The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-05 00:00:00

THE SUN,

Those, consequently, who happen to be exquisitely
sensitive in consience may snap their fingers at both
the new and the old regulations, and refrain entirely
from any participation in labairs regarded by them
as desecrations of the " Sabbath." Beyond this,
however, it should be particularly borne in recollec-
tion that simultaneously with the addition of these
twenty-five clerks to those already engaged on Sun-
days, at the central establishment in the
metropolis, the new arrangements issued by
the authorities—(those new arrangements about
which the Sabbatarians are creating such an into-
lerable disturbance)—will release from all Sunday
occupations somewhere about two thousand individuals
hitherto engaged on the Lord's Day in the provincial
offices. So, while the system of working on the
Suudays is 25 plus, it is no less than 2,000 minus !
And yet these evangelical humbugs create such a
hubbub and " to-do" that one might reasonably think
, that the Man of Sin had appeared in the person of
Lord CLANIICARDE, and that the year of grace 1849
was nothing less than the commencement of the
Abomination of Desolation.

Hitherto we have spoken of the new arrange-
ments at the General Post office simply
in their relation to their interference with the worship
of GOD ALMIGHTY on Sundays; and we have shown
that so far from tending to occupy the subordinate
officials during the hours of Divine service, these
recent regulations will release no less than 2,000
persons from employment in the provinces, while, by
the simple increase of the number of clerks from, say
50 to 75, the individuals engaged at work in the
capital will be enabled to attend to their religious
devotions between ten o'clock A.M. and five
o'clock P.m. on Sundays,—bearing
.in mind all
the time that those hitherto employed, and those
to be employed in future, have been, and
will be employed, not compulsorily but strictly
and solely as volunteers. But, it is said—there is the
horrible profanation of a Sunday delivery in London!
Now, bluntly and plumply we tell these good, stupid
people, that there is nothing of the sort. The ques-
tion has nothing whatever to do with a metropolitan
delivery on Sundays. We have it on the authority
of the Postmaster that not one single letter or
newspaper will be forwarded to its destination in
London from Saturday night to Monday morning.
Not one single letter or newspaper ! And yet
these Sabbatarians are going into hysterics about a
Sunday delivery in the metropolis. Really, these
individuals seem to be particularly solicitous to ren-
der themselves ridiculous. They know well enough
that now-a-days, and for many years past, there is and
has been an uninterrupted Sunday delivery in all the
hundreds of provincial towns throughout the United
Kingdom ; and we cannot but regard it as somewhat
anomalous that they should remain obdurate and un-
interested in regard to what (according to their idea)
is such an immense actual desecration of the Sunday,
and find themselves afflicted with a tender conscience
solely within the boundaries of mortality, and solely
in reference to a case altogether hypothetical.
Besides enabling the clerks at the General Post-
office to attend to their religious duties during the
hours of Divine service, and besides releasing no less
than two thousand persons in the provinces from
working at the money• order offices on the Sunday,
the new regulations issued by the Postmaster will
remove from a large portion of this immense mercan-
tile community a variety of very intolerable grie-
vances. For example, they will prevent the
recurrence of those evils which have hereto.
fore been of continual occurrence at South-
ampton. They will render it unnecessary for the
mail-bags to remain in that port from Saturday
night till Monday morning; and will so far facilitate
the communication so essential to commerce be-
tween Leeds, York, Bristol, Exeter, Bradford, Li•
verpool, Manchester, and Birmingham on the one part,
and on the other, the East and West Indies, China,
Egypt, Peru, Chili, Spain, Portugal, South America,
the United States, Venezuela, and all parts of the
Mediterranean. Steamers will consequently no longer
have been lying in Southampton Water forty-eight
honrs before the delivery of the letters brought by
them from distant quarters of the globe, at so much
expense, and with such extraordinary expedition.
For an the reasons here enumerated by ourselves
we cannot but regard the new regulations made by
the Post .office authorities as real boons to the actual
community, while they are calculated to enforce,
rather than to interrupt, the ordonations of Chris

The accounts from Ireland are of the most gloomy
character. The potato blight has again set in
throughout the entire country, with a destructive
virulence scarcely exceeded during the memorable
year 1846. Scarcely a hope remains of saving suffi-
Jeient from the doomed crop for the support of the
wretched inhabitants—all is dismay and consterna-
tion as to the future prospects of that unhappy land.
Extraordinary efforts are made to save even a portion
from the general destruction, but the exertions are
prompted by despair—to snatch something, anything,
that can be made available for food, from the decay-
ing mass—to defer, until the last moment, resorting
to the cereal produce, :appears to be the only expecta-
tion. The struggle is merely to protract a miserable
existence amid suffering and destitution similar to
that which they have endured during the last three
years. Pestilence and famine will again perform
their deadly work on those who are unable to fly
from the fated land. The inevitable evils occasioned
by the mysterious visitation of PROVIDENCE would
require the cordial co-operation of all to afford even
the slightest chance of weathering the storm ; but
unfortunately that co-operation cannot be obtained.
A wide spread conspiracy has been organized by the
occupiers throughout the southern and western pro-
vinces to carry off the entire crop, and to leave the
landlords and rate collectors without any
means of recovering the large arrears of
rent and taxes now due and owing in respect
of the premises. Those who have been here-
tofore regarded as solvent and improving tenants, in
whose honesty and integrity the most implicit confi-
dence might be reposed, are participating in the
movement, and preparing to seek other homes across
the Atlantic, abandoning landlords and labourers to
their fate. They feel that a total wreck has taken
place, all subordination and discipline is at an end,
and their conduct is that of wreckers, plundering a
stranded vessel, rather than of courageous and manly
minds, bearing up with fortitude and unflinching
resolution against a severe calamity. " Some
qui peat" appears to be the general cry,
and the mischief is quadrupled in consequence
of the confusion and panic accompanying the
disgraceful abandonment of their posts. In place of
an ordinary retreat, it is a total rout, a wild flight—
each fugitive snatching what he can from the
common stock, caring only for his own miserable
existence, and disgracefully deserting his colours in
the hour of emergency and danger.
There can be no hope for Ireland so long as a
course so reckless and insane is persisted in. We
have it on Supreme Authority, that "a house (or a
kingdom) divided against itself cannot stand"—and
the "Emerald Isle" is unquestionably placed in that
melancholy category at this moment. Class is
arrayed against class in internecine strife ; landlord
and tenant, the owner and the occupier of the soil,
are mutually striving to ruin each other, and
both are succeeding to the utmost extent of their
wishes. Costs are heaped upon costs, which the de-
faulting tenant cannot and will not pay, and which
must ultimately fall upon the impoverished and in-
solvent landowner. Half the produce of the land is
wasted and destroyed in the attempt to run away
with the remainder, and what is captured scarcely
suffices to pay bailiffs' fees, and the expenses of the
replevin that is almost invariably commenced; and
if, after litigation is exhausted, the " distress " is
brought to the hammer, no bidders can be obtained,
a threatening multitude attend the sale, and the
worst features of the anti-tithe war are forcibly re-
called to the memories of the spectators.
We explained the
wholly
yreal
ascribable aus
es
to
this fearful have
state repeatedly
of affa
the Law of Landlord and Tenant in the sister king-
dom,
which has been well decribed by one
rs. tis
w ho
of the most eminent Judges of Ireland as a one-sided
code, in which the interests of the proprietors are
alone considered. The Irish are a keensighted and
intelligent people, not easily deceived or blindfolded.l
They perceive the palpable injustice of the legislation
to which they have been subjected; they know that
they cannot obtain equitable decisions under the ex- ,
Wing laws, and they accordingly combine together