The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-11 00:00:00

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I.ONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTESOER 11, 1844.

The spirit of St. Andrew-Agnewism, notwithstand-
ing the numerous public rebuffs it has received, and
the ridicule with which it has been treated, by the
more rational portion of the community, is far from
being yet extinct among us, but even now and then
gives such unquestionable indications of vitality as
satisfies us that it needs only a little encouragement
to become as active a nuisance as ever. It is not a
fortnight since a respectable individual named GRANT
was convicted at Brighton of having sold newspapers
on Sunday, notwithstanding that the practice is a
common one in the metropolis and many other of our
great towns and cities ; and has been so far from
injuring either the religious and moral feelings of the
people, that it has, in fact, been productive of consi-
derable benefit, by keeping some hundreds employed
in pleasant and instructive reading during those hours
which they might otherwise, from the want of such
harmless occupation, have spent in the coffee-room or
the gin-palace. It is nut a fortnight, we repeat, since
this conviction of an unoffending tradesman took
place at Brighton ; and no later than last week, the
magisterial authorities of Gravesend, resolved not to
be behindhand with their Sussex brethren, enacted a
farce of a somewhat similar character. The leading
incidents in this egregious farce are as follows ::-
WILLIAM BRADSHAW, a poulterer, was charged in
the Police-court with having pursued on Sunday,
the Ist instant, his ordinary occupation of weighing
people for money. Inspector OXLEY stated that he
saw the defendant on that day weighing several
persons in a machine on Windmill-hill, for which
he received the sum of one penny from each indi-
vidual, and consequently he believed this to be his
ordinary occupation. In defence, it was urged by
the accused's solicitor, that he was a poulterer by vo-
cation, and that his weighing-machine was merely a
harmless mode of amusing himself and others on the
day in question. This defence, regarded even in a
legal view, to say nothing of its common sense re-
commendations, ought to have been successful, since
the
law Only prohibits people from following their
ordinaq calling on the Sabbath, and makes no refe-
rence to theirextra-ordinaryOccupations or amuse-
ments. The argument,
however,th was overruled by
zeal
the magist
are rate, w
atho,
xcness, of his his puritanicald
, decld th he Would co
case of Sunday trading or Sabbath brenaechveruynit7llovth
the
regene-
rated
scandal of it was for ever removed from the
town of Gravesend ; and then descendingfrom
generals to particulars, the august official concluded
by fining 'the defendant five shillings and costs. We
cannot imagine a more absurd conviction than this,
or one less likely to answer the purpose which the
magistrate professes to have in view. Surely he
cannot seriously mean to put his threat into execu-
tion ! If he be really resolved to convict all those
who are found guilty of following their ordinary
vocation on the Sabbath, Heaven help the doomed
inhabitants of Gravesend! What is to become of the
Sunday steam-boat travelling to and from that un-
happy town ? What, of its numerous publicans, its
proprietors of tea-gardens, its hotel-keepers, and all
that large class who derive no slight portion of their
,income by catering to the tastes of the shoals of. I
r_ • i*iv, in whose eyes a Sunday pleasure excur- '
3141- to ravesend is a matter of no slight moment ?
eoc
- Areall *
these to btsubjected to harassing annoyances
: an_.(lpersectAtionstli,ecause the magisterial authorities
4iiut the town happen to be fanatically disposed? 8e-
.... . . .
. . ,