The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-01 00:00:00

those of his own fellow countrymen, who work
at all work harder than any men upon the face
of the earth. They work harder than any hu-
man beings (not excepting negro slaves), are
compelled to work. Are they to have no day
for relaxation and innocent amusement ? If
Mr. Peter's Bill, even with the
"exemptions,"
be carried, they can have none. A broken spirit
and a dark prospect, uncheered by one single ray
of sunshine, will bend their over-wrought bodies
to the dt..st. We entreat gentlemen who
have establishments and cellars of their own, and
who, therefore, can well afford to be pious at
the expense of the poor, to take the trouble of
riding through the suburbs of this vast metro-
polis on any Sunday they can spare from pro-
menading themselves in the Park, after ogling
ladies at fashionable chapels. Even Sir An-
drew Agnew may do this ; for the " Assem-
bly" allow " works of necessity or mercy"
on the Sabbath. No gentleman who makes
the jaunt .ve propose will vote for the
second reading_ of this Sabbath Bill. A heart
of stone would be moved to pity by the asp,3ct
of the sickly women, the pale faced children,
and the old young men, hurrying from their
ill ventilated dwellings to breathe, once in seven
days, the air of heaven untainted by the accu-
mulated filth of crowded streets, which poisons
them not less surely because slowly during the
other six. Talk of the factory people ! Why,
they are positively merciful, when compared
with these Sabbath legislators, and much more
respectable, because they do not attempt to make
religion a cloak for the mischief they effect.
The question lies in a nutshell. The working
classes of this country have but one day in the
seven for relaxation and amusement. It is

quite proper that on that day there should be
no riots or breaches of the peace. The police
prevent, or the magistrates punish, such occur-
rences on the other six days of the week. Have

they not the power to do the .same on the
seventh ? They have ; and society, therefore, is
not injured by the Sabbath, as now observed.
We would not willingly say anything upon the re-
ligious view of this subject. We confess that we
cannot treat with patience those pure or puri-
tanical, those primitive or pharisaical notions,
which are, scandalized because the consumptive
workman obtains some relief.for his deadly suf-
ferings by walking in the fields on Sunday.
But we know that in the best times of our
no such opinions were thought ineoii
sistent with the doctrines of the Christian faith.
The Caroline Bishops—men as far superior to
the present Bishops as any one class of men
can be to another—not only approved, but.-in-
culcated the opinion, that the Sabbath was'in-
iended as a day of enjoyment as well as of rest.
We caution our legislators not to embark upon
so perilous an experiment as this of Mr. Peter.
The frame, and constitution, and condition of
society will not bear it, and they may rest as-
sured that an attempt to impose fifty millions of
new taxes would not produce so great a con-
vulsion as this proposed wanton, and cruel, and
unjustifiable interference with the pursuits of a
vast and intelligent, . and unquiet population.
But our only object to-day was to make the
auzencle honorable to Mr. Peter. We did him
wrong, however, in a far less degree than we
shall benefit him if he will take the advice we
now tender, and that is to leave this matter as
he found it.—Times.
The friends of humanity, and protectors of
the: white . slaves of Great Britain must buckle, on
11.4- arrwaw-otooft. o .suscttsliey will
f-p
yet have a hard battle to fight, tfeiress -i4ey would
abandon the advantages which have been ob-
tained for their cause during the course of no
ordinary struggle. The enemy, beaten at all
points in the open and front attack upon which
he rashly ventured, has actually commenced that
flank movement:to carry the question for which
we prepared our readers some time ago, and
which, in his correspondence. with the Com-
missioners, Mr.. Sadler anticipated. We were
not deceived by the apparently humane conces-
sion of an Eight-hour instead of a Ten-hour
Bill, with regard to children under fourteen
years of age. We stated, when that was first
mentioned, that it was intended, through the
appearance of exceeding great tenderness for
children under fourteen years of age, to lay a
more crushing weight of labour than ought to be
tolerated on the shoulders of ail who had attained
that period of life. An Evening Paper, which
is above the weakness of believing that vice or
error can positively exist in anything of which
the " powers that be" do not actually disapprove,
has put forward, with apparent satisfaction, some
extracts from the report of the roving Commis-
sion which the " candid "
.Lord Althorp had
sent to collect evidence by secret inquisition,
which was to refute that which had been given
openly and face to face before Committees of
Parliament. According to that report, we find
that night work, as well as a greater number of
hours of labour than Lord Ashley's Bill con-
templates, is recommended in the case of chil-
dren who have reached their fourteenth year.
The report gives the following as one of the
sapient reasons of that suggestion, " that at that
age the period of childhood properly so called
ceases, and that of puberty is established, when
the body be, omes more capable of enduring
protracted labour. It appears in evidence from the
statements and depositions of all classes of wit-
nesses, including the young persons themselves,
that the same labour which was fatiguing and
exhausting at an earlier period, is in general
comparatively easy after the age in question."
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The Commissioners seem to belong to that
classsokpienria'etoilon. They have the evidence, they say,
of the "young persons themselves" as to
the easy if not the agreeable nature of fac-
tory work after their tender frames have been
exposed for some years to its grinding labour.
How many living witnesses have spoken to this
effect we know not. We believe that if the dead
could rise again—the thousands of infant vic-
tims whom the factory system has caused to
perish untimely—they would tell another tale.
But as to the period when puberty commences,
it is known to be the most critical period of life,
e&peciaily ~s to tile female. We say no more
on that point at present. We ask if children
of fourteen are to be considered as mere beasts
of burden, because they are the children of the
po,,r ls
the Malthusian to be allowed to liar-
,
ness them day and night to the inanimate ma-
chinerywhich they are to he but the living
appendages,
ofae.s,
without being blessed with the
happy insensibility to toil and torture which
characterises machines of iron and wood ? Is it
of no consequence that nature has made whole-
some recreation and out-door-exercise absolutely
necessary in youth for the .proper development
of the human frame ? Is it of no consequence
that children of fourteen are more susceptible of
the effects of vicious example, and require more
careful moral training than at an earlier time of
life ? Is it of no consequence that, as rational