The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-12 00:00:00

MILITIA.

Oa Tuesday last the Royal Anglesea Light Infantry
Militia, with other troops now occupying the garrison
at Carlisle, were inspected by Major-General Arbuthnot,
commanding the northern district. The troops went
through the usual evolutions with great precision, and
were subsequently minutely inspected by the General,
who highly complimented their commander, Colonel
Williams, upon the well-disciplined and efficient state of
his men. The 2d Royal Lanark Militia has received
orders to send 200 men to Edinburgh on the 17th, to
escort the Queen. This regiment has enrolled upwards
of 950 men, and has given 90 to the line out of 250, who
volunteered, but were refused as too young, and from
want of height. Huts are to be erected on Lanark-moor
to contain 2,000 men.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

THE SUNDAY WHEAT-CUTTING CASE.

On the assembling of the county magistrates at Wor-
cester in Petty Sessions on Tuesday morning,
The Rev. JOHN PEARSON called attention to the case
of Nathaniel Wllliatn., and at the outset said he should
take all the responsibility of the decision in that case

upon himself, as he was the presiding magistrate when
the matter was heard and decision given. Hs had re-

oeived a letter signed by Mr. Waddington on behalf of
Sir George Grey, the Home Secretary, stating that the

conviction was, in his opinion, contrary to law, inas-
much as Williams, being customarily employed by others
—a hired agricultural labourer in fact—he could not be
held to be pursuing his " ordinary calling" in cutting his
own wheat—they might as well convict a barber for
shaving himself upon a Sunday. He (Mr. Pearson)

would treat Sir George Grey's opinion with every respect,
and he would not undertake to say whether or not be
was right in this instance ; that would be a matter for
future consideration. He should have been sorry to
have inflicted an injustice on any poor man, but no real
injustice had been done in this case to the man towards
whom an extensive and mistaken sympathy had been
shown. Magistrates were no doubt liable to misconstrue
statutes; but so were judges also, whose dicta were very
often opposed to each other, but in this case he must say
that if Sir George Grey's construction of the statute were
correct, the sooner it was repealed the better. The moral
sense of this country was strongly in favour of maintain•
ing the sanctity of Sabbath observance, and the necessity
of doing so for the sake of protecting the poor labourer
himself was apparent enough. In the present case the
person charged with the offence was cutting his wheat
on a fine Sunday evening, close to the public road, where
he was remonstrated with by several persons, to whom
he excused himself by saying that he was doing no worse
than many others. He had no excuse, inasmuch as
the weather was of the most settled description, and
he well knew that he had no work to do upon the Mon-
day morning—in fact he was loitering about during
the whole of Monday. Nor was he a poor man, as
had been represented, but possessed of considerable
property. The press had strongly vituperated him (Mr.
Pearson), but he was not to be turned from the per-
formance of his duty by abuse. The local press generally
did not condescend to personalities, but when an editor
attributed such motives as had been attributed to him
(Mr. Pearson) in one of the Worcester papers, the liber-
ties of the press were not safe in such hands, and must
degenerate into licentiousness. Such an editor must be
entirely unconscious of those principles by which every
honest man should be 'actuated. He denied that he had
set the policeman as a spy over Williams, and thought
that the officer had only done his duty. He concluded
by more protestations that he would not be influenced
by anything the press might say.
Mr. T. G. CIIRTLER said he did not know whether
he should have convicted in this particular case, but he
could not agree with the reason set forth by Sir G. Grey
for declaring this conviction to be illegal. It could not
be said, merely because a man worked for hire for a
master on the week-days and for himself on Sundays,
that he was not following his ordinary calling. If a
journeyman carpenter made a chest of drawers for him-
self on Sunday, or a journeyman butcher killed a cow
for himself on a Sunday, and was brought before him
(Mr. Curtler), he should certainly convict them for pur-
suing their " ordinary calling." And so, in the present
case, it seemed to be whether the labourer cut wheat
for himself or for a master, he would be just as much
pursuing his ordinary calling. Until there was Berne
decision in the law courts to back Sir George Grey's
opinion, he should feel bound to convict in any such
case that might come before him. The enforcement of
the statute might seem objectionable and hard, but they
were bound to administer the law as they found it, and
he would just quote the opinion of the Chief Justice of
Common Pleas, who only the other day said (referring
to the operation of obsolete statutes) that the judges
were bound to construe them in the ordinary sense of
the word, although it might inflict urgent hardship.
The magistrates were of course bound to act upon a
similar rule, and in this case he believed they could have
interpreted the words in no other way than they had
done.

Mr. J. W. WILLIS quite concurred in all that had fallen
from Mr. Curtler. The law had an object in view, the
prevention of the profanation of the Lord's-day, and had
providal a remedy, and be believed the magistrates had
rightly construed the act on the present occasion.
The Rev. J. PEARSON said he had not ventured to
allude to the legal part of the matter as Mr. Curtler had
done, but it did seem to him that the illustrations ad-
duced by Mr. Waddington did not apply at all. It was
necessary for the barber to shave himself on the Sunday
morning—it was a work of necessity for them all to
shave themselves every morning.
Mr. SIDEBOTTOM—Not now. (Great merriment.)
The Rev. J. PEARSON said perhaps it might not be a
work of necessity as times went now, but at all events
the illustration was a very unhappy one. In the pre-
sent case the facts were not entered upon at all. Wil-
liams pleaded guilty, and made excuses, some of which
he (Mr. Pearson) contradicted because he knew them to
be contrary to facts.
Mr. ST. JOHN thought the decision was a perfectly
right one.
Mr. GUTOII, the Rev. C. J. SALE, and the Rev. R.
SARJEANT, the rest of the convicting magistrates, each
expressed his concurrence in the remarks which had
been made, and said that if the case were brought be-
fore them again they should do just as they had done
before.
The Rev. J. PEARSON—There appears to be no con-
verts to the clamour which has been made.
The subject then dropped.

OCT. 11.—The magistrates have this day repaid the
fine and costs imposed upon Nathanial Williams, saying
that they do so in deference to Sir George Grey's
opinion, which they conceive ought to be binding en
them.

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12 1855.