The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-17 00:00:00

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
BRADFORD REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—On Wednesday the 12th, was the discussion
on Mr. Ilindley's Sunday Trading Bill for, the metro-
polis. The proceedings were interesting as demon-
strating a marked progress of opinion on the subject
concerned, and holding out the prospect of union on a
point where fierce and clashing interests were very
likely at some time to lead to dangerous results.
With the exception of a single Member, who of
course was received with the same respect as if he
had stood up for the necessity of the Jewish rite
of circumcision, there was an absolute withdrawal
of all pretension to legislate on the question as
making part of the national religion. The truth has
evidently penetrated, that instead of coercive legisla-
tion being dictated by the national religion, it is in
the teeth of the literal directions of the rule appealed
to, and like other invasions of the literal rule, such as
judicial oaths, taking care for the morrow in a sav-
ings-hank, defending an action at nisi pries, or
applying to a policeman instead of holding out the
other cheek, it must be excused on the ground that
there must have been some local or partial applica-
tion in the original direction, and that the regulations
found conducive to the welfare of society in its pre-
sent state, would not have been opposed by the law-
giver if they had been distinctly in his eye.
In fact in all these cases the groat solvent is, that
the spirit rather than the letter of the scriptural rule is
to be kept in view. Now there can be no reasonable
denial that sabbath-keeping and not sabbath-breaking
is what is distinctly forbidden to Christians; and the
orderly-book is there to prove it. But it does not abso-
lutely follow, that if Christian men in the present age
find a public convenience in legislating for the cessa-
tion of trade and traffic one day in the week, it is con-
trary to the duty of a Christian Legislature to pass
enactments with that tendency, or that a reasonable
plea could be set up for excluding Mr. Ifindley and
those who vote with him from their
seats in Parliament, on the ground of
apostatizing from that " true faith of a Christian"
which is the present guardian of access to those
benches. This would be excessive ; and there must
be a liberty. But at the same time nothing is
clearer, than that the legislation is excusable on the
ground of public convenience only, and not a jot fur-
ther ; and that if any man is detected trying to ad-
vance anti-christian tenets under false colours, he
ought to be exposed to public odium like other would-
be deceivers. A man has a right to maintain any
tenets he likes, but not to advance them under false
pretences. And if this should be attempted, in the
present temper of the times, it will end as in the case
of another notable experiment which history presents.
It will give no pain to the intelligent members of
a Church which had once a greater number of fol-
lowers in this country than at present, to assume that
an ancient establishment in the plenitude of its power did
at one time carry its interference with men s secular
concerns to an extent which was almost necessarily
followed by reaction. Friday, not Sunday, was the
day it seemed to fix upon ; and great were the gri-
maces of our beef-eating ancestors, at the way in
which the spiritual power insisted on interfering
with the spit and with the pot, on that and other days
of its appointment. For a long time the rule went
on, and the hungry objectors consented to resist under
the stigmas of impiety and bad citizenship; and the
Sir Andrew Agnew of that day if such there
were, would probably have thought he did heaven
service by introducing a Bill with a preamble saying,
" Forasmuch as abstinence from flesh on Fridays is
an essential part of the true service of God." But
look to the end. As knowledge progressed, and as
the burthen of the imposition increased, men be-
thought themselves of looking into the orderly-book;
and though they did not find there a prohibition
against allowing any man to trouble them on the
subject of observing Fridays (as is the literal trans-
cript of the order in the other case), they found
what they conceived an absence of authority for the
imposition, which ended in a decided breach, extend-
ing to matters of greater ostensible import.
Here then the case stands. There is no more
authority in the Christian Scriptures for stopping
men's following their callings on one day of the week
than for fasting on another ; on the contrary, there is
a literal prohibition of the principle on which the first
has been supported, and nothing like it in the case of
the other. Tradition too, which is worth something
though not everything in this case as well as any
other, is all the other way. There is not the slightest
trace of the early Christians attaching any idea of
sabbatical observance to the first day of the week.
They held meetings on it for religious and charitable
purposes; and they made a festival of it, as is con-
firmed by the display to this day of a tendency to a
pudding on Sundays, and by the fact that even in the
apostolic age their meetings of a mingled social and
religious nature were not free from occasions
for rebuke on the score of temperance. The
sixth day of the week, as being the day of the
crucifixion, and not the first, was their day for
mortification and interruption of ordinary:enjoyments ;
and to this hour the tokens may be seen in Catholic
countries, in the Tendredi I?elache (Friday no per-_
formanee), which or its equivalent appears on that
day on all theatres. The early Protestants also
entered their protest against the imposition of the
Jewish rule; and those who visit the Brielsh Museum
may see it in the Confession of Augsburg (A.D.
1530), in perhaps the very copy which was thumbed
by hands that afterwards went to the stake upon the
same quarrel. Luther is known to have made a
point of buying something on the Sunday, or other-
wise snaking demonstration of what he called his
Christian liberty ; on the same principle that an "old
Christian" of Castile thinks it a duty to exhibit
pork at table as evidence of his freedom from
Jewish taint. The Church of England followed the
German confessors ; as is shown by the fact that in
her catechism, though evidently not indisposed to as-
sist in the good government of the numerous classes,
she makes no attempt to enforce the duty of any kind
of sabbatical observance from the Fourth Command-
ment, any snore than to enforce the making of no
likeness of anything in heaven or earth, which large
masses of mankind at this hour have derived from
the second. Her most eminent men, such as Paley,
Arnold, and Whateley, have taken the same side; and
there would actually be about as much chance for men
standing up in Parliament to declare the religious
duty of returning to the Jewish rite of circum-
cision, as for taking a similar course in the present
instance. Both the learned and the vulgar know
better ; if there was a mistake once, there is none
now ; and legislation must be upon our own reading,
not the reading of our predecessors.
The question then, finally stands thus. If there
is to be a consent to legislate upon the principles of
public convenience and general expediency, includ-
ing therein a due regard for the habits and feelings
of the nmjority, then peace. But if there is to be
an attempt to exercise or perpetuate restrictions
with
contrary tendencies, and particularly if there is to
be any inroad on the opportunities of the working
classes to apply their leisure to the attainment of
generalke
nowledget andhe r wholesomeand Nvi
th
or
rie ved
the
prying
l'ullc ontirecreation,der c oe fn
-
the same result. Stout esquires and rural members
of parliament, who feel themselves
likely to be, as their fathers wetreeiery
ithagkitchens on a
of the religious authorities into h
instead of consenting to carreh'eing
Friday, had much better do as telnseitrhefa
bad Christians,
imputation of impietyl; and Nthvaerrsunddider and
o
tu d
once,
aenod-
logical, to look into the
is not as contrary to what
pluck up resolution, atheeit
see if what disturbs orderly-bookno t ggiven
t°
Sat
fathers of good appetite made
than anything
t' ously rejecting. A further reason.
is written there,
theirand in reality vastly more contrary,
a merit of conscientiously
ate, is that an organ of the op-
arising
press
those of different religious belief,
put ivcsii-a'crteyth( Standard) avows the object to be to
violence ona , and Romanists."
the Incumbered Estates (*eland)
• On Thursday .
jerYsgeneral disposition to leave the
Committee and
Bill was con
specifically
the
eered reported. The
evinced
voting
beringtaovfethese estates to the ingenuity of
On Friday a long debate on the Public Works
(Ireland) Bill ending in the second reading without
dt;"1 s:riGc
a division.
ouvmernmen
On Saturday the House met at twelve o'clock for
half an hour, and received a report on Ways and
telea3vnosidedA; bfoardiNtYnaay ayofbe
doing
oingbusiness when it can
taken for granted that the
House on such an occasion'will be composed of little
but the Government's men,-and the few over-worked
Members who make a point of always attending.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Ton.dronE,R4OIyNIE7,TIBT4IB-I..OMPSON.
Blackheath, L

THE MAILS.—SOUTUAMPTON, SUNDAY, 'JULY 16.
—The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's ship Avon,
Lieutenant Philip Hast, R.N., commander, will sail on
Monday with the usual British and foreign West India
mails. The Tay, Captain Sharpe, will also sail on
Monday for the West Indies; she is sent out a 3 an
extra ship, to be employed in the intercolonial service.
The Trent, with the homeward West India and Mexican
mails, is due here on the 22d inst. The Tagus, Captain
R. W. Evans, will sail on Monday with the mails for
Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar. The Por-
tuguese steamer Falcao, from Lisbon and Oporto, and
the steamer Tiger, from Vigo and Corunna, both with
oxen, are expected on Monday or Tuesday. The United
States mail steamer Hermann, Captain E. Crabtree, is
expected from Bremen to-night or to-morrow morning;
after taking on board coals, cargo, and passengers, she
will leave co Thursday next for New York. The Penin-
aular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company's ship
Indus, Captain Soy, will take out the East India, China,
and Mediterranean mails of the 20th inst. We have a
communication from the steam-ship Oriental, Captain
Smith, bound for Calcutta, at sea, stating that the ship
had made almiraMe progreo, and that fine weather had
been experienced since leaving Southampton. Steam-
ships in dock:—Avon, Tay, Teviot, Indus, Ilindostan,
Tagus, Euxine, Jupiter, and Pacha.