The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-11 00:00:00

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[PRICE SD.

likely to form of the wisdom of an Assembly which
troubles her with these contradictory holicitati,ns,
and which, oa the very face of its proceeding., inverts
the natural order of inquiry and decision. A frank
confession of error would have been infinitely more
resiiectable than this lame and awkward cvs:on.
is a confession of error, however, thoLigh not a tra!dc
one. The experiment is allowed, for forin's ssk.., to
go on for the present—but it i 3 alresdy c,indernt),(l,
by implicAtion, as hz.-..ty and ill-conhidered. The
house disiactly acknowledges tint the re-
linquishment of the Sunday deliv,Ty an i co:-

lectton of letters is a public inconvenience which
ought not to be lightly incurred, and thst it at
least questionable whether it ought to be persisted
in. Moreover, the entire responsibility of de-
ciding on the coatinusnce or aliii.don.nent of th,-
existing restriction is left to those who h.4ve n vet-
missed an cqporturlity avo4ing themselvf:s
to it. For Lord John Russell plainly intimated the,
whether Esrliament :hail be sitting or no, at the
time of the completion of the proposA inquiry, the
Government will take its own courpe without waiting
for further instructions from the flouse. As this was

interpreted by Lord Ashley (quite correctly, we
imagioe) as utterly diAentitling the Premier to the
confilence of the Sabbatarians, the division which
ensued may be fairly taken, despite all apparent am•
biguities, as affording a true measure of the relative
strength of the two parties ; and, under-ouch circum-
stances, a Ministerial Majority of 83 was a tolerably
intelligible reversal of the previous vote of the House.
The debate has added little or nothing to our
previous information on the subject, and it is in-
teresting only as showing the effect which even the
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brief experience of three weeks has had in modifying
the zeal and abating the confidence of the SAbbatarian
enthusiasts. The great " principle," of which we
once heard so much, was quite forgotten—the re-
strictions preferring to entrench themselves behind

the formalities and decorums to which their previous
casual victory had given them a sort of right to ap-
peal. They stood out for the letter of their bond, de-
manded a " fair trial" for their " experiment," and
were eloquent on the " honour and dignity of the
Crown." All this was no doubt perfectly fair as
against the Government, who certainly have evinced
an unseemly and culpeble haste in committing the
Royal name to an innovation which they dislike and
disapprove; but to lay any stress on this kind ot
argument only indicates the conscious want of a real
case. For the practical merits of the question we
must look to the speeches of the mover and sup-
porters of the resolution, who, though they
somewhat overdid the theological and " religious-
liberty" party of the subject, clearly showed
that grievous social mischiefs have ensued, and
must ensue, from the Sabbatical interdict
on postal communication. Of the hardships
inflicted on individuals, by depriving them of the or-
dinary facilities of intercourse with relatives at a dis-
tance—hardships which, in cases of illness or other
domestic emergencies, are cruelly severe—we say
little, as we have never observed any signs that the
Sabbatarian zealots are open to this sort of appeal to
their human sympathies. But the point was well
urged by Lord John Russell, who, with a generous
consideration for the rights and feelings of the hum-
bier classes which we wish he had manifested at an
earlier stage of the business, refused to accept the au-
thority ot "great bankers in easy circumstances," on
a question which is of extremely little in•erest to
them so long as railway companies run Sunday trains
and telegraph wires carry Sunday messages, but
which is of vital imponance to those who cannot
afford themselves such costly luxuries. The advo-
cates of the prohibitory regime will, however, be f
more likely to feel the force of the argument, that
their system has actually led to a great increase in
the amount of Sunday labour performed throughout
the country. Of this fact there can be no doubt
whatever. The transmission and delivery of the
London weekly newspapers alone employ, there
is every reason to believe, many more hands than
have been liberated from Post-office duty ; and when
the capabilities of the " parcel " system shall have
been somewhat further developed by necessity and
experience, we shall have a pretty well organized
Sunday post for every important town in the
kingdom, which will only differ from her
ttajesty's Post. office establishment in the higher
scale of its charges, its mere lavish employment of
manual labour, and its total unprofvableness to the
public revenue. For those newspaper readers who
cannot afford to pay an enhanced price for their
accustomed luxury there are the public-houses
and the heer-shops, where the fagged artis:mn will
always be sure of getting a good deal for his money
over and above the innocent recreation of perusing
the "latest intelligence." On the whole, it seems
impassible for any considerate person to resist the
conclusion, that what is called a "fair trial" of
the present experiment would produce an enormous
amount of " Sabbath-breaking" and deateralisation.
However, it is not to be. The llJuse of Commons,
while respecting the Sabbatari Ins' temporary right of
possession, questions their title, and hands over their
case to the scrutiny of their official opponents. Lord
John is to inquire, report, and act at his own discre-
tion, and on his own responsibility ; and unless his
opinion should undergo some extraordinary change in
the process, the result may be set down as already
known. We fear we must add that a confirmed con-
viction of the worse than inexpediency of stopping the
communications of the country on the Sunday will
be only one of the lessons which the approaching in-
quiry will teach him. Long before he has done with
this business, he will probably be made painfully
aware of his error in having allowed pique, pettish-
ness, or indolence, to get the better of his statesman-
ship, and in having visited the sins of a refractory,
House of Commons on the letter-writing and news-
paper-reading public. We shall be most agree:tbly
surprised if his sarcastic " deference to the sense of
the House" does not involve him eventually in ten

times more worry, fuss, and annoyance, than he
would hive incurred by earnestly attempting, in the
first instance, to stem a senseless agitation, and to
procure the reversal of a random vote. We wish
him well through the task which he has undertaken,
of dealing with a nvivement that owes no small part
of its importance to his own faults of judgment or

temper; and we trust that he will in future deal
seriously with serious questions, and frankly assume
at first the responsibilities which he cannot evade at
last.

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