The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-22 00:00:00

etronina :Ant

LOINDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1849.

Unsuccessful in their effort to produce a weekly
stagnation at the Past-office, the Sabbatarians are
actually driven to the necessity of pouncing upon
some unfortunate cattle drover as a delinquent. Be-
fore the City Police Committee on Saturday, a poor
fellow was arraigned for a violation of the laws of
Christianity, for inasmuch as he had driven a number
of cattle from Brewer's Quay to Tower-hill at twenty
minutes past eight of the clock on Sunday evening.
The charge, be it observed, was trumped up on an
old Act of King CHARLES the SECOND. NOW, On
examination, it turned out that the unfortunate
animals in question were foreign cattle imported for
home consumption. From the vessel pitching, and
from the cattle having to stand throughout the
voyage, they appear to have reached the metropolis
in a very distressed condition late on Sunday after-
noon. It was therefore for the purpose of preventing
any unnecessary cruelty, and to the end that
these poor dumb creatures might obtain food
and rest in some temporary place of
shelter, that they were driven by the prisoner, a dis-
tance of some six or seven rods. Yet, lo! in the name,
forsooth, of Religion, he is forthwith taken into cus-
tody, and brought up before the authorities to receive
unishment. Which of you has an ox that bath
fallen into a pit on the Sabbath doth not get cords
and drag him out ? Of course this wretched piece
of rampant and ostentatious piety was summarily
seubbed by the presiding Alderman, the complaint
being at once dismissed. We should like excessively
to know, however, when all this Pharisaical humbug
is to be brought to a termination. 13 the public to
be perpetually subjected to the impertinence of any
sanctimonious numskull who pleases to arrogate to
himself the right of chalking out the rules of
some arbitrary scheme of morality ? Are all the
emotions of humanity, are all the dictates of common
sense, are all the principles of rectitude, are all the
d.cencies of life, and all the rational impulses of the
community to be ignored and set at naught, because
some wiseacre, fancying himself better and more
orthodox than his neighbour, happens to be subject
at intervals to paroxysms of ethical hysteria?
Pshaw! the farce has been allowed too long to pass
with impunity, casting a slur upon the national
j udgment, and acting as a mockery upon all that is
holy, and venerable, and loveable, and adorable
in Christianity.
An able and argumentative communication, ad-
dressed to ourselves, will be found in another portion
of this evening's impression. It will be perused with
attention, as coming avowedly from a representative
of a town of some commercial standing—a distin-
guished and influential member of the Commons'
House of Parliament. In examining into the rea-
sonableness or unreasonableness of the demands
made by the Sabbatarians in regard to the regulation
of duties at St. Martin's-le-Grand, our esteemed
correspondent has fairly placed the whole question as
one aris=ing between PAW. of Tarsus and JAMES of
London. Well may he express his astonishment that
there are men so egregiously fatuous as to be fear-
ful of "lifting up their voices for CHRIST'S Apostle
against a sectarian Bishop." Nothing but the
grossest and most crass stupidity, nothing but the
stoniest and most wilful blindness, nothing but the
profoundest and most impenetrable igno-
rance can induce those persons to prefer
the worth of JAMES the Bishop, to the ordinations of
PAUL the Apostle. And yet this they do virtually
and actually. With regard to the observance of Sun-
days, according to the Apostolic writings, there really is
nothing to be found in them, as our correspondent
sententiously and sagaciously remarks, beyond a
recommendation that the first day of the week is to
be called "the LORD'S" or CHRIST'S Day, in comme-
moration of the Resurrection, and that on it the faithful
should assemble and make charitable collections. "All
the rest," says our correspondent, " sali rge" as
the Roman Catholics would say, " al the rest is tra-
ditional." In defiance of all this, however, the Sab-
batarians exult, while JAMES the Bishop, at their
head, saith to the contrary. Saith to the contrary,
remember! although the Seventh Article of the
Church of England solemnly declares that neither the
ceremonies and rites, nor the civil precepts of the
law given to Moses are binding on Christians
Surely !
urely here is in truth and in deed, as our correspon-
dent (himself a Member of the Imperial Legisla-
ture) asserts, "the hubblyjock of a sacredotal false-
hood !"

Besides helping to expose the fasulity, and we
might even say the heterodoxy of these same Sabba-
tarians, our correspondent advances a suggestion
eminently deserving of some consideration, namely
that Jewish employes should perform those duties
which appear to be so repugnant to some consciences
they themselves being permitted to stand ex-
empt from the customary toil on Satan' ICUS
By this method of regulation no violence what-
ever would be done to the Quixotic punctilios
of any individual—the Jews and their Christian
colleagues alternately relieving each other on the
first and the last day of each successive week. The
advice is not unworthy of serious attention, although
to our thinking it evinces rather too generous a
regard for a very intolerant and intolerable class. To
our mind it has rather too much the appearance of a
compromise ; and seeing that the Sabbatarians never
in any instance show a disposition to give quarter,
we conceive that, as a matter of justice and fair- ,