The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-22 00:00:00

A few years ago a popular preacher was inveighing against
Sabbath desecration in every possible shape. Not a stitch of
work must be done on that day ; not foot moved, except to
church ; not a tongue wagged, e. cept his own. A ride or
drive in the Park, which, by the by, is not quite so general
a crime as the Sabbatarians seem to imagine, was utterly for-
bidden. It made sot only the coachman and the footman,
but even the poor beasts, break the Sabbath. While the
preacher was haranguing inside the chapel there stood outside
between 20 and 30 carriages waiting for his deeply-impressed
bearers. The footmen were assemb.ed at the door of the ad-
joining public-house, and the whole neighbourhood was in an
uproar; 50 horses and the same number of men were breaking
the Sabbath in the most flagrant style. Had anybody ven-
tured to suggest to the preacher to keep his own congrega•
tiou in order-before he put down all the world, he would pro-
bably have replied that he knew liis own business, and wanted
°nobody's advice. Obvious and indefensible as this inconsis-
tency may seem, it is a universal owe. Everybody is for lay-
ing down just those /tiles and admitting just those modifica-
tions that suit his own convenience. The principal bane of
this course is that it ends in a purely negative system. What
this world, and, in particular, this metropolis wants, issomc-
body to tell it what to do, for every stupid fellow can tell it
what it ought not to do.. There ar.t many thousand artisans
living within a mile of St. Paul's, and a good distance from
anything to call a garden or a green field. Of these at least
nineteen out Of twenty go to no place of worship on Sunday,
don't emerge from their musty dens till the middle of the
'day. For our part, we have frequently urged.ou the Legis-
lature the duty of providing plaCes of innocent recreation
for these people,—parks, walks, and pleasure-grounds,—but
that is just what Parliament will not do. It will do no
good, because doing good is a difficult, anxious, responsible
affair, attended with cost, and followed by occ tsional failures.
It will only forbid what it conceives to be harm, for that is
easy and cheap. It acts Ike the parent who never gave five
minutes serious thought as to what to do w.th his child, who
never had . word to say to it of an improving tendency, and
very seldom of a cheering one, and who confines the exercise
of his paternal dominions to scolding, beating, snubbing,
thwarting, silencing, and all the other forms of interdiction.
No. doubt, a parent who never does good will h#Boocasion
enough to forbid what- is wrong. If a man does-not sow good
seed in Lis fields, be will have weeds enough to root up And
we venture to submit that the reason why the British Legis-
lature is so overtasked with the enormous arrears of crime to

be punished and depravity to be reformed is that it will not
do anytaing to instruct and elevate those whom it ultimately
has to riform or chastise. •
As to the particular question and the particular decision of
last night in the Cummons, we have nothing to say against
them. The British Museum as it is, and the National Gallery
as it is, don't seem quite the place for Sunday-edification or
recreation. Of the former we spoke yesterday, and contented
ourselves with advising our country friends not to expect rest
in its half-mile of galleries. As to the National Gallery, it
was obviously never designed for a Sunday exhibition. Gods
and goddesses, mythological stories, and nude figures of all
sorts are not quite proper subjects of contemplation on a holy
day. Moreover, the gallery is so small and stuffy that two
or three hundred people make it intolerable. But we must
be permitted to deprecate and denounce the hypocrisy with
which member after member last night spoke as if a man was
made good, and the day made holy, by shutting up these two
places and as if it wasenough to tell:people some thingswhich
they ought not to do. Moreover; we deprecate this continual
comparison of oup own metropolitan population with that of
the continental capital. What in the world do our legislators see
of the Loudon artisan on the Sunday, er know of his man-
ners and notions, and his haunts and resorts on that day ?
Wo can tell them that he does not spend the day in the
bosom of his family. He does not take his wife on his arm
and lead his children in procession to take a walk in the
fields or on the river-side, for there aro no fields and no river-
side, thanks to the obstinate indiffelemee of Parliament to
these public benefits. The London artisan does not spend the
Sunday in psalm singing, ur in prayer, or in reading the
Bible. Gentlemen who go abroad in the autumn, and inves-
tigate the suburbs of Paris, and Munich, and Vienna, will, of
course, see a great deal of bad taste, and even some bad mo-
rality ; but if they would take a tour tois year through Beth-
nal-green, Spitaltields, Benno edsey, Lambeth, or even the
neighbourhood of the Royal establishments at Chels2a,
Greenwich, Deptford, and Woolwich, so as they use their
eyes and ears properly, they would observe a good deal that
is not in keeping with a sacred day, or even any day. Not
all the prollieitive laws in the world will make a people good;
they only stop certain outward forms and particular develop-
ments of evil. Thby leave the man himself unchanged. But,
whatever the business of the legislator, and whether or not it
be his duty to prohibit, and nothing more, we have certainly
a much larger, more comprehensive, and more generous office
to perform. _ .

We should be sorry to see any new Book of Sports ; but we
wish the 376 members who las' night put their negative on
Sir J. Walmsley's motion would just inform the house how
they spend their Sunday in the country. We believe it to be
a very uniform process. Between services, or after the after-
noon service, they go round their domains with their visitors ;
they measure the shoots on their young plantations; they in-
dicate improvements made or intended; they visit the farm,
look at the cattle and pigs ; thence to the stables, whore
they discuss the respective merits of the sleek occupants,
point out the various new dodges for supplyinr,
the animals with corn, hay, and water ; thou to the kennel,
and set the clogs of all sorts and sizes in full cry ; stop here
and there to enjoy the prospect, or mark a good situation for
a house ; measure the girth and-guess the ages of the trees;
then a tout into the shrubberies, and a. discussion of Deodara
tvi,liCattrtfolekdiKdae6suicaei:_ juSt lo Into the eonserva-
perhaps a visit to the poultry-yard, or OvetranliPs4.
the wine-eel ar may conclude the day. Should the -visitor
fall into the hands of the children there is Master Charley's
flotilla of boats to be reviewed, thO rabbit-hutch to be in-
spected, the experimental garden to be admired. Should
the weather permit a row on the lake, or even an immersion,
is not thought inconsistent with the sane. ity of the day.
Should the visitor request to see the schools, doubtless his
wish will be complied with; and if he should absent himself
from the company to send the afternoon in private devotions,
he will enjoy perfect toleration. But the visible observance
of Sunday is generally such as we have described. The even-
ing is solemnised with quiet talk about affairs in general, and
pieces of music which, occurring in oratorios, are, of course,
sacred. If bon, members would confess the honest truth,
this is a fair account of their Sabbatical observances, over
and above the services of the Church. What wo want them
to do is to enable the artisan to enjoy the like serenity, the
same holy calm, the same contemplation of natural and agree-
ablti objects, the :ame easy transition from one living picture
to another —if it were possible, the same air and scenery, the
same lawns, gardens, woods, meadows, and running streams;
or, Una, at least a green field and a mouthful of fresh air.
If they will do this, it will be a more Christian work, and will
do more good than all the prohitory laws that were ever
made, It will draw the working man from the ginshop, in-
stead of driving him to it, which is the natural result of our
resent Sunday legislation.

(Aoin (he Morning Post.)
We cannot rank ourselves with the one party, who main-

ahi -th.ai--6,ll—ti;e-b;:e-asie-rs—of the law fill the courts of the

police-offices on Monday mornings are the victims of Puri-
tanical Sabbath observances ; or with- the other party, who
would have us believe that, i-f reereation upon the Sunday be
placed within the ♦iew and the reach of the people, the
churches will be left deselatc, and the schools of religion un-
attended. We do not agree quite with the other party. Both

would do mischief if they were allowed to have their own way;
and' both misaprehend, as it seems to us, the true uses of

be Sunday and the intention of its institution. ' But we eon-
'ess we are far more Widely at issue with those who seek, by

restriction carried to extremity, to prod Ice in this country an
observance of the Sunday in spirit and character such as that

which distinguished the Sabbath of the Jews, than with the
patty who originated the motion brought be the
house last night by. Sir Joshua Walmsley. Nothing

can be more unwise—we had ahnost said nothing can be more
insane—than to imagine that real devotional feeling, or true
reverence for the Sunday of the Ch istian Church, can be

created by taking violently from the people all means of re-
creation, by closing the gates of parks of locking the doors of
railway stations. In fact, the carriage of such modes of in-

finence to their legitimate and perfect conclusions would in-
volve the confinement of everybody to their homes, if not to
their beds, for the day:
Entertaining these opinions with regard to the views and
policy of the League, who have their head•quarters in Exeter-
Hall, it may be expected,- perhaps, that we should lend our
aid to the promotion of the objects aimed at by Sir Joshua
Walmsley, and those allied with him. Oa mature considera-
tion, however, we find ourselves compelled—differing, never-
theless, in general views, with a great portion of those who
composed the enormous majority of last night—to range our-
selves among the opponents of the proposition submitted to
the House for throwing open the doors of the British Museum
and the'National Callery upon the afternoons of Sunday. Wo
had no hesitation in opposing the bills so unadvsedly intro-
duced last year, by which new and unaccustomed restrictions
were imposed upon the freedom of action heretofore enjoyed
by the people upon Sunday. We opposed those bills because
they ignored the habits of the people, and disregarded cus-
toms long established and sanctioned by time. Pot the very
same reason we are equally opposed to the proposition of Sir
Joshua Walmsley. What he asks for is not simply ab-
stinence from restrietion, Or even the mere removal of an ob-
s acle found in a particular direction to the legitimate enjoy-
ment of established and existing habits. Did his proposition
inroi'Ve only that much we might be found on his side; but
even at i resent it goes further, and unquestionably in the
development which would ultimately be inevitable, would
lead us, without power of resistance, beyond the boundary
which we deem it right in principle to maintain as a limit to
man's use of the Lord's-nay. At present there is a line of
demarcation fixed by a combination ef law and custom, which
Marks in a manner sufficiently intelligible the extent of
amusement and character of recreation permissible upon the
Sunday. It is recognised that all persons may, without in-
fringement of religious observances on Sundays, seek recrea-
tion in the parks of the metropolis, or in the green fields afar
from it, which rail Ways place within our reach. We rejoice
that it is so. We believe that, taking people for oven half a
circumstances.
been
day in A week out of the bustle, the noise, and the excite-
ment inseparable from the aggregations of multitudes within
the walls of a trading city exercises n beneficial influence on
the 'r minds, and we have had broughtunder our notice many,
turned
yemd whichmtioy,reilnisgtiaonucsescoinnsid men'ss by tshuocuhg ht s
Nor would we on any account have the Legislature interfere
by forcible means to restrict th.; liberty which, in that re-
spect, our urban population now enjoy; but there is estab-
lished and has for a long time existed in this country a broad
ei•ation
line of separation between this use of Sanday and that
which would be involved in , the opening of public places of
amusement. Sir Joshua Walmsley now asks Parliament to
move this line further iu advance, and to bring within its de-
marcation certain institutions established for the amusement,
recreation, and instruction of the nation. Sir Joshua Walms-
ley assured the house that then he should stop, his line should
slide no further; and he proposed rigidly to keep on the
other side of it all institutions marked by the characteristics
of a trading or commercial enterprise. Such may be, and we
will do Sir Joshua Walmsley the justice to believe that such is
his intention ; but, however earnest may be his intention to
take and hold that position, we are positive that he would be
driven beyond it before two sessions of Parliament passesl over
his head, and we cannot doubt that, had it given way last
night, the Legislature would, ere long, have been forced again
to advance the boundary line in order to bring within it the
Crystal Palace, the Royal Academy,, the Panopticon, the
Polytechnic, the Panoramas, and dozens other inntitutions
_