The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-30 00:00:00

THE

the popular mind the sacred ideas associated with the
subject of religion. Such, however, does not appear
to be the case, the official notice from St.
Martin's-le-Grand being immediately responded
to by a flagrant defiance on the part of the Metropo-
litan Committee for promoting the entire cessation of
Sunday labour in the Post-office department. Among
the most strenuous, and, we may even say, virulent
supporters of this redoubtable league is, of course,
our contemporary the Morning Herald, which, while
professing to look upon all kinds of labour performed
on the Sunday as most sinful, contrives nevertheless
to keep a number of hands employed on the
eve of every successive Monday, for the purpose
of preparing its broadsheet for the perusal of its sub-
scribers. Often as we have heard the old saying of
the pot calling the kettle black, we assuredly never
saw its point and truthfulness so conspicuously ex-
emplified. If the organ of Sabbatarianism is so very
conscientious in protesting against Sunday labour,
wherefore, in the name of all decency, are its own
employes occupied every Sunday night in the year
in preparing its first edition for the Monday
morning ? It is only another and a rather
melancholy specimen of preaching without
practising, of thrusting sanctimonious precepts upon
the multitude, and yet at the same time affording
that multitude the benefit of anything but sanctimo-
nious examples. Very differently is advice given by
those who are really actuated by the highest motives
of religious consistency. Of such an one it has been
said most beautifully, that
" -- as a bird each fond endearment tries
To tempt its new fl..dg'd of4ring to the skies,
'lie tried each art, reproved each dull delay,
Allured to brighter woilds, AND LED THE WAY."
Even when opposed to men like this
in opinion, we can so far recognize their
own earnest convictions through the simi-
larity of their acts and their recommendations, that
we bow to their sincerity and acknowledge the virtue
of their enthusiasm. When, however, on the con-
trary, we hear men reprobating as ungodly those
who do this, that, and the other,- and yet see them
' doing precisely the same sub rosa, we have no lan-
guage sufficiently energetic in which to protest
against their shallow assumptions of excellence. Es-
pecially are we filled with indignation at such con-
duct when we see it directly connected with merely
pecuniary interests. Against pretenders of this class
we are ever resolved to direct the current of general
reprobation, conscious that nothing is so immediately
detrimental to the cause of public moreity, or so
inimical to the spirit of true religion.
A barefaced intimation has been given by the Me-
tropolitan Committee for promoting the entire cessa•
tiun of Sunday labour in the Post-office depart-
ment, that next session the struggle of the
Sabbatarians will be recommenced, in open de-
fiance of the wishes of the population, and
in flagrant contempt of the recent decision of
the Imperial Parliament. Fortunately this announce-
ment has been made betimes, so that the public are
afforded an opportunity of at length setting the
matter at once and for ever at rest. Before the com-
mencement- of this renewed conflict we would re-
mind the people that in crushing this wretched con-
spiracy of fanaticism they will be crushing the
veritab e enemies of Christianity. While referring
o this subject, we may most appropriately quote

the subjoined passage Isom the report of
the Committee of Congress in the United
States us far back as 1829, when, in answer to
petitions from the American Sabbatarians, an official
report was present-A to the House of Representatives
at Wa,hington. The Committee baying almost im-
mediately before observed that "-the framers of the
Constitution recognized the eternal principle that
man-'s relation with his GOD is above human legisla-

Lion," remarks upon this supreme principle that—
" The bigot, in the pride of his authority, may lose
sight of it; but strip him of his power, prescribe a fai h
to him which his conscience rejects, threaten him in
turn with the dungeon and the taggot, and the spirit
which God has implanted in him rises up in rebellion
and defies you. Did tl.e primitive Christians ask that
Government . should recognise and observe their re-
ligious institutions? All they asked was toleration ; all
they complained of was persecution. iN hat did the
Protestants of Germany, or the Huguenots of France,
ask Of their Catholic Superiors? Toleration. What do
the pers. cuted Catholics of Ireland ask of their op-
pressors? Teler4ion."
" Du not all men in this country enjoy every religious
right which martyrs and saints ever asked? Whence
then the voice of complaint? Who is it that, in the
Full enjoyment of every principle which human laws
can some, wishes to arrest a portion of these principles
from his neighbour? Do the petitioners alle4e that
they cannot conscientiously participate in the profits of
the mail contracts and punt-offices because the mail is
carried on Sunday? It this be their motive, then it is
worldly gain which stimulates to action, and not virtue
or religion. Do they complain that men, less conscientious
in relation to the Sabbath, obtain advantages over

them by receiving their letters and attending—to their
contents? still their motive is worldly and selfish. But
if their motive be to induce Congress to sanction by law
their rek,oious opinions and observances, then their efforts
ought to Cis reststrd, as in their tendency fatal both to
religious and political freedom. Why have the peti-
tioners confined their prayer to the mails ? Why have
they not requested that the Government be required to
suspend all its executive functions on that day ? Why
do they not require us to enact that our ships shall not
sail ; that our armies shall not march; that officers of
justice shall not vein: the suspected, or guard the con-
victed? They seem to :orget that Government is as ne-
cessary on Sunday as on any other day of the we, k.
The spirit of evil ewes not re•t on that day. /t is the
Government, ever active in its functions which enables us all
even the petitioners—to worship in our churches in peace
Our Government turnishes very tew blessings like cur
mails. They bear from the centre of our Re public to its
distant extremes the acts of our legislative bodies, the
decisiofis of the judiciary, and the orders of the Eze•
cutive."

And so on. From the felicitous sentence given above
in italics, it will be apparent what were the nature of
the sentiments entertained upon this question by the
Legislature of the religious and Sunday-observing
republic of the United Sta.es. Fur the present it
were superfluous to say anything whatever in addition
to the foregoing admirable arguments. We may at
once, therefore, bring our remarks to a conclusion, by
expressing our delight at the revival of the instruc-
tions marked " No. 1., January, 1850," by the
authorities presiding over the Post-office Department.

A reference to the narrative descriptive of her
MAJESTY'S progress to Scotland presents to the ima-
gination one of those extraordinary contrasts in time
and circumstance which occasionally startle the
student of history into a consciousness of the changes
effected by science and civilization. After leaving
the ancestral castle of one of the great earls of Eng-
land, it will be observed that the SOVEREIGN
prcceeded by railroad towards the frontiers
of the two kingdoms, in accomplishing which
the royal carriage having passed the ancient city of
York, was conveyed, rather like the car of
Queen MAE than of Queen VICTORIA, across that
gigantic and almost aerial viaduct bridging together
the elevated acclivities of Newcastle and Gateshead.
Our metropolitan fellow-citizens can hardly form any
adequate notion of the surprising character of this
structure, except by fancying to themselves an arch
flung over the streets of London from the dome of St.
Paul's to the summit of the Monument. Having
been whirled in this manner across the Tyne, her
MAJESTY, as may be seen in the accounts referred to,
passed over the Tweed by another splendid railway
bridge, to be called henceforth, in commemoration of
the visit, the Royal Border Bridge—a circumstance
not without some reason for surprise to ourselves,
when looking back to the epochs when the border
feuds were strongest, and one which would have
been incredible to the people of those times,
had such an event been predicted four cen-
turies ago. Traversing her dominions in this manner,
her Most Gracious MAJESTY was conducted by the
wings of steam into the heart of Edinburgh, where
again the venerable palace of Holyrood echoed to the
footsteps of a British monarch.
It may now be truly said that wonders never cease,
for at the very time the Queen of
GREAT BRITAIN is
cementing the union of England and Scotland,
science, with her electric wand, is stretching the
chain of brotherhood to the shores of our ancient
rival, and thereby realising the beautiful idea of the
poet, that
" One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

We may shortly expect that the same miraculous
agency which has spanned the Straits of Dover will
bridge St. George's Channel, and make Ireland in
future an integral portion of the empire.

From what traridi,iietiat tie rri&etiog 6f tike
Spani4h Bondholders nt. the London Tavern, on Wed-
nesday last, it appears that there is a prospect that
the long-pending negotiations for a- compromise-of
the UDTgetienable claims of these ill-used persons