The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-18 00:00:00

very considerable changes ar,"
fhe
iat
which have taken place in the restr.ctfons in Scot-
land upon social and religious lib( rties the most
important have borne upon the question of travel-
ling or locomotion. In the ante-rai:wav era, mail-
coaches ran on all the principal routes, and there
weF of course a supply of other means of locomo-
floe, for whoever could afford to pay. When
railways. were intxodikead, enabling many
more people to travel by means employing
incomparably less -labour and time than 'MIS for-
merly employed for the travelling of a few, the
natural result would have been the increase of the
public accommodation. And so for a time it was—
the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, the earliest
passenger line in Scotland, was at first opened and
for sevaral years kept open on Sundays. By means
which shall be mentioned presently that line was
closed about 12 years ago, and that event was the
beginning of a crusade which has done a good deal
to render us pitiable and ludicrous in the eyes of
our neighbours. A babbling war about " Sabbath
observance" and such topics--a series of efforts at a
litus been ()viper on ever
general " putt in •!,•
t 5
Slikee, and has reached to the pettiest things. 'With
almost no exception but the two chief railways on
the east coast (the North British and the Edinburgh,
Perth, and Dundee), which have been saved simply
by happening to have among, their proprietors a
few men with courage to say and do what multi-
tudes were thinking, there is no passage in Scotland
on Sundays, the routes most hermetically scaled be-
ing those between its two chief cities and through
its most populous districts. In smaller things, take
the two instances that come first to memoir.
Nel-
son's Monument, on the top of our Calton-hill,
hideous as an " ornament," used to make itself
huMbly and innocently useful by supplying biscuits,
sweetmeats, and aerated waters to the youngsters
of the many families who, from distant carts of the
city "came to --the hill eq Sunday.syetungs for its
fresh air and fine prospects. Althot.gh there Was
not. a whisper against the entire respectability and
even gentility of the place, our Town Council, in
their capacity of custodiers, issued a ukase to the
effect_ that, because they were virtuous and took
their toddy at home on the sacred day, there should
be no more cakes and ginger-beer at that once-loved
resort. It was an old custom for children, walking
in the Queen's-park on the Sunday evenings, to pro-
cure curds and whey from women who waited
with
pitchers on the grass ; some rev, gentlemen persuaded
the Duke of Hamilton, hereditary keeper, to put
down these refreshments as sinful. It would be easy
to give other instances of these insensible and
tyrannical follies ; but the point at which we havo
arrived is pretty well indicated by the fact of the
metropolitan Presbytery of the Established Church
being now engaged in calling upon " the civil ma-
gistrate" to put down Sunday walking. But how
are any people but the Scotch to blame for such
things ? Great in this way—the shutting of the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, which operated
to revive the Pharisaical spirit, and was the be-
ginning of the series of annoyances and .degtada-
tions to which the Scotch people have since been
subjected, was the work of Englishmen. Former
experiments had shown that there was a great ma-
jority for keeping open the line, not only among
the shareholders at large, but among the Scotch
section taken separately. It hapened, however,
that the company was nearly divided on some dis-
pute about amalgamations ; and the minority—
chiefly English—went to a small knot of persons
who had for the most part bought in for the pur-
pose of agitating.the Sunday question, and proposed
to close the line in consideration of being supported
in the question of amalgamations. And, though
the Town Councils of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and
all the towns upon the line, earnestly protested, the
bargain was fulfilled. • By this success the Phari-
saical party were encouraged to a series of new
efforts in which they have not yet ceased, while
their opponents were disgusted and disheartened,.
For having thus " sold " 'us our English friends,
and especially our London contemporaries, owe us
not only forbearance, but help. But they seldom
give us either—and that is another plaint we make
against them. 'When anything happens to make
an eihibition of the extent to which we are clergy-
ridden, and yet deficient in the weightiest matters
of the law, they are very ready, if they do not hap-
pen to be engaged with anything else, to laugh at
and taunt us. But when the battle is being fought
here against any of the aggressions of Phariseeism,
they seldom throw a word to the few sad dogs on
whom the duty of resistance devolves. Since they
will laugh at us, as they arc quite right to do, they
should also take somelittle care of us. We Scotch like
to be taken in charge in things moral and religious
—as witness our voluntary submission as to the
new moons and the Sabbath-days to the clergy,
and as to meats and drink's to the policeman—and
our London contemporaries might do great good,
as well as fulfil a sort of moral obligation, by,
oftener and in better time giving us their advice
and ridicule.—Dally Scotsman.

NEWSPAPER STAMP RETURXS.

The Leeds Mercury offers the following remarks
on this subject

" When the newspaper stamp was compulsory,
so that every sheet issued must of necessity pay the
tax and bear the impress, the publication of the
number of stamps issued to each newspaper afforded
(generally speaking) a correct guide to its circula-
tion. But since the abolition of the compulsory
stamp, and the use of the stamp merely for those
copies of a newspaper which pass through the Post-
office, the publication of the stamp returns is
almost entirely delusive, and in many cases it is so
in the highest degree. Since the Ist of July, 1855,
newspapers of any considerable circulation are sent
in great parcels by the railways ; and the more
populous a district is, and the better supplied with
railways, the larger is the proportion of its circula-
tion that is thus sent, and the smaller the propor-
tion sent through the post. Nevertheless, a Parlia-
mentary, return has just been published, stating
the number of stamps issued to all newspapers,
quarterly, from July, 1855, to Pee., 1857 ; and it
prore9ses to be a cont n cation of the reti i =sued un-

der the old system. How ridiculously misleading this
return is calculated to be may be shown by our
own case. According to the parliamentary. paper
there were issued to the Leeds Mercury, m the
whole of the year 1857, only 150,000 stamps—
which we dare say is quite true ; but during that
year our circulation was 1,404,082 without supple-
ments, and 1,911,014 including supplements.
Only about one-tenth of our circulation now passes
through the post, chiefly to distant subscribers ;
whilst Leeds and all the towns and villages of
Yorkshire and the neighbouring counties, are sup-
plied by means of railway parcels. 'The Manches-
ter daily papers received even greater injustice
than ourselves from the stamp return. Ilre shall
not perplex our readers by publishing a document
so purely misleading ; and we are surprised that
any member of Parliament should move for, or any
Government or House of Commons consent to, the
publication of a return which can give no valuable
information, but which may most absurdly deceive
the public."

THE GREENWICH ELECTION.--Last evening a
lumerous meeting of the electors and non-electors of
Greenwich took place at the Lecture Hall of that town, for
the purpose of selecting a fit and j3roper person to represent
their interests in parliament. The object of the meeting
was t) promote the views of the Political Reform League,
and the election of Mr. Ernest Jones. Mr. Barker moved. t hit Mr. Jones was a fft and proper person to represent the
borough, and that means should t e adopted to secure his re-
turn. Mr. Belleville seconded the motion. Mr. Stonehouso
oppcsed it, and moved as an amendment, " That it is
inexpedient for this meeting to decide at present as to the
most fitting candidate for the borough of Greenwich, as
the writ cannot be issued for some months, and other can-
didates may appear, and the present limited choice of can-
didates will be greatly extended." After much noise,
clamour, and confusion, the amendment was put to the
meeting and carried.
FATAL EXPLOSION Or FIRE-DAMP.—Yesterday
morning, about 4 o'clock, Mr. James Nasmyth, the ma-
nager of the new Tredear coal-pit, was aroused by the
noise cf a tremendous explosion. He took with him three
men and repaired to the pit, scarcely -hoping to find alive
any of the five men who had been at work on the "night
turn." The pit, which was made at an immense outlay, had
been stopped for a fortnight owing to a strike among the
colliers, who demanded 2s. a ton for cutting, whereas is. sd.
was the sum offered. About one-third of the men who
struck had agreed to go back to work again, finding the
master inflexible. Three colliers, named John Jones, John
Griffiths, and William Davis, were stationed within eight
yards of the up-cast ; these were all more or less bruised and
burned by the explosion, but neither of them fatally. The
level is SO yards in length, and communicates with another
similar level, where the down-cast pit is placed. When Mr.
Nasmyth and his party had proceeded about 20 yards along
the level, he came to the body of a man named Llewellyn
Preece, a haulier. He ;was unable to give any information
and diCd before he could be removed from the pit. The
corpse of William Davies (the name of the only man still
remaining unaccounted for), was discovered a little fur-
ther on, burned to a cinder. His lamp, which was open,
was found about ten yards in front of him, and he must
have been blown from the spot where the lamp was found.
It is supposed and believed that a blower or jet of inflamma-
ble gas had opened during the night, and that the fireman,
quitting his post for some unexplained object with a naked
light, caused the gas to explode.

[A:DVERTISEMENTI—HOIIoway's Ointment and Pills are
most powerful remedies for scorbutic affections,—Mr. For-
ster Kerr, druggist, of Manchester, states, in a letter t)
Professor Holloway, that a gentleman with whom he
acquainted suffered dreadfully from an eruption in the face;
his chin had become so much inflamed and swollen that t
shave was impossible, but by the application of Holloway's
Ointment, and taking Holloway's Pills at the same time, a
perfect cure was soon effected, and it is gratifying to state
that every vestige of the scorbutic eruption entirely disap-
peared. Directions—Rub the ointment well. night and
morning into the parts affected, and begin with half a dozen
pills daily. You may gradually increase the dose with per•
fect safety,