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

Q3l.t JentaLotiflt

LONDON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1849.

r Three minutes reflection must convince every ra-
tional mind that the indignation expressed by the
Sabbatarians, in regard to the new Post-office regu-
lations, has originated from a total misconception of
those arrangements. It needed not the explanations
of the first Minister of the Crown to demonstrate this
fact, although, considering the annoyance caused by
this preposterous agitation, it is gratifying to hear
the refutation of so many absurdities from the lips,
not only of Lord JOHN RUSSELL himself, but also
from those of the Marquis of CLxlmics....., ...a of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Of the temper of
the deputation which :yesterday waited upon the
Premier at his official residence in Downing-street,
we shall say nothing, beyond this simple observa-
tion, that to our mind there is something
rather unseemly in the " lie direct" given
in vociferous cries of "No, no," to the as-
sertions of the Postmaster-General, that the
measures recently adopted in his department
have bee❑ misunderstood. That the Marquis of CLAN.
RicARDE was quite correct in making that statement
is sufficiently proven by the very fact of the late excite-
ment among the sanctimonious. Why, what ar• the
circumstances of the case ? Here is a new system
of arrangement contrived with great skill by one
of the most distinguished of our public benefactors,
Mr. ROWLAND HILL, the author of the Penny Postage,
here is a system, we say, contrived by him with
singular ingenuity for the express purpose of
diminishing the amount of general labour through-
out the country on Sundays. And no sooner are
these new regulations announced than these
eminently moral wiseacres, the Sabbatarians, without
pausing one moment to reflect, without waiting for
any elucidation, without knowing a single tittle of
the proceedings, rise up in a paroxysm of religious
stupidity and make the welkin ring with their yells
against Sabbath desecration. Sabbath desecration !
Why, the new regulations have been proposed for the
express purpose of diminishing what you are pleased
to call Sabbath desecration. The arrangements ad-
ventured upon by the authorities at St. Martin's-le-
Grand have originated not less from a solicitude to
prevent the continuance of great evils to a large
portion of the community, than from a de-
sire to decrease those labours on the Sunday,
which you are pleased to designate Sabbath
desecration. The plan against which you are
bellowing with such very Christian meekness and
suavity will—effect what changes ? It will add
twenty five more clerks to those already engaged at
the General Post-office in Sunday occupations—while,
at the same time, it will release from all Sunday
labours twe thousand others at present occupied
throughout the provinces. The matter, therefore is
reduced to a consideration of the difference between
twenty five and two thousand. Surely the question is
of a sufficiently comprehensible simplicity ? But,
no. The sticklers for the " bitter" observance of
what they call the Sabbath are blind to a demonstra-
tion as visible as the heavens at noonday—are deaf to
an argument as brief and lucid as a syllogism. They
set posters in every shop window calling down abuse
on a Godless Government. They get up meetings
for the noisy and the sanctimonious. They chalk
upon the walls maledictions dedicating all who do
not co-operate in their wretched movement to the
sudden death caused by that modern plague the
cholera.* They " split the ears of the groundlings"
with their most obstreperous morality, and at last
must needs carry their, ideal grievances up to the
leaders of the Government. Both the Prime
Minister and the Postmaster-General were most
generously pleased to avow that, although they differed
entirely with the reasoning of these malcontents,
they nevertheless regarded with respect the feelings
in which their remonstrances had originated. Now
we must candidly acknowledge at once that we do
not at all participate in this sentiment of respect.
Anything so gratuitously meddlesome, so intolerably
opaque, so ostentatiously pious, is calculated to elicit
any feelings rather than those of respect from
ourselves.

We should like vastly to know if, in the opinion of
the Sabbatarians, the observance of religion is to be
regulated according to the locality—other wise their
conduct is altogether inexplicable. They remain,
for instance, in an attitude of exemplary
patience so long as the post-office clerks are
labouring in the provincial offices on Sundays. But
directly it is proposed to increase the number of
clerks so engaged in London, they are violent and
vociferous in their remonstrances. Are the souls of
the provincial clerks of no account, while the souls of
the metropolitan clerks are of superlative importance ?
Again, we should be gratified to know whether or

* A fact visible in Pimlico; and one we think not
unworthy the attention of the police.