The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-26 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1846,

When it was originally proposed by the directors
of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway to discon-
tinue Sunday travelling upon that line of communi-
cation between the metropolis of Scotland and the
most populous manufacturing city in the United
Kingdom, we took occasion to condemn that pro-
ceeding in the most emphatic language we could
command. Little time has elapsed since the appear-
ance of that proposition, but it has been sufficient to
enable the public to indicate their opinions upon the
question, and also upon the principle which is in-
volved therein. Scotland is too enlightened to yield
to the delusions of fanaticism, and hence the indi6na-
tion which was expressed by every unprejudiced
journalist has been responded to in a marked
and significant manner by the population
of that portion of the British empire.
It was self-evident that the beard of direc-
tors to any public company, to any company deputed
to promote the advantages and facilitate the inter-
course of the community, was exceeding the powers
entrusted to it by Parliament, in the extraordinary way
above-mentioned. Having been enabled by the Le-
gislature to interfere with individual rights, to cut
through private domains, and to purchase perforce
different portions of private property situated between
Edinburgh and Glasgow, for the purpose of construct
ing their railroad, the directors of this, as of every
similar company, were simultaneously invested with a
responsibility which, by their recent decision against
Sunday travelling, they have not fulfilled. The com-
pany was enabled to carry out its original intentions
solely upon the implied understanding that it would
faithfully perform its duties as an instrument of public
good. It was virtually held responsible, on its in-
corporation, for the continuance under its novel
auspices of all those innocent and lawful advantages
hitherto enjoyed by the localities at its termini. The
mail bags, which had previously been carried by
coaches upon the highway, were to be conveyed hence
forth by the steam-engines of the company. Passen-
gers in like manner were to be granted similar privi-
leges as heretofore upon the new line of transit;
there were to be second and third-class carriages,
instead of the outside places of a stage coach or an
omnibus; there were to be first-class carriages
instead of the inside places of stage coaches;
there were to be luggage trains instead of
carriers, vans, and waggons. It was naturally
expected, indeed, by the community that the Edin-
burgh and Glasgow Railway Company should give
them ample compensation for the loss of those vehi
cies which were removed from the ordinary road by
the arrangements and engagements of that company.
That was the tacit understanding between all the
parties concerned in these transaction 3. It was just
that the population should exact so much : it was the
bounden duty of the company to ensure so much.
Everything has prospered with the Edinburgh an
Glasgow Railway ; the speculation has proved remu-
nerative ; its system has given universal satisfaction;
the board of direction has afforded all reasonable facilities
to the people; the people have reposed every confidence
in the board of direction ; there has been a mutual
cordiality between the company and the public, for
whose benefit the former was instituted. Matters
have continued in this satisfactory condition ever
since the formation of the line, when everything is
suddenly thrown into a state of the most miserable
confusion by the spurious morality and religious fa-
naticism of four sapient, and, doubtless, very excel-
lent individuals. At their instance alone, the usual
means of communication between Edinburgh and
Glasgow is denied to the inhabitants on fifty-two
days in the three hundred and sixty-five. For the
gratification of their own saturnine piety, the thou-
s mds who have toiled from Monday morning to Sa-
turday night, are, on the only day afforded them for
the relaxation of their exhausted bodies, compelled
to remain immured in the unwholesome byways of
the cities,- and are, by that unnatural imprisonment,
incited to debauchery and drunkenness.
It affords us the highest gratification to observe
that the Town Council of Edinburgh has considered
the recent adjudication of the directors sufficiently
important to warrant its particular interference. On the
occasion of the last meeting of the Town Council we
observe that a, long discussion ensued upon the pro-
position of Mr. C. B. TAIT, to the effect that
the city authorities of Edinburgh should, before
Parliament, protest against the tyrannical enactment
of the directors. After a somewhat bitter colloquy
upon, the merits and demerits of the affair, that pro-
Pr,sition was accepted by a majority of thirteen in a
room of twenty-seven. The right of the corporation
of the Scotch capital to interfere in the manner pro-
posed was justly maintained by the Lord Provost
after it had been discredited by one of the Bailies.
The right, indeed, is manifest nay, the
Town Council has not merely a right to
protest, it has a positive duty to perform in uttering
that protestation. By stopping the Sunday trains
more injury is inflicted upon the industrial population,
than that of a simple interference with their conve-
nience. In the prevention of travelling on every
seventh day, the health, the probity, the sobriety,
the very morality of the people are concerned. By
denying the poor artizans their innocent privilege of
beholding Goes creation on the Sunday, of breathing
a pure atmosphere at rare and precious intervals, of
visiting the sick anal dyinga on emergencies, of joining