The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-04 00:00:00

rHE LEGAL TITLE ASSURANCE sufficient to satisfy all charges, and leave handsome
COMPANY.
(Proyisionally Registered, January 17, 1849.) balances for the quondam proprietors.
Capital, 2,000,0001., in 80,000 Shares, of'2s/. each.
Preliminary Deposit, 2s. 6d. per Share
I ;.---occtuses and full information may be obtained at the Tempo-
t a:y .';e..B of the Company, 13A, Cannon-row, Westminster, on ap-
pllcati:2 to

The Sabbatarian movement—to use the expressive
phrase of Mr. CARLYLE--has been effectually
" squelched" by the Hon. Member for Honiton. Sir
ANDREW AGNEW may sell out his one share as soon
as he likes, for any advantage it can ever afford in
enabling him to interfere with the proceedings of the
shareholders.

G. F. HOWE, Hon. See..., pro tern,

Last evening, on a division as to whether Mr.
LOCKE should be permitted to introduce a Bill for
the purpose of securing to the public on Sundays a
limited and reasonable use of all railways which con-
vey passengers on other days in the week—fifty-
eight voted for the motion, and twenty against it,
leaving a clear majority of thirty-eight in favour
of uninterrupted travelling. Whatever may be the
ultimate fate of the Bill—whether its principle be
distorted, or its details modified in subsequent stages
and supplementary discussions—the fact of this deci-
sion against the religionists can never be diminished.
It can never be forgotten by the opponents of the
Agnewite faction that the House of Commons has
pronounced itself in favour of the running ofpassenger
trains uninterruptedly throughout the whole of the
seven days on all the lines of railway north of the
Tweed and the Grampians.
It was humorously remarked by the Hon. Gen-
tleman, the representative of West Surrey, that the
question of conscience in this case was as between
one and two carriages. The expression implies no
exaggeration whatever. The point on which con-
science was here balanced was literally as minute and
frivolous ; for the mails were to be allowed to proceed
without stoppage, carrying with them break-waggons
and empty carriages; but no traveller was to be ad-
mitted into the latter under penalties commensurate
with the insult offered to the godliness of the board
of directors. Now, thanks to the common sense of
the shareholders, to the insignificance of Sir
ANDREW and his disciples, and to the irre-
sistible effects of the indignation which followed
immediately upon the cruel treatment of her
Grace the Duchess of SUTHERLAND trains
may convey passengers on Sundays through
the heart of Perthshire, and those passengers may
enter at their convenience the first, the second, or
the third class carriages. No invidious distinction is
made between the affluent and the needy—and the
improved system will be inevitably maintained in
force now that it has obtained the marked approval
and countenance of the Parliament.

According to the Member for Taunton, it would
be more expedient for the Legislature to leave the
matter to the operation of common sense and to the
settlement of spontaneous discussion. Upon this
point we cannot in any way coincide with Mr. LA-
BOUCHERE. The subject being one which affects
the interest of the community at large so very for.
cibly, we cannot but think that the House of Com-
mons is immeasurably more than justified in protect-
ing the population from the possibility of any of those
ignorant acts of despotism which have emanated from
the councils of half-a-dozen sanctimonious directors
to the temporary disgrace of a whole district in Scot-
land. Knowing that the feelings of the public have
been violated, and that the property of the public is
liable at any moment to serious injury, if this
company or that company should happen to
take it into its head in a moment of
moral dyspepsia or religious meagrims, that Sunday
travelling is in opposition to the injunctions of Scrip
ture—we do think that the Parliament is .called
upon to diminish an authority so peculiarly liable to
abuse—we do think that the arguments of Mr.
LABOUCHERE against any kind of legislative inter-
ference were insufficient in contradiction to the pro-
posed enactment.

As was observed by the Member for Guildford,
the measure suggested by Mr. LOCKE is nothing
beyond the regulation of railway monopoly. It
is only a protection against arbitrary proceedings,
not an arbitrary proceeding itself. It is
merely a security of the rights of the population, not
an infringement upon those of the railway companies.
The rights of the multitude are to travel at- their
pleasure along the various lines of railway throughout
the United Kingdom as free from the chances of im-
pediment as they were formerly upori the QUEENi
highway, The rights of companies are anything
rather than the power of bloOking up the railroads
under their jurisdiction upon this day or that day, just
at their good will and option. To insist that
Parliament has no authority to require the
conveyance of passengers upon railways on Sundays
is as absurd as it would be to deny the power of the
Government to interfere in the event of any railway
company refusing-to carry troops upon their line in
some period of emergency. If a number of fanatics,
acting as a board of directors, may with impunity or-
dain that no travellers shall be accommodated on
Sundays with seats in their carriages, simply because
they prefer singing the Doxology to the beating
of the pistons of the steam-engine dragging
nothing but the mail bags and a few
of the Post• office attendants—then a number of
Quakers might with equal justice refuse, in their
capacity as directors of the
dispatch by rail a body of soldiers into a district
threatened with Rebellion (as wai the case only the
other day, during the SMITH O'BRIEN agitation)
merely because their fraternal sect holds all bloodshed
in abhorrence, and looks upon swords, guns, and
bayonets as the paraphernalia of his Satanic
Majesty. It is all very well for the Right
Honourable Gentleman the Member for Coventry
to talk of the proposed Bill as an act of legislative
compulsion; but we should like to know uncommonly
if the evil which the Bill is intended to annihilate is
not an act of legislative compulsion on the part of a
petty squad of psalmsiogers, in no respect qualified
to cram their theology down the throats of the mul-
titude. The Right Honourable Member for Bute
opposes the measure on the plea that it is an inter-
ference with private property and with conscience—
forgetting altogether that the annoyance which the
measure is intended henceforth to render impos-
sible of recurrence is, in the most flagrant
manner imaginable, as interference with public pro-
perty, with private interests, with individual rights,
and with the conscience of the vast majority of the
population. And this fact must be borne, moreover,
in mind—that the Bill introduced by the representa-
tive of Honiton, and approved of by the House of
Commons, is a defensive and not an offensive measure.
The Agnewites have been aggressors. Parliament
now only comes forward to vindicate the indisputable
rights of the multitude, and to place a wholesome
check upon the frenzy of fanaticism.

We rejoice to find that the first reading of the Bill
introduced by the Hon. Gentleman the Member for
Stroud was last night carried by so decisive a majority,
and that the Premier and the Home Secretary were
induced to abandon what could only be regarded as
an ungracious opposition. No Member of the House,
of any party has devoted himself more zealously
and indefatigably to supply the wants and to ame-
liorate the condition of the Irish nation than Mr.
POULBTT SCaOPE. In and out of Parliament, by
his speeches; and by his writings, he has endeavoured
to point out the evils by which its industry is
paralysed, and to provide fitting remedies. He has
accumulated a vast body of information, and he is
enabled to afford sound instruction to the House on
every question in any degree relating to Ireland. It
is due to such a man to listen to his propositions, and
to give a calm and attentive consideration to his
suggestions. The ordinary courtesy of permitting
the question of the first reading to pass
almost sub silentio should not be withheld,
and it was doubly incumbent on the Government
not to have adopted a course so invidious when the
Honourable Gentleman had waived his undoubted
right, and granted a priority to the adjourned dis-
cussion on the Rate in Aid Bill, in order that the
House might come to a decision on the principle of
the measure before the Easter recess. He was there-
fore precluded from stating full; the details of his ,
plan, and of enteririgliitoa vindication of its grin- I
ciple. The Irish question
not so simple or so
new
easily unravelled, that every
su
rejected. The industry and estion can be
applicationstt of Mr.
would
SCROPE afford a fair promise that
oue
of notice will be brought forward, and it"rig
worthybe
indeed unwise to reject the proposition before its
nature or provisions were accurately known.

Mr. John Wood, Chairma❑ of the Board of Inland
Revenue, had an interview with the Chancellor of the
Exchequer yesterday, at his official residence in Down-
ing-street.