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

TI-114:1 SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 1841.

real, 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 Ribernianamieissimam,
ob Chartistas et Combinatores in melius versos,
Legislator, Liberator, Sospitatur urbium, Pater
patrite. I have the honour, &c.,
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 are happy to be enabled to lay before our
readers a document of great value on the opposite side
of the question.
In 1829 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 reaction has been so
strong and effective, that aoy 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 ive manner
the impolicy 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 Churcb." 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 roligious liberty, would do
well to digest and apply. They observe—" Extensive
religious corubinatiocs to effect a political object, are, in
the opinion of the Committee, always dangerous." `• All
religious despotism commences by combinations and
influence, and when that influence begins to operate
upon the 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 minister
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 Com.
mittee), made the following Report :
The Committee to whom was recerred the several peti-
tions on the subject of mails on the Sabbath, or the first
day of the week,

knowledge and judgment in all the concerns of that depart.
meet will not be questioned. His intense labours and assi-
duity have resulted in the highest improvement of every
branch of his department. It is practised only on the great
leading mail routes, and such others as are necessary to
maintain their connexions. To prevent this would, in the
opinion of the Committee, be productive of immense injury,
both in its commercial, political, and in its moral bearings.
The various departments of Government require, fre-
quently in peace, always in war, the speediest intercourse
with the remotest parts of the country; and one impor-
tant object of the mail establishment is to furnish the
greatest and most economical facilities for such intercourse.
The delay of the mails one whole day in seven would re-
quire the employment of special expresses at great ex-
pense, and sometimes with great uncertainty.
The con- mercial, manufacturing, and agricultural in-
terests of our country are so intimately connected, as to
require a constant and the most expeditious correspond-
ence betwixt our seaports, and betwixt them and the most
interior settlements. The delay of the mails during the
Sunday would give occasion to the employment of private
expresses to such an amount, that probably ten riders
would be employed where one mail stage is now running
on that day, thus directing the revenue of that department
into another channel, and sinking the establishment into a
state of pusillanimity incompatible with the dignity of the
Government of which it is a department.
Passengers in the mail-stages, if the mails are not per-
mitted to proceed on Sunday, will be expected to spend that
day at a tavern upon the road, generally under circum-
stances not friendly to devotion, and at an expense which
many are but poorly able to encounter. To obviate these
difficultie., many will employ extra carriages for their con-
veyance, and become the bearers of correspondence, as
more expeditious than the mail. The stage proprietors
will themselves often furnish the travellers with those means
of conveyance, so that the effect will ultimately only stop
the mail, while the vehicle which conveys it will continue,
and its passengers become the special messengers for con.
veying a considerable proportion of what would otherwise
constitute the contents of the mail.
Nor can the Committee discover where the system could
consistently end. If the observance of a holiday becomes
incorporated in our institutions, shall we not forbid the
movement of an army, prohibit an assault in time of war,
and lay an injunction upon our naval officers to lie in the
wind while upon the ocean upon that day ? Consistency
would seem to require it. Nor is it certain that we should
stop here. If the principle is once established, that reli-
gion or religious observances shall be interwoven with our
Legislative Acts, we must pursue it to its ultimatum. We
shall, if consistent, provide for the erection of edifices for
the worship of the Creator, and for the support of Chris-
tian ministers, if we believe such measures will promote
the interests of Christianity. It is the settled couviction
of the Committee, that the only method of avoiding these
consequences, with their attendant train of evils, is to ad-
here strictly to the spirit of the Constitution, which regards
the general government in no other light than that of a
civil institution, wholly destitute of religious authority.
What other nations call religious toleration we call
religious rights. They are not exercised in virtue of
Government indulgence, but as rights which Govern-
ment cannot deprive any portion of citizens, however
small. Despotic power may invade those rights, but
justice still confirms them. Let the national Legisla-
ture once perform an act which involves the decision of
a religious controversy, and it will have passed its legi-
timate bounds. The precedent will then be established and
the foundation laid for that usurpation of the Divine prero-
gative in this country, which has been the desolating scourge
to the fairest portions of the old world. Our Constitution re
cognises no other power than that of persuasion for enforc-
ing religious observances. Let the professors of Chris-
tianity recommend their religion by deeds of benevolence
—by Chti,tian meekness—by lives of temperance and
holiness. Let them combine their efforts to instruct the
ignorant—to relieve the widow and the orphan—to pro-
mulgate to the world the Gospel of their Saviour, re-
, commending its precepts by their habitual example ; Ge-
, vernment will find its legitimate object in protecting
them. It cannot oppose them, and they will not need
its aid. Their moral influence will then do infinitely
more to advance the true interests of religion than ally
measures which they call on Congress to enact.
The petitioners do not complain of any infringement
upon their own rights. They enjoy all that Christians
; ought to ask at the hand of any Government—protection
from all molestation in the exercise of their religious sen-
timents. _ _

..............
Resolved—That the Committee be discharged from the
further consideration of the subject."

NOTTINGHAM ELECTION.