The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-15 00:00:00

THE

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1856.

WILL SUNDAY AMUSEMENTS ELEVATE
THE MASSES?

WHILE we quite agree with those who are accus-
tomed to urge, that it is useless to endeavour to make
men religious by Act of Parliament, we by no means
assent to the conclusion which is too frequently drawn,
viz., that Parliament should take no cognizance of
religion—in fact, should ignore its existence. Far
higher, indeed, than any power possessed by man, or by
any assembly of men, is that required to convert a
sinner : and yet it does not follow but that the legis-
lature of a Christian country is bound to recognise both
.the existence and the obligations of Christianity; and
to a certain extent, at least so far as externals are con-
cerned, to enforce them. The law cannot hinder a man to
be in heart a blasphemer, but it ought to punish him for
the utterance or publication of blasphemy ; just as,
though it cannot make a man honest in heart, it ought
to punish him whenever he ventures to indulge his
dishonest propensities. And just upon the same prin-
ciple, though no advocates for puritan gloom and dul-
ness, we should not only be sorry to see any of the
laws, which at present protect the sanctity of the
Lord's Day, relaxed, but should be glad to see them
in some particulars rendered more stringent. That the
poor have, in the present day, few opportunities for
innocent relaxation and enjoyment, we well know, and
deeply regret ; and such are the insatiate demands of
the spirit of mammon, that the few which they do enjoy
on any of the six working days, are more likely to
be curtailed than added to : but it would be a sorry
- remedy which should give them additional opportuni-
ties by sanctioning the desecration of Sunday, by for-
mally secularising a portion of that day which belongs
to GOD. Let those, who have the welfare of the poor
-really at heart, persuade the employers of labour to
relinquish a part of what is now devoted to their ser-
vice. A monthly holiday would do much, a weekly
half-holiday would do more, to remedy the evils com-
plained of, and render all such suggestions as we have
lately heard for throwing open places of amusement
upon the Lord's Day, utterly unnecessary.
Both letters and leaders have of late appeared in
some of our local contemporaries, urging the authori-
ties to sanction organ-performances in St. George's
Hall upon Sunday evenings. We can only say, we
fervently hope that the authorities will do nothing of
the kind. Music, it has been urged, and in a quarter
-from which we had reason to expect better things,
would prove a means of elevating the masses. That
they need to be elevated is too true ; but that which
is needed will never be accomplished by music, It
was not by such means that the Apostles succeeded in
elevating the fearfully-debased mass of heathenism,
upon which they acted; it was not by such means
that their successors kept alive, and caused to spring
up and bear fruit, the seed which they had planted.
True, it may be said, that all this was done by God,
and not by man : but by Him mediately ; and music
was not the mean which He blessed to its accomplish-
ment. Many causes have combined to produce the
practical heathenism which is now so rampant in our
large towns ; clergy insufficient in numbers, and in-
-sufficiently supported; want of church-accommodation
for the poor, or church-accommodation, when provided,
of a character to repel rather than to invite them, by
making them feel keenly the difference between their
position and that of their more favoured brethren ;
want of schools, and too frequently, even when schools
existed, want of sound religious instruction. These
are some of the causes of what we now witness among
the masses. And, besides the absence of what was
necessary in order to their being induced to go right,
there has been the presence of many things calculated
to cause them to go wrong. Scant wages, rendering
such a continuance of toil necessary as left no time for
exercise or amusement, except the Lord's day, or else
rendered those who were subject to it incapable of, or
indisposed to, exertion of any kind ; wretched habita-
tions utterly void of cleanliness or comfort, and fre-
quently rendering the preservation of decency and
morality impossible. Flaring gin-palaces temptingly
placed at every corner, and inviting by their warmth
and comparative comfort, and offering to the jaded
and toil-worn, that which they know will afford them
at least, a counterfeit of the happiness which they will
never find in their miserable homes. These, we re-
peat, are some of the causes which have combined to
bring the masses, in our large towns, to the sad con-
dition which they at present exhibit. The upper
classes belong, for the most part, to the Church ; the
majority, perhaps, of the middle classes to the meeting-
house ; and the labouring classes, we might almost
say, to nothing at all. Christianity alone can elevate

them from the condition into which they are sunk;
and it is mere folly to talk of christianising them by
Sunday-evening performances upon the great organ.
They might, possibly, attract a few of the more steady-
going among them for a time : but we do not believe
. that the frequenters of our gin-palaces would be per-
manently diminished by so much as one. Nor have
we reason to think, that any plan which could be de-
vised would be effectual in producing a rapid cure of
the evils which exist ; but, undoubtedly, that which
must most commend itself to any reasonable man is
the removal or counteraction of those causes by which
they have been produced. And though, doubtless,
something might be done with the existing, our hope
would be principally centered in the rising, generation.
In arguing with the advocates of Sunday amuse-
ments for the million, we are aware that it is useless
to take high religious grounds, because, in doing so,
we shall necessarily appeal to principles which they
deny ; but still, as the majority of them do at least
profess to be Christians, and acknowledge the Bible to

be the Word of God, we think that a very safe stand
may be made upon lower grounds. We would claim,
then, for every man, woman, and child, one day in
-seven, as a day of rest, as a day which they may devote
to holy. purposes, if they will, but which they shall not
be compelled to devote to toil for the profit or amuse-
ment of others. Now, it is all very well to advocate
the- opening of the Crystal Palace, the National
Gallery, the British Museum, and similar places, upon
Sundays, for the amusement of the masses—and it
may be quite true that many of those who would fre-
quent them if they were opened, now frequent the
gin-palace instead; but what right have we to deprive
the many individuals, who are employed in these
various institutions, of their day of rest ? We are not
to do evil that good may come. If the proprietors of
the first of these places please to throw it open to the
public free, placing it for one day in seven upon the
same footing as Hyde Park, we have no objection ;
but, even setting religious considerations aside, we
maintain that the public can have no right to expect
that they should deprive their various officers and
servants, for their amusement, of the day of rest which
they now enjoy. And, similarly with St. George's
Hall, the public have a right to the services of the
organist, and of all the other paid attendants, from
Monday morning to Saturday night ; but it would be
an act of gross injustice to set them to work upon the
Sunday. And, further than this, we feel well assured
that the opening of such places upon the Lord's-day
would only be as the insertion of the small end of the
wedge ; it would lead to results, at no very distant
-day, which, we are glad to think, many of the advo-
cates of the measure, against which we are contending,
would be the first to deprecate. There is sadly too
much compulsory labour upon Sunday, under plea of
yet, bad as things are, most
necessity, even now ; and
can spend it religiously, if they will. But once let
Our good old English be changed to a French Sunday,
and it will become impossible : one man's business or