Extensive military preparations are making in Holland. The Belgians, too,
are not idle. The return of the Tories to power has given fresh hope to the Dutch King; but if it be true, as the correspondents of some of our daily newspapers assert, that the Duke has announced his intended perseverance in the foreign policy of the Whigs, these preparations and rejoicings are rather premature.
The King of Holland has shown his spite towards his old subjects, by imposing an extra duty on Belgian manufactures imported into Java. The manner in which he went to work is described in the following extract from the Times.
"This is an instance, not the first of the kind, of a commercial regulation so ill-digested as to hurt no interest so much as his own and that of his unfortunate subjects in Java. The injustice of the late decree, which is its more prominent and obvious feature, is very remarkable. He quietly permits the Belgian ma- nufacturers to send their cotton goods by way of Holland to Batavia; awl when they arrive there, a ready-made decree of his Majesty of the Netherlands is is- sued, of which they never heard before, establishing a duty of 50 per cent, on the goods, instead of 25 per cent, as formerly levied, and on the faith of which lesser duty the importers acted. Among private individuals, such a course would be deemed downright robbery. But it is satisfactory to know that the King's in- tentions will be defeated, and that it is likely to turn out in the end that he will be the plundered party. All the Belgian manufactured goods sent out under the circumstanees described have been received in bond at Batavia, and are to be transshipped to Singapore, where they will be sold at good prices without the payment of any duty whatever, and most likely find their way back to Java through the means of smugglers, who will take care that the Dutch Govern- ment shall neither get a duty of 50 nor of 25 per cent."
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