The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-10 00:00:00

r‘: PII": IT OF TILE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

•e' s •
The .Iliehop of London has addressed a letter
t To the Inhabitants If London and • Westminster,
the present Neglect of the Lord's-day. This indi-
cetele, it should appear, on the part of his Lordship,
a commendable ;eel for the morals and happiness of
the more popular parts of his diocess ; for we are
sore, that-on the due observation of the Lord's-do
mainly depends the virtue and goodness of society,
m.'nsiaered in its aggregate capacity ; and it is only
• in propOrtion to their virtue and goodness, that then-
cell be any internal peace of mind or domestic corn-
fort, or, in truth, any assured foundation for put-
- lie tranquillity. Whoever, therefore, undertakes
such a task as his Lordship, whether it be one in
his now more elevated station, or those in the hum-
. bier offices of churchwardens and overseers, or ever:
strenuous and conscientious individuals in private
life, s=had] have our cordial support. The Bishop
i!oes not represent that the evil is new which he at-
tai ks (weal(' it were, there would be more hope et
its speedy suppression !), nor does he seem to think
that there is Mee accession to it. Our own opinion,
and we have some knowledge of London and its en-
virons, would ]ern the contrary way ; but the casual
sight of some of the ordinary profanations, a sudden
inter: al movement of zeal, or various other acci-
dental causes, may have very probably stirred his
Lordship thus to interfere with.the even current of
vicious practice. Among the remedies not pro-
posed by his Lordship, but already adopted by seve-
ral coesc'entious persons in business, for protecting
the Sabbath from the gross profanation of marketing
on that day, is, paying their workmen and la-
bourers on the 'Friday,—(we speak now of the
offerces of the humbler orders, we shall soon advert
to the manner in which his Lordship treats the
grosser—the more inexcusable criminality of the
rich). By the custom just mentioned, the wife
may make her little purchases during the Saturday,
.while the husband finishes his week's labour. Those
master tradesmen Ivho cannot provide the money
necessary by the Friday, might pay them on Satur-
day•noon or early on the Saturday evening. But
the B;shop of London, and others of his ardent
temperament, would do well to observe, that in
Cmse districts of London and the suburbs which
latve been chiefly alluded to, the poor in a great
measure work for the poor, and the employer will
often have- to run about and find money to pay for
his job when his workmen brings it home late on
the Saturday night. Such people require our corn-
passion,—our aid,—our advice,—our remonstrance;
correction should be administered, and obstruc-
tiens thrown in the way of procuring a little food
when they had a little money,
.with a very cautious
band indeed. Of gin-shops and their frequenters,
and the pollee to which they should be -subjected,
notLiog can be said too severe,—no rule too rigid
prescribed for their regulation. But now we come
tea much more important part of the subject, in
fact, to the source and origin of the misehief,—
munch-, the irregularities of the great, in the viola-
tion of the Lord's-day, and this Bishop's manner of
nettint: them, and his own personal conduct under
the avowed knowledge of those grievous irregulari-
ties ; and we solicit the attention of that church of
which we are members, to what we are
.going to
say. In pege 29 of his letter or book, he thus
wetto--" The Athenian curiosity of the present
au e, to which the public press is the pander, renders
it almost impossible that any transactions of those
who occupy the vantage-ground of life, should
be concealed from those beneath them. Their
habits of living, their domestic arrangements,
t!Tir conversation, the petty details of their
private life, find their way, generally, indeed,
distorted and misrepresented, into the newspapers:
and while many of their pious and charitable deeds
pass unnoticed, DO violation of decency or propriety
can escape publicity. Every Sunday dinner-party,
or concert, is made known, on the Plowing day, to
every corner of the metropolis-, and scandalizes, or
encourages thousands." How needless ! how nu-
provoked ! how uneondueive to the success of his
argument, and at the same time how acrimonious
and malignant in a Christian Clergyman, thus to
seep out of his way in order to vilify the press ! and
art he: same time how easy for any one thus to throw
elersive: terms. about him ! But first let us make
the Bishop acquainted with the meaning of the word
;;antler; for though theie is much puff about his
learning, we doubt, and always have doubted, any
any greet. quantity in him. Let him learn, ther,
frem Johnson, that a pander is " a pimp, a male
bawd, a proettrerean egent for the lust and ill-dc-
sieree of another,". and that to pander is ".to pimp,
to be subservient to lust and passion." This matter
being cleated, and it being acknowledged that gross
eieeetions of the Sabbath, by sumptuous banquet-
card partie; and conversazioni, cannot takt•
place without scandal and shame, and also without
tee corrective restraint on their increase, imposed
3-y the disapprobation of men of intelligence, virtue,
and piety, we esk any Lonourable-minded man whet her
it would not be much more pandering to the great
to conceal their criminal excesses in this respect, as
the Bishop would- have tie do, than to let the
offenders
.know that they cannot practice them
iii obscurity ? Nor have we been content with
mere exposure; we have never ceased from defend-
ing the honour of the Lord's-day, and that against
the desecrating practices of tie first men in the
reolin, though we are supposed to have some con-
i.exuao with the present i‘linistry. It was but
lately that we attacked, -aid pointed out in the
strongest manlier possible, the injurious effect el
their Sunday Cabinet dinners upon public morals.
We conjuied them, respectfully but firmly, to desist
frOm such festivities : we pointed out that they had
Vs'ednesday as an unoccupied day, and that if they
had not, they had no right to lob Christianity of
the day, consecrated to 'it by God himself upon se-
cular motives. These, in spite of all we can say,—
we avow the charge boldly,—are the great Sabbath-
breakers; and to these Sabbath-breakers it ie, that
the Bishop - has crouched for preferment ! Prone
these Sabbath-breakers it that he has accepted
cad hods his present Bishopric, the revenues of
which he so stupidly and clumsily endeavoured to
ter stile the other day ! Arid now let us, in con-
eraat wilt his conduct, set before him that of the
inspired and good remit of old. We would advise
him to read carefully through the fifth chapter of the
Second. Book of Kings.: he will there find that
there was a mighty man of valorise in that as in
thepresenfinstanee the captain of a King's host,who
had wealth and power at his disposal ; but of none
of these would a real and true man of God accep',
even in return fur a miraculous cure which he hau
performed itwon him. This great Captain, too,
eviehed to take a slight liberty in a matter of reli-
<viol). and on a day of worship, too. He desieed to
.be allowed to bow dower the head to Itimnion, in
compliance with a profane custom ! Another
person in the l'amsehold was less ;scrupulous.; he
followed, lie solieited the unconverted warrior,—
" Give roe, I pray thee," is his cry. And now we
would ask the great body of our countrymen, before
whom we stand with this abusive Bishop, to decide
whether a churchman who writes agseinst Sabbath-
breaking, and yet accepts of vast preferreeat at the
impure hands of notorious Sabbath-breakers, more
resembles the servant of Gad, or the slave of mam-
swon,whether, in fact, he je en •Elisha, or a
Gehazi ? Another charge contained in the passage
of the Bishop's letter above cited is, " ,that many
of the. pious and charitable deeds of the geeet
pays unnoticed by the papers which pia,
lish their offences." We must say that what-
ever benevolent actions the great conceal from
the eog,nizance of man, the public papers cannot
reveal. " Their Father which seeth in secret Find'
reward them openly." But with respect to those
acts of piety or charity which must from their nature
become known, we 'confidently appeal to the great
themselves—we appeal to all mankind—whether
ever charge were more basely . opposed to truth ?
Do not the papere.teem with eulogies (perhaps some
of them even extravagant) upon such acts ? How
many columns have we and all the other journalists
eretuitously dedicated to the mention end praise of
'