The Sun.
London, England, 1836-04-22 00:00:00

(77r,f
kkLi ))ell,

LONDON,
FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 22, 1836.

Sir ANDREW. AGNEW'S Bill—or Bills, for he seems
to have as many as a Bill-broker—for the better en-
forcement of Sunday starvation and hypocrisy, was
discussed last night in the House of Commons, when
a majority of 118 decided in favour of the principle of
the Hon. Baronet's measure, though without pledging
themselves to support the details in Committee. Sir
OS WA LD MOSELEY seconded the motion, on the plea
that he had " a religious duty to perform"—just as if his
constituents sent him into the House, for the purpose
of making a Pharisaical parade of his superior piety !
Out on such irrelevant twaddle ! The Church, not the
House of Commons, is the proper place for the dis-
charge of a " religious duty." But granting the force
of the Hon. Baronet's argument, is it, let us
ask, discharging a 4 religious duty," to pass by
the Sunday amusements of the rich, and fall with
a crushing hand on those of the poor ? To in-
sult and vilify the one, and give all possible laud to
the morals of the other ? To point the finger of scorn
at LAZARUS, and hold out the right band of friend-
ship to Dives ? To denounce the baker's oven, and
tolerate the Club kitchen ? To shut up the operative's
tea-I,,ardens, and leave wide open the gentleman's Zoo-
logical-gardens ? To oppress poverty, because it is
weak, and flatter wealth because it is powerful ? Fie,
fie, Sir OsIvALD MoslinEY ! If this be VOW' sense
of justice—this your notion of " a religious duty"—
the sooner you reform your ideas on the subject, the
better. As for the Hon. Baronet's allusion to " the
disgusting scenes" that take place on the Sabbath, it is
sheer cant and humbug. Thee is not in any country
in Europe, a religious day of rest observed with so
much decent propriety as is the Sunday in England, by
those very classes whom Saint AGNEW is so zealous
to annoy. If it be desecrated by any order in society,
it is by the higher, who, after they have attended the
Morning Service, as a mere cold matter of etiquette,
necessary to the maintenance of their respectability, roll
off in their carriages to pay visits to their fashionable
acquaintances, where the talk is, not of the sermon they
have just heard, but of the Saturday night's Opera ;
which favourite theme of Sunday gossip exhausted,
away they go the Park, there to parade their carriages,
horses, and their own gay attire, before the eyes of an
admiring public ; while the day is wound up by a
dinner party, at which, he whO should propose prayers,
or the reading of a sermon, would be voted a bore
of the first water. I', we :cpeat, the Sabbath is any
where desecrated, it is by this class, and this only, that
it is so. The poor uniformly treat it with reverence.
With them it is literally, what the Church intended it
should be, a day of repose from the toils and cares of
the week. Who that has seen, as we have seen a
thousand times—and felt our hearts leap at the sight
—die poor, over-wrought operative, 'cedilla
children into the greet; fields,
toot they may enjoy the
Nt‘o,atecslclaccpletlfloer
a happy
fe,
air and sunshine of heaven and forth his
faces of the young ones, dei;ghted
hours from the stifling heat of- a crowded lane or alley—
who that has seen this delightful, humanizing spectacle,
and afterwards watched the innocent merry-makers,
taking a short rest at• the village ale-house, or the
still more welcome tea-gardens, but must scorn and
would put an end to this
repudiate