The Express.
London, England, 1863-09-01 00:00:00

ptuts FIRST CLASS trod LONDON FRIZZ
WATIMISTON sod BiOODIIN.
GOLDSMITHS and
Stant. at rt,ry. 16, Mennetta-strooL Coventlsrdes, W.C.. imam,
B This eitaßlßlusent r cloonl kd la the nooks sad am
law 'Aso at 14:o'clock.

pII3SSE and LUBIN'S HUNGARY WATER,
PetWall-LAMM ReIItENIINO, INVIGORATING.—
sin not parmisra to le.en." says Humboldt, that mks,
• Abt tihm. ythor,.. ea voetejje It the preference,
tor It or tee reseiorp Itropbtb tbs sent far warns
tros:`.rr, for hat sod depressive cumata aye of dr bottles,
SO. :s: eseeplet te.--2. New Bond-street, W.

EVERYBODY KNOWS Mr. MILKS.
AWN.' W•bb Woe RXIIIOVID FROM DONDATILILEr
to 73, ninlOK:iitu(itr Hanower•quare, 186kii.„
T • Ma. imam i Ay Alnk) as N.
lIETTc• THAN

jilt

Orpreoo.

70. CORIUMPONDENTI

&Aret'srusionts IlMadail to
"The. ETYreso" London Evening
twitpsibtiofelo, 10, Bouvorlo-otreet, by Two

PRI VCEST&_

Tars EAMON, 11011F0 AND JtLIZT. Romeo, Ur. F. 10-
IMke‘,.. Rarest* Mr. WM', Mon Joliet, Mitt Clara
\e•`,.—To be toliowol by IRE ROUGH MAJIIOIt D —Com Emma
at 7.

KRITAN.:_iIA.

TWPI MAIM. TRIG ANDFL OF PRAM AND PARDON. D.
Wanted by Professor Pr, pre. se•ptation of Yr. Direktf G RUT
aeon cErzer.-Daacing lo Mr. Parker.—Aud ruR DITEC-
TITE or. ADYZNTURAS OF A PICKET OP LIAVL

HIGH WATIRAT WIWI! BRIDGIL.

71'4 PAY —.Wrirefer, 1.... Allbasara. 4h. 2Z.
I)liciaow—Verabia 41. 44r.. ../trairess. a 3 4.

LON:inlY; TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1.

IT might be a good deed, on behalf of the public
of Atherton and the neighbourhood, to send the
magistrates of that place on a trip to the hill
parts of our istinds next Midsummer, and let them
spend two or three Sundays among the vales.
There they would see, if the weather was as un-
certain as it usually is in the mountains, the
" statesmen"—tbe yeomen and their labourers,
dismissed from the morning service in the churches
with the blessing of their pastors, to save'
their hay if the skies showed any signs of
changeable weather. They would see the con-
gregation paining from the church to the hayfield,
the squires and their ladies looking on, and every-
body wishing well, and all who could lending a
hand to the haymaking. At night, if clouds were
lowering, they would hear something of thankful-
ness, following the loaded waggons home, that the
produce bad been permitted to be gathered and
stored for the food of the horses and cattle in the
coming winter; and they would perceive that all
hearts were satisfied with the occupations and the
feelings of this special Sunday.

Our readers will understand what we mean if
they have observed what has just been done at
Atherton by the magistrates in the case of
fourteen men who thus employed a Sunday in
last month. Those fourteen men were seen
on that day saving their hay. The magistrates
heard of it—not with regret that an operative law
compelled them to take judicial notice of the fact,
but with notions in their heads which instigated
them to search among our laws for one which
would enable them to punish persons who did not
agree in their views of Sunday (which they call
" Sabbath") observance. After a month's study,
they have brought up a virtually obsolete Act of
the time of CIIAZLES IL, under which they have
sentenced these labourers to fins or imprisonment.
On the question of the rightfulness of this sentence
being raised, they have announced their in-
tention of distraining for the amount ; in
other words, of ruining industrious men for
an industrial act which most intelligent Christians
believe would be approved by the Author
of tilt religion to which these magistrates have
dared to add requirements of their own devising.
• If they would consult the Record of that religion,
what would they find f They would find, on the
testimony of Curer himself, that even under the
stringent Sabbath law of the Jaws, which He, the
.Loss of the Sabbath day, expressly modified,
'dwellers in rinallistricts were wont to release ox or
.ass which had fallen into a pit on the Sabbath day.
They would Ind that He justified His disciples for
an act at which the sticklers for the Jewish law were
ecandaliaet. Yet, eighteen centuries later, we
!find swan who call themselves after His name
adopting and enforcing that old law of the
Seventh day, and applying it to the Pint
414 of the week which is no Sabbath,
but the LOAD'S day. This would be melancholy
enough if we had a familiar and active law at
'work as an obligation on them in their °aloe ; but
it is truly shocking to witness such a perversion of
right and wrong sustained by nothing better than
an obsolete Act of Parliament, framed at a time
when the religion of the kingdom was a subject of
partisan conflict of which we now read as a part of
the history of bygone times.

As usually happens on occasions of magisterial
oppression, the offence to society and its morality
arises from • confusion of ideas on the part of the
oppressors. But the mischief is the same, what-
ever may be its origin. These magistrates are
satisfied that it is wrong to work on
the LORD'S day, taking upon themselves to deter-
gent. what exceptions to this general
rule may and may not be admitted. They
include the saving a haycrop among works for
profit, and regard it as they would • merchant's
sale of goods, or en artisan's execution of • job
properly belonging to the next day. They do not
nee that there is more or other than • money value
in the fruits of the earth which are to be the food
Of man and beast in the barren months of winter ;
and they trait as cupidity the industry which
sues front destruction these direct gifts of Paovi-
Dices. They do not perceive that the saving of
the bsycrop, or of the sheaves of corn in the field,
is no precedent for work of other kinds which can
as well be done on other digs. Every Sunday
they cause their own servants to work, in the
kitchen, the chambers, and the stables, and in per.
soma attendance behind their own chairs, on
the ground of necessity; but they condemn sad
penish yeomen and labourers for having, on one
Sunday in the year, used • part of the Loan's
diy for gathering and saving the gine of His hand.
Men who offer such unequal judgments as this are
wholly unfit to be trusted with the administration
of justice.
Even such misty minds a these must surely be
able to perceive, when it is pointed out, the
mischief to morality of mixing up real and futi-
lities transgressions under the name and doom of
punishable offences. There is guilt enough in every
neighbourhood, there are crimes enough wherever
society exists, to occupy the rigilanot and exercise
the authority of the magistracy; and the just sad
wholesome awfulness of the law is fatally impaired
when special acts, on a special occasion, which
the general conscience regards as innocent or
praiseworthy, are treated as guilt. In their ogw
neighbourhood the character of these fourteen
men does not suffer by their having saved the
hayemp by Sunday work ; and when they are
punished as they would have bun if they had
been drunk on the highway, or had knocked down
their neighbours in the churchyard, the public,
conscience is shocked, and the deference dee to