Is.
sterling). The latter is usually employed for marine policies,
and is augmented by 30 cents. additional duty,. making toge-
ther 90 cents., to which 30 cents. more are added by the broker
effecting the insurance, in compensation for the expense of
printing the policy. Besides the foregoing, no charge,- either
of duty br municipal impost, is levied on contracts of marine
insurance executed in the Netherlands.
ALEXANDER FERRIER, Collslll.
Rotterdam, June 7.
No. s.—llmoturiGit.
The stamp duty on sea and river insurances in Hamburgh is
one-half per mile of the sum assured, and is rated as follows :--
Pence sterlint,
Sums not exceeding .4;35 pay. • • 4 2-7thst'•
Sums from £36 to £7O pay 8 4-7ths
Sums from to £lO5 pay. l2 6-7ths
• And for every additional EAS -7ths
without making any allowance for the intermediate fractional
sums.
If the premium of insurance be under 1 per cent. the half only
of the above stamp duty is charged in cases where it amounts to
about 14s. 4d. sterling.
HENRY - CANN ING, Consul General.
Hamburg'', June 12.

THE IRISH B)•:GGING-Box.—The tribute levied by O'Con-
nell from the . poor peasantry of Ireland, as a reward for his
"patriotic services, and which in sonic previous years amounted
to £lO,OOO or 12,000, is likely to experience a sad aininutieu
this year. A meeting was lately held at Carrick-on-Suir, pur-
suant to a requisition signed by thirty-four persons, for the pur-
pose
of adopting measures to raise the trihute, when four:een
persons attended! This looks squint to the begging-box ! The
Dublin Evening Post, in allusion to this public meeting, says,
"Thank God! the reign of the most frightful tyranny and ter-
ror
that was ever excercised over a suffering people by a knot
of the most unprincipled schemers that ever mocked a deluded
people or disgraced a country, is at end—the jackals of Daniel
••an no longer hunt down their prey, and plunder the people in
the name of patriotism."
The secret service money voted for the year is sowewhere
about thirty thousand pounds; but it is generally believed that
it will fall infinitely short of the numerous objects for which it
is destined. Palmerston, the cat's-paw of Talleyraud, lays
claim to the whole, it is said ; and even wants more to enable
him to carry out the views of that illustrious diplomatist.
Sometime ago, we asked who paid into the hands of Captain
Napier £lO,OOO ere he undertook the command of Pedro's fleet
and. who guaranteed him £l2 per diem while in that service ?
No answer has been vouchsafed. But, besides this, there are
other shrewd questions, and, if probed to the bottom, we dare'
say disagreeable_ ones, regarding the appropriation of the secret
service money to electioneering purposes in Scotland. At the
dinner given at Hamilton to Mr. Gillon, we expected some
light would be thrown upon the subject by those radicals who
were, .or professed to be, in the secret.. Assuredly it was no
part of their creed to be mealy-mouthed on the occasion, if they
were sure of their authorities. The exposure of whig delin-
quencies is as much their duty as it is ours. But there is a good
tune coming, we trust, when whig peculation and whig profli-
gacy will be shown up in their true colours.—Glasgow Courier.
ELGJN CATHEDRAL.—On Wednesday last, John Shanks
made one of the grandest discoveries he has ever done since
the ruins of that magnificent edifice was placed under his care.
On clearing away some rubbish at the west entrance, he came
upon a stone which appeared as a step ; this induced hiui to
continue his operations, when he discovered four distinct steps
quite entire. The whole of the rubbish has not yet been Glared
away; but on examining what has been done, we cannot but
admire the addition which this beautiful and spacious flight, of
steps must have given to the grand entrance. From this dis-
covery it would appear that the ground surrounding this beau-
tiful ruin must have been at sonic former period at least two
feet and. a half lower than it is at present, and that the body of
the cathedral church had been raised in the same manner as
the old St. Giles's Church, which stood on the High-street.
We can give cur readers no idea of the effect which the flight
of steps now discovered gives to the grand entrance; they are
twelve inches broad by six inches deep, and extend the whole
breadth of the ornamented front, which is twenty-four feet.
Formerly, notwithstanding the beauty of the workmanship of
of this splendid entrance, the approach from the road being by
a slight declivity, it did not appear to that advantage which it
must have had when raised from the eye, and approached so as
to have to Outer by this spacious flight of stops.-;--Elgin-Courier.