The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(From the Daily News of this dc'

:, ,e 3 Robert 6i:ea-an:le ha..
're e!,. •,6- e;ill. lie hee :, ieZoi to ienteri.ietioie wes.l, en
would not yield to reason and argument. He has
proclaimed to the world that what English legis-
lators deny to temperate and rational remonstrance, they
will concede to menaces. Tnis is the most disreputa-
ble characteristic of the position which Lord Robert took
up last night, but by no means the most ridiculous or
humiliating. He vehemently protested that the object
of his bill had been misunderstood ; that it was " not
intended to enforce the better observance Sabbath," but
" to procure as large an amount of holiday for the over-
t taxed artisans of this onus try as possible." This is not
the first time that Lord Robert has endeavoured to ex-
plain his bill in this sense ; but we cannot recollect any
occasion on which he gave this interpretation before
public opinion was unequivocally expressed against it ;
and assuredly this was not understood to be the object
of the bill by the great body of its most zealous advo-
cates. Either Lord Robert deceived them when he pre-
vailed upon them to support it, in the belief that it was
a measure to promote the (so-called) better observance of
the Sabbath, or he is seeking to deceive its opponents
now. In either case his conduct has been equivocating,
insincere, shabby, and unworthy of an English gentle-
man. Nor is it true that the bill would have given "as
large an amount of holiday for the over-taxed artisans of
this country as possible." The individuals it was (osten-
sibly intended to release from work are the comparatively
few, who serve the artisan and small-tradesman classes in
the same way that domestic servants do Lord Robert and
the class to which he belongs. By arbitrarily preventing
these individuals from following their avocations on Sun-
day, the numerous sections of society whom they serve
would have been obliged to work for themselves on that day.
It must beastrange kind of religion that teaches men like
Lord Robert Grosvenor that it is meritorious to abridge
the Sunday leisure of the many under false pretences.
The Home Secretary seems to have been determined
last night not to lag behind Lord Robert Grosvenor in
ridiculous and discreditable equivocation. Sir George
Grey—one of the most zealous promoters of superfluous
and vexatious Sabbath legislation—actually attempted
to persuade the House of Commons that he ordered the
police to attend in Hyde-park last Sunday to prevent
"interference with the free enjoyment of the parks by
the public." The pious Sir George condescended to
affirm that he had called out the police to protect what
he and those who think with him are accustomed to call
" Sabbath desecration." Apropos of Sir George, we
observe that .a suggestion was thrown out in the House
of Commons last night as to the expediency of instituting
an inquiry into the conduct of the police on Sunday.
We regret to have to say that the communications we
' have received leave no doubt upon our mind that the
conduct of the police was unnecessarily, and we might
even say brutally, harsh. Our table is literally covered
' with letters from gentlemen of rank and station—from
officers in the army, barristers, and others moving in the
same case of society, who have transmitted their names
and addresses—who went to Hyde-park on Sunday as
spectators ; and all of them express a deep sense of in-
dignation and disgust at the conduct of the police. But
we are not disposed to throw away indignation upon
subordinate agents, who had no choice but to undertake
a task in the discharge of which their tempers were sure
to be severely tried. It is our rooted conviction that
but for the presence and interference of the police there
would have been no serious disturbance on Sunday. Sir
George Grey, ass we understand him, takes upon himself
the whole responsibility of calling out th I police, and of the
authorship of the notice or proclamation issued on Satur-
day respecting the contemplated assembly in Hyde-park.
Nuw, that proclamation referred less to what had ac•
tually taken place in Hyde-park on theprevious Sunday
than to certain anonymous placards, of very question-
able teste and temper, that had appeared in the course
lof the week. If the Home Secretary had taken the
trouble to inform himself of the general appearance of
the multitude who assembled in Hyde-park on the first
occasion, he could not have failed to perceive that the
placards we allude to were not likely to have emanated
from them. To identify the respectable tradesmen and
artisans who composed that multitude with the authors
of these placards was a deliberate insult, and could not
fail to send them in an angry spirit to brave the force with
which they were threatened. Sir George Grey has been
the main cause of last Sunday's disturbance. Of this he
cannot fail to be conscious, and yet instead of being
bowed down by this distressing consciousness, he last
:light answered the members of the House of Commons
who addressed questions to him in a tone of insolent flip-
pancy servilely copied from the Premier. He sneeringly
told Mr. Otway that there were not 104 persons taken
into custody for coming into collision with the police,
but only 71, the rest of the individuals apprehended
being pickpockets, "a class," he impertinently added,
"to whom the hon. member would not wish to have the
prersgative of the Crown extended." Sir George went on
to affirm that the parties apprehended-for coming into
collision with the police were " brought by this time be-
fore the magietrats." He did not inform the house that
these unfortunates were kept till past 3 p.m. in a kind
of Black Hole of Calcutta before any person appeared
on behalf of Government in the Police-court to pro-
secute them ; that not a single case of this description
was called on till a quarter to 5 ; and that
the whole of the accused were discharged on their
own recognisances—Mr. Clarkson, who appeared
for " the Treasury," having previously proposed that
they should be placed before the magistrate and -ills- ,
charged. The whole affair is a wanton piece of petty
tyranny on the part of Government.
Much though we disapprove of the conduct of the
promoters of the Sunday Trading Bill, in yielding to in-
timidation what they stubbornly refused to yield to
reason, we are glad .to be rid of the measure. Whilst
we admitted that the Sunday eatheriugs in Hyde-park
were natural, we d:d not hesitate to express our die-
like of therm It is clear that the example was spread-
ing. Similar demonstrations were attempted yesterday
in the Victoria and Greenwich-parks ; and other demon-
strations of a yet more dangerous character have been
industriously recommended to the populace. The ob-
noxious bill having been withdrawn there is now no
pretext for such assemblages, which, however venial in
themselves, were pregnant with danger ; and this im-
portant question of unnecessary and vexatious Sunday
legislation can now be temperately discussed in the
House of Commons upon its own merits. The Sunday
Trading Bill was only one of a number of measures, all
of which are a systematic arbitrary attack upon what
have been the habits of the English people from time
immemorial. The opponents among the working classes
of these vexatious encroachments on the innocent and
healthy recreations of the people stand upon purely
conservative ground. They may address the ascetic and
meddling legislators of the aristocracy in the very words
which the ancestors of those legislators addressed to the
monarch who called in question their titles to their
broad lands : Nolumus legas Anglite mutari. And in
their opposition to unnecessary and vexatious Sunday '
legislation, they stand not only on the ground of pre.
scription, but of reason. Let us among our differ.
erces of opinion learn to bear with each other.
Let those who wish to observe the Sabbath by
stern self-denial learn that they have no right
to compel those who do not share their con-
victions to become hypocrites, and act externally as they
do. Let those who see no necessity for such excessive
acts of penance and maceration abstain on the Sunday
from noisy pleasures likely to hurt the feelings of a '
numerous class of society which, though in some re-
spects pedantic and overweening, is animated by many
virtues. Let all men, so long as they do not break the
law, or outrage public decorum, act freely upon their
own convictions. The withdrawing of the Sunday
Trading Bill is good ; but there is more to be done.
1 There are statutes to be repealed, as well as bilis to be
dropped. Our Beer Acts must be cancelled, and the
compulsory closing of houses of public refreshment on
Sundaes. For these laws we are mainly indebted to
the moral cowardice of those members of the Legislature
who have no faith in the influence of compulsory legis-
lation on such subjects for good, but shrunk from oppo-
sing measures which they felt to be intolerably harsh
and unwise, because-they wero promoted by men who
by vehement pubic protestations had contrived to ob•
twin a reputation for superior religious zeal. These
timid conformers now see the danger of the hypocritical
concessions they have made, and may not be unwilling
to retrace their steps. Now is the time to urge them
on by calm, temperate, well-reasoned petitions, nume-
rously signed, against the whole tribe of Beer Acts and
kindred enormities that disfigure the Statute Book.

windra'