The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(From, the Times of this day.)
The Bill for the Prevention of Sunday Trading in the
Metropolis is one of those measures which never can
give satisfaction to any party or to anybody. 'There is
one class of persons, whose opinions, no doubt, are
entitled to the highest respect, who hold that any kind
of traffic or labour on the Sunday is an abomination and
an impiety--a practice to be rejected on religious
grounds. They base their objections on one of the
Commandments, which they literally—perhaps too lite-
rally - interpret, and their idea, be it right or be it
Wrong, is clear,
sons of this class must naturally be dissatisfied with
logical, and intelligible. Now, all per-
Lord R. Grosvepor's proposition—in the first place, br''
cause it deals but faintly and partially with the evil
which offends their religious feelings ; and, in the second
place, because while it absolutely prohibits Sunday
trading within certain limits of time, it legalises the
same practice at other hours, If it be, we will not say
an offence, but a sin--not only a violation of huwan
laws, but of the Divine coratnand—to trade between
eleven o'clock and sunset, it is just as great a sin to
trade' between sunrise and 9, 10, or 11 o'clock on
the 'Sunday morning. It cannot be permitted that Lord
It: Grosvenor should, as it were, tack on a rider to the
C.enniandments, and partially sanction a practice which
the Almighty has absolutely condemned. It mav- 1,9

right to envo such IA point to the conF:cience Of ifloivi.
duAl,. ;The imagination of every one will ,

gt,t canes of tra,nsgre.,sion which are in clear

,f the Divine law, but again4t whim it vgnuid

politic, us leis, and absurd t 0 fulminate hunian 5t4,t:.:t,,,.
The Legislature, in other word, may. avoid
any expression of opinion ; but, if it does interfere at al,
it must neither add to. TI or diminish the .f.,rcio of the
superior law. Tile Sabbatarians, o:insequently, not with-
Out reason, are disgusted with the present bill. On the
other hand, there is a party equally numerous which is
strongly disinclined ti legislative interference iu such
matters at all. Messrs. Massey, W. J. Fox, and T.

Doncombe are representatives of this opinion. They
hold that statutory prohibition would not only be use-
less," but absolutely calculated to defeat the end in view.
Improvement, according to them, should he left to
the growing intelligence of the age, to the progress
of education, and to the thousand influences which have
made the Eng!and of 1855 a very different country from
the England of 1755. If the object be to get rid of
Sunday trading, they say, it is best to leave the matter
to the people. They add that any person who is de-
sirous to abstain from Sunday trading may do so at pre-
sent, and that it is found in practice that his interests
are not damaged by his conscientious refusal to serve his
customers upon that day. He gains a customer where
he loses one if some are offended at his closed doors,
'others are ready to support him in the course which he
has adopted, so that in the end he is rather the gainer
than the loSer by his determination.
This, however, is but one of the arguments which
have been directed against the bill by those who refuse
to regard the question in a Levitical spirit. Why direct
the force Of. English law against the mere dealers in
butter, eggs, milk, meat, &c., while the great question
of Sunday labour is left untouched ? With what face
can the rich 'man, who starts back affrighted on reli-
gious grounds `from the spectacle of such heinous of-
fences, juitify.his own snug little dinner parties on the
Sunday evening If he himself is not in the habit of
indulging in'siichSabbatical symposia, still it would be
but reasonable that, when he endeavours to enforce the
observance. 'of • the Sabbath, he should begin with the
more heinous offenders. Why do the wife and daughters
of this pious nobleman take the family carriage to
church en it'Suriday'when such a proceeding involves a
plenary defieeiation' of the holy day ? At any rate,
would it . not be more just and more rational, if we are
determined to . set out on a crusade against Sal) bath-
breaking, to commence with the wanton rich than with
the helpless poor ? Let us launch our thunderbolts
against the fleshpots of Dives, not against Lazarus's
ha'p'orth of skimined milk and half-pound of mutton
scraps. It is :shown that in many respects the poor
have really no, option. Their wages are not paid to
them until so late an hour upon the Saturday night that
they are absolutely compelled to make their purchases
upon the Sunday morning, or to turn the feast day into
a day of fasting. Six days of unintermitted labour and
one day of fasting and compulsory humiliation constitute
a very trying week, end it is still more trying when such
a week must be repeated 52 times throughout every year.
This subject has been largely and carefully considered ;
and, putting for a moment out of the question any such
idea as that the Legislature may now be beginning at
the wrong end, it is certainly very striking that Sir R.
Mayne, the head of the London police, when examined
before the committee of the House of Lords, 'gave it as
his opinion that any such interference as that now con-
templated would be worse than useless. Mr. Massey on
Wednesday quoted Sir R. Mayne's evidence to this
effect :—" He stated that the reports of his force showed
that Sunday trading was decreasing, and that there was
now an improved observance of the Sabbath in London ;
and, while admitting that the act of Charles 11. was in-
operative to prevent Sunday trading, Sir R. Mayne also
said that he should look with apprehension on any at-
tempt to effect by law that object, compulsory measures
being, in his opinion, likely to aggravate the very evil they
were intended to remedy." This is certainly a-very
strong opinion, and one entitled to much respect, con-
sidering that the speaker holds the position of Me ro-
politau Commissioner of Police.
After all, is such a bill needed ? Does any serious
amount of Sunday trading—save for the purpose of sup-
plying the wants of the richer classes—exist in London
:Liter church hour on the Sunday morning We mere
than doubt it. Desecration of the Sabbath certainly
does exist, and to a lamentable extent ; but it is very
little cennected with the purchases of the poor, nor wil
it be affected in any large measure by the provisions o
the present bill. It is much to be feared that the poor
Londoner is about to be treated as a sin-offering for the
offences of the people. The rich, whose larders and
whose cellars are well filled, can, of course, afford
turn up their eyes in pious horror at the enormities of
the poor man's baked shoulder of mutton, with its
savoury Sunday potatoes, and his pint of beer, but they
would do well to set the example of mortification, and,
even if they set it, they have scarcely a right to expect
that the poor wilt follow their lead. Why not leave
them their day of rest to be enjoyed in their own fashion?
Why not, at any rate, rather attract them to more ascetic
practice by persuasion and example than fetter them with
binding statutes ? If the present measure passes into
law it will most certainly be evaded by all who have an
inclination tb break it—by others it is already observed,
if we may so speak of a measure yet under discussion.
We have already cut down the poor man's Sunday at
one end by our Public-house Bill, and now we are at-
tacking it from the other quarter. There will surely be
a revulsion of feeling against Xll this.

(Form the Morning• Post of this day.)
In the present condition of European affairs, the pro-
ceedings of Austria become a subject of anxious conside-
ration. Her geographical position, her sympathies with
Russia, her interests with England, and her political rela-
tions with Germany, make it impossible for her to be abso.
lutely neutral with respect to the great contest betweei
East and West. The close of the Vienna Conferences ha,

dispelled the last gleam of hope that the most sanguine
could extract from the treaty of last December. It hal

come to nothing. It never was much. It is now waste
paper. What good there ever was in it is exhlusted, and
Austria is, with reference to the Western Powers, }.re-

cisely where she was before the treaty was signed, i.e ,
she is now where Prussia has been all along—a looker.

on, interested, indeed, in the struggle, but takingno part
in it—anxious to have a voice in its adjustment, but nu

prepared to make any sacrifice on its behalf, and altoge•
ther unwilling to unite her arms to those of the Western
Powers. Germany daily grows more Russian, and Aus•

tria more German. Certainly her active sympaties art
not with the Allied Powers, though her professions
would, perhaps, lead some persons to believe the contrary.
That she is anxious for the restoration of peace there can
be no doubt. She has great reason to be so. But a peace
founded on the true and permanent attainment of
the object of the war does not enter into her cal-
culatioi s. Geographically and commercially she has
great interest in the independence and safety of
Turkey, but she is not disoozed to fight with Russia
to secure it. Her present plan is to stand by—look
on—influence the turn of events if she can, but, if not,

then to profit by that turn as she best may—a natural
policy, perhaps, but not very dignified—not very spirited,
and not very safe.
In adopting this course Austria has undoubtedly made
a huge mistake. She may not discover it hit first, but
whoever will sit down with the map of Europe and the
history of Austria before him, and will calculate the
probable issue of the apparently safe, but really delusive,
line to which she has betaken herself, will see, on the

:enry

:enry

one hand, how splendid in opportdnity the presen
to consolidate the interests of that much divided an
heterogeneous empire ; and, on the other, how the aban
donment of that opportunity must render her more than
ever at the mercy of circumstances, should any further
complication of European politics extend the dimensions
of the war.
Circumstances are greatly changed since the Russian
Envoys rejected the Third Point in the Vienna Confer.
ence. At that period the Allied arms had given no sign
that their spring campaign would materially affect the
position of Russia in the Crimea. But the march of
recent successes tells a different tale. They speak of a
well-defined and comprehensive scheme in process of gra-
dual evolution, and calculated to touch the very heart of
Russia. The conceptions of the Allied ,rulers have
risen to the height of the occasion. And now it is
not the destruction of Sebastopol merely that is in
prospect, but the crippling, for many years to come,
of the strength of Russia along the whole course of
her southern terfitory. This, whether she will or no,
will " be de facto a limitation of her preponderance in the
Black Sea for many years, so that, in effect, what is not
granted by concession will be extorted by force, and
what is not agreed to will have to he endured.
Yet upon these proceedings Austria can look unmoved,
neither praising nor blaming, neither taking one side
nor the other. Such conduct will be, in the long run,
most costly. Austria cannot very well afford to go to
war, but she can still lees afford a peace based upon in-
difference to her dignity. The elements of Austrian
strength are of very diverse kinds, while the elements of
her weakness aro singularly uniform, extensive, and mile.
sive. In the nature of things that empire cannot long re.
main without internal difficulties, while those which may
at any moment arise outside her frontier, from the uncer-
tain tenure of neighbouring crowns and thrones, are pa.
tent to every on?, versed in foreign politics, and are not
unTeen by Austria herself. When the day of her ine-.
vitable trial comes, and the scattered elements of
strength have to do battle against the compacted ele-
ments of weaknes., how will she harumnise their jarring,
compose their confusions, and prevent their explosion, if
bereft of the moralsupportof the g rea t Powers of Europe?
I Yet the course she is now pursuing is the very course
1 that will forfeit all titlo to that tupport, A nation that