The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-03-24 00:00:00

THE LETTER CARRIERS AT NEWCASTLE.

The following resolutions were adopted at a public meet-,
ing held in St. John's School Room, Newcastle, Feb. 25,
1840 ; RALPH WALTERS, Esq., in the chair :-
1. That this meeting, believing that the two letter carriers
declined delivering letters on the Lord's day, from conscien-
tious motives, and intimated the same with proper respect
to their superior officers, deeply regrets the refusal of the
Postmaster-General to reinstate them in their situations.

2. That in order to prevent these men suffering for their
conscientious conduct, a subscription be now commenced for
them; and that the following gentlemen be a committee to
receive the sums which may be collected, and apply the same
in such manner as they may consider advisable :—(Here fol-
low the names).
3. That a further representation of the circumstances be
made to Lord Lichfield, and an endeavour made to obtain
for the two men that retiring allowance to which government
servants are usually considered entitled ; and that if this
application fail of success, the peculiar hardship of the case,
and the great importance of the principle involved, impera-
tively demand that a full statement of the circumstances
should be made to both houses of parliament.
4. That the cordial thanks of the meeting are due to John
Hodgson Hinde, Esq., and William Ord, Esq., for their
prompt and zealous exertions, both in procuring the discon-
tinuance of the Sunday delivery of letters, and in the attempt
to reinstate:the two letter carriers.

DESECRATION OF THE LORD'S-DAY ON
RAILWAYS.
(From the Derby Mercury.)
At:the half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of the Bir-
mingham and Derby Railway Company, which took place at
Birmingham, on Thursday last, the following Resolution was
moved by the Rev. William Leeke, and seconded by J. N.
Kahrs, Esq., of Derby :—" That no trains belonging to this
company be permitted to run on the Lord's-day, excepting
so far as may be compulsory on the company by act of parlia-
ment." An amendment leaving the matter in the hands of
the directors was moved by Wm. Routh, Esq., and seconded
by Edward Lewis, Esq. A scrutiny having been taken, there
appeared to be, including proxies, 1360 votes for the amend-
ment, and 213 for the original motion.
A similar motion was brought forward at the half-yearly
meeting of the North Midland Railway Company, held in
London on Monday last, by W. L. Newton, Esq., of Derby,
and an amendment was moved by Collet, Esq., when,
including proxies, 258 persons, holding 5498 votes, were in
favor of the amendment, and 198 persons, holding 3792 votes,
were for the motion not to run the trains on the Lord's-day.
Half the shareholders in this railway did not vote either way.
The most specious argument used in these discussions for
the continuance of the Sunday trains was the importance of
providing for the convenience of the public in cases of ne-
cessity and mercy. It was admitted by the advocates of the
strict observance of the Sabbath, that cases of necessity did
frequently arise, in which persons were fully justified in tra-
velling; but they argued that travellers in cases of necessity
were very few in number compared with those irreligious
persons, who travelled on the Lord's-day for mere pleasure
or worldly business, and that no conscientious man could
sanction that, which, although affording the means of travel-
ling to the few in allowed cases of necessity and mercy,
proved a temptation to the many to violate the express com-
mand of the most High God. They shewed also that, in se-
veral instances, particularly in that of no letters being de-
livered in Loudon or sent from London on the Lord's-day,
cases of necessity were not permitted to interfere with gene-
ral regulations for the moral and religious well-being of the
community. It might be a case of mercy, that a person
should hear in London on the Lord's-day, of the illness of a
friend at a distance, but the people of London were content,
for the much higher benefit resulting from the general cessa-
tion of correspondence on that day, to do without such in-
telligence. So it was maintained, that the proprietors of the
several railways were not justified in providing the means of
travelling to a few persons in cases of necessity, when it in-
volved the employment on the Lord's-day of many thousands
of railway servants, all of them anxious to be set at liberty
from such employment, and, at the same time, held out faci-
lities to immense numbers of persons to spend in pleasure
andldissipation that sacred day, which God in his mercy set
apart, not only as a day of rest from bodily labour, but also
of instruction, edification, and comfort for their immortal
souls.

Althniigh several others
which ,
thesemade attempts,teeleaeraauswawyeall as
on
th
have for the present been defeated, it is gratifying to know
have hn
beetin
that the interest on the subject is rapidly on the increase, both
amongst railway proprietors and as regards the public in ge-
neral. It is also highly pleasing to observe the great cour-
tesy and kindness which have marked the discussions that
have taken place relative to railway travelling on the Lord's
day. A very excellent letter on the subject of Sunday rail-
way travelling was addressed, in August last, to the proprie-
tors of the Midland Counties' railway company, by I. C.
Wright, Esq. one of the directors. It has recently been
re-published, with his permission, by the Derbyshire society
for promoting the due observance of the Lord's day, and has
been sent, on the present occasion, to all the proprietors
of the Birmingham and Derby and of the North Midland
railways. It cannot be too widely circulated by those who
wish to suppress the dreadful evils which must surely result
from the continuance and increase of Sunday railway travell-
ing. It was stated at these meetings that the Edinburgh and
Dalkeith, the Ayr and Irvine railways, and the Leicester and
Swannington, (which is only a carrying line,) are entirely
closed on the Lord's day ; that when the proposition to close
the London and Birmingham railway on that day was first
brought forward at a meeting of the directors it was only
lost by a majority of one ; that the directors of the Manches-
ter and Leeds line had closed it on the Sunday, but- that it
was afterwards opened by the decision of their general meet-
ing; that at the last annual meeting of the Midland Counties'
railway, 955 votes, including those of six directors, were re-
' zistered in favor of an entire closing on the Lord's day, and
that a resolution had been recently come to by the directors
of the London and Greenwich railway, not topermit Sunday
travelling thereon.
p
Manylnemin this
oriala signed by about 2,000 persons of all de-
nominations neighbourhood, were presented at the
two meetings, praying that the trains might not run on the
Sabbath-day.
The subject has now been fully brought forward at the
although for some time, those who take
general meetings of the three Railway C9mpanies connected
with Derby ; and,
Lords day, these proceedings will tend
the railways on the
ing within narrower limits than
ll'
so much interest in it, may not succeed in altogether closing
to restrain the Sunday
probably
eventual success.
lay the foundation for
might otherwise have been the case, and will also

At the Mayo assizes an old man named Joyce, 85 years of
age, was tried for murder committed 22 years ago. The case
was not made out.