The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-19 00:00:00

said to press heavily oa pror7u, Con in the Presidency
of Bombay. It varied from loid. to 2i. Bd. per acre.
In the other pre-ddency it range.l from cid. to 54. par
sere, and tterefore could not be said to offer any serious
obstruction to the crowing of co'..ton.
Colonel SI iiTIIOIIP s ini he certainly should not sup-
Port the Hon. Member for Manchester in his motion
for a Commission. He was most suipicious of 101 Com-
missions, and he should not support her Majesty's Go-
vernment—(A laugh)—nor their friends—they were a
auspicious s, t alt ,gether.—(Lpighter.) The Hon.
Member sometimes attacked the Government, but if
they cyavi, him a Commission, he had no doubt the Hon.
Member would accept the post, and he believed the Go-
Vernment, would he very clad toget rid of him.—(A laugh.)
Mr. BRIGHT reple 1. The &mission had through-
out elicited a general admission of the imp irtanee of the
question. Seeing, however, th- feeling of the House, he
thought he shout ,1 hest consult the object he had in view
by with Ira, ing his motion.—(Cries of " No, n -4)
The motion was then nega•ived without a divi-don.
MAIL.PACKE I: STATION. IRE!, AND.
Mr. H. HERBERT said ho had pre,entld a petition
from landed propri•-tors in Ireland, praying that Her
Majesty would institute an inquiry to a,certain whether
or not it was for the advantage of the empire that some
harbour of Ireland shield be adopted as a picket sta-
tion; and, if so, which of the Irish harbours was best
Baited for the purpose. He had intended to call the at-
tention of the House to the subject, but, as her Majes-
ty's Government had consented to institute the pro-
posed inquiry, he had now' only to thank the Govern-
ment for agreeing to a course which he was surd must
result in benefiting Ireland.
POST-OFFICE.
Mr. FORSTER moved for leave to bring in a Bill to
repeal so much of the Acta 7th William IV., and Ist
Victoria, c. 36, and other Acts now in force for regu-
lating the conveyance of letters by post, as prohibit
the transmission of letters on the Sunday otherwise
than through the Post-office. Those Acts were in-
troduced entirely oa the ground that the revenue of
the Post-office required to be protected. So long as
the Post-office conveyed letters on a Sunday there could
be no objection to the prohibition contained in these
Acts; but, as the Post-office had discontinued performing
their duty, there could be no reason whatever, on the
ground of protecting the revenue, for continuing the
prohibition. He called upon the Noble Lord (Lord
Ashley) to support the motion, otherwise the effect of
his own Bill would be to cause a breach of the law a
thousand times every Sunday.
Colonel THOMPSON thought in a case of this kind
that the Government ought either to do the people's busi-
ness for them, or to allow them to do it themselves. He
did not think even the Government or the commercial
portion of the community had thoroughly come to a
owledge or to a full consideration of what they had
inflicted, not only upon the commercial world, but upon
the public at large. Suppose one of his constituents, a
Merchant at Bra fiord, heard by letter on Friday ofathe
loss of one of his argosies, and he had reason to sup-
pose his son to be lost in it. Now, he must not have
further intelligence dispatched to him from London
on the Saturday because it would be Sabbath-
breaking at Bradford to have the letter delivered to him
there on the Sunday; and he must not have a letter writ-
ten to him from London on the Sunday because it would
be Sabbath-breaking in London so to write itt therefore
he must wait till the Monday or the Tuesday for any
further intelligence, and all this because some men, not
reading aright the true spirit of Christianity, had chosen
to deprive the people of that right of communication
which they had hitherto enjoyed. He hoped the recent
resolution of the House would be rescinded; for, if not,
he had not the least doubt it would be taken up in France.
Ile had already seen a communication made to the parti-
'nitre in that country—(Hear, bear)—who were rising
into importance and credit there. For a time that party
Might prevail, but a reaction would come, and there
would be a rebound, the mischievous consequences of
which no one could foresee; and all this resulting from
a piece of most unbecoming—he might say, most imper-
tinent legislation. On these grounds he should support
the motion.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER would
not agree to the motion. He concurred in a great deal
orwhat had been said upon the subject. He thought
that the vote which the House came to the other night
was an unfortunate vote, because he believed it would
lead to great infractions of the law, and to considerable
desecration of the Sabbath. It was his belief that the
consequences of that vote would lead to a greater amount
of ordinary Sunday labour than what resulted from the
former state of the law. At the same time the House
of Commons having come to that resolution, the Go-
vernment felt bound to carry it out. The Government
were not so much concerned in the matter as the public,
and, taking the vote of the House as the expression of
public opinion, the Government felt called upon to act in
accordance with that expressed opinion. The amount of
hardship which the recent vote would inflict upon the
great body of the population had, he believed, been
Very much underrated. Nevertheless, that being the
opinion of the House of Commons, the Govern-
ment were bound to carry it out. Nor did they
think it their duty to do that iedirectly which they had
not felt it right to do openly and at once. He believed
that the distribution of letters and newspapers by means
of the post led to far less desecration of the Sabbath than
their distribution by any other means. If the House
chose to submit to that inconvenience, they must submit
to it altogether. He thought it quite right that the
Public should know what it was that they had subjected
themselves te.—(Bear, hear.)
Mr. AGLION BY said the House of Commons could
not complain of Government giving effect to their own
resolution; but he thought the country would complain,
and had a right to complain, of the House of Commons.
--(Hear hear.) There never was a division upon a
matter of importance by which the House of Commons
and the public were taken so much by surprise as by
the division on the Noble Lord's motion respect. the Post-
office delivery on a Sunday. He hoped an opportunity
Would be afforded for the House coming to a positive
vote on the subject, in order to show that the real sense
of the House was not in accordance with the resolution
that had been passed.
Mr. HEALD opposed the motion, and was surprised
to find that the voice of the people, as expressed by the
constitutional mode of petition, was accounted as nothing
by some Hon. Members.
Mr. G. THOMPSON supported the motion. He
thought no individual in the nineteenth century would
stand up and say he was not to be the judge for himself
Whether he had not the right as a subject and member
of civil society to transmit letters on a Sunday, or re-
ceive them through the various channels of communica-
tion from those who pleased to send them. Why should
that right be interfered with, any more than the cooking
of a dinner on Sunday?
Lord J. RUSSELL hoped the House would not agree
to the motion, because it would lead to much further
consequences than perhaps those Honourable Members
who supported it might apprehend. It was obvious that
if, instead of the general rule, with which the Govern-
ment charged itself with the transmission of letters, they
Were to allow letters to t e conveyed on Sunday by
private hand, that would become the establishment of a
private post-office, and letters would be sent on that
day as much as on other days of the week.—(Hear)—
that day would be the means of transmitting letters
More than on the other days, and it would interfere with
the general transmission of letters by the Post-office.
Therefore he thought, as his Right Hon. Friend had
Stated, that if letters were to be conveyed on Sunday, it
would be far batter to restore the state of things that
existed before the resolution of the Noble Lord was
Passed.—(llsar.) He must say, although he thought
it his duty to advise the Crown to comply with the ad-
dress of this House, which was founded on numerous
petitions signed by nearly 700,000 persons, and which
was declared to be the wish of the House not only by
110 a. Members who were present and voted for it. but
by the voluntary absence of a great number of Hon.
Members who declined to vote against the proposition,
he certainly could not share in the opinion that it
was advisable.—(Hear, hear.) He did not rely on, nor
did be attach so much importance as many Honour-
able Members had done to the transmission of mercan-
tile letters or mercantile intelligence, but he did think
that the post, being the means of conveying to dif-
ferent members of a family in different parts of the
kingdom the news of illness, of accidents, of danger
Perhaps to other members of the family, the retaining
of that knowledge for 24 hours--[Colonel THOMPSON—
"4B hours;"]—(Hear)—which they might have that
time sooner, was contrary to the indulgence of those
feelings of charity and affection which belonged to our
Christian as well as our moral character.—(Hear, hear.)
therefore, in opposing this motion, must say he very
Much regretted the decision to which the House came.—
(Hear, hear.) He owned that, although there might
have been, and he would not deny that there was, a very
Strong feeling on the part of the public in favour of the
Noble Lord's proposition, it appeared to him rather to
tend to that which was certainly contrary to the pre-
cepts of our religion, and established for precept the.
Opposite—that man was made for the Sabbath, and not
the Sabbath for mae.—(Hear, hear.)
• Mr. NEWDEGATE said that a number of large firms
• and constituencies having balanced the difficulties that
'might arise from the non-transmission of letters on
SOnday, had earnestly deprecated the continuance of a
system of transmission, because it led to a growing evil
of increasing transactions of business on Sundays.
Mr. FORSTER, withdrew his motion.
NEW HOUSE OF COMMONS.
On the motion of the CHANCELLOR of the EX-
CREQUER, it was resolved, " That a Select Committee
be appointed to inquire into and report upon the accom-
Modation afforded in the New House of Commons, and
in the lobbies and passages immediately adjacent
thereto, and whether any improvement can be made
therein, and the probable expense of making any such
'lterations."

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HYDE-PARK.
, Colonel SIBTHORP moved for a return of the num-
ber of trees already marked and proposed to be cut down
in Hyde-park, for the purpose of making room for the
buildings and grounds of approach, that are to be appro-
priated to the use of the proposed exhibition, as it is
termed, of the industry of all nations, in the year 1851;
!,111 a statement when and by whose authority the demo-
lition of such trees is to be carried into effect. In doing
So, ho said that the proposed Exhibition of 1851 was a
fraud and a humbug, and he complained of the destruc-
tl,oll of the trees in Hyde-park in order to make room for
1943builiiin;p intended to be erected to carry out the ex-
ibition in question. He contended that the only effect
of the exhibition would be to injure the English trades-
1115te and promote the success of the foreigner. He
',fished to know by whose authority this demolition of
the trees in Hyde-park was to take place?
Lord SEYMOUR sa;cl be had not received any infor-
tnatkn from the Commissioners of the Exhibition of the
udustry f all Nations on the subject in question. He
new that some trcei were marked, but be had not yet
whether
whether those trees were to be cut down, or
_hether more were to be removed to make room for
Itig building for the Exhibition of 1851. He was there-