The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-12 00:00:00

SUNDAY LABOUR AT THE POST-
OFFICE.—INTENTIONS of the GOVERNMENT.

A very influential deputation, rfpresentiog all
classes, from all parts of the metropolis, waited yes.
terday, by appointment, on Lord John Russell, at the
Treasury, Downing-street, to convey to his Lordship,
and the Government of which he is the head, the re-
monstrances made at numerous public meetings
against the proposed plan to forward country letters
through the London Post• of on Sundays.
There were present at the deputation :—The Lord
Mayor, the Bishop of London, Mr. W. Cotton, R. C
L. Bevan, Esq., Mr. Fowles, J. D. Paul, Strand,
banker ; Rev. Robert Bickersteth, incumbent of St.
John's Church, Clapham; Rev. John Phillip Gill, St.
Mary's, Bryanston-square ; Rev. J. T. Baylee, Dr.
Greville, Edinburgh, secretary or the Scottish Sab-
bath Alliance;
_Mr. Alderman Challis; Mr. Alderman
Sidney ; Rev. Daniel Wilson, vicar of Islington ;
Rev. Charles Baring, rector of All Souls (and the
churchwardens), Marylebone; Joseph 'Wilson, Esq.,
John Masterman, Esq. ; Rev. John Hambleton,
minister of the Chapel of Ease, Islington; Daniel
Hazard, Esq.; and Robert Atkinson, Esq., church.
wardens of Islington ' • Charles Pat, Esq., Thomas
B. SimpsOn, Esq , J. H. Shears, Esq., E. Palmer,
Esq., and D. Couty, Esq., of the borough of South-
wark.- •

The deputation were received in the library, at the
Treasury, at one o'clock, by Lord John itussell, who
was accompanied on the occasion by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer and the Marquis of Clanricarde, Post-
master-General..

The LORD MAYOR then, addressing his Lordship,
said :—My Lord John Russell, you are no doubt
aware that we have come here to prom t you, as the
head of the Government, with a nienber of petitions,
very numerously signed and agreed to at various pub-
lic meetings, held in the city of London, in West-
minster, in Southwark, in Marylebone, in Islington,
and in various churches and chapels, the names of
which his Lordship recapitulated, and also introduced
to his Lordship the various members of the deputa-
tion. His Lordship then continued—l can only state,
so far as regards this deputation, that if we were not
convinced it would be more convenient to your Lord-
ship to receive a small deputation, I am sure
the city of London would have come here
en masse; and so far as I am myself
concerned, I hope you will permit me to say that it
would have been much more gratifying to me, as it
respects your Lordship, if I bad come here with a
memorial of congratulation rather than with a petition
of remonstrance. But I can assure your Lordship
that this petition has not been occasioned by the
slightest degree of party feeling--(" Hear, hear,"
from the other members of the deputation)—and
further, as I have been connected with meetings held
in London for many years past, I can assure your
Lordship that I never saw a meeting more unanimous
in every respect. There was but one feeling evinced
—of regret at the measure being proposed—and a
sincere hope expressed that your Lordship would put
a stop to it. It is not necessary for me to call your
Lordship's attention to the serious inconvenience of
putting in motion a great commercial community
like that of the city of London. I know your Lord-
ship will tell me that you do not intend to do that ;
but your Lordship will allow me to say that, if tl.e
nature of the new regulations be such as to allow of
parties in the country receiving communications,
which the citizens of London do not obtain, it must
ultimately lead toithe opening of the Post-office in
this great commercial community. Then we see that no
parties are calling for this measure. No part of the
country has called for the opening of the London
Post-office, and, therefore, we think that any question
of revenue, if any revenue is expected to be derived
from it, ought not to be put in competition with the
sacred obligations which we all of us owe to preserve
inviolate the Sabbath-day.—(Hear, hear.) lam
sure it must be unnecessary to urge this upon your
Lordship's attention, for I know that you have taken
this step only from a sense of public duty; but when
you see the feeling, not only in London, but through-
out the coutry which this measure has evoked, I know
your Lordship will consider whether any small ad-
vantage of this sort that may be gained by the mea-
sure is to be set against the strong and earnest feeling
of the country that has been arrayed against it. I
do not know that it is necessary for me to say more;
there arc other friends who have felt it their duty to
attend here, and who will no doubt strengthen and
confirm my observations; and I have only to repeat
my convict:on, not -only from what bas taken place
Derore your Lurusrap, nut from all I have heard—ana
I have heard a great deal on the subject—that the
general feeling of the country is decidedly against the
measure, and that, if time permitted, or if it was
not thought that your Lordship would kindly listen
to the prayer of these memorials, I am quite sure the
feeling would not stop in London, but would spread
all over the country.
• The Bishop of LONDON (who was heard most in-
distinctly by the reporter) said he had never in the
course of his experience seen so perfect a unanimity
of public feeling on any great question as had been
exhibited on this Post. office measure. As the bishop
of-the diocese, he implored his Lordship not to press
the contemplated measure, which he was convinced
from the bottom of his heart must lead to the most
injurious results in reference to the religious character
of the country. He entreated his Lordship not to
give it his final sanction. He thought some delay
might take place for consideration, and in orderthat the
general feeling of the country might be fully ascer-
tained. He was satisfied, from what had already
taken place on the question of the proposed Post-
office measure, that the universality of feeling which
had been shown wherever the subject was discussed
would fall far short of the expression of feeling that
would take place if the object were not abandoned.
He had paid great attention to the subject of the ob-
servance of the Sabbath, and had watched with great
anxiety the improved feeling that had grown up in
reference to cessation of labour on the Lord's-day,
and his fear was that this improved feeling would be
driven back by the proposed measure, and he there-
fore earnestly entreated his Lordship to listen to the
memorials that had been presented to him.
Mr. Masreemax, M.P., had great pleasure in
accompanying the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of
London ou this occasion. He believed the feeling of
the whole community was unanimous against the
Post-office measure, and he earnestly hoped his
Lordship would not let the statement go forth that it
was to be persisted in, and so stir up the feelings of
the whole community upon a subject which they
considered involved the desecration of the Sabbath.
No person had asked for the proposed alteration, and
as to the excuse that it would relieve a few country
post-offices, and that it would be throwing much oft
one, and less on the other, he for himself would advo-
cate the total cessation of post-office duties through-
out the country on the Sunday.—(Hear.)
A Member of the Deputation had obtained some
returns of the difference which the proposed plan
would make in the hours during which the Post-
office people in the country were and would be em-
ployed on the Sunday. lie found that in Buckingham
the postmaster was employed eight hours ; under the
new regulations he would be employed &so eight
hours. In Chester the time was 15 hours, under the
proposed plan it would be 14 hours. At Coventry it
was 13 hours, and would be 10 ; at Dover six hours
and it would still be the same ; in Hereford 18 hours,
which time would be reduced to 10 ; at Norwich 12l
hours, and the same time would still be required ; at
Rochester 14 hours, which would not be decreased.
He thought these facts proved that the amount of
relief to be afforded to the country postmasters would
be extremely small, and not sufficient to justify, if
such a consideration could justify, a breach of prin-
ciple. The question was, whether a total cessation
of Sunday labour at the Post office might not be
seeured.—(Hear.) He had been with Mr. Rowland
Hill on the subject, and that gentleman admitted to
him that it was possible to adopt arrangements for
effecting it.
Mr. POWLES said that the communication with
Paris was now nearer to us in a commercial sense
than Liverpool was 40 years ago. The United States
could be communicated with in one-half the time,
and we had four communications during the month ;
the West Indies and a large portion of South
America could be reached in half the time it formerly
Was, and we had now two communications in the
month with those places ; the East Indies were
communicated with in one-third of the time occupied
thirty or forty years since ; and the Mediterranean,
Spain, and Portugal in half the time. All our large',
towns had four deliveries per day—two from London,
and two from other parts ; and he must say that,
with the increased facilities of communication, there
was no pretence whatever of keeping the London
Post-office open on the Lord's day. Ile was a short
time since in one of the northern towns, where an
eminent merchant :aid to him, " We have no peace
for the arrivals and departures of the mails. We
have four deliveries every day; and no sooner is one
post dispatched, than another arrives." And he (Mr.
Powles) took the liberty of saying, as a merchant of
this city, that with the frequency of post-office com-
munication now enjoyed, the proposition of opening
the General Post-office on the Sundays, and, in fact,
saying that men of business ehoul I not be at rest for
twenty-four hours, was not a tenable one.
. Mr. COTTON, late Governor of the Bank of Eng-
. land, had communicated with all classes of people on