The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-02 00:00:00

POST OFFICE SUNDAY DELIVERY
(From the Weekly Dispatch.)
Now that the post is restored to its former activity
and use, our friends the Sabbatarians are kind enough
to tell us what they will do, if they can, to mar the public
convenience. Like the Protectionists, they are far to
proud and far too angry at being proved to be in the
wrong, as well as at being defeated, to give up the show
of a strugele. Therefore one Sir W. Farquhar, and the
Hon. A. Kinuaird, Mr. Masterman, the useless eI.P. for
London, and a certain J. D. 'lorries, put forth an adver-
tisement, to tell their friends and admirers that they do
not mean to be beaten. We have not room enough in
our columns to allow a detailed answer, fitted to the
space they pay for in the Tithes; we shall therefore
only touch their arguments. They profess to think the
case of the postmen who work on Sunday a hard one,
because they are compelled by the " fear of losing their
employment." Why, the men accepted, sought, coveted
the employment, well knowing that condition. Yes,
as much so as the servants of Farquhar, Kinnaird,
Masterman, Fowles, and Co., know that they must
wait upon their masters on the Sunday fur their
wages, or be desired to take themselves off. As to
" violating a Divine command," and the disregard of the
" Lord's•day" (they dare not now say "Sabbath") in a
Christian country," it has been shown clearly enough
that the " Lord's-clay," as a Sabbatical rest, does not ex-
ist in Christian ordinances, and that the " Divine com-
mand," taking it at their own value, is no more in
effective operation than the obligation of circumcision.
The Sabbatarian Chairman and Vice• Chairmen then
quote Mr. Loyd Jones, now Lord Overstone, to say that
" they regard the importance to the community of a
total cessation from ordinary pursuits on each Sunday as
so inestimable, that they would make considerable sa-
crifices," &c., &c., to gain it. Well, let. them: Who
hinders them? But what right have they to exact sa-
crifices from others, who do not think as they do? If
the consciences of the postmen are in danger, let them
make sacrifices. It they think it wrong to work, they are
wrong in working. There are plenty who do not. As it has
been put before, the Jews do not work on their Sabbath,
the Saturday, or on their high fasts and festivals, though all
the competing community is working around them. And
they do not let their servants work either. Then the Sab-
batarians urge the example of London, neither sending
nor receiving letters on the Sunday. Yes, that conces-
sion has been made; but if the chain is drawn an atom
tighter, that concession may be revoked. There have
not been wanting many, during the late agitation, who
have ergeed for a London post on Sundays. The ques-
tion was declined, but it may be resumed. Besides,
London stands on one side and the provinces stand on
the other. One day is now lost to all who communicate
between the two—the Saturday for sending, and the
Monday for receiving in the country, and the whole of
Sunday in London. Strike out the Sunday from the
country collection and delivery, and two days are
taken from the week. London cannot receive on Mon-
day, and cannot send on Saturday. London will lose
another day. Why did not the Sabbatarian Commit-
tee meat their antagonists before a London audience?
When their official, or officious deputies did so, what
chance had the)'? For a day of rest, the largest com-
munity, the metroplis, has the choice ; it takes the
Sunday. And it nes other means of communication
that no other community possesses. It has also the roost
needtnl accessories, medical aid, for instance, in itself.
No doubt, a Sunday post would be a great convenience
in London; it is a matter well worthy of re flection.
Then comes the tra.h about the ;00,000 siss,natures to
the Sabbatarian petitions. Hew many of those were
bullied fseen the signers, by the parsoury and old woman-
hood? How inriny were wholly deceived as to the effect
of the petitions? How many of the petitioners imine-
diataly regretted their own net? We then are intro-
duced to tho future plan of campaign. It has been
promisf.d, that where •• the prevalent feeling of the
district" is against a Sunday delivery, it shall be aban-
doned. The circumcised Sabbatarians reckon upon this.
It is a fine engine of oppression. If they can only, by
their •' parson power" coerce the inhabitants of dis-
tricts into giving up their post, they will do some-
thing in detail, anti something, they say, to-
wards the general cause ; there will ba less
to remove by a general effort. Now we call especially
on our friends in remote places to watch this tyranny,
and give us note of the tyrants and their doings. We
cannot see what right any local majority has to deprive
a single individual of a convenience, for the use of which
he is taxed, which the Government is, in fast, bound to
afford him. But we pray of our correspondents to keep
us well informed. The Pharisees think they can do all
this mischief at other people's expense. We must teach
them that it shall cost them something. They shall
fight on fair ground. There is not one old bigotted un-
repealed enactment that they shall not taste the plea-
sures of to let them feel what Sabbatarianism is. There
is not a deed of their own but shall be subjected to the
test they dare to set up in oppression against others.
W e will give all publicity to them and their Sunday
doings. And then, of course, they will try once more to
surprise the House of Commons. We intreat of our
Liberal friends in the House to prevent that. The
orders must so be reformed as to give room for a
second division at least, on bringing up the specific
address to be agreed to. And lastly, throughout the
country, let the people remember that the attack is, in
Lord Overstone's words (who, by the way, would never
have been a lord if his gains had been at the mercy of
every meddler who might feel it conscientious to interfere
with them), that it is " a total cessation from ordinary
pursuits" that is aimed at. We are to be chained like
galley slaves to the exercises of a Scotch Sunday. It
will noedo to be hypocritical or compliant. We must stand
up man fully against superstition, ignorance, and pre-
tence. We must treat Farquhar, Masterman, and Co.,
as the inquisitors they long to be, The Sunday is
surely ours as much as theirs. Let them put themselves
out of the world for the day, so much the pleasanter
for those who are left in it. But there are many who
cannot; who need enjoyment as well as rest, beeause the
week gives them neither. It is one thing to worship
the Devinity that speaks in every man's heart, and
another to " fall down and worship the golden image
which Nebuchadnezzar the King," or Masterman the
banker, " has set up."

THE POST-OFFICE PET.
(From l'unch.)
The Marquis of Clanricarde is one of the best-natured
of men. To be sure, it is difficult to withstand the in-
strumentality of a bishop; and the more especially, so
Oleaginous a pastor as the Bishop of Oxford. Great, in-
deed, is his secretion of the oil of gladness; an oil with
which he has softened the already soft heart of the
Postmaster-General. One I. W. Davis, illuminating 25,
Princes-street, Mile End, writes thus joyfully to there-
joicing Morning Heralds--
"Sir,—You will be glad to hear, that through the
kind instrumentality of the Lord Bishop of Oxford, R.
G. Howlett, the letter-carrier who was dismissed from
the General Post-office in November last, for distributing
hand-bills against Sunday labour therein, has been re-
appointed to a situation in that branch of the public ser
vice l y the Postmaster-General, the Marquis of Clan-
rienrdr." _ _

Very kind, very forgiving, this, of the Marquis; the
more so, inasmuch as the discontent and conspiracy of
the tribe of Howleas were mainly instrumental to the
manufacture of the petitions with which Lord Ashley,
armed in the innocence of sheep parchment, attacked the
Sabbath•breakere in the louse of Commons. It is no-
torious, Chet the treasonous practices of the country
Post-offiee servents were of fatal influence against the
idlencee and indifference of the mass of the people; idle
and indifferent, because the Sunday closing of the
country pi.ist was considered no other then an unmean-
ing rant of a party, who " think they're pious when
they're only bilious." Every ten years, at most, some
phosphoric prophet foretell; the end of the world, giving
into
sackcloth, they and the hour; nevertheless, folks do not go
9,Ackelotli, tied powder their heads with ashes: and
trade, men ere no whit less indifferent to the tender of a
bad shilling. And thus it was with the bray of the
Sebbetariens. The world received it us only an evi-
dence of length of ears, taking no heed of its menaced
heels. And the Derby-day came, and—in the house of
Commons—the bray became a note of triumph.
But all is to be forgiven and forgoaen. The hundreds
of people who have suffered the piety of Lord Ashley;
the sick, with the survivors of the dead; the anxious and
the harassed, all pardon his Lordship the tyranny of his
saintly goodness; for which no doubt his Lordship, in
the bigness of his heart, is very properly penitent, and
abundantly grateful Ashley shall be forgiven, end
Howlett restored. _ _ .

Nevertheless, the Marquis of Clanricarde, by his re-
appointment of the treasonous Howlett, bps taken a
large trump card from the hands of the Sabbatarians. It
was the misfortune of Punch to censure Hewlett into the
receipt of 501,, indignantly laid down iQr him by some