The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-16 00:00:00

mal, and characterise such useless opposition as
deserving but ill of Ireland. O'Connell should
be upheld as the grand pensionary, the first
gentleman of Europe,—in lapidary style thus :
Ob Canadas servatas, ob Hibernian amicissimam,
ob Chartistas et Combinatores in melius versos,
Legislator, Liberator, Sospitatur urbium, Pater
patrim. I have the honour, Scc.,

April 10, 1841.

ARGENT.

STOPPAGE OF THE MAILS ON

SUNDAY.

(From the Scotsman.)
At a time when so much is said by many weak but
well-meaning persons in favour of stopping the mails on
Sundays, we arc happy to be enabled to lay before our
readers a document of great value on the opposite side
of the question.

In l 8 9 a system of petitioning similar to that which
now exists in this country was got up in the United
States of America, praying that the running of Sunday
mails might be stopped by Legislative interference. The
petitioners were so numerous and influential that the
Senate of the United States appointed a Committee to
report on the subject. This report we now reprint
entire. We understand it produced so great an im-
pression in America that the mouths of the agitators
were completely stopped, and the public feeling turned
in the opposite direction. The reamion has been so
strong and effective, that any person now advocating
the stoppage of Sunday mails in America would be
considered unfit to be reasoned with. The disciples
of Sir Andrew Agnew would do well to consider
this able and candid report with that care and at-
tention which a subject of so much importance
demands. It appears to us to exhaust the
question, and to prove in the most conclu.ivc manner
the irnpolicy and injustice of civil rulers interfeing with
matters of religion, except to protect the rights of
conscience.

Much of the report, although written with reference
to this particular question only, applies with equal force
and truth to the attempts now making by the Scotch
clergy to resist the law, and establish an ecclesiastical
despotism, by exalting themselves above the civil power,
or, as they are pleased to express it, "by establishing
the independence of the Church." The American se-
nators inculcate views bearing on this question which
such of our senators as have any pretensions to be' con-
sidered friends of civil and religious liberty, wouli do
well to digest and apply. They observe—" Extensive
religious combinations to effect a political object, are, in
the opinion of the Committee, always dangerous." `• AH
religious despotism commences by combinations and
influence, and when that influence begins to operate
upon ti:e political institutions of a country, the
civil power soon bends under it, and the catas-
trophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of
the consequences." These sentiments, and the report
generally, will, we have no doubt, produce a powerful
impression in this country, as it did in America when
first published. The members of Government should
watch with great jealousy the Judaizing, intolerant spi-
rit, which would force on a reluctant community the
stoppage of the mails on Sunday, in order to minivtor
to the Pharisaical spirit manifested by a comparatively
small portion of the Scotch clergy and their creatures:.
If the mails be stopped or in any way impeded in Scot-
land, on the ground contended for—that it is a viola-
tion of the law of God—surely the same rule should be
applied to other parts of the empire ; for what is sinful
in Scotland cannot be sinless in England. We suspect
the Government have already yielded too much to the
demands of these zealots. They would do well to re-
consider the question in all its magnitude, before taking
any other steps on the subject.

In the Senate of the United States, January 19,
1829, Mr. Johnson. of Kentucky (Chairman of the Corn.
mittee), made the following Report :
The Committee to whom was rererred the several peti-
tions on the hubject of mails on the Sabbath, or the first
day of the week,