The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-10 00:00:00

man-was a matter...of trouble, it cost him time; but he wrote
it on his day..of rest. Take the case of a factory worieer,
employed from six to six, msnaging to erne a letter to
his wife, or some 'limber of his family in the country. i He
wrote it upon the Sundry. According to the old eyem
he deposi.e.l it in the Post-office on the Sunday, 01, as
the .ease might be, received his letter .on the Sunday.
There was no such thing now.—(Hear, hear.) But
with regard to the education of the poor man, it was im-
possible he could be all -day at church e or that his rain.'
eeeld be dedica-ted fur so many hours to religious obeervahce.
Which then was the best—that be should have a Sunday
paper, or go to the petheese?
,The potbouse ,was open, ibut
theenewspaper bex was shut ; and he might not have his
newspaper, though he might have as much gin as he liked.
(Hear, hear.)- Then it was said that the new system Was
an abridgment of Sunday labour; but, he asked; did it
abridge Sunday labour? As he lute already said, it was the
duty. of the State to secure the greatest quantity of real rest
for ehe largest portion of the people; but how was that to
be done? By combination, and by employing the great arts
which lied been discovered for facllitating intercourse, which
had‘made towns nearer to each other than villages in tdreir
suburbs were formerly. Liverpool was nearer London
now,. than Highgate was a hundred years ago, through ,the
use 'Of those same means, why, then, should wo be pre-
vented from enjoying the advantage of these great dis-
coveries? The Post-office was a cheap, easy, and
expeditious - messenger for the letters of the Poor
man. To shut it up, then, for a time was to prevent ;thepoor man, during that time, from availing himself of that
cheap, easy, nod expeditious mode of rending his letters.
Let the man be placed 100 miles from London, with 'his
family in the metropolis. He was taken suddenly ill on the
Saturday night, and everybody knew bow sudden were such
visitations; but the next day, being Sunday, he could not
send a letter through the post to communicate his condition
to his family. But if he were a person who was rich, he
could dispatch his servant` by the railway. - The railway Car-
ried the rich man's servant,
...who was his messenger; but the
railway would carry a hundred thousand letters which might
be so many messengers for poor men.— (Hear, hear.) But
the poor man was cut off from all possibility of sending his
message, and he was obliged to linger, away from his family,
unable to communicate with them, just because a pharisaical
House of Commons had said the Post-office should be cloSed
upon the Sunday. Trey had, however, been told that the
House had been taken by surprise. The word was a very
happy one. Though they voted for the resolution, a large
number of Members never believed it would ever be carried
into execution—(Hear)—and he believed the only e.urprise
had been perpetrated by the Noble Lord •at the head of the
Government.—(Hear.) The Noble Lord took the House at
its word; he accepted an unexpected majority for a defined
and positive opinion ; he had put it into effect ; and the Noble
Lord had done great evil (as we understood) by so doing. But
it was said there were many petitions for the change. Yes;
there came the clergymen and the minister with," Will you
not sign the petition against postal labour on the Sabbath?"
and down went the name. The petition then came up to
the House of Commons. "What are you going to do?"
said one Member to another. To which he replied, " I know
it will not be carried, so I nill vote for it."—( Hear, hear.)
Unluckily it had been carried.—(Hear, hear.) He mast say
be had now, for twenty years, seen the question fought in that
House with a full belief that it would never be'earried ; but
it had been carried, and the very people who had signed
petitions for it—hundreds and thousands of them—now
turned round and said they never contemplated such would
be itaconsequences.—(Hear, hear.) He appealed tie Hon.
Gentlemen on both sides whether they bad not in converse
with Members of that Huse, and in converse out of the
House, frequently heard the statement, "I never be-
lieved it would be carried, and I could not believe that such
would be the consequence of it."—(Hear hear.) What
was it then, which had been done ? Why, all that had-
been done was this—that a letter 'arriving at its destination
laysethere the whole of Sunday without being delivered. The
railesey travelled upon the Saturday night and the Sunday
night, but the letters would not be delivered until Monday.
The only persons, therefore, who were freed from labour
were the deliverers of the letters. By the combination and
arrangements of the Post-office a vele, few persons had
been enabled to do the duty of delivery upon Sunday ; but,
wanting those arrangements and facilities which the Post-
office necessarily acquired, a great number vveuld rudely do
that which the Post-office had done well ; and, so far
from abridging labour on Sunday, it would be multiplied
fivefold, But there was yet another step. By Act of Par-
liament society had been told there was one thing which
they should not do, and that was to carry a letter. Now,
the ord'inary habits of society would induce the
public to say "You are not justified in inter-
fering with the free exercise of men's liberty; and •
what is there to justify the State in saying that a sheet
of paper folded in a peculiar way, and addressed in a pan--
duller manner, shall not be carried except by the State ?''
But what did the Stwe, on the other hand ? Whilst prohi-
biting individuals from carrying letters it undertook to carry
them itse.f ; and therefore if he could prove he had de-
rived injury fairly and clearly from the arrestation of his
letters by the order of the Post-office, he had a fair action
against the party who had so injured him. What, how-
ever, was taking place, and this affected the moral part of
the question? The Honourable Member for Honiton had
read some advertisements announcing the measures that in •
dividuals we e taking in consequence of the closing of the
Post-office on Sunday; for, could any body think that this
moving energetic society would be " cribbed, cabinned,
confined " by a resolution like that which had been
carried ? Not at all ; for society would be obliged to do •
rudely that which the Pest-office did well, which would re-
quire the employment of five men where only one was
employed before.—(Hear, bear.) Looking, therefore, at
the question in a practical point of view he asserted that the
House of Commons had no right to inflict such a resolution
upon the community • and if any man said was one for
the observance of the Sabbath, be denied his right to make
that assertion, and declared it was nothing less than re-
ligious bigotry. The House had nothing to do with the re-
ligious question ; then it came to a question of political- exi
gency. On this point it was clear that the pretence of
abridging labour upon the Sunday was leading to a direct
and positive increase of it. That increase would progres•
from week to week; and it would gradually break up all the
arrangements of the Post-office. It would eventually shake
that institution to its base, for when once the people had
been taught to look to themselves for the carriage of letters,
great difficulty would certainly be found in inducing them to
return to the Post office.- (Hear.)
Lord ASHLEY said it was by no means his intention to
enter into the length and breadth of this question, because
he considered' it already to some extent decided.— (Hear,
and some cries of " Oh, oh.") The House hat adopted a re-
solution upon the subject. The resolution so adopted had
been carried to her Majesty under the advice of her respon-
sible Ministers, her Majosty had givenorders for the closing
of the Post-office, and he (Lord Ashley.), in the name of those
he represented, demanded that a full and fair trial should be
bad of that resolution. Let the House consider how the
question stood. The resolution was carried on the 30th
May, and shortly aft*rwarde-the Minister of the Crown de-
clared her Majesty's intention to carry its terms into effect.
But within twenty days after the order having been given
for the closing of the Post-office, a proposition was made to
rescind the resolution ; and he wished to ask whether within
so short a period anybody could undertake to say a full, fair,
and sufficient trial had been given? Let the House see the
manner in which it had been brought into operation. Let
them read the terms in which the order was couched. Let
him, too, call attention to an almost unprecedented matter
in the history of Parliament. A question was asked from a
Minister of the Crown, whether certain facilities would be
given for the purpose of carrying the resolution into effect,
when not only was the answer that no facilities would be
given, but a very strong opinion was expressed by the Mi-
nister that petitions should be got up and presented to the
House to reconsider its decision.—(Hear, hear.) He there-
fore maintained that there had not been a full, fair, and
satisfactory trial of the resolution. The number of signa-
tures to the petitions presented in its favour had been very
nearly 7)0,03), those presented against it
moonlya notice had been given of an
3,509 ; and the number presented
ia favour,teirtnetedto ince
intention to rescind the order, had been as ten to one
against, compared with those for it. Surely, then, some
strong grounds were required to call upon the House to re-
vere a deci-ion of such a nature; and be asked the House
whether either the mover or the seconder of the proposition
had adduced any facts to shake, in the slightest degree, the
previous opinion ot the House? W hare was the inconvenience,
and to what extent did it prevail, of the existing system ?
True a certain number of instances had been quoted, but
none to counterbalance the great comfort which had arisen
from it. There had been no deputations from the great
towns pointing out commercial inconvenience; but, on the
contrary, there had been deputations pointing out the great
benefit which had resulted from it, and praying the Govern-
ment not to be a party to rescind the resolution.—(Hear,
hear.) The facts, therefore, did not prove inconvenience ;
but they showed this, that if those who wished to rescind the
resolution were true to their own principles they must
open the Post-office in London.— (Hear, hear.) Every
evil that bad been quoted in the country would exist
in a tenfold degree if the Post-office in the metropolis
were opened. The Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Locke)
bad quoted instances of inconvenience to parties
connected with lunatic asylums; but was not that
precisely the case of every lunatic asylum in the metropo-
lis? The metropolis 'was the great concentration of all
the lunatic asylums in the country—(A laugh) - and the
cases were precisely analogous. He maintained, therefore, that
there was something more for the House to consider than the
mere rescinding of the resolution, inasmuch as all the argu-
ments of inconvenience to the country pressed with tenfold
more force upon the metropolis. But he did not believe incon-
venience had occurred here, fur the system had prevailed for
several years, and he had yet to learn what difficulty re-
sulted from it. Was it not, further, the case when a proposi-
tion was made a few years ago to open the Post-office in the
metropolis, that it excited a degree of opposition which made
it quite impossible for the establishment to advance a single
step towards it?—(Hear, hear.) The Hon. Gentleman, how-
ever, said he must warn the House, because of the way in
which petitions had been got up. No doubt there were
various arts employed in the getting up
.of some
epnettlietpoen n
w hadere de-
scribedepeti-
tions;a-
but some reference must be made in determining
both to the quality as well as the number of
persons signing. Could the petition from Glasgow be sup-
posed
t have
he benge e n
pable of judging .for themselves. They were not liable
to the charge of influence. Yet cut of fifty-one members of
the town-council, forty-one had signed the petition; also
t egmoetn up
phsos signed the
H o
r t.ll aGt
twenty-two surgeons, sixty-eight procurators, and brokers,
merchants, manufacturersaand capitalists to the number of
no less than 500. Nearly 200 merchants, bankers, and
others had signed the petition from Liverpool, and a great
number of the same class that from Birmingham. All these
ties ignorant of what they wer g e dein .He therefore was
not prepared to say that the new system had had a full, fain,
petitions bore a character of not having been signed by par-
and satisfactory trial. The question bad been argued al-
ready, and he stood upon two points- first, that there was
the example of the metropolis, in which no mischief bad
ever occurred from closing the Post-office upon. the Lord's-
day; and next that the resolution had been carried, and
that her Majesty's Ministers accepted it. He therefore
The Honourable Gentleman had warned him against
did. He
en-
couraging a spirit of puritanis • .
m He denied that demanded a full, fair, and satisfactory trial of it.
orked and under-paid men •
was an act of justice to over-w ,
and he denied that there was any right to call upon them to
put it mainly upon the ground that it
do work not absolutely necessary. This language made no
impression on his mind—(Hear)—and be only alluded to it
to show the Hon. Gentleman that the strong feeling to which
he had alluded was not all confined to one side on this ques-
tion. He would conclude by repeating that the House was
bound in respect to the large number of petitions to which he
the Crown, and in
had referred, in respect to the dignity of
h.
respect to its own consistency, to give t measure a full,
perfect, and sufficient trial.—(Hear.)
Mr. AGLION BY rose amidst cries of "Divide." He said
the Noble Lord had asked if this measure had had a full and
sufficient trial. He (Mr. Aglionby) would answer that it
had already been tried too long, and he regretted exceed-
el at all.—(Hear,
of the Sabbath
hear.) No-
thing
ttllhyge tevlreesrti;i it
ehe
much
ea had
was sowing the seeds of vice in the large towns in the coun-
try, and in his own borough (Cockermouth ), he could state
feantndbye t o t
Noblerti ha
Lord (Lord Ashley). It
that it was driving to public-houses on a Sunday those who
formerly, frequented the mechanics' institute.