The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-26 00:00:00

--
DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND AND
THE SCOTTISH CENTRAL RAILWAY.
(From the Icotsman.)
The Agnewite outrage at Perth has, as we ex-
pected, drawn from the public and the public
organs a prompt expression of contempt and in-
dignation ; and subject for contempt and indig-
nation, not only as regards the railway officials,
but the national name, will the affair remain
for many a day. The secretary, it is true,
has come forward with an " explanation," but one
which does not in the least spoil the affair, but leaves
it Much as it stood—a hideous illustration of the
folly, hypocrisy, and oppression of which the Agnew-
ites are the authors, and of which the Scottish Central
Company, against their will and their votes, have
been tricked into being the instruments.
All that the secretary denies is, that he was the
man that interdicted the Duchess—all that he makes
dubious is, the question how her Grace should not
have been timeously aware of the preposterous and ty-
rannical regulations. The fact still remains that the
Duchess, bent on a pious and imperative errand,
besought to gat on along with the mail bags, and
was refused. The secretary indeed obscures, but
does not deny, that the nature of the errand
was *own to his subordinates. He says, " I
am sure no one connected with the railway would
have refused to facilitate her Grace's journey by
lirry means possible, had the circumstances attend-
-iffg it been made known to them ;" but he at the same
time admits that " the train was stopped" while the
Duchess's entreaties were being communicated to one
or mere of the officials, and that on his own return
Wit er the departure of the train he "learned the very
pressing nature of her Grace's journey." Of course
he cannot mean us to understand that the Duchess
was careful to give no intimation of her errand
while entreating to be allowed to pass on, but post-
poned it for a message to be delivered to the secre-
tary after the train and she were off in different
directions. The thing is impossible. What the
secretary says about a message on Saturday, and his
recommendation of the Edinburgh and Northern
train are also somewhat difficult to understand, and
are likely to remain so, unless, which is not likely in
the afflicting circumstances, some explanation should
come from the other party. It is easy, however,
to imagine several reasons why the Duchess
could not take the Edinburgh and Northern train.
For instance, Edinburgh is not the way from
Perth to Carlisle, but fifty miles out of the way ;
and, as her Grace could not have reached Edinburgh
in time for the morning train to Carlisle by the
Caledonian, the result of her coming to Edinburgh by
the route suggested by the secretary would simply have
been that she would have been forced to remain
stationary for the whole day in this city, no nearer
her destination than if she had remained at Perth.
The effect of the secretary's explanation, in fine,
leaves untouched the disgraceful and damning fact
that her Grace, bent on an errand of religion and
mercy, was refused a passage along with the mail
bags; and, worse still, that this is the silly and
tyrannical system on which this public company at
present acts to all classes and in all cases.

- It will be impracticable for us all to go, like the
Duchess, with our prayers and our money to the
railway platform and tell our pitiful stories, without
any notion of what mercy we have to expect—learning
the "day's disaster only in the secretary's morning
face. Let our masters be merciless, but let them
have some method in it. . . . Both the necessity
pf some fixed rules on their parts, and the hypocrisy
of the regrets and professions put forth by the Ag-
newite organs in the case of the Duchess, are
obvious from the fact that the Agnewites have
up to this time been loud in declaring that
such a case as the Duchess's is not a case
of necessity or mercy. Did not their great leader
in the west, Mr. Campbell, of Tillicbewan, declare
in his place in the Glasgow Town-council, that
for a child to travel en Sunday to receive his pa-
rent's dying breath was an iniquity to be forcibly pre-
vented here and fearfully punished hereafter ? Did
not their great champion in the east, Mr. Makgill
Crichton, repeatedly declare in public that he would
deem it a heinous sin to travel on Sunday to be
present in the dying moments of his dearest child?
And have not these atrocious sentiments been openly
adopted by many more of the sect, and repudiated by
not one ? Then why is it that all of a sudden they
now rush forward crying that to go to a parent's or
ah ild's deathbed is a lawful Sunday act, and ought not
to be prevented by their tools ? A change so marvel-
lously sudden and so eagerly avowed must have a
powerful moving cause. And so it has.
The cause of the wonderful change of opinion and
*one on the part of the Agnewites is simply this, that
.they happen " indiscreetly" to have exemplified their
presumptuous folly and tyranny in the person of a
Duchess. There is no getting over that fact. Will
they pretend to say that what was inflicted on Sunday
week on the Duchess, anirhas made such a noise, must
not, in the nature of things, be inflicted every Sun-
day on thousands of others whose position does not
favour or allow any publicity at all ? The matter is to
a great extent one of simple arithmetic. There are only
about a dozen duchesses in the empire—there is a po-
puktion of common folks to the amount of thirty
mirrions. What happens once to a duchess, there-
fore, will happen 2,500,000 times to other people.
Bat our Agnewites remain inflexible at the afflictions
of the two millions and a half, and pour out tender
apologies and regrets for the afflictions of a single
duchess. Out upon them, Scribes and Pharisees !
especially those who unite both callings .....
It is impossible that in this country it can long be
borne that the trustees of the highway shall either
shut it entirely up at their own discretion for twenty-
four hours, or open it only to such passengers as have
errands that please them. It is a matter in which the
Legislature must ultimately decide, for one board of
directors, such as that at Perth, have the power not
only of shutting up the inhabitants of :their own dis-
trict, but of breaking off the communication between
north and south, and east and west. We shall have
a patch shut here, and another open there, according
as may suit the hair-brained zeal of Campbells of
Momple, or the personal and directorial intrigues of
Peter Blackburns. This is absurd and intolerable.

Since the English papers have at last taken up the
question so well, we cannot refrain from adding that
it is a debt they owe us, having laughed at us in the
case of the Edinburgh and Glasgow, to let the Eng-
lish public know that that those Scotch railways which
are kept closed on Sunday are so kept, not in accord-
ance with Scotch public opinion, but by the tricks of
a small but organized and active clique. And we do
not know if our English contemporaries could better
begin this work than by reprinting the following in-
structive circular now being circulated by the Ag-
newites among " safe hands," which of course accounts
for its finding its way to ours :

[Private and Confidential.]
OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.
SCOTTISH CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Sir,--We would respectfully urge ,upon you the
necessity of making an effort to strengthen the Sab •
bath cause, at the present time, in the Scottish Cen-
tral Railway.
There is every proabability that a proposal will
shortly be made to ruts mail trains, with passengers,
en the Lord's-day ; and in order to meet this, and to
maintain the existing arrangements, whereby there
has been no travelling on the line on the Sabbath
sinee it was opened, the friends of the cause are required
to redouble their exertions.

We would, therefore, particularly request of you to
purehase shares in the company, and to use your
Nine-nee with other supporters of the Sabbath to do
Me same without loss of time. The stock is at pre-
sent very low (23/. per share of 251.), and, therefore,
offers considerable inducement as an investment, there
being every prospect, according to the statement made
at tine Past meeting, of the arrangement being sanc-
tioned which has been completed with the four com-
panies—the London and North-Western, Lancaster
and Carlisle, Caledonian, and Edinburgh and Glasgow
and Carlisle, Caledonian, and Edinburgh and Glasgow
—securing a guaranteed dividend of seven per cent.
or 355. per share. Ten shares give ten votes, and sixty
shares twenty votes.

Much good might also result from yourbrinefing
such
the subject, by letter or otherwise, beforethe
shareholders and directors with whom you may
acquainted ; showing them, in the light of bod's
Word, and of past history, that the permanence and
stability of all that is most valuable in the land are
dependent upon the preservation of our Scottish
Sabbaths; and reminding them that, according to
the Act of Parliament, if the running of trains be
once commenced, it will be impossible to limit the
number of passengers.
We plead the extreme importance of the matter at
the present moment as our apology for pressing it on
your notice, in the name of the shareholders who
the supported
the resolution moved and seconded by us at
February meeting.—We are, Sir, yours faith-
fully,

ALEX. CAMPBELL, Monzie.
GEORGE F. BARBOUR, Edinburgh.
Sept. 13, 1848.
Any communications on the subject may be ad-
dressed to N 0.12, George's-square, Edinburgh.
This epiatl6 needs no explanation. It is the mani-
festo of an organization formed to swamp the bona
fide constituency of this and other Scotch railways—
to obtain votes in the company, not for profit or busi-
ness, but in order to enforce on the public by corn_
wlsion certain theological observances. Let our
English contemporaries mark and tell that in the only
Scotch company (the Edinburgh and Glasgow)
where the question has been agitated and decided
against Sunday trains, the so-called victory was
gained only by this means—by a most extensive sys-
tem of purchasing and splitting with a sole view to
one side of this question—and that, even after the
Agnewites had been spending their money and
strength for months, there was still a majority of
Scotch shares in favour of trains. Let them tell that
since then, the Scotch shareholders of all the