The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-11 00:00:00

ever," was his answer, and he added, " I only regret that '
labour does not end at two o'clock on Saturdays ; the week
is now so pushed into the Sunday that people have scarcely
time for recreation or innocent enjoyment on that day.
My belief is, that if labour were made to close at
2 o'clock, the moral results to society would in the course of
time be indescribably great." It is impossible not to sympa-
thise with motives like these, but there are difficulties even
here. Where an establishment is engaged simply in the work
of sale, it is obvious that by a little arrangement on the part
of customers the business of the week may be compressed
into 5i days instead of 6, without loss to any party; but,
where the work is that of production, it is equally clear that
a diminution of produce must ensue equivalent to the number
of hours abstracted from labour, and that a corresponding
loss must fall somewhere.
Amid all this controversy, however, it must be a source of
great encouragement to every one, and of some satisfaction
even to those whose views of Sabbath observance are most
rigorously characterised, to consider that the morals and
manners of the people with reference not only to their be-
haviour on a Sunday, but to other points also, have been
steadily improving. Whatever may be thought in some guar'
tors of certain modern usages, it is clear from this practical
result that they produce, upon the whole, a balance of gol,
and much, we trust, may continue to be accomplished in the
same cause by efforts judiciously combined and directed.

(Frain Me Morning Advertiser of this day. )
We invite the special attention of our readers letter to
Lord Palmerston from Mr. Davidson, who was chairman of
the Election Committee of Mr. Laing, the member for the
Northern Burghs—relative to the hon. gentleman. We con-
fess we feel a more than ordinary curiosity to know in what
light the electors of the Wick district of burghs will view the
conduct of their representative, in connection with the course
which that gentleman thought proper to pursue yesterday
week. His prOcedure on that evening surprised the English
public, and pained and grieved his personal friends in the
metropolis. His conduct was most unpatriotic as regarded
the country, and in the very worse taste as regarded the Go-
vernmelit and the house. Mr. Laing thought proper to ab-
sent himself from his place in Parliament. during the most
eventful period of the session, when questions of the most
momentous kind were under consideration—questions affect-
ing not only the honour, the interests, and the safety of this
country, but involving the tranquillity, and even the civilisa-
tion, to say nothing of the liberties, of Europe.
At such a crisis Mr. Laing thought proper to prefer his
own- private interests to those of the nation. He went to
Amtria, for the purpose of entering into certainrr railway con-
tracts with the Government of that country, leaving all the
while the interests and honour of Great Britain to fare as best
they might in his absence. If we had but a few more Mr.
Laings, deserting their posts,.compromising their constituen-
cies, anti sacrificing the best interests of their country, in
might attend to
order that they their own—we should indeed,
as a nation, be reduced to a state qf the deepest degradation
and. danger.

We wonder that a constituency so public spirited as that
of the Wick burghs have not, apart altogether from the views
which he might entertain on the question of the war, already
taken their member to task for thus culpably, and to them
most disrespectfully and ungratefully, absenting himself from
his legislative duties at a juncture so important and alarming.
Rut though that was had enough, worse remains behind. On
his return to London, after having, it is said, entered into cer-
tain arrangements of a very profitable kind with the Austrian
Government, his procedure aggravated to the last degree his
previous conduct. In the plenitude of his zeal—such, at
least, is the conclusion to which the public has come—to
serve the Austrian Government, Mr. Laing must needs force
the question of the Vienna Conferences again en the attention
of the house, after it had been discussed until the whole
country was sick of the subject. Then there was the charac-
ter of the speech which he made on the occasion. Why, had
he been the paid servant of Austria—had he actually received
from the Court of Vienna a retaining fee, he could not have
given himself more entirely up to the advocacy of Austrian
interests. He appeared, for the first time, to have com-
pletely merged the Englishman in the Austrian. A foreigner,
unacquainted with our political institutions, would very
naturally have conclude:l that the Hon. Gentleman had been
sent to the House of Commons, not by the electors of Wick,
but by the Court of Vienna.

Are the constituency of the district of burghs which Mr.
Laing represents contented with this state of things ? There
is no more intelligent or public-spirited electoral body in the
United Kingdom. Will they, then, submit in silence to be
degraded and misrepresented by the man who is by courtesy
—by courtesy, at least, in this instance—called their repre-
sentative ? Was it to serve Austrian interests that they, by
extraordinary exertions, and in many cases at great personal
sacrifices, defeated the powerful influence of the Sutherland
family, and returned Mr. Laing triumphantly to Parliament?
Was it with the view of his doing all that lay in his power to
hand over Great Britain, through the medium of Austria, to
the Czar, that they made those exertions and sacrifices at the
election of 1852, which were the admiration of every other
constituency in the kingdom ?
The course which Mr. Laing is pursuing in connection with
the question of the war, is as ungracious to the electors of
the Wick Burghs as it is unpatriotic. They are held respon-
sible—unjustly., we admit, but still that does not alter the
fact—for the misconduct of their member. They are hound,
therefore, to do all that lies in their power to clear themselves
from the imputation. We know that they have no sympathy
with the pro-Russianism of their so-called representative. We
know that, oil the contrary, they are as indignant at the
course which he is pursuing as any of their fellow-subjects.
We will go further—we maintain, from some personal know-
ledge of the Wick district of burghs, that they fully partici-
pate in the intensity of that indignation which is universally
felt at the conduct of Mr. Laing.
But the country does not know this. The country has not
the means of knowing it unless the electoral body, whose ser-
vant that gentleman nominally is, adopt some means of
bringing their sentiments before the public. This they are
bound to do, for the sake of their own character, and for the
sake of the national honour and interests. They have the
means of vindicating themselves from any charge of compli-
city, direct or indirect, with their member in his pro-Russian
predilections and practices, which may be preferred against
them. Why should they not meet and sign a requisition
calling on him to resign a trust which he has not only betrayed,
but made the means of bringing discredit on them, and
dishonour on the country? This would be a simple way of
dealing with their representative. Probably be would not
resign ; but even if he did not, they would have the satisfac-
tion of feeling that they had done their duty, and vindicated
their character in the estimation of the country and the world.
In the meantime we cannot sufficiently admire the spirit,
the patriotism, and the promptitude with which Mr. David.
son, who was the chairman of 31r. Laing's election committee,
has not only repudiated all concurrence in the sentiments of
Mr. Laing, but denounced the dishonourable and injurious
tendencies of the course which that gentleman has thought
proper to pursue.

Mr. Davidson has not only done himself imperishable
honour, but has rendered an essential service to his country
by his letter to Lord Palmerston. Ile shows, in a very con-
clusive manner, that Mr. Laing is not his representative,
though so zealously and faithfully representing the views and
interests of the Emperor Francis Joseph. It remains for the
constituency of the Northern Burghs, to show, no less conclu-
sively, that they have ceased to regard Mr. Laing as the
member for their district, and are willing that he should
hereafter enjoy, whatever satisfaction it may afford him, to
feel that he is now regarded as the member for Austria.