§ Mr. Patrick Stewartpresented a Petition signed by 150 of the most respectable merchants and manufacturers of Glasgow complaining of the infraction by the Dutch of the Treaty of 1824, regarding the importation of British goods into Java, and calling on the House to compel the Dutch Government to adhere to the terms of that treaty. The cession of that island to the Dutch took place at the close of the war, and subsequently the Dutch made several successive efforts to impose higher duties on the British goods imported there, especially on woollens and cottons, than they had agreed to levy in the first instance. Then came the Treaty of 1824, which was negociated by Mr. Canning, who agreed that English goods should be admitted there at a duty of six per cent, where Dutch goods were admitted free, and that where Dutch goods were subjected to a duty, English goods should only have to pay double such duty. The Dutch Government had en- 968 deavoured to saddle English goods with a duty of twenty-five per cent. The subject had been a matter of negotiation for the last twelve years, and as yet scarcely a single point had been gained with the Dutch Government. The petitioners trusted that Parliament and the Government would at length compel the Dutch Government to act in accordance not only with the spirit, but the letter of the treaty of 1824.
§ Mr. Barlow Hoysaid, that the petitioners appeared to assume that the King of Holland was bound by all treaties into which he had entered as King of the Netherlands. Now, he apprehended that was a position that might be questioned.
§ Viscount Palmerstonapprehended that there could be no question at all about the matter, and that the King of Holland was as much bound by such treaties as if there had been no revolution in Belgium at all. He would detain the House for only a few minutes on this subject. It was true that for a great number of years the Dutch Government had violated the treaty to which his hon. Friend had adverted. The matter had been for a long while the subject of negotiation. The Dutch Government at last admitted that their former regulations were incompatible with their engagements under the treaty of 1824, and they had altered them, but not as yet, as he (Lord Palmerston) would contend, in such a manner as to render them conformable to the letter of that treaty. He had no doubt that, upon further representation being made to it, the Dutch Government would see the propriety of rendering the regulations respecting the importation of British goods into Java conformable to the letter of that treaty, and no efforts should be wanting on the part of His Majesty's Government to bring about that end.
§ Petition laid on the Table.