The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-18 00:00:00

Olt itning 2"l,lltts

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY Is, 1850.

The Sabbatarian movement is again afoot, as was
ostentatiously shown this morning in the shape of a
huge advertisement. From the Metropolitan Co-
a-

mittee, for the promotion of what is absurdly called
the desecration of the Sabbath, has issued a very re•

solute declaration, condemnatory of the changes
recently introduced at the establishment in St.

Martin's-le• Grand, by RowLAND HILL, now for
some time distinguished as one of the foremost pro-
moters of the cause of
.civilization. Appended to
that declaration is a catalogue of signatures—
printed, as far as appearances would natu-

rally lead one to conjecture, with the same
assumption of superior godliness as was exhibited of
- yore by those Hebrew elders who distributed alms in
the public streets to the sound of the trumpet. With

regard to this parade of piety, stark naked, in the
public newspapers,we shall say nothing whatever (see-
ing that we regard the circumstance as wholly apart
from the question under discussion), although we
may observe, by the way, that among these signatures
we have remarked the somewhat felicitous name of
one SEPTIMUS GOODAY

What the people look fur, in such controversies,
what the Government expect on occasions of such
agitation—are, not noisy vituperations, but temperate
logic, not long advertisements, but rational argument.
Minister's are not to be bullied into concession by
slanderers ; neither are the villanous imputations of
fanaticism the most effectual weapons for the conquest
of an official antagonist. We are living, thank GOD, in
- days very different from those rendered contemptible by
the extravagances of T ribulation- Wholesome, or Zeal-
o'-the-land-mousy. It iF, therefore, sheer waste of time
on - the part of the Sabbatarians, counting
as confidently as they do on the triumph of their ab-
surd opinion.f. In illustration cf the spirit in which
they view the subject under consideration, we may
mention the truism—the " revolting truism," as it is
well termed by the respected Thad Master of Harrow
.--which one of the pamphleteers seriously proclaims,
namely, "That it is better fur sixty thousand
letters to be burned, unopened, than for one
Post-office clerk to perish in hell for
ever." Very different, exquisitely different is
the spirit in which one of the clerical opponents of
that disgusting exhibition of cant arrives at the fol-
lowing conclusion :—" That it is the duty of every
Christian to believe his neighbour's word until it is
proved to be false, and to put upon his conduct
not the least but the most favourable construction of
which it is reasonably capable." In this way the
ReV. D. CHARLES VAUGHAN, of Letpworth
Rectory, argues that it is most unfair, most
disingenuous, and most un-Christianlike for
the baud of Sabbatarians to impute the worst
motives to the Government in the contrivance of
a system in advancing which the authorities
disclaim all intention to subvert the cause of religion.
Several of the arguments contained in the last
pamphlet,* printed from the manuscripts of this Rev.
Gentleman, are to our thinking at once so pertinent
and sententious that we eagerly lay them, at this
particular moment, under the consideration of our
re &dare.

"I do not for one women`," says the writer, hesitate
to confess that I regard an official Government return
as better evider.ce on a question of fact than the irrc-
aponsrble publications of a • Lord's Day Society.' If the
liiVeir informs me that • tho new Sabtath labour already
employs a considerably larger number of men on the
Sabbath than was professed by Mr. Hill's Minute;' and
if I learn from what I must regard as higher authority
that the amount of extra work to be done en Sundays in
the London office will, in all probabilit3, be Very shortly
reduced to the employment of sir persone, and may ulti-
mately be accomplishc.d even without any such addition,
nay, with an actual dammazon of the original number ;
while, at the same time, more, than one hundred and
ninety persons, who have hitherto performed regular
work on Sundays, are set entirely free, within the Lon-
don district itself; can I hesitate which to follow ?"

The answer is obviouF, and the deduction altogether
conclusive. Again, when comparing the obi system
and the new system of conducting business at the
Post-offices, the Rev. Dr. VAUGHAN thus demon•
atrates the siperior advantages of the latter, if con-

* .6 A Second Letter on the late Pos!-cffice Agitation."
By Charles John Vaughan, D.D., 840., 86-.". BVO. Pr.
$6. Lyndon: Murray. 1850.

sidered solely in reference to its religious tendency.
Under the old system," says he,—
"The average number of letters passing through the
London Office was great-r by six per cent. on Saturday
than on cther days. Why ? Because it was known
that the following was a blank post. If not transmitted
bcfure Sunday, they must wait in London throughout
that day. Now the augmentation of letters passing
through London on Saturday caused an augmentation of
letters delivered and read in the country on Sunday.
The effect cf the new regulation is at least to obviate this
excess, and to reduce the Sunday morning delivery in
the country to the measure of an ordinary day."

In a similar manner also this formidable antagonist
of the Sabbatarians (himself a reverend but reason-
able admirer of a true system of religious observance
for the Sunday) continues:—
" The knowledge that letters posted on Saturday
evening would lie in London till the Monday led to a
very general habit of either writing, or at least posting,
letters on the Sunday. The latter habit, equally with
the former, involved a corresponding increase of the
Sunday labours of tte country offices. Under the pre-
sent system, the temptation to prefer Sunday for either
purpose is removed."

After a candid examination of the force of such rea-
soning as this, no unprejudiced miud can feel surprise
that Dr. VAUGHAN should protest against the tra-
ducers of Mr. ROWLAND HILL, or that he should
speak thus emphatically in approbation of that gen-
tleman's Post-office Minute :
"I believe that the measure thus stigmatized will, so
fir as it extends, promote rather than impede the in-
terests of religion, will, on the whole, facilitate rather
than interfere with the attendance of that class which it
concerns upon the ordinances of worship, while it leaves
untouched those wider and more general considerations
which would involve, if seriously and consistently enter-
tained, a revolution in the management of the whole de-
partment."

to this conviction, and to this conviction alone, must
-the judgment of every rational man subscribe—the
excellence of the recent innovations being capable of
recognition at once by every mind not distorted by
cant or blinded by fanaticism. Therefore it is that,
strong in the truthfulness of our views, and satisfied
as to the firmness of the Government, we laugh to
scorn the calumnies of the Sabbatarians and their vo-
ciferous exultation over their anticipated but alto-
gether hypothetical victory.

Notwithstanding the " counting out " of Tuesday
evening, the Bill for the reform of the Irish Court of
Chancery was read a second time on Friday, and we
trust that we shall speedily be enabled to congratu-
late the country not only on its having received the
legislative sanction, and become the " law of the
land," but also on its extension to England, so that
the United Kingdom may participate in the unques-
tionable advantages to be derived therefrom.
Never was there a greater degree of unani-
mity exhibited in favour of any measure of
equal magnitude, involving such sweeping changes in
the practice and administration of the law. The dif-
ficulties and impediments which obstruct the path of
the legal reformer, owing to the narrow and short-
sighted views of those who arrogate to themselves the
sole right of legislating on such subjects, have passed
into a proverb, but, happily, they have not been
suffered to prevail in the present instance. The mea-
sure has escaped the formidable quicksand on which so
many previous vessels have been wrecked after their
launching. Although two Honourable and Learned
Gentlemen suggested that the measure should be
referred to a Select Committee, and thus practically
shelved for the remainder of the present session, the
Solicitor-General steadfastly refused his assent to the
insidious proposition. He was prepared to take upon
himself the entire responsibility of the important alter-
ations he had brought forward, and to receive all the
honour to which he will be so eminently entitled
He could not allow the Bill to be curtailed of its fair
proportions, or deprived of its utility, but he was
willing to receive, and invited, any practicable
suggestions, by which its efficacy might be increased.
The Honourable and Learned Gentleman thus acted
in a manner becoming his high reputation and the
distinguished name of which is the worthy inheritor.
The Hon. and Learned Member for Newark was
the only person who ventured to oppose the principle
of the measure, and to vote for its rejection. His
amendment, that " the Bill be read a second time
that day six months," was without a seconder. He
stood alone in his glory, not a single Member could
he found to go into the same lobby with the " future
Chancellor of the Protectionists." Even Mr. Tux-
ICE would not on that occasion " walk through Co-
ventry " with his Learned Friend. We do not
wonder at the repugnance of Honourable Gentlemen
to array themselves as defenders of abuses which have
elicited the general condemnation of Parliament and
of the country, which are the scandal and
reproach of the British nation. Had Mr
STUART'S amendment proved successful, it
would have been received as a declaration
that the prominent evils of the Court of Chancery
should be petpetuated—that they should be suffered
to flourish in rank luxuriance, without alteration or
improvement—that the spirit of the age should re-
main stationary so far as the supreme Court of Judi-
cature was concerned.
We cannot compliment the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman either on the tone or substance of his
speech. He commenced his address by assuming the
unqualified ignorance of his audience on the subject-
matter upon which they were about to legislate.
He inquired "‘ if they knew what they were about in
voting for this Bill ?" and added, that " he did not
think there were four men then in the House who
knew much on the subject!" This insinuation was
by no means flattering or even courteous, when so
many distinguished and eminent members of his own
profession were listening to him at the very moment.
He was, however, so fully and satisfactorily replied
to on this point by the Man. and Learned Member

for Athlone, that it is quite unnecessary to add
to the castigation so ably and effectively administered
by the Irish barrister to one of the leaders of the
English Court of Chancery.
The chief, indeed the only ground of opposition, on
which he relied was, that it was the business of the
LDrd Chancellor of Ireland to reform his own court,

and to introduce the alterations in the system of
pleading and practice which he admitted to be defec-
tive is many particulars. He ventured to sneer
at and cast a slur upon the accom-
plished and profound lawyer who now so
worthily fills the highest judicial office in his

native land, to ascribe to him a desire of avoiding
the responsibilities attached to his high position, and
endeavouring to cast upon Parliament the duties that

properly devolved upon himself; and he added, "If
the Lord Chancellor of Ireland would discharge his
duty, one-half of the legislation that was going on

would be unnecessary." After such an assertion,

he statement of the Hon. and Learned Gentleman

" that he did not know the Irish Lord Chancellor," that
" he was not sure that he even knew his name," was
mere surplusage. Had he been in the slightest degree

acquainted with that distinguished functionary ; had
he known anything of the profound learning, the

quick discernment and ready tact, the almost In. tui-
tive perception, which enables the Lord Chancellor
of Ireland to ace, at a single glance, the real
merits of a case ; were he aware of the courteous

and kind attention with which that Learned Judge
listens to the junior barristers, and which secures for
him the admiration and respect of the profession in
Ireland, Mr. StuAirr would never have given utte-
rance to sarcasms which fell innocuous upon
the pasty against whom they were directed and re-
coiled upon the head of him by whom they were de-
livered.

Mr. KEOGH well vindicated the character of the
Lord Chancellor of Ireland. In a speech of great
ability, and which re&cted the utmost credit upon
the Learned Gentleman, he demolished his opponent

on every point. In the most humorous manner he
explained, amid the cheers and laughter of the House,
the various proceedings to which a suitor for justice
might be compelled to resort, not only in Ireland but
in England also. lle dissected " the original
bill," " the supplemental bill," " the bill of reviver,"
"the bill of reviver and supplement," "the original
bill in the nature of a supplemental bill," " the origi-

nal bill in the nature of tt bill or reviver, and supple-
ment," the bill of review," " the bill in the nature of
. __

a bill of review," and the various other barbarous and,
we wish we could add, obsolete forms by which the

course of justice is impeded, delays rendered inter-
minable, and expenses overwhelming. He showed
that Lord Chancellor BRADY only followed
in tl.e footsteps of his able predecessor, and
that he declined to make those changEs
in the practice of his court, which Sir
EDWARD SGGDEN more than doubted his authority