The National Register. — London, England, 1816-03-18 00:00:00

PM e. 4 cc br fiationali )1 tikt Our Sing, Confititution ant Uffizi. No. 428.—V0i.. VIII. THE OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH. THE Christian religion is truly the reli,gion of bene volence. All its precepts and institutions are adapted to promote the happiness and to advance the perfection of mankind; while it points out to the rich and the power ful higher objects of pursuit than wealth or ambition ' eats supply, and teaches lessons to the wise which they could no where else learn ; it takes the poor and igno • ;lint under its particular protection, and tends in the most direct manner to ameliorate their condition. Its spirit operating upon society in a long course of ages, has pruducod incalculable benefits to the lower orders, has brought about the abolition of domestic slavery, and given origin to those numerous charitable establishments fier removing distress, or reclaiming vice, which adorn the cities and towns of ill Christian countries. The insti tution of the Sabbath, as a day of rest torn bodily labour, and a season consecrated to religious exercises, is a stand irrg monument of the same merciful and enlightened spirit. To those, whose situation in life raises them above the necessity of manual labour, and who feel the weight of indolence rather than the fatigue of incessant exertion, no idea can be conveyed of the happiness which such a periodical return of relaxation confers upon the labouring and industrious classes, whose time is spent in the workshop or the field, and whose nights, instead of yielding complete refreshment, are scarcely sufficient to repair the waste of strength incurred in the toils of the previous day. In the habits of the ffirmer. the Sunday introduces no change to them ; it presents no feeling con trasts; vicissitude has not taught them the value of re pose, or sharpened their relish flir bodily indulgence. To the latter, the day of rest comes round with a thousand attractions. It is always anticipated as a deliverance, and welcomed us a blessing. It is invested always with fresh novelty, and presents uncloying enjoyments. They regard it with the same feeling of' complacency and spend it with the same keen consciousness of a happy existence, with which those who have been afflicted with a gout, or confined with a fever, riot in the first period of recovered health. Let those who have never felt the weight of the primitive curse of labour pronounced upon our race, and who of course have never personally experienced the re lief from it which religion consecrates in the rest of the Sabbath ; or let those who are engaged in the gay and dissipated scenes of life, and who regard it as only an interval of gloomy indolence, because it may interrupt some of their amusements, or withdraw some of the ministers of their pleasures, survey the actual condition of the great majority of their brethren for six days out of seven ; and Own they will be able, without any per sonal fatigue, to appreciate the importance and benevo lence of the Christian appropriation of the seventh. Let them observe what they can see in the fields and on the high roads during the week; let them enter the crowded manufaetor,•, or descend into the nahealthy mine; let them there remark the pressure upon all the springs of life, the strain upon all its powers ; 1.2 t them calculate the profue waste of health, of strength, of bodily and mental energy, incurred by unvarying labour in a pesti lential atmosphere; and then again let them survey this immense mass of our population on the Sunday, coming forth from the scenes of toil, leaving their cares and the instruments of their work behind theta, breathing the fresh air of he.:ven, assembling in the meetings of the ftithful, or indulging in the society of their ffieuds; and their hearts must be hardened, or their spirits iacurably cheerless, if they do not sympathise in the pleasures of the contrast, and bless the provisions of the fourth Com mandment. What a mighty blessing to mankind ; that the period of relaxation occurs at so short intervals—how beautifully do the arrangemestts of religion and the in stitution of the Sabbath harmonize with the wisdom of nature in the vicissitudes of day and night ! He who has lived seventy years in the world, has en joyed seven years of Sundays. Thu appnpriation of this great proportion of time to repose is owing entirely to the spirit of Christianity aetiug on the laws and institu tions of th: people who pram it. At .imes, when the MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1816. labour of the six days is eagerly purchased, there is no reason to doubt that the seventh (as Mr. Graham, the author of the beautiful poem on the Sabbath, remarks) would be purchased likewise if it were in the market, and the labouring part of the community would be exposed to unremitting unmitigated slavery. Though, theretbre, our religion had done nothing else, but said, " on the Sabbath thou shalt do no work; thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, or thy maid-servant," it would have conferred an invaluable blessing on the world ; but it has gone farther, and has provided the means of mental improvement, and moral instruction, while it has secured an exemption from bodily exertion. In other systems of worship we meet with numerous festivals, in which the people were expected to suspend the usual business of life, and surrender them selves to the calls of pleasure, or the exhibitions of super stitious pageantry. In the religion of the heathens, al most every divinity of importance had his appointed fes tival ; and the officers of the public were prohibited from performing their usual public duties on the day when it occurred. Ille nefitstus erit per quern trio verba silentnr._ Sometimes long■er periods than a day were allotted to superstitions indolence and dissoluteness ; but there was nothing like an immunity from labour, extending to all classes of society, and recurring at stated intervals ; nor was there any institution for a beneficial employment to wards mental cultivation of the leisure actually enjoyed. The people crowded round their temples, or followed their religious processions: but they heard no moral in structions ; they were infinmed of no momentous spiritual truths; and retired to their homes, with no feeling but that of dissolute pleasure; with no remembrance, but of a splendid show, or of a bloody rite. . . Lite vacant aures, ins,tnayuc prOtiilll% absint Jurgia, differ opus lisida turba tuum Cernis oduratis ut luceat ignibus ;ether, Et souet acccnsis Spica Ciliasa tints Culla rude% °permit priebent ferienda jurencl, duos adult eampis lierba 'Valise& amis. Salve, testa dies ' tueliorque revertere simper A puptdo remit' digua putt:ate cceli. It is needless to mention how much the exercises re eommended for the Christian Sabbath, differ from these heathen ceremonies and exhibitions. By our religion, a particular order of men is appointed to instruct their bre thren in their duties, and to invite them to practise them; to expound the great truths of a spiritual system ; to withdraw the worshipper from the dominion of the senses ; to raise his intellectual, as well' as moral charac ter. The poorest of the people thus not only become partakers of that rest which is an emblem of the repose which hope teaches them to expect in a happier state of existence, but arc called upon to exercise the highest fa culties of their nature, on subjects of the greatest import ance; and to examine doctrines and principles of a nobler or der than any that were formerly - delivered in the schools of philosophy to select parties of auditors and disciples. Every Christian temple thus becomes a school of divine philosophy, as well as a place of pious prayer, where the higher and the lowest, the most enlightened and the most ignorant, are equally admitted to hear the most exalted truths, and to perform the most solemn duties. Indeed, there cannot be a more soathing or delightful idea, amid the general agitation of the world, than to think that, by the merciful provisions of our religion, millions of our brethren of all classes, over distant and hostile lands, are met at a particular time for one great solemn pur pose, have left their secular cares and concerns behind them, and arc at the same moment prostrate before the Throne of the Universal Governor, or listening to accounts of his will and of his works—nor can there be a more edifying spectacle upon entering one of these assemblies, to behold the rich and the poor, the young and the old, people of alp ranks and professions, recognising their equa lity as the family of God, and conrting only the distinc tion which results from obedience to his will, or anxiety to attain his fivour. ••• We intended to have given some ad% ice to the Voting re the observation of the Sabbath, and to have stated its abuse in Roman Catholic countries; but we must defer tittle topics hll another ovportunit). tn. PRICE Sid. IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF LORDS, MONDAY, MARCM 11. The Martinis of Anglesey took the oaths and his seat. Several Petitions were presented against the Property-tai and the Insolvent Debtors' Act. The Lord Chancellor laid on the table • draft of a Rill for embodying all the Acts imposing the punishment of the Pillory into one Bill.—Adjourned. TUESDAY, MARCH t 2. Many Petitions were presented against the Property Tax ; and one, 25 yards in length, and filled with two columns of names, from the Freeholders of Staffordshire, against that and thisStantling Army. STATE OF THE NATION. The fluke of Moroni) acknowledged the indulgence of- tlaw Home in his late indisposition, and assured them that nothing but a strong sense of duty would have urged hint to bring this motion forward. If he should be able to prevail on them to go into a Committee, he would ask them to look at the proposed standing army, and to say if many reductions might not be made which must be beneficial iu a financial point of view. With all the means placed in the power of Ministers to termi nate the war, by a wise and secure peace • it would be for the House to decide whether that termination had been given be them to the war, or not. If they had done so, he would afford them his feeble praise; but if not, as far as he could, he would raise his feeble %Mee . t them. He then noticed the ap plication of 23,000 wen for the service 'of Great Britain, having at the same time a force of 30,000 inen disposable in F and he would ask if such a force was necessar y at Isome.e amount of force proposed for our new colonies Was also, in bb : opinion, far too large. He could not conceive how 25.000 m i was necessary for Ireland. But, in his opinion, Ireland bad i been too long treated as a conquered country. In his epi. r nion, it was necessary to take some steps to conciliate the people of Ireland; and above all, to give her Catholic isdiabi. tants their due and equal rights in the ConititutMn. It had r been said, that they were too furious to be admitted into the Constitution. But if they had felt their degradation strongly, they had also approached that Bar with Petitions, mild, but firm. He noticed the taxation proposed to meet that establish. meat; and, in doing so, be quoted the opinion of a Noble Ws quirt near him (Lansdowne), that those taxes suariantosi to ow. half of the seinel income of the country. It would therefore appear that we were at the se phis ultra of taxation. especially when they ennsidered the distressed state of the country. Pe titions were pouring in from all parts against the property tax. and be could not but wonder at the pertinacity of the Chan cellor of the Exchequer in persisting to press the continuance of this tax.. In the reign of Henry IV. this tax was proposed, bat afterwards the Parliament ordered all trace of it to be de stroyed, for fear it should he drawn into precedent; and shisidill it be said that their ancestors were more jealous of their liber ties and property than we were 1 He noticed the distremsd state of agriculture, in consequence of n - hich almost colic-half the farmers in the country were bankrupts or in jail. His Grace again adverted to the state of Ireland, and called on the House to go into a Committee, for the purpose of ex • • into the evils which weighed so heavily an that country. - Ra was sure that from such an enquiry the greatest benefits might lie expected; and lie called on them to reduce the establish ments in every part, thr the purpose of alleviating the distresses of the country. He then moved, That the House should re solve itself into a Conunittee nu the State of the Nation. The Duke of Sussex rose to second the motio n ; and doing so he drew the attention of the House to the external state of our policy, and that which applied to our internal :tentage mlts. Our difficulties, no doubt, arose frota the bag psis. tracted war in which we were so lately engaged, but gm difficulties under which we now laboured, in his opinion, were, that the star had not been teraduated by the attainment piths objects fur which we had carried it en. If the battle of Water loo had conquered us a secure and permanent peac e . the n we had attained the object for which the war was earned on; but his opinion was, that we were by no means restored to that state of security ur permanency ill peace. lie doubted that at present we had not been able to return to that flourishing state of manufactures and commerce as before the war of the Re volution, or even at the peace of Amiens. The high state of our taxation neither allowed us to 'mar use of such good ma tt rids, nor to make o a r tcorknuuuhip so 2.llhitUlltini as former ly. For this reason the manufacturers abroad were able to sell equally excellent manufactures at 25 per cent. cheaper than we could afford to sell our.. At ;101110 too, the farmer could not afford to pay so much for articles for the ornament of his own family. lie next noticed the large standing force of the country ; and if that force was to be kept up to maintain a Government in another country, he could not consider such a Government as a free agent in any treaty of peace it might sign with us or our Allies; neither could lie consider any Govan mod as a proper one which did not exist in the affect and confidence of the people over whian it ruled. He wall of *pi. Mon, that we ought to consider ourselves as an insuha howl r; • and witbont interfering with the babitice of nirope, we should he able t throw greater weight into any scale which it might bee our interest to preponderate. For this reason, he thought a ' naval force might rather be kept up than a military one; bolls because it was more calculated to protect ourself es, and also ' because a military force was a subject of jealousy to every Engl.sh usu. It the hour of danger assailed us at e had g0.,i1 worlinea and faithful citizens who would comet force id and protect their country yet when the danger shoeld subside, they would return to their oectipatious; but he was afraid that men bred 'iti to the trade of soldiers were nit, suited for the social duties of citizen,. For his part lie looked at the proceedings of the Congress with great jealously, when he considered that, though they were unanimous /et the alai . Ile of the Slave Trade, yet they thought nothing of dividing their countries into military establishments and positiona.. The Farl of .linatlakEN opposed the motion. They most all agree that some yeace establialuneut was accessary a, and Lary ~. I. r. A • (tf •