The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The practical joke which her Majesty's
Ministers have recommended her to play on the
newspaper-reading and letter-receiving public ap-
pears to have produced the desired amount of incon-
venience. A rather numerous class of political gen-
tlemen, who spend the Sunday some twenty or thirty
miles from town, yesterday realised the unusual idea
of a breakfast-table without a letter or a newspaper
or a single shred of intelligence upon it. In several
cases of privation that came to our knowledge it was
evident that no improvement had resulted either in
the temper or the language of the sufferers. But
our contemporaries are the principal complainants.
Foremost among them is one that has contended
stoutly for the alteration, and charged all sorts of
impiety and profaneness upon those who don't like to
see Puritanism going ahead in this manner. " Our
country readers," it says, " ought to be informed that
the Post-office authorities offer no facilities whatever
for carrying into effect the late resolution of the
House of Commons for the observance of the Sab-
bath." Why, what did it expect ? Did it expect
an additional mail-train on every metropolitan
line of railway to leave town on Saturday after-
noon for the sole purpose of delivering the Satur-
day evening and " Sunday" papers over a part of
the kingdom before midnight ? As it is, the evening
papers are in Birmingham at 8 o'clock, and in Man-
chester at 11 ; but even the former hour would leave
the Post-office very little time before 12 o'clock for
the distribution of newspapers over the country dis-
tricts. But why did not the Sabbatarians tell us
beforehand that they expected extraordinary " facili-
ties" on Saturday night ? If the public had been in-
formed that Saturday night was to be disturbed by
express trains, special messengers, and special deli-
veries, up to 12 o'clock, keeping numbers out of their
bed and spoiling their night's rest, it might have
considered betimes whether the advantage of saving
a village postmaster ten minutes' trouble on Sunday
morning was worth so great a cost. Of all times in
the week Saturday night is the very worst for a postal
delivery, as will readily be perceived by those who
know what it is to receive their letters and newspapers
from their post town by the village carrier on his
return from the Saturday market. But it is evident
that the case of the evening papers is beyond the reach
of any possible " facilities," when it is considered that
even the morning papers will find the postal delivery of
their Saturday's impression considerably affected. The
Examiner announces an edition in time for transmis-
sion by the early mails on Saturday morning, putting
itself thereby in the position of a morning paper, so
far as the post is concerned. This is a very great
sacrifice. The " leaders" must be written for the
early edition, and will therefore lase the benefit of all
the intelligence contained in the morning papers, in-
cluding, generally, an important debate. Instead of
winding up the week, the early edition will neces-
sarily be behind the morning papers of Saturday.
What, then, is to be gained by this sacrifice? Not
very much after all, The deliveries by the morning
mail are confined to a certain number of towns si-
tuated on railways, and not more than 300 miles from
the metropolis. Most of the towns off the principal
lines, rural districts, and all Ireland and Scotland, are
either excluded from the benefit of the morning mail
altogether, or are only enabled thereby to re-
ceive their letters somewhat earlier next
morning than they would otherwise. The
weekly papers cannot now be delivered through
the post before Monday over the whole even of Eng-
land, unless they are published and posted in time for
the Friday evening mail, at the moment, perhaps,
that the most important debate of the week is on the
point of beginning. The Post-office can do, and has
done, wonders, but it cannot wholly annihilate space
and time, and it is evidently not its fault if it-cannot
deliver before midnight on Saturday all over 'the
kingdom any publication pretending to be either a
Saturday evening paper or a paper containing the
news of the week. Their case is hopeless under the
new rule—so far, at leest, as the facilities of the post
are concerned. So far as regards the moral effect of
this great lesson, candour compels us to admit that
yesterday, being about the hottest and the finest
Sunday in the memory of man, did not give it a fair
trial. The atmosphere of. our streets yesterday was
that of Dr. Reid's hot-air chambers just at the
moment when, through some hitch in the machi-
nery, the current has ceased to flow. The result was
that never before, since London was London, had the
centrifugal force been so strong. The railways
could not supply trains fast enough for the multi-
tude pressing into the metropolitan stations, and by
the time a regular train had got off' there remained
enough for a supplementary special. The river,
which had not ceased to flow, presented a similar
spectacle ; and as no air was to be got in the streets,
it was a comfort to think of the several score thou-
sands who inhaled it, not quite pure perhaps, but still
in motion, on the Thames. We never remember to
have seen so complete a turn-out of the population on
the pavement as there was in the evening, just as the
air out of doors was beginning to be cooler than that
within. We must add that we saw a good many
reading their newspapers, which they did with the
look of men exercising a privilege, and resolved to
keep it if possible. We will not deny that yesterday
the shade of forest trees, without a newspaper, and
even without the post, would have been preferable to
all that London could supply either for body or for
mind ; but certainly, many whose hard fate bound
them to this soil of iron and sky of brass seemed to
find some alleviation of their wretchedness in the news
of the week.
WEEKLY DISPATCH.—The stopping of Sun-
day trading is not the only object of the malicious
and mischievous idiots who worry the Legislature
with petitions for the better observance of the Sab-
bath. They have a great hatred, also, of Sunday
reading, and particularly of the reading of news-
paper. For years they have made all sorts of efforts
to stop the publishing and the sale of weekly journals
on Sunday, not because they desire to make a day of
rest for newsmen, but because they wish to discou-
rage that useful mental occupation which is the great
hinderance to the progress of cant and humbug. The
effect of stopping the one early delivery of the post in
the country on gunday morning will, of course, be, that
all the daily and weekly newspapers sent away from
London on Saturday night will be buried in the coun-
try post-offices until the following Monday morning.
This is exactly what the Saints desire, but it is pre-
cisely that kind of inroad upon domestic enjoyments
and public freedom which ought to be earnestly re-
sisted. Sunday affords, to most working men, and
to many tradesmen, the only hours of leisure which
can be devoted to reading the newspaper. It is our
belief that there is, at this time, more newspaper
reading on the Sunday than on all the other days of
the week put together. This must of necessity be
the case, because Sunday is a day snatched from
labour, and the mass of the people having to draw
their subsistence from the work of their hands, it is
on this day, and on this day alone, when the
body is at rest, and the mind free from care,
that the newspaper can be read with attention
and interest. Who will Bay that such occupa-
tion, during a part of the Sabbath, is either op-
posed to the proper performance of religious duty or
to the welfare of the people ? England owes to a
great extent, not only its political freedom, but the
preservation of public order, to the political intelli-
gence of the people, acquired, guided, and controlled
by the press. English statesmen have spoken with
just pride of the quiet and security existing of late
years in this country, while the nations of the conti-
nent were distracted with the conflicts of revolution..
It is this interest in public affairs, this knowledge of
political questions, kept up and preserved by the
becoming
newspaper press, which enables the people
life to exercise their political duties with
ake
independence, but without breaking the laws.
and
away the working man's Sunday newspaper,
ou
deny him the means of acquainting . himself.w.ithyall
that interests his class in public affairs. It is idle to
any that time may be found on other days of the week
for this kind of reading. Any one who. has any ac•
quaintance with the habits of the trading and work-
ing classes of the English people knows how entirely
their time is taken rp during six days of the week in
attending to those pursuits by which alone they can
make provision for their families. Deprive such men
of their Sunday newspaper and you debar them from
the knowledge of the domestic and public occurrences
of the times in which they live. To take
away a working mans Sunday newspaper is

to isolate him in his own country. I; ;ut who
are these people who assume the right of dic-
tating what their neighbour may, or may no t do, on
the Sunday ? For the most part, the petitions
against Sunday trading and Sunday post age have
originated with religious congregations, ( Fnly re-
markable for their ignorance and affected .3cantity.
These persons claim the right of chosing tl leir own
mode of spending the Sabbath, but they de ly their
neighbours the same privilege. They are at Ell times
themselves extremely jealous of any infringement
upon what they call religious liberty ; but t heirs is
the one-sided liberty of having their own w ny, and
dictating to their neighbours. The impertinent and
mischievous efforts of these affected saints to abridge
public freedom, ought to be and must be resisted. Intole-
rance possesses no discretion. Give sanctity its own
way, and it will establish a domestic tyranny more
oppressive and hateful than the worst of mod ern Go-
vernments. Permit the saints to interfere vvith the
sale and transmission by post of weekly publications,
whether newspapers or otherwise, and they will not
be slow to improve their advantage. They will not
be satisfied with dictating what the people nay not
read, but what they must read. Sermons, society
tracts, missionary reports, and similar productions,
will be made to form the edifying Sunday reading,
and compulsory attendance at church or chapel the
agreeable Sunday recreation of the people. The in-
tolerant spirit which dictates these measure ought to
be resolutely resisted by the people.