The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-27 00:00:00

LO N DON, TIIURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 27, 1850.

POST-OFFICE SUNDAY LABOUR
(From tlie Timm)
The late precipitate proceeding with respect to the
iosnoilice may lead to consequences net expected by ,
those who acted upon the acerdental majority tf the
House of Corneroes. A grave question has arisen as to
the legidiry if the order lately issued, and the courts of
kw may probably be called upon to decide the point. A i
mere resolution of either Douse of Parliament has not
the force of law, and we must recur to !secs if Parlia-
ment to ascertain the powers of the Postmaster-Geriei al
and the Crown with respect to the delivery of letters.
The question-men. indeed, be tried in various moder, and
the wily persons likely eventually to profit by the re-
striction now imposed are the lawyers. Important
letters being delayed or delivery of them refused on the
Sunday. no action may be found to lie against the per-
son refusing or detaining them, and the inconsiderate
conduct ot the Government may thus lead to almost in-
terminable litigation. It ought to be recollected that the
business of delivering the letters of the community is a
case entirely exceptional. The community, speaking
by Parliament, has determined both to impose
upon the Government the obligation of receiv-
ing., collecting, and delivering letters, and to prevent all
private persons from in any way sharing in the bu-
siness. For reasons partly of finance, parity of a social
character, a complete monopoly has been established.
The Postmaster-General has been made "a corporation"
for this purpose; a certain fixed sum or charge has been
settled to be paid by those who send and receive letters;
and heavy penalties are imposed on those who shall pre-
sume to interfere with the duty of receiving. collecting,
and delivering them. For many years the chief consi-
deration of the Government in this matter was the sum
collected; the tax was the thing regarded. Security,
incleei, seemed to be increased by the Government tak-
ing upon itself the duties of the Post-office; certainty
alto apprared more likely of attainment in consequence
of same erect?, ding. But many 'circumstances; have
occurred to shake the public confidence as to these sup-
posed advantage's. AU unity and precision and security
are likely to be lost, if the late proceeding is to be taken
as a precedent. The merest accident will hereafter have
fatal sway over our most important interests; and one
great advantage derived from our • advance in art, and
in our command over the powers e f nature, will
have to be struck out of the account to be made
of the benefits derived from the exist-
ence of society. The people of this country are, we re-
joice to believe, ail eminently pious people. But their
piety is not always a reasoning and rational piety. They
aro not unapt to permit their common sense to be sur-
prised by interested professions of eeculiar excellence,
aed to be thus led to sacrifice the substance and true merit
of piety for mare outdde obi.errance. An imperious de-
sire to compel ethers to obey our own, vettinar opinions
and rules of conduct is but too often the real motive
leading to an unnecessary strict observance of the letter,
in place of the spirit of the law; and of the mos ement in
the country which eventually led to the late resolution
of the House of Commons, the greater part was the re-
sult of mere personal interest, and a mechanical obedi-
ence to mero outward forms. Of the multitude who
signed petitions for the abolition of Sunday labour in
the Posnoffice, a very large majority acted without
any real consideration of the consequence. The
mero signing one's name was deemed an easy way
of escaping remonstrance and importunity, as
well as of earning a character for piety. Little atten-
tion was paid .to the motives if those by whom the
majority of the petitions were concocted, and signing the
narne.was generally believed to be all that would occur.
The first stir was made under a misapprehension. Those
who were unwilling to have a Sunday delivery of letters
in London (which was never contemplated, in fact, by
anybody) did not fail to take advantage of the feeling
which they found general in the metropolis, and the cry
was raised, Wby not make the whole country like
London? Why need there be a Sunday delivery in any
part of the kingdom? Two classes very distinct in their
character, and as to the objects which they had in
view, were active on the occasion ; and proved, what
experience has, indeed, but too often shown, that
an active, persevering, and interested minority will
generally obtain their object in spite of the tame
opposition of an apathetic majority. All persons con-
neetei with the delivery cf letters, and more especially
those who receive a fixed salary, had a powerful interest
in diminishing by one-seventh the labour for which they
were paid. To greco and cloak this mere sordid inte-
rest, they dexterously put forth their demand for an un-
employed Sabbath. They assorted that from being
occupied during the Sunday they were unable to attend
their religious duties, and prayed Parliament not to per-
mit the continuance of so grievous a wrong. To an ap-
peal of this devcripiun Parliament and the country were
anxious to lend a willing attention, and all must wish
that every facility should be afforded in such a matter.
But works of necessity must still be performed; and of the
arouse; ds who signed the petitions presented to Parlia-
ment there are few who relieve their own servants
from every duty beyond what absolute necessity
lemends. The ordinary work of every household is
perform° I, though it includes many more than mere acts
of necessity. Fool is prepared; carriages and horses
ire employed; visits are made and received. Some there
may be, but still a minute fraction of the whole commu-
nity, who restrict materially the duties of their house-
hold servants on a Sunday. But take these with ell
:.heir strictness, and much that is mere superfleity will
still be found to remain. A crust of bread and a glass
A plain water are sufficient healthily to sustain a healthy
person for a single day. Fire need not be lighted ex-
apt for purposes of warmth—for the purpose et prepar-
ing food it is wholly unnecessary. The very persons
:rho claim exemption in this case because of the restric-
tion upon their time for religious observance deal, we
are prepared to assert, • with the time of others, as re-
gards ib.eieselves, in a far different spirit. They who
have servants command their services. They who have
the means of hu3iag enjoyment spend their money to
purchase the voluntary service ot others to that end.
But who shill ray that the transmission of some
letters on the Ounday is not a work of necessity ?
And if we allow it in any case, we must allow
it in all, for no discrimination can be made. We have
now before us many complaints of the misery which
this restriction has already inflicted. Ode case is an
instance of most grievous misery, most wantonly in-
flicted. A mother lies dangerously ill on the Saturday,
nany of her children are absent, and she, believing her
end near, wishes to gather round her bed of death the
children from whom she is destined soon to part for ever.
No letter can be sent. The family is net in affluent
eireurns:ances, and the, children are scattered. To send
for theme is impossible. This is no fancied case. The
prod of its afflicting reality is now before us. In an-
other instance the circumstances are different, but the
suffering is nearly equal. The child in this case is ill
—additional advice is wished for. Again the family
is not affluent—and without greater, and for the
parents almost impossible, expense the advice desired
cannot be obtaked. The great mischief of the matter
is that the evil thus falls chiefly on the poor. The
rich man, whether as respects his pleasures or his
wants, is able in most cases by his wealth to obtain what
he desires. Servants are dispatched, arrangements are
predetermined, and at an increased cost the thing is
done. But as respects the very end sought to be ob-
tained by this restrictive system, that is wholly free-
crated. Sunday labour, instead of being diminished, is
greatly
while the good which that labour
effects i increased; s
ineterially lessened. The same train that car-
ries One niersenger would carry thousands of letters.
The train travels, all the servants needed for it aro em-
ployed, but only the rich man's messenger proceeds upon
nis journey. The messenger of the poor man—his un-
expensive lever—is stopped, and hearts may be wrung,
irreparable wrong may be inflicted, and the poor pre-
tence fur which all this evil has been accomplished has
not the grace of being even in appearance what its
authors desire. We assert, without fear of refutation,
hat the restriction on the Post-office, instead of di-
.ishing, must if necessity greatly increase Sunday
,about.

(From the Chronicle.)
Ministers and their partisans seem to be extremely
delighted at the notion of the annoyance and incon-
venience which the country has begun to suffer from
the weekly obstruction of its postal communications.
They appear to regard it quite as a feather in Lord
John Russell's cap, that the House of Commons, of which
he is the official leader, has blundered into an absurd
and mischievous decision, the consequences of which
are likely to be intolerably vexatious. "People are
already finding out the effect of this measure," was the
boastful exclamation of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, not many nights ago, in answer to a remonstrance
against the stoppage of the Sunday delivery of news-
papers; and he evidently much enjoyed the thought of
the thing turning out many degrees worse than he bad
himsel. predicted. It is regarded as particUlarly good
fun fur the Government that the Sabbatarians.themselves
have been among the first to cry Out, and that they have
not blushed to denounce the "animus" apparent in the
new regulations—the said animus being as Lear!), as
possible identical (minus the sincerity) with that
which has marked their own fanatical agitation.
On the whole, it seems to be aSsurned by Ministers,
that the worse the new system work, for the country
the better it is fur them, and that every fresh develop-
anent of the oppressive consequences of this nuisance
redounds somehow to their credit.
For our own part, however, we doubt whether. he
Public will let the Government off so easily. All his
would he very well if Lord John Russell had been under
any real compulsion to accept, as final and authoritative,
the result of a chance vote in the House of Commons.
tare can enjoy the laughable fright and mortification of
the too successful Sabbatarians as heartily as our
neighbours; and if it had been absolutely necessary to
give these agitators their own way, we could have
+torn° a good deal for the sake of seeing folly and
faualeism work out their own cure. But there
eas no such necessity. The vote in question was but
one out of come half-dozen or half score ocasions (we
have long since loft off keeping an exact account)
on which, in the course of the present eession,
Ministers have been outnumbered by an adverse
majority of the House of Commons; ens had they
been really in earnest in resisting what Sir Charles Wood
calls " an exceedingly great hardship and inconvenience
to all classes, and especially to the poorer classes," they
would have found a way of reconciling constitutional
p'opriety with common sense and public convenience.
i'he plain fact is, they have deliberately chosen to make
the very worst of this business. Totally regardless of
all coneith rations except their own official convenience,
they have eagerly sersd on what they thought a good
opportunite foe." give g a let son" to their supporters.
is is a selfish wad shabby policy, and we are much anise
taken if the issue do's not prose far from satisfactory to
its inventors. It will not to by any means so easy as
Ministers imagine, to persuade the country that the
whole and sole responsibility of the late vexatious irate-
vution rests with Lord Ashley and the House of Com-
mons, uud that none of it devolves on those ssho have dis-
played so indecorous an alacrity in "carrying out" a scheme
which they never missan opportunity of denouncing. Peo-
ple are not used, in this country, to see great and sudden
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