The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-04 00:00:00

ride six or seven miles, and to ramble over beautiful
grounds, amid flowers, and shrubs, and trees, and
water- works and statuary. Now, we fully concede to
these parties the right to think as they do, and to
carry out their own thoughts themselves. We will
pass over the pleasant walks some of them enjoy on
the Sunday, in their own lawns and gardens, or in
the suburban parks around which they dwell. Their
right to gaze each Sunday on the pictures or sta-
tues with which they can afford to decorate their own
mansions or houses ; their right to converse on all
imaginable topics as well as religion, on the Sunday;
and the other innumerable ways in which these
parties show the impossibility of carrying out them-
selves what they would exact as law for the million—
we pass by all this, and maintain that they have no
right to make their religious views of the Sabbath
binding by penalty on those who do not hold them.
They are as free in this country as they can wish to
promulgate their views, and to convert their neigh-
bours by argument. We can respect them in so
doing. They can circulate the "Pearl of Days," and
Sablestarian tracts by thousands and ten thousands,
no man forbidding ; but to make men Sabbatarians by
penalty, this is what we deny them the right to do.
They cannot deny that they regard the withholding of
the charter as a penalty, for they think it is so severe
a ono as to be almost sure of attaining their end,
though here we think they will find themselves mis-
taken. It is a heavy penalty, indeed, to a commercial
company to be denied the ordinary legal facilities and
protection requishe to the safe transaction of business,
—to be, in fact, commercially outlawed. Trade and
business is, however, an elastic thing—a thing of
boundless resources; and if the opponents of the
charter succeed, they may find to their surprise that
the spirit which could beat the Milan decrees is not
less potent when arrayed against Archdeacons and
Vicars, and even Archbishops too.
Neither can the opponents deny that it is their own
religious views which they seek thus to establish by
penalty. It is notorious that the ablest divines ever
since LUTHER'S Reformation have been opposed to
Judaizing views of the Loab'ssday. This subject
was, however, some years ago fully discussed by one
of the ablest writers of the day in this very journal.
It is still more notorious that—call it want of religion,
a defect of religious instruction, or what you will—
that yet myriads of our population do not feel bound
to observe the Sunday in the way which the objec-
tors do. We ask, then, what is it but persecution in
favour of the Puritan view of the Sabbath, when men
step forward and demand of the QUEEN or Parliament
to refuse commercial rights and protection to those
who would provide the means for spending the Sun •
day according to the opposite views ? If we remem-
ber right, persons were once outlawed for denying
the Divinity of JESUS CHRIST. In Ireland they were
almost worse than outlawed for Popery ; Dissenters
could not hold their opinions, till very recently, but
at the penalty of exclusion from municipal corpora-
tions. What conceivable difference is there, in prin-
c'ple, between those now universally execrated pen-
alties, and the one which the Sabbatarians seek to in-
flict on the Crystal Palace Company, and their cus-
tomers whose religious views on Sunday observance
differ from those of their opponents ?
We would appeal again on a somewhat different
ground to these gentlemen. We appeal to their own,
indeed, to every man's, view of the very nature of
religion ; with them, however, as professing higher
spirituality than the ritualist or the "profane vulgar,"
our argument ought to have double weight ; and we
ask what real gain do they expect from success ?
Suppose they confine to the town, perforce, the mul-
titudes who would resort to Sydenham on the Sun-
day, have they made those multitudes Sabbatarians
thereby ? Do they cease from their pleasure willingly?
And if not, are they one whit more religious in the
Sabbatarian's own view, fretting and chafing at home,
and reviling it may be the persons who keep them
there, than if they were strolling over the grounds at
Sydenham? If it be essential to all religion that its
acts proceed from the heart, what can those have
done for religion, who have merely compelled an out-
ward abstinence, leaving the heart exasperated against
the prohibition ? Nay, were the Sabbatarians right
in their creed, yet in the view of every intelligent
man amongst them their present course must be one
of fatal injury to it. They may be assured that the
multitudes, whom they thwart, will acquire a deep-
rooted hatred for the religion of the men who
have only mastered, not convinced, them. Per-
secution which does not exterminate, never convert.,
and generally increases the numbers of the party
attacked. We have not even adverted to the known
vice amidst which these gentlemen would detai❑ the

class of people who would resort on the Sunday to
Sydenham. They ought to view it not as a question
between the Churches and the Crystal Palace, but
between the gin-shop and the back streets and alleys
of the unwashed, and the sober, cleanlier entertain-
ments of Sydenham Park.

It is worth mention that the opponents of the corn

pony have endeavoured somewhat to mystify the sub-
ject by representing the QUEEN as called upon to use
her powers, for the first time, to establish Sabbath de-

secratiou. The statement is doubly false. We be-
lieve chartered companies exist involving what is
considered as Sabbath desecration. Companies esta-
blished by Act of Parliament do, most certainly ; and
this, as including the sanction of the three estates of
the realm, must, a fortiori, be worse than a charter.

But it is especially false to represent the QUEEN as
establishing by an act of power, that to which she only
grants the protection of laws, whose administration is
confided to her as tha head of the Executive. If, in
administering these laws, she gives protection only to
one or more classes of religionists, and refuses it to
others, she is degraded at once to the sectarian perse-
cutor. If, supposing her a Sabbatarian, she be ad-
vised that she can melee her subjects Sabbatarians, by
cutting off legal protection from the least objection-
able means of Sunday recreation and amusement, she
is advised to renew in principle the converting
agencies of a CRARLEMANGE, and the adviser might,
on the same grounds, defend her compelling her
Mahommedan subjects to turn Christians under the
penalty of decapitation.
One would have thought that the Post-office affair
might have taught the Agnewites a lesson. This is
not the day for making people religious by law.
Penalties for not attending the parish church are now
done away with ; we hope even the Islington clergy do
not"wish to renew them. But we must have complete
liberty, and penalties must be done away for spending
our time as we please on a Sunday. The whole
question is one between each man and Him who de-
clared himself " the Lord of the Sabbath." lie needs
not the puny arm of human legislation, or the profane
help of human penalties, to secure such a use of the
LORD'S day as he requires. To Him, indeed, the
forced and outward homage which the anti-charter
men seek to present Him, is an insult and an abomina-
tion. What a pity that good and often well-meaning
men cannot be content to serve their GOD in their
own way, without endeavouring to make others hypo-
crites !

THE ADDRESS ILA REPLY TO THE ROYAL SPEECH.
-it is believed that the address in the House of Commons
will be moved by Lord Louvain°, member for North Nor-
thumberland, and seconded by Mr. E. Christopher Egerton,
the member for Macclesfield.—lllorning Herold.

MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY.-...The second
session of this useful and highly-successful Government insti-
tution commenced yesterday. The inaugural lecture was de-
livered by Dr. Lyon Playfair, C. 15., the subject being "In-
dustrial Instruction on the Continent." The arrangements
for the present session comprise 48 lectures on chemistry, by
Dr. Mayfair; 48 on metallurgy, by Dr. Percy; 36 on me-
chanical science, by Mr. R. Hunt; 40 on geology, by Mr.
A. C. Ramsay; 48 on natural history, by Mr. E. Forbes •
and 76 on mineralogy and mining, by Mr. W. W. Smyth. '
SAILING, OF THE ATLANTIC.—The United States
mail steam-ship Atlantic, Captain West, with the usual
mails and passengers for the United States, and British
possessions in North America, sailed yesterday afternoon
from the Mersey for Nsw York direct. The Atlantic took
out 72 passengers, and had a large cargo upon freight.

-- - - - - -
NATIONAL HALL, lIOLDORN.—Mr. C. Coule, the
talented professor of the accordion, gave his tenth annual
concert at the above hall, on Monday last, assisted by the
following artists :—Miss Pearce, Miss E. Jacobs, and Messrs.
thine, Stewart, Goddow, Husk, Sainl. Cowell, and J. Ross.
Miss Jacobs, who, we some time since predicted would ulti.
mately prove one of our best vocalists, has fully realized our
expectations. She possesses a clear, expressive, and brilliant
soprano voice. The charming manner in which she rendered
a Spanish song, entitled "Come, join the dance," completely
(
took her hearers by storm—in fact it was the gem of the en-
tertainment. Mr. Hime sang in an exquisite stye a ballad,
written by himself, entitled" Look always on the sunny
side;" while Mr. Cowell, by his humoursome comic powers,
kept the risible faculties of the audience in a constant state
of excitement every time be came before them. Mr. Coule,
assisted by his pupils, in the course of the evening played
some Pleasing selections on the accordion. The hall was com-
pletely crowded.

~r.