The National Register.
London, England, 1814-03-06 00:00:00

SUPPRESSION OF SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS.

TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD VISCOUNT SIDMOUTH,
MIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR Till
- MORE DEPARTMENT.

MY LORD,

Your attention is respectfully solicited, to a subject of no
common import ; but which equally affects the interest of
his Majesty's Government, and the satisfaction of a large
portion of the people of this realm.
Hostilities appear to have once more broken out, as your
Lordship must know, against those publications which are
called Sunday
_Newspapers. They are attempted to be
counteracted, and threatened to be interdicted; though they
materially contribute to the revenue .of the State, at the same
time that they arc found to. be conducive to the sum of
general information, and Public' improvement.
Will your Lordship consider these points 1 Sunday papers,
it will not be denied, have materially contributed to the
revenue of the State; yet as it may not be quite so apparent,
in the next place, that they do conduce to general informa-
tion, and public improvement, I•shall briefly elucidate the
latter fact.

Reading has an obvious tendency both to improve the
mind and meliorate the temper. Now, the mass of people
have little leisure for reasPas, so as to digest what they read,
except on that precise day which allows them a sort of
breathing-time from the laboursnf life. Yet read they will
Sunday is the day, therefore, on which, in some way, the
majority of the population of this country, more especially
in metropolitan towns, seek to obtain some knowledge of
passing events; and if they are now debarred from receiving
this species of gratification at home, they will not fail to ac-
quire it elsewhere. if -the newspapers are once prohibited
from being served to them, on Sundays, at their own dwel-
lings, the people will then resort to the ale-houses for- the
purpose of inspecting the news. Drunkenness will, of course,
supersede investigation ; and this tree of knowledge will be
producave of nothing but infatuation and misery.
It cahuot be the contemplation of your Lordship, even
for a moment, to further the wishes of persons (since such
there are ! ) who would make us, if it were possible, ii nation
of hypochondriacs and hypocrites ;—sanctimonious -without
sanctitude, and aweful, without awe.' What shall we gain by
this ;hinge ? Surely we shall not be happier; and, if not hap-
pier, as surely not better. Sunday newspapers are, indeed,
beeomeindipensible to a large, very large, portion of man-

The Suppression-of-Vice Society has taken the lead in endea-
vouring to effect the Suppression of Sunday Newspapers; while
it is intimated that Government are about to secoi‘d the efforts
of this enterprising corps. 1 will not, my Lord, hastily believe
the tale. Knowing the discrimination and liberality (I your
Lordship's mind, and your generous antipathy of ,ectaris in in
any form,l will not, for one, believe that your Lordship can con-
tinue to afford the least countenance to measures so lb:torrtmts
from your individual feelings, and so foreign to the genius
of that venerable Establishment for which you.have nlanifece,l
such regard. You will certainly set your face against oar
religious reformists, and deliver us from their haeful schemes
Warburton once remarked, there was this epidemic mad-
ness among us ;—that one day we were frozen in atheism,
and the next day raving with the fever of superstitiiin. This
is as true of us still. Atheisni, avowed atheism, has seen
its day ; and now we are degenerating into mere super-
stition. The times have a tendency to lead men this
way, who too easily fall in with the temper of their times.
Already are our national feelings much too gloomy. They
are enervating; they are irrational.
To your Lordship, then, in this anxious hour, men more
enlightened would turn. Your character has great weight,
and your station empowers you to give consequence to the
representations contained in this Address to you. Withhold,
my Lord, your countenance from the religious reformists of
these times, under every guise ; but above all when they
express an extreme concern for the honour of our religion
When they affect to compliment your goodness, it is with
intent to surprize your vigilance, and betray your heart.
They would entrap you, and such noble persons as you,
into their measures, and then exult at the want of suspicion
on your parts.
Sunday Newspapers cannot be abolished without more im-
portant results. The abrogation of these vehicles (if intelli-
gence is only part of a plan, soon to be seen, for deter lora-
ting the lower classes of our species, rendering them dissa-
tisfied, and reducing them to mental vassalage. Nothing
and is yet great, nothing honourable, nothing nob'e, no-
thing proud, in human nature, is now to be spaced, Chris-
tian conscription is to become the order of the day ; and the
mass of men are every where to forego the rank of indepen-
dent intelligences.

Such are part of those pious burdens, my Lord, rest as•
sured, which the scribes and pharisees of this generation
wean to impose upon us. Permit me, then, again to call
upon your Lordship, and the rest of his Majesty's Minieers—

uccome unalperasiere to a large, VCril JAI sc. pui ‘itall MI imam-
upon your Lordship, and the rest of his Majesty's Ministers—
kind ; and, unless barbarism be the desired end.; Flnpreanqpt i
contemplating yOu as Members of our excellent E,tablish-
with prudence be either directly or indirectly p"Tobipaied.
While they subserve one essential object of. gallon:omit') -ment, and Guardians of our inestimable. Constitutionit
lvdieefr%
i me even thus conjure you, humble as my pen may apprtr,
moreover, they give, what is also of infinite political.* :1 . . reflect on the crisis to which we are come, the precipice , :
an hour's importance to the poor Valet heart I' j . . '.', , fir; ..*c h we stand, and the consequences which one tabs
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