I compiled libsoup on maemo4 by:

glib-2.16.6:
./configure --prefix=$HOME/test --exec-prefix=$HOME/test --enable-static
make install

libsoup-2.4.1:

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$HOME/test/lib/pkgconfig/:/usr/lib/pkgconfig/
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/test/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
./configure
make

To get it to work on the tablet, I guess that you need to copy the libraries from $HOME/test/lib and libsoup/.libs to some directory on the tablet and add the directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH before running tear.

If you get it running, it should not be hard to package all this so that it is easy for users to install. Or you can link tear with the static glib-2.16.6.