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

newspapers, his'opinion being that, upon the whole,
there would be great convenience to many parts
of the country by it, and that Sunday duty or labour,
upon the whole, would be diminished ; and upon that
recommendation of his it has been sanctioned, and it
is proposed to be carried into effect. The Postmaster-
General can state better than I can in what way he
considers that will be the case. All 1 can say, then,
is, that I believe the opposition made to this measure
has been founded, not upon misrepresentation—l will
not say that—but upon misapprehension as to the
effect of it; and I own I particularly refer to the
statement made by Mr. Labouchere, which struck me
much at the time, as containing very grave facts which
now turn out to he totally unfounded, as one instance
of those misapprehensions.
Several members of the deputation here asked for a
short delay of the measure.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE —lt is only respectful
'to the deputation that I should say a few words upon
a matter in which they are so greatly interested. I
can assure the deputation there is nobody respects
more deeply than I do the feeling which has given rise
to their coming here to-day. Undoubtedly the sub-
ject has agitated the metropolis strongly; and there-
fore, I assure them, that if I did net think it was
founded upon a misconception of the facts, and a total
ignorance of the real state of the case at issue, I,
for one, would be most anxious to give way to hat
feeling, although my reason might be quite uncon-
vinced by the special arguments used against it. The
fact is, the measure seems to me totally misunder-
stood.—(No, no.) That, at all events, is my opinion.
I agree with Mr. Masterman, it is no answer to these
who ask for a total cessation of the Post-office upon
the Sunday, to urge, for defence, this special plan; but
the cessation of Post-office labour altogether upon
Sundays is a question not competent for the Post-
office or the Government to decide without the inter-
vention of Parliament, because the Act of Parliament
makes it imperative upon the Post-office to forward
letters without delay. Ido not say whether it would
be advisable or not to alter that, or upon the proposi-
tion that is made; but I call attention to the fact that
that was not the question under my consideration.
The question that was under my consideration was,
the general diminution, throughout the country, of
labour in the Post-office upon Sundays. Ido not
wish to complain of anything that has been said
about the Post-office authorities or myself. I know
that a public man, in the execution of a public duty,
is liable to be misunderstood, and to have his
motives misconstrued as well as his acts ; but, at
the same time, I must take the liberty of saying that
there has been more done to lessen the labour of the
department upon Sundays since I have been in office
than was ever done before.—(Hear, hear.) I have
always endeavoured to do it.—(Hear.) Undoubtedly
there has been a great amount of Sunday labour put
a stop to. It has been done as quietly as possible,
and therefore it has attracted little or no attention,
nor indeed was it wished that it should attract attention.
In considering the diminution of Sunday labour, we
found this, practically speaking, would be the effect
of the proposed arrangement. Some gentlemen seem
to disagree in this opinion, but my own experience
bears me out, and I do not think any person who has
gone much about England can differ from me in this
—hat in many instances letters are written not upon
the Saturday, but upon the Sunday, because they
would lie the whole day in the post-office. That, I
must say, is a fact I never heard disputed before. It
is not only demonstrable by returns from the country
post-offices, but it is notorious; and these are nut
merely letters upon mercantile business, but the letters
and correspondence of the public generally. I have
been advised, by the best sources of information within
my reach, that undoubtedly the passing of letters
through London will put estop to a great deal of corre-
spondence on Sunday, that letters will be written
upon Saturday. Thus there will be a great diminu-
tion of letters in the offices on Sunday. All the sur-
veyors in the different districts allude to it as a matter
that will give relief to the offices in their district ; to
some it will be more, and to some it will be less; but,
as I have said, all state it will undoubtedly relieve the
country offices. And it is hardly possible to see how
it can be otherwise. Mr. Baylee has stated that a
certain number of offices would be relieved upon Sun-
day, but that would be for a very few hours. Now,
it is not only the number of hours that are to be taken
into consideration, but the time of it. It is quite
evident that three or four hours' relief, at the time of
divine service, may make a great difference in the
labour of a particular office. But I should say that
the time put by the Rev. Gentleman is much under-
stated. The facts could only have come from the
postmasters, and probably also some from clerks.
What makes me more convinced that there is great
misapprehension as to this measure, is what has been
stated in this room by Mr. Cotton and the Rev. Mr.
Wilson, in reference to the districts of Islington,
Whitt ch vel, and Southwark. 'Why the people
of Islington, or Southwark, or Whitechapel will have
no more increase of business upon Sunday in con-
sequence of this measure than if the letters passed
through the French Post-office. It will not be
felt by any one of them. Talk of opening the Post-
office ! The Post-office is open now, and it will not
be opened one bit the more! There is no question
of principle involved in it in this respect ; but there
is a great question of principle involved in stopping
all the post-offices in the country upon Sunday, as
Mr. Masterman puts it. It is a question whether
twenty-five clerks, as at present, or fifty, shall be em-
ployed ; and when Mr. Bevan says it is important
that men should not be employed who are averse,
upon principle, from Sunday labour, he forgets that
the principle is the same whether the men are em-
ployed one Sunday in five or one Sunday in three.
The hours make no difference. But this is entirely a
matter of detail, and I cannot understand it other-
wise; I can only say that, according to the best re-
ports we can get from all the surveyors, the aggregate
opinion is, that the employment of twenty-five addi-
tional clerks upon Sunday for the same hours as they
are now employed, and no more, will be a great re-
lief. In fact, the hours will not be after nine in the
morning; then again between five and seven; so that
they are quite exclusive of the hours of divine service.
This is our opinion. We may be wrong in point of
fact ; but it is not fair to say we want to desecrate
the Sabbath when we wish to afford a great conve-
nience throughout all the offices in the country.
It is a certain fact that wealthy merchants
have, upon many occasions—l have it from un-
doubted authority—parcels sent express between the
great towns and London for information, because the
post does not go. Surely the post going on those
days, no letters being delivered till Monday morning,
would be no desecration of the Sabbath. This was
intended to be accompanied with other measures that
might probably give rise to considerable discontent in
the towns of the country if no boon such as the pre-
sent were given. I have a list I could read, in oppo-
sition to the list which Mr. Baylee has read, of such
towns in all the districts except one. In some towns
there were two, three, and four deliveries going on
now on Sundays, which will all be reduced to one
single delivery on that day. I say that will be an
immense relief to the letter-carriers in those localities.
We intend to close all the offices from ten to five on
Sunday, except for the actual dispatch of mails,which
it is impossible to prevent; and to abolish Sunday
rural cross posts and some mails which are expressly
kept up on Sundays. There is one post always kept
up between the east and west of England, which runs
on no other day but Sunday. That we shall put a
stop to, but I am told it is impossible to do so without
giving r.ise to great inconvenience and serious loss to
several important interests, unless we allow the mails
to come through London on Sundays. That is a
boon. I say, then, whatever may be the result of this
measure, it was intended to diminish Sunday labour.
lam convinced it will do so. If I thought it would
not I would give way at once ; but I must say, nothing
I have yet heard has at all satisfied me it will not di-
minish Sunday labour.
The Rev. Mr. BAYLEE—The Post-office may be
viewed in two aspects—London and the country ;
the one open and the other shut; but your Lordship
may say that labour is to some extent now carried on
in the metropolis. We admit, however, that, as in
a private, so in a public establishment, the Divine
command requires some labour to be done on that
day ; but now you are about to alter the two aspects
of the Post-office, and instead of altering them so as
to assimilate the country to the metropolis, you alter
them co as, to a small extent, to assimilate the metro-
polis
to the country. That is our ground of opposi-
tion. As to the intricacies of the question, and the
relief said to be afforded to the country, I must con-
fess that these considerations have not altered my
opinion.
Mr. WlLSON—Besides, as to the officials now em-
ployed, if I am rightly informed, the plan of opening
the bags on Sundays was introduced during the time
of the war, when it was of the utmost importance that
Government shculd receive the earliest information.
If I understand rightly, the bags are only opened
now to give their letters to Ministers and the Foreign
Ambassadors, who I think ought to submit to the
postal regulations of this country. We are perfectly
sure, my Lord, that if this measure goes on, the prin-
ciple cannot stop here; it will lead to a general deli-
very upon the Sunday.
The Bishop of LONDON—AIIow me to say one
word. It is said that an imputation has been assigned
to the authorities of the Post-office, that they intend
afterwards to have a delivery of letters in London.
Now I have not heard that imputation anywhere
assigned; but I believe that it will lead to a delivery
of letters in London ; and for this reason, because this
is the commencement of additional labour in the Post-
office for the sake of a small convenience. Your
Lordship may perhaps be aware that, about thirteen
years ago, a design was entertained of opening the
London ost office for a general delivery of letters on
Sunday. I remember that I then took a very active
part in remonstrating against the measure ; and the
design, if it was entertained at that time, was relin-
quished. Therefore, though there may be no into