The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-11 00:00:00

OBS.ERTANCII OF SUNDAY.

The proper observance of Sunday is one of those things
:hat must necessarily come under the law of the land.

That has never been disputed by any reasonable person
who thinks about the matter. As little can it be demhted
that the nature of the observance must be dictated with
a proper regard to the public convenience and the pur-
poses of the day. Those purposes are, the periodical
rest which experience shows man to require, both for the
refreshing of his mental and bodily powers, and also au
opportunity far those religious acts and meditations
which cannot but be much assisted by quiet and free-
dom from the ordinary business of the world. Sup-
posing that as a matter of fact everybody could go
to church on Sunday as often as he pleased, as
quietly as he pleased, and that no scandals or dis-
orders of any kind occurred on the Sunday, then
there would, perhaps, be no reason for imposing any
restrictions on travelling, on trade, on the sale of
refreshments and liquors, the opening of public houses,
or anything else thought allowable on a week day. The
matter of fact, however, is unfortunately, the other
way, for the institution of Sunday, enforced as it is both
by custom and by law, has led, particularly, as it ap-
pears, in the great cities of Scotland, to a lamentable
amount of dissipation, drunkenness, disorder, and even
crime. It is found that the greater part of the popula-
tion of these cities seldom enter places of worship, and,
having no taste for religious reading or meditation, must
go out of doors for sem° means of filling up the Sabba-
tical void. Once out of doors, they find too many peo-
ple catering without scruple for their pleasure, in the
lowest sense of that word. What should therefore be,
as it has been called, " the rest of Heaven," is perverted
into something quite the contrary ; and the better
class of peope who have been taught by their fore-
fathers, and not less by the State, that the Sabbath
is a day to be observed with great sanctity, abstrac-
tion, and quiet, justly complain that they are not pro-
tected, bat rather hindered, in the observance of a law-
ful institution. Viewing the law on one side, and the
practice on the other, ene cannot but. be struck with a
great inconsistency, pressing hard on those who desire
to follow their duty and the law, and then find them-
selves discouraged, impeded, and even rendered ridi-
culous by standing few among many. Certainly this is
a state of thingslthat should not be endured. Conscience
itself is not always consistent and strong, but it is a
great evil when the law is still more illusive and weak.
Indeed, the power of religion and moral obligation is
altogether apt to be weakened by the spectacle of a
State which does not know whether to say a thing or
not ; which lays heavy burdens on the tender-minded
and scrupulous, and is itself the first to fly from the re-
sponsibility it has created or enforced.
We are not surprised, then, but rather we take it as
a great proof of Scotch principle, Scotch consistency,
Scot& fairness, and, so to speak, Scotch "hardness
of head," that two thousand people met the other day
in the northern metropolis for the purpose of reviewing
the operation of the "Forbes Mackenzie Act." That
measure has been partly successful, partly unsuccessful,
or, rather, it has done a great deal, and only has not
done as much as it might reasonably be expected to do.
In the city of Edinburgh it has caused a very great
diminution of police cases evidently arising out of
Sunday drinking. We published the important and
satisfactory statistics of the question in a letter
some time since, and every succeeding Sunday has
added to the testimony in favour of the act. We
shall net repeat the figures, because figures are
always open to cavil, and we will only say that,
without any predilection in favour of what is called
the Puritanical Sabbath, and without any disponitien
to enforce Christianity by law, we are quite satisfied,
on the evidence of the calculations given at the Edin-
burgh meeting, that the Forbes Mackenzie Act has pro—
moted temperance, piiblic order, and morality on the
sacred day of worship and rest. It was to be expected
that it should do so, and it has done so. Undoubtedly
many a poor creature turns into the gin-shop, or the
grocer's shop-- -for they have long been identical in
Scotland—simply because tiro suspension of work leaves
bins nothing else to do on Sunday. It is all very well
to talk of famines and home, but many of these poor
fellows have neither families nor homes, nor any other
place where they can go, as ono of ourselves goes to his
library or the family fireside. Even those altars of the
domestic affections that many of us spend a life in
raising, and that figure so lergely in the works of
modern moralists., do not always sustain the charm
with which we are Y•otit to invest them. Gentle-
men will often run awry from their firesides on a
Sunday to a club or .t friend in the country, or to
Brighton, or anywhere for change. Tin fiard-worked
working man has no such alternatives. The gin-shop is
often his only chance of cheer, of company, of outward
light and of inward refreshment. We are strongly of
opinion that it ought not to be, and that in fact it ought
to be closed, and other places of innocent resort found
for him. But, as a first- step, unquestionably the poor
working man ought not to ho forbidden to work and he
shut out of shops on Sunday, and then, by a strange
perversity, find the ginshop the only place open to him.
This is, in fact, to encourage arid sanction Sunday drink-
ing with the utmost countenance of the law. The actual
result of the act for closing the public-houses in Scot-
land is quite what wo expected. We said, however,
that the act had been partially unsuccessful. That is
for a very sufficient reason. It has been only partially
put in force. With the culpable connivance of the au-
thorities the law has not been enforced within nearly
two-thirds of the police bounds of the city of Edinburgh.
Of course it, is boutnatural that crime, on the whole,

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[PRICE SD.

should not be found much affected by a law not carried
out in those very parts of the city and it suburbs where
crime is chiefly concocted and matured, and where there
are the most opportunities for its commission. While
the magistrates within the Royalty carry out the act,
they find themselves besieged by a circle of neglect,
drunkenness, and crime outside the Royalty, pervading
a population of nearly 100,000. At Glasgow, Paisley,
and Brechmn the act has f,ir play, and its results are less
qualified.
of course we do not forget in these remarks that the
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sab-
bath. In our hum ile opinion Sunday observance is a
matter for reasonable arrangement, and that any man
absolutely needing locomotion, refreshment, and even
moderate recreation ou that day, has as much right to
expect it as the ox or the ass to be drawn out of the pit, or
the sick to be healed. Point out any case of necessity,
and that case must be met, either by a special provision
of the act, or by a dispensing power in the hands of the
magistrates. We say that it must be met, simply be-
cause so long as it is not met it will give a character of '
extravagance and absurdity to any general enactment,
and eventually lead to its repeal. When a gentleman is
brought to a standstill within fifty miles of his dying
child on a " Sabbath-eve," or when a man compelled by
the inexorable public to work ahl • Sunday night at an
employment draining his strength, and requiring it to
be continually recruited, cannot get a glass of the mildest
stimulant, then a stigma and a scandal is brought upon
law, for nature and common sense will not endure so
tyrannical a discipline. The public convenience is the
best rule in these questions, aid, though individuals must
continually be called onto sacrifice theiradvantage or their
comfort to the general good, it will never be tolerated that
a lawful, honourable, and necessary employment shall be
accompanied with, severe and unnecessary hardships,
simply through the rigid application of a law. There
can be no possible analogy between the case of a man
bard at work in the way of a necessary, calling, and that
of an idle man seeking early in the day for a stimulus
which he has no occasion for, and had better be without.
There is, of course, much practical difficulty in meet-
ing particular cases without letting in large classes, or,
in other words, devising exemptions which shall not be
fatal to the measure. That is a difficulty. The appli-
cation of common sense always is difficult, much more
difficult than the application of a Procrustean rule which
shall convict itself of folly at once. For a hundred who
can reason in an exact and mathematical manner only
one can reason sensibly and wisely, and in that ratio is
wise legislation more difficult than laws done by rule of
throe. Nevertheless, this is the only legislation that
human nature will tolerate or that will endure.—Times.