The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the pußLic. JOURNALS.
1_ FROM THE MORNING Pts.FERS OF THIS DAY.
CHRONICLE.—The H ouse of Commons will this
evening be called upon to reconsider .its late hurried,'
4' and random decision on the• question of Sunday La-I
bour in the Post-office. Mr.. Locke will move for anj
address to the Crown, praying that the whole subject
may be made the matter of official inquiry, and that,
;• pending such investigation, the Sunday collection and
delivery of letters may be resumed. We own that
, we do not exactly perceive the necessity for the first
part of the Member for Honiton's motion; for it is
perfectly well known that the practicability of reduc-'
ing the amount of Sunday labour throughout the Post-
office establishment of the United Kingdom is a
question which has for matey months past engaged
the earnest attention of the Government—long before
any agitation arose respecting it—and that, in feet,
very considerable reductions have from time'
to time been effected. Nor do we altogether like
the air of compromise apparent in the wording
of the latter part of the notice. If, as the author
of the motion is no doubt prepared to maintain, thej
internal communications of the country never ought]
to have been closed on the Sunday, there seems no;
reason why their re-opening should be put on a foot-
ing of a merely provisional and ad interim arrange-
ment ; and, on general grounds, we doubt the desir-
ibleness of affecting to adjourn a vexatious and irri-
:ming controversy, instead of settling it. However,
the difference is, after all, not so material as it ap-
Jeers, and if Mr. Locke is not deluding himself with
the notion that his excessive moderation will bring
him a few Sabbatarian votes, we dare say no greats
harm will be done. The practical gist of his motion,
is, that the decision of the House for stopping the Sun-1
day collection and delivery of letters was hasty, un-,
wise, and ought to be reversed ; and any form of words
which really raises this issue will answer every essen-1
tial purpose. On the merits of this controversy we have
little or nothing to add to what we have repeatedly had
sccasion to urge during the last few weeks. Look-
ing at the question merely as one of religious prin-
ciple, we never could understand why the State
should make a conscience of refusing to perform on!
the Sunday a social function which, in countless in-I
stances, confessedly comes within the privileged'
category either of " necessity" or of " mercy." We
never yet met with a Sabbatarian who made any
difficulty about admitting that cases are perpetually
arising in which the instant transmission of a written
communication to a distant place,-quite irrespectively
• if canonical hours or days, is an actual duty ; and if
his be once granted, it is totally inexplicable on
what grounds a Christian Government ought to hold
itself interdicted from facilitating the perform-
ance of such duties. Considering how large
an amount of Sunday letter-writing is, on
the very strictest and narrowest principles of
Sabbatarianism, not only permissible, but even com-
pulsory in foro conseientice, we are really astonished
At the facility with which some people assume that it
is sinful for the state to collect and deliver letters on
that day. And this is the more extraordinary when
it is further remembered that the performance of this
function by the same official machinery which collects
tad delivers on other days is obviously an immense
saving of Sunday labour, since it employs a single
orps of carriers and messengers in the transmission
sf communications which would otherwise be con-
veyed by an indefinite number of private individuals
Possibly, after the little foretaste which we have had
,f the practical working of the prohibitory re; oimP,
the advocates of the better observance of the
Sunday may be more accessible to reason on
:his point than they have previously shown them-
selves. It can scarcely be doubted, that, as the
Postmaster-General was informed the other day by a
leputation of newspaper proprietors, a far greater
amount of Sunday labour has been set in motion for
the last two or three weeks, in connexion with the
ransmission and delivery of the London weekly
journals alone, than has been saved by the opera •
'ion of the new system ; and if we further take
into account all the parcels, messages, and other
expedients to which individuals have resorted in order
co supply the void left by the enforced idleness of the
Post-office, it will be difficult to resist the conclusion
hat the Sunday has never been worse kept within
.he memory of this generation than during the
present period of Sabbatarian ascendancy.. We
save already more than once warned the agitators
.hat it would be prudent to let well alone—or, we
would rather say, to content themselves with that
silent and gradual progress from good to better
which has been taking place for many years past
with reference to the decorous and religious observ-
ince of the Sunday. As it is, the sacred day is im-
neasurably better kept in Great Britain than in any
,they European country • and there is the utmost
reason to fear that violent and ill-considered at-
•empts to strain the cords of Sabbatical obligation too
:fight will produce consequences the very reverse of
hose which are intended and desired. We know not
tow far there is reason for supposing that the gentle-
nen who constituted the majority of ninety-
hree have profited by the experience of the last three
.reeks—Ahough it is at least certain that the tone di
'heir organs surprisingly changed from the first mo fi
-
eaent that the matter assumed a serious and prac-
ical shape. But the real settlement of the question
All lie, so far as the present session is concerned, not
with the majority of ninety-three who voted with
'Lord Ashley on the 30th of May, but with the far
arger majority of 490 (including, by the way), Mr. ‘'
Locke himself) who were absent from the House on
hat occasion. We presume that a very consider- T.
stele proportion of these Gentlemen have sub-
sequently been made aware—either by the Isom- 's
ounctious visitings of conscience or by the remon-
-Istrances of their constituents—that they are bound
both to have and to express an opinion, one way or
'the other, on a matter so deeply interesting to the
community as in the mutilation or the restoration
of the postal system of the country ; and if so, it
is scarcely possible to doubt that the result
of to-night's motion will be the abrogation of
a hasty vote which nobody expected, and which,
we believe, very few persona really desired. At all
events we may take the liberty of reminding anyi
gentleman whose absenteeism on a former occasion
was not accidental, and who may feel inclined to]
resort to the same expedient a second time for the]
sake of evading an embarrassing alternative, that
it is not always practicable to shuffle' off public re-
sponsibilities thus lightly. In fact, whover shrinks'
(without special cause shown) from giving a vote
either fur or against Mr. Locke's motion, says, as
plainly as actions can speak, that he is totally
indifferent, on the one hand, to the supposed re-
ligous obligation of shutting up post-offices on the
i
Sunday, and on the other, to the comfort and conve-1
nience of the public. One of these impeachments aw
man may very well afford to bear, after having ho-
nestly striven to decide and act according to the best
f his judgment —but it would be decidedly disagree-
able to incur both, without the re-assuring conscious-
ness of having done one's duty. As few gentlemen
will, we suppose, like to lay themselves feirly- open to
this double imputation, we look forward to seeieg Mr.
Locke'a motion thoroughly debated in a full House,
and adopted by a majority which shall leave no.
doubt as to the real sense of the country. Let
us add, that whatever may be said of the duties
and responsibilities of independent Members of
Parliament applies, with tenfold force, to the.
Ministers Of the Crown. Oa a matter so vitally
important to all classes of the community, and
especially to the poor and the unrepresented,
the Government are bound not only to have a clear
and decided opinion, but to do their best to obtain its
adoption by the House of Commons. It will not do
for them to fold their arms in sulky apathy, and leave
everything to "the House." There has been far too
much of this already, and we have never seen Lord
John Russell to less advantage than in the attitude.
which he has assumed in reference to this question—
courting defeat, in the first instance, by sheer negli-
gence and indifference, and ostentatiously exulting
afterwards in the thought that "people would find
out the inconvenience" of leaving a Liberal Cabinet
in a minority. We trust that we have witnessed the
last of those most unseemly displays of little-
ness and pettishness, and that Ministers will now
set themselves in good earnest to repair the error
which has been committed through their own laches.
The rights and comforts of the great mass of the
community are not to be wantonly trifled with, hni
if the Premier has any quarrel with a House of Corn.
mons, which, to say the truth, is rather fond of out-
voting him, he must find some other way of showing
his resentment than by zealously and eagerly inflict-
ing " an exceedingly great hardship on all classes of
the people, and especially on the poorer classes." If
Ministers do not give an unreserved, a hearty, a
zealous, and an official support to Mr. Locke's oso,
don of to-night, the country will henceforth entirely
forget who moved, supported, and carried the Sabba-
tarian vote of the 30th of May, and will remember
only that Lord John Russell has taken particular
pleasure in carrying it out to all its mischievous and
exasperating consequences.
DAILY NEWS.—Mr. Locke has a very proper
motion on the notice--hook of the House of Commons
this evening. It is on the vexed question of Sunday
labour in the Post-offices of the kingdom; and after
stating, what is unquestionable, that inconveniences
have arisen in carrying out the recent decision of the
House, it proposes to address the Crown in favour of
an inquiry whether the amount of Sunday labour
might not be greatly diminished without a total ces-
sation of collection and delivery of letters on that
'day, and praying her Majesty meanwhile to direct a
return to the former practice of the Post-office. This
motion, it is true, stands seventh on the notice books,
but as it is quite possible that those before it may be
disposed of quickly or withdrawn, it is very desi-
rable that there should be a full attendance in
case it come on. That the recent address to the,
Crown expresses the real opinion of the House
of Commons, will not, we suppose, be asserts,
even by its mover, Lord Ashley. On the other