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

ri 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 worker,
I employed from six to six, managing to write a letter to
his wite, or some member of his family in the country. He
wrote it upon the Sundry. According to the old system
he deposited it in the Post-office on the Sunday, or, as
the case 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; or that his mind
could be dedicated for so many hours to religious observance.
Which then was the best—that he should have a Sunday
paper, or go to the potheuee? The pothouse was open, but
the newspaper box was shut; and he might not hays 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 had already said, it was the
duty of the State to secure the greatest qnantity of real rest
for the largest portion of the people ; but how was that to
be done? By combination, and by employing the great arts
which had been discovered for facilitating intercourse, which
had made towns nearer to each other than villages in their
suburts were formerly. - Liverpool was nearer London
now than Highgate was a hundred years ago, through the
use of those same means, why, then, should we be pre-
vented from enjoying the advantage of these great dis-
coveries?
The Post-dike was a eheitp, easy, and
expeditious messenger for the letters of tha poor
man. To shut it up, then, for a time, was to prevent the
poor man, during that time, from availing- himself of that
cheap, easy, and 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
Satutday night, and evelybody knew how. sudden were such
visitations; but tie next day, being Sun ay, 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 m'ght
be so many messengers for -poor men.— (Hoar, 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 pharasaical
House of Commons had said the Post-office should be closed
upon the Sunday. They 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 surprise
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 wera many petitions for the change. Yes;
there came the clergyman 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 will vote for it."—( Hear, hear.)
Unluckily it bad been carried.-(1-1e,ar, hear.) He must say
he had now, for twenty years, seen the question fought in that
House with a full belief that it would never be carried; but

it had been carried, and-the very people who had signed
petitions for it—hutdreds and thousands of them—now
turned round and said they never contemplated such would
be its consequences.—(Hear, hear.) He appealed to Hon.
Gentlemen on both sides whether they had not in converse
with Members of that H use, 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
lay there the whole of Sunday without being delivered. The
railway 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 very 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 would 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 ordinary 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 par-
ticular manner, shall not be carried except by the State ?"
But what did the State, on the other hand ? Whilst prohi-
' biting individuals from carrying letters it undertook to carry
them itself ; 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 onourable Member for Houiton had
read scope adyez tisements-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 energAie 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 Post-office did well, which would re-
quire the employment of five men where only one was
employed before.—(Hear, hear.) Looking, therefore, at
the question in a practical point of view he asserted that the
House t f Commons bad no right to inflict such a resolution
upon the community; and if any man said i was one for
the observance of the Sabbath, he 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
genet'. 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 progress
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 Poet 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 hid adopted a re-
so:ution upon the subject. The resolution so adopted had
been carried to her Majesty under the advice of her respon-
sible Ministi:rs, her Majesty 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 he
had of that resolution. Let the House consider how the
_ _ _

question stood. The resolution was carried on the 30th
May, and shortly aftirwards the Minister of the Crown de-
clared her Majesty's intention to carry its terms into etf,ct.
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 700,00), whilst those presented against it
amounted to only 3,509 ; and the number presented
in its favour, since • notice had been given of an
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 he 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 of the House? Wh.re 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 iithose 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 had 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 it-stances of inconvenience to parties
connected with lunatic asylums; bat 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 sountry— (A laugh) - and the
cases were precisely ana!ogous. 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 cf inconvenience to the country pressed with tenfold
more force upon the metropolis. But he did not, believe incon-
venience had occurred here, for the system had prevailed for
several years, and be had yet- to learn what difficulty re-
sulted from it. Was it not, further, the case when a pro, osi-
tion was made a few years ago to open the Post-office in the
metropolis, that it excited 'a degree ot opposition w Lich 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, Itemise of the way in
which petitions had been got up. No doubt there were
various arts employed in the getting up
.of some peti-
tions; 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 to have been got up as the ho . Gentleman had de-
scribed? The gentlemen who signed that pet e, ca-
pable of judging for themselves. They were not
_liable
to the charge of influence. Yet cut of fitity.onemeli1
petition;b also
members
of
h
the town-council, forty-one
twenty-two surgeons, sixty-eightsigned
t aaprocurators, and brokers,
merchants, manufacturers, and capitalistsd the
to the number of
no bank
less than 500. Nearly. 200 merchants,iser enders'and
others had signed the petition from 13 All greatiiese
number of the same class that from Birmingham.
petitions bore a character of not having been signed by par-
ties ignorant of what they were doing. He therefore was
not prepared to say thst the new system had bad a full, fair,
and satisfactory trial. The question had been argued al-
ready, and lie 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 aaajesty's Ministers accepted it. Ie therefore
i
demanded a full, fair, and satisfactory . trial of it.
The Honourable Gentleman had warned him against en-
couraging a spirit of puritanism. He i
denied that he
did. he put it mainly upon the ground that it
was an act of justice to over-worked and under-paid men;
and he denied that there was any right to call upon them to
do work not ab,olutelynecessary. r
impression on his mind—(lleal )—and he 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 e
bound in respect to the large reating that the House was
number of petitions to which lie
d
had referred, in respect to the igonitsi•voeftitihise Crown, and
a andfoili,
in
respect to its own consistency,
I
perfect,
A and sufficient trial.--(1-Toar.)g-
Mr. GLIONBY rose amidst cries of "Divide." He said
the Noble Lord had asked if this measure bad bad a full and
sufficient trial. He (Mr. A
lionby) would answer that it
had already been tried too 'gong, and lie regretted exceed.
ingly that it had had any trial at.all.—(Hear, hear.) No-
thing co. Id so much tend to the desecration of the Sabbath
as the very measure of the Noble Lord (Lord Ashley). It
i
was sowing the seeds of vice n the large towns in the court-
trv, and in his own borough (Coek ermouth) he could state
that it was driving to public-houses on a
institute, Sunday those who
formerly frequented the mecbanica'