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STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 IN REFERKNCE TO 
 
 THE LORD'S-DAY, 
 
 JOHN T. BAYLEE, B.A., 
 
 CLERICAL SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE DUE OBSERVANCE 
 OF THE LORD'S-DAY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 SEELEYS, 54 FLEET STREET; 
 
 J. H. JACKSON, ISLINGTON GREEN. 
 
 1852. 
 
LONDON ; 
 
 C. F, HODGSON, PRINTER, 
 
 <;OUQH SQUARE, FLEET STIJKF.T. 
 
PHEFACE. 
 
 The author avails himself of the opportunity a 
 preface offers of making one or two explanatory 
 remarks respecting the book he ventures to present 
 to the public. He has carefully studied brevity in it, 
 and witii this view has often refrained froni making 
 observations on the facts stated, where otherwise it 
 might have been desirable to do so. He was anxious 
 to lay before the reader original matter only, or 
 matter not generally known, in order to avoid in- 
 creasing the size, and consequently the expense, of 
 the book, by introducing information which might 
 be easily obtained from other sources. Hence it is 
 that he has taken for granted the Divine authority 
 and perpetual obligation of the Sabbath institution ; 
 as those persons who wish to satisfy tlieir minds on 
 
11 PREFACE. 
 
 this important subject have abundant facilities for 
 doing so, in the numerous treatises in proof of it, 
 published at the present day, amongst which the 
 author would particularly recommend the Seven 
 Sermons of the Bishop of Calcutta.* It is also de- 
 sirable to mention, that the statements respecting 
 the number of Railway Trains run on the LordV 
 day, and of the number of Steam Boats on the 
 River Thames, were ascertained in winter : a 
 very great increase takes place in both during the 
 summer months. 
 
 * Hatchard, Piccadilly. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 page 
 
 The Press 4 
 
 The Sale of Intoxicating Drinks on the Lords-day . . 17 
 
 Desecration of the Lord's-day in the Post-office . . . « 41 
 
 Railways 46 
 
 Sale of Tobacco and Snuff on the Lord's-day 62 
 
 Desecration of the Lord's-day on Canals and Navigable 
 
 Rivers 64 
 
 Steam Boats 66 
 
 Employment of Omnibus Servants and Cab Drivers on 
 
 the Lord's-day 77 
 
 Sraithfield Market 85 
 
 L-on Works. 87 
 
 Cheese-making on the Lord's-day 93 
 
 Baking on the Lord's-day 99 
 
 Metropolitan and City Police 105 
 
 Trading on the Lord's-day 107 
 
 The Adaptation of the Sabbath Institution to Man 122 
 
 History of Efforts to promote the due Observance of 
 
 the Lord's-day 153 
 
 1831-2 163 
 
 1832-3 164 
 
 1833-4 169 
 
 1834-5 170 
 
 1835-6 175 
 
 A 2 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 page 
 
 1836-7 175 
 
 1837-8 177 
 
 1838-9 183 
 
 1839-40 195 
 
 1840-1 202 
 
 1841-2 208 
 
 1842-3 209 
 
 1843-4 211 
 
 1844-5 213 
 
 1845-6 219 
 
 1847-8 230 
 
 1848-9 235 
 
 • 1850-1 249 
 
 Observance of the Lord's-day in'Foreign Countries . . 258 
 Summary of the Statutes for the Observance of the 
 
 Lord's-day 267 
 
 The Book of Sports 283 
 
STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 IN REFERENCE TO 
 
 THE LORD'S DAY. 
 
 The object of the following pages is to secure a 
 greater amount of co-operation in efforts to promote 
 the observance of the Lord's-Day than is at present 
 given. That portion of the religious community who 
 take a lively interest in this subject_, it is admitted 
 constitute an active body ; but they are few in num- 
 ber : indeed^ it is matter for surprise and regret, that 
 so many who are engaged in promoting other good 
 causes, either of religion or benevolence, are never- 
 theless apathetic and indifferent as regards public 
 and associated exertion respecting this one, the 
 great importance of which, we must suppose, they 
 cannot fail to see, on a little reflection. This state 
 of feeling may be mainly attributed to two causes, — 
 opposite in themselves, but leading to a like result, — 
 ignorance of the fearful and dangerous extent to 
 which desecration of the Lord^s-Day prevails, which 
 neutralizes to a great degree the efforts of the minis^ 
 
STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 ters of Christ,, and saps tlie foundations of national 
 morality^ — or such an overwhelming conviction of the 
 greatness and inveteracy of the evil, and of the im- 
 possibility of entirely eradicating it, as paralyzes 
 effort : those who take this view will not attempt 
 anything, because they cannot do everything. 
 
 Now the remedy for the former description of 
 persons, in order to rouse them to exertion, is to 
 give them information on the subject of the desecra- 
 tion of the Lord^s-Day ; and by this means to cause 
 them to see the extent and malignity of the malady, 
 by which the religious and moral constitution of 
 society is attacked and enfeebled. To the latter 
 should be submitted the duty of diminishing an evil, 
 even where we cannot destroy it j and also encourage- 
 ments to exertion, derived from the success which 
 may have attended efforts to obviate and check this 
 great sin of the professing Church. However, before 
 endeavoui'ing to accomplish these objects, the author 
 would observe that it is not his intention to enter at 
 all into the subject of the authority and obligation 
 of the observance of the Lord^s-Day. There can be 
 but two classes of persons as regards the practical 
 view to be taken of the Lord's-Day; those who 
 would cause it to be more spiritually observed than 
 it is, and those who would render it more a secular 
 day. With the former he can have no real difference 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD S-DAY. 6 
 
 of opinion ; with tlie latter, no common ground of 
 sympathy. He will therefore pass at once to the 
 practical points to be brought under attention, as 
 indicated in the title-page. 
 
 There can be no question but that much ignorance 
 prevails as to the extent of the desecration of the Lord's- 
 Day. People for the most part have a very undefined 
 idea of it, or a very limited and partial one ; de- 
 rived, perhaps, only from personal observation in 
 their own immediate locality. It is to be hoped that 
 the statistics and facts which will be mentioned in 
 these pages may lead to a more correct and extended 
 view of the subject ; although it is, at the outset, 
 candidly admitted that they convey but a very in- 
 adequate idea of the real state of things ; for they 
 refer only to certain departments of the subject of 
 the desecration of the Lord's-Day — not to all ; for 
 accurate and reliable statistics on every part of the 
 question cannot be obtained ; and even those that 
 are mentioned have been collected from various 
 quarters, and with some difficulty : they have, how- 
 ever, been derived from the most authentic sources ; 
 original papers and authorities having been in every 
 case, where practicable, consulted. 
 
 The first desecration of the Lord's-Day to which 
 reference shall be made, is by the public Press. 
 b2 
 
STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 THE PRESS. 
 
 The influence of the public Press in forming the 
 mind of a nation^ for good or for evil; is universally 
 felt and acknowledged : in professing to give ex- 
 pression to the ideas and feelings of the community, 
 it in reality imbues it with its own . The great ma- 
 jority of readers merge their judgment in that of 
 the periodical they are in the habit of perusing ; they 
 regard its views as dogmas to be embraced,, rather 
 than as opinions to be weighed and examined : they 
 become readers of the particular paper from some 
 predilection in its favour^ which prepares them to re- 
 ceive with indulgence^ and^ after a while^ with im- 
 plicit credence^ all that it states : limited, generally 
 speaking, to one source of information, they have 
 no opportunity of correcting their judgment by more 
 varied reading. 
 
 But whilst the influence of the Press generally is 
 vast on these accounts, that of the immoral portion 
 of it greatly preponderates ; for its views and senti- 
 ments are more in accordance with the evil pro- 
 pensities of our fallen nature : in order to obtain 
 readers, it consults and panders to the vitiated tastes 
 of the worst classes of society ; and in indulging 
 
them^ renders them still more depraved. For these 
 reasons the importance of the public Press, when 
 used as an agency for evil, cannot be overrated. 
 
 The object of this book, however, is not to fix at- 
 tention on the immoral press alone, although it cir- 
 culates principally on Sundays ; but on the press 
 generally, so far as directly or indirectly it leads to 
 the desecration of the Lord^s-Da)^, by transmission, 
 delivery, or perusal thereon. 
 
 The following tabular statements, derived from the 
 Appendix to " The Report of the Select Committee 
 of the House of Commons on Newspaper Stamps,^^ 
 of the date of 1850, will enable the reader to form 
 some idea of the extent to which secular and immoral 
 publications issuing from the metropolis are made 
 instrumental in desecrating the Lord's-Day in the 
 ways mentioned above. 
 
 Let us inquire into the circulation of the London 
 weekly newspapers published on Friday evenings, 
 all of which issue second editions ; and also of the 
 London weekly newspapers published on Saturday 
 mornings, which likewise issue second editions. 
 These papers, be it observed, are chiefly intended for 
 Sunday reading, and are read principally by the work- 
 ing classes on that day, who have not means to pur- 
 chase the daily papers, nor leisure to read them at 
 any other time. 
 
•6 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 The following is the number of stamps which 
 were issued to the weekly London newspapers pub- 
 lished on Friday evenings, issuing second editions, 
 in the year 1850 : — 
 
 Illustrated London News 3,467,007 
 
 Weekly News 74,600 
 
 Northern Star 246,000 
 
 Leader 116,275 
 
 Standard of Freedom 168,500 
 
 Lloyd's Weekly News 2,559,000 
 
 News of the World 2,926,269 
 
 Weekly Times 2,037,703 
 
 11,595,354 
 
 The following is the number of stamps which were 
 issued to the weekly London newspapers published 
 on Saturday mornings, also issuing second editions, 
 in 1850 :— 
 
 Atlas 98,000 
 
 Weekly Dispatch 1,950,000 
 
 Weekly Chronicle 85,000 
 
 BelFs Life in London 1,285,000 
 
 Sunday Times 675,000 
 
 John Bull 110,000 
 
 4,203,000 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD S-DAY. 7 
 
 The annual circulation of the Saturday editions 
 or issues of the daily evening London newspapers 
 may be fairly estimated at one sixth of the entire 
 annual circulation. 
 
 The number of stamps issued in the year 1850 
 to the daily evening newspapers was as follows : — 
 
 The Globe (issuing a later edition) 535,000 
 
 Standard (issuing a later edition) 492,000 
 
 Sun (issuing a later edition) . . 834,500 
 
 Shipping Gazette 459,500 
 
 Express 766,950 
 
 3,087,950 
 
 One sixth of this number (514,658) may there- 
 fore be considered as the annual circulation on Satur- 
 days of the daily evening papers. 
 
 In addition to these, there are eighteen weekly 
 newspapers of a general and class character published 
 on Saturday evenings, and two fortnightly ; the 
 number of stamps issued to which, in the year 1850, 
 was 1,832,993 ; to which, if we add the preceding 
 numbers, we shall have a total of 18,146,005. 
 
 The reader must now take into consideration that 
 proportion of the Saturday circulation of the daily 
 
8 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 London morning newspapers which, being trans- 
 mitted by railway or through the Post-office_j do not 
 arrive at their destination till late on Saturday or on 
 Sunday ; also that proportion of the provincial press 
 of England and of the newspapers of Ireland and Scot- 
 land, many of which are published on Saturday, which 
 are transmitted, delivered, or read on Sunday. The 
 number of provincial newspapers in England and 
 Wales in the year 1850 was 246 ; the number of 
 newspapers published in Ireland in the same year 
 was 105 ; and in Scotland, 141 ; — 392 in all. Taking 
 all these into consideration, and allowing at the same 
 time considerable deduction for that portion of the 
 metropolitan and provincial newspapers the circula- 
 tion of which does not necessarily lead to the dese- 
 cration of the Lord^s-Day, we shall make rather a 
 low estimate of that proportion which does so, either 
 by being transmitted, delivered, or perused thereon, if 
 we fix it at 18,000,000, or nearly one fifth of the entire 
 circulation of the newspapers of the United King- 
 dom, which in 1851 was 91,661,089. It must be 
 observed that we have not taken into account in this 
 estimate the daily and weekly newspapers published 
 on Mondays, the preparation of which involves 
 much Sunday labour to those employed in connection 
 with the press. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 9 
 
 The following is a list of those newspapers which 
 represent the religious opinions and feelings of the 
 community, with their annual circulation. They 
 are alphabetically arranged : — 
 
 British Banner 229,900 
 
 Catholic Roman Standard 80,950 
 
 Christian Times 94,000 
 
 Church and State Gazette 44,000 
 
 English Churchman 79,000 
 
 Guardian 187,825 
 
 John Bull 110,000 
 
 Nonconformist 154,175 
 
 Patriot 139,000 
 
 Record 390,500 
 
 Tablet (Roman Catholic) 217,353 
 
 Wesleyan Times 466,900 
 
 Watchman 209,000 
 
 Total 2,402,603 
 
 Now the reader is left to draw his own conclusions, 
 when he compares with the total annual circulation of 
 all the religious newspapers of the metropolis, the 
 annual circulation of the following newspapers of an 
 opposite or of secular character : — 
 
10 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Bell's Life in London 1,285,500 
 
 News of the World 2,926,269* 
 
 Weekly Dispatch 1,950,000 
 
 Weekly Times 2,037,703t 
 
 Sunday Times 675,000 
 
 8,874,472 
 
 Amongst those newspapers which more especially 
 represent the religious opinions and feelings of the 
 country, the Record is distinguished for its uncom- 
 promising and unvarying advocacy of the observance 
 of the Lord's-Day, on the ground of the Divine 
 authority and perpetual obligation of the Christian 
 sabbath. By these means it has been most useful 
 in cherishing a regard for its observance amongst 
 that considerable portion of the community by which 
 it is read, and in checking the desecration of it in 
 the kingdom generally. 
 
 The editors of the BelFs Weekly Messenger have 
 also evinced their regard for the sanctity of the 
 Lord's-Day in the management of that newspaper, 
 in that they have purposely altered their arrange- 
 
 * More than the entire circulation of religious newspapers, 
 f Nearly as much. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 11 
 
 ments for printing and publishing, so as to avoid all 
 interference with the due observance of the day. 
 
 So far, then, with regard to that portion of the 
 press the circulation of which is facilitated by a 
 stamp. Let us now turn to the unstamped press of 
 the country. 
 
 A pamphlet was published in the year 1847, en- 
 titled " The Power of the Press,^^ now out of print, 
 in which the facts were evidently collected with great 
 care and accuracy, and from which we shall quote 
 here, as the condition of the literature of the country 
 has altered little, except in the way of increase, 
 since that time. After entering into numerical 
 and other particulars, it states (page 15) that the 
 yearly circulation in 1845 of the different kinds 
 of popular but manifestly pernicious literature, 
 stamped and unstamped, amounted to 28,000,000 
 copies. This number the writer believed to be far 
 below the average : nor have we reason to suppose 
 that it has since diminished, if we consider that 
 stamped publications have considerably increased 
 since the year 1845. The number of stamps issued in 
 1845 being 84,119,770, and in 1850, 91,661,089; 
 — an increase in five years of 7,541,319. (See 
 Draft Report of Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons on Newspaper Stamps, page 25.) 
 
12 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Mr. Cassell^ a gentleman extensively engaged in 
 literaiy matterS;, the publisher of " The Freeholder" 
 and ^'The Working Man^s Friend/^ and a very 
 competent judge_, states his belief, before the Select 
 Committee of the House of Commons on Newspaper 
 Stamps before referred to_, that the circulation of 
 penny daily newspapers is 50^,000 daily (page 233, 
 No. 1421); or upwards of 15,000,000 annually. So 
 that if we consider that the larger proportion of these 
 publications areof an injurious tendency, we may fairly 
 conclude that the estimate formed by ^* The Power 
 of the Press/^ in 1847, is rather under the mark than 
 otherwise, as regards the year 1851. 
 
 In reference to the Quantity and Quality of 
 these Papers, — 
 
 Mr. S. G. Bucknell (formerly editor of the Stroud 
 Observer), printer and publisher^ being examined by 
 the Select Committee of the House of Commons on 
 Newspaper Stamps, on the circulation of immoral 
 literature on Sundays, says, page 205 : " "When 
 we see cart-loads leaving at a time, we know that it 
 must be enormous, if we are wrong as to a few thou- 
 sands. If you go into Salisbury Square on a Sunday 
 morning, and see the numbers that leave that place, 
 and look again into Holywell Street, and in some 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 13 
 
 places in Paternoster Eow_, it only requires a person 
 to go and stand there and see the persons leaving 
 the publisher's office with immense loads/' Again ; 
 '^ If you go into some of what we call the back 
 slums_, and different places both in London and in 
 the provincial towns^ you will see very often shops 
 open on the Sunday morning. Those are out of the 
 general reach of observation; and unless you go 
 there and positively watch the sale, it is impossible 
 that you can have any idea of the amount of moral 
 depravity of these things/' 
 
 In reply to the question, " Are these publications 
 so very immoral ?" — he states : ^^ Some time ago there 
 was a review of the different classes of publications, 
 serials, in the ^ Daily News ;' and it took them in 
 batches : batch one, batch two, and so on ; consider- 
 ing Chambers' Miscellany in one batch, and The 
 Parlour Library in another; and then it came to 
 those that it represented as the foulest filth of all 
 literary matter : robbing was represented as merely 
 a skilful sleight of hand ; murder as nothing else but 
 heroism; and seduction and prostitution as being 
 anything else but blameable." 
 
 Mr. A. Walker, City Missionary, being examined 
 before the Select Committee of the House of Com- 
 mons appointed to consider a Bill to prevent Sun- 
 
14 
 
 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 day trading, April 1850^ page 189, states, in re- 
 ference to immoral papers : " I would prevent eveiy 
 kind of paper being sold on Sunday. The class of 
 papers sold on Sunday are the ruin, as I consider, of 
 the morals of the London population : these half- 
 penny and penny small papers are what are generally 
 read on Sundays." On being asked whether they 
 are not most disloyal and immoral, he replies, 
 (( Very much so/' 
 
 The following extract from the Report of the Com- 
 missioner appointed to inquire into the State of the 
 Population of the Mining Districts, (1851,) will be 
 read with painful interest as an additional testimony 
 to the same effect. (Page 34.) 
 
 '' The numerous small publications which I noticed in 
 my Report of last year on South Staffordshire, as circu- 
 lating among the mining population, avowing atheistical 
 principles, attacking Christianity, and levelled against the 
 whole social and moral framework of this country, are 
 greatly read in this district. There are several shops for 
 the sale of these in Newcastle-on-Tyne, from whence 
 they also find their way into the country around. At 
 the principal shop of this kind I purchased a collection 
 of the whole of the periodicals sold there in one week, 
 and was furnished by the owner with a statement of the 
 number of copies of each sold by him every week ; which 
 I have particular reasons, founded on further inquiry, to 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 
 
 15 
 
 believe to be correct. I have examined them all, and 
 find they may be classed as follows : — 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 o 
 
 s 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 § 
 
 3 
 
 Hi 
 
 Pi 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 11 
 ill 
 
 HI 
 
 5 ■" 
 
 1 
 
 No. 
 1 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 4 
 5 
 
 6^ 
 
 7 > 
 
 8^ 
 
 9 
 
 Copies. 
 
 600 
 400 
 192 
 128 
 72 
 
 100 
 
 120 
 
 No. 
 1 
 
 Copies. 
 
 600 
 
 No. 
 1 
 
 2 
 3 
 4 
 
 Copies. 
 
 1008 
 360 
 144 
 144 
 
 No. 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 Copies. 
 
 648 
 
 144 
 
 96 
 
 9 
 
 1612 
 
 1 
 
 600 
 
 4 
 
 1656 
 
 3 
 
 888 
 
 " The infidel and Chartist publications are reproductions, 
 in a vigorous and attractive style, of the Rationalism of 
 the Continental schools ; to which is added a great feeling 
 
16 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 of asperity against the upper and middle classes of this 
 country. Those in the second column, designated as 
 hostile to our present institutions, &c., contain, among 
 many subjects unobjectionable and instructive, much 
 writing that no careful father of a family would willingly 
 allow to come under the eye of his children, such as 
 translations from French novels, fragments of romances, 
 &:c. Of the infidel publications, the circulation was, ac- 
 cording to my informant, increasing. A good many 
 more of these are sold than there were twelve months 
 since. 
 
 " And indeed the ability with which they are written, 
 and the boldness of their attacks on revealed religion, 
 and on our whole social system, are calculated to make 
 them very attractive to young and inquiring minds. 
 
 " A glance at the above table, though only referring to 
 the sales of a single dealer in these publications, is suffi- 
 cient to suggest the extent to which such doctrines may 
 be taking root among the populations. To supply the 
 means of counteracting them is both the best species of 
 benevolence to individuals and an economical policy on 
 the lowest ground of pecuniary calculation." 
 
 And now we shall conclude this part of the 
 subject with the inquiry, — Ought not great and 
 united efforts to be made by the Christian com- 
 munity, and by all desirous of the preservation of 
 moral principle amongst us, to obviate- and remedy 
 this state of things ? Literature of a character at 
 
17 
 
 once improving and interesting should be provided 
 and made accessible to the humbler classes of so- 
 ciety_, by means of libraries, tract distribution, and 
 cheap periodicals, conveying the news of the day, 
 political, religious, and scientific. Thus a purer taste 
 woiild be created, and numbers be withdrawn from 
 the contaminating influence of an immoral press ; 
 but in order to do this with the greatest possible 
 effect, another great evil, an auxiliary and supporter 
 of the immoral press, must be suppressed, viz. — the 
 sale of intoxicating liquors on the Lord's-day. 
 
 THE SALE OF INTOXICATING DRINKS 
 ON THE LORD'S-DAY. 
 
 The connection which subsists between the various 
 forms of desecration of the Lord's-day is a striking 
 feature in this sin : there is a kind of compact be- 
 tween aU, or league offensive and defensive, bound 
 together by the strong ties of natural inclination to 
 evil and personal interest. Thus the public-house or 
 beer-shop encourages the perusal of secular and 
 . immoral publications on the Lord's-day ; for these 
 
18 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 publications constitute an additional inducement to 
 the working man to frequent those places. A large 
 proportion of the population spend a great part of the 
 Sunday in public-houses or beer shops : into which 
 admission is often obtained even during those hours 
 in which they are required by law to be closed ; for 
 them the place of worship is abandoned, and the family 
 neglected. There they too often degrade themselves 
 below the level of the beast that perisheth_, on that 
 sacred day which was specially designed to raise them 
 above earth, and elevate their thoughts and affections 
 to Heaven. There, are squandered, in a few hours of 
 that holy day, in the gratification of the appetite of 
 one, those hard-earned wages which should have con- 
 tributed to the comforts of the family throughout the 
 week. When we consider that almost every public- 
 house and beer-shop is a centre of temptation on 
 the Lord's-day, to which flow those who seek their 
 own pleasure thereon — the traveller by the Sunday 
 excursion -train — by the steam -boat — the operative, 
 or the labourer who dwells in their vicinity — we 
 may form some idea of what multiplied and fearful 
 agencies of evil are dispersed in every quarter of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 The following is a return of the number of 
 licences granted for the manufacture and sale of in- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD S-DAY. 
 
 19 
 
 toxicating liquors in tlie year 1849, in tlie United 
 Kingdom ; — 
 
 Brewers of strong beer not exceeding 20 barrels 
 Do. do. 50 „ 
 
 Do. do. 100 „ 
 
 Do. do. 1,000 „ 
 
 Do. exceeding 1,000 „ 
 
 Brewers of table beer . . 
 
 Retail brewers . . 
 
 Sellers of strong beer only 
 
 Beer retailers, under 3620 rental 
 Do. above ^20 rental 
 
 Ret. of beer, cider, or perry, drunk on premises 
 Do. not drunk on premises 
 
 Retailers of cider and perry only 
 
 Maltsters 
 
 Distillers and rectifiers 
 
 Dealers in spirits not being retailers . . 
 
 Retailers of spirits under £10 rental . . 
 Do. „ 20 „ .. 
 
 Do. 
 Do. 
 Do. 
 Do. 
 
 25 
 30 
 40 
 50 
 
 Do. £50 rental and upwards 
 Makers of stills 
 Retailers of spirits, tea, and coffee, in Ireland, 7 
 
 under £25 rental . . . . . . j 
 
 Retailers of spirits, tea, and coffee, in Ireland, ) 
 
 under £30 rental . . . . . . j 
 
 Do. do. under £40 rental 
 Do. do. under £50 rental 
 Do. do. at and above £50 rental 
 Dealers in foreign wine only . . 
 
 c2 
 
 8,335 
 
 8,407 
 
 9,143 
 
 15,332 
 
 1,614 
 
 502 
 
 39 
 
 1,322 
 
 66,094 
 
 22,326 
 
 34,755 
 
 3,234 
 
 805 
 
 8,399 
 
 348 
 
 3,448 
 
 32,977 
 
 28,148 
 
 4,294 
 
 3,087 
 
 4,419 
 
 2,654 
 
 7,665 
 
 22 
 
 83 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 7 
 
 30 
 
 1,620 
 
20 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Dealers in foreign wine having a beer licence. . 100 
 
 Do. having a licence to retail beer or spirits 28,930 
 
 Roasters of malt . . . . . . . . 15 
 
 Dealers in roasted malt . . . . . . 26 
 
 Passenger vessels, on board which liquors and ] „^ . 
 tobacco are sold . . . . . . / 
 
 Retailers of foreign liquors . . . . . . 40 
 
 Do. sweets or made wines . . . . 5,652 
 
 Total 304,253 
 
 According to " The Criminal and Miscellaneous 
 Statistical Returns of the Manchester Police for 
 1852/^ the population of the Borough of Manches- 
 ter was 303_,358 by the Census of 1851 ; there were 
 in the borough for this population in that year 481 
 public-houses, and 1298 beer-shops, or 1779 places 
 for the sale of intoxicating drinks, or one such place 
 for every 170 of the population; 28 of the public- 
 houses, and 21 of the beer- shops, had music on 
 Sundays. Sacred music is played in them on Sun- 
 day evenings ; which operates as an inducement to 
 teachers and scholars in Sunday-schools to frequent 
 those places on those evenings ; who reconcile their 
 consciences to such a proceeding on the ground that 
 they are listening to psalmody. 
 
 The returns referred to above, strikingly illustrate 
 a point which will be mentioned presently — namely, 
 the connexion between the sale of intoxicating 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 21 
 
 liquors on the Lord's-day and crime. The number 
 of offences reported against keepers of public-houses 
 in the borough of Manchester in the year 1850, on 
 ordinary days, was 5, on Sundays, 52; against 
 beer-house keepers in the same year, on ordinary 
 days 192, on Sundays, 292. The offences reported 
 were such as involved desecration of the Lord's -day 
 by gambling, drinking, &c. &c. 
 
 Mr. Porter, Secretary to the Board of Trade, in 
 his interesting paper on the Self-imposed Taxation 
 of the Working Classes, states that there were in 
 England and Wales, in the year 1850, 129,075 
 persons who had taken out licences for the pro- 
 duce and sale of beer; namely, — 2507 brewers, 
 88,496 victuallers, and 38,070 licensed to keep 
 beer-houses. In the metropolis alone there are 
 4210 public-houses and gin-shops, and 720 beer 
 retailers, which go far to neutralize, during the 
 hours of the Lord's-day on which they are permitted 
 to be open, the efforts of the ministers of religion 
 connected with the 627 places of worship of all 
 denominations therein. 
 
 In considering the bearing of this subject on the 
 Lord's-day, it must be kept in mind that at least 
 two persons on an average are involved in labour in 
 each case where such trade is carried on, any part 
 
22 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 ^f the day. How vast then must be the number of 
 persons in connection with this particular descrip- 
 tion of traffic desecrating the Sabbath. We are safe 
 in estimating them at more than 500,000 ; but how 
 still more fearful the magnitude of the evil will appear, 
 and how ruinous to national religion and morals, 
 when it is remembered that nearly 300,000 of these 
 persons form each a centre to an extensive circle of 
 the population in every locality in the kingdom. 
 Mr. Porter calculates that .£50,000,000 are annually 
 expended by the working classes in intoxicating 
 drinks — a sum which competent authorities con- 
 sider to be lower than that actually expended, as 
 Mr. Porter makes no allowance in his computation 
 for illicit distillation, nor for the increase of the 
 quantity actually sold by adulteration and admixture 
 of cordials. However, taking it at the low estimate 
 of Mr. Porter, we may reckon that one-fifth of this 
 vast sum, or ten millions sterling, is annually spent 
 on the Lord's-day by the working classes in pur- 
 chasing intoxicating drinks. 
 
 Mr. Porter calculates that 2J gallons of spirits 
 to every adult male are consumed annually in Eng- 
 land, 3 J in Ireland, and 1 1 J in Scotland. In re- 
 ference to Scotland, it must be kept in mind that 
 comparatively little beer is consumed there. Now 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 
 
 23 
 
 we shall not be far wrong if we conclude that 
 nearly one-fifth of this immense quantity of spirits 
 is consumed on the Lord's-day. 
 
 Nothing can be more manifest and undeniable 
 than the connection between the open public-house 
 or beer-shop on the Lord's-day and crime : just in 
 proportion as restrictions are placed on them, crime 
 diminishes. The following returns unquestionably 
 prove this. They are extracted from a paper issued 
 by the British Association for the Promotion of 
 Temperance. 
 
 METROPOLITAN POLICE RETURNS FROM THE YEAR 
 
 1838 TO 1844. 
 
 
 Number 
 
 
 taken into 
 
 Year. 
 
 custody for 
 
 
 Diimken- 
 
 
 ness. 
 
 1838 
 
 21,237 
 
 1839 
 
 21,269 
 
 1840 
 
 16,505 
 
 1841 
 
 15,006 
 
 1842 
 
 12,338 
 
 1843 
 
 10,890 
 
 1844 
 
 8,321 
 
 Number taken into 
 
 custody from 12 on 
 
 Saturday night to 12 
 
 on Sunday night. 
 
 5,765 
 4,896 
 3,439 
 3,423 
 2,976 
 2,973 
 2,893 
 
 Proportions which the cases 
 of drunkenness on the Sab- 
 bath bear to the whole num- 
 ber. 
 
 above 271 per cent. 
 
 „ 23 
 nearly 21 
 
 „ 23 
 above 24 
 
 „ 274 
 nearly 35 
 
 This table renders two things perfectly clear : 
 1st. That one-fourth of the persons convicted for 
 
24 
 
 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 drunkenness in those years to whicli the return refers, 
 were taken into custody on Sundays ; and 
 
 2nd. That, since the introduction of the Metro- 
 politan Improvement Act, there has heen a decrease 
 of nearly 50 per cent, (or one-half) in the convictions 
 for drunkenness occurring on the Sabbath, and also 
 a decrease of more than 60 per cent, in the total 
 number of convictions. 
 
 The following table is extracted from returns ob- 
 tained from the superintendent of police at Liver- 
 pool, and includes one year before, and two years 
 after, the Improvement Act came into operation, one 
 clause of which enforces the closing of public-houses 
 from twelve o'clock on Saturday night till one 
 o'clock on Sunday. The returns are made out from 
 the 1st of September to the 31st of August, and 
 consequently embrace a portion of two years : — 
 
 
 Number 
 
 
 
 
 taken 
 
 Number taken into 
 
 Proportions which 
 
 
 into 
 
 custody from 12 
 
 the cases of drunken- 
 
 Years. 
 
 custody 
 
 o'clock on Saturday 
 
 ness on the Sabbath 
 
 
 for 
 
 night till Monday 
 
 bear to the whole 
 
 
 Drunk- 
 
 morning. 
 
 number. 
 
 
 enness. 
 
 
 
 1841 and 1842 
 
 7,602 
 
 2,227 
 
 29.209percent 
 
 1842 „ 1843 
 
 7,023 
 
 1,501 
 
 21.372 „ 
 
 1843 „ 1844 
 
 7,044 
 
 1,542 
 
 21.890 „ 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD S-DAY. 
 
 25 
 
 From the preceding figures it will be seen, that 
 from the 1st of September, 1841, to the 31st of 
 August, 1842 (which was the year previous to the 
 regulation in question being enforced), the cases of 
 drunkenness on the Sabbath were more than 29 per 
 cent, of the whole number taken into custody for 
 that ofi*ence ; whilst in the two years which follow, 
 when public-houses were closed half the Sunday, 
 not 22 per cent, of the whole number of cases oc- 
 curred on the Sabbath. Certainly this is satisfactory 
 evidence of the beneficial results which would fol- 
 low the entire prohibition of this traffic on the Lord's- 
 day, and must be a sufficient answer to those who 
 assert that the interests of morality and social order 
 cannot be promoted by legislative enactments. 
 
 The following is a comparative return for three 
 years of the whole number of prisoners brought 
 before the Magistrates of Liverpool for all ofi'ences, 
 commencing 1st September, 1841, and ending 31st 
 August, 1844 : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Mondays. 
 
 other Days. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1841 and 1842 
 
 1842 „ 1843 
 
 1843 „ 1844 
 
 5,820 
 4,822 
 4,694 
 
 11,837 
 10,690 
 10,385 
 
 17,657 
 15,512 
 15,079 
 
*i£0 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 We add the testimony of individuals whose posi- 
 tion in society has afforded them an opportunity to 
 observe the working of the measure to which refe- 
 rence has so frequently been made : the first is from 
 the Stipendiary Magistrate at Liverpool. He says : — 
 '^ I can safely assure you, that no benefit has been 
 conferred on the town of Liverpool, so fraught with 
 advantage of all kinds, at all equal to that which 
 has resulted from the closing of public-houses on 
 Saturday at twelve o^clock, until Sunday at one 
 o^clock. We now have order and sobriety in dis- 
 tricts which were formerly, during the night and 
 Sunday morning, scenes of the wildest uproar and 
 drunkenness." 
 
 The Mayor of the same town writes : — " It is not 
 in my power to furnish you with any returns simi- 
 lar to those you have received from the Metropo- 
 litan Police Commissioners ; but / ca?i bear ample 
 testimony to the benefit Liverpool has derived from 
 the clause in our Improvement Act enforcing the 
 closing of public-houses from twelve o'clock on 
 Saturday night until one o'clock on Sunday.'' 
 
 The Chief Constable of Manchester makes the 
 following communication : — " I am very much satis- 
 fied in being able to state that the clause to which 
 you refer in the Manchester Improvement Act, pro- 
 
27 
 
 hibiting the opening of public-houses between the 
 hours of twelve o^clock on Saturday night and 
 twelve o'clock on Sunday, has operated most bene- 
 ficially for the good order of the town on Sundays, 
 and particularly the Sunday mornings: streets, 
 which formerly were kept in a disorderly state on 
 the mornings of Sunday, from drunken people being 
 turned out of the public-houses, are now quiet and 
 orderly. The decrease also which has taken place 
 in the number of prisoners for drunkenness has 
 been very considerable.'^ 
 
 The Mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne writes : — 
 " As to the working of the Newcastle Improvement 
 Act, in reference to the closing of public-houses, I 
 beg to inform you that the result of the law has been 
 most satisfactory ; there being an evident decrease 
 in the number of drunken persons brought before 
 the magistrates, and a general improvement in the 
 good order and regulation of the town." 
 
 It should be remembered, however, that the cheer- 
 ing decrease proved to have taken place in the crime 
 of drunkenness, in addition to the promotion of the 
 good order of society generally, is the result of 
 closing these houses during the first half of Sunday 
 only, when the amount of drinking is small com- 
 pared with that which takes place during the latter 
 
28 STATISTICS AND PACTS 
 
 part of that day. It is, therefore, reasonable to 
 conclude, that if the regulation had extended to the 
 whole day, the diminution would have been more 
 than double what it is. Hence the reasons for 
 the extension of the law to the whole day. Can a 
 single argument be adduced in support of keeping 
 public-houses open, during the afternoon and night 
 of Sunday, which will not equally apply to the 
 morning ? Assuredly not ; and as the inhabitants 
 of the largest city, and three of the most important 
 towns in the empire, have dispensed with these 
 places during the former part of the Sabbath, not 
 merely without inconvenience, but with immense 
 advantage, we earnestly call on every friend of 
 social order, of morality, and of religion, to aid in 
 the attainment of a law prohibiting entirely the sale 
 of intoxicating liquors on Sunday, throughout the 
 kingdom. This measure once secured, the result- 
 ing benefits will, we are persuaded, be so clearly 
 manifest, that every man of sound mind and correct 
 views will be astonished that a professedly Christian 
 people should have so long tolerated among them a 
 system so fraught with crime and injustice, and 
 productive of such an immense amount of evil, as 
 the traffic in intoxicating liquors on the Lord's-day. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD S-DAY. 
 
 29 
 
 The following extract^ from a Report of the Edin- 
 burgh Commissioners of Police, " appointed to con- 
 fer with the Magistrates and Justices on the subject 
 of Public-houses, &c./^ fully proves also that this 
 violation of the Sabbath invariably, and indeed 
 necessarily, leads to crime and degradation : — 
 
 I. Number of Persons admitted into the Pohce Prison 
 within the last thr^ee months, charged with drunken- 
 ness ^ from Fridays at four o'clock p. m., to Sundays 
 following at four o'clock p, m. — Police Office, 
 1st April, 1840. 
 
 1840. 
 
 Friday at 4 
 p. M. to Sa- 
 turday at 4 
 
 P.M. 
 
 Saturday at 
 
 4 P. M., to 
 
 Sunday at 
 at 4 P. 51. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Jan. 3 to Jan. 5 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 17 
 
 10 12 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 20 
 
 17 19 
 
 7 
 
 18 
 
 25 
 
 24 26 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 24 
 
 3] to Feb. 2 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 15 
 
 Feb. 7 9 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 22 
 
 14 16 
 
 7 
 
 20 
 
 27 
 
 21 23 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 28 to Mar. 1 
 
 5 
 
 17 
 
 22 
 
 Mar. 6 8 
 
 6 
 
 28 
 
 34 
 
 13 15 
 
 13 
 
 19 
 
 32 
 
 20 22 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 26 
 
 27 29 
 Totals 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 26 
 
 82 
 
 221 
 
 303 
 
30 
 
 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 II. Number of Persons admitted into the Police Prison 
 within the last three months, charged with various 
 offences, from Fridays at four o'clock p. m., to Sun- 
 days following at four o'clock p. m. — Police Office, 
 1st April, 1840. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Friday at 4 
 
 P.M., to 
 
 Saturday at 
 4 p. M. 
 
 Saturday at 
 
 4 p. M., to 
 
 Sunday at 
 
 4 p.m. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Jan. 3 to Jan. 5 
 
 11 
 
 25 
 
 36 
 
 10 12 
 
 25 
 
 29 
 
 54 
 
 17 19 
 
 32 
 
 47 
 
 79 
 
 24 26 
 
 19 
 
 27 
 
 46 
 
 31 to Feb. 2 
 
 14 
 
 20 
 
 34 
 
 Feb. 7 9 
 
 23 
 
 46 
 
 69 
 
 14 16 
 
 24 
 
 45 
 
 69 
 
 21 23 
 
 13 
 
 32 
 
 45 
 
 28 to Mar. 1 
 
 18 
 
 32 
 
 50 
 
 Mar. 6 8 
 
 18 
 
 43 
 
 61 
 
 13 15 
 
 19 
 
 45 
 
 64 
 
 20 22 
 
 24 
 
 46 
 
 70 
 
 27 29 
 Totals 
 
 28 
 
 29 
 
 57 
 
 268 
 
 466 
 
 734 ' 
 
 The following returns relating to Scotland, ex- 
 tracted from ^*The Scottish Temperance League 
 Register/^ will be read with painful interest, as 
 bearing on the Lord's-day. It is to be regretted that 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 31 
 
 there are not similar returns for England and Ire- 
 land : — 
 
 " Aberdeen, — county town of Aberdeenshire : con- 
 tains a population of 76,945. There are 583 licensed 
 houses for the sale of strong drinks, which is one public- 
 house for every 123 of the entire population. Of 
 bakers' shops there are 50, being one for 1439 of the 
 population. Butchers 110, or one for G54 ; and book- 
 sellers 35, being in the ratio of one to 2055 of the in- 
 habitants. 
 
 " Alloa, — a town in Clackmannanshire : population 
 6618. Houses licensed to sell strong drinks 41, bakers 
 10, butchers 6, booksellers 3. There is one house for 
 the sale of strong drinks for every 161 of the population, 
 one baker's shop to 662, one butcher's shop to 1103, 
 one bookseller's to 2206. 
 
 " Ai/7', — county town of Ayrshire : has a population 
 of 9097, and 93 licensed houses for sale of strong 
 drinks, being one to 98 of the population; 8 bakers, 
 or one to 1137 ; 8 butchers, a like ratio; and 9 book- 
 sellers, being one for 1011. The above has reference 
 only to the ' Old Town.' New Town and Wallace 
 Town have 42 public-houses, 7 bakers, 6 butchers, and 
 one bookseller. 
 
 " Banff, — county town of Banffshire : population 
 6042. Licensed houses for the sale of strong drinks 
 31, bakers 8, butchers 12, booksellers 3. For every 
 195 of the inhabitants there is one public-house, for 
 
32 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 every 755 one baker's shop, for every 503 one butcher's 
 shop, for every 2014 one bookseller's shop. 
 
 " Campbeltown, — chief town in Argyllshire : has a 
 population of 6829, 75 licensed houses for the sale of 
 strong drinks, 15 bakers' shops, 15 butchers' shops, 
 and 3 booksellers' shops ; being one public-house to 91, 
 one baker's shop to 455, one butcher's shop to 455, 
 and one bookseller's shop to 2276 of the inhabitants. 
 
 " Cupar, — county town of Fifeshire : population 
 6585. Licensed houses 37, bakers 11, butchers 3, 
 booksellers, 4;— in all 510, or 1 in 11^ of the popula- 
 tion. For every 153 persons there is one house for the 
 sale of strong drink, for 517 a baker's shop, for 1895 
 a butcher's shop, and for 1421 a bookseller's shop. 
 
 " Dornoch, — county town of Sutherland : has a po- 
 pulation of 599, 5 houses for the sale of strong drinks, 
 2 bakers' shops, 1 butcher's shop, booksellers' shops 
 none. There is one house for the sale of drinks to 120, 
 one baker's shop to 299, one butcher's shop to 599. 
 
 '■i Duonbarton,— county town of Dumbartonshire: 
 has a population of 5411. Houses licensed for the sale 
 of strong drink 39, bakers' shops 6, butchers' shops 
 6, booksellers' 5. For every 139 of the population 
 there is one house for the sale of strong drink, for 
 902 one baker's shop, for 902 one butcher's shop, for 
 1082 one bookseller's shop. 
 
 « Dumfries, — county town of Dumfriesshire, with a 
 population of 11,106: has 139 houses licensed for the 
 sale of strong drink, 13 bakers' shops, 10 butchers' 
 shops, booksellers' 6. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's DAY. 33 
 
 ** Dunfermline, — roj-^al burgh in Fifeshire, with a 
 population of 13,861 : has 82 houses for the sale of 
 strong drink, 23 bakers' shops, 9 butchers' shops, and 6 
 booksellers' shops. There is one house for the sale of 
 strong drinks to 169 of the population, one baker's 
 shop to 603, one butcher's shop to 1540, one book- 
 seller's to 2310. 
 
 " Edinhurgh, — capital of Scotland, and chief city in 
 the county of Edinburgh : population 158,015. The 
 number licensed to sell strong drinks is 963, being at 
 the ratio of one in each 164 of the population; bakers 
 160, or one in each 988 ; butchers 110, or one in each 
 1436 ; booksellers 92, or one in each 1717- 
 
 ^^ Elgin, — county town of Elginshire : has a popula- 
 tion of 6336, 46 houses for the sale of strong drinks, 
 12 bakers' shops, 17 butchers' shops, 7 booksellers' 
 shops. The.e is one house for the sale of strong drink 
 to 138, one baker's shop to 528, one butcher's shop to 
 372, one bookseller's shop to 905 of the entire popula- 
 tion. 
 
 '^ Falkirk, — town in Stirlingshire : population 8769. 
 Houses licensed to sell strong drink 79, bakers' shops 
 26, butchers' shops 12, booksellers' 4. There is one 
 house for the sale of strong drink to 111 of the popula- 
 tion, one baker's shop to 337, one butcher's shop to 
 731, one bookseller's shop to 2192. 
 
 " Galashiels, — town in Selkirkshire : population 
 5925. Licensed houses for the sale of strong drinks 
 32, bakers 11, butchers 9, booksellers 5. One house 
 
 D 
 
d4j STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 for sale of strong drinks to every 185 of the population, 
 one baker's shop to 539, one butcher's shop to 658, one 
 bookseller's to 1185. 
 
 " Glasgow, — the commercial metropolis of Scotland, 
 situated in the county of Lanark, and having a popula- 
 tion of 333,657. The moral condition of Glasgow-was 
 recently surveyed by Mr. William Logan, one of the 
 agents of the Scottish Temperance League, and details 
 were given embracing a complete view of the social and 
 educational position of the city. The number of strong- 
 drink dealers of all kinds within the parliamentary boun- 
 dary, which forms the limits of the late census, is 2048, 
 being one in every 163 of the population ; the number 
 of bakers 247, or one in every 1351 of the inhabitants; 
 butchers 210, or one in every 1589 ; booksellers 95, or 
 one in every 3512. 
 
 " Greenlaw, — county town of Berwickshire : popu- 
 lation 814. Houses licensed to sell strong drinks 6, 
 bakers' shops 2, butchers' 3, booksellers' 7ione. To the 
 entire population there is one house for selling strong 
 drink to 136, butchers' shops one to 271, bakers' shops 
 one to 407. 
 
 ^'Greenock, — town in Renfrewshire: population 
 36,715. Licensed houses for the sale of strong drinks 
 295, bakers' shops 32, butchers' shops 26, booksellers' 
 13. There is one house for the sale of strong drinks to 
 every 125, one baker's shop to 1147, one butcher's 
 shop to 1412, one bookseller's to 2824 of the entire 
 population. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 35 
 
 " Haddington, — county town of Haddingtonshire : 
 has a population of 5883. Licensed houses for sale of 
 drink 38, bakers' shops 8, butchers' 6, booksellers' 2. 
 There is one house for the sale of drink to 102, one 
 baker's shop to 485, one butcher's shop to 647? and one 
 bookseller's shop to 1941 of the inhabitants. 
 
 " Hawick, — town in Roxburghshire : it has a popu- 
 lation of 9000 : 45 houses licensed to sell strong drinks, 
 20 bakers, 9 butchers, 3 booksellers. There is one 
 house for the sale of strong drinks to every 200 of the 
 population, one baker's shop to 450, one butcher's shop 
 to 1000, one bookseller's to 300. 
 
 " Inverary^ — royal burgh, and one of the chief 
 towns of Argyllshire: population 1164. Houses for 
 sale of strong drink 12, bakers' shops 2, butchers' 4, 
 booksellers' none. For 97 persons there is one house 
 for the sale of strong drinks, for 582 one baker's shop, 
 for 291 one butcher's shop. 
 
 " Inverness, — county town of Inverness-shire : popula- 
 tion 12,715. Licensed houses for the sale of strong 
 drink 124, bakers' shops 22, butchers' shops 38, book- 
 sellers' shops 8. There is for every 102 of the entire 
 population one house for the sale of strong drink, for 
 578 one baker's shop, for 334 one butcher's shop, for 
 1589 one bookseller's shop. 
 
 *' Jedburgh, — county town of Roxburghshire : po- 
 pulation 3614. Houses for sale of strong drink 25, 
 bakers' shops 12, butchers' shops 6, booksellers' 4. 
 There is one house for the sale of strong drinks to 144 
 d2 
 
36 STATISTICS AND PACTS 
 
 of the population, one baker's shop to 301, one butcher's 
 shop to 602, one bookseller's to 903. 
 
 *' Kilmarnock, — a principal town in Ayrshire : popu- 
 lation 20,913. There are^^in it 136 houses licensed to 
 sell strong drinks, 17 bakers, 12 butchers, 10 book- 
 sellers. There are, therefore, one licensed house to 154 
 of the entire population, one baker's shop to 1230, one 
 butcher's shop to 1743, one bookseller's shop to 2091. 
 
 " Kinross, — county town of Kinross-shire : popula- 
 tion 3220. Houses licensed to sell strong drinks 23, 
 bakers 4, butchers 3, booksellers 2. There is one house 
 for the sale of strong drinks to every 140 of the popula- 
 tion, one baker to 805, one butcher's shop to 1073, one 
 bookseller to 1610. 
 
 " Kirkcaldy, — a royal burgh in Fifeshire : the 
 population is 5797 ; but the district to which the follow- 
 ing returns refer, has a population of about 14,600 ; 
 113 public-houses, or one in 129 l-5th ; 21 bakers, or 
 one in 695^ ; 10 butchers, or one in 1460 ; and 8 book- 
 sellers, or one in 1825. 
 
 " Kirkcudbright, — county town of Kirkcudbright- 
 shire : population 2774. Houses licensed for the sale 
 of strong drinks 15, bakers' shops 3, butchers' shops 6, 
 booksellers' 3. To the whole inhabitants there is one 
 house for the sale of drinks to 185, one bakers shop to 
 891, one butcher's shop to 462, one bookseller's to 924. 
 
 '* Kirkwall, — county town of Orkney and Shetland : 
 population 3331. Houses licensed for the sale of strong 
 drink 16, bakers 12, butchers 7, booksellers 2. The 
 above shews one house for the sale of strong drink for 
 
37 
 
 every 208 of the inhabitants, one butcher's shop to 476, 
 one baker's shop to 278, one bookseller's shop to 1665. 
 
 " Lerivicky — town in Shetland: population 2787. 
 Houses licensed for the sale of strong drinks 19, bakers 
 4, butchers 7, booksellers 2. One house for the sale 
 of strong drinks to 146 of the population, one baker's 
 shop to 697, one butcher's shop to 398, one bookseller's 
 to 1393. 
 
 ^^ Linlithgow, — county town of Linlithgowshire : has 
 a population of 4189. Licensed houses for the sale of 
 strong drink 42, bakers' shops 13, butchers' shops 
 6, booksellers' shops 2. To the entire population there 
 is one house for sale of strong drink to every 99, one 
 baker's shop to 322, one butcher's shop to 698, one 
 bookseller's shop to 2094. 
 
 " Oban, — one of the principal towns of Argyllshire : 
 population 1742. Houses licensed to sell strong drink 
 15, bakers 4, butchers 12, booksellers 2. To the 
 entire population there is one house for the sale of strong 
 drinks to 116, one baker's shop to 435, one butcher's 
 shop to 145, one bookseller's to 871. 
 
 "Paislei/, — town in Renfrewshire: population 47>951. 
 Licensed houses for sale of strong drinks 216, bakers' 
 shops 36, butchers' shops 64, booksellers' shops 9. 
 To the entire population there is one house for the sale 
 of strong drinks to 222, one baker's shop to 1322, one 
 butcher's shop to 749, one bookseller's shop to 5328. 
 
 ''Peebles, — county town of Peeblesshire : population 
 1982. Houses licensed to sell strong drink 19, bakers' 
 shops 4, butchers' shops 5, booksellers' 2. There is 
 
do STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 one house for the sale of strong drinks to every 104 of 
 the entire population, one baker's shop to 495, one 
 butcher's shop to 396, one bookseller's to 991. 
 
 ^^ Perth, — county town of Perthshire: population 
 23,814. Houses licensed for the sale of strong drinks 
 174, bakers' shops 25, butchers' shops 25, book- 
 sellers' 14. To the entire population there is one house 
 for sale of strong drinks to 137, one baker's shop to 953, 
 one butcher's shop to 953, one bookseller's to 1701. 
 
 ** Rothesay, — county town of Buteshire : population 
 7106. Has 39 houses licensed to sell strong drinks, 
 12 bakers, 7 butchers, 4 booksellers. Of the population, 
 there is one baker's shop to 592, one butcher's shop to 
 1015, one bookseller's to 1776. 
 
 " Selkirk, — county town of Selkirkshire : population 
 3313. Licensed houses for the sale of strong drink 27, 
 bakers 7, butchers 4, booksellers 2. To every 122 
 of the population there is one house for the sale of strong 
 drinks, to 473 one baker's shop, to 828 one butcher's 
 shop, to 1656 one bookseller's shop. 
 
 " Stirling, — county town of Stirlingshire, with a 
 population of 12,357 : has 91 houses licensed for the 
 sale of strong drinks, 17 bakers' shops, 11 butchers* 
 shops, 7 booksellers'. There is one house for the sale of 
 strong drinks to 133 of the population. 
 
 *^ Stranraer, — town of Wigtownshire : population 
 5692. Licensed houses for the sale of strong drinks 54, 
 bakers 8, butchers 7, booksellers 4. There is one 
 house for the sale of strong drink to 105 of the popula- 
 lation, one baker's shop to 711, one butcher's shop to 
 813, one bookseller's to 1423. 
 
39 
 
 " Tain, — royal burgh in Ross and Cromartyshire : 
 population 2588. Houses licensed to sell strong drinks 
 20, bakers' shops 4, butchers' shops 2, booksellers' 
 3. There is one house for the sale of strong drinks to 
 129, one butcher's shop to 1294, one baker's shop to 647, 
 and one bookseller to 863 of the entire population. 
 
 ** Wick, — chief town of Caithness-shire : population 
 6722. Has houses licensed to sell strong drink 51, 
 bakers 6, butchers 8, booksellers 2. There is one 
 house for the sale of strong drink to every 132 of the 
 entire population, one baker to 1220, one butcher to 
 840, one bookseller to 3361. 
 
 " Wigtown, — county town of Wigtownshire : popula- 
 tion 2230. Houses licensed for the sale of strong drink 
 17, bakers 5, butchers 3, booksellers 3 ; giving one 
 house for sale of strong drinks to 131 of the population, 
 one baker's shop to 446, one butcher's shop to 743, one 
 bookseller's to 743. 
 
 " From the above notices, we cannot fail to remark the 
 strong hold which the drinking system must have on the 
 people of Scotland. In the 40 cities and towns given, 
 we find a population of 885,111, or approaching to one- 
 third of the entire census given of the country. In these 
 885,111 we find 5,925 persons holding licences for the 
 sale ofstrong drinks, being at the rate of 1 in every 149 
 
 Of bakers . . . . 902, or 1 in every 981 
 
 Of butchers . . , . 829, or I in every 1067 
 
 Of booksellers . . 388, or 1 in every 2281 
 
 So that for every baker we have fully 6^ sellers of 
 
 strong drink ; 
 
40 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 For every butcher we have fully 7 l-7th do. 
 
 And for every bookseller we have fully IS^ do." 
 
 There is no department of the subject of dese- 
 cration of the Lord's-day concerning the demora- 
 lizing and debasing effects of which there is greater 
 unanimity of opiiiton than the sale of intoxicating 
 drinks on the Lord's-day : every town and village 
 in the kingdom loudly testifies to it. Why then 
 should it not be prohibited, providing for cases 
 of charity and mercy? All that is required to 
 effect this object, so dear to the Christian and the 
 philanthropist, is to cause this feeling to be reflected 
 in our Legislature, by frequent and persevering peti- 
 tions, supported by private and public appeals to in- 
 dividual members of Parliament, praying for its pro- 
 hibition. It seems preposterous to build prisons with 
 one hand for the punishment of crime, and with the 
 other to hold forth incentives to its commission by 
 sanctioning the sale of intoxicating drinks on the 
 Lord's-day. 
 
 Much more might be said on this important sub- 
 ject ; but as the evil complained of is so manifest, it 
 is unnecessary; and as it would be inconsistent with 
 the brevity the author is desirous to study in this 
 paper, it is inexpedient to add more. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 41 
 
 DESECRATION OF THE LORD^S-DAY 
 IN THE POST-OFFICE. 
 
 Another extensive desecration of the Lord's-day, 
 whicli has recently occupied much of the public atten- 
 tion_, prevails in the Post-office department. It is one 
 of peculiar importance, inasmuch as it is a national 
 one, in the guilt of which all who do not protest 
 against it are in some measure involved. The num- 
 ber of men employed in the Post-office department 
 has been variously stated. The author has been 
 informed, on authority which can be relied on, that 
 there are about 20,000 persons employed ; 15,000 
 of them holding situations directly from the Post- 
 master General. Although the amount of labour 
 imposed on these persons on the Lord's-day has been 
 diminished, yet it is still considerable, far beyond 
 what necessity requires, and might be nearly alto- 
 gether dispensed with. Some of the letter-carriers 
 have to walk sixteen, seventeen, or even eighteen 
 miles every day, the Sunday included. This state 
 of things has produced its natural effects, in that 
 great demoralization exists in the department, with 
 
42 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 of course many exceptions. Yet it can scarcely 
 be expected that the man who is required by the 
 condition of his situation to transgress the Fourth 
 Commandment, and who is prevented using those 
 appointed means through which religious and moral 
 influence is mainly received, will be as honest, 
 scrupulous, and conscientious in discharging his 
 duty, and as capable of resisting temptation, as 
 he will be who has these opportunities afforded, 
 and his conscientious convictions respected in 
 the arrangements of his public duties. The fol- 
 lowing testimony will illustrate this point more 
 powerfully than any arguments that can be used. 
 Colonel Maberly, the Secretary to the Post-office, 
 states, that from 5th January, 1837, to 5th January, 
 1842, .£322,033, contained in letters, were lost 
 in passing through the Post-office. (See Select Re- 
 port of Committee of the House of Commons on 
 Postage, date 1843, page 188, No. 1174, under 
 head of ^'Terrific Plunder of Money-orders and 
 Demoralization of the Post-office.^' 
 
 The story of the dying letter-carrier, as narrated by 
 the Rev. J. Pears of Bath, is also a striking proof of the 
 consciousness the men entertain of the injurious 
 effects upon their religion and morals of the pri- 
 vation of the privileges of the Lord's-day, neces- 
 
43 
 
 sitated in many instances by their duties thereon. 
 He says : 
 
 " In December I found another man was very ill ; I 
 called on him once or twice ; I spoke to him of the un- 
 satisfactory nature of inquiry in sickness and religion 
 professed then for the first time. He replied to this 
 effect : * Do you mean to say that I cannot read my 
 Bible, and learn these things now as well as any one 
 else ? Why you kept me at work night and day, Sunday 
 and all, for you are one of the public. I had no time to 
 go to church or chapel ; and who is to pay me for my 
 soul ?' I will not say anything of the temper or igno- 
 rance in which he asked that question. I hope that 
 others will not hastily turn aside from their own share in 
 the matter, to wonder in what spirit he made the remark. 
 I wish those who have employed him and others 
 would answer it. For my own part, I could not. It 
 may be well for many of us seriously to think how many 
 persons may have a right to cry out in our presence in 
 the day of account, * Who is to pay me for my 
 SOUL ?' A defence which will not serve them may yet 
 be a ruinous testimony against us. Soon after, the per- 
 son here spoken of was somewhat suddenly removed by 
 death. He is gone into the presence of God with his 
 plea, ' Who is to pay for me for my soul ?' It will be 
 well for those who employ the office on the Lord's-day 
 to be prepared with their answer. The crowd comes to 
 the office in the same selfish hurry ; — no one thinks of 
 those who are gone to enter upon an eternity — and of 
 what ? How infinitely worthless are all the letters that 
 
44 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 were ever put into an ofl&ce, in comparison with one 
 immortal soul !" (See Tract of the Lord's-day Obser- 
 vance Society, entitled, " The Post-office considered in 
 its Bearings on the Sabbath," pp. 2, 3.) 
 
 The following extract from a letter addressed by a 
 Clerk in the Post-office of a provincial town to Mr. 
 Melmoth Walters, of Bath, is a touching proof of 
 the conviction entertained by the servants of the 
 Post-office, that the desecration of the Lord^s-day 
 necessitated by their duties is the great source to 
 which is mainly to be attributed those cases of crime 
 which occur amongst them : — 
 
 " Several of our number are young men from a great 
 distance, never away from the influence of home and 
 friends before ; the night-work is vitiating to the consti- 
 tution of many ; the few occasions when we have the 
 bare hour of Divine Service free from labour, some are 
 fatigued and hungry, some are anything but clean and fit 
 to appear as others ; many positively never have an 
 opportunity from one year's end to another. If, as the 
 Judges of this land often labour to prove. Sabbath- 
 breaking, or rather neglect of Sabbath privileges, and 
 lack of spiritual instruction, is the most fruitful source of 
 crime and dishonesty, is it to be wondered at that so 
 many have ' fallen ' in the Post-office ? In many cases, 
 the first spiritual care they have received for years, is 
 given them on their first Sabbath's rest in the felon's cell. 
 In the Customs' Service, where the nature of the duties 
 does not call for it as necessary, they have their Sun 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 45 
 
 days, and a month's leave of absence every year. The 
 servants of everybody, we do not expect them to care for 
 our bodies, but (excepting- a few friends) we can truly 
 say. No man hath cared for our souls." 
 
 How painful the reflection, that this great depart- 
 ment of a Christian nation should be conducted in 
 violation of a great acknowledged principle of Divine 
 and human law, and should be made instrumental 
 in diffusing throughout the length and breadth of 
 the land much of that pernicious literature to which 
 we have already alluded. So that, like other dese- 
 crations of the Lord^s-day, not only does it incur 
 this guilt, but it is the means of largely tempt- 
 ing to other desecrations of it. It must be viewed 
 not only in itself, but in its bearing on other 
 departments : thus it gives rise to much labour 
 on the Lord^s-day, in the transmission of the mails, 
 by holding forth temptations to Companies to run 
 passenger-trains on Sunday. And who can tell 
 the amount of indirect Sunday labour caused by 
 the Post-office, and what powerful inducements to 
 such labour and to desecration generally would be 
 removed, were that department altogether to pause 
 on the Lord's-day ; and by so doing suffer the com- 
 munity, whose movements are so dependent upon 
 it, to pause likewise. The example of London, in 
 which no letters are received or delivered on the 
 
46 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Lord^s-day, to tlie great satisfaction, not to say 
 delight, of its numerous inhabitants, is a standing 
 and unanswerable proof that the nation generally 
 only waits for the Government to take the initiative 
 in extending to all parts of the kingdom a similar 
 arrangement. However, efforts must be unceasingly 
 made to indicate that this feeling is the prevailing 
 one of those who use the Post-office, by the adoption 
 of petitions to Parliament praying for the entire 
 cessation of Postal labour on the Lord^s-day, and 
 by numerous refusals to receive letters or news- 
 papers on that day. 
 
 RAILWAYS. 
 
 DESECRATION OF THE LORD^S-DAY IN FORMING 
 LINES OF RAILWAY. 
 
 The Railway system has, since its origin, been, 
 with little exception, a fearful instrument in 
 desecrating the Lord's-day. Many of the existing 
 lines were formed on Sundays much the same 
 as on other days. The injury done in this way 
 to the labouring classes of the community, par- 
 
■DAY. 47 
 
 ticularly to those employed in making the lines^ was 
 great and permanent. Some idea may be formed of 
 the extent to which the labouring population was 
 affected by such conduct on the part of contractors^ 
 when it is known that in the year 3849, ] 03,816 
 persons were employed on unfinished lines of rail- 
 way. It is not asserted that all these persons were 
 employed on the Lord's-day, but the number is 
 mentioned in order to shew the importance to 
 society generally of influencing so large a body of 
 men beneficially, and teaching them a respect for 
 religion and morals. 
 
 The following extract from a paper read before 
 the Statistical Society of Manchester, by Mr. Rober- 
 ton, President of the Society, in the year 1846, will 
 illustrate the disregard evinced for the spiritual and 
 moral condition of these men, in some instances, 
 and its degrading effects. Speaking of the men 
 employed in the Summit Tunnel on the Sheffield and 
 Manchester Railway, he says, — 
 
 " I was informed that the labourers (averaging 900 
 or 1000, besides women and children) were indeed in a 
 demoralized state : * and no wonder/ added my informant, 
 for the work goes on by night as well as by day, and on 
 Sundays the same as on other days ; and such has been 
 the case from the commencement.' A Moravian Mis- 
 sionary who visited them, writes : * Working on Sunday 
 is constantly practised ;' and he further explains, not 
 
48 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 merely necessary work, such as pumping water from the 
 shafts, but the ordinary operations of blasting, digging, &c. 
 " The forlorn condition, in a religious sense, of the 
 hurt and the sick — of that portion of them who have not 
 been carried to the Manchester Infirmary — cannot be 
 imagined by those who are in the habit of regarding 
 England as a Christian country, and that, however much 
 people in health may neglect religion, the sick and the 
 afflicted must, at all events, be within reach of its influ- 
 ence and consolations. Nothing, indeed, can be further 
 from the literal truth than such a fancy. There have 
 been instances of destitution, in this particular, such, it 
 is probable, as would scarcely occur in one of our most 
 remote colonies. As an example, take the case of a fine 
 powerful workman, who had the spine fractured in such 
 a manner as to preclude all hope of recovery. Although 
 this man pleaded again and again to have the Scriptures 
 read to him, with religious counsel, the request was in 
 vain ; for, after remaining many days in a sinking con- 
 dition, he was suffered to expire without having received 
 the least attention of the nature he so earnestly craved." 
 
 Mr. Roberton remarks, that the Missionary's 
 Journal, and the aspect and manners of the people, 
 furnished evidence of a state of neglect and destitution, 
 in reference to all that concerns religion, utterly dis- 
 graceful to the directors of the railway and the con- 
 tractors of the work, and to the public also, who 
 for so many years heedlessly and criminally winked 
 at it. 
 
49 
 
 Mr Roberton computes tlie number of fatal acci- 
 dents at tbe tunnel, since the commencement of the 
 works, to have been 32; 140 severely wounded, 
 and 400 cases of minor accident ; and states that 
 many of these accidents occurred on the Lord^s- day, 
 owing to the greater prevalence of intoxication on 
 that than on any other day. 
 
 The Chester and Holyhead Railway, under the 
 direction of S. M. Peto, Esq., M.P., was made with- 
 out infringing on the sanctity of the Lord^s-day ; 
 and Scripture readers were employed for the reli- 
 gious instruction of the men, who in consequence 
 presented, in moral conduct, a striking and most 
 favourable contrast to men employed on lines on 
 which work was done on the Lord's-day. 
 
 Desecration of the Lord's-day on Lines of 
 Railway open for Traffic. 
 
 The number of miles of railway open for traffic in 
 the United Kingdom, at the end of the year 1851, 
 was 6978, on which were employed upwards of 
 60,000 men. In the year ending June, 1849, 
 60,398,159 passengers were conveyed by rail. 
 Some idea will be formed of the extent to which 
 the Lord^s-dav is desecrated on these lines from 
 
50 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 the following statement of the number of occasions 
 on which ordinary trains acted as disturbing causes 
 on the Lord's-day in the United Kingdom^ in the 
 month of December 1851, on each line of railway. 
 In this enumeration are included the occasions of 
 trains departing from or arriving at termini, and 
 touching at places on the several lines. This table, 
 be it observed, does not include the luggage or the 
 excursion trains, which add considerably to the 
 labour of the men employed on those lines on 
 which such trains are run. 
 
 Analysis of Railway Trains, derived from the 
 
 Tables for December, 1851, including occasions of 
 
 ~ ordinary Trains leaving or arriving at termini, and 
 
 touching at places on the several lines on the 
 
 Lord^s-day : — 
 
 Great Western 590 
 
 London and South Western 861 
 
 London, Brighton, and South Coast. . 554 
 
 South Eastern 559 
 
 London and Blackwall 96 
 
 North Kent 310 
 
 Great Northern. 305 
 
 Eastern Counties, East Anglian, and 
 Eastern Union 778 
 
London and North Western 1454 
 
 St. Helens^ and Runcorn Gap 48 
 
 South Staffordshire 150 
 
 North Staffordshire 311 
 
 Birmingham &Shrewsbury_,and Shrews- 
 bury & Chester 117 
 
 Birmingham, Wolverhampton, & Stour 
 
 Valley 54 
 
 Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire 
 
 Junction 97 
 
 Chester & Holyhead and Mold Junction 1 09 
 
 Bristol and Birmingham 163 
 
 Leicester and Ashby to Burton 48 
 
 Leicester, Syston, Stamford, and Peter- 
 
 boro' 76 
 
 Nottingham and Mansfield 40 
 
 Derby, Nottingham, Newark, and 
 
 Lincoln 93 
 
 Erewash Valley Branch 4 
 
 Birmingham, Tamworth, and Derby. . 52 
 
 Richmond, York, and Darlington. ... 35 
 
 Leeds and Colne 160 
 
 Buxton, Manchester, Matlock, and 
 
 Midland Junction 20 
 
 Ambergate and Eastern Junction .... 4 
 
 E 2 
 
52 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Leeds to Rugby 261 
 
 Sheffield and Rotherliam 6 
 
 Yorkj Newcastle, and Berwick 300 
 
 Durham and Sunderland none 
 
 Hartlepool and Sunderland none 
 
 Newcastle and Shields 7 
 
 Springwell and Jarrow 4 
 
 Boroughbridge Branch 6 
 
 Darlington to Hartlepool 48 
 
 North Shields and Tynemouth Branch 23 
 
 North British 64 
 
 York and Harrogate none 
 
 Barnsley, Sheffield, and Doncaster . . none 
 
 Kendal and Windermere 12 
 
 Kendal and Carlisle 3 
 
 Cockermouth and Workington 4 
 
 Whitehaven Junction 4 
 
 Furness Railway and Barrow Branch 104 
 
 Newcastle and Carlisle 88 
 
 Maryport and Carlisle 44 
 
 Stockton and Darlington — Wear Valley 
 
 and Redcar 35 
 
 Stockton and Hartlepool and Clarence none 
 
 Shrewsbury and Staffiird 48 
 
 Leeds Northern 58 
 
53 
 
 York to Castleford 49 
 
 Leeds and Selby — York and North 
 
 Midland 36 
 
 Hull, Selby, Leeds, and York 57 
 
 Scarborougli, Bridlington, and Hull 
 
 Brancb 22 
 
 York, Scarboro^, Pickering, and Whitby 
 
 —Great North Midland 56 
 
 Tadcaster, Wetherby, and Harrogate . . none 
 
 Retford and Lincoln 20 
 
 Lincoln and Hull 69 
 
 Great Grimsby, New Holland, and Hull 84 
 
 Barton to New Holland and Hull 36 
 
 Manchester and Sheffield to Great 
 
 Grimsby and Hull 250 
 
 Huddersfield to Sheffield 60 
 
 Ashton and Staley Bridge Branch .... 64 
 
 Preston and Wjie 44 
 
 Wakefield, Pontefract, and Goole .... 64 
 
 Huddersfield and Holmfirth 28 
 
 Manchester, Oldham, Huddersfield, and 
 
 Leeds 339 
 
 Wakefield and Barnsley, 32 
 
 Manchester, Bolton, and Preston .... 122 
 
 Southport, Liverpool, and Bolton ]37 
 
54 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Southpovt and Waterloo District 130 
 
 Selby and Market Weighton none 
 
 Blackburn and Clitheroe District .... 106 
 
 York and Market Weigbton none 
 
 Asbton and Staley Bridge Branch . . 8 
 
 Oldham Branch 9 
 
 Manchester and Bowden 72 
 
 Manchester to North wich 16 
 
 Burnley and Todmorden 30 
 
 Liverpool^ Preston_, Manchester, Leeds, 
 
 Bradford, (East Lancashire) 344- 
 
 Liverpool, Ormskirk, Preston, and Black- 
 burn (East Lancashire) 50 
 
 Glo'ster, Chepstow, Swansea (South 
 
 Wales) 104 
 
 Newport to Blaina (Western Valley) . . 44 
 
 Taff Vale and Aberdare 64 
 
 Swansea, Neath, Aberdare, and Merthyr 36 
 Glasgow, Paisley, and Ayr, to London 
 
 and the South none 
 
 Glasgow, Paisley, and Ayr none 
 
 London and Carlisle to Edinburgh and 
 
 Glasgow 71 
 
 Glasgow and Bathgate Junction none 
 
 Ayr, Greenock, Glasgow, and Edinburgh 
 — Caledonian local trains 4 
 
55 
 
 Glasgow and Hamilton none 
 
 Glasgow^ Paisley, and Greenock — Cale- 
 donian * none 
 
 Glasgow and Barrhead — Caledonian . . none 
 
 Ardrossan Railway none 
 
 Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway . . none 
 
 Paisley and Renfrew none 
 
 Dunfermline and Alloa none 
 
 Tillicoultry Brancli none 
 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow none 
 
 Monkland Branch none 
 
 Edinburgh and Bathgate none 
 
 Campsie Branch none 
 
 Dalkeith and Hawick Branch 84 
 
 Edinburgh and Portobello 4 
 
 Perth and Glasgow (Scottish Central) none 
 
 Alloa Branch (Scottish Central) none 
 
 Edinburgh, Cupar, Dundee, and Perth 96 
 
 Aberdeen and Forfar 36 
 
 Edinburgh, Leith, and Granton Sec- 
 tion none 
 
 Edinburgh to Musselburgh none 
 
 Perth and Forfar 8 
 
 Dundee and Newtyle none 
 
5G STATISTICS AND FACTS - 
 
 Glasgow, Dumbarton^ and Loch Lomond none 
 
 Dundee and Arbroath 9 
 
 Dundee and Broughty 6 
 
 Dundee, Perth, and Aberdeen Junction 28 
 
 Dublin and Belfast Junction 8 
 
 Dundalk and Enniskillen 5 
 
 Dublin, Malahide, Drogheda, and Navan 74 
 Dublin and Howth (Dublin and Drog- 
 heda) 48 
 
 Dublin, Kildare, Carlow, Limerick, and 
 
 Cork (Great Southern and Western) 120 
 
 Waterford and Kilkenny 28 
 
 Dublin, Maynooth, and Galway 81 
 
 Cork and Bandon 20 
 
 Waterford and Limerick 32 
 
 Londonderry and Enniskillen 24 
 
 Belfast and Newtownards 26 
 
 Belfast and Holy wood 14 
 
 Dublin and Kingstown 70 
 
 From the above it appears that there were, in the 
 month of December, 1851, on lines of Railway in 
 England, upwards of 10,000 ordinary occasions on 
 which passengers were taken up and set down on 
 the Lord's-day; 350 in Scotland ; and 550 in Ireland. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 57 
 
 It will also be perceived that there are in England 
 some lines on which no Sunday trains are run ; 
 many in Scotland ; and that, in Ireland, trains run 
 on every line on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 Trains (exclusive of Excursion and Luggage trains) 
 
 which left and arrived at the different stations 
 in London, on Sundays, in the month of December, 
 1851 :— 
 
 Trains. Departures. Arrivals. 
 
 Great Western 12 6 6 
 
 Waterloo Bridge 39 21 18 
 
 London Bridge 164 81 83 
 
 King's Cross (Great Nor- 
 thern) 7 3 4 
 
 Shoreditch 31 14 17 
 
 Euston Square 14 7 7 
 
 Fenchurch Street 96 48 48 
 
 363 
 
 Again, the reader is reminded that, in order to 
 have an adequate notion of the evil effects of these 
 trains, we must connect with them in our minds the 
 vast variety and extent of labour to which each 
 departure, arrival, or stoppage gives rise, not only 
 to those persons employed on the railways, but to 
 
58 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 drivers, conductors, servants in hotels and inns, and 
 many others. 
 
 The Clergy at Swindon, and generally along that 
 part of the Great Western line of railway, prepared 
 the following Memorial, in the year 1847, for pre- 
 sentation to the Directors. It will enable the reader 
 to form some idea of the amount of Sunday's toil 
 imposed on the men working the lines : — 
 
 " To the Directors of the Great Western Railway. — 
 We, the undersigned Clergymen, residing in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the Great Western Railway, earnestly request 
 your attention to the peculiar circumstances in which a 
 vast number of persons employed by you are placed^ with 
 regard to their attendance at Divine worship on the 
 Lord's-day. It appears from inquiries which have been 
 made, that at each station, and along the line of railway, 
 a very considerable number of men are so constantly en- 
 gaged during the Sunday in their secular duties connected 
 with the railway, that they are entirely precluded from 
 attending Divine service ; and as an instance of the cor- 
 rectness of this statement, we find that at Swindon and its 
 immediate vicinity, eleven switchmen are at liberty only 
 two Sundays in three months; nine police constables 
 have only one Sunday in seven to themselves ; nineteen 
 porters have only one Sunday in four to themselves ; 
 fourteen policemen, on beat between Swindon and Wan- 
 tage Road, never have a Sunday at liberty. The aggre- 
 gate number of long and short trains on the Sunday is 
 
59 
 
 eighteen, exclusive of goods trains, six of which we believe 
 are not under the control of the Company. — Your Me- 
 morialists, deeply impressed with the solemn duty of 
 observing the Lord's-day, " to keep it holy," and ^of 
 affording to others the advantages which result from obe- 
 dience to the Divine precept as respects the Christian 
 Sabbath, lament its desecration in any manner. If, how- 
 ever, the running of any trains on Sunday be obligatory 
 on the Company, your Memorialists would, with great 
 respect, but with the earnestness becoming their sacred 
 office, request that the number may not exceed that which 
 is so required ; and would express a hope that the time 
 of transmitting those trains may be so arranged as not to 
 prevent the attendance of any person on the public wor- 
 ship of Almighty God. — As it is obvious that the per- 
 sons in your service are exposed to more than the ordinary 
 risk of life, your Memorialists would ask, Is it not an un- 
 christian practice to deprive them of one of the most 
 effectual means for preparing for death and judgment ? 
 — Your Memorialists further deprecate the evil com- 
 plained of, not only as prejudicial to the servants of the 
 Company, but inasmuch as the demoralizing influence of 
 bad example is too apparent in the parishes adjacent to 
 the line of railway." 
 
 The Sunday excursion -trains are a new and 
 alarming feature of the railway system as regards 
 its demoralizing influence. By means of these 
 trains,, a kind of equalization of the immorality of 
 the community is being effected, our country towns 
 
60 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 and villages being by tbeir means inoculated with tbe 
 vice and crime of the worst parts of om* metropo- 
 litan and provincial population. 
 
 Temptation to Sunday trading — to the sale of in- 
 toxicating liquors — to licentiousness on the Lord^s- 
 day, are held forth by the introduction of large 
 bodies of persons unrestrained by local influences 
 into the neighbourhoods whither these trains carry 
 them. The place of worship and the Sunday-school 
 are deserted^ in order that the shop may be attended 
 to ; and cui'iosity, or worse feelings, are indulged. 
 Thus, in order to subserve the interested views of 
 the proprietors of railways, public morality is sacri- 
 ficed. If railway desecration be not resolutely re- 
 sisted, there is reason to apprehend that no agency 
 of evil, hitherto at work amongst us, will prove 
 more successful in destroying a regard for the sanc- 
 tity of the Lord's-day, and at the same time in 
 giving strength and permanency to other and 
 kindred modes of Sabbath-breaking. 
 
 The character of railway desecration is daringly 
 aggressive : not satisfied with evading or disobeying 
 the law, it has actually on two remarkable occasions 
 sought for legislative enactments to render the run- 
 ning of Sunday trains compulsory on directors ; and 
 in one instance has been successful, namely, when a 
 
61 
 
 Bill was passing through Parliament to amalga- 
 mate the Bristol & Gloucester and Birmingham & 
 Gloucester Railway Company with the Midland 
 Railway Company^ in the year 184:6, a clause was 
 on that occasion introduced and embodied in the 
 Bill, requiring the Directors to run at least one 
 train each way on Sundays. Before the amalgama- 
 tion, no trains were run on the Lord^s-day between 
 Bristol, Gloucester, and Birmingham. The other 
 case referred to, was the introduction of a BiU 
 by Mr. Locke, which proposed to make it com- 
 pulsory on directors to carry passengers on Sundays 
 by the mail trains. Happily, owing to the exertions 
 of the Lord's-day Observance Society, and other 
 friends of the observance of the Lord^s-day, this 
 Bill, which in its object was so contrary to the first 
 principles of liberty of conscience, being opposed by 
 the Government, was thrown out. 
 
 Every one who is interested in the religious wel- 
 fare of his country, on reflecting on the fearful 
 disregard of the Lord^s-day e\dnced, with few ex- 
 ceptions, in the conduct of the railway system, as 
 proved by the facts stated above, — a disregard affect- 
 ingthe moral condition of the whole kingdom, — must 
 feel that it is an imperative duty to endeavour to put 
 some check upon the progress of the evil. 
 
62 STATISTICS AND TACTS 
 
 The friends of the observance of the Lord^s-day 
 in Scotland have exerted themselves noblv, and vrith 
 considerable success,, in opposing the running of 
 trains on the Lord's-day in that country. It will 
 be seen, from the tables given above, that on many 
 lines of railway in Scotland no trains are run on the 
 Lord's-day. In those instances in which they have 
 been unsuccessful in putting a stop to the running 
 of Sunday trains, the failure has been mainly owing 
 to a majority of English shareholders. 
 
 SALE OF TOBACCO AND SNUFF ON 
 THE LORD^S-DAY. 
 
 This is a part of the subject on which we shall 
 not say much. The extent of the evil will be stated 
 in few words ; but it is not therefore an evil of small 
 magnitude: on the contrary, we know that shops 
 for the sale of tobacco on the Lord's-day are, for the 
 most part, places whither the dissipated and idle 
 resort, and in which immoral and secular publica- 
 tions, of the description before refen-ed to, are gene- 
 rally sold. In the year 1818, 209,537 persons took 
 out licences for the sale of tobacco ; or, in other 
 words, nearly 209,537 of these places are open on 
 Sunday, employing some 300,000 persons, or more ; 
 
63 
 
 and eacli place so open being also a centre of temp- 
 tation^ to which the idle and dissipated resort. In 
 the metropolis alone there are nearly 1000 of these 
 shops, which are for the most part open on Sunday, 
 in which low publications are sold. The following 
 extract is from evidence taken before the Committee 
 of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into 
 Sunday trading in the Metropolis, 1850, page 85. 
 Mr. James Beaumont, a tobacconist, says : 
 
 " I think there is a greater trade in cigars on the Sun- 
 day than on other days ;" and being asked, " Are not a 
 number of young men, who are released from business on 
 the Saturday, very apt to buy cigars on Sunday ?" he re- 
 plied, '* Yes ; and the very young men I should be glad 
 to see deprived of the opportunity of getting them." He 
 further says, " I have had children as high as this table 
 brought to me by their mothers for cigars, and their 
 mothers have given them cigars." 
 
 It certainly is difficult to understand why this 
 branch of traffic should be permitted on the Lord's- 
 day, as no conceivable ground of necessity and cha- 
 rity can be pleaded in its behalf : it, on the contrary, 
 presents an aspect of unmixed evil, and is highly 
 prejudicial to the morals of the population, particu- 
 larly to the youth of the operative class, to appren- 
 tices, shopmen, &c. 
 
64 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 DESECRATION OF THE LORD'S-DAY ON 
 CANALS AND NAVIGABLE RIVERS, 
 
 This is a description of desecration of the Lord's- 
 day which has been long in existence^ and which 
 unhappily supplies ample illustration of the demora- 
 lizing and degrading effects, on a numerous class, 
 of systematic exclusion from the opportunities and 
 privileges of the Lord^s-day. The remarks of the 
 late Baron Gurney, when passing sentence of death 
 on two of these men for an atrocious crime, at 
 assizes held in Stafford, some years ago, are well 
 known, namely, — that there was no body of 
 men so destitute of all moral culture as boatmen : 
 they knew no Sabbath, and were possessed of no 
 means of religious instruction. That the men them- 
 selves are sensitively alive to their degradation, and 
 its principal source, has been again and again testi- 
 fied to, by those most conversant with them. On 
 one occasion a dying boatman observed to his mas- 
 ter, when endeavouring to give him religious in- 
 struction and consolation, "You forced me to break 
 one of God^s commands ; and when I broke one, I 
 thought there was little use in trying to keep the 
 others.^' The remark is said to have produced such 
 an effect on the employer, that he withdrew from 
 
65 
 
 this line of business. There are upwards of 4000 
 miles of inland navigation in the kingdom^ on which 
 are employed nearly 100,000 men, the great majority 
 of whom are deprived of the blessings of the Lord's- 
 day : they are consequently, with their wives and 
 children, generally speaking, in a state of deplorable 
 ignorance of the Gospel and of the power of reli- 
 gion. Great exertions have been made in their 
 behalf by a few benevolent individuals, amongst 
 whom stands foremost, as the oldest and most active 
 friend of this neglected class, the Rev. John Davies, 
 incumbent of St. Clement's, Worcester ; the success 
 of whose efforts only causes to appear in bolder 
 rehef the guilt of past neglect, and the duty of more 
 general attention to their condition. Chiefly owing 
 to the exertions of Mr. Davies, floating chapels have 
 been erected for the instruction of boatmen at Wor- 
 cester and Gloucester, at which they attend as oppor- 
 tunity permits; and a striking moral improve- 
 ment has in many instances followed; shewing 
 most clearly the cause of their degradation, and 
 its remedy, namely, the restoration of Sabbath 
 privileges. 
 
66 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 STEAM BOATS. 
 
 The desecration of the Lord^s-day by steam boats 
 is very great^ particularly in London. 
 
 The following is a list of the steam boats plying 
 on the Thames : — 
 
 Up the river — Hampton Court. — The Locomotive. 
 
 For Richmond. — Era^ Echo^ Eclipse^ Queen. 
 
 Kew — Ujjper Pier, above Chelsea. — Waverley, 
 Childe Harold, Lallah Rookh, Citizen I, Citizen K^ 
 Citizen L. 
 
 From London Bridge to Chelsea, — Citizen A, 
 Citizen B, Citizen C, Citizen J), Citizen E, Citizen F, 
 Citizen G, Citizen H, Citizen M, Citizen N, Day- 
 light, Twilight, Moonlight, Starlight, Bride, Bride- 
 groom, Bridesmaid, Matrimony, Wedding Ring, 
 Bachelor, 
 
 London Bridge to Westminster, — London Pride, 
 Sunflower, Dahlia, Moss Rose, Forget-uie-not, Blue 
 Bell, Pink. 
 
 London Bridge to AdeJphi. — Ant, Bee, Sunbeam, 
 Emmet. 
 
 Hungerford to Woolwich A A Pier down the river, 
 calling at London Bridge, — Ariel, Nymph, Naiad, 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 67 
 
 Fairy, Sylph, Witch, Syren, Flora, Niobe, Sybil, 
 Dryad, Waterman 1, Waterman 2, Waterman 3, 
 Waterman 4, Waterman 5, Waterman 6, Waterman 
 7, Waterman 8, Waterman 10, Waterman 11, 
 Waterman 12. 
 
 From Aclelphi Pier to Southend and Sheerness. — 
 Sons of the Thames, Queen of the Thames, Queen. 
 
 For Gravesend direct from London Bridge Wharf. 
 — Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Gem, Diamond, Topaz. 
 
 From Blackmail Pier. — Jupiter, Star, Satellite, 
 Meteor, Vesper. 
 
 From North Woolwich across the river to Woolwich 
 Pier. — Kent, Essex. 
 
 These vessels, 80 in number, employ about 500 
 men to manage the boats and the machinery : their 
 daily work is continued through seven days succes- 
 sively, without a Sabbath rest : their moral and phy- 
 sical condition may therefore be easily imagined. 
 Mr. Swan, superintendent of machinery to the 
 Eastern and Continental Steam Packet Company, so 
 vividly describes the condition of the men employed 
 in the steam vessels belonging to that Company, 
 which ply between Folkestone and Boulogne, conse- 
 quent on their being deprived of the privileges of 
 the Sabbath, in a memorial which he addressed to 
 f2 
 
68 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 the Chairman of the Company^ that a few extracts 
 from it will not be inappropriate here^ as they may be 
 considered descriptive of the class generally when 
 similarly situated. 
 
 " I beg to express my deep conviction, that a greater 
 amount of active service could be performed, if the ships' 
 crews could be insured their Sabbath-day's rest, than 
 ever will be realized by the best possible arrangement 
 without it 5 and this increased amount of service would 
 be performed at least as efficiently as, and certainly more 
 heartily than, at present. This is just equivalent to say- 
 ing, that eight boats could accomplish as much work in 
 six days as a greater number could in seven j and that is 
 what I mean to affirm. By not systematically depriving 
 men of the rest which the human constitution as peremp- 
 torily requires as the law of God demands, you would 
 be so much better served, that it would be equivalent to 
 getting another boat upon the station. By exacting 
 seven days' work, you get less than six days' labour. 
 This is a truth that has been widely verified, and the 
 general correctness of the principle has met with almost 
 universal acceptation ; the recent appreciation of it has 
 led, I am informed, to the abolishing of Sunday working 
 in the public works of France. Now it is just the same 
 with a machine as a steam-packet, and with machinery 
 in general, as it is with the men who work it : when 
 officials get fagged, jaded, and dispirited, whether these 
 officials be stokers, sailors, servants, engineers, or officers, 
 the wheels turn heavily, whether by land or water. It 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 69 
 
 is matter of notoriety that those crafts which are pur- 
 sued through seven days in the week, are followed by an 
 almost proverbially indolent set of men, and after a 
 somewhat sluggish, spiritless, and perfunctory fashion. 
 
 " You must not suppose that a day's work of a man is 
 a fixed and constant quantity. Under certain circum- 
 stances a man will put forth three times his average 
 amount of exertion, without feeling much fatigue ; and 
 while I do not intend to propound a recipe to enable any 
 one to extract the maximum quantity of work from his 
 servants, I will tell you plainly how to get the least pos- 
 sible, and that done with the greatest grudge : just keep 
 them at it Saturday and Sunday from March to October, 
 and Sunday and Saturday from October to March ; and 
 if you do not succeed, very completely, in damping the 
 spirits, marring the efficiency, and destroying the energy 
 of the best men in the service, and rendering thoroughly 
 useless all the worst, you will at least have the satisfac- 
 tion of having done what you could. 
 
 " Mainly to the effect of Sunday sailing do I attribute 
 the circumstance that I have had occasion to part, in one 
 way or other, in the last few months, with not fewer than 
 eighteen stokers and coal- trimmers, some of them first- 
 rate hands, being equal, in point of number, to the entire 
 complement. It is this that gives force to every other 
 temptation, because it removes the most efficient cor- 
 rective, if not the absolute antidote. Once placed be- 
 yond the conservative and ameliorating influence of the 
 Sabbath, nothing else but deterioration, more . or less 
 gradual, can be expected, and for the most part nothing 
 
70 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 else takes place : and when the men get addicted by 
 degrees to tippling, drunkenness, and smuggling — when 
 they turn indolent, careless, negligent, and insubordi- 
 nate — you may not suppose that such a process can take 
 place without both risk and loss to the service ; nor can 
 any thing short of a very unequivocal necessity be deemed 
 a sufficient reason for maintaining a practice that natu- 
 rally issues in such a result. 
 
 " Now it appears to me, that to one description of evil 
 incidental to Sunday working, or Sunday sailing, that of 
 apparent listlessness and heartlessness for work, or inap- 
 titude for enduring great fatigue, arising from the lassi- 
 tude and physical exhaustion produced by unintermit- 
 tent work, the rest of the Sabbath affords a substantia! 
 and material antidote ; while to the other fruitful sources 
 of evil above-named, a moral remedy, of still greater 
 efficacy, is to be found in a properly spent Sabbath. I 
 do not speak at random, when I talk of the blundering 
 results of Sunday working, or the equally blundering 
 fashion and tortoise-like speed at which the Sunday 
 workers and Sunday pleasure-takers contrive to sidle 
 through their work on a Monday morning. Put it in 
 my power to apply such a preventive, and such a cure ; 
 give me the Sabbath-day, not only for myself and the 
 factory hands, but also for the engine crews, and in due 
 time, with the help of the various engineers, I will give 
 you a very different set of stokers, and that, perhaps, 
 without changing three hands out of the twenty. I do 
 not know another remedy, and I despair of finding one 
 out. Chance, or clever management, may do a good deal ; 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 71 
 
 but if ever 1, or any one else, succeed in forming a corps 
 of trustworthy, efficient, Sabbalh-breaking stokers, it will 
 be, to say the least, something new. The very qualities 
 that seem to neutralize the baneful effects of such a 
 system, subject the men themselves to have their feelings 
 wounded and mortified ; and could you but apprehend 
 the extent to which this is the case, did your acquaint- 
 ance with the subject enable you to sympathize with the 
 keen sense of injustice, the moral degradation, and the 
 bitter hardship entailed on not a few, by the virtual abro- 
 gation of that blessed boon to a labour- cursed w'orld — 
 the rest of the holy Sabbath — you would pause before 
 you admitted either the policy or the cogency of the 
 necessity that prompts to it. 
 
 " The truth is, I have not arrived hastily at the con- 
 clusion, that there is scarcely a man in the Company's 
 employ, whose services are much worth retaining, who 
 ■does not heartily detest the Sunday sailing and Sunday 
 working ; and it consists with my knowledge that several 
 of those who, in your opinion, and in the estimate of the 
 public, do the greatest credit to the service, and could 
 least be spared, are just the individuals who are most 
 sickened at the slavery of it. 
 
 " I should mention, however, that of the engineers, 
 some would willingly work a whole night in the week to 
 avoid Sunday sailing ; some would venture double and 
 quadruple trips ; and another, or others, have expressed 
 to me, in the strongest terms (as I have attempted to do), 
 the mischievous effects upon the firemen of the uninter- 
 mittent work, in rendering them heartless, sluggish, and 
 
72 STATISTICS AND PACTS 
 
 careless ; and their own sense of its deteriorating influence 
 over all subjected to it. 
 
 " According to my estimate, then, the expediency view 
 of the balance-sheet runs thus : — Resting on the Sab- 
 bath-day — Creditor — first, a greater amount of eflPective 
 service accomplished with a not greater number of 
 steamers : because there would be, secondly, better men, 
 better conduct, better discipline, less smuggling, less 
 tippling, less shifting of hands, greater satisfaction with 
 the service, greater spirit, zeal, and interest in it, greater 
 bodily vigour and capability of enduring fatigue, less 
 waste of fuel, less risk of burning or blowing up the 
 boilers, or of setting the ship on fire, less anxiety and un- 
 easiness and vague apprehension of disaster, less likeli- 
 hood of shedding innocent blood, or, briefly and summa- 
 rily, to put the truth for once in its proper light, as the 
 truth ought to be spoken (impugn it whoso list), there 
 would be more of the blessing that maketh rich, and 
 there would be less of the curse of the Almighty. 
 
 " I do not believe that the plea of necessity is ever 
 urged, or ever thought of, by three in a hundred of those 
 that travel on Sunday, or could be consistently main- 
 tained by one in ten thousand. We are not constituted 
 judges of the validity of the moral necessity that directs 
 the passengers ; grant, for argument sake, that there 
 does at times exist something akin to absolute necessity 
 on their part, that does not necessarily imply an obliga- 
 tion on our part to carry them over, any more than the 
 circumstance of a man being in imminent necessity of a 
 pair of shoes on Sunday, would imply that all the shoe- 
 
73 
 
 makers in Folkestone were to keep their shops open on 
 that day. May there not exist, I would ask, a counter- 
 necessity on our part, that preponderates a thousandfold, 
 forbidding us to leave port ? — even the necessity of 
 caring for hundreds of never-dying souls. Is the neces- 
 sity to be all on the side of the passengers, and to have 
 no respect to those who carry them over — no regard to 
 the word that says, ' In seed time and in harvest thou 
 shalt rest ?' And truly it is a one-sided and equivocal 
 necessity indeed, that binds us over to sin against God 
 and man, in order to keep the passage open, and yet neces- 
 sitates us only to carry over those that can afford to pay ! ! ! 
 
 " There is, however, one argument for the Sunday 
 trips which, I feel, demands more serious consideration 
 than I have yet bestowed upon it. Perhaps it is the only 
 argument that admits of such : it is this — ' The passage 
 between Folkestone and Boulogne lies right in the world's 
 highway ; Folkestone is, in a certain limited sense, the 
 key of the East. It may one day stand in the same 
 relation to Europe that it now does to China. To shut 
 up such a thoroughfare is something like an outrage 
 against the civilized world.' 
 
 " Now there are various considerations which to my 
 mind appear to compose a conclusive reply to the above ; 
 but there is one in particular which is better than all the 
 rest, for in some sense it includes them all : I mean, the 
 supreme authority and express command of the word of 
 God, by whose adjudicature alone we must stand or fall. 
 That is the true necessity — paramount, unalterable, su- 
 preme — which neither appeals to petty expediency, nor 
 
74 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 defers to popular clamour j a necessity that proclaims 
 its own authority, and admits of no compromise. For- 
 getfulness of it cannot plant us beyond its domain, nor 
 disregard raise us above its control. The Fourth Com- 
 mandment is as much the word of the living God to-day 
 as it was when Mount Sinai shivered beneath the trum- 
 pet peal ; and the same satisfactory reason, the same 
 authoritative sanction, that detained three million Jewish 
 wanderers, for near six whole years of Sabbath days, 
 among the parched coasts of Petraea, still holds as good 
 as ever to this present hour, for resting from our works 
 on the Sabbath day ; and it is at once reason and autho- 
 rity, and necessity so high, that the mind of man can 
 neither own a higher nor comprehend a greater. And 
 lest men should count it a hard saying, or an irksome 
 burden, * Thou shalt do no work,' it is not only said, 
 * God rested from his works,' but also, * God blessed 
 the Sabbath day ;' and that such is the case, God's pro- 
 vidence indicates as emphatically as his word declares ; 
 that providence that comprehends alike the fall of an em- 
 pire and the flight of a sparrow, the transactions of an 
 hour and the cycles of the stellar system, has not left it 
 doubtful whether or no the observance of the Sabbath be 
 accompanied by a blessing, and the breach of it by a 
 curse. If Providence ever spoke in language that could 
 not be misinterpreted, or uttered a voice that none might 
 disregard, it was when it issued its commentary upon the 
 Fourth Commandment." 
 
 Mr. Swan's memorial had the effect of leading to 
 
75 
 
 a suspension of the sailing of the steam-packets of the 
 South Eastern and Continental Steam Packet Com- 
 pany on the Lord^s-dajj and with the happiest results 
 as regards the moral,, social^ and physical improvement 
 of the men employed ; as will appear from the follow- 
 ing communication addressed to the Author by Mr. 
 Swan, some months after the suspension of labour 
 on the Lord^s-day had taken place : — 
 
 " I am glad to say that nothing has occurred to belie 
 ray anticipations in the slightest as to the results of the 
 Sabbath resting. 
 
 " I have reason to believe that among all the classes 
 of the population in Folkestone (a town of 5000 inha- 
 bitants) the mechanics and stokers are the most regular 
 in attendance upon public worship. I have indeed 
 succeeded in the main, in getting a set of most 
 efficient, trustworthy men, without having occasion to 
 discharge more than one or two ; and even then for only 
 revenue offences, which, morally speaking, are mere 
 trifles. The stokers are now almost looked up to by the 
 rest of the inhabitants, instead of being regarded as the 
 scum of society, as in some other parts. Their names 
 are even not unfrequently dignified with the honorary 
 
 title. Mr. , for instance, has taken a new house 
 
 in an elevated part of the town, near to where Mr, 
 
 resides ; while Mr. , the stoker, who nearly sunk 
 
 the Prince Ernest, has just procured a situation at Dover 
 
76 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 as receiver of carrier pigeons' expresses at ^130 per 
 annum. 
 
 " The men in some of the packets are now performing 
 the double service without relief, to which I alluded in 
 my memorandum, and altogether there is a remarkable 
 appearance of comfort and satisfaction and prosperity 
 among all hands. 
 
 " Last season there were about six times as many 
 hands discharged for bad conduct as have been during 
 the same number of months this season. 
 
 ** I have not for months been cognizant of a single case 
 of intoxication, nor have I chanced by any accident to 
 overhear profane or improper language during many 
 months. 
 
 " It is, in the providence of God, to Mr. MacGregor's 
 matchless address and firmness that we are indebted for 
 this discontinuance of the Sunday sailing. It is one of 
 the noblest instances of wise management I have ever 
 known j he has carried the matter in a wonderful man- 
 ner, and merits, as he has met with, the deepest grati- 
 tude from all concerned." 
 
 It is painful to be compelled to add, that the Com- 
 pany, influenced, it is to be supposed, by the demand 
 on the part of the public, and also, possibly, by the 
 fear of exciting opposition, have again caused their 
 packets to sail on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 The number of persons who seek their own plea- 
 
11 
 
 sure, on the Lord's-day in the steam boats that ply 
 on the Thames in the summer months is something 
 enormous : the Author has not been able to obtain 
 such information as would enable him to form any- 
 thing like a correct average. It was stated in one of 
 the Quarterly Papers of the Lord^s-day Observance 
 Society, that on Sunday the 12th July, 1849, 324,000 
 persons embarked and landed from the steam boats 
 plying between London Bridge and Chelsea. It 
 must be remembered that these steam boats are all 
 floating public-houses, in which intoxicating liquors 
 are sold on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 The condition of Scotland presents a pleasing 
 contrast to that of England, in that few or no plea- 
 sure steam boats sail there on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 EMPLOYMENT OF OMNIBUS SERVANTS 
 AND CAB DRIVERS ON THE LORD^S-DAY. 
 
 The condition of Omnibus Servants is one fearful 
 to contemplate. Living in the very midst of the light 
 of the Gospel, and coming in daily contact with the 
 most civilized aud benevolent community in the 
 world, they receive not at our hands the same 
 amount of consideration as the heathen, from whose 
 
78 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 ignorance they are little removed, and are treated as 
 
 thougli they had no souls ; indeed, worse than a 
 
 humane man would treat his beast. 
 
 The number of these men was, in October, 
 
 1851 :— 
 
 Drivers 1907 
 
 Conductors 2137 
 
 Watermen 350 
 
 Supernumeraries 2000 
 
 Horse-keepers 3000 
 
 9394 
 
 Their average hours of daily labour, the Lord^s-day 
 included, are 13, 14, and even sometimes 16 hours 
 a day. We see the fruits of this state of things, 
 in that there is no class of men who more fre- 
 quently appear before our Metropolitan magistrates 
 than omnibus drivers and conductors. 
 
 Th6 following is a Copy of Evidence relative to the 
 Hours of Labour of Omnibus Servants, taken by Mr. 
 Lilwell, secretary of the Early Closing Society. 
 
 '* , coachman, examined. There are 10,000 per- 
 
 sons employed as coachmen and conductors of metro- 
 politan omnibuses. Commences work at 10 in the morn- 
 ing, finishes at 12 at night. Has 40 minutes allowed 
 
79 
 
 for meals. Has no other respite during the whole time, 
 all week days are alike, and Sunday also during the sum- 
 mer season. Runs one journey less on Sundays during 
 the winter ; this admits of a little time for rest, but not 
 for attending a place of Divine worship." 
 
 " , conductor. Has been employed for 18 years 
 
 as a conductor, during which period has not attended 
 worship more than about sijc times. Has wished to go 
 regularly, having been brought up to attend church." 
 
 " , employed from Paddington to Black wall. 
 
 Commences at9o'clocka.m.,leaves off at about half-past 10 
 p.m. Has 40 minutes for meals. On[ Sunday commences at 
 half-past 10 a.m., finishes at half-past 11 p.m. On this day 
 has an hour for dinner, and the same for tea. Does not 
 attend a place of worship oftener than once or twice a 
 year. Believes it to be a common thing for persons to 
 ride on Sundays to their places of worship." 
 
 " , employed as conductor from Hammersmith 
 
 to the Bank, from 20 minutes to 8 in the morning till 
 half-after 8 p.m. Has 55 minutes for meals. On Sundays 
 has no opportunity to attend a place of worship. 
 
 Knows a coachman of the name of , who will 
 
 never drive on a Sunday. Knows many persons who 
 make a practice of riding on Sunday from Hammersmith 
 to Hornton-street chapel and back again. Also from 
 Kensington to St. Mary's church, Fulham. 
 
 " , coachman from Paddington to Whitechapel, 
 
 commences at half- past 8 a.m., finishes quarter-past 9 p.m. 
 Has 34 minutes for meals. On Sunday the same, excepting 
 that he has two extra hours for rest, &c., but at two dif- 
 
80 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 ferent parts of the day ; attends church about 5 or 6 
 times in the year — would go oftener if he could, having 
 been brought up to attend church. 
 
 *' , coachman from Mile End to Oxford Street. 
 
 From 9 in the morning till 1 o'clock at night. Has 1| 
 hours for meals. Sundays same as other days. On 
 being asked for a day's rest, it is a frequent observation 
 of masters in reply, " Rest when you are dead.'* It is 
 a great difficulty to get away for a day, even by finding a 
 substitute. 
 
 " , conductor from Barnes to Kensington, from 
 
 9 A.M. till 12 P.M. Has 45 minutes for meals. The 
 same on three Sundays out of four as on other days. 
 Has a respite from 9 till half-past 1 1 on the fourth Sun- 
 day. Has a wife and two children, seldom sees the latter 
 but when they are in bed. Stated that the religious per- 
 sons of Islington were proverbial for not riding in omni- 
 buses on Sundays." 
 
 •' , coachman from Paddington to Whitechapel, 
 
 much the same as the one who first gave his evidence." 
 
 The following is from an omnibus servant : — 
 " Some omnibus servants work 14, some 16, and some 
 nearly 20 hours. Those who work nearly 20 hours are 
 railway omnibus drivers and conductors ; they commence 
 at four in the morning, and continue, with the exception 
 of about an hour and a half, until 12 o'clock at night. 
 But the average is about 15 hours, out of which, on some 
 roads, they have only about seven minutes to dinner, and 
 no more time scarceall day. On some roads they have about 
 20 minutes between each journey, but are only allowed 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 81 
 
 ten minutes out of the twenty for meals. The other 
 minutes are spent in the Conductor standing at the door 
 of his Omnibus, and the Coachman standing at his 
 horses' heads, or sitting on the box in the wet and cold. 
 Sundays are the same as other days. The Proprietors 
 do not allow a servant to rest unless he is exceedingly 
 ill and cannot work ; then he must pay a substitute to 
 work for him. There is no Proprietor in London who 
 discontinues any portion of his business on the Sabbath 
 in order to give his servants rest for religious or physical 
 improvement : when any portion of their business is dis- 
 continued, it is owing to the weattier or the scarcity of 
 passengers. I think, since the first introduction of 
 omnibuses, there never was known fifty omnibuses quiet 
 on any Sabbath-day. The horse-keepers, some of them, 
 commence w^ork at six in the morning, and do not leave 
 off until past midnight ; having to labour the whole of 
 the time, Sundays and all days, cleaning, feeding, and 
 attending to ten dirty horses every day, also their 
 harness : they never have any time set aside for their 
 meals, generally taking them when they can, and then 
 in the stables : in fact, some I have known to sleep in 
 the stable upon the hay for months together, never 
 caring for home, body, or soul, through the labour that 
 has been imposed upon them. To be brief, the Pro- 
 prietors care nothing for their servants ; but their horses 
 are generally taken great care of, not working more 
 than about three hours out of twenty-four ; but the men 
 work fifteen or sixteen. The masters say the horses 
 come from the pocket, — the men cost nothing. In fact, 
 G 
 
82 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 the treatment the poor creatures receive is shocking, and, 
 I think, a disgrace to a Christian land. I have known 
 men's wives to be dying, their children to be dying, or 
 relatives dying, and time refused them to visit the 
 afflicted, or to pay the last tribute of respect to a departed 
 friend or relative. The man who earns most money is 
 the most cared for, regardless of his general behaviour 
 or character ; the chief offence a man can commit, in 
 the estimation of the Proprietors, is not bringing suf- 
 ficient money to them, whether they can earn it or 
 not : in fact, men of honesty, good behaviour, and re- 
 spectability, are dismissed at a moment's notice, some- 
 times in the middle of the day, because they could not 
 get sufficient passengers to ride or money sufficient to 
 satisfy their employers. This shews the cause of 
 quarrels and rivalry amongst omnibus conductors and 
 coachmen for passengers, — it is not the love they have 
 for their employers, but ih<^fear." 
 
 Testimony of W . B. Parks, M.D., 31 Great Marlhro'- 
 street, Regent-street ; November 19 th, 1851. 
 
 " I have always had a great sympathy with the hard- 
 ships of onmibus drivers and conductors, the greater 
 part of whom are honest, civil, and obliging, — a sympathy 
 which every benevolent person cannot fail to feel, from 
 simply observing and reflecting upon the unremitting 
 nature of their toil, and their exposure to weather of 
 every kind. 
 
 " But when, from my experience as a medical man, 
 I know that nearly all of them, though young, are shut- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 83 
 
 tered in constitution, — that, while yet young, they are 
 subject to debility, acute rheumatism, and bronchial affec- 
 tions of so severe a nature, that they are most difficult 
 to remove, from the men's remaining under the opera- 
 tion of the same causes which originally produced their 
 complaints, and which in many cases terminate in con- 
 sumption, — my sympathy is increased. Much more is 
 this the case when I reflect that these diseases arise en- 
 tirely from the nature of their occupation, their long 
 hours (from 7 or 8 in the morning often till past mid- 
 night), not excluding the Sunday ; from the few brief 
 moments they have, in which to take their necessary 
 food, affording no relaxation to body or mind ; and lastly, 
 from their exposure to the variations of heat, cold, and 
 moisture in the atmosphere. When I consider the im- 
 portance of the service rendered by these overworked 
 servants to the public, and the conveyance of persons 
 and property, a mode of conveyance which has become 
 an integral part of our social system, I greatly rejoice 
 that the * Metropolitan Omnibus Servants' Provident 
 Society ' has received so much of the public support. I 
 have undertaken the important office of Consulting 
 Medical Officer to this Institution ; and I shall be most 
 happy to carry out any suggestions I may receive for pro- 
 moting the welfare of these hardworking useful men." 
 
 This testimony of Dr. Parks is very important and 
 
 conclusive^ as regards tlie effect of their unremitting 
 
 toil on Omnibus Servants. The statement of the 
 
 Omnibus Servant is^ it is to be feared, but too faith- 
 
 g2 
 
84 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 ful an account of the treatment these men generally 
 receive : and although some of the expressions used 
 are stronger than is desirable, yet great allowance 
 must be made for men who actually suffer from the 
 system. 
 
 The number of licensed Cab-drivers in May 1852 
 was 6741 . The condition of these men is in every re- 
 spect little better than that of Omnibus Servants; the 
 high terms on which they hire their cabs rendering 
 Sunday labour almost necessary, and much night- 
 work also. The same cause operates powerfully 
 in tempting them to impose on the public, in order 
 to obtain a sufficient remuneration for their labour ; 
 the amount remaining, after they have paid for their 
 cabs, being often inadequate for that purpose. Habits 
 of intoxication and of profane swearing prevail to a 
 great extent amongst both Omnibus Servants and 
 Cabmen; and the same characteristic attaches to 
 them as to other classes who are deprived of the 
 privileges of the Lord's-day, namely, demoralization 
 and degradation. Efforts are now being made by 
 Omnibus Servants themselves to improve their moral 
 and social condition ; and, feeling their own weak- 
 ness, they are appealing — and we hope will not do 
 so in vain — to the Christian public for sympathy 
 and assistance. One fact is worth noticing,as shew- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 85 
 
 ing the extent to wliich they are employed : their 
 meetings, for considering how best to effect the 
 object alluded to, were held after midnight ; the day 
 being so occupied as scarcely to afford them neces- 
 sary time for their meals. 
 
 The example of the wealthier classes is very inju- 
 rious, in unnecessarily using their private carriages on 
 the Lord's-day, merely for pleasure or ostentation, as 
 may be witnessed in the metropolis, particularly in 
 Hyde Park. It is also greatly to be regretted that 
 Omnibuses and Cabs are much used on the Lord's- 
 day to convey persons to places of worship, and 
 very often without any stronger justification for the 
 act than a preference for a particular preacher. 
 
 SMITHFIELD MARKET. 
 
 The desecration of the Lord's-day caused by 
 holding the principal market-day of Smithfield on 
 Monday is enormous, not only in the metropolis, 
 but in the provinces also. At a meeting held in 
 the Agricultural Hall, Oakham, in December, 1846, 
 for the purpose of petitioning Parliament to alter 
 the day from Monday to Tuesday, one of the 
 speakers thus describes it : — 
 
86 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 ** The whole of the Sabbath morning was occupied in 
 marking and preparing the beasts for sale: and he would 
 ask them if the persons so engaged till two or three 
 o'clock in the afternoon would feel disposed to go to a 
 place of worship in the after part of the day ? He knew 
 one instance where a salesman was regularly occupied 
 every Sunday from seven o'clock in the morning until 
 two in the afternoon. 
 
 " Another speaker said, he felt much pleasure in 
 having an opportunity of recording his opinion against 
 the desecration of the Lord's-day. He was not himself 
 much connected with grazing, but had attended the 
 Smithfield market frequently, and felt bound to say that 
 Islington on a Sunday night, if he might be allowed the 
 expression, was a hell upon earth. It was necessary for 
 drovers to see the stock previously to their being taken 
 into the market ; the beasts must be allotted and booked, 
 and many other matters attended to on the Lord's-day. 
 It had already been suggested that if the Monday market 
 were altered to Tuesday, the supply would be more 
 equalized : the object, then, which the Meeting had in 
 view would have the effect of equalizing the market, and 
 preventing the continuance of a great national disgrace.** 
 
 It is to be hoped, that, as the market is to 
 be removed from sanitary considerations, the 
 Tuesday will be made the principal market-day, 
 instead of Monday, from consideration for the mo- 
 rals of the population : by such an arrangement 
 a vast amount of desecration of the Lord's-day 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 87 
 
 would be obviated. It is to be regretted that Satur- 
 day and Monday are in so many instances market- 
 days, as the Lord's-day is very often in consequence 
 passed either in the utter inaction caused by great 
 fatigue or dissipation on the Saturday, or it is used 
 as time of preparation for the business of Monday. 
 
 IRON WORKS. 
 
 Many thousands of men are employed on the 
 Lord's-day in the Iron Districts of the kingdom. 
 That this labour on the Lord's-day is, at all events 
 to a great extent, if not altogether, unnecessary, ap- 
 pears from the following extract of evidence of Mr. 
 Thomas Bagnall, an extensive iron-master of West 
 Bromwich, near Birmingham, and from a communi- 
 cation subsequently received by the author from 
 that gentleman : — 
 
 Extract from Report of the Select Committee of the 
 House of Lords appointed to enquire into the Ex- 
 pediency of restraining the Practice of carrying 
 Goods and Merchandise on Canals, navigable Rivers, 
 and Railways, on Sundays. 1841. 
 
 " Thomas Bagnall, Esq., examined. 
 *'■ 295. Used it not to be the impression formerly, that it 
 
88 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 was impossible to stop the iron-works on Sundays ? — It 
 was. 
 
 " 296. What has been the result of your own experience ? 
 — We have made rather more iron since we stopped on 
 Sundays than we did before. I have stated that at public 
 meetings, and any gentleman may come and refer to our 
 accounts. We thought we should have great difficulty in 
 getting our men into the arrangement j instead of which, 
 they were all prepared for it, and we had no difficulty 
 whatever. 
 
 " 297. To what do you attribute the enlarged make ? 
 — To the men having a day's rest : we have made more 
 iron since. 
 
 " 298. You mean that your workmen, labouring for six 
 days with one day of rest, make more iron than if they 
 were worked incessantly without a day of rest ? — We 
 have found it so : it increases their physical powers ; 
 they like to get a little more money (not a great deal) by 
 working six days than seven. 
 
 "300. Do you find any increased facility of manage- 
 ment in your enlarged concern from the improved charac- 
 ter of your men ? — In the manufacturing department it 
 was the custom for a great many years to do repairs on 
 the Sunday, and to begin to work on the Monday : but 
 now we devote the Monday to repairs, and do not work 
 on the Sunday, and we find we have less drunkenness a 
 great deal. 
 
 "301. How many men do you employ ? — I believe 
 about 1500 ; I think it is nearer 2000, men and boys, 
 colliers and iron-men, altogether." 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 89 
 
 The author subsequently received the following 
 remarkable communication from Mr. Bagnall : — 
 
 " Gold's Hill Iron-works, West Bromwich, 
 October 1, 1846. 
 
 " I think nearly seven years have elapsed since we 
 were (through God's grace !) emancipated from Sabbath 
 desecration, by working our blast furnaces on that blessed, 
 merciful, and holy day. The sequel has been perfectly 
 satisfactory and astonishing to ourselves, and, I am happy 
 to add, to many others of our friends and neighbours 
 also ; though many who stopped their furnaces at first 
 have gone back again to the old plan, I am sorry to say, 
 and that I know without cause. We have never but 
 once, during the last seven years, worked either of our 
 blast furnaces on the Sunday ; and that once was done 
 by our foreman, by blowing one without our knowledge 
 and consent, and for which we severely censured him, 
 although it was in a bad condition, and he considered it 
 in danger. We have made a larger quantity of iron than 
 ever, and gone on, in all our six iron-works, much more 
 free from accidents and interruptions than during any 
 preceding seven years of our lives. In April last, my 
 eldest son (who is very zealous in this) and one of our 
 managers, agreed, without my own or my brother's and 
 partner's knowledge, to try an experiment on three of 
 our blast furnaces, by stopping them sixteen hours instead 
 of twelve on the Sunday. The result has been beyond 
 any conception we could have formed ; for we have pro- 
 
90 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 duced a still larger quantity of iron from those three fur- 
 naces since then than they ever made. Any person may 
 see our books as to the proof. The consequence is, we 
 have stood, and do every Sunday stand still, sixteen 
 hours since April last ; and we shall, as soon as possible, 
 introduce the same plan to the other three furnaces. 
 Occasionally my son takes a walk to the furnaces and 
 works, to see if all is right ; and he comes home and tells 
 me how he is amused and pleased in seeing the sparrows 
 occupying the place which is so busy a scene on other 
 days, and picking up the crumbs of the workmen ; and 
 that all is as still and quiet as though no works were 
 there. 
 
 " Although there are yet too many who are indifferent 
 to this serious and important subject, and totally neglect 
 their duty and privilege, by continuing their operations 
 on God's holy day, yet it has received its death-blow. 
 Such sin gratuitously, and in the face of the posi- 
 tive fact of there being no necessity for it. 
 
 *' We have frequently been put to a test in this mat- 
 ter in this way. Sometimes a furnace is in a bad condi- 
 tion, cold, and the iron thick ; and then our foreman has 
 submitted whether that had not better work on the Sun- 
 day, as it would be highly dangerous to stop it under 
 such circumstances for twelve hours. To this we have 
 always answered firmly and promptly. No ! and now we 
 seldom have such a case mentioned. 
 
 " The introduction of hot blast has been the great 
 means whereby this salutary measure has been carried 
 out ; though when we first adopted the suspension of 
 
91 
 
 working, we had both cold and hot ; principally the lat- 
 ter, I think. The simple truth is, it requires an injiex- 
 ihle determination, come what will, to stop ; and then, 
 by some attention at first, it becomes easy. Pray excuse 
 this trial of your patience. I had no idea of writing 
 half so much when I began. I must also beg you to 
 extend your candour to the hurried way I have been 
 obliged to write. 
 
 "P.S. — Our workmen's wages amount to 563000 a 
 week and upwards, which are paid always in good time 
 on Saturday, though we cannot possibly do it on a 
 Friday." 
 
 Letter from Mr. B. Davis, foreman to Thomas 
 Bagnall, Esq.; July 2"ith, 1846; enclosed in the 
 above. 
 
 *' Being disappointed in making the contemplated 830 
 tons in the fortnight I was so ill (though the furnaces 
 were in the best state I had ever had them), and being 
 much better in health, I requested the doctor to allow 
 me to go out as early as advisable ; he therefore ap- 
 pointed that I should go out on Monday, July 13th. I 
 therefore told Powell to go to his work on the Sunday 
 night ; and on the Monday morning I went again to the 
 furnaces, with a determination, and by the help of Divine 
 Providence, to make the afore contemplated 830 tons. 
 But up to the Monday the make only averaged 748 tons ; 
 yet I reached to 401 tons by Friday morning, which 
 ended the first week ; and at the end of the fortnight I 
 had made 840 tons, 2 cwt. 3 qrs. 8 lbs. 
 
92 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 '* This is the first time my mind has been at rest since 
 the 3rd of April last. At that time your son allowed 
 me to let the furnaces stand four hours longer than 
 usual on the Sabbath, which made sixteen hours instead 
 of twelve. This extra standing averaged the less make 
 of 11 J tons of iron each week. This serious loss of 23 
 tons a fortnight I have been over-anxious to make up ; 
 and, thanks be to Divine Providence, this fortnight I 
 have more than realized the former drawback, having 
 made 840 tons 2 cwt. 3 qrs. 8 lbs., without using any 
 scraps ; being 30 tons 16 cwt. 3 qrs. 8 lbs. more than 
 w^as ever made before the extra standing on the Sabbath. 
 
 " Here then, to use an old quaint word, is a touchstone 
 for the whole world — that your furnaces at Copperfield 
 stand longer on the Sabbath-day than any other furnaces 
 in the world, and yet make more iron than any other 
 three furnaces in the whole world ! This is not only 
 pleasing, but highly gratifying, even to a triumph. 
 
 " I thank you for allowing, and for the pleasure you 
 took in allowing, me to stop the furnaces longer on the 
 Sabbath, fr^m the time I reached the make of upwards 
 of 800 tons ; and hope and pray the hand and blessing 
 of Divine Providence will ever rest on so exemplary a 
 patron for the sanctity of the holy Sabbath." 
 
 This is another remarkable instance in which the 
 plea of necessity in justification of systematic labour 
 on the Lord^s-day has been practically refuted. The 
 author has been assured that the labour in iron- 
 works might be suspended for the four-and-twenty 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 93 
 
 hours of the Lord^s-day^ provided tanks were con- 
 structed sufficiently capacious to supply water for 
 that time, in order to counteract the intense heat of 
 the hot blast. 
 
 CHEESE-MAKING ON THE LORD^S-DAY. 
 
 A LARGE proportion of the female population of 
 those counties in which cheese is made, are employed 
 in this business up to the afternoon of the Lord^s-day, 
 and are thus prevented attending Morning Service ; 
 which in such districts presents the unusual spectacle 
 of an almost exclusively male congregation, owing 
 to the absence of females of the farming class 
 and of their servants. That labour on the Lord's- 
 day in connection with cheese-making is not neces- 
 sary, is proved by the fact, that in numerous 
 instances it has been dispensed with, and with- 
 out detriment to the farmer. 
 
 The author knew a farmer in the parish of East 
 Brent, Somerset, who resolved to try whether he could, 
 without losing his milk, avoid labour on the Lord^s- 
 day in making cheese. The experiment met with 
 complete success; so much so, that the cheese- 
 
94 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 factor who was in the habit of purchasing his 
 cheeses particularly commended the cheese which 
 was made without involving Sunday labour. It is 
 worthy of observation that this experiment was made 
 in the warmest month of an unusually warm summer. 
 
 A very injurious custom prevails in Cheshire, in 
 some measure supported and confirmed by the labour 
 required on the Lord^s-day in cheese-making : farm 
 servants demand as a right — which is conceded by 
 their masters — that Saturday night is to be a time 
 for receiving visits and seeing their friends in the 
 houses of their masters. This custom, combined 
 with the desecration of the Lord's- day, is a fruitful 
 source of vice and demoralization in Cheshire. 
 
 The Rev. J. Armistead, vicar of Saudbach, Che- 
 shire, some years ago published a Tract entitled, 
 " Sabbath-day Cheese-making not a Work of Neces- 
 sity,'' in which he at some length describes the par- 
 ticular process by which cheese- making on the 
 Lord's-day may be avoided without loss to the 
 farmer : the Tract was written in the form of a dia- 
 logue between the wife of a farmer and a clergyman : 
 the plan recommended is thus described : — 
 
 a Cler. — My plan is simply this : milk a little earlier on 
 the Saturday evening, putting the milk and rennet together 
 directly, and proceeding with the curd, as regards drying, 
 
95 
 
 breaking, and salting it, as each dairy maid may have 
 been accustomed to do. When the curd is salted, keep 
 it in a cool place, in a spare cheese vat and cloth, till 
 Monday morning, when the curd from the Sunday morn- 
 ing's milk, put together early on the Monday morning, 
 must be broken down with it ; the two, being thus com- 
 pletely mixed together, will forai one cheese of a propor- 
 tionate size with the rest of the dairy. Most people 
 now use a small hand-mill for breaking the curd, and, in 
 hot weather, an excellent contrivance it is ; by this 
 means the curd, in a few minutes, is so thoroughly mixed 
 together, as to leave the whole one uniform colour. It 
 would be well, however, where colouring is used, that it 
 should be weighed, in order that the quantities may be 
 the same ; or if there is a little more milk in the morning 
 than there is in the evening, which there generally is, 
 due allowance may be made. This point, however, is not 
 so material as some may think, the whole becomes so 
 thoroughly mixed by the use of the mill. 
 
 " Farmer s wife. — I cannot say that I should alto- 
 gether like to use it. The curd is generally very tender 
 when little or no cream is taken away, and requires to be 
 broken with great gentleness and care, which I think 
 can only be done by hand, in the old-fashioned way. 
 
 '* Cler. — In that case, a little more time would be 
 requisite to unite the two curds thoroughly together, 
 which will not interfere with the success of the plan. 
 
 *' Farmer s wife. — But you have not spoken to the 
 point of the milk going sour. 
 
96 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 " Cler. — To that I would answer, a little attention will 
 obviate all fear on that score. Milk-houses should be 
 from the sun, as equal in temperature as possible, and 
 cool. By the following plan you will be perfectly safe, 
 if your milk-house is moderately good : — Put your Sun- 
 day morning's milk in a large flat cooler, of lead or cast 
 metal ; and underneath it let there be another, two sizes 
 larger. Let the latter be filled morning and evening 
 with cold water, the two being so placed that the upper 
 one be suspended within the one that is below ; and you 
 will find the milk remain perfectly sweet in the hottest 
 weather, even in thunder, which is the most trying of all. 
 This precaution is seldom necessary, but I imagine it 
 will never be found to fail. Some people, however, 
 object to the use of any thing but the common pan mugs. 
 They certainly possess many advantages ; are cheaper, 
 more easily scalded than larger vessels, and, from being 
 glazed in the inside, are less liable to be tainted than 
 more porous substances. I believe there is nothing re- 
 quires (if I may use the expression) such delicate clean- 
 liness as milk : once tainted, not all the art of woman 
 can produce a fine cheese afterwards. To those^ then, 
 that prefer the use of pan-mugs, I would suggest that a 
 drain be laid, communicating with the floor of the 
 milk-house, and the floor itself pointed with a strong 
 mortar that will retain water. By this means the pan- 
 mugs may be set upon the floor, and a few buckets of 
 spring water poured upon it will keep them cool in the 
 hottest weather. The floor should be laid so as to incline 
 
97 
 
 towards one point, at which, by means of a stop, the water 
 may be retained or drawn off at pleasure. 
 
 " Farmer s wife, — Will not the expense be considera- 
 ble? 
 
 " Cler, — Not more, I imagine, than ten pounds for a 
 dairy of forty cows. And what landlord do you think 
 could refuse so small a sum towards the attainment of so 
 desirable an end ? 
 
 *' Farmers wife. — Do you think, Sir, your plan likely 
 to answer with dairies of all sizes ? 
 
 " Cler. — Yes ; for I think none attended with more 
 difficulty than your own. You keep, I think, thirty 
 cows or thereabouts, and make one good-sized cheese 
 a-day. As regards other farms, whether of greater 
 or less size, you will see in a moment that the plan 
 I have stated is equally applicable. Where a smaller 
 number of cows are kept, it will be optional, either to put 
 the whole of the Saturday's milk into the cheese of that 
 day, or to make it in the way proposed. In the case of 
 a very large dairy of sixty or seventy cows, where two 
 cheeses are made a-day, the Saturday evening's milk will 
 make a cheese of the average size of the dairy, and the 
 Sunday morning's, kept till Monday, will make another. 
 To this method no objection can be raised ; it points itself 
 out. 
 
 " Farmer's wfe. — But do you think, Sir, there would 
 be time to complete a cheese of that size on Saturday 
 evening ? 
 
 " Cler. — Certainly ; milking a little earlier, and with 
 the aid of the curd mill, which saves both time and labour." 
 
 H 
 
98 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 The following communication, addressed to the 
 aathor by the incumbent of a parish in Cheshire^ 
 distinctly asserts the practicability of avoiding cheese- 
 making on the Lord's-day, as illustrated in his own 
 parish : — 
 
 " You will be pleased to hear that, under God's bless- 
 ing, we are making some progress in putting away one 
 great hindrance to Sabbath sanctification, namely, cheese- 
 making on that sacred day. 
 
 " Three years ago, any observation which I ventured 
 to make on the subject was met by strong assertions of 
 the impossibihty of any change, coupled with sundry 
 reasons why it was impossible. Now, about twenty 
 farms, the dairies of which are supplied by from 500 to 
 600 cows, entirely abstain from making cheese on the 
 Lord's-day. The smallest of these dairies took 17 cows, 
 and the largest about 45. That the character of the 
 cheese does not suffer from tiie alteration is proved ^ewe- 
 rally from the fact, that I have not heard one com- 
 plaint of any loss resulting ; and one case that I will 
 mention in particular corroborating the general truth. 
 Mr. B. has a dairy of about 40 cows : having given up 
 Sunday cheese-making, he became a candidate for a prize 
 that is offered for the best cheese, from a farm not mak- 
 ing cheese on the Sunday. He obtained the premium ; 
 but not only so ; the same cheese that won the Sabbath- 
 observance prize, took away also the reward for the 
 second best cheese, where the competition was open to 
 all, whether they made cheese on Sunday or not. This 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 99 
 
 year, the same farmer's dairy has received the prize for 
 the best cheese, against eighteen competitors, representing 
 probably the best dairies in the county of Cheshire, and 
 not restricted to the observance of the Sabbath. Respect- 
 ing the comfort of the Sunday to those who are brought 
 under the influence of this unhappily prevailing custom, 
 there is but one opinion ; it is no Sabbath, or next to 
 none. The morning is occupied till dinner-time ; after 
 that meal, if they do attend the house of God, weary, 
 and too often drowsy, they are not likely to derive much 
 profit from the service. Those who have abandoned it, 
 find it to be indeed a rest and a refreshment, and bless 
 God for the change. 
 
 " I shall be happy at any time to furnish further parti- 
 culars to any interested in the subject." 
 
 It is to be hoped that landlords in cheese-making 
 districts, seeing that Sunday labour is not necessary 
 in the manufacture of cheese, will use their influence 
 to put a stop to a practice so plainly opposed to God^s 
 command_, and so injurious to the religion and 
 morals of the population of those districts. 
 
 BAKING ON THE LORD^S-DAY. 
 
 The trade of a baker is, under any circumstances, 
 a laborious one, and injurious to the human consti- 
 h2 
 
100 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 tution_, owing to the night-work unavoidably involved 
 in carrying it on : it therefore is the more necessary 
 that bakers should enjoy all the rest they possibly 
 can obtain, and that their Sabbath privileges should 
 be scrupulously respected. This, however, is not the 
 case, as more labour than usual is often required of 
 them on the Lord's-day, in consequence of having to 
 bake on that day a greater number of dinners than 
 on ordinary days : this is the case in to\\Tis generally, 
 but particularly in the metropolis. The plea adduced 
 in justification of employing them in this way on 
 the Lord's-day is, that by the labour of a few bakers 
 thereon, a considerably larger number of persons, 
 who otherwise would be detained at home, are ena- 
 bled to attend public worship. Now the soundness 
 of this argument is very questionable : it is not at 
 all clear that, even were the fact so, we should be 
 justified in sacrificing the spiritual interests even of 
 one soul to those of many — that we should do evil 
 that good may come : nor is it at all in keeping with 
 the wisdom of the Divine arrangements, that such 
 an alternative would be presented to us. However, 
 the fact appears to be, that few persons, if any, use 
 the labour of the baker on the Lord's-day with a 
 view of being enabled to attend Divine worship. A 
 respectable master baker of the metropolis informed 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 101 
 
 the author, lately, that an inquiry was instituted, on 
 an extensive scale, some years ago, by the bakers 
 themselves, into the truth of the plea stated above, 
 and it was found that not one in sixty of those who 
 had recourse to the bakehouse to bake their dinners 
 on the Lord's-day attended Divine worship. Nor in 
 truth is the injury inflicted on a few. The bakers in 
 the country generally, are a numerous body : there are 
 about 2500 master bakers in London ; and the au- 
 thor has been informed, but he is not sure of the ac- 
 curacy of the statement, that there are about 10,000 
 journeymen bakers in the metropolis. When we 
 consider that for the most part these men are married 
 and have families, whose present and everlasting 
 happiness will be greatly influenced by paternal ex- 
 ample and teaching, we must admit that they con- 
 stitute a numerous and an important class deserving 
 of Christian sympathy and regard. 
 
 But let the bakers speak for themselves. The 
 following are extracts from the evidence given by 
 bakers before the Committee of the House of Com- 
 mons in the year 1832, on the due observance of 
 the Lord's-day. 
 
 Mr. Henry Ellis, master baker, says : — 
 
 "We cannot conceive that 4000 or 5000 bakers on 
 the Sunday should be employed to cook the dinners of a 
 
102 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 great part of those dissipated characters who, instead of 
 attending a place of Divine worship, only spend their 
 time in an immoral way, and who are tippling in the 
 public-houses, and oftentimes coming for their dinners, 
 after we have cooked them for them, in a state of intoxi- 
 cation. There can be no person who desires the welfare 
 of the community at large that could wish his fellow- 
 creatures to be employed on that day ; and any man of 
 proper feeling would not wish for a moment that his 
 dinner should be sent to the bakehouse to be cooked : he 
 would rather say, * No, let that man have the liberty 
 that I have of enjoying his Sunday to himself;' and the 
 expense of fuel would, to the public in the winter months, 
 be very trifling indeed ; because they are obliged to keep 
 a fire for the warmth of their persons. And another very 
 great hardship is, that many young men who come to us 
 from the country, who receive in their early days a reli- 
 gious education, when they come are obliged to devote 
 nearly the whole of the Sabbath to the toil and labour of the 
 day : they feel themselves degraded and lost in the scale 
 of society, and not to hold that place which they ought 
 to do : and those good and moral impressions which they 
 first received in their early days are entirely lost, from 
 the continual practice of working on the Sabbath-day. 
 It was my case : I received a religious education, and 
 fortune drove me up here, after being five years and a half 
 under proper tuition, and the bakehouse where I was, was 
 opposite the church. I heard the bells of the church chime 
 for Divine service on the Sunday when I was at work, but 
 I was unable to attend it. I was there working in the heat 
 
of nearly 100 degrees during the morning, and that quite 
 unfitted me to attend any place of worship afterwards with 
 any degree of instruction or satisfaction to myself ; and I 
 can but say, as a man, that I felt myself degraded in the 
 scale of society, — that I was not entitled, like any of my 
 fdlow-creatures, to attend a place of worship as others 
 were. Since I have become a master I have had men 
 w.th me who wished to attend a place of worship ; and 
 Wien they have put the question to me, it has made me 
 b\ish to think that I could not give them that indul- 
 gence." 
 
 Mr. Charles Viner is asked — 
 
 " In your own observation have you seen the habit of 
 breaking the Sabbath produce a demoralizing effect upon 
 the persons so employed ? — Yes. I was born and bred 
 in Bath, and my father and mother were of a very reli- 
 gious habit. I was bred up to go to chapel, and always 
 did till I came up to London : when I came to London, 
 being forced to work on a Sunday so many hours in the 
 fore part of the day, I was always so fatigued in the 
 afternoon, though I might go in the afternoon for an 
 hour, that I never felt a disposition to go to a place of 
 worship at all in the afternoon ; and in the evening I was 
 compelled to go to rest, as my time was to rise at eleven 
 o'clock. 
 
 " Do you conceive that by bringing about the observ- 
 ance of the Sabbath, you would thereby raise the character 
 of the men in your trade ? — I consider it will very much 
 indeed. I am sorry to say that, by their being not indulged 
 
104 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 as our mechanics are, they are put down as bad characters 
 by the other people in London. 
 
 " And you attribute the bad character to the necessary 
 habit of disregarding the Sabbath ? — Yes, certainly I do ■ 
 I know it. For instance, I am obliged to work from 
 about nine o'clock on the Sunday till half-past two ii 
 the day ; then I come home to my family ; then I an 
 going in my dusty clothes, just as people are coming out 
 of church, and I have heard people make the remark 
 upon me, ' That fellow is a drunken fellow, and he is 
 dirty in his clothes.' But had I a day of rest, as other 
 mechanics have, I should feel pleasure in going to a 
 place of worship on a Sunday, which now I am deprived 
 of. 
 
 '' Do you agree with the last witness upon the effect 
 produced by this long labour upon the health of the 
 journeymen ? — Very much indeed. I am frequently, 
 from being so closely confined, obliged to sit down on 
 the stones outside for a quarter of an hour, before I can 
 get my breath. 
 
 " Do you conceive that a day of rest of one day in 
 seven would be calculated to counteract that injurious 
 effect in a great degree ? — I think a good deal. 
 
 " Can you say with confidence that you speak the 
 sentiments of the majority in your own trade ? — Yes.'* 
 
METROPOLITAN AND CITY POLICE. 
 
 The united number of the Metropolitan and City 
 Police Force, in April, 1852, was 6194. The duty of 
 protecting person and property is one that will not 
 admit of suspension, even on the Lord^s-day : indeed, 
 they are more exposed to danger on that than on 
 ordinary days. Still, by the employment of a sufficient 
 number of men, arrangements might be made, con- 
 sistently with the safety of the public, to secure to the 
 Police Force, in certain proportions, the privileges 
 of the Lord^s-day. The author has been assured by 
 one of the Police authorities, that the present Force 
 is inadequate to effect the object, but that a small 
 addition would suffice for the purpose. Their duties 
 are of a very anxious and laborious character, requir- 
 ing the exercise of great vigilance and much walking 
 in traversing their assigned beats : and not only are 
 there these ordinary duties by night and by day, but 
 extra duty is not of imfrequent occurrence. The 
 consequence is, that owing to the amount of duty 
 to be done daily, and the insufficiency of the present 
 Force for its discharge, few if any of the Police enjoy 
 at any time an uninterrupted Sabbath : their hours 
 
106 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 of rest on tlie Lord's-day so closely follow upon^ and 
 are so quickly succeeded by, those of labour, tbat the 
 men feel little disposition to devote them to attend- 
 ance on public worship. 
 
 An order has recently been issued in one district 
 requii-ing those of them who are not on duty to march 
 to Divine service on the Lord^s-day : a similar regula- 
 tionhasbeen long in operation in Her Majesty's forces, 
 and also in the Irish Police Force. It is an admirable 
 order, and one calculated to improve the moral tone 
 of the Police ; but to render it acceptable and useful 
 to the men, the laboui* must be diminished by an 
 increase of the Force in London as above suggested : 
 proper bodily rest is a necessary preliminary to a 
 beneficial attendance on the public means of religious 
 instruction : and therefore Divine wisdom has en- 
 joined not only that the Sabbath is to be a holy day, 
 but also, with a view to its being a holy day, that 
 no manner of work shall be done thereon. The 
 moral condition of the Police is a matter of great 
 importance to the community, for much trust is 
 necessarily reposed in them. How then can mo- 
 ral elevation be secured in them, as a class, more 
 effectually than by affording them the opportunity 
 of being instructed in the great truths of the Gos- 
 pel ? The very familiarity with vice in all its forms. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO 
 
 to which the Police are necessarily exposed, specially 
 demands that they should receive the counteracting 
 influences of the Sabbath to preserve them from 
 corruption. The author has been informed, on au- 
 thority that may be relied on, that a very large pro- 
 portion of the Police Force of the metropolis is 
 annually dismissed. 
 
 TRADING ON THE LORD^S-DAY. 
 
 This is a wide-spread evil, both in the metropolis 
 and in the provincial towns. The Report of the 
 London City Mission, read at the annual meeting 
 held in May, 1852, states, that in that moiety of 
 the metropolis on which the Society's operations 
 are brought to bear, there are as many as 14,000 
 shops which open on some part of the Lord's-day. 
 
 The principal callings coming under the above 
 head, carried on on the Lord's-day — a distinct men- 
 tion having been made of the sale of intoxicating 
 drinks, of tobacco and snuiF — are those of the 
 butcher, the greengrocer, the confectioner, and, in 
 many parts of the metropolis, slopsellers, clothiers, 
 hatters, fishmongers, and hawking goods generally. 
 
108 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 With this feature of Sabbath desecration is closely 
 connected, as a chief originating cause of it, late 
 payment of wages on Saturday, if not necessitating, 
 certainly holding out a temptation to the wife of the 
 working-man to make her market on Sunday. 
 
 Mr. L. Slaney, being examined before the Com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons on Sunday Trad- 
 ing, referred to before, states (page 25) : '^ Being con- 
 nected with one of the marts in the city, I should 
 say that there are not less than from 10,000 to 
 20,000 persons on each Sunday assembled in the 
 neighbourhood of Houndsditch ; some bring their 
 children, and some come without/^ 
 
 Mr. Alexander Eraser, barber and hairdresser, 
 of Whitecross-street, says (page 107) : ^^ We all 
 keep open, with very few exceptions. I counted 
 131 shops (1 presume there are only about 160 
 in the whole street) ; and 131 were open at eleven 
 o'clock on Sunday. '^ 
 
 Mr. Joseph Bray, of Lambeth-walk, being ex- 
 amined (page 113), says : " I am a clothier's assis- 
 tant. We are opened at seven o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, and not closed till one, and sometimes past one. 
 We are frequently taking in the things and sweeping 
 out the shop, and clearing away, at the time the pub- 
 lic are coming from church. That is the practice in 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD S-DAY. 109 
 
 nearly all those sort of sliops situated in neighbour- 
 hoods like ours^ which are like markets." 
 
 With regard to trading in cattle on the Lord's- 
 day— 
 
 Mr. Harper^ grazier and land agent^ is asked — 
 Are there any cattle sold on Sundays ? and replies, 
 " A great many. They are brought by railway, 
 and deposited at the different resting-places, called 
 lairs. There are a class of men who come from 
 different neighbourhoods in and rouad London to 
 look for such cattle. They are purchased and sent 
 in the night to the slaughtering-houses, instead of 
 being sent into the market.^^ Question : " Is that 
 done on Sunday morning ? " ^' Yes ; at different 
 times of the day." "Is there a vast amount of that 
 trade carried on V "A vast deal.'^ (Page 142.) 
 
 Thomas Craig, greengrocer and potato-dealer, at 
 72 London Road, Southwark, says "he employs 
 four men and two lads, his wife and family, and two 
 women servants." Being asked how many hours 
 he labours on Sunday, he answered : " At this time 
 of the year (April) twenty, from four in the morning 
 till twelve at night :" that his business goes on all 
 that time : that he suffered much in health in con- 
 sequence ; that such hours are usual in his trade on 
 Sundays." 
 
 In order to shew more fully the extent to which 
 
110 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 trading is carried on on the Lord's-day by Shop- 
 keepers_, the following returns are subjoined, describ- 
 ing the state of particular districts in the Metro- 
 polis : they were obtained through the kindness of 
 a friendj principally through the Missionaries of the 
 London City Mission Society. 
 
 Number of Shops open on the LorcVs-day, Jan, 18, 
 1852, in the District of Noi^th Lambeth : — 
 
 Waterloo Road, from the River to the Parish 
 boundary . . . . . . . . . . 53 
 
 Westminter Road, do. do. do. 40 
 
 Lambeth Road, do. do. do. 2 
 
 York Road and Palace New Road . . . . 20 
 
 New Cut, Lower Marsh and Upper Marsh . . 161 
 Oakley Street, Hercules Buildings, and York 
 
 Place 63 
 
 Cornwall Road and Webber Street . . . . 52 
 
 Carlisle Street. . . . . . . . . . 15 
 
 Commercial and Belvedere Roads, and Small 
 
 Streets 
 Streets running out of Westminster Road 
 
 Streets going out of the New Cut 
 
 Streets „ „ „ Cornwall Road 
 Streets „ „ „ Waterloo Road 
 Streets „ „ „ York Road . . 
 
 44 
 32 
 41 
 13 
 18 
 11 
 
 565 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD S-DAY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Number of Shops open for Trading on the Lord's-day^ 
 from observations made February \st and ^th, 1852^ 
 in the following streets : — 
 
 St. George's Road 
 
 25 
 56 
 32 
 36 
 
 27 
 15 
 
 London Eoad 
 
 Borough Road . . 
 
 Blackfriars Road 
 
 Waterloo Road to Parish Boundary 
 
 Westminster Road to do. 
 
 Elephant and Castle to Prospect Place 51 
 
 26 
 22 
 29 
 45 
 113 
 43 
 75 
 30 
 63 
 63 
 40 
 86 
 
 to Newingtou Church 
 
 Southwark Bridge Road 
 
 Great Suffolk Street 
 
 Mint Street (Borough) 
 
 Union Street (do.) 
 
 Red Cross Street 
 
 Gravel Lane 
 
 Vicinity of Borough Market 
 
 Holland, Guilford,, and Park Streets 
 
 Friar and Webber Street 
 
 Tower Street (Westminster Road) 
 
 Broad Wall and Vicinity (New Cut) 
 
112 
 
 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Other small streets in tlie vicinity of- 
 
 - 
 
 Friar Street 
 
 37 
 
 Great Suffolk Street 
 
 36 
 
 Gravel Lane 
 
 50 
 
 Do. do 
 
 26 
 
 London Road (one side) 
 
 40 
 
 Do. do. (other side) 
 
 26 
 
 St. George^s Eoad 
 
 23 
 
 Total 
 
 1120 
 
 The above account includes the space from 
 the river Thames to one-fifth of a mile beyond 
 the Elephant and Castle; and from the Borough 
 to the boundary of Lambeth parish. 
 
 From this paper it will be seen that Union Street, 
 in the Borough, presents the highest figure, 113; the 
 New Cut, which is a continuation of it, is 146; so that 
 in that long thoroughfare, from the Borough to the 
 other side of Westminster Road, there are 259 shops 
 open on the Lord's-day ; besides very many in the 
 small streets running out of it, as Broad Wall, 
 Gravel Lane, &c. 
 
113 
 
 Shops open on Sunday, January Wth, 1852, on 
 that plot of ground bounded on the north by Lam- 
 beth Chapel, on the south by Princes-street , on the 
 west by Lambeth Road, and on the east by Ken- 
 nington Road : — 
 
 Shops of various kinds . . . . 229 
 
 Public-houses and Beer-shops . . 26 
 
 Total 255 
 
 119 of the above are in Lambeth Walk alone; 
 the rest in the different streets running out of it on 
 either side. 
 
 The person who communicated this information 
 remarks, — 
 
 " The above facts speak loudly of the demoraliza- 
 tion and depravity of this most ungodly neighbour- 
 hood; in which God^s Sabbaths are awfully de- 
 secrated, and His holy laws trampled upon/^ 
 
 Shops open on Sunday, Jan. Wth, 1852, on the north 
 side of Lambeth Walk, from Paradise-street to 
 Broad-street, extending to Fore-street by the side 
 of the river, and also those streets on the north side 
 of Tyers-street extending to the Gas Works, which 
 are also by the river side : — 
 
 Jonathan Street . . . . . . 3 
 
114 
 
 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Catherine Street . . 
 
 
 2 
 
 George Street 
 
 
 3 
 
 Vauxhall Walk .. 
 
 
 33 
 
 Broad Street 
 
 
 22 
 
 Princes Street . . 
 
 
 14 
 
 Glasshouse Street 
 
 
 3 
 
 High Street, Vauxhall . 
 
 
 18 
 
 Fore Street 
 
 
 8 
 
 Church Street . . 
 
 
 9 
 
 High Street 
 
 
 30 
 
 145 
 
 Vauxhall Walk : Public-houses and 
 
 
 Beer-shops . . 
 
 . . 
 
 6 
 
 Broad Street : d 
 
 3. do. 
 
 5 
 
 Princes Street : d 
 
 3. do. 
 
 4 
 
 High Street, Vauxhall : d< 
 
 1. do. 
 
 3 
 
 Fore Street : d 
 
 0. do. 
 
 5 
 
 Church Street : d 
 
 0. do. 
 
 4 
 
 High Street : d 
 
 0. do. 
 
 4 
 
 Forty-seven Shops were open on Sunday, Ja- 
 nuary 11th, 1852, in the under-mentioned streets 
 (exclusive of six Public-houses), the whole num- 
 of Shops in them being fifty-six. 
 
 One side of Vauxhall Street: 
 Barrett Street. 
 
115 
 f 
 
 The whole of Tyers Street. 
 
 jj St. Oswald's Place. 
 ,y Victoria Place. 
 „ Wickham Street. 
 „ Jonathan Street. 
 „ Tyers Terrace. 
 „ Neville Street. 
 
 Shops open on and near the Claylancfs Road Dis- 
 trict, on Sunday, January 11th, 1852. 
 
 Church Street, &c. . . . . . . . . 6 
 
 Bowling-green Street and West Street . . 3 
 
 Clayton Street, Public-houses and Beer- shops 8 
 
 Devonshire Place . . . . . . . . 3 
 
 Durham Street, 14 of which are Public-houses 15 
 
 South Lambeth, 8 of which are Beer-shops . . 11 
 
 Bond Street . . . . . . . . . . 5 
 
 Wandsworth Eoad, both sides, to the Three 
 
 Goats' Heads 20 
 
 Kennington Lane, one side . . . . . . 12 
 
 Triangle 10 
 
 Kennington Road and Clapham Road to the 
 
 Fentiman Road . . . . . . . . 10 
 
 Public-houses, &c. . . . . . . . . 20 
 
 Total 123 
 
 i2 
 
116 
 
 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Shops open on the Sabbath of the 1 Sth January, 
 1852, /roTw Kennington Cross to Brook-street, and 
 from Newington Cross to White Hart-street, includ- 
 ing all the Courts to be found in this District. 
 
 Bakers . . . . . . . . . . 8 
 
 Butchers 
 
 
 
 
 .. 8 
 
 Greengrocers . 
 Grocers 
 
 •• 
 
 
 
 .. 22 
 .. 10 
 
 Barbers 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Cigars 
 
 Paper Sellers. 
 Sweet Stuff . 
 
 
 
 
 .. 10 
 
 11 
 
 .. 11 
 
 Coffee-shops . 
 Beer-shops . 
 
 
 Total 
 
 of all 1 
 
 .. 6 
 . . 24 
 
 dnds. . . . 115 
 
 Shops open in the Esther-street District, on Sun- 
 dag, January 11th, 1852. 
 
 Princes Road and Kennington Lane, Barret 
 
 and Vauxhall Street, south side . . . . 23 
 
 Cardigan and Devonshire Streets . . . . 8 
 
 Park Street and New Street 24 
 
 Public-houses and Beer-shops. . . . . . 11 
 
 Total 66 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD S-DAY. 
 
 117 
 
 Shops open and closed on a Sunday in October, in the 
 following streets in Somers Town. 
 
 
 Stalls. 
 
 Shops open. 
 
 Closed. 
 
 Seymour Street 
 
 
 47 
 
 72 
 
 Chapel Street . . 
 
 . 104 
 
 43 
 
 6 
 
 Bull Row 
 
 . 32 
 
 53 
 
 5 
 
 West Street . . 
 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 Northani Buildings . 
 
 
 46 
 
 4 
 
 Brewers Street 
 
 . 33 
 
 43 
 
 10 
 
 Middlesex Street 
 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 Phoenix Street. . 
 
 
 21 
 
 6 
 
 Hampden Street 
 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 Skinners^ Street 
 
 4 
 
 28 
 
 13 
 
 Weston Street. . 
 
 
 26 
 
 7 
 
 Ossulston Street 
 
 
 20 
 
 15 
 
 Church Way . . 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 Weir's Passage 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 Wilsted Street. . 
 
 
 25 
 
 19 
 
 
 173 
 
 396 
 
 181 
 
 Trading on the Lord's-day also prevails in many 
 of the provincial towns. 
 
 The City of Norwich was surveyed by twelve com- 
 petent individuals, employed by the Lord's-day Ob- 
 servance Society of that city, on a Sunday in the 
 year 1851. The following persons were found en- 
 gaged in their ordinary callings between the hours of 
 ten and twelve o'clock : — 13 Bakers, 21 Fishmon- 
 
118 
 
 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 gers, 36 Grocer s^ 158 Greengrocers, 55 Meat Shops, 
 11 Tobacconists, 60 General Dealers, 208 Public- 
 houses; total 642. — 12 Criers of goods for sale, 
 23 Hawkers ; total 35. 
 
 In an interesting Lecture on Town Missions, 
 deUvered in the Town Hall, Brighton, by Henry B. 
 Madden, Esq., M.D., it is stated that on Sunday 
 December 14th, 1851, 705 shops, not including 
 public-houses, were open for business in Brigh- 
 ton, between the hours of nine and eleven a.m.: 
 there were about 350 Beer or Spirit Shops open on 
 the Lord's-day, in the afternoon. 
 
 Shops open in Bath on Sunday, 4ith April, from 
 eight a.m., to one p.m. 
 
 Grocer and Baker 
 
 . 1 
 
 Oyster and Ginger Beer 
 
 . 1 
 
 Greengrocer and Coal Merchant 
 
 . 1 
 
 Wood and Coal 
 
 . 2 
 
 General Shops. . 
 
 . 3 
 
 Eating-houses . . 
 
 . 3 
 
 News Offices . . 
 
 . 3 
 
 Grocers and Beer-houses 
 
 . 3 
 
 Fruiterers 
 
 . 3 
 
 Bakers. . 
 
 . 6 
 
 Pork Butchers. . 
 
 . 9 
 
 Butchers 
 
 . 11 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 119 
 
 Grocers 
 
 Greengrocers . . 
 Hairdressers . . 
 
 Do. and Tobacconists 
 Tobacconists . . 
 
 19 
 
 27 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 Having given these details of Trading on the 
 Lord's-day, respecting particular districts and 
 towns, this part of the subject cannot be con- 
 cluded more suitably than by the following extract 
 from the Annual Report of the London City Mis- 
 sion Society for 1852, which will place before 
 the reader an appalling view of trading on the 
 Lord's- day in the metropolis generally. Assuredly 
 such an account shews how imperatively it is the 
 duty of Christians to endeavour to check this fear- 
 ful and increasing evil, one which experience proves 
 may be diminished, provided only that prayerful 
 and persevering efforts to do so be made; of 
 which fact this extract affords an illustration in its 
 concluding sentence : — 
 
 "^The Committee have been accustomed to report on 
 these occasions the number of shops closed on theLord's- 
 day through the efforts of the missionaries. This year, 
 
120 STATISTICS AND PACTS 
 
 inquiry has been instituted not only into the number of 
 shops closed, but also into that of those open for business 
 on that day, in the respective districts ; and it reveals so 
 fearfully awful an amount of Sabbath profanation, that 
 it cannot be passed over without observation. It is a 
 new illustration of the awful depths of the evil with 
 which the Society has to grapple, in dependence on God's 
 help, among the working classes. The numbers reported 
 are given not by mere guess, but by actual enumeration, 
 and are therefore strictly correct. They comprise the 
 shops, whether visited or not, in that moiety of London 
 occupied by the Mission. The number is so great that 
 the Committee feel, to hear it, ought to give unutterable 
 pain to the heart of every one who is conscious what he 
 himself owes to that day of sacred rest. It is 14,103. 
 If a Christian individual were called on to traverse on 
 the Lord's-day from Whitechapel Church to Hyde Park- 
 corner, and were to behold every shop open for business 
 during that long line of thoroughfare, extending from 
 one end of London to the other, his heart would surely 
 sink within him at the sight. And yet the number of 
 shops in Whitechapel, Aldgate, Leadenhall-street, Corn- 
 hill, Poultry, Cheapside, St. Paul's Churchyard (taking 
 the entire circuit of it), Ludgate-street and hill, the 
 Strand, Cockspur- street, Haymarket, and Piccadilly, 
 including both sides of the entire of the streets, and 
 taking every house as a shop, would be only 1882. 
 The shops enumerated by the missionaries as open in 
 their districts for business on Sunday, are sufficient to 
 give a frontage to all the leading thoroughfares of London. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 121 
 
 They would constitute 30 miles of continuous open shops ; 
 and if the other half of London is of a like character, 
 which it may be fairly assumed to be, it extends the line 
 to 60 miles. And this in the professedly Christian me- 
 tropolis of the first nation of the world. No marvel 
 that the numberof individuals induced by the missionaries 
 to attend public worship is so small. Nor is the pro- 
 portionate number of shops thus opened less affecting 
 than their numerical amount. The total number of 
 shops in the districts is 25,812, so that the 14,103 open 
 are very considerably more than those closed. It is 
 often stated by shopkeepers in poor neighbourhoods, 
 when urged to close, and there is every reason to believe 
 the statement, that Sunday is the day of the week on 
 which they transact the largest amount of business ; and 
 many declare, doubtless with truth, that they do as much 
 business on that day as the other six days put together. 
 If, then, there are, in one half of London, 14,103 shop- 
 Jceepers with open shops on the Lord's-day, what must 
 be the number by which this large figure is to be multi- 
 plied, that we may obtain the number of sho^-dealers. 
 Bearing in mind that there are frequently hundreds of 
 purchasers each Sunday at a single shop, and bearing in 
 mind also that one or two persons ordinarily purchase 
 for the entire family, the question of diflGiculty to answer 
 is, what is left as a remainder of the families of the poor ? 
 The number of shops closed on the Lord's-day this year 
 by the efforts of the missionaries is 112, which is an 
 increase of 5 ; but what is it, except as a drop in the 
 mighty ocean ?" 
 
122 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 THE ADAPTATION OF THE SABBATH 
 INSTITUTION TO MAN. 
 
 Many of the facts stated in the preceding part of 
 this book are so many illustrations of the saying of 
 our blessed Lord^ that the Sabbath was made forraan. 
 They plainly shew that its observance is conducive 
 to his moral and physical well-being; whilst he 
 suffers invariably^ in both these respects, from its 
 desecration. Still it appears desirable to refer more 
 particularly to this important view of the subject, 
 by adducing a few additional facts illustrative of it. 
 
 The following evidence, as regards the bearing of 
 the Sabbath on the morals of the community, was 
 given before the Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons, 1832, before referred to : — 
 
 " Rev. David Ruell, examined. 
 
 " What is your profession ? — I am now chaplain of 
 the New Prison, Clerkenwell ; and was formerly chap- 
 lain of the House of Correction, Coldbath Fields, also. 
 
 ** How long have you held that office ? — I was for ten 
 years chaplain both of the- New Prison and House of 
 Correction, and have been upwards of eighteen years 
 chaplain of the New Prison. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 123 
 
 "How many prisoners have you had under your 
 care ? — Nearly 7000 annually pass under my care j and 
 during my chaplaincy, at the lowest calculation, I have 
 had above 100,000. 
 
 " Have you had any means of ascertaining, from the 
 prisoners or otherwise, the leading causes which first led 
 them to crime ?— Independent of my general intercourse 
 with the prisoners, when assembled daily for public wor- 
 ship and religious instruction, I generally make a point 
 of seeing in private those who are charged with capital 
 offences, before they are removed to Newgate for trial ; 
 in some cases I have been sent for after conviction ; by 
 this means I have had many opportunities of learning 
 from the prisoners themselves the course which has led 
 them into crime ; and have generally found that the 
 neglect or gross violation of the Sabbath has been one. 
 The usual process has been impatience of parental re- 
 straint, violation of the Sabbath, and the neglect of reli- 
 gious ordinances ; evil association, especially with aban- 
 doned females j drunkenness, arising from attending 
 public-houses, tea-gardens, &c. ; petty theft ; the want 
 of character on leaving prison after the first conviction, 
 and then a reckless course of confirmed guilt. I do not 
 recollect a single case of capital offence where the party 
 has not been a Sabbath-breaker ; and in many cases they 
 have assured me that Sabbath-breaking was the first 
 step in the course of crime. 
 
 " Have confessions to that effect been frequent ? — 
 Frequently have they acknowledged it, and in some cases 
 they have requested me to warn others against it from 
 
124 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 their example. Indeed I may say, in reference to'pri- 
 soners of all classes, that in 19 cases out of 20, they are 
 persons who have not only neglected the Sabbath, but all 
 other ordinances of religion. So powerfully is my mind 
 impressed with the subject, that I cannot forbear adding 
 my conviction that Sabbath -breaking is not only a great 
 national evil, but a fruitful source of immorality among 
 all classes, and pre-eminently of profligacy and crime 
 among the lower orders. 
 
 " Do they allude to the profanation of the Sabbath on 
 the part of the higher classes of society ? — Particularly 
 so ; and justly allege that they cannot plead necessity as 
 an excuse for their profaneness. 
 
 " Have you in your experience heard prisoners regret 
 that they had been so regardless of the Lord's- day ? — 
 In many cases, as before stated. 
 
 " Have you not often met with instances of persons 
 about to expiate their crimes by an ignominious death, 
 who have earnestly enforced on their surviving relatives 
 the necessity of the strict observance of the Sabbath, 
 and have ascribed their own departure from what is right 
 to the non-observance of that day ? — Frequently, as 
 stated in the former part of my evidence." 
 
 " Mr. John Wontner, examined. 
 
 " What are you ? — I am keeper of Newgate. 
 
 *' How many years have you been so ? — Ten years ; 
 and six years a marshal of the city of London. 
 
 " Have you had an opportunity of hearing any of the 
 many prisoners who must have been under your care 
 during that time, express any regret as to the desecration 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 125 
 
 of the Lord's-day ? — I have heard many of them express 
 their regret that their crimes have originated with a 
 breach of the Sabbath. 
 
 *' Have they been in the habit of remonstrating on the 
 non-observance of the Sabbath to their friends, or such 
 of them as have visited them ? — I have knowoi them 
 caution their relatives and friends to observe the Sabbath, 
 tracing their own crimes to the non-observance or to the 
 breach of the Sabbath. 
 
 " To what do they attribute the first step in their 
 career of vice, namely, the breach of the Sabbath ; do 
 they attribute it to being compelled to work, or to their 
 habits of relaxation on that day ? — I believe most fre- 
 quently to evil associations, and being drawn out by bad 
 associates to the breach of the Sabbath." 
 
 " Mr. Benjamin Baker ^ examined. 
 
 " Have you been much in the habit of visiting the 
 prisoners in Newgate ? — Yes ; for 20 years past. 
 
 " In your experience, have you found the prisoners, 
 when duly impressed with a sense of their departure from 
 the ways of truth and rectitude, seem to lament their 
 neglect of the duties of the Sabbath ? — Almost uni- 
 versally. 
 
 " Have they considered it as a leading cause of their 
 transgressions ? — I cannot exactly say that they have ex- 
 pressed that ; but I think that almost universally they have 
 said that was the principal thing ; that the deviation from 
 the Sabbath led them on, step by step, into that degree of 
 crime which had brought them there. 
 
126 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 " Then, in referring to their past life in a tone of re- 
 gret, have they given a prominence to that fault ? — 
 Almost universally. 
 
 " Have they shewn a disposition to warn others on 
 that point ? — That is so likewise, and almost universally, 
 when brought to a due sense of their crimes. I have made 
 memorandums from time to time, and have got letters in- 
 numerable, which will fully prove what I have stated. I 
 can state, that almost uniformly, when they are brought 
 to a true knowledge of their sin, they state that the great 
 cause of their misconduct has been neglect of the Sabbath. 
 
 " How many do you think you have attended in their 
 last moments at the place of execution ? — I should sup- 
 pose I have not attended less than 350, and perhaps 
 more ; during 20 years I have attended almost every 
 execution. 
 
 " And in every case, where the parties have been 
 brought to a sense of their condition, they have agreed in 
 that sentiment ? — Nine out often have dated the principal 
 part of their departure from God to the neglect of the 
 Sabbath ; that has certainly been the case." 
 
 The following toucliing communication was ad- 
 dressed to the author, by the Rev. J. Davis, Ordinary 
 of Newgate : beside illustrating the effects of dese- 
 cration of the Lord's-day on man's spiritual and moral 
 condition, it conveys a solemn warning to masters 
 and mistresses to secure to their domestic servants 
 its religious privileges ; and puts before parents, in a 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 127 
 
 strong light, the danger of placing their children in 
 families or in situations in which they shall he re- 
 quired to desecrate the Lord^s-day : — 
 
 " Her Majesty's Gaol, Newgate, Feb. 2, 1846. 
 
 ** Rev. Sir, — The motive seems so good in asking 
 such a question as you do respecting the late convict 
 Martha Browning, that I do not hesitate to say the un- 
 happy young woman many times, and in the most marked 
 manner, deplored her neglect of the Sabbath, and attri- 
 buted her downfall to it. One mistress made her go 
 through a very heavy wash on the Sunday. While in 
 this place she had not once attended Divine worship ; 
 neither her master or mistress ever went ; and her mis- 
 tress used constantly to be occupied in needlework on that 
 day. 
 
 " There were remarkable points of character about this 
 young woman. Among others, she felt that it was a 
 duty to die for the sin she had committed. ' Thou shalt 
 take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer.* 
 
 " Before her day of execution was fixed, she said she 
 should walk with a firm step to the scafiPold. During 
 the process of pinioning she was much excited, and 
 greatly overcome with grief. The senior sheriflf asked 
 me to speak to her, and I reminded her of what she had 
 so often said. In an instant she replied she was ready, 
 and walked without support to the scaffold. All assist- 
 ance was declined by her. 
 
 " When on the scaffold, she commenced in a peculiarly 
 plaintive voice this prayer : ' Lord, have mercy upon me, 
 
128 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 for Jesus Christ's sake ;' which sentence was repeated a 
 number of times. To change the current of her thoughts, 
 and thus relieve her mind, I commenced the Lord's 
 Praver, to every word of which she responded in the 
 same fervent and mournful, but impassioned, tone of 
 voice. At the close of the petition, ' Forgive us our 
 trespasses,' &c., the drop fell, and all was over. 
 
 ** The parents of this unhappy young woman had 
 brought her up religiously. They had family prayer in 
 their house. Her declension, therefore, was the more 
 remarkable ; and the testimony she gives to Sabbath- 
 breaking as the cause leading to her great crime, the more 
 deserving consideration. 
 
 •' It is ill-judged to speak in too strong terms of such 
 heinous offenders, but there were all the outward signs of 
 real penitence about her. She was most anxious that the 
 effect of Sabbath-breaking upon her own mind should be 
 known, and hoped it might be a warning to others. It 
 is not, however, by might nor by power, but by my 
 Spirit, saith the Lord, that any real reformation is to be 
 wrought. — Yours, very faithfully, 
 
 "John Davis, Ordinary of Newgate." 
 
 In an interesting work by the Rev. J. Kingsmill^ 
 Chaplain of the Model Prison, Pentonville, entitled 
 " Prisons and Prisoners/' it is stated that out of 500 
 prisoners, 141 regularly attended some place of 
 worship some time of their lives ; but only 5 a short 
 time previous to crime, (p. 33.) 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. ] 29 
 
 The effect of the restoration of Sabbath privileges 
 is strikingly exemplified by the evidence of Mr. 
 James Panther, before the Committee of the House 
 of Commons of 1832 : — 
 
 " Mr. James Panther, examined, 
 
 " What is your business ? — My occupation is a clerk 
 with a canal carrier. 
 
 " In what house ? — John Whitehouse and Sons, carriers 
 from Birmingham to London. 
 
 " Are they in the habit of carrying on their business 
 on Sunday ? — They have been in the habit of working 
 their boats on Sunday, till within the last two months : 
 they have come to the resolution of not doing so, in con- 
 sequence of the state of the men ; by their not having 
 proper instruction, they cannot trust them with any 
 thing. 
 
 " They have found that by depriving the men of the 
 Sabbath-day they have become demoralized ? — En- 
 tirely so. 
 
 " Has there been sufficient time, since they departed 
 from that practice, to see whether any good effect has 
 been produced on the men ? — For my own part I can say, 
 that since they have left off working on Sunday, when I 
 have loaded the boats, I have noticed they have been 
 loaded without an oath being sworn ; previous to this 
 there would be an oath almost every word. Last week 
 there was a boat laden out without an oath. Perhaps if 
 
 K 
 
130 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 I were to tell it to persons who know the boatmen, they 
 would not credit what I say." 
 
 The following evidence of Dr. Farre, given before 
 the Committee of the House of Commons of 1832, 
 is well known : it has been since confirmed by the 
 authority of other eminent physicans, as well as by 
 general experience. It is so striking that it will be 
 well to quote largely from it : — 
 
 " John Richard Farre^ M.D. examined. 
 
 " You have practised as a physician for many years ? 
 —Yes. 
 
 '* State the number of years. — Between thirty and 
 forty. 
 
 " Have you had occasion to observe the effect of the 
 observance and non-observance of the seventh day of 
 rest during- that time ? — I have. I have been in the 
 habit during a great many years of considering the uses 
 of the Sabbath, and of observing its abuses. The abuses 
 are chiefly manifested in labour and dissipation. The 
 use, medically speaking, is that of a day of rest. In a 
 theological sense it is a holy rest, providing for the in- 
 troduction of new and sublimer ideas into the mind of 
 man, preparing him for his future state. As a day of 
 rest, I view it as a day of compensation for the ina- 
 dequate restorative power of the body under continued 
 labour and excitement. A physician always has respect 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 131 
 
 to the preservation of the restorative power ; because if 
 once this be lost, his heahng office is at an end. If I 
 shew you, from the physiological view of the question, 
 that there are provisions in the laws of nature which cor- 
 respond with the Divine commandment, you will see from 
 the analogy, that * the Sabbath was made for man,' as a 
 necessary appointment. A physician is anxious to pre- 
 serve the balance of circulation, as necessary to the re- 
 storative power of the body. The ordinary exertions of 
 man run down the circulation every day of his life ; and 
 the first general law of nature by which God (who is not 
 only the giver, but also the preserver and sustainer, of 
 life,) prevents man from destroying himself, is the alter- 
 nating of day with night, that repose may succeed action. 
 But although the night apparently equalizes the circula- 
 tion well, yet it does not sufficiently restore its balance 
 for the attainment of a long life. Hence one day in seven, 
 by the bounty of Providence, is thrown in as a day of 
 compensation, to perfect by its repose the animal system. 
 You may easily determine this question as a matter of 
 fact by trying it on beasts of burden. Take that fine 
 animal the horse, and work him to the full extent of his 
 powers every day in the week, or give him rest one day 
 in seven, and you will soon perceive, by the superior 
 vigour with which he performs his functions on the other 
 six days, that this rest is necessary to his well-being. 
 Man, possessing a superior nature, is borne along by the 
 very vigour of his mind, so that the injury of continued 
 diurnal exertion and excitement on his animal system is 
 not so immediately apparent as it is in the brute ; but in 
 k2 
 
132 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 the long-run he breaks down more suddenly ; it abridges 
 the length of his life, and that vigour of his old age 
 which (as to mere animal power) ought to be the object 
 of his preservation. I consider, therefore, that, in the 
 bountiful provision of Providence for the preservation of 
 human life, the sabbatical appointment is not, as it has 
 been sometimes theologically viewed, simply a precept 
 partaking of the nature of a political institution, but that 
 it is to be numbered amongst the natural duties, if the 
 preservation of life be admitted to be a duty, and the 
 premature destruction of it a suicidal act. This is said 
 simply as a physician, and without reference at all to the 
 theological question : but if you consider further the 
 proper effect of real Christianity, namely, peace of mind, 
 confiding trust in God, and good will to man, you will 
 perceive, in this source of renewed vigour to the mind, 
 and through the mind to the body, an additional spring 
 of life imparted from this higher use of the Sabbath as a 
 holy rest. Were I to pursue this part of the question, 
 I should be touching on the duties committed to the 
 clergy ; but this I will say, that researches in physiology, 
 by the analogy of the working of Providence in nature, 
 will establish the truth of Revelation, and consequently 
 shew that the Divine commandment is not to be con- 
 sidered as an arbitrary enactment, but as an appointment 
 necessary to man. This is the position in which I would 
 place it, as contradistinguished from precept and legis- 
 lation ; I would point out the sabbatical rest as necessary 
 to man ; and that the great enemies of the Sabbath, and 
 consequently the enemies of man, are all laborious exer- 
 
cises of the body or mind, and dissipation, which force 
 the circulation on that day in which it should repose ; 
 whilst relaxation from the ordinary cares of life, the en- 
 joyment of this repose in the bosom of one's family;, with 
 the religious studies and duties which the day enjoins, 
 not one of which, if rightly exercised, tends to abridge 
 life, constitute the beneficial and appropriate service of 
 the day. The student of nature, in becoming the student 
 of Christ, will find, in the principles of his doctrine and 
 law, and in the practical application of them, the only 
 and perfect science which prolongs the present and per- 
 fects the future life. 
 
 " You are aware of the habits of the people of this me- 
 tropolis ; and that a general opinion prevails, that what 
 is called relaxation, attending tea-gardens and such places 
 of amusement, is essential to the health of people who 
 have been engaged in hard labour during other days of 
 the week ; what is your opinion of such habits and such 
 people ? — I think that, in as far as the habit tends to 
 dissipation, it is positively injurious. 
 
 Should you conceive that it was desirable the Legisla- 
 ture should attempt to control such habits ? — It would 
 place the Legislature under the most benevolent aspect, 
 if it attempted, both by precept and example, to control 
 all hurtful habits. I consider that the abuse of alcohol 
 is the most destructive of all the habits of British men ; 
 and therefore all the facilities of obtaining it are so many 
 means of depriving them of what really sustains them, 
 and of giving to them that which destroys them. There 
 is a peculiar character about the British nation, which I 
 
134 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 would express by the words, energy of character. This 
 of itself tends so much to exhaust the man, that he may 
 be somewhat excused for seeking means from without 
 to stimulate him ; yet the habit of over-stimulation is the 
 great evil of Englishmen, and the inducements held out 
 on the Sunday, or day of relaxation, to drink, may be 
 considered as one of the chief abuses of the Sabbath. I 
 believe it is a more injurious abuse to the body than that 
 of continued labour. 
 
 " There can be no doubt, can there, that the change of 
 air obtained by going to tea-gardens, into the country, 
 must to a certain extent be beneficial to a man who has 
 lived in a more confined air ? — Certainly. 
 
 " But with a view to the habit that prevails, do you 
 conceive the injuries they sustain counterbalance the 
 good efi'ects ? — They more than counterbalance them ; 
 and the injury is in exact proportion to the extent to 
 which they over-stimulate. Amongst the innumerable 
 avenues to death, I have contented myself, in reference 
 to the Sabbath, with pointing out the destructive effects 
 of forcing the circulation by over-excitement from things 
 taken into the stomach, and from undue exertions of body 
 and mind. And in these respects, especially by continued 
 excitement, the higher classes also injure themselves, as 
 effectually as the lower do by mere labour of body or in- 
 temperance in drinking. 
 
 " Then your observations equally apply to all classes of 
 society ? — To all classes, high and low. 
 
 " In a physiological point of view, provided those stimu- 
 lants were kept out of the way at those tea-gardens or 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 135 
 
 «:offee-houses, would you consider them still objectionable? 
 — Physiologically considered, power saved is power gain- 
 ed, and the waste of power from every kind of excitement 
 defeats the purpose of the day. 
 
 •' So that, on the Sabbath, the labouring man is ex- 
 pending the powers of his body, instead of husbanding 
 them for the following week ? — That is the fact ; and 
 chiefly if the man be engaged in drinking ; for I believe 
 that the inducements held out are to drink, and that the 
 practice is to drink. 
 
 " The question is, whether, if the poorer sort were re- 
 stricted to tea-gardens, the relaxation of tea-gardens would 
 be prejudicial to their health ? — Of course exercise in the 
 open air promotes health ; and it is partly by placing them 
 in a state of temptation, and inducing them to do that which 
 is hurtful, that such places of resort become objectionable. 
 " You are of opinion that such are the temptations, 
 that in 99 cases out of 100 the person who frequents the 
 tea-gardens is tempted by alcohol ? — I cannot state the 
 proportion of persons to whom it proves a temptation, 
 but I think that the danger chiefly lies that way. I con- 
 sider a relaxation from labour, and an enjoyment of mode- 
 rate exercise in a pure air, is extremely beneficial ; but I 
 do not consider the congregating of persons, and the over 
 stimulation, whether it be of mind or simply the efiect 
 of alcohol, which is the result of those assemblies, as be- 
 neficial. If that question be further pressed, I should be 
 led to consider the positive injury done, for want of pro- 
 per ventilation, to the best Christians in the assemblies 
 of our churches. Religion in itself is a healing power. 
 
136 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 "If those tea-gardens were stript of pernicious liquors, 
 do you think they would be hurtful to the health of so- 
 ciety, or to those who frequent them ? — It is a dangerous 
 question. To man, considered in his lower or animal 
 nature, it would not be so prejudicial ; but man is some- 
 thing better than an animal, and I think that devoting 
 to pleasure the day of repose (which should be given to 
 the rest of the body, and to that change of thought and 
 exercise of mind which constitute the real source of in- 
 vigoration), amidst multitudes congregated for purposes 
 of pleasure, actually defeats the primary object of the 
 institution of the Sabbath, as adapted to the higher 
 nature of man. 
 
 " Are you satisfied, from your own experience and 
 observations during the many years you have been in 
 your profession, that the present habit of excess on Sun- 
 day is injurious to the mass of the population ? — An 
 Englishman of the labouring class takes fewer enjoy- 
 ments during the week than any. other person. If he 
 be an industrious man, he labours all the week, and in- 
 jures himself even by the excess of his labour in working 
 over-hours ; Sunday is his only day of refreshment ; and 
 if I could persuade him to enjoy that relaxation in the 
 bosom of his family, and to mingle with the religious duties 
 of the day a moderate exercise, not carried to fatigue, in 
 the open air, then I should be doing the poor man a 
 service. 
 
 " As a friend to humanity, you would desire some 
 legislative protection to be given to the people of the 
 country in regard to the observance of the Sabbath ? — 
 
137 
 
 In all that I have said I have reference, in my views of 
 the Sabbath, to it as a sustaining, repairing, and healing 
 power ; and I should rejoice if all of every rank in this 
 country could be protected on this day of rest from over- 
 excitement of body and mind, by which even its medical 
 purpose of repose is defeated. 
 
 " In your own practice, have you thought it necessary 
 to carry on the whole of your occupation on a Sunday 
 as on the other six days of the week ? — Certainly not. 
 
 " Do you think your patients have suffered thereby ? — 
 Certainly not. 
 
 " Of course, in extreme cases you do ? — I consider 
 that the two officers of healing, so to speak, are the 
 clergyman and the medical man ; they are the only two 
 classes of persons called on to labour on that day for the 
 benefit of the community. I have found it essential to 
 my own well-being to abridge my labour on the Sabbath 
 to what is actually necessary. I have frequently ob- 
 served the premature death of medical men from con- 
 tinued exertion. In warm climates, and in active service, 
 this is painfully apparent. 
 
 " As a seventh day is absolutely necessary for the rest 
 of man, what do you say to the habits of clergymen, who 
 must of necessity labour on the seventh day ? — I have 
 advised the clergyman, in lieu of his Sabbath, to rest one 
 day in the week : it forms a continual prescription of 
 mine. I have seen many destroyed by their duties on 
 that day ; and to preserve others, I have frequently sus- 
 pended them for a season from the discharge of those 
 duties. 
 
138 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 " So that the clergyman furnishes an illustration of 
 your own principle, as to the ill effects of working on the 
 seventh day continually ? — Yes, certainly. I would say 
 further, that quitting the grosser evils of mere animal 
 living from over- stimulation and undue exercise of body, 
 the working of the mind in one continued train of thought 
 is destructive of life in the most distinguished class of 
 society, and that senators themselves stand in need of 
 reform in that particular. I have observed many of 
 them destroyed by neglecting this economy of life. 
 
 " Therefore to all men, of whatever class, who must 
 necessarily be occupied six days in the week, you recom- 
 mend them to abstain on the seventh, and in the course 
 of life they would gain by it ? — Assuredly they would, 
 by giving to their bodies the repose, and to their minds 
 the change of ideas, suited to the day, for which it was 
 appointed by unerring Wisdom. 
 
 " And in fact more mental work would be accomplished 
 in their lives ? — Certainly, by the increased vigour im- 
 parted. 
 
 " A human being is so constituted that he needs a day 
 of rest both from mental and bodily labour ?— Certainly. 
 You have drawn the inference, from the tenor of my evi- 
 dence and argument, which I wish to leave on the mind 
 of the legislative body." 
 
 Mr. Wilberforce, speaking of Lord Londonderry's 
 destroying himself^ in 1822, says : — 
 
 " The strong impression of my mind is, that it is the effect 
 of the non-observance of the Sunday, both as abstracting 
 from politics, and from the constant recurrence of the same 
 
139 
 
 reflections, and as correctingthe false view of worldly things, 
 and bringing them down to their true diminutiveness. ... It 
 is very curious to hear the newspapers speaking of inces- 
 sant application to business, forgetting that by the weekly 
 admission of a day of rest, which our Maker has graciously 
 enjoined, our faculties would be preserved from the effects 
 of this constant strain. I am strongly impressed by the 
 recollection of the endeavour to prevail on the lawyers to 
 give up Sunday consultations, in which poor Romilly 
 (who destroyed himself in 1818) would not concur. If 
 he had suffered his mind to enjoy such occasional remis- 
 sions, it is highly probable the strings would never have 
 snapped as they did from over-tension." 
 
 In a letter to Christoplie, king of Hayti, dated 
 Oct. 8^ 1818;, after recommending that his people 
 abstain from their ordinary labours on the Sabbath, 
 assuring him that at the year's end the sum of their 
 labour will not be found to be lessened by this absti- 
 nence, Mr. Wilberforce adds, — 
 
 "I well remember that, during the war, when it was pro- 
 posed to work all Sunday in one of the royal manu- 
 factories (for a continuance, not for an occasional service), 
 it was found that the workmen who obtained government 
 consent to abstain from working on Sundays executed, 
 in a few months, even more work than the others." 
 
 The following letter, addressed by an Officer of 
 Engineers to Mr. Melmoth Walters, of Bath, shews 
 how strikingly the Sabbath institution is adapted 
 to the physical constitution of man. 
 
140 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 "In gratitude for the ordination of the Sabbath, and 
 in corroboration of the testimony borne by Dr. Farre and 
 others to the value and inestimable blessing conferred on 
 man by the ordinance of one day's rest in seven, I would 
 mention to you a fact that came under my personal 
 cognizance as a practical man. Having been desired, 
 some few years ago, by the Government, to carry out an 
 exploration of the then unknown forests of one of our 
 colonies, I engaged a body of men composed of English, 
 Irish, French, and Indians, both Protestants and Roman 
 Catholics, such as I could pick up in the country, — 
 some recommended for their knowledge of adjoining 
 localities, others for their handiness in many useful arts 
 requisite in camping and running straight lines in the 
 dense forest, one for his culinary ability, but each for 
 some useful quality. They were generally men of good 
 character, honesty being the principal point to which I 
 looked in hiring them ; but a few of them had been 
 addicted to the too abundant use of spirituous liquors, 
 although, I must say, the generality were sober, steady 
 men. At any rate, their duties whilst in my employ 
 entailed these qualities upon them ; for, after leaving the 
 cleared country, we were absent for months from the 
 civilized world, during which period our fare was of the 
 most wholesome nature, although very rough and coarse ; 
 each man being allowed as much salt pork and biscuit 
 as he could eat in three meals, with tea and sugar at 
 each, but no vegetables nor milk, and only occasionally 
 a change from salt provisions, when we might shoot any 
 large game, such as deer. The quantity of food taken 
 into the woods as an allowance for each man was nearly 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 141 
 
 a pound of pork, one and a quarter pound of biscuit, an 
 ounce of tea, and half a pound of moist sugar per day ; 
 tlii latter saemin^ an eiiir:ii)u> qiiiitity, bun, oaaccaunt 
 of unavoidable waste, not found to be excessive. It was 
 also found useful in counteracting the effects of the salt 
 provisions and dry biscuit, as was proved by not a single 
 case of scurvy occurring during the exploration. I men- 
 tion these particulars as shewing tbat, although occasion- 
 ally reduced to great straits for food, and upon very short 
 commons, the men were in general well fed, and had 
 unlimited supplies of strong food (as the Indian calls it) 
 found for them by the Government, such as few of our 
 labouring classes can ever obtain ; and being also with- 
 drawn from the enervating influences of strong drinks, 
 were in a peculiarly favourable position to stand con- 
 tinuous daily labour. Their bedding was as good, 
 certainly, and in my opinion far superior, to that of the 
 better class of our labouring population, as anyone would 
 testify who had experienced the comfort of the bed 
 formed of the boughs of the sapin tree, as compared with 
 the beds in the habitations of some of the rude back- 
 wood settlements. Having started upon the exploration, 
 in which the most anxious part of my duty was the 
 keeping up of a steady and sufficient supply of the 
 necessaries of life, and in which the transport of pro- 
 visions (which was entirely effected upon the backs of 
 the men, the woods being impassable for animals) was 
 the most difficult and costly part of the duty, it became 
 an object of the utmost importance to economize the 
 time during which the consumption of food took place ; 
 
142 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 in other words, to get the most work upon the least 
 quantity of food ; and therefore as men must eat on Sun- 
 days as well as other days, if ever a case can be made out, 
 upon which the Sabbath, as a day of rest, might be dis- 
 pensed with, I think this will fairly be allowed to be 
 a legitimate one — when every ounce of food was money 
 saved, as well as anxiety, and that too to an extent 
 scarcely to be beheved by any one who has not experi- 
 enced the difficulties and known the discontent produced 
 in men by deficient supplies, to say nothing of the 
 gnawings of hunger in one's own stomach ; for it must 
 be remembered that all fared alike, and on more than 
 one occasion the parties were reduced to less than a 
 pound of biscuit per day for each man, which, with a 
 plentiful supply of wholesome spring water, was their 
 only sustenance, so that each and all were keenly alive 
 to the necessity of economizing provisions. Now after a 
 very considerable experience, I can bear my testimony, 
 if it be necessary, to the fact, that the men had not the 
 physical power to maintain their work continuously 
 without the seventh day's rest — upon which, as it were, 
 exhausted nature was restored — and a day of rest it 
 most certainly was, for by the time we had encamped 
 and got our supper, and were ready to lie down on Sa- 
 turday night, until the reveille on Monday morning at 5 
 o'clock, a space of 29 hours, I feel confident that I am 
 within bounds when I say, that each man, myself 
 included, passed generally 19 hours in sleep. Upon a 
 few occasions I was driven by a short supply of provisions 
 to make a forced march, so as to get into the cleared 
 
country, or to a depot, before they were exhausted, when 
 we travelled on Sunday, so as to reach the point of 
 supply on a Tuesday or Wednesday ; but I invariably 
 remarked when we did so, that it was an overstraining 
 of our powers, and that we were obliged, from sheer 
 exhaustion, to devote a day to the repairs of tents, 
 clothes, &c., or in other words, to seek repose from our 
 heavier labours. In making this statement, it must be 
 borne in mind that the labour was not of an ordinary 
 character ; consisting in carrying heavy burthens for about 
 10 hours, and afterwards having to encamp, entailing 
 during the winter months the excavation of snow to the 
 extent of from two to four feet, and cutting large supplies 
 of fire-wood. I think it may fairly be argued, from this 
 experience, that the ordination of the Sabbath is not 
 only convenient, but that the All-wise Disposer of events 
 has, in its institution, afforded us a lasting proof of his 
 great consideration for the frailty of man, by regulating 
 the requirements of His service in accordance with what 
 I conceive to be the absolute necessities of our nature. 
 I could say more on this subject as a practical man, but 
 have already extended my letter beyond its intended 
 limits. I think that it might be shewn, that in less 
 arduous duties than those herein alluded to, the same 
 remark holds good ; I have given you these facts of a 
 peculiar case in which the men were well fed, well paid, 
 and entirely night and day under my observation, as they 
 were never scarcely out of my sight, and in a position 
 where they could not be said to be weakened by dis- 
 
144 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 sipation or the too abundant use of intoxicating 
 liquors." 
 
 The unintelligent beast which man is periuitted 
 to use for his own purpose, and which is a par- 
 ticipator in some of the consequences of his fall, is, 
 by the Divine mercy, included in the provisions and 
 privileges of the Sabbath law, so far as they are 
 applicable to it. Many proprietors of coaches, and 
 persons conversant with horses, taught by experience, 
 have testified to the fact that the health and strength 
 of this useful creature are impaired, and the period 
 during which it may be rendered available is short- 
 ened, by not extending to it the seventh -day rest. 
 The following extract from the " Mechanics' Maga- 
 zine '^ is strikingly corroborative of this : — 
 
 '*The Bianconi Travelling Cars. — Down to as 
 late a period as the year 1815, public conveyances were 
 very scarce in Ireland, with the exception of the mail 
 and day coaches. In July 1851, Mr. Bianconi, an Italian 
 resident in Ireland, and since so celebrated for his ex- 
 tensive car establishment, started his first car between 
 Cahir and Clonmel, and at the latter end of the year he 
 extended it to Tipperary and Limerick, and shortly 
 afterwards to Carrick and Waterford. At present his 
 establishment contains 110 vehicles, which travel from 
 eight to ten miles per hour, the average fare for travelling 
 
145 
 
 being about l^d. per mile. The number of miles over 
 which the cars travel daily is- 3806, passing through 140 
 stations for the changes of horses. The annual con- 
 sumption of hay is from 3000 to 4000 tons ; and of 
 oats, from 30,000 to 40,000 barrels. None of the cars 
 travel on Sunday, with the exception of those connected 
 with the mail. Mr. Bianconi states that there is a 
 saving of 13 per cent, from not working the horses on 
 Sunday, finding it much easier to work a horse eight 
 miles every week-day, in place of six miles, than an 
 additional six miles on Sundays." 
 
 In the preceding pages the author has referred 
 to some of the principal desecrations of the Lord^s- 
 day, the injurious effects of which it would be im- 
 possible to trace out to their full extent, and which 
 are the chief causes of the absence of so large a 
 proportion of the population from Divine worship. 
 In the ''City Mission Magazine^^ for January, 1852, 
 it is stated (page 6) that, in the year 1852, there 
 are 1^800,000 persons who cannot hear the word of 
 God, if they would do so ; and it is also added, "that 
 200,000 of the provided sittings (in the metropolis) 
 are empty ; in other words, out of 2,528,000 persons 
 now congregated in our vast metropolis, the 528,000 
 are found in the house of God on the Sabbath, while 
 2,000,000 absent themselves ; or, confining the cal- 
 
 L 
 
146 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 culation to those wlio might reasonably be expected 
 to attend, it appears that 528,000 are present, and 
 988,000 remain away." 
 
 This state of things will not surprise those who 
 are acquainted with the numerous temptations held 
 forth to the masses to desecrate the Sabbath, and 
 to spend its sacred hours in purposes the very 
 opposite to those for which it was intended. The 
 active efforts made by Christian associations to 
 spread the knowledge of the Gospel amongst the 
 population, and to train up the otherwise neglected 
 youth of the country in the nurture and admoni- 
 tion of the Lord, are greatly neutralized, by the 
 various inducements presented to them to make the 
 Sabbath a time for gain or for pleasure, rather than 
 for preparing for eternity. 
 
 The good effects of the Sunday-school system 
 must be universally acknowledged : indeed it is 
 fearful to think in what a state we should be at the 
 present time, had not the benevolent Raikes sug- 
 gested this idea. Were it not for Sunday-schools, 
 the moral condition of our population would be 
 infinitely worse than it is. Still the Sunday-school 
 system does not accomplish all the good it might 
 do; and one of the chief causes operating to 
 this end, is undoubtedly the desecration of the 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD S-DAY. 
 
 147 
 
 Lord's- day. The temptations to this sin, which 
 assail the young on every side, prove in numerous 
 instances too powerful to be resisted; the conse- 
 quence is, as soon as they are freed from pa- 
 rental control, they abandon the Sunday-school 
 and the place of worship, and resort to haunts of 
 pleasure and vice. The extent to which the in- 
 fluence of the Sunday-school system is counteracted, 
 by this and other causes of a kindred character, is 
 illustrated by the following returns from several 
 Chaplains of Prisons and Matrons of Penitentiaries, 
 obtained by Mr. T. B. Smithies, of Islington, and 
 extracted from a pamphlet entitled "Voices from 
 Prisons and Penitentiaries'^ — 
 
 PRISONS. 
 
 
 Persons who supplied 
 the Information. 
 
 Bath .- 
 
 Banff 
 
 Beaumaris 
 
 Bedford County Prison 
 
 Reading 
 
 Brecon Gaol 
 
 Bucks County Prison, 
 
 Aylesbury 
 
 County Gaol, Cambridge 
 
 Cardigan 
 
 Carmarthen Gaol. . . 
 
 47 
 
 18 
 
 14 
 
 100 
 
 68 
 
 184 
 
 106 
 
 21 
 
 14 
 
 114 
 
 83 
 
 99 
 
 57 
 
 28 
 
 23 
 
 32 
 
 21 
 
 Rev. W. C. Osborn, Chaplain 
 
 James Lyon, Governor. 
 
 H. Jones, Governor. 
 
 Rev. Geo. Maclear, Chaplain. 
 
 J. Field. 
 
 Rev. David Price, Chaplain, 
 
 Rev. Henry Merves, Chaplain. 
 The Chaplain. 
 Rev. Griffith Thomas, Chap. 
 ,, Thomas Jones, „ 
 
 Carried forward. . 693 439 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Brought Forward. . 
 
 Carnarvon Gaol 
 
 Cornwall County Prison 
 
 Derby County Gaol . . 
 
 Derby Female Prison. . 
 
 Devon County Gaol and 
 Bridewell, Exeter. . . . 
 
 Dorset County Gaol . . 
 
 Durham County Prison 
 
 Chelmsford, Spring- 
 field—Males 
 
 Ditto — Females.. . 
 
 Flintshire Gaol 
 
 Hereford 
 
 Huntingdon County 
 Prison 
 
 Maidstone County Gaol 
 
 Preston House of Cor- 
 
 rection 
 
 New Bailey House of 
 
 Correction, Salford. 
 Middlesex House of 
 
 Detention 
 
 Monmouth CountyGaol 
 Montgomery Gaol .... 
 
 Oxford Castle 
 
 Haverfordwest County 
 
 Gaol 
 
 Salop County Prison • 
 
 Carried forward. . 
 
 693 
 
 24 
 
 121 
 
 210 
 
 28 
 
 257 
 
 1057 
 
 220 
 
 203 
 12 
 
 27 
 88 
 
 70 
 
 475 
 
 266 
 
 63 
 
 90 
 63 
 32 
 
 172 
 
 37 
 130 
 
 439 
 22 
 63 
 
 127 
 22 
 
 140 
 
 723 
 
 95 
 
 119 
 
 8 
 
 19 
 
 50 
 
 45 
 191 
 
 181 
 
 58 
 
 50 
 
 45 
 20 
 
 98 
 
 19 
 12 
 
 Rev. Thomas Thomas, Chap. 
 Nich. Kendall, ,, 
 
 Geo. Pickering, ,, 
 
 Mrs. M. A. Sims, Matron. 
 
 Rev. W. B. Hellins, Chap. 
 * ,, D. Clemetson, ,, 
 , G. H. Hamilton, „ 
 
 G. B. Hamilton. 
 
 Edward Richard, Governor. 
 Rev. J. H. Barker, Chaplain. 
 
 „ Henry A. Maule, ,, 
 „ John Winter, ,, 
 
 ,, John Clay „ 
 
 + „ C.F.Bagshawe,M.A. ,, 
 
 ,, George Jepson, ,, 
 S. Barrett, Governor. 
 John Lloyd, „ 
 Rev. G. A. Brown, Chaplain. 
 
 ,, W. W. Harris, 
 
 „ D. Winstone, ,, 
 
 4338 2546 
 
 * This return embraces the total number of prisoners confined 
 within the whole of the year; the chaplain (Rev. D. Clemetson) 
 having kept a careful register of those who had been Sunday 
 scholars. 
 
 t The Rev. C. F. Bagshawe, M.A., Chaplain of the Salford New 
 Bailey, has confined his report to the boys only. He further 
 stated : " The number of convict boys admitted into this prison- 
 school, from 12th April, 1842, to 30th November, 1849, has been 
 I050,of whom 977 attended Sunday-school; 714 of these attended 
 day and night schools." 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD'S-DAY. 
 
 149 
 
 Brought forward. 
 Bury St. Edmunds 
 
 County Gaol 
 
 Ipswich County Gaol. 
 Horsemonger - lane 
 
 County Gaol 
 
 Brixton House of Cor. 
 
 Kendal , 
 
 Kingston-upon-Hull . 
 
 Cupar Prison 
 
 Glasgow Prisons 
 
 Stirling , 
 
 Rothsay 
 
 Dundee 
 
 Dolgelly 
 
 Inverness 
 
 Edinburgh , 
 
 Portland Prison 
 
 Norwich 
 
 Hamilton 
 
 Stafford 
 
 Wakefield — Males . . . . 
 
 Ditto — Females . . , 
 
 York Castle , 
 
 fewansea , 
 
 Millbank — out of 968. 
 Renfrewshire County 
 
 Prison , 
 
 Plymouth 
 
 Coventry 
 
 Perth 
 
 4338 
 
 2546 
 
 97 
 
 51 
 
 120 
 
 67 
 
 167 
 
 93 
 
 253 
 
 106 
 
 16 
 
 11 
 
 144 
 
 107 
 
 63 
 
 38 
 
 749 
 
 414 
 
 99 
 
 71 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 203 
 
 160 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 38 
 
 23 
 
 553 
 
 399 
 
 825 
 
 526 
 
 30 
 
 13 
 
 42 
 
 30 
 
 408 
 
 344 
 
 340 
 
 267 
 
 60 
 
 43 
 
 70 
 
 59 
 
 32 
 
 23 
 
 562 
 
 359 
 
 162 
 
 153 
 
 43 
 
 19 
 
 82 
 
 48 
 
 432 
 
 281 
 
 9960 
 
 6261 
 
 Rev. Edward C. Wells, Chap. 
 „ Henry Halls, ,, 
 
 „ W. S. Rowe,M. A. 
 
 „ George Allan, 
 *,, J. F. Black. 
 
 ,, J. Selkirk, 
 
 ,, A. Kerron, 
 
 ,, John Reid, 
 
 ,, J. Anderson, 
 John Ray, Governor. 
 Rev. Thos. Stirling, Chaplain. 
 R. Owen, Governor. 
 Rev. H. Mackenzie, Chaplain. 
 J. Smith. ,, 
 
 R. Blaythwayt, Chaplain. 
 J. Hill, 
 William Hatton, Keeper. 
 Rev. T. Sedger, M.A., Chap. 
 
 fW. T. Alderson, 
 
 Rev. T. Sutton, Chaplai 
 
 E. B. Squire, 
 X„ John Penny, 
 
 W. Smith, 
 G. Bellamy, 
 P. S. Sundbuy, 
 William Brown, 
 
 * The Rev. J. F. Black stated the average term of attendance at 
 Sunday-schools by these 11 prisoners was about 4 years. 
 
 f Of the 310 prisoners in the Wakefield House of Correction who 
 attended Sunday-school, the Rev. W. T. Alderson states, that after 
 examining them separately, he ascertained that — 93 had attended 
 Sunday-school upwards of 5 years ; 68 between 3 and 5 years ; 
 69 between 2 and 3 years ; 47 between 1 and 2 years ; 43 under I 
 year. Total, 310. 
 
 J The chaplain was unable to complete the examination of all 
 the prisoners. 
 
150 
 
 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 PENITENTIARIES. 
 
 c J 
 
 H 
 
 2 
 
 0) 
 O cj 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 22 
 
 19 
 
 28 
 
 26 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 30 
 
 23 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 15 
 
 14 
 
 36 
 
 22 
 
 87 
 
 68 
 
 55 
 
 27 
 
 32 
 
 22 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 27 
 
 23 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 431 
 
 311 
 
 
 Names of Parties who 
 supplied the Infonnation, 
 
 Magdalen Asylum, 
 Birmingham 
 
 Bristol Penitentiary... . 
 
 Exeter 
 
 Gloucester Magd. Asy. 
 
 Huddersfield workhouse 
 
 Hull 
 
 Benevolent Inst., L'pool 
 
 Guardian Asy., Leeds.. 
 
 Refuge for the Destitute, 
 Hackney-road 
 
 London Female Peni- 
 tentiary, Pentonville. . 
 
 Female Aid So.,& Home 
 for Penitent Females.. 
 
 Guardian Society Asy. 
 
 Norfolk and Norwich 
 Magdalen 
 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne 
 Penitentiary 
 
 Nottingham Pen 
 
 York Pen 
 
 Total 
 
 Mrs. E. Carpenter. 
 Mrs. E. Saville, Matron. 
 Mrs. M.M.Mayne, ,, 
 Mrs. S. Wheeler, „ 
 Jno. Berry, Master. 
 Mrs. F. Mellin, Hon. Sec. 
 Mrs. Cropper, Mem. C. 
 Mrs. Mary Battery. 
 
 Rev. S. C. Hooley, Chap. 
 
 Mrs. H. Cooper, Matron. 
 
 Mrs. M. J. Kemp, ,, 
 Mrs. E. Dickens, ,, 
 
 Mrs. M. A. Curson, ,, 
 
 Mrs. M. Robson, „ 
 Mrs. E. Kerry, „ 
 
 Mrs. Piffe, ,, 
 
 From the foregoing returns, then, it appears that 
 out of ten thousand three hundred and sixty-one in- 
 mates of the principal prisons and penitentiaries of 
 our country, not fewer than six thousand five hundred 
 and seventy -two previously received instruction in 
 Sabbath-schools. It is possible that many of these 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 151 
 
 had attended the schools for a short period, and with 
 much irregularity ; hut still, admitting the 310 per- 
 sons in the Wakefield House of Correction to fur- 
 nish a fair average of the whole, it will be found that 
 full fifty per cent, had attended Sabbath-schools for 
 upwards of three years ! 
 
 These statistics should not cause us to attach less 
 importance to Sunday-schools; but rather to use 
 efforts to remove those powerful agencies of evil 
 in operation — and prominent amongst them the 
 desecration of the Lord's-day — which so fearfully 
 frustrate the good these invaluable institutions are 
 calculated to effect. 
 
 It is scarcely possible for a Christian mind to 
 contemplate the wide-spread profanation of the 
 Sabbath without concluding that something should 
 be done to diminish it ; counteracting, as it does 
 to a great extent, the efforts made to promote 
 religion, and eating away the morality of the 
 community. It must also be remembered, that 
 it is an evil the nature of which is to increase 
 and gain strength and permanency by neglect. It 
 is, however, as certain as it is encouraging that 
 it can be diminished and checked ; and that every 
 endeavour in this direction is followed by some 
 
152 STATISTICS AND FACTS, ETC. 
 
 beneficial result. The exertions which have been 
 made, and their consequences so far as they have 
 been apparent, will form the subject of the Second 
 Part of this book. 
 
HISTORY OF EFFORTS 
 
 TO PROMOTE THE 
 
 DUE OESEEYANCE OP THE 
 LOED'S-DAY. 
 
 This account will commence witli the year 
 1831 J when the Society to promote the due Ob- 
 servance of the Lord^s-day was formed. From 
 that period an accurate record of facts bearing 
 on this subject has been kept by the Society, and 
 materials of an authentic character for a history 
 of the question have been collected. From the 
 earliest times the Lord's-day has been regarded 
 with reverence in these islands, even from the 
 introduction of Christianity. Laws to protect the 
 sanctity of the Lord^s-day were made by King Ina, 
 about the year 688 ; by Alfred, in' the year 876 ; 
 by Edward, his son, about the year 912 ; by Edgar, 
 about the year 966 ; and by Canute, about the year 
 1026.* The legislative enactments subsequently 
 
 * A Treatise of the Sabbath-day, by Dr. Fr. White, Lord 
 Bishop of Ely. London: 1636. 
 
154 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 passed, and still on our Statute-book,, indicate clearly 
 that this subject continued, in all periods of our 
 history, to be one of interest and importance in pub- 
 lic esteem. Mention of the observance of the Lord's- 
 day is made at a very remote period of the history 
 of Ireland, before the errors of Popery had corrupted 
 the purity of the Christian faith in that country. 
 
 With this brief allusion to the history of the ob- 
 servance of the Lord's-day before the year 1831, 
 we shall now proceed to detail it since that time ; 
 studying the same conciseness which has been all 
 through consulted, and which is absolutely necessary 
 to prevent this book acquiring a size on many 
 grounds undesirable. 
 
 It would be appropriate to mention here the cir- 
 cumstances which led to the formation of the Lord's- 
 day Observance Society ; as that Society has been 
 instrumental in exercising a considerable check on 
 the desecration ot the Lord's-day. Its effects are to 
 be estimated, not so much by the positive results of its 
 exertions, — although they are neither few, nor unim- 
 portant, — as by considering how much worse the 
 desecration of the Lord's-day would have been, than 
 it is, had not such a Society existed to oppose its 
 progress. The Society has been identified more or 
 or less with every movement of a public character 
 
155 
 
 relating to the Lord^s-day which has taken place since 
 its formation. 
 
 In the year 1830, a Letter had been addressed 
 by Dr. Blomfield, Lord Bishop of London, to the 
 inhabitants of London and Westminster, calling 
 their attention to the desecration of the Lord^s-day 
 which prevailed, and the importance of its due 
 observance. Sermons inculcating this duty were in 
 consequence preached throughout the diocese of 
 London generally ; and a volume of sermons on the 
 subject was published by the Rev. Daniel Wilson, 
 at that time vicar of Islington, now Lord Bishop of 
 Calcutta, which deserves special mention, owing 
 to the ability with which the question is treated. 
 By these means public attention was strongly drawn 
 to the subject : it was universally felt and admitted 
 that the Lord's-day was greatly desecrated; and 
 that much ignorance existed as to the Scriptural 
 basis on which the duty rested. It is very possible 
 that this feeling, however strong, would have soon 
 subsided, and that no public practical result would 
 have followed, had not the idea suggested itself to 
 the mind of Mr. Joseph Wilson, then of Clapham 
 Common, at a time when the effect of associated 
 effort was not so well understood as at present. 
 
156 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 that a society should be formed to promote the 
 due observance of the Lord's-day. Mr. Wil- 
 son consulted the Bishop of Calcutta as to the 
 expediency of such a step. The proposal at once 
 received the approval of his Lordships who pre- 
 pared a statement of the object and principles of 
 the Society, and of the rules by which its pro- 
 ceedings were to be directed. These rules were 
 subsequently adopted at a numerous meeting 
 of friends of the observance of the Lord's-day, 
 who met at the house of Mr. Wilson. The 
 Society was accordingly formed ; Mr. Wilson 
 accepting the office of its Honorary Secretary ; in 
 which capacity he has continued, by his gra- 
 tuitous personal exertions and counsel, to foster 
 the Society which he was thus instrumental in 
 founding. 
 
 The following resolutions, adopted at the first 
 public meeting of the Society, embody the principles 
 on which it is based, and its objects : — 
 
 " I. That this Meeting is firmly persuaded that the 
 dedication of one day in every seven to religious rest, and 
 the worship of Almighty God, is of Divine authority 
 and perpetual obhgation, as a characteristic of revealed 
 religion during all its successive periods ; having been 
 
157 
 
 enjoined upon man at the creation — recognised and 
 confirmed in the most solemn manner in the Ten 
 Commandments — urged by the Prophets as an essen- 
 tial duty, about to form a part of the institutions 
 of the Messiah's kingdom — vindicated by our Divine 
 Lord from the unauthorized additions and impo- 
 sitions of the Jewish teachers — transferred by Him and 
 his Apostles, upon the abrogation of the ceremonies of 
 the Mosaic Law, to the first day of the week, in com- 
 memoration of the resurrection of Christ, and on that 
 account called the ' Lord's-day ' — and finally esta- 
 blished in more than all its primitive glory as an ordinance 
 of the spiritual universal Church of the New Testament, 
 and a standing pledge and foretaste of the eternal rest of 
 Heaven. And that this Meeting believes that every per- 
 son in a Christian country is bound in conscience to de- 
 vote this seventh portion of his time to the honour of 
 God ; — by resting from the business of his calling ; by 
 abstaining altogether from the pursuit of gain, and from 
 ordinary pastimes and recreations ; by guarding against 
 every worldly avocation and interruption ; and by spend- 
 ing the entire day in the public and private duties of 
 religion, with the exception of such works of necessity 
 and charity as our Saviour, by His example, was pleased 
 to allow and commend : so as to designate this one day 
 of rest and Divine service, after six days of labour, as a 
 more distinguished privilege of the Christian than it was 
 of the Patriarchal and Jewish dispensations. 
 
 " H. That this Meeting witnesses with sorrow and 
 alarm the attempts which have of late years been delibe- 
 
158 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 rately and systematically made to impugn the Divine 
 obligation of the Lord's-day, and to remove the founda- 
 tions of the duty of keeping it holy, from the express 
 command of God, to the uncertain dictates of human 
 authority and expediency ; thus virtually releasing the 
 consciences of men from the paramount claims of this 
 primeval ordinance, as repeated in the Fourth Command- 
 ment, and affording to its actual profanation excuse and 
 encouragement. And this Meeting cannot but further 
 lament the licence which has thus been given, perhaps 
 often unintentionally, to the corrupt propensities of our 
 fallen nature, generally, in their opposition to the worship 
 of God ; as well as the countenance which has been lent, in 
 particular, to the carelessness of the worldly-minded, and 
 the impieties of the sceptical and profane. 
 
 " III. That this Meeting contemplates also with grief 
 and dismay the present widely-extended violations of the 
 Lord's-day, which have arisen from these and other 
 causes : — the many infractions of its primary duties which 
 are too often exhibited by the great and the wealthy, and 
 which are thus diffused through all classes of the com- 
 munity ; the opening of shops, and the trafficking in the 
 early part of the day, for which the late payment of work- 
 men's wages on the Saturday is often made an excuse ; 
 the encroaching abuses and disorders of beer and spirit 
 houses ; the multiplication of tea-gardens and other places 
 of public resort for amusement and dissipation ; the sys- 
 tematic violation of the Christian Sabbath by steam-ves- 
 sels, carriages on rail-roads, stage-coaches, barges, packets, 
 and other public conveyances ; and, above all, the enor- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 159 
 
 mous evil of the Sunday newspapers, which are published 
 and vended with pernicious diligence, openly trampling 
 upon the first duties of Christianity, and introducing all 
 that destruction of the great principles of morals and reli- 
 gion which a Sunday Press necessarily involves. And 
 that this Meeting believes that these and other instances 
 of contempt and profanation of the Lord's-day are already 
 threatening a general dissoluteness of manners, and are 
 loosening those bonds of civil order and religious obe- 
 dience by which the tranquillity of nations is maintained. 
 " IV. That this Meeting is persuaded that it is the para- 
 mount duty of a Christian nation to confess its allegiance 
 to Almighty God, and its faith in a Divine Redeemer, 
 by honouring in every proper manner this solemn insti- 
 tution — by encouraging amongst all classes of persons 
 the due observance of its sanctity — by making the most 
 ample provision for the public worship of God — by dis- 
 couraging and repressing open inroads upon its sacred 
 duties — by inserting suitable guards for its observance, 
 wherever necessary, in new Acts of Parliament — by pro- 
 viding for the suppression of outrageous offences — by 
 reviving and amending the Statutes which have become 
 obsolete and inefficient — and by doing everything in its 
 power to defend, mildly and firmly, the Christian Sabbath 
 from open violence and desecration ; so as not to inter- 
 fere with the conscience of individuals in their private 
 and retired sentiments or conduct, or to attempt anything 
 beyond that protection of this fundamental institution of 
 Revealed Religion which it is the province of a Chris- 
 tian legislature to afford. And this Meeting considers 
 the British nation as more especially bound to grant this 
 
160 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 protection, because the Divine authority of the Lord's- 
 day has ever been admitted and acknowledged as a law of 
 the land, however particular enactments may have fallen 
 into disuse or become ineffective. 
 
 " V. That this Meeting is persuaded that the welfare 
 of nations is intimately connected with the due sanctifi- 
 cation of the Christian Sabbath ; as it lies at the founda- 
 tion of all practical religion, and is the season peculiarly 
 appointed for instructing mankind in the doctrines and 
 duties of Christianity; and also as the conscientious 
 observance of it tends to secure the blessing of God, 
 while its violation brings down his severest judgments 
 upon all the undertakings and interests of a nation ; 
 that the favour and blessing of the Almighty are the 
 only source of peace and tranquillity, and His displeasure 
 the most certain precursor of confusion and ruin ; that 
 the Divine chastisements now abroad in the world place 
 before us with awful warning the critical danger of neg- 
 lecting any of the appointments of Christianity, or of 
 subtracting any portion of the time which our Creator 
 claims for His immediate service ; and that a contempt 
 of the Sabbath, at all times sinful and criminal, would be 
 more signally so at this period, when that very contempt 
 has visibly led to the fearful decay, and in many places 
 almost extinction, of spiritual religion among the nations 
 of the Continent, and to the proportionate growth of 
 superstition, profaneness, Neologism, Socinianism, and 
 Infidelity ; and has been visited with a series of tremen- 
 dous judgments, during the last forty years, which hold 
 them up to us as beacons to avoid their sins, if we would 
 escape their punishment. 
 
TN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 161 
 
 ** VI. That this Meeting, being persuaded that Al- 
 mighty God will favour every sincere endeavour to 
 confess His truth and glorify His name in the midst of 
 the infidelity and lukewarmness which surround us, is 
 desirous to attempt something, however feebly, for the 
 vindication and revival of the dignity and authority of 
 the Lord's-day, on the basis of its Divine institution, and 
 its indissoluble connection with all the various and im- 
 mense spiritual and temporal blessings which Christianity 
 is designed to diffuse. That each of its members will 
 endeavour to scrutinize and amend his own spirit and 
 conduct ; to exert all due influence with his domestics 
 and dependants, and among his neighbours and trades- 
 men ; to aim at raising the tone of sentiment and feeling 
 among all classes of society, from the highest to the 
 lowest ; and to promote and encourage earnest prayer to 
 Almighty God for the grace of His Holy Spirit to 
 accompany and bless the efforts which may be made to 
 further this momentous object. 
 
 " That this Meeting rejoices in the interest which is 
 beginning to appear in different parts of the country in 
 this sacred cause ; and relies on the active co-operation 
 of all the sincere followers of our Divine Redeemer and 
 Lord, to aid it in the plans which it may adopt, consist- 
 ently with the spirit of the Gospel, for advancing the 
 scriptural honour and sanctification of the day on which 
 the consummation of His sacrifice has ever been cele- 
 brated in the universal Christian Church. 
 
 " Vn. That a Society be now formed, consisting of 
 such persons as approve of the above resolutions, and 
 M 
 
162 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 subscribe the sum required by the rules to be hereafter 
 agreed to, to be designated *' The Society for Promoting 
 the Due Observance of the Lord's-day ;" the objects of 
 which shall be — 
 
 " 1 . To diffuse information as widely as possible on 
 the subject, by the publication and circulation of 
 Books and Tracts on the Divine authority of the 
 Institution — on the objections raised against it — on 
 its practical duties — its unnumbered benefits — the 
 prevailing violations of it — the new inroads made 
 on its sanctity — the best means of abating or pre- 
 venting those evils, and promoting the sanctification 
 of the day — and on similar topics. 
 
 " 2. To adopt all such measures, consistent with 
 Scriptural principles, as may appear best adapted 
 to lead to a due observance of the Lord's-day in 
 the Metropolis, and throughout the Empire. 
 
 "3. To open a correspondence throughout the 
 British Empire, and if possible on the continent of 
 Europe, and wherever else suitable opportunities may 
 occur, for the purpose of forming Local Associations, 
 and for maintaining a friendly intercourse with socie- 
 ties already existing, or that may be established, with 
 the view of promoting the due observance of the 
 Lord's-day. 
 
 " 4. To aid, as far as the funds of the Society may 
 allow, the Local Associations which may most 
 stand in need of support. 
 
 *' 5. To promote, by all proper measures. Petitions 
 to the Legislature, throughout the country, for the 
 enactment of such laws as may be necessary for re- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 163 
 
 pressing the open violation of the Lord's-day, and 
 for protecting the Christian worshipper in the peace- 
 ful exercise of his duties. 
 
 " 6. And generally to form a point of union, if God 
 should be pleased to bless the design, for the efforts 
 which may be made in every part of the world 
 towards this great object." 
 
 1831-2. — The first year of the Society's exist- 
 ence was occupied in opening a correspondence all 
 through the kingdom ; the result of which clearly 
 shewed that the Lord's-day was fearfully desecrated 
 in all parts of the country; and that this desecration 
 was on the increase^ owing to the want of church 
 accommodation, and the various inducements held 
 forth to the population, particularly in the large 
 towns, to seek their own pleasure on the Lord's-day. 
 It was also ascertained that great numbers of 
 persons mourned over this prevailing disregard for 
 the Lord's-day, but considered it almost a hopeless 
 thing to check the progress of the evil by isolated 
 efforts : all such rejoiced at the formation of the 
 Society, and expressed their readiness to assist in 
 its efforts. 
 
 The Society formed Associations, to co-operate 
 with it in its objects, in many places : it also 
 prepared and widely circulated Tiacts, on the 
 M 2 
 
164 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 importance of tlie Observance of the Lord's-day, 
 addressed to the Higher Orders_, to the Clergy, 
 to Masters and Heads of Families, to Trades- 
 men and Shopkeepers. 
 
 It likewise instituted an inquiry into the laws in 
 existence for protecting the sanctity of the Lord's- 
 day : this inquiry led to the conclusion that, owing to 
 their inefficiency, improved legislation on the subject 
 was greatly needed. 
 
 When a bill for the amendment of the act which 
 authorized the establishment of Beer -houses was 
 under the consideration of Parliament, the Society 
 originated Petitions, praying for the insertion of 
 certain clauses prohibiting the sale of beer on the 
 Lord^s-day. The dissolution of Parliament, however, 
 prevented the Society prosecuting this object. 
 
 1832-3. — A resolution was adopted by a ma- 
 jority of the proprietors of the Zoological Society 
 in the Regent's Park, to open the gardens to the 
 public on the Lord's-day. The Lord's-day Observ- 
 ance Society vainly used its influence to prevent the 
 adoption of this resolution. 
 
 Sir A. Agnew, Bart., moved for a select committee 
 of the House of Commons, to receive evidence on 
 the inefficient state of the laws respecting the Lord's- 
 
day. It was appointed on the 3rd July, 1832, and 
 a voluminous body of evidence was furnished by 
 persons of different grades and professions, during 
 the seventeen days the committee sat. This evidence 
 disclosed the fearful extent to which desecration of 
 the Lord's-day prevailed, and fully established the 
 necessity for an amendment of the existing laws for 
 promoting its due observance. 
 
 The following are extracts from the Report of the 
 Committee on the evidence taken before them : — 
 
 3. " Your Committee regret to be under the necessity 
 of stating, that the evidence which has been submitted 
 to them exhibits a systematic and widely spread violation 
 of the Lord's-day, which, in their judgment, cannot 
 fail to be highly injurious to the best interests of the 
 people, and which is calculated to bring down upon the 
 country the Divine displeasure." 
 
 1 7. " To satisfy the House of the total inefficiency of 
 the existing penalties against buying and selling, it is 
 only necessary to refer to the testimony of the several 
 Magistrates whom your Committee have examined. 
 Some Sunday traders have been known openly to mock 
 at them, and have even offered to pay them six months 
 in advance, to save the trouble of informations ; boasting 
 that their gains were so great on Sunday mornings that 
 they could well afford to pay 5s. out of them." 
 
 23. *' In recommending a general revision and amend- 
 ment of the laws for the observance of the Sabbath, it 
 
166 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 should be observed, that Sunday labour is generally 
 looked upon as degradation ; and it appears in evidence, 
 that in each trade, in proportion to its disregard of the 
 Lord's-day, is the immorality of those engaged in it." 
 
 24. " The workmen are aware, and the masters in 
 many trades admit the fact, that were the Sunday labour 
 to cease, it would occasion no diminution of the 
 weekly wages." 
 
 27. "Your Committee have approached the subject 
 committed to their investigation impressed with a deep 
 sense, not only of its importance, but also of the diffi- 
 culties which are generally supposed to attend it. The 
 weight of the evidence presented to them has nevertheless 
 led them to concur in recommending an amendment of 
 the law, as both indispensable and practicable. The 
 letter no less than the spirit of English legislation, since 
 the Reformation, in relation to the observance of the 
 Lord's-day, has uniformly been directed against all 
 desecrations of it, by the exercise of any worldly labour, 
 business, or * ordinary calling ' on that day, as will be 
 seen by referring to the abstract of the laws contained in 
 the Appendix. But whilst the tenor of the law has been 
 favourable to the maintenance of this most important in- 
 stitution of the Christian religion, — the more or less 
 decorous observance of which may be considered, at any 
 given time, to afford the safest test of the greater or less 
 degree of moral and religious feeling pervading the com- 
 munity, — it is much to be deplored that, owing in a great 
 measure to the difficulties attending a due enforcement 
 of its provisions, the absence of adequate penalties, and 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD*S-DAY. 167 
 
 the defective mode prescribed for recovering them, — but 
 ovi^ing still more to the lax spirit of the age in reference 
 to religious obligation, — the law itself is found to be prac- 
 tically insufficient to secure the objects for which it pro- 
 fesses to provide." 
 
 28. " Your Committee, however, whilst thus recom- 
 mending an emendation of the law, as necessary to put 
 down gross desecrations of the Lord's-day, and to enable 
 all classes to avail themselves of its privileges, avow that, 
 in anticipating an improved observance of it as the result 
 of more efficient laws, they rely chiefly on the moral 
 support which these would receive, as well from the 
 highest authorities of the Church, its clergy, and minis- 
 ters of all denominations, as from the example of the 
 upper classes, the magistracy, and all respectable heads 
 of families ; and it may be added, from the increasing 
 conviction of all classes, derived from experience, of the 
 value of the day of rest to themselves." 
 
 36. "Your Committee beg the House distinctly to 
 understand that they are very far from wishing that the 
 legislature should revert to the principle of the fourteenth 
 section of the Act 1, and the fifth section of the Act 23, 
 of Queen Elizabeth, whereby forbearing to * repair to 
 church, chapel, or place of common prayer' subjected 
 the individual to heavy penalties : on the contrary, they 
 are fully impressed with the truth of the remark given 
 in evidence by the Bishop of London, that such provisions 
 were ' a mistake in legislation.* But it is one thing to 
 force the conscience of a man, and it is another to protect 
 his civil liberty, of worshipping God according to his 
 
168 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 conscience on the Lord's-day, from the avaricious or dis- 
 orderly encroachments of his unconscientious neighbour." 
 40. " Your Committee are of opinion that the amend- 
 ment of the law which they have ventured to recommend, 
 is not only in itself a proper and necessary measure, but, 
 moreover, that the moral influence over all classes of 
 men, which will be produced by the very fact of the 
 attention of the Legislature being directed to this subject, 
 will in itself be very considerable. Nor can it reasonably 
 be doubted, that by means of such amendments a con- 
 siderable attention would be given to the temporal com- 
 forts of individuals, more especially those in the middle and 
 lower classes of society. Indeed, in the words of one of 
 the witnesses examined by your Committee, (confirmed 
 by the testimony of many others,) the tradesmen them- 
 selves would consider a more strict law for the observance 
 of that day, not as a restraint, but * as a blessing.' 
 Your Committee feel assured that an increase of true 
 religion must also follow, inasmuch as many persons, 
 thus favoured with an entire day of rest, would be led to 
 employ it for religious purposes ; and that a great ac- 
 cession would accrue to the strength and prosperity of 
 the state itself, arising out of the improved tone of morals 
 which a due observance of the Sabbath-day invariably 
 produces : and there are, moreover, abundant grounds, 
 both in the word of God and in the history of past ages, 
 to expect that His blessing and favour would accompany 
 such an endeavour to promote the honour due to His 
 holy name and commandment." 
 
 41. ''Your Committee conclude with expressing their 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 169 
 
 earnest hope, that early in the ensuing session the House 
 will take into consideration the suggestions which they 
 have made, and especially the evidence on which these 
 suggestions are founded, with a view to amending the 
 laws relating to the observance of the Lord's-day." 
 
 1833-4. — Numerous petitions were presented 
 from all parts of the kingdom^ praying for 
 tlie interference of tlie Legislature in behalf of 
 those who needed the protection of more efficient 
 laws to enable them to enjoy Avithout loss or injury 
 the privileges of the Lord^s-day : the number of 
 these petitions, up to May 24_, 1833, amounted to 
 1060, signed by 261,706 persons. 
 
 Sir Andrew Agnew introduced a bill in the ses- 
 sion of 1833, the provisions of which were in accor- 
 dance with the prayers of these petitions, and with 
 the recommendations of the Committee of 1832 : 
 this bill passed the first reading with difficulty, and 
 was finally lost on the second reading. 
 
 Upon the rejection of this bill, Sir Andrew Agnew 
 introduced a bill to enable the election of officers 
 of corporations and other public companies, now 
 required to be held on the Lord's-day, to be held 
 on the Saturday next preceding, or on the Monday 
 next ensuing. This Act received the royal assent 
 July 24, 1833, and is the 3 & 4 William IV. c. 31. 
 The operation of this Act has been very beneficial in 
 
170 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 putting an end to many glaring desecrations of the 
 Lord's-day. He also introduced another bill, for 
 removing Saturday and Monday markets to other 
 days of the week ; but being unfavourably received 
 by the House, it was withdrawn. 
 
 Mr. W. Petre, member for Bodmin, immediately 
 after introduced a bill to amend and consolidate 
 the laws respecting the Lord^s-day. This bill was 
 founded merely on expediency, and did not recognise 
 the Divine authority of the Lord's-day : it was 
 consequently opposed by the friends of the Lord's- 
 day in the House, as well as by those who regarded 
 the agitation of this subject with dislike. The debate 
 on the second reading having been adjourned, Mr. 
 Poulter did not bring it before the House again, but 
 withdrew the bill, owing to the opposition it met 
 with from all quarters. 
 
 A great many publications were issued by the 
 Lord's-day Observance Society, and widely circu- 
 lated ; amongst them^ Addresses to Coach Drivers 
 and Waggoners ; to Keepers of Inns and Taverns ; 
 to Seamen; On the Nature and Obligation of the 
 Christian Sabbath ; Hints to Travellers on the 
 Continent. 
 
 1834-5.— The attention of the Lord's-day Obser- 
 vance Society was directed to the desecration of the 
 
171 
 
 Lord's-day on the Thames by steam-boats carrying 
 passengers for pleasure : on board one steamer 
 there were as many as 1200 persons, on board 
 another there were 600 persons, on a certain Sunday. 
 
 In the county of Derby, 70 Associations were 
 formed to co-operate with the Society, the effects 
 of which were seen in an increased attendance at 
 the churches of the parishes comprised in them. 
 
 The Auxiliary Society established in Derby cir- 
 culated 55,000 publications on the subject of the 
 due observance of the Lord^s-day; and twenty- 
 eight public meetings were held in the county ; so 
 great was the interest excited in the subject. 
 
 Associations were also formed in some towns in 
 Ireland to promote the object. The Synod of Ulster 
 particularly called the attention of their Presbyteries 
 to the importance of increased efforts to check the 
 growing desecration of the Lord's-day : active exer- 
 tions were also made in various parts of Wales with 
 the same view, especially by the Calvinistic Me- 
 thodists. 
 
 Tha General Assembly in Scotland, having ap- 
 pointed a Committee to report upon the extent of 
 Sabbath profanation in that country, resolved, at their 
 meeting in June 1834, to issue a Pastoral admoni- 
 tion, to be read by all their ministers from their 
 
172 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 respective pulpits on the Lord's-day. The Wes- 
 leyau Methodists also^ in all parts of the kingdom, 
 zealously co-operated in efforts to promote the ob- 
 servance of the Lord^s-day. 
 
 The Flatmen and Bargemen employed on the 
 Mersey and Irwell, petitioned the company of pro- 
 prietors to be relieved from labour on the Lord^s- 
 day. A suspension of labour on Sundays, in conse- 
 quence, took place; and such was the gratitude of the 
 men for this restoration of the privileges of the 
 Christian Sabbath, that by working late on Satur- 
 day night, and proceeding on their passage the 
 earliest hour on Monday morning, they performed 
 in six days the same amount of work as they did 
 before during the seven continuous days of labour. 
 
 The Lord's- day Society opened a correspondence 
 with Vevey in the Canton de Vaud, where a Society 
 had been formed to promote the observance of the 
 Lord's- day. 
 
 In the session of 1834, Sir Andrew Agnew again 
 renewed his efforts to obtain an amendment of the 
 laws respecting the Lord's-day : he introduced a bill 
 for extending to all classes that protection in the 
 enjoyment of its privileges which was so generally 
 desired. The bill was read the first time without a 
 di\dsion : it was, however, thrown out on the second 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 173 
 
 readings though numerous petitions in its favour 
 were presented from all parts of the country. 
 
 A bill was introduced in the House of Lords, 
 by Lord Wynford, entitled, ''^An Act for the 
 better Observance of the Lord^s-day, and the more 
 effectual Prevention of Drunkenness/^ It passed 
 the second reading, and was then withdrawn. The 
 withdrawal of this bill was not regretted by the 
 friends of the observance of the Lord^s-day generally, 
 as some of its clauses seriously compromised the 
 principle of the Sabbath institution, by sanctioning 
 travelling, the sale of intoxicating drinks, and baking, 
 on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 At the same time, Mr. Hesketh Fleetwood brought 
 in a bill in the House of Commons, entitled, " A 
 Bill to facilitate and promote the better and more 
 regular Observance of the Lord's-day, commonly 
 called Sunday." This bill proposed some valuable 
 amendments of the existing laws on the Lord's-day; 
 but whilst repealing some old statutes, it did not re- 
 enact the substance of their provisions ; and in some 
 respects it sanctioned proceedings at variance with 
 the due observance of the Lord^s-day : it was lost 
 on the second reading. 
 
 Mr. Poulter, about the same time, brought in a 
 bill, entitled, " A Bill to render more effectual an 
 
174 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Act of the 29th of King Charles II., for the better 
 Observance of the Lord's-day/^ On the 4th June, 
 1834, this bill passed through a committee pro 
 forma, with the understanding that the debate 
 should be taken " in bringing up the report." On the 
 2nd July the details were taken into consideration, 
 when clauses being struck out, and amendments 
 introduced, which entirely altered the original 
 object of the bill, it passed as amended on the 
 report. Further alterations, of the same objectionable 
 character, being proposed at its third reading, it was 
 opposed by all in the House who were friendly to the 
 observance of the Lord's-day, and was, happily, 
 thrown out. . 
 
 In the same session of 1834, Sir Andrew Agnew 
 again introduced a bill for the purpose of removing 
 Saturday and Monday fairs and markets to other 
 days. It was, however, as on the former occasion, 
 rejected. 
 
 The Lord's-day Observance Society addressed 
 memorials to the Directors of Railway Companies, 
 earnestly entreating them to have clauses intro- 
 duced into the railway bills proposed to Parlia- 
 ment, to prevent the conveyance of passengers on 
 the Lord's-day ; and, at the same time, they urged 
 upon their friends and correspondents, who resided in 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 175 
 
 the neighbourhoods through which the lines were to 
 pass, to petition Parliament to the same effect, and to 
 request their representatives to support the petitions. 
 
 1835-6. — Several railway bills passed the House of 
 Commons, having a clause prohibiting the running 
 of trains on the Lord's- day. These clauses were, in 
 every case, struck out in their passage through the 
 House of Lords; and thus railway traffic on the 
 Lord's-day received the sanction of the Legislature. 
 A similar course was pursued in reference to a bill 
 for establishing a cattle-market in Islington. 
 
 The number of Licensed Coaches in 1835 was 
 2950 : of these, 1521 were licensed to travel on the 
 Lord's-day; performing on each Sunday 8294 
 journeys. This number did not include hackney- 
 coaches or cabriolets. 
 
 A great increase took place in the number of 
 Associations, formed in all parts of the kingdom, to 
 co-operate with the Lord's-day Observance Society. 
 
 At the anniversary meeting of the Lord's-day Ob- 
 servance Society, the Lord Bishop of London, in la- 
 menting the spiritual destitution of the metropolis, an- 
 nounced his proposal for building fifty new churches. 
 
 1836-7. — A conversation took place in the House 
 
176 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 of Commons^ which caused the friends of the observ- 
 ance of the Lord's-day to apprehend that a design 
 was entertained to introduce a new kind of labour 
 into the London Post-office^ by transmitting country 
 letters through London on the Lord^s-day ; which^ 
 besides being objectionable in itself, was justly re- 
 garded as a preliminary step to having a delivery of 
 letters in London on Sundays. 
 
 Public meetings were held in many of the Lon- 
 don parishes for the purpose of forming associations 
 to co-operate with the Lord's-day Observaiis 
 Society : similar meetings were also held in vario e 
 towns in the country. The efforts^ originated at the', 
 meetings, to promote the due observance of th 
 Lord's-day in the several localities^ were productivl 
 of the most beneficial effect. 
 
 The Messrs. Whitehouse and Sons, carriers on 
 an extensive scale on the Grand Junction Canal, 
 came to a resolution to stop their boats during the 
 four-and-twenty hours of the Lord^s-day. 
 
 The E-ev. John Davies, of St. Clement's, Worces- 
 ter, delivered lectures in Worcester and other towns 
 on the degraded condition of boatmen, in conse- 
 quence of their being deprived of the priviHges of 
 the Lord's-day. 
 
 The Clergy of the parish of Marylebone cir- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 177 
 
 Ciliated an address, calling the attention of the in- 
 habitants to the obligation of observing the Lord^s- 
 day ; and the Clergy of the deanery of Southwark, 
 assembled at the request of the Rural Dean_, came to 
 a resolution to preach in their respective churches on 
 the subject. 
 
 A judgment of great importance was given in 
 the House of Lords, by the Lord Chancellor, Lord 
 Brougham, and Lord Wynford, on appeal from the 
 sentence of a court in Scotland, — deciding that a 
 master hairdresser could not compel his apprentice 
 to assist him in his worldly calling on the Lord^s- 
 day. Much legal ingenuity was used in order to 
 prove that the practice in question came within the 
 excepted cases of piety, mercy, and necessity; but 
 this plea was overruled by the learned Judges. 
 
 In April, 1836, Sir Andrew Agnew again intro- 
 duced a general measure to promote the observance 
 of the Lord^s-day. It passed the first reading, but 
 was thrown out on the second reading. 
 
 1837-8. — The railway system now began to be pro- 
 minently instrumental in the desecration of the Lord' s- 
 day, by affording facilities for travelling : and even at 
 this early period, when it was as yet in its infancy, the 
 friends of the Observance of the Lord's-day felt the 
 necessity of carefully watching its progress, and of 
 
178 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 using efforts to check the tendency to disregard the 
 Divine command its promoters evinced. 
 
 The increased and successful efforts made in this 
 year to promote church extension, is a gratifying 
 feature in its religious history _, and particularly as 
 bearing on the observance of the Lord's- day; for 
 there can be no doubt but that want of church 
 accommodation,, and the deficient accommodation 
 supplied to the poor, were causes which contributed 
 to induce habits of non-atteudance at Divine wor- 
 ship. The Bishops of London and Chester were 
 foremost in the work of church extension in their 
 respective dioceses, in which the vast increase of 
 population, without a proportionate increase in 
 churches, caused the want to be most felt. 
 
 The beneficial effects of the Associations formed 
 in different parts of the kingdom began to be ap- 
 parent : the extent of the desecration of the Lord's- 
 day in many localities was ascertained^ and efforts 
 were made to diminish it. The president of one 
 Association reported, that in the course of six 
 months much good had been done ; that a great re- 
 form had taken place; and that the labourers formerly 
 paid late on Saturday were then paid on Friday ; 
 that few shops were open on Sunday ; and that the 
 general habits of the people were improved. 
 
 The llev. John Davies, of Worcester, continued 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 179 
 
 with imdiminislied activity his exertions to call 
 public attention to the condition of the men em- 
 ployed on canals and navigable rivers, and his en- 
 deavours to improve it. The degradation of this 
 class was great. A person who had been conver- 
 sant with them, as a lock-keeper, for twelve years, 
 thus describes them. '^ The boatmen, who, almost 
 without exception, work on the Sabbath, are of such 
 abandoned conduct that they generally shorten 
 their lives by it. There are scarcely any men now 
 living who were in the employment twelve years 
 since. Their language is very profane ; they are 
 generally given to intemperance, and ruin their con- 
 stitutions by these and other vices. They are 
 in the practice of robbing the wine and spirits 
 in the boats. Though there are a few solitary 
 instances of sober men, yet one does not know a 
 boat^s crew consisting of three or four who are so." 
 
 He describes thus their sensibility to their degra- 
 dation, and to its cause, the privation of Sabbath 
 privileges. " If reproved for any sin, they reply : 
 ' What is the use of leaving off our sins ? we are 
 obliged to break the Sabbath, and if we break one 
 commandment we will break the whole;* thus yielding 
 to a sort of desperation in wickedness." The dis- 
 closures of their feelings made by the boatmen to 
 n2 
 
180 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Mr. Davies, however^ shewed that they, in many 
 instances, suffered much distress of conscience. One 
 man declared that every step he took, when at work 
 on Sunday, went to his very heart. Another, who 
 had a wife and seven childi-en, twice suffered himself 
 to be thrown out of employment, rather than wound 
 his conscience by working on the Lord's-day ; but 
 the craving wants of a large family compelled him 
 to resume his occupation. 
 
 The Bishop of Worcester gave every encourage- 
 ment in his power to Mr. Davies, and, at his request, 
 licensed a clergyman specially to instruct the boat- 
 men on the river Severn, and on the Worcester 
 and Birmingham Canal. 
 
 The parochial authorities in the metropolis inte- 
 rested themselves in the subject, by using the power 
 with which the laws entrusted them to diminish the 
 profanation of the Lord^s-day. The Middlesex 
 Magistrates passed a resolution to represent to 
 Government the importance of closing public-houses 
 during the early part of the Lord^s-day. 
 
 At some of the annual meetings of the proprietors of 
 railroad companies, individual shareholders proposed 
 resolutions to stop the running of trains on the 
 Lord's-day ; but in no one case did they succeed in 
 their endeavours. 
 
 A memorial was presented to the Council of the 
 
181 
 
 Zoological Society^ signed by thirty-six of the Clergy 
 of St. Pancras and St. Marylebone, in whicli parishes 
 the gardens are situated, and supported by the Bishop 
 of the diocese, praying that the gardens should 
 be shut up on the Lord's-day. The Council professed 
 their inability to comply, on the ground that it 
 would be a violation of the rights and privileges of 
 the Society. 
 
 A bill was introduced into Parliament this session 
 respecting the Hippodrome at Notting Hill, in which 
 was a clause, admitting pedestrians to the Hippo- 
 drome on Sundays, without making any charge 
 whatever, for the purpose of walking therein at cer- 
 tain specified hours, and enacting that no amuse- 
 ments, pastimes, or recreations whatsoever should be 
 carried on or permitted upon the premises on Sun- 
 day, and that no spirits, beer, ale, porter, or other 
 liquors or refreshments should be sold. It is painful 
 to record that this clause was struck out of the bill 
 by the Select Committee of the House of Commons, 
 and the bill passed through all its stages in that 
 House without its restoration. The Lord's-day Ob- 
 servance Society, in conjunction with the Society for 
 the Suppression of Vice, exerted itself strenuously 
 and successfully in obtaining the restoration of this 
 clause, in the passage of the bill through the House 
 of Lords. 
 
182 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Sir Andrew Agnew introduced another general 
 bill into the House of Commons, founded on the 
 Divine authority and perpetual obligation of the 
 Sabbath institution. It was substantially the 
 same as that which had been rejected in the year 
 1833. The agitation of the question, both in and out 
 of Parliament, in the mean time, had proved useful. 
 This was apparent in the increased sympathy 
 evinced by the country, as shewn by petitions in 
 favour of the bill, and also by the altered tone both 
 of the press and Legislature in reference to it. 
 Doubtless the extraordinary union of perseverance 
 and endurance of opposition and insult, so remark- 
 ably combined in the character of Sir Andrew, 
 greatly mitigated the feelings of hostility with 
 which his measures were in former years regarded. 
 The bill passed the first reading by a large and 
 triumphant majority, and also the second reading. 
 Thus its principle was recognised. The death of 
 King William IV., however, caused the dissolution 
 of Parliament, and consequently put a stop to the 
 further progress of the measure. 
 
 This was the last parliamentary effort to promote 
 the observance of the Lord's-day of Sir A. Agnew, 
 as he was not returned in the ensuing Parliament. 
 His labours in this cause, however, did not terminate 
 
with his career as a legislator : his efforts in the 
 House of Commons produceda striking effect both on 
 the Parliament and the country, in causing greater 
 regard to be paid to the Lord^s-day. The place 
 of Sir Andrew in Parliament has not been since 
 supplied; and it appears not at all likely that 
 it will be. Few indeed possess the moral courage 
 and patience to persist in bringing before Parlia- 
 ment a subject which excites the bitterest feelings 
 of the human heart, because it censures its failings 
 and is opposed to its love of the world. 
 
 Mr. Plumptre introduced a bill into the House 
 of Commons to prevent trading on the Lord^s-day. 
 Although the bill was rejected, yet it was discussed 
 with an amount of consideration which favourably 
 contrasted with the feeling exhibited towards mea- 
 sui'es of this nature in past years. 
 
 1838-9. — Efforts to promote the observance of 
 the Lord^s-day increased considerably in all parts of 
 the kingdom ; and whilst the inquiries instituted 
 disslosed a fearful amount of profanation of it, the 
 reailts of these efforts were most encouraging. 
 Om mode of proceeding was remarkably successful, 
 nanely, that of deputations from the respectable 
 inlabitants waiting on the shop-keepers and others 
 
184 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 who followed their ordinary business on Sunday, 
 with a view of inducing them to relinquish the 
 practice. Many were in this way prevailed upon to 
 close their shops on Sundays. Endeavours were 
 also made to prevail on individuals following the same 
 calling to agree together to close their shops on Sun- 
 days. These endeavours generally failed^ owing to 
 one or two persons declining to accede to this 
 arrangement, or breaking through it. Still such 
 attempts are desirable ; and although they may fail 
 in their ultimate object, they answer the important 
 end of keeping the consciences of tradespeople alive 
 to the sin of thus profaning the Lord^s-day, to which 
 otherwise many of them would become inscEsible. 
 
 At Ipswich a steamer ceased running on the 
 Lord's-day, in consequence of an application made 
 to the proprietors by the Association formed there 
 to promote the observance of the Lord^s-day. 
 The interference of the Associations in the vicirity 
 of lines of railway, in some instances, prevented the 
 works being proceeded with on Sundays j in the 
 formation of the Great Western line of railway, ind 
 subsequently in that of other lines, much work having 
 been done on Sundays, under the pretext of ma- 
 bling the contractors to fulfil their engagements. 
 
 The Liverpool Association to promote the Obser- 
 
vance of the Lord's-day made an application to the 
 boat-owners and coal-proprietors trading on the 
 Leeds and Livei-pool Canal to abstaift'from traffic on 
 the Lord's-day : the majority of them complied with 
 the request. The City of Dublin Steam Packet 
 Company also discontinued running their Packets on 
 Sundays. 
 
 At Stow-market the bakers, by common agree- 
 ment, ceased to bake on Sundays ; and although a 
 little dissatisfaction was caused at first, it soon 
 ceased to be expressed. 
 
 In Liverpool, out of 185 hairdressers, 161 closed 
 their shops on the Lord's-day. At Leamington the 
 licensed coach and cab drivers were prohibited 
 standing in the streets on Sundays ; and in Liverpool 
 this class of men, of their own accord, resolved to 
 petition the Town Council to carry into efiect a 
 similar prohibition. 
 
 A deputation of Clergymen from the Association 
 of South Staffordshire having attended a large 
 meeting of the Iron-masters at Wolverhampton, to 
 represent to them the importance of discontinuing 
 the employment of their men in the furnaces and 
 other labour on Sundays, the Masters passed a re- 
 solution to the effect, that the members of the iron 
 trade present could not pledge themselves wholly to 
 
186 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 abandon Sunday labour; but they would consider it 
 their duty to reduce the amount of it to the lowest 
 point consistent with the proper carrying on of their 
 works during the remainder of the week. A consi- 
 derable diminution of the number of men employed 
 on Sundays followed, only five men being at work in 
 some establishments^ where formerly a hundred were 
 engaged. 
 
 At a numerous meeting of London chemists, drug- 
 gists, and retail apothecaries, the following resolution 
 was unanimously adopted : " That this meeting, in or- 
 der to remove the impediments which at present exist 
 to the due observance of the Lord^s-day by chemists, 
 druggists, and retail apothecaries, advise the entire 
 closing of their shops on that day ; at the same time 
 that they hold themselves ready to supply medicines 
 in every case of necessity/^ 
 
 A meeting of London bakers was held, at which 
 the strongest desire was expressed to be relieved from 
 what they called the oppression of Sunday labour. 
 
 The subscribers to the Zoological Gardens of 
 Manchester decided, by a majority of 81, not to 
 open the gardens on the Lord's- day. 
 
 At Newcastle-on-Tyne, when it was in contempla- 
 tion to open the Botanical and Zoological Gardens, 
 it was proposed as one of the rules, that the gardens 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 187 
 
 should be open on Sunday ; an amendment to the 
 contrary being moved and lost, a large body of the 
 subscribers withdrew from the concern, amongst 
 whom was the Duke of Northumberland. 
 
 Travelling on the Lord's-day on railways increased 
 to such an extent as to call forth from the Lord^s-day 
 Observance Society a public expression of their appre- 
 hension — one, as the result has shewn, but too well 
 founded — that the evil would greatly increase, unless 
 something were done to check it. At the suggestion 
 of the Society, remonstrances were sent from many 
 of their Associations to directors of railway com- 
 panies, pointing out the sinfulness of unnecessary 
 travelling on the Lord^s-day, and the injurious effect 
 the running of trains on the Lord's-day must have 
 on the morals of their servants and of the population 
 generally. 
 
 The efforts made to improve the condition of the men 
 employed on canals and navigable rivers began to pro- 
 duce a beneficial effect : some canal proprietors and 
 can'iers of merchandise allowed their men a portion of 
 the Sunday; and even this approach to the obser- 
 vance of the Lord's-day, partial and insufficient as it 
 was, was followed by a perceptible improvement in the 
 character and conduct of the men. The Countess of 
 EUesmere presented the munificent donation of 
 
188 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 j8400 for the erection of a Sunday and Infant 
 School-rooms near the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal. 
 
 The Lord^s-day Observance Society appointed a 
 Clergyman as travelling Secretary, whose duty it 
 should be to preach ; put himself in correspondence 
 with the Clergy, with a view of obtaining permission 
 to preach in their parishes, on the subject of the 
 Observance of the Lord's-day; to attend meet- 
 ings, for the purpose of giving information ; and 
 to organize Associations to co-operate with the 
 Parent Society. It was felt desirable that a per- 
 son should be appointed whose special duty it 
 should be to devote himself to this work. Pre\dously 
 to this arrangement, the Honorary Secretary gra- 
 tuitously visited many parts of England with this 
 view. The Rev. W. Leeke, Honorary Secretary to 
 the Derbyshire Society, was particularly active and 
 successful in organizing Associations in that county ; 
 and when the Parent Society required his assistance, 
 visited also other parts of the country. 
 
 It has been mentioned, that in the year 1837 a 
 conversation took place in the House of Commons 
 which led the friends of the observance of the Lord's- 
 day to suspect that it was in contemplation to trans- 
 mit country letters through London on Sundays, as 
 a preliminary step to a delivery of letters in London 
 
on tliat day. In the session of 1838 the following 
 resolution of a Select Committee of the House of Com- 
 mons shewed that the suspicion was but too well 
 founded : — '^ That it is the opinion of the Committee, 
 that the rule observed at the London Post-office, of 
 neither delivering nor forwarding letters on Sundays, 
 creates in business days, in every week, throughout 
 the country, one blank post-day to London, and ano- 
 ther from London ; a restriction highly prejudicial to 
 commerce, and injurious to the revenue of the Post- 
 office. And this appears to your Committee especially 
 vexatious as regards letters passing through London 
 to and from the Continent ; which letters, though 
 actually sorted and made ready for despatch by officers 
 kept on duty at the Post-office on Sundays for that 
 purpose, are yet allowed to accumulate there, for the 
 greater part for thirty-six hours : thus, while seven 
 foreign mails are sent weekly from France, only six 
 foreign mails are returned weekly to France from 
 this country. Your Committee would therefore 
 suggest that the principal General Post-office, and 
 every branch Post-office in London, should be open 
 on Sundays for the reception of letters, and also 
 during certain hours for their delivery ; and that 
 the mail bags should be despatched to and from 
 London on every day in the week.^^ 
 
190 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 It will be seen that the Committee altogether 
 ignored the Divine command, and stigmatized the 
 Divine arrangement of a seventh day's rest as 
 vexatious. The feeling of dislike with which this 
 recommendation was regarded by the inhabitants of 
 London was all but unanimous ; and on this occasion 
 the usefulness of the Society for Promoting the due 
 Observance of the Lord's-day was seen. 
 
 The Society applied to the Lord Bishop of 
 London, who promptly offered his advice, and during 
 the subsequent opposition to the measure, gave the 
 Society the most efficient assistance. 
 
 The Lord Bishop of Winchester also evinced a 
 similar anxiety to defeat a measure so calculated to 
 secularize the population. The Society, under 
 the sanction of these prelates, issued an Address to 
 the Clergy of the dioceses of London and Winchester 
 residing in and near the metropolis, urging them to 
 oppose the measure. The Address was very gene- 
 rally responded to. In some parishes vestries were 
 held ; in others, public meetings were called, at 
 which resolutions were passed disapproving of the 
 resolution of the Committee, and memorials to the 
 Treasury against it were adopted. 
 
 The Lord Mayor of London, in reply to an applica- 
 tion from the Lord's-day Observance Societ}^, assured 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 191 
 
 them of all the assistance he could give them in his 
 official capacity; and at a Court of Common Council, 
 when a resolution was unanimously passed condemn- 
 ing the opening of the Post-office on the Lord's-day, 
 his Lord ship publicly declared his readiness to go to the 
 foot of the Throne with an address from the Corpora- 
 tion of London deprecating the measure. At several 
 of the meetings of the Wardmotes of the City, held 
 for the selection of officers, strong resolutions con- 
 demnatory of the measure were adopted, and for- 
 warded to the Lords of the Treasury. 
 
 The bankers, merchants, solicitors, stock-brokers, 
 coal-factors, silk manufacturers, and warehousemen, 
 in their separate bodies, also forwarded memorials to 
 the same quarter, the Lord' s-day Observance Society 
 preparing the memorials and collecting the signa- 
 tures. 
 
 The several congregations of the Wesleyans in 
 London, as also upwards of six thousand teachers of 
 Sunday-schools of that connection, memorialized the 
 Treasury against the measure. 
 
 Lord Melbourne and the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, at the request of the Lord Bishop of 
 London, consented to receive a deputation from the 
 bankers, merchants, solicitors, and stock-brokers of 
 London, whose object it was to urge upon the Go- 
 
192 STATISTICS AND TACTS 
 
 vemment the serious injury that would ensue if the 
 resolution of the Committee of the House of Com- 
 mons were carried into effect. The deputation 
 comprised the Lord Mayor and several members 
 of the House of Commons. 
 
 Lord Melbourne assured the deputation that it was 
 not the intention of Her Majesty^s Government to 
 carry out the resolution of the Select Com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons, so far as it related 
 to the delivery of letters in London, or their de- 
 spatch therefrom, on Sundays. And as to that part 
 of the resolution which related to the transmission 
 of letters coming from the country or foreign parts, 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer added, that the 
 Government would take no part in promoting it ; 
 that it should be carried out only by an enactment 
 of the legislature ; but that the Government would 
 not originate the measure in Parliament. 
 
 The Lord^s-day Observance Society, feeling that 
 the discussion which arose respecting the opening of 
 the London Post-office on the Lord's-day afforded 
 them a favourable opportunity of calling public atten- 
 tion generally to the desecration of the Lord's-day 
 which took place in the Post-office Department 
 by the transmission and delivery of letters through- 
 out the country, circulated very extensively an 
 
193 
 
 Address^ in which they urged their friends to memo- 
 rialize the Government, and to petition the Legisla- 
 ture, against the transmission of the mails or the 
 delivery of letters on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 The Address excited considerable attention, and a 
 great many of the large manufacturing and port 
 towns acted on its suggestions : amongst them, 
 Liverpool, Manchester, Chester, Bath, Leeds, Derby, 
 and Wolverhampton. The petitions to Parliament 
 from the smaller towns were also very numerous : 
 forty-two petitions proceeded from Derbyshire alone, 
 and as many from Staffordshire. Numbers of per- 
 sons also, in all parts of the kingdom, attached their 
 names to orders addressed to the Postmasters, 
 desiring that letters might not be delivered to them 
 on the Lord^s-day. * About 1500 persons in Derby 
 signed an order to this effect ; and three townships in 
 the neighbourhood of Wolverhampton applied to the 
 Postmaster-General, requesting that their letters 
 might be detained in that town on the Lord's-day ; 
 to which request the Postmaster-General acceded. 
 The arrangements of the General Post-office ap- 
 peared to the friends of the Observance of the Lord's- 
 day to be very anomalous, there being all through 
 the country one day in every week on which no 
 letters were received from London, and one day on 
 o 
 
194 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 which none were sent to London, neither of these 
 days being the Lord^s-day: they therefore natu 
 rally suggested, as in every respect a more desirable 
 arrangement, that the running of the mail should 
 be suspended, not only from London, but also from 
 the country, during the four-and-twenty hours of 
 the Lord's-day : that thus there would be still but 
 one blank day everywhere. That the fears of the 
 inconvenience of such an arrangement were ground- 
 less, was manifest from the fact that the inhabitants 
 of the metropolis regarded it as a great privilege 
 that there was no delivery of letters there on Sun- 
 day; as respected the country, it would merely 
 change the blank day already existing there to the 
 Lord^s-day. 
 
 The active measures taken by the Lord^s-day Ob- 
 servance Society on the occasion just mentioned, 
 clearly averted the execution of a design which would 
 have inevitably led to the delivery of letters in London 
 on Sundays. 
 
 At a public meeting held in Edinburgh, in Janu- 
 ary 1839, a society was formed, designated " The 
 Scottish Society for Promoting the due Observance 
 of the Lord's-day/' The principles of this Society 
 were entirely in unison with those of the London 
 Lord's- day Observance Society. 
 
195 
 
 Great progress was made in Churcli Extension, 
 particularly in tlie metropolis, under the auspices 
 of the Lord Bishop of London. The population every- 
 where had far outgrown the existing church accom- 
 modation ; so that an increase of places of worship 
 became an object of serious moment to all who were 
 concerned in the religious condition of the country. 
 
 The sermons of the Lord Bishop of Calcutta on 
 the Observance of the Lord's-day were translated 
 into the French language, by the Society of the 
 Canton de Vaud, and circulated in Switzerland and 
 France. Some of the Tracts of the Lord^s-day Ob- 
 servance Society were also translated into the 
 French language, and circulated in France. 
 
 1839-40. — An important clause conducive to the 
 observance of the Lord's-day was introduced into 
 the Act for the Improvement of the Police of 
 the Metropolis : it prohibited the opening of all 
 public-houses from twelve o'clock on Saturday night 
 until one o'clock in the afternoon of the Lord's* 
 day : it extended to fifteen miles round London. 
 The good effects resulting from this clause are uni- 
 versally admitted : they were apparent immediately 
 the Act came into operation, in the diminution in the 
 o2 
 
196 STATISTICS AND FACTS. 
 
 number of charges at the various police offices on 
 the Monday, particularly for drunkenness, and in 
 a marked improvement in the quiet aspect of the 
 streets on the Lord^s-day. Avery general feeling of 
 thankfulness prevailed amongst the humbler classes 
 in London, that the temptations to which they had 
 been exposed had been taken out of their way. 
 
 The Master Bakers of the metropolis formed 
 themselves into a society, called "The Sunday 
 Baking Abolition Society. '^ They published and cir- 
 culated several addresses to the public, complaining 
 of the aggravation of their already laborious duties, 
 by being required to bake dinners on Sunday ; and 
 they expressed their conviction, that nothing short of 
 a legislative enactment could remedy the evil : their 
 journeymen, amounting to between eight and nine 
 thousand, had in consequence no time to attend 
 Divine worship, or take needful rest. In addition to 
 the practice complained of, they were required 
 to prepare the sponge in the afternoon, and to com- 
 mence work again at eleven o'clock at night. Two 
 petitions were presented to the House of Commons ; 
 one from the master bakers, by 1086 masters ; and 
 the other from the journeymen, signed by 3026 ; 
 praying that the clause Id the Bakers' Act which 
 
197 
 
 allows baking on the Lord^s-day might be altered. 
 Petitions to the same effect were presented to the 
 House of Lords. 
 
 The churchwardens of the metropolitan and sub- 
 urban parishes held a meeting in the vestry-room 
 of St. Martin's in the Fields, in Westminster, in 
 January I8J2O, at which they adopted resolutions to 
 seek for legislative enactments to put a stop to Sun- 
 day trading. Petitions to Parliament to this effect 
 were in consequence signed by a large number of 
 churchwardens. It was felt that voluntary efforts 
 on the part of shopkeepers themselves were always 
 frustrated by the breach of the agreement made to 
 close on the Lord's-day by some of the parties who 
 had consented to it, or by others refusing to accede 
 to it. 
 
 The Garden of the Royal Botanical Society of 
 London, formed in the inner circle of the Regent's 
 Park, was, by the rules of the Society, closed on the 
 Lord's-day, presenting a pleasing contrast to the 
 Garden of the Zoological Society. 
 
 The Newsvenders of London formed a committee 
 for the purpose of procuring for themselves a cessa- 
 tion from labour on the Lord's-day : they presented 
 a memorial to the proprietors of the Sunday press, 
 in which they solicited them to publish their papers 
 
198 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 on Saturday : they stated it as a heavy grievance, 
 that after the fatigues of the previous week, many of 
 them were obliged to rise at five, four, or even three 
 o'clock on Sunday mornings, to follow their ordinary 
 avocations. 
 
 The degraded condition of Boatmen, consequent 
 on their privation of the privileges of the Lord^s-day, 
 was prominently brought under public attention, 
 owing to the trial and conviction of three men of 
 this class for the murder of a woman, under circum- 
 stances of great aggravation, on the Lord's-day. 
 The awfully neglected state of boatmen was thus 
 described by Baron Gurney, the judge who tried 
 them, in passing sentence of death upon them : — 
 '' He was afraid no men in this country were so des- 
 titute of all moral culture as boatmen : they were 
 continually wandering about ; they knew no Sabbath, 
 possessed no means of religious instruction/' Con- 
 tinued efforts were made to improve their condition. 
 In many cases the clergy residing near canals and 
 rivers assembled the men for religious instruction 
 as they found opportunity. 
 
 The Boatmen themselves, in many instances, 
 evinced at once a sense of their degradation and its 
 cause, in endeavours to prevail on their employers to 
 grant them the privileges of the Sabbath. 
 
A memorial was addressed to the Trustees of the 
 river Weaver, in Cheshire, signed by the salt pro- 
 prietors, the bargemen, and others employed on the 
 river, praying that no boats should be permitted to 
 pass through the locks on the Lord''s-day. The 
 T;ustees accordingly adopted the following resolu- 
 ticn : — " That no flat, boat, barge, lighter, or other 
 vessel, do pass through any of the locks of the river 
 Weaver on tlie Sabbath-day; the same to be con- 
 sidered commencing at the hour of twelve o^ clock on 
 eich Saturday night, and ending at the hour of 
 tvelve o'clock on the following Sunday night ; and 
 tliat a fine, not exceeding .^10, be imposed upon 
 3very person offending against this by-law/' 
 
 Efforts were made, at some meetings of the pro- 
 jrietors of Railway Companies, to pass resolutions 
 against the running of trains on the Lord's-day. 
 At the half-yearly meeting of the North Midland 
 Bailway Company, Mr. Newton, of Derby, a director 
 oi the Company, proposed a resolution of this na- 
 tu'e. Much discussion ensued. The motion, 
 however, was lost ; 3792 having voted for it, and 
 5498 against it. 
 
 The feeling in favour of the cessation of Postal 
 labour on the Lord's -day greatly increased through- 
 out the country : it became a prominent topic at the 
 
200 STATISTICS AND PACTS 
 
 various meetings held by tlie Society for Promoting 
 the due Observance of the Lord's- day, and in 
 consequence efforts were made in many places to 
 stop the local deliveries on Sundays. 
 
 In Bath 2756 persons signed a requisition to the 
 Post-master of that city to detain their Sundiy 
 letters till Monday morning. A memorial to the 
 Lords of the Treasury, from the same city, agairst 
 the running of the royal mail on the Lord's-day, 
 was signed by 638 persons, including 6 bankers, 30 
 solicitors, and some of the principal tradesmen. 
 A petition to Parliament to the same effect wis 
 signed by 958 persons. 
 
 At Newcastle-upon-Tyne it had been the habit 
 not to deliver letters at the houses of the inhabi- 
 tants on the Lord's-day : they were received hj 
 application at the Post-office. However, by aa 
 order from the Postmaster- General, it was directed 
 that a delivery should take place on Sundays by tie 
 carriers, at the houses of the inhabitants, as on 
 other days. A memorial was presented against tHs 
 order, which was signed by the mayor, magistrates, 
 most of the town council, the ministers of religion 
 of all denominations, and four hundred of the lead- 
 ing merchants of the place. The order was in con- 
 sequence rescinded. The following case of hardship. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 201 
 
 however, occurred in connection with this circum- 
 stance: — Two of the letter-carriers refused, on 
 rehgious grounds, to carry out the letters on the 
 Lord's-day : they were admitted to be valuable and 
 useful servants, one having been in his situation 
 thirty-eight, and the other twenty years, and they had 
 never expected, on accepting them, that a require- 
 ment at variance with God^s acknowledged com- 
 mand, and their conscientious convictions, would 
 be made of them. Nevertheless, they were both 
 instantly dismissed by the Postmaster- General; 
 although a memorial, representing the hardship of 
 their case, and praying for their restoration, was pre- 
 sented to his Lordship, signed by 850 of the prin- 
 cipal inhabitants of Newcastle. 
 
 The Lord's-day Observance Society reported a 
 great increase in the number of their Associations ; 
 and Societies kindred in their principles and object, 
 though independent of them, were formed in some 
 places. 
 
 The Lord's-day Observance Society established in 
 Scotland, directed and fostered by Sir Andrew 
 Agnew, "Bart., exerted itself strenuously : it origi- 
 nated petitions to both Houses of Parliament against 
 the running of the royal mail. Those from Edin- 
 burgh were signed by 2000 of the most respectable 
 
202 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 citizens. At the suggestion of this Society, petitions 
 and memorials to the same effect were adopted by a 
 large majority of the Company of Merchants of 
 Edinburgh, and also an address to Her Majesty 
 from the General Assembly. It circulated a large 
 number of Tracts, and founded several Aux- 
 iliary Societies ; and was the means, by memorial to 
 the Duke of Hamilton, Hereditary Keeper of the 
 Royal Domain, of putting an end to the sale of 
 refreshments which regularly took place on the 
 Queen^s Mall every Lord's-day. 
 
 An important conference was held in Edinburgh 
 between the Commissioners of Police, the Magis- 
 trates of the city, and the Justices of Peace for the 
 county, upon the state of public-houses in that city 
 on the Lord^s-day ; from which it appeared that 
 drunkenness and crime of all kinds greatly increased 
 in consequence of the sale of intoxicating liquors on 
 that day. 
 
 1840-1. — The Livery of London refused to elect 
 Alderman Harmer to the office of Lord Mayor of the 
 city, owing to the objections entertained by a majo- 
 rity of them to the "Weekly Dispatch,^^ of which Mr. 
 Harmer was the proprietor. 
 
 The number of weekly newspapers published in 
 London was 59, of which 15 were published on 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 203 
 
 Saturday. The total number published on Saturday 
 and Sunday was about 132;000 ; of which number 
 about 80_,000 were printed and published after 12 
 o^ clock on Saturday night. 
 
 A notice of a motion to close the Zoological Gar- 
 dens on the Lord's-day having been given by one of 
 the Fellows of the Society^ the Lord^s-day Observ- 
 ance Society addressed letters to the Subscribers to 
 the Gardens, urging them to attend the meeting, 
 and to support the motion ; which was, however, lost 
 by a large majority. 
 
 The proprietors of the Botanical Gardens at Liver- 
 pool passed a resolution to close the gardens on the 
 Lord's-day. 
 
 A letter from the Bishop of London, with a memo- 
 rial, signed by the Clergy of all the parishes on the 
 banks of the Thames between London Bridge and 
 Staines, was presented to the Lord Mayor and 
 Court of Aldermen, praying the Court to take into 
 their consideration the desecration of the Lord^s- 
 day which took place on the river. The memorial 
 stated that men and horses were employed as on 
 ordinary days to tow the barges up and down the 
 river, and that the persons in charge of the locks 
 were kept occupied, with little intermission, from 
 morning to night on the Lord^s-day. The Court 
 refused to comply with the prayer of the memorial, 
 
304. 
 
 STATISTICS AND PACTS 
 
 on the ground that the increase of competition with 
 railways rendered it imperative, with a view to 
 securing ordinary profits, that the trade should 
 proceed on Sundays as on ordinary days. Repre- 
 sentations to the same effect were also addressed to 
 the Commissioners of the Upper District of the 
 Thames and Isis, by the Clergy whose parishes were 
 situated on the bank of the river between Crickladeand 
 Reading. The Commissioners received these repre- 
 sentations with great respect, and came to a resolu- 
 tion that no barge or boat should be allowed to pass 
 any pound from ten in the morning until six in the 
 evening of the Lord's-day. They stated that they 
 feared to close the navigation for a longer period, as, 
 by doing so, they would give an undue advantage for 
 the carriage of goods by the Great Western Railway. 
 
 The Trustees of the river Weaver, in Cheshire, 
 succeeded in carrying a bill through Parliameat, 
 empowering them to appropriate a portion of the 
 funds of the navigation to building and endowing 
 three churches, with parsonage-houses, and schools 
 for the instruction of the children, on the banks of 
 the river. The bill met with great opposition in the 
 House of Commons ; and there is little doubt but 
 that it would have been rejected, but for the 
 exertions of the Lord's-day Observance Society. 
 
 An important meeting was held at Stafford, to form 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 205 
 
 an Association for promoting tlie moral and religious 
 instruction of boatmen and others employed on tlie 
 different canals in that county. The Lord Bishop 
 of the diocese presided, and many of the influential 
 gentlemen of the county, and of the clergy, were 
 present. 
 
 On the motion of Lord Normanby, the House of 
 Lords appointed a Committee to inquire into the 
 effects of Sunday labour on the men employed on 
 canals and navigable rivers. Much interesting evi- 
 dence was taken before this Committee. The 
 Lord^s-day Observance Society circulated, for ge- 
 neral adoption, copies of petitions to Parliament, 
 praying that all traffic on canals and navigable rivers 
 on the Lord's-day might be prohibited. 
 
 The employment of men on the Lord's-day in the 
 formation of lines of railway greatly increased. The 
 Associations to promote the Observance of the Lord's- 
 day exerted themselves to put a stop to this evil in 
 their respective neighbourhoods, and in some in- 
 stances with success. The Bath Society, through 
 its secretary, Mr. Melmoth Walters, summoned 
 several labourers employed on the Great Western 
 Railway, who were convicted by a magistrate, for 
 working on the line on the Lord's-day. 
 
206 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 At Briglitonj the Bishop of the diocese ineifectually 
 expostulated with the Directors for carrying on the 
 works on the Brighton line on the Lord's-day. 
 Several influential gentlemen of the town also waited 
 on the Bench of Magistrates to request their inter- 
 ference to prevent this breach of the law. 
 
 The Directors of the Birmingham and Gloucester 
 Railway came to a resolution^ at a special meeting 
 of the proprietors, that no other trains should 
 be run on that line on the Lord^s-day, except 
 those required by law for the conveyance of the 
 mail. 
 
 The Association established at Leamington to pro- 
 mote the due Observance of the Lord's-day, dis- 
 tinguished itself by its activity, as did also those in 
 Bath and Derby. Through the instrumentality of 
 the Leamington Association, every shop in that town 
 was closed on the Lord's-day; and a notice was 
 hung up in the several hotels, with the approbation 
 of the landlords, requesting visitors to avoid giving 
 unnecessary trouble on the Lord's-day. 
 
 The Bath Association succeeded in abolishing 
 Kingsdown Revel, which was annually held on the 
 Sunday previous to Kingsdown Fair. 
 
 A Society to promote the due Observance of the 
 
207 
 
 Lord's-day was formed in Bristol, under the pre- 
 sidency of the Bishop of the diocese. 
 
 In Scotland, the General Assembly, and several of 
 the Synods and Presbyteries, appointed standing 
 Sabbath Committees, to watch over the habits of 
 their several localities on the Lord's-day. 
 
 At the recommendation of the Commission of the 
 General Assembly, all the Presbyteries of the Church 
 of Scotland memorialized the Postmaster-General 
 against the exercise of the power, as regards the 
 railways being formed in Scotland, of transmitting 
 the mails on the Lord^s-day. The Act of Parliament 
 which gave the Postmaster- General this power was 
 passed in the year 1838 ; the official replies to these 
 memorials being unsatisfactory, the Commission of 
 the General Assembly renewed its remonstrance, 
 and adopted petitions to Parliament, praying that 
 not only the mails might not be transmitted in 
 Scotland on the Lord^s-day, but that all Post-office 
 labour might cease thereon. 
 
 The Scottish Society for promoting the due 
 Observance of the Lord's-day, under the presidency 
 of Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart., was most active in pro- 
 moting these various effi)rts. The Chairman and 
 Directors of the Glasgow and Greenock Company 
 made a special arrangement with the Postmaster- 
 
208 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 General, which exempted them from transmitting^ 
 the mails on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 An important public meeting was held in Edin- 
 burgh, at which Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart,, pre- 
 sided, from which issued an appeal to the Arch- 
 bishop and Bishops of the United Church of Eng- 
 land and Ireland, entreating them to use their 
 influence with English shareholders in Scotch rail- 
 w^ays, to aid in securing the observance of the 
 Lord^s-day on the railways in that country. 
 
 1841-2. — No public movement of an unusual 
 nature to promote the observance of the Lord's-day 
 took place. There was a considerable extension of the 
 influence of the Lord^s-day Observance Society, 
 through the formation of Associations in various 
 places, by which efi*orts were originated to put a 
 stop to local desecrations. The desecration of the 
 Lord's-day in the Post-office department attracted 
 increasing attention, and the number of persons 
 increased in all parts of the country who refused to 
 receive letters or newspapers on the Lord's-day. 
 
 A Society to promote the due Observance of the 
 Lord's-day was formed in Berlin. On the 1st 
 of Jan. 1842, the Pastors of Berlin, fifty-seven in 
 number, distributed a pastoral letter at the doors of 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 209 
 
 all the churches of the town, entitled, " The Chris- 
 tian Celebration of the Sabbath; a word of 
 brotherly love to our flocks/^ 35,000 copies of this 
 address were circulated on the occasion. It enforced 
 the obligation and blessings of the Sabbath, and 
 contained practical suggestions respecting its due 
 observance. At a meeting of the Iron-merchants of 
 Berlin, held in the Exchange, a unanimous resolution 
 was adopted not to write letters on the Lord's-day, 
 and to send their apprentices and clerks to public 
 worship. 
 
 The Glasgow Young Men's Society, for opposing 
 secular labour on the Sabbath, was instituted in 
 1841. Similar associations were formed in other 
 towns in Scotland. 
 
 1842-3. — Encouraged by the beneficial opera- 
 tion of that clause in the Metropolitan Police Bill 
 which enacts that public-houses within fifteen miles 
 round London be closed from twelve o'clock on 
 Saturday night till one o^ clock on Sunday morning, 
 a similar enactment was sought for, and obtained, 
 by the inhabitants of Liverpool. From the period 
 when this Act came into effect, a sensible diminution 
 took place in the number of charges for drunkenness, 
 and crime generally, brought before the magis- 
 p 
 
210 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 t rates on the Monday, in the town of Liverpool, 
 according to the returns of tlie police. 
 
 In the House of Commons, Mr. Hume moved an 
 address to Her Majesty, praying that the British 
 Museum, and other pubhc institutions under the 
 control of Government, should be open for the ad- 
 mission of visitors on the afternoon of the Lord^s- 
 day. The motion was, however, successfully resisted, 
 on the ground of protection to the servants of those 
 institutions. 
 
 The only Railway Company in Scotland which 
 ran trains on the Lord's-day, was the Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow. At every meeting of the proprietors 
 the subject was discussed, and efforts were made to 
 put a stop to the profanation of the Sabbath. 
 
 With regard to the men employed on Canals, in 
 addition to the churches built on the banks of the 
 river Weaver for the instruction of the servants of 
 that navigation, floating chapels were also provided 
 at Worcester, Oxford, and Preston Brook. The 
 Lord's-day Observance Society at Wigan engaged 
 the services of a Scripture reader, whose duty it 
 was to accompany the boatmen, and, whilst sail- 
 ing, to read the Scriptures to them, and distribute 
 religious tracts amongst them. Much good resulted 
 from these various efforts to improve the condition 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 211 
 
 of boatmen : it was observed, during the disturbances 
 which took place about this time in the north of 
 England, that the watermen who enjoyed religious 
 privileges were in no instance concerned in the 
 riots ; and that, instead of destroying, they protected 
 the property of their masters. 
 
 Meetings were held in the west of England in 
 the cheese-making districts, in connection with the 
 Lord^s-day Observance Society. A farmer who was 
 present at one of these meetings, tried the experi- 
 ment of avoiding cheese-making on the Lord^s-day, 
 a practice prevalent in cheese-making districts, 
 which causes a considerable portion of the female 
 population to be employed on that day, and which 
 is justified on the ground of necessity. The clergy- 
 men of the parish wrote to the Secretary of the 
 Society to say, that the experiment met with such 
 entire success, that the farmer gained, rather than 
 lost, by this new arrangement. 
 
 The establishment of the practicability of avoiding 
 labour on the Lord's-day in cheese-making was a 
 very important point. The experiment has been 
 since repeatedly tried, and with similar success. 
 
 1843-4. — The increase in the number of churches 
 built was very gratifying. It appeared from a Par- 
 p 2 
 
212 STATISTICS AND TACTS 
 
 liamentary return^ that the number of churches built 
 in England and Wales during the three years from 
 1840 to 1843, was 313: notwithstanding, the defi- 
 ciency of accommodation was still great. In Man- 
 chester alone, church room was wanted for 150,000 
 persons ; in Liverpool for 100,000 ; and in Birming- 
 ham for 50,000 ; and in many other large towns in 
 the same proportion. 
 
 Many publications were issued from the Press, 
 advocating the restoration of national holidays, and 
 which placed the Lord^s-day and Saints^-days on an 
 equality as regarded the obligation on the conscience 
 to observe them. 
 
 The Lord's-day Observance Society urged its 
 Associations in those towns where Money Orders 
 were issued and paid on the Lord^s-day, to memo- 
 rialize the Postmaster-General against the practice. 
 The recommendation of the Society was extensively 
 adopted, but in no instance was a favourable 
 reply received, or one containing any remark beyond 
 the mere acknowledgment of the receipt of the 
 memorial. 
 
 A memorial signed by upwards of 1000 citizens of 
 the town of Boston, in the United States, was ad- 
 dressed to the Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury, 
 praying that the day of sailing of the steamers carry- 
 
ing the mails miglit be altered when, in ordinary 
 course, it happened to fall on the Lord^s-day. The 
 memorial was forwarded through the Lord^s-day 
 Observance Society. Their Lordships refused to 
 comply with the prayer of the memorial. 
 
 Mr. Miles, one of the members for the county of 
 Somerset, succeeded in carrying a motion, at the 
 Somerset Spring Sessions, to the effect, " that the 
 Clerk of the Peace make his precept for holding the 
 next sessions returnable on Tuesday, instead of 
 Monday, as heretofore ;" an aiTangement which ob- 
 viated much desecration of the Lord's-day. 
 
 The number of railway trains run on the Lord^s- 
 day in England was great : in Scotland, on the con- 
 trary, trains were run only on one line — ^namely, 
 the Edinburgh and Glasgow — out of the eight lines 
 open. At a meeting of the proprietors of that Com- 
 pany, a motion was made proposing that all labour 
 should cease thereon on the Lord's-day. There 
 were against the motion 7727 votes ; in its favour, 
 1277 : it was consequently lost. Sir Andrew Agnew, 
 however, announced that it was the intention of 
 himself and friends to renew the motion at every 
 meeting of the shareholders. 
 
 1 844-5. — An important petition to the Secre- 
 
214 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 tary of State for the Home Department proceeded 
 from the town of Liverpool, signed by 600 merchants 
 and 5000 of the other inhabitants, praying that the 
 practice in the Post-office of that town might be 
 assimilated to that of London as regarded the Lord's- 
 day. The prayer of the memorial was not, however, 
 granted. A memorial from Belfast, to the Postmaster- 
 General, praying that the delivery of letters by letter- 
 carriers on the Lord's-day might altogether cease, 
 was more successful; for an order was issued in 
 consequence of the memorial, that there should be no 
 delivery in future on Sunday by the carriers ; but 
 that the office should be open for the delivery of 
 letters at the office till 10 a.m. 
 
 An interesting movement was made by the letter- 
 carriers themselves in all the principal towns in 
 England, to obtain a release from labour on the 
 Lord's-day : they addressed an affecting appeal to 
 the public, imploring them to forego the receipt of 
 letters and newspapers on the Lord's-day. This 
 movement was suppressed by the authorities of the 
 Post-office ; but not sufficiently soon to prevent some 
 results arising from the effort. A memorial was in 
 consequence forwarded from the city of York, signed 
 by 3500 of the letter-receiving inhabitants, including 
 the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors, praying 
 
215 
 
 the Postmaster-General to discontinue the delivery 
 by letter-carriers on the Lord's-day. The prayer of 
 the memorial was, however, refused. 
 
 Excursion trains on the Lord's-day were adver- 
 tised by some Railway Companies. The Brighton 
 Eailway Company took a lead in this new abuse of 
 the railway system : some of the trains which ran 
 on Sundays between London and Brighton consisted 
 of 46 carriages, conveying as many as 1700 passen- 
 gers, and extending nearly half a mile in length. 
 Luggage trains were also run on many lines. 
 
 In the month of August 1814, a bill was intro- 
 duced by Government in the House of Commons, 
 for regulating the running of railway trains, with 
 a view to the accommodation of the humbler classes. 
 In the bill, as introduced by Mr. Gladstone, this 
 accommodation was to be provided for week-days 
 only. An amendment was, however, moved and car- 
 ried, to the effect, that it should be provided every day. 
 A deputation from the Lord's-day Observance Society 
 waited on the President of the Board of Trade, in 
 order to obtain the omission of this clause in the 
 Bill in its passage through the House of Lords. 
 Eventually the bill passed, with the objectionable 
 clause thus modified : " that whenever any railway 
 
216 
 
 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 should run any train whatever on the Sabbath-dsy, 
 to such trains_, or to one at least of any trains 
 so run on that day, third-class carriages should be 
 attached." Lord Wharnclijffe, who proposed this 
 modification, stated that nothing shouldappear in the 
 Act to compel railway proprietors to run trains on 
 Sundays. 
 
 Many persons friendly to the Observance of the 
 Lord^s-day became shareholders in railways, solely 
 with a view of being qualified to make efibrts to put 
 a stop to railway travelling on the Lord's-day at the 
 periodical meetings of the proprietors. 
 
 At a meeting of the Bristol and Gloucester Rail- 
 way Company, held for the purpose of confirming 
 an agreement entered into by their Directors for the 
 transfer of their line to the Midland Counties 
 Railway by a lease in perpetuity, they came to a 
 resolution to call the attention of the proprietors of 
 the Midland Railway Company to the fact, that in 
 the management of the Birmingham and Gloucester 
 and the Bristol and Gloucester Railway Companies, 
 Sunday travelling had been avoided as much as 
 possible ; and to express a hope that the same system 
 would still be continued, as they were confident that 
 thereby not only the interests of religion and mora- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 217 
 
 lity, but also the prosperity of the undertaking, 
 would be promoted. 
 
 The Lord's- day Observance Society circulated an 
 address amongst Directors and Proprietors of Canals, 
 calling their attention to the demoralization of 
 boatmen, and entreating their co-operation in seek- 
 ing a remedy for the evil from Parliament. Although 
 much sympathy for the condition of the men was 
 expressed, yet no effort of the nature suggested was 
 made. The Society also prepared a petition to Par- 
 liament to be signed by proprietors of Canals, and 
 Canal traders generally. 
 
 The Society also prepared a petition to Parlia- 
 ment for general adoption, praying for amend- 
 ment of the existing laws in reference to the Lord^s- 
 day. 112 petitions, signed by 10,317 persons, were 
 in consequence presented during the session. 
 
 An important deputation, consisting of Church- 
 wardens of the metropolis, waited on Sir James 
 Graham, Secretary of State for the Home Depart- 
 partment, to urge upon the Government to introduce 
 a bill to put a stop to Sunday trading. Sir James 
 Graham requested that a memorial might be drawn 
 up, embodying the views of the deputation, which 
 he would submit to the law officers of the Crown, 
 in order that they might prepare a bill in accordance 
 
218 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 witli their wishes. The bill was_, however^ never intro- 
 duced. 
 
 Numerous petitions were presented to Parliament, 
 signed almost exclusively by the working classes, 
 prapng that public-houses and beer-shops might be 
 closed on the Lord's-day : the number of these 
 petitions amounted to 772, signed by 165,147 
 persons. 
 
 The Lord's-day Observance Society presented an 
 humble memorial to Her Majesty the Queen, a 
 copy of which they also forwarded to His Royal 
 Highness Prince Albert, in which they repre- 
 sented the great desecration of the Lord's-day 
 caused by Windsor Palace and Hampton Court being 
 open to visitors thereon; and praying that they 
 might be closed in future on that day. The receipt 
 of the memorial was graciously acknowledged. 
 
 At a meeting of Graziers, assembled for proposing 
 some regulations respecting Smithfield market, a 
 proposition was made for holding the principal 
 market on Tuesday, instead of Monday; an arrange- 
 ment which would put a stop to much desecration 
 of the Lord^s-day, caused by the driving of cattle, 
 and the preparations for the Monday market made 
 on the Lord's- day : but so little encouragement was 
 given to the proposal by the Corporation of London, 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 219 
 
 that it was deemed advisable to take no further steps 
 
 in the matter at that time. 
 
 The exertions of the Associations established in 
 various parts of the kingdom to promote the obser- 
 vance of the Lord^s-day were particularly active^ and 
 the number of the Associations was considerably 
 increased. 
 
 1845-6. ^- Mr. Eoberton, president of the Sta- 
 tistical Society of Manchester, read an interesting 
 paper before the Society, on the subject of Rail- 
 ways. In it he detailed the fearful demoralization 
 prevailing amongst the men employed in the con- 
 struction of the lines in cases where they were 
 required to work on the Lord's- day, and where no pro- 
 vision was made for their religious instruction. The 
 Lord's-day Observance Society forwarded a copy of 
 this important paper to the President of the Board 
 of Trade, with a letter expressing a hope that mea- 
 sures would be forthwith adopted to preserve the 
 men employed in the construction of railways from 
 the injurious consequences of such an utter disre- 
 gard for their spiritual and moral well-being. The 
 treatment of the men employed in the construction 
 of the Chester and Holyhead line presented a 
 favourable contrast to that of the class generally. 
 
220 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 The directors prescribed as conditions to their con- 
 tractorsj that the men should be paid in money, and 
 that they should not be paid at public-houses ; and 
 that the labourers should not be required to work 
 on Sundays. The directors also employed Scripture 
 readers to give religious instruction to the men. 
 
 On the motion of the Hon. Mr. Bouverie, M.P. 
 for Kilmarnock, a select committee was appointed 
 to inquire into the condition of Railway labourers. 
 The evidence taken before the committee fully con- 
 firmed the statements and opinions of Mr. Roberton. 
 
 The Eastern Counties Railway Company ran a 
 special train on Easter Sunday, mainly with a view 
 of conveying the frequenters of the Newmarket 
 Races to the betting-rooms in that town, which are 
 usually opened for the first time on Sunday evening. 
 In the train were some of the directors, the secretary, 
 and the principal engineer. While going with great 
 velocity, the train ran ofi" the line at a little distance 
 from London ; one of the Company's servants was 
 injured, but happily no lives were lost. 
 
 Bills were extensively circulated in the town of 
 Leeds announcing that special trains would run on 
 the Sunday of the Halton Feast, to convey pas- 
 sengers there. The Halton Feast is an annual scene 
 of riot and dissipation, which occurs at the outskirts 
 
in: reference to the lord^s-day. 221 
 
 of Leeds, on the Lord's- day. A memorial, nume- 
 rously and respectably signed, was speedily prepared, 
 and forwarded to the chairman of the York and 
 North Midland Railway Company, deprecating such 
 an outrage on Christian principle and propriety. A 
 reply was returned, to the effect that the train 
 should not run. The Rev. Mr. Newstead, Wesley an 
 minister, was mainly instrumental in originating 
 this memorial, and effecting this favourable result. 
 
 Sunday the 30th Nov. 1845 was a day of great 
 confusion throughout the kingdom; it being the 
 final day fixed for receiving plans and specifications 
 of proposed lines of railway, at the office of the 
 Board of Trade, This arose from an inadvertence 
 in the standing orders, which omitted making an 
 exception in case the day happened to be the Lord's- 
 day. The Lord's-day Observance Society prepared 
 petitions to Parliament, praying that in all Govern- 
 ment proceedings, whenever a special day was named, 
 care should be taken that the Lord's-day should be 
 always excepted. The presentation of these peti- 
 tions led to explanations on the part of the Govern- 
 ment both in the House of Lords and the House of 
 Commons, and to a promise that the standing orders 
 should be amended in this respect. 
 
 Memorials to the authorities, deprecating Sunday 
 
222 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 labour in tlie Post-office, continued to be forwarded 
 from various important towns and otlier places in 
 all parts of tbe kingdom. Many bankers^, mer- 
 chants, and others refused, on conscientious grounds, 
 to receive their letters on the Lord^s-day. It was 
 stated of one firm in the town of Bradford, York- 
 shire, which employed 3500 persons, that they 
 adopted this plan without suffering any inconveni- 
 ence in consequence ; and that they never employed 
 men who did not frequent some place of worship on 
 the Lord's-day. 
 
 Windsor Palace was closed to visitors on the 
 Lord's-day by a special order of the Lord Chamber- 
 lain, in consideration of the laboui' caused to Her 
 Majesty's servants at the Castle on that day, by the 
 admission of the public ; but increased facilities and 
 opportunities of viewing the Palace were granted on 
 ordinary days. 
 
 The active and persevering efforts of the Rev. 
 Spencer Thornton, vicar of Wendover, led to a 
 great diminution in the desecration of the Lord^s- 
 day in that town. Some of the keepers of public- 
 houses consented to close their houses altogether on 
 the Lord's-day, except to travellers ; and others to 
 close them for periods longer than the law required, 
 as a step prehminary to doing so altogether. 
 
By an order from tlie authorities, the Post-offices 
 of all towns were permitted to be closed during the 
 hours of Divine Service on Sundays ; namely, from 
 11 A.M. to 1 P.M., and from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. 
 
 Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart., and other friends of 
 the observance of the Lord's-day in Scotland, per- 
 severed in their protests against the rujaning of rail- 
 way trains in that country on the Lord's-day. By 
 this means they exercised a strong check on the 
 increase of this evil, so that Scotland still continued 
 to present a most favourable contrast to England as 
 regards the running of railway trains on the Lord^s- 
 day. 
 
 The shareholders of the Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 Railway Company being dissatisfied with the ma- 
 nagement of their affairs by the Directors, placed the 
 Company under a new direction, who were favour- 
 able to the observance of the Lord's-day, and who 
 accepted office on the express condition that no pas- 
 sengers should be conveyed on the line on that 
 day. One of their first measures, therefore, on 
 entering on their duties, was to issue a public notice 
 to this effect. At a meeting of shareholders held 
 subsequently to the issuing of this order, an amend- 
 ment was proposed, on the motion that the Report 
 be received, disapproving of that portion of it re- 
 
224 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 lating to the cessation of Sunday trains. The friends 
 of the Lord's-day, however, succeeded in sustaining 
 the new Directors in their resolution to have no 
 Sunday trains : the majority against the amendment 
 being 152. The number of memorials forwarded to 
 the Directors in favour of the cessation of the Sun- 
 day trains was 1573; whilst only 18 were presented 
 against it. 
 
 A deputation from Bath, consisting of the Right 
 Hon. Lord Ashley; Mr. Melmoth Walters, Trea- 
 surer of the Bath Lord's- day Society; and the Se- 
 cretary of the London Society, waited on the Marquis 
 of Clanricarde, Her Majesty's Postmaster- General, on 
 the 26th Nov. 1846, in order to present a memorial 
 from Bath, signed by nearly 6000 persons, praying 
 that the Post-office in that town and its branches 
 might be closed on the Lord's- day. 
 
 An important meeting was held in Perth, con- 
 sisting of persons of all denominations, with refer- 
 ence to the opening of the Perth and Dundee 
 Railway. The feeling of the meeting in favour of 
 having no Sunday trains on the line was unanimous. 
 
 A meeting called to petition Parliament to make 
 the running of Sunday trains compulsory, was 
 held at Glasgow, originated by those who advocated 
 the running of Sunday trains in order to obtain an 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 225 
 
 expression of public opinion to that effect. There 
 were about 5000 persons present : the larger pro- 
 portion of the meeting were opposed to the object 
 its originators had in view, but they were pre- 
 vented coming to a decision by clamour on the part 
 of the minority. 
 
 At the half-yearly meeting of the Shareholders 
 of the Caledonian Railway Company, Sir Andrew 
 Agnew proposed a motion that there should be a 
 cessation of all traffic on the Lord^s-day : the motion 
 was lost by a majority of 3554 votes. A similar 
 motion proposed by Mr. Blackadder, at a meet- 
 ing of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway Com- 
 pany, was also lost. At the annual general meeting 
 of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway Company, Mr. 
 Graham of Edmond Castle made a similar motion 
 with a like result. 
 
 A clause of an important nature was intro- 
 duced into the '^^Bill for consolidating the Bristol 
 and Gloucester and Birmingham and Gloucester 
 Railway Company with the Midland Railway Com- 
 pany,^^ which rendered it compulsory on the Directors 
 to run two trains each way on the Lord^s-day. 
 The Lord^s-day Observance Society, as soon as 
 they were apprised that a bill having such an 
 objectionable clause in it had become law, pe- 
 Q 
 
226 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 titioned Parliament,, praying that an Act might 
 be passed^ rendering any such clause inoperative. 
 At the suggestion of the Society^ several petitions 
 to the same eifect were also presented to the House 
 of Commons from various towns throughout the 
 country ; but no measure such as that prayed for was 
 introduced. 
 
 The conveyance of cattle on the Lord^s-day for 
 the supply of the Smithfield market of Monday 
 greatly increased on the South- Western and other 
 railways, entailing much additional labour on the 
 men employed on those lines on the Lord's-day. 
 It was computed that as many as 800 passenger 
 trains, exclusive of luggage trains, ran on lines in 
 England on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 In the month of November, 1846, Mr. Hume 
 proposed in the House of Commons, that the British 
 Museum, National Gallery, and similar institutions, 
 should be open to the public on the Lord^s-day. 
 The motion was opposed by the Government and 
 was, happily, defeated. 
 
 The Lord^s-day Observance Society addressed a 
 memorial to Lord John Russell, First Lord of the 
 Treasury, expressing their gratitude for the opposi- 
 tion given to the motion by Her Majesty's Ministers, 
 and representing the injurious consequences to the 
 
227 
 
 country that must have followed, had the motion 
 been carried : they represented that if institutions 
 which were under the control of Government were 
 opened to visitors on the Lord^s-day, theatres and 
 other equally objectionable places of amusement 
 would claim the same liberty. 
 
 A steeple-chase was run at Paris on the Lord^s- 
 day, the principal actors in which were Englishmen, 
 chiefly of the upper classes of society. 
 
 Through the exertions of the Clergy at Doncaster, 
 the betting-rooms in that town were closed on the 
 Lord^s-day on the occasion of the races being held. 
 It had previously been the habit to open them on 
 Sunday, a practice followed at Newmarket, Epsom, 
 and other places where races are annually run. 
 
 Colonel Mercer, the Colonel Commandant of the 
 Royal Marines at Plymouth, discontinued the prac- 
 tice of marching the corps to church with the 
 military band; thus removing a great cause of 
 annoyance and disturbance to congregations pro- 
 ceeding to Divine worship. 
 
 The feeling in favour of closing public-houses on 
 the Lord's-day gained strength, from the increased 
 conviction, on the part of the country, of the demo- 
 ralizing effects of the sale of intoxicating liquors on 
 that day. In nearly all new local acts a clause was 
 Q 2 
 
228 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 inserted requiring tliem to be closed from 12 o'clock 
 on Saturday night till 1 p.m. on Sunday. 
 
 The Directors of the South-Eastern and Con- 
 tinental Steam-packet Company discontinued the 
 sailing of their boats on the Lord^s-day^ in conse- 
 quence of a memorial addressed to the Chairman of 
 the Company by Mr. Alexander Swan, the super- 
 intendent of machinery, in which he represented 
 the injurious effects of labour on the Lord's-day on 
 the morals and efficiency of the servants of the Com- 
 pany ; and stated his conviction that the restoration 
 of the religious privileges and the needful rest of the 
 seventh day, would supply the only remedy for 
 the drunkenness and degradation which characterized 
 so many of them. The adoption of Mr. Swanks 
 suggestion was attended with the happiest effects, 
 and fully realized the anticipations he had held forth 
 in his memorial. 
 
 Lord Hardinge, the Governor- General of India, 
 issued an order, in January, 1847, directing that all 
 public works carried on by order of the Government, 
 whether under the direction of its own officers or 
 through the agency of contractors, should be dis- 
 continued on Sunday. An order to the same effect 
 had been in force in the Bombay Presidency since 
 the year 1843 : now, however, it was extended to 
 India generally. 
 
Mr. Grantley Berkeley, M.P., having addressed 
 a letter to the Postmaster-General, demanding his 
 interference to suppress the movement made in 
 Bath and other places to put a stop to Postal labour 
 on the Lord^s-day, the Rev. J. Pears, of that 
 city, replied in an able letter, justifying the pro- 
 ceedings of the friends of the observance of the 
 Lord^s-day. The Lord's-day Observance Society 
 forwarded a copy of this letter, and also an able 
 paper on the Observance of the Sabbath institution, 
 by the Rev. E. Young of Clifton, to every member 
 of the Legislature. 
 
 A day for humiliation having been appointed, 
 owing to the grievous famine which prevailed in 
 many parts of the kingdom, the Lord's-day Observ- 
 ance Society issued an address to the Archbishops, 
 Bishops, and Clergy of the United Church of England 
 and Ireland, in which they called their atten- 
 tion to the desecration of the Lord^s-day as one 
 of the great causes calculated to bring down the 
 Divine displeasure on the nation. Besides for- 
 warding this paper to those to whom it was more 
 immediately addressed, the Society advertised it in 
 the leading metropolitan and other newspapers. 
 
 An important meeting was held in Birmingham, 
 at which a paper was exhibited, signed by 1298 shop- 
 
230 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 keepers of that town, expressive of their wish that 
 the magistrates would interfere to suppress Sunday 
 trading. The various Associations for promoting the 
 due Observance of the Lord^s-day exerted themselves 
 to effect this object in their various localities, as well 
 as in co-operating with the Parent Society in its 
 endeavours generally. 
 
 Mr. Hindley, M.P. for Ashton-under-Lyne, at 
 the urgent request of the tradesmen of the metro- 
 polis, moved for, and obtained, a Committee of 
 Inquiry, in the House of Commons, into Sunday 
 trading in London. 
 
 1847-8. — A meeting of the Lord^s-day Observ- 
 ance Society was held in Nottingham. One of the 
 newspapers in that town, in a leading article, at- 
 tacked the Society and its objects. This called forth 
 a rejoinder from the Nottingham Mercury, which 
 appeared to the Society such an able and useful 
 paper, that, with the permission of the editor, they 
 adopted it as one of their Tracts. 
 
 The Edinburgh Young Men^s Sabbath Observ- 
 ance Society was instituted with a view of interesting 
 the young men of Edinburgh in efforts to promote 
 the observance of the Sabbath. 
 
 Letters and statements, apparently the productions 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 231 
 
 of persons having an intimate knowledge of the 
 Post-office department_, appeared in some influential 
 newspapers of the metropolis, to the effect that it 
 was in contemplation to increase the business of the 
 London Post- office,, and ultimately to have a delivery 
 of letters in London on the Lord's-day. The 
 Honorary Secretary of the Lord's-day Observance 
 Society addressed a letter to the Postmaster-General, 
 inquiring whether the Government entertained such 
 an intention ; and in case they did, requesting his 
 Lordship to receive a deputation of merchants, 
 bankers, and others, on the subject. His Lordship 
 said, in reply, that " he was not aware of any mea- 
 sure in contemplation for a general delivery of letters 
 on Sundays/'' The suspicions of the public being 
 excited still farther by the dubious nature of the 
 reply, the Lord's-day Observance Society organized 
 a public meeting of the inhabitants of London and 
 Westminster, which was held in the month of No- 
 vember, 1847, in Freemasons' Hall, Lord Ashley in 
 the chair, to consider what course should be pur- 
 sued under the circumstances. The meeting adopted 
 a memorial to the First Lord of the Treasury, pray- 
 ing that no mails should be transmitted, nor letters 
 delivered, on the Lord^s-day. A feeling prevailed 
 in the meeting, that so long as there was a delivery 
 
232 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 of letters in the country on the Lord's-day, the 
 metropolis was not secure ; and that therefore efforts 
 should be made to put an end to all Sunday Postal 
 labour throughout the kingdom. 
 
 Other memorials of a similar character^ addressed 
 to the First Lord of Her Majesty's Treasury, were at 
 the same time adopted in various parts of the country. 
 The Lord's-day Society organized a deputation. 
 Lord Ashley at its head, to wait on Lord John 
 Russell, in order to present eighty-six of these 
 memorials, which had been entrusted to their care 
 for that purpose. 
 
 A letter was forwarded from Mr. Rowland Hill to 
 Lord Ashley, in reference to the deputation from 
 Bath which waited on the Postmaster-General, in- 
 forming his Lordship that the Bath office should 
 be thenceforth closed on the Lord's-day, as regarded 
 the issuing and payment of money orders. 
 
 An important meeting was held at Swansea, 
 called by the mayor, in compliance with a requisi- 
 tion from the inhabitants to that effect ; the object 
 of which was to consider the expediency of memo- 
 rializing the First Lord of Her Majesty's Treasury 
 in favour of the cessation of all Postal labour on the 
 Lord's-day. Notwithstanding a strong and intel- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD*S-DAY. 233 
 
 ligent opposition^ the meeting decided in favour of 
 adopting the memorial. 
 
 Meetings were held in many parts of the kingdom 
 to promote the observance of the Lord^s-day ; and 
 resolutions were adopted at all of them in furtherance 
 of that object. 
 
 A bill to restrict trading on the Lord^s-day in 
 London was introduced into the House of Com- 
 monSj at the instance of the tradesmen of the me- 
 tropolis. It was_, however, subsequently withdrawn. 
 Its provisions were not of a nature to secure the 
 co-operation of the friends of the observance of the 
 Lord's-day, who did not therefore regret the fate of 
 the bill. 
 
 The operation of that clause in the Metropolitan 
 Police Act which required public-houses to be closed 
 from Saturday night at twelve o'clock till Sunday 
 afternoon at one^ continued to prove most beneficial 
 in its operation. Since the passing of that Act, 
 there was a decrease of 50 per cent, in the con- 
 victions for drunkenness occurring on the Lord's- 
 day, and a decrease of 60 per cent, in the total number 
 of convictions for offences committed on that day. 
 
 A memorial, from 400 inhabitants of Walsall, com- 
 prising the mayor, magistrates, clergy, ministers, 
 and churchwardens of the town, was addressed to 
 
234 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 the Board of Directors of the South Staffordshire 
 Railway, praying that no trains should run on the 
 line on the Lord^s-day. The Directors did not com- 
 ply with the prayer of the memorial in its full extent, 
 but they suspended all work thereon between the 
 hours of a quarter-past nine in the morning and 
 half-past seven in the evening. 
 
 The Sabbath Alliance was instituted in Scotland 
 at the end of the year 1847. The principles and 
 objects of this society were identical wdth those 
 of the Scottish Lord^s-day Observance Society, 
 which latter society was merged in the Sabbath 
 Alliance. 
 
 A meeting of the shareholders of the Scottish and 
 Central Railway Company was held at Perth on the 
 29th February, 1848, (the Marquis of Bredalbane in 
 the chair,) at which it was unanimously resolved, that 
 no work whatever should be done on that line on 
 the Lord's-day. Only one petition was presented in 
 favour of Sunday trains, and 165 against them. 
 
 An unusual degree of activity pervaded the dif- 
 ferent Associations throughout the kingdom, and 
 efforts were made in Bath, York, Derby, Ipswich, 
 Shrewsbury, and other places, to diminish local dese- 
 cration of the Lord's-day, as well as to aid the 
 Parent Society in its object. The question of Sunday 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 235 
 
 Postal labour occupied a considerable degree of 
 attention in every instance. 
 
 1848-9.— Mr. Locke, M.P.for Honiton, obtained 
 leave to introduce a bill in tbe House of Commons to 
 render it compulsory on all railway companies to 
 carry passengers on tbe Lord^s-day in tbose trains by 
 which the mails were conveyed. The Lord's-day 
 Observance Society, and its Associations, in con- 
 junction with the Sabbath xilliance in Scotland, took 
 immediate and energetic means to defeat the bill. 
 The Lord's-day Observance Society appointed a 
 deputation from their Committee to wait on mem- 
 bers friendly to the cause, to consult v/ith them as 
 to the steps which should be taken. They also 
 addressed letters to their friends in the House, 
 urging upon them to attend in their places when 
 a division should take place. Copies of petitions 
 against the bill were also widely circulated. They 
 likewise organized a deputation, at the head of which 
 was Lord Ashley, to wait on the Home Secretary, and 
 on the Commissioners of Railways. The deputa- 
 tion obtained an assurance that the Government, 
 though deeming it desirable that some trains should 
 run on the Lord^s-day, were not prepared to support 
 Mr. Locke's bill. 
 
236 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 On a division, leave was given to bring in the 
 bill. In tbe interval before the day arrived for the 
 second reading of the bill, the Lord^s-day Obser- 
 vance Society exerted itself strenuously to prevent 
 its further progress. They addressed a circular 
 letter to their Associations, and also to the Super- 
 intendents of Districts of theWesleyan Connexion in 
 England,, urging them to influence their represen- 
 tatives in Parliament to vote against a measure so 
 opposed to the first principles of liberty of conscience. 
 A deputation, accompanied by the Secretary of the 
 Lord's-day Observance Society, also waited on the 
 Home Secretary, Sir George Grey, and on Mr. 
 Labouchere, President of the Board of Trade, with 
 the same object. The Sabbath Alliance were simi- 
 larly active in exertions to influence the representa- 
 tives of constituencies in Scotland to oppose the 
 bill. These efibrts were crowned with the desired 
 success; for, on a division, the bill was lost by a 
 majority of nine ; 122 having voted in its favour, and 
 131 against it. 677 petitions, signed by 130,145 
 persons, were presented against the measure; and 
 only fifteen petitions, signed by 1376 persons, were 
 presented in its favour. 
 
 The Clergy of Brighouse and its neighbourhood 
 addressed a letter to the Secretaries of the Lan- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 237 
 
 cashire and Yorksliire Railway, complaining that 
 extra trains had been run on their line on Sunday the 
 13th August, 1848, between Halifax and Brighouse, 
 in order to convey persons to the Feast annually 
 held in Brighouse on the Lord^s-day. The Directors, 
 in reply, expressed their regret that an extra train 
 should have been run, said that it had been done 
 without their knowledge, and promised that arrange- 
 ments should be made to prevent a recurrence of 
 the grievance complained of. 
 
 The Brighouse Sunday Feast was an annual scene 
 of all kinds of vice and dissipation, to which the 
 idle and ill-disposed flocked from all the neighbour- 
 ing towns and villages; and the Clergy of Brighouse 
 were using great exertions to put a stop to an evil 
 which produced such an injurious effect on the morals 
 of the parish and neighbourhood. 
 
 A very important communication, of the date 
 October 16, 1848, was addressed by Mr. Rowland 
 Hill, Secretary to the Postmaster-General, to the 
 Secretary of the Lord's-day Observance Society, by 
 direction of the Postmaster- General, informing him 
 that measures were in progress for discontinuing 
 the issuing and paying of money-orders on the 
 Lord^s-day. The order was accordingly issued on 
 the 8th December, 1848, in respect to England and 
 
238 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Wales^ and came into operation on tlie 1st January, 
 1849. An order subsequently issued extended the 
 arrangement to Ireland and Scotland. 
 
 A deputation from York, consisting of the two mem- 
 bers for tbe city, accompanied by the Secretary of the 
 Lord^s-day Observance Society, waited on the Post- 
 master-General, in the month of March, 1849, to pre- 
 sent and support the prayer of a memorial from the in- 
 habitants of York, praying that all labour in the Post- 
 office there might be suspended on the Lord's-day. 
 The memorial was signed by the lord mayor, the city 
 sheriff, six aldermen, twenty -one members of the 
 city council, twenty-one clergymen and ministers, 
 twenty- six solicitors and proctors, and many others, 
 representing the feelings of all classes of society. 
 The reply was one calculated to excite strong 
 hopes in the minds of the friends of the observance 
 of the Lord's-day. It was contained in a letter 
 addressed to Mr. Smyth, one of the members for 
 York, and stated, " that as a general measure for the 
 suspension of duty in country post-offices on the Sun- 
 day was under the consideration of the Lords of the 
 Treasury, the consideration of the individual case 
 would be deferred.^' These hopes were, however, 
 considerably weakened by an iotimation from the 
 Postmaster-General, made to the Secretary of the 
 
239 
 
 Lord^s-day Observance Society^ in the conversation 
 that took place, to the effect that the plan which the 
 Government had in view would cause an increase of 
 business in London on Sundays, whilst diminish- 
 ing it in the country generally. The deputation 
 took occasion to state to his Lordship, that if he 
 alluded to the transmission of country letters through 
 London, or a delivery of letters in London on the 
 Lord^s-day, they had no doubt the friends of the 
 observance of the Lord^s-day w^ould regard such 
 an arrangement with the utmost repugnance, 
 and would give it all the opposition in theu' 
 power. 
 
 A memorial likewise proceeded from Ipswich to 
 the Postmaster-General, praying that the Post-office 
 in that town might be closed altogether on Sundays. 
 It was signed by upwards of 3000 persons. The 
 prayer was only partially granted, the office being 
 allowed to be closed from ten a.m. to six p.m. An 
 important memorial to the same effect was also for- 
 warded from Manchester, signed by 11,000 persons. 
 Several small country posts, in connection with larger 
 towns, were at the same time discontinued on the 
 Lord's-day, in compliance with the wish of the 
 inhabitants, but with the intimation from the Post- 
 master-General, that if any remonstrances were 
 
240 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 made, the former arrangement should be at once 
 resumed. 
 
 A numerous deputation of the Committee of the 
 Lord^s-day Observance Society subsequently waited 
 on Mr. Rowland Hill, in order to urge upon him the 
 adoption of an arrangement whereby all Postal labour 
 should cease throughout the United Kingdom on 
 the Lord^s-day. In the conversation which ensued, 
 Mr. Hill, whilst representing the difficulties attend- 
 ing carrying such an arrangement into effect, admit- 
 ted its practicability. 
 
 The permission of closing the Post-offices from 
 ten A.M. to six p.m., began to be generally conceded 
 to all places from which memorials proceeded. 
 
 Mr. Hindley introduced a bill in the House of 
 Commons, in the session of 1849, to restrict trading 
 in the metropolis, which was subsequently with- 
 drawn. 
 
 An important Act was passed by Parliament, intro- 
 duced by Lord Harrowby, which provided that no 
 intoxicating diinks should be sold in Great Britain 
 before one o'clock in the afternoon of any Sunday, 
 and in England before the same hour of any Good 
 Friday or Christmas Day, or before the termination 
 of the Morning Service. 
 
 Mr. John Henderson, of Park, near Glasgow, 
 having offered three prizes for the three best essays 
 
IN KEFERENCE TO THE LORD's DAY. 241 
 
 on " the temporal advantages of the Sabbath to the 
 labouring classes/^ to be competed for by working 
 men, fixed March 31, 184B, for receiving essays. 
 1050 essays were received. Lord Ashley having 
 called the attention of Her Majesty and Prince Al- 
 bert to the subject, they were pleased to patronize it. 
 A large meeting assembled in Exeter Hall to wit- 
 ness the bestowal of the prizes on the successful 
 candidates, by Lord Ashley. The idea of Mr. Hen- 
 derson proved a most elFectual means of exciting an 
 interest on the subject of the Lord's- day amongst 
 the working classes, and of eliciting their feelings in 
 reference to it. 
 
 One essay was not received, being the production 
 of a female ; but being subsequently published, it 
 had a deservedly rapid and extensive circulation. It 
 was entitled " The Pearl of Days,^' and evinced much 
 ability and feeling. 
 
 A Society was instituted in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
 embracing persons of all denominations, entitled 
 '^The North of England Sabbath Alliance." Its 
 fundamental principle was, the Divine authority 
 and perpetual obligation of the Sabbath institution. 
 
 A series of Tracts on the Observance of the Lord^s- 
 day, by ministers of all denominations, was pub- 
 lished, and had an extensive circulation : they proved 
 
242 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 very useful in diffusing amongst all classes sound and 
 Scriptural views on the subject. 
 
 The advocates of railway travelling on the Lord's- 
 day succeeded in carrying a motion at a general 
 meeting of the shareholders of the Scottish Central 
 Railway Company, that trains should be run on that 
 line on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 The cause of the observance of the Lord's- 
 day sustained a serious loss in the death of Sir 
 Andrew Agnew, Bart., which took place in April, 
 1849, whose name both in and out of Parlia- 
 ment had been so prominently and honourably 
 identified with this question. He had for some years 
 devoted himself to its advocacy, and was permitted 
 to see much fruit of his labours, in an improved 
 tone of feeling regarding the observance of the 
 Lord^s-day in all classes and ranks of society, and 
 in the check given to the profanation of it. Besides 
 these admitted results of his indefatigable exertions, 
 we are justified in supposing that the interests of 
 religion generally, identified as they are with the 
 observance of the Lord's- day, were greatly promoted 
 in consequence of the agitation of the subject both 
 in Parliament and the country. 
 
 1849-50. — In September 1849, during the recess. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 243 
 
 an order was unexpectedly issued in the London 
 Post-office, requiring that country letters should be 
 transmitted through London on the Lord's-day after 
 the 10th of October in that year ; thus introducing 
 into the Metropolitan department at the Post-office 
 a new character of labour on the Lord^s-day ; that 
 which had been previously carried on therein on that 
 day having been defended on the ground of being 
 occasioned by the necessities of the department. 
 
 Numerously attended meetings were held, within 
 three weeks after this order was made known, through 
 the arrangements of the Lord's-day Observance So- 
 ciety, in the City, in the Borough, in Westminster, 
 and also in various parishes in the neighbourhood of 
 the metropolis, praymg that the order might not be 
 carried into effect. On the 13th of October a most 
 influential deputation waited on Lord John Russell, 
 in order to present the memorials. There were 
 present, composing the deputation, the Lord Mayor 
 of London (Sir James Duke, M.P.), Mr. Masterman, 
 M.P., and several of the principal bankers, mer- 
 chants, and clergy of the metropolis. The order 
 was nevertheless carried into effect, after a suspension 
 of a fortnight. This occasion afforded an oppor- 
 tunity of illustrating the importance of the work 
 in which the Lord's-day Observance Society were 
 R 2 
 
244 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 engaged. They had secured correspondents and 
 formed associations in all parts of the kingdom, on 
 whose assistance in this crisis they were able to 
 reckon. 
 
 Papers containing Forms of Petition, and convey- 
 ing such information as was deemed useful under 
 the circumstances, were forwarded by the Lord's- 
 day Observance Society to every incumbent or offi- 
 ciating minister in England : they likewise addressed 
 special letters to the bishops and clergy, and the 
 laity, in all parts of the kingdom, particularly in the 
 larger and more important towns ; affording them all 
 facilities for petitioning, by offering them for that 
 purpose forms written and ready for signature ; and 
 they strongly impressed upon them the importance of 
 requesting the local representatives to present the 
 petitions, and to support their prayer when the sub- 
 ject should come under the consideration of Parlia- 
 ment. They also endeavoured to constitute each 
 correspondent a centre for originating petitions, by 
 offering, through them, the same facilities to their 
 friends throughout the country. 
 
 The Kev. R. Newstead, Wesleyan minister, a con- 
 sistent and. zealous friend of the observance of the 
 Lord's-day, having conimunicated to the President 
 of the Wesleyan Methodists that the Lord^s-day 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 245 
 
 Society were extremely desirous that influential body 
 should co-operate in the movement, the Presi- 
 dent promptly addressed a circular letter to the 
 ministers of that communion, requesting them to 
 aid the Society by promoting petitions. The Society 
 forwarded the letter, with papers containing in- 
 structions how to proceed, and information on the 
 subject, to all the superintending ministers in Eng- 
 land, Wales, and Ireland ; also ojffering them wiitten 
 forms of petition ready for signature. 
 
 The effect of these efforts was, that the Society 
 became engaged in a most extensive correspondence 
 with persons of all religious denominations in the 
 kingdom ; that almost all the great towns in Eng- 
 land, and many in Ireland, besides many of the 
 smaller places, sent in petitions to the House of 
 Commons in favour of the object; and that the 
 Wesleyan Methodists forwarded a great number of 
 petitions from their several congregations. 
 
 The Scottish Sabbath Alliance also exerted 
 itself most energetically to promote the move- 
 ment in favour of the entire cessation of Postal 
 labour on the Lord's-day in Scotland. By the 
 number of petitions and signatures, by deputations 
 to the authorities, and by the publication of useful 
 and appropriate papers on the subject, they contri- 
 buted in no small degree to its success. 
 
246 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 A feeling of strong interest on tlie subject of 
 the observance of the Lord's-day was exhibited in 
 Ireland, elicited by the movements in favour of the 
 cessation of all Postal labour on that day. Petitions 
 in favour of this object, in many instances nume- 
 rously and respectably signed, proceeded from the 
 principal towns in Ireland, including Dublin, 
 Cork, Belfast, Waterford, Drogheda, Newry, and 
 other places ; and important aid and co-operation 
 were received from the clergy of the Established 
 Church, and the ministers of the Moravian, Presby- 
 terian, and other denominations in that country. 
 
 On the opening of Parliament, in January 1850, 
 petitions, many of them adopted at public meetings, 
 began to be laid in great numbers on the table of 
 the House of Commons, praying for the entire ces- 
 sation of all Postal labour, the transmission of the 
 mails, as well as the delivery of letters, throughout 
 the United Kingdom, during the four-and-twenty 
 hours of the Lord^s-day : and petitions to this effect 
 continued to be presented during the session. 
 
 A committee, entitled " The Metropolitan Com- 
 mittee for effecting the Cessation of Sunday Postal 
 Labour/^ was formed in London : they originated 
 an important Declaration, approving of the entire 
 cessation of Postal labour on the Lord's-day, which 
 was numerously signed by many dignitaries and 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 247 
 
 clergy of the Established Churchy and by ministers 
 of the several religious denominations^ — by bankersj 
 merchants, solicitors, and traders, &c., in the metro- 
 polis, and advertised it in the leading newspapers. 
 
 The expression offeeling in favour of the cessation 
 of Postal labour on the Lord's-day was unprece- 
 dentedly great ; this feeling was not the ebul- 
 lition of sectarian zeal or political excitement, but 
 the settled and conscientious conviction of the public 
 generally, including persons of all religious deno- 
 minations and political opinions ; the depth and pre- 
 valence of which were attested by the fact, that 4414 
 petitions, with 653,206 signatures, were presented 
 to the House of Commons in its favour ; whilst only 
 19 petitions, with 2545 signatures, indicated the 
 mere fraction of a minority which was opposed to 
 the object. 
 
 At length, on Thursday, the 30th May, 1850, 
 Lord Ashley moved in the House of Commons 
 — " That an humble Address be presented to 
 Her Majesty, representing the great desire which 
 exists in all parts of the United Kingdom for an 
 extension of that rest on the Lord's-day which is 
 afforded in the London Post-office, to the provincial 
 towns ; and praying that Her Majesty will be gra- 
 ciously pleased to direct that the collection and 
 
248 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 delivery of letters sball in future entirely cease on 
 Sundays in all parts of the kingdom : and also that 
 Her Majesty will cause an inquiry to be made as to 
 how farj without injury to the public service, the 
 transmission of the mails on the Lord's- day might 
 be diminished or entirely suspended/^ On a divi- 
 sion taking place, the motion was carried by a 
 majority of 25, there being 93 in its favour, and 68 
 against. On the 11th June, Her Majesty was pleased 
 to return for answer to the Address, that orders 
 should be given accordingly. The collection and 
 delivery of letters and newspapers was in conse- 
 quence suspended throughout the United Kingdom 
 on Sunday 23rd of June, 1850; but as no corre- 
 sponding arrangements were made in the Post-office 
 department, much inconvenience was at first caused, 
 till the public accommodated themselves to the 
 change : then its beneficial efi^ects were generally 
 felt and acknowledged. 
 
 In Manchester and Liverpool, and in other places, 
 the clerks and letter-carriers returned public thanks 
 for the boon thus conferred upon them. 
 
 A bill to restrict Sunday trading in the metro- 
 polis, introduced by Lord Harrowby, passed a third 
 reading in the House of Lords, and was read a first 
 time in the House of Commons, when it was ulti- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 249 
 
 mately withdrawn; a result which was not much 
 regretted by the friends of the observance of the 
 Lord^s-day, as some of its clauses were very objec- 
 tionable. 
 
 A porter in the employ of the Great Western 
 Railway Company was summoned, under the Act of 
 29 Charles II., and convicted, on the 12th August, 
 1849, before the Justices of the city of Bath, of 
 exercising his ordinary worldly calling, by removing 
 goods (not being passengers' luggage) on the Lord's- 
 day. The Bench having declined to enforce pay- 
 ment of the penalty, application was made to the 
 Queen's Bench, and a mandamus obtained to com- 
 pel the Magistrates to carry out their decision : the 
 penalty was paid by the Company. 
 
 Associations for promoting the due Observance of 
 the Lord's-day, composed exclusively of working 
 men, were formed in Birmingham, Leeds, Lan- 
 caster, and Shrewsbury, which actively co-operated 
 in all efforts made to forward the object. Two 
 petitions in favour of the Post-office movement, 
 numerously signed by working men, were for- 
 warded to the House of Commons from the towns 
 of Birmingham and Leeds. 
 
 1850-1. — But a very short interval elapsed, after 
 
250 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 the order prohibiting the delivery of letters on the 
 Lord^s-day had been carried into effect, before it 
 was found necessary to make renewed efforts to 
 secure its continuance; for, on the 25th June 1850^ 
 only two days after it came into operation, Mr. 
 Locke, M.P. for Honiton, gave notice of a motion 
 for rescinding it. 
 
 The Lord^s-day Observance Society again called 
 on their friends throughout the country to petition 
 the House of Commons, praying that the measure 
 might have a full and fair trial. The consequence 
 was, that in the short time included between the 
 25th June and the 9th July, the day on which Mr. 
 Lockers motion came on, 521 petitions, with 33,190 
 signatures, were presented, praying that the measure 
 might not be rescinded till it had been fairly tested ; 
 whilst only 168 petitions, with 19,199 signatures, 
 were presented in favour of rescinding it ; notwith- 
 standing organized efforts to promote petitions of 
 this character, originated almost exclusively by 
 persons connected with a hostile and interested por- 
 tion of the public press. Memorials to Her Majesty, 
 and petitions to the House of Commons, included 
 amongst those alluded to above, also proceeded from 
 Postmasters and Letter-carriers in all parts of the 
 kingdom, expressing their gratitude for the new 
 
IN REFERENCE TO 
 
 measure, and praying tliat it might have a full and 
 fair trial. 
 
 A numerous and most respectable deputation from 
 many important towns in Scotland, composed prin- 
 cipally of chief magistrates, and one from Liver- 
 pool, headed by the mayor of that town, and ac- 
 companied by the secretaries of the London and 
 Bath Societies for promoting the Observance of the 
 Lord^s-day, waited on Lord John Russell, the Post- 
 master-General, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 and the Secretary of State for the Home Depart- 
 ment, respectively, to urge them to oppose Mr. 
 Lockers motion, and to give the measure a fair trial. 
 
 Mr. Locke having brought on his motion on the 
 9th July, it was rejected by a majority of 141 ; but, 
 at the suggestion of Government, a " Commission, 
 to inquire how far Postal labour on Sundays might 
 be reduced, without discontinuing the delivery and 
 despatch of letters,'^ was appointed, an amendment 
 to that effect having been moved by Mr. Hope. 
 
 That Commission issued its Report, dated the 
 10th August, 1850, recommending a return to the 
 old system of a delivery of letters on the Lord^s-day, 
 with a few trifling and most inadequate modifica- 
 tions. 
 
 The 650,000 petitioners^ who prayed for the dis- 
 
252 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 continuance of Postal labour on the Lord^s-day, 
 had reason to be dissatisfied with the appointment 
 of the Commission of Inquiry. The only just mode of 
 testing the new measure was, by working it for some 
 time with altered arrangements. 
 
 They were also dissatisfied with the constitution 
 of the Commission. It was composed of three 
 members — one the Postmaster-General, who in his 
 place in Parliament expressed himself hostile to the 
 change ; and of two other members of Government, 
 both of whom voted in the minority on Lord 
 Ashley's motion of the 3rd June, 1850. 
 
 Not only was the constitution of the Commission 
 objectionable, but also the principal sources whence 
 they derived their information, — namely, the Sur- 
 veyors of Districts, and Postmasters, to whom a cir- 
 cular had but recently been issued, preparing the 
 department for a reduction of pay in case there 
 were a cessation of labour on the Lord's-day. 
 
 Memorials were presented to Lord John Russell, 
 praying his Lordship, on receiving the Report of the 
 Committee of Inquiry, to decide on continuing the 
 new measure. These memorials amounted to some 
 hundreds ; — amongst which was one signed by all the 
 ministers present at the Wesleyan Conference, held 
 in London, 520 in number ; 50 from working-men in 
 
various manufafctories in Leeds; 27 of a similar 
 description from Birmingham; andone from Brighton, 
 signed by 2500 working persons. 
 
 Deputations from all parts of the kingdom pro- 
 posed to wait on Lord John Russell, including depu- 
 tations of working men, with the same view; but his 
 Lordship declined receiving them. The Government 
 acted on the recommendation of the Commission, 
 and the delivery of letters was resumed on Sunday 
 the 1st September, 1850. 
 
 Although the efforts made to effect the cessation 
 of Postal labour on the Lord's-day were thus frus- 
 trated, yet they were not wholly ineffectual. A con- 
 siderable diminution of Postal labour on that day 
 took place in consequence, and the discussion of the 
 subject proved beneficial. 
 
 The extent to which excursion trains were run on 
 the Lord's-day, at greatly reduced fares, on nearly 
 all the lines in the kingdom, was truly lamentable. 
 The Great Western Railway Company took the lead 
 in this systematic and extensive desecration of the 
 Lord^s-day. Memorials, expressing disapproval of 
 their excursion trains on the Lord^s-day, and re- 
 questing that they might be discontinued, were 
 presented to the Directors, from Bath, Bristol, 
 Gloucester, Stroud, and other places on the hne ; 
 also from Chepstow, Cardiff, Newport, and Cannar- 
 
254 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 therij on the Soutli Wales line. The memorial from 
 Stroud was signed by upwards of 2000 inhabitants 
 of that town and neighbourhood, including 27 
 clergymen and 13 dissenting ministers. One, signed 
 by 16 shareholders, was also forwarded from that 
 place to the Directors of the Great Western Railway. 
 
 A very able paper on the subject of Cheap Excur- 
 sion Trains on the Lord's- day was published by the 
 Rev. E. Young, honorary secretary to the Bristol 
 Church of England Lord's-day Observance Society, 
 containing a Letter to the Directors of the Great 
 Western Railway, and also a correspondence on the 
 subject, between Mr. Young and an anonymous 
 writer, which was inserted in the Bristol Gazette. 
 
 At a general meeting of the Scottish Central 
 Railway Company, it was resolved, without a division, 
 that there should be no systematic Sabbath traffic on 
 the line; and the chairman stated that nineteen- 
 twentieths of the proxies in the hands of the secre- 
 tary were in favour of the line being so closed. It 
 was understood that cases of necessity, as they 
 occurred^ would be forwarded by the mail train. 
 
 In Kingston, Canada West, a Sabbath Reforma- 
 tion Society was formed, on the 25th of April, 1850. 
 Its object was to employ every legitimate moral in- 
 strumentality to secure the better observance of the 
 Lord's-day. Soon after its formation, the Society 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 255 
 
 endeavoured to arouse tlie inliabitants of tlie pro- 
 vince to pray the Legislature to cause tlie cessation 
 of Post-office labour on tlie Lord^s-day ; but the 
 petitions in consequence presented proved ineffectual 
 in prevailing on the Legislature to do so. 
 
 A bill to restrict trading in the metropolis on the 
 Lord^s-day was introduced in the House of Com- 
 mons, read a second time, referred to a Select 
 Committee, and subsequently withdrawn. The pro- 
 visions of the bill were of such a character as to 
 render it desirable that the measure should not 
 become law. 
 
 Considerable interest was exhibited in the condi- 
 tion of the Omnibus Servants of London, as regarded 
 their exclusion from the religious and other pri- 
 vileges of the Lord^s-day. They formed a Society 
 called '' The Metropolitan Omnibus Servants^ Pro- 
 vident Society,^^ which, besides making a provision 
 for the widows and orphans of deceased members, 
 contemplated likewise the moral improvement of 
 the class generally. Meetings of this Society were 
 held in various parts of London, in which the neg- 
 lected condition of Omnibus Servants, the utter 
 absence of all religious means, and their prolonged 
 hours of labour every day in the week, Sunday in- 
 cluded, were brought prominently under attention. 
 The Lord's-day Observance Society forwarded a copy 
 
256 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 of an address, on behalf of the Omnibus Servants 
 in the metropolis, to ministers of religion of all deno- 
 minations, urging upon them to adopt means to 
 restore to them the privileges of the Lord's-day, of 
 which they were wholly deprived. 
 
 The Crystal Palace, for the exhibition of works of 
 all nations, was opened by Her Majesty in person 
 in May, 1851, with solemn prayer to Almighty God 
 by His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dur- 
 ing the erection of the edifice no work whatever was 
 allowed to be done on the Lord^s-day, although 
 very great exertion was required on the part of the 
 contractors to have the building ready at the time 
 fixed for its completion. 
 
 The same regard for the Lord's-day was evinced 
 by the Government during the Exhibition, visitors 
 being altogether excluded on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 The Lord Mayor of London, Sir J. Musgrove, 
 visited Paris in his official capacity : he went to 
 Versailles on the Lord's-day, where a large concourse 
 was assembled to witness the amusements prepared 
 for the 'occasion. On the termination of his year of 
 office, when the usual vote of thanks was proposed 
 at the meeting of the Common Council, held 20th 
 November, 1851, Mr. De Jersey moved that an 
 expression of regret for his Lordship^s conduct on 
 that occasion should be introduced into the motion. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LOED'S-DAY. 257 
 
 No one seconding Mr. De Jersey's amendment, it 
 was lost. 
 
 The Lord's-day Observance Society addressed a 
 letter, in April, 1852, to the Clergy residing in the 
 neighbonrhocd of railw^ays on which excursion trains 
 were run on the Lord's-day, urging them to originate 
 memorials to the Directors against the practice, and, 
 where it was convenient to do so, that the memorials 
 should be adopted at public meetings. 
 
 On the return of the Sunday on which the annual 
 feast was usually held at Brighouse, the quiet and 
 orderly aspect of the streets, and the absence of 
 tumult, presented a striking contrast to the state 
 of things in preceding years. This was attributable 
 to the persevering exertions of the Rev. J. Birch, 
 incumbent of Brighouse Church, to put a stop to 
 this evil. 
 
 A Society to promote the due Observance of the 
 Lord's-day was formed in Montreal, Canada. 
 
 An effort to put a stop to Sunday Postal labour 
 was made in Nova Scotia, and happily with success ; 
 the Lieutenant Governor having had a clause to that 
 effect introduced into the bill relating to Postal 
 arrangements. 
 
258 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 OBSEHVANCE OF THE LORD'S-DAY IN 
 FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
 
 The state of religion in any community,, as it 
 approximates to Scriptural purity or otherwise, regu- 
 lates the degree of regard evinced for the observance 
 of the Lord^s-day. Thus^ in Roman Catholic coun- 
 tries the sacredness of the day is limited to those 
 hours appropriated to public worship; usually 
 persons having attended one service, consider 
 themselves at liberty to devote the remainder of 
 the day to pleasure or to business. In Protestant 
 communities, where the fundamental principles of 
 the Gospel are neglected or lost sight of, it is prac- 
 tically the same. Such may be said to be the state 
 of things on the continent of Europe generally, and 
 in the South American States, as regards the Lord's- 
 day. 
 
 In France, when the revolutionary frenzy was at 
 its height, and all the moral bonds of society were 
 dissolved, the observance of the seventh-day rest 
 was prohibited, and a tenth-day rest was substituted 
 for it. As soon as Napoleon, with the strong hand 
 of military rule, enforced order, he restored the Sab- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 259 
 
 bath, conscious that it was an institution the acknow- 
 ledgment and observance of which promoted obe- 
 dience to constituted authority. 
 
 In later years, during the reign of Louis Philippe, 
 and in the presidency of Louis Napoleon, a disposi- 
 tion has been evinced by the French Government to 
 promote the observance of the Lord's-day as regards 
 cessation from labour in the great public depart- 
 meats; orders to that effect having occasionally 
 emanated from the authorities. 
 
 In Switzerland efforts have been made during 
 some years to promote the observance of the Lord^s- 
 day ; and a friendly correspondence has subsisted 
 between societies formed in some of the cantons, and 
 the Lord^s-day Observance Society. 
 
 In Germany, greater respect is paid to the Lord's - 
 day in the Protestant than in the Roman Catholic 
 states ;* though in both, desecration of the day pre- 
 vails. Still the profanation of it is worst in those 
 parts of Germany in which Popery is predominant, 
 as in the territories of Mayence, Treves, and Cologne. 
 Within the last few years, increased interest has 
 
 * Evangelical Christendom, (Vol. v. No. 10, for October, 1851, 
 page 369.) Partridge and Oakey, Paternoster-row. A periodical 
 containing much useful and interesting information respect- 
 ing the state of religion generally on the continent of Europe. 
 
 s 2 
 
260 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 been evinced on the subject in Germany. At a con- 
 ference beld at Stuttgard^ in September_, 1850^ at 
 whicli 2000 persons_, ministers of religion and lay- 
 men, were present, it was resolved that an address 
 should be published, to remind the German nation 
 of the importance of the observance of the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath. The Conference also sent a letter 
 to all the German Governments, urging them to dis- 
 charge their duties as Christian States in protecting 
 the sanctity of the Lord^s-day. In the address to 
 the German nation, the example of England is spe- 
 cially mentioned; and its power, wealth, liberty, 
 and pre-eminence are attributed to the observance 
 of the Lord's-day. Another conference, of about 
 100 clergymen and laymen, held at Barmen, near 
 Elberfield, resolved to send a petition to the Prussian 
 Government on the same subject. They prayed 
 the authorities that no military review might be 
 held on the Lord^s-day, and that the servants of the 
 Post-office and railways might not be occupied 
 during the whole of that day. Similar petitions 
 were addressed to the Prussian Government by the 
 Society for promoting the Observance of the Lord's- 
 day established in the Prussian province of Saxony, 
 and by conferences of clergymen and laymen in the 
 province of Brandeuburgh. In the month of Pebru- 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 261 
 
 ary, 1851, tlie Prussian General Post-office ordered 
 that all post-offices in Prussia should be closed on 
 the Lord's- day from 9 a.m. to 13, and from 1 to 
 5 P.M. The Government also expressed its desire 
 to stop the running of railway trains on that day. 
 The Prussian Ministry for Commerce published a 
 decree, dated the 27th IMay, 1851, in which they 
 said, "the attainment of the object referred to (the 
 observance of the Lord's-day) is not to be expected 
 by means of orders of Government, but only by the 
 instrumentality of the Church, the school, and good 
 example ; because by these only can the interior 
 feeling of men be improved : but Government is 
 willing to promote the observance of the Lord^s-day 
 by taking away external hindrances and impedi- 
 ments/' 
 
 In Saxony also, the Government adopted measures 
 to promote the observance of the Lord's- day. They 
 were much needed ; for in Leipsic working and ham- 
 mering on Sundays were quite common in the public 
 squares; and the police sold for sixpence tickets 
 licensing to work in public on the Lord's-day. In 
 Dresden gin-shops were open in the morning of Sun- 
 day during Divine service, public dancing and music 
 were permitted, and a theatre was open. The 
 Chamber of Deputies of Saxony having had their 
 
262 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 attention called to the desecration of tlie Lord's- 
 day which prevailed, resolved unanimously, "that 
 the strict enforcement of the law of 1811 with 
 respect to the observance of the Lord's-day, should 
 be recommended to the Government/' which accor- 
 dingly expressed its willingness, through the Mi- 
 nister, in the First Chamber, to publish an ordinance 
 to promote the observance of the Lord's-day. 
 
 The Government of the Duchy of Brunswick, in 
 an ordinance dated the 31st of December, 1850, 
 commanded that all civil officers should promote 
 diligently the observance of a new law which had 
 been passed respecting the Lord^s-day. 
 
 In the kingdom of Hanover, also, the Government 
 issued orders for a better observance of the Lord's- 
 day. 
 
 In the kingdom of Bavaria, the Romish bishop 
 pressed upon the Government the duty of protecting 
 the sanctity of the Lord's-day. The Government, 
 in consequence, republished all the laws respecting 
 the Lord's-day which had fallen into disuse, and for- 
 warded copies of them, with a view to their enforce- 
 ment, to all the civic boards and parishes. 
 
 In the Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Ecclesiastical 
 Board, in a rescript of the Consistory of 1843, shewed 
 how low an estimate they formed of the institution 
 
of the Christian Sabbath, by recommending that, '^as 
 often as the weather or other circumstances made 
 it necessary to continue agricultural labour on Sun- 
 days, after the morning service, the burgomaster 
 might give 23ermission for it/^ In the Second 
 Chamber of the Grand Duchy, the deputy Ploch 
 having proposed a motion to the effect, " that all 
 public dancing parties, and all worldly amusements 
 in public places, should be forbidden by law on Sun- 
 days," the motion was rejected by 42 votes against 
 2. A motion of Sartorius, another deputy, ^*^that a 
 stricter law to protect the Lord's-day be passed, that 
 the theatres be shut on Sunday, and all public dan- 
 cing parties be restricted thereon," was also rejected. 
 The Chamber only resolved, " that public dancing 
 parties and music be closed on Saturday at midnight, 
 and begin on Sunday only after the service." 
 
 Fifty-two great proprietors and noblemen of the 
 provinces of Saxony, Brandenburgh, and Pomeraine, 
 in the year 1849, published an address to noble- 
 men and great farmers, recommending the obser- 
 vance of the Lord's- day. 
 
 C. F. Schultze, of Calbe, on the river Saale, a 
 sugar manufacturer, addressed, in October, 1850, 
 '^a Letter to the Manufacturers," in the name of 
 the Society for promoting the Observance of the 
 
264 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Lord's-day in the province of Saxony, urging upon 
 them to restore to the operatives the privileges of 
 the Lord's-day. In consequence of this address, a 
 great number of sugar manufacturers ceased to work 
 on the Lord^s-day. 
 
 In Rhenish Prussia, the Synods of Elberfeld 
 and Lenep issued and circulated numerous copies of 
 addresses exhorting to a due observance of the 
 Lord's-day. At Dusseldorf, on the Rhine, some 
 merchants announced in the newspapers their inten- 
 tion to close their shops dui'ing the whole of the 
 Lord's-day. 
 
 In Berlin, a public fair was prevented by the 
 authorities on Sunday, May 11th, 1851 ; and all 
 public fairs were forbidden to be held on the Lord's- 
 day. The inconsistency of the Government, in per- 
 mitting theatres to be open on the Lord's-day, and 
 in sanctioning other profanations of it, takes greatly 
 from the moral weight and effect their measures 
 might otherwise have. 
 
 The condition of the United States of America as 
 regards the observance of the Lord's-day, cannot 
 be better described than by the following extract 
 from " The Progress and Prospects of Chris- 
 tianity in the United States of America, by R. 
 Baird, D.D.'' :— 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 265 
 
 " On this subject we have much to cheer. Although 
 there is still enough to deplore, we have much to be 
 grateful for. There is a far better observance of the 
 Sabbath than there was a few years ago in many parts of 
 the country. Whilst there is still too much violation 
 of the sacred day in the suburbs and neighbourhood of 
 our large cities, it is pleasant to see that the streets of 
 none of them (so far as I know, unless it be New Or- 
 leans,) are disturbed by the rumbling of omnibuses.* All 
 of the States, I believe, have made laws to enforce the 
 observance of the Siibbath. This has been done on the 
 avowed principle that we are a Christian nation. That 
 doctrine w^e hold. And though the State requires of no 
 man that he attend this or that Church, or any Church 
 at all, or do anything to support any form of worship, 
 yet it does require him to desist from labour, at least 
 from such labour as interferes with the sacred employ- 
 ments and enjoyments of others. It seems so near to a 
 dictate of natural religion and of common reason, as well 
 as Christianity, that man and beast should rest part of 
 their time, that our lawgivers do not seem to have had 
 any misgivings on the subject ; and yet the enforcement 
 of the law is seldom resorted to. A better v;ay is pur- 
 sued, — that of enlightening the people, by the press and 
 the pulpit, as to their duties and their privileges. A few 
 gentlemen have employed the Rev. Dr. Edwards, the 
 
 * Through one of the main streets of New York, the passen- 
 ger trains on a railroad, drawn by horses, are permitted to run on 
 the Sabbath. Even this, though there is but little noise, is 
 considered a nuisance, as well as a violation of the sacred day. 
 
266 STATISTICS AND FACTS, ETC. 
 
 originator of temperance societies on the present plan, 
 for several years to visit the chief places, and preach 
 before legislatures and Congress, and so influence the 
 leading minds of the country, as well as to employ the 
 press, for that object. The success of this quiet and 
 effective course has been great. There is not a car 
 running on any of the railroads in New England, I be- 
 lieve, on the Sabbath, nor is the mail carried there on 
 that day. A similar change is going on in the middle 
 and other States. The carrying of the mail on the Sab- 
 bath was discontinued on 8000 miles of road last year, 
 through these quiet efforts. Dr. Edwards visits the officers 
 of the Government, legislators, and directors of railroads, 
 and sits down and talks the matter over kindly with them, 
 as a Christian man and a gentleman should ; nor does 
 he labour in vain ; for he has to deal with men who, 
 almost without exception, respect religion, and not a few 
 are religious men." (pp. 28, 29.) 
 
 Another extract from Dr. Baird's v^^ork (p. 33), 
 article " Slavery," in which he enumerates numer- 
 ous benefits conferred by Christianity upon slaves, 
 and amongst others states the following : — 
 
 " It has secured the enforcement of the laws relating 
 to the Sabbath, and so given the slave a seventh part of 
 his time as a day of rest. It is certainly a rare thing for 
 a slave to be compelled to work on the Lord's-day, espe- 
 cially in those portions of the South where Christianity 
 is most prevalent." 
 
SUMMARY OF THE STATUTES FOR THE 
 OBSERVANCE OF THE LORD'S-DAY. 
 
 The following is a summary of the Statutes for 
 promoting the observance of the Lord^s-clay : — 
 
 By 28 Edw. 3, c. 14, the showing of wool is prohibited 
 on Sunday. 
 
 By 27 Hen. 6, c. 5, all manner of fairs and markets 
 on the principal Feasts and Sundays, and Good Fridays, 
 are prohibited (necessary victual only excepted) upon 
 pain of forfeiture of the goods (the four Sundays in har- 
 vest except). 
 
 By 1 Eliz. c. 2, intituled *' An Act for the Uniformity 
 of Common Prayer and Service in the Church and Ad- 
 ministration of the Sacraments," sec. 14, all persons, 
 having no lawful or reasonable excuse, shall diligently 
 and faithfully resort to their parish church or chapel 
 accustomed upon every Sunday and holy days, upon pain 
 of punishment by the censures of the Church, and of 12d. 
 for every offence. 
 
 By 23 Eliz. c. 1, intituled "An Act to retain the 
 Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due Obedience," 
 sec. 5,* every person above the age of 16, w^ho shall not 
 repair to some church, chapel, or usual place of common 
 
 * This section has been recently repealed. 
 
268 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 prayer, but forbear the same contrary to the last- 
 mentioned statute, shall forfeit for every month which 
 he or she shall so forbear ^20 ; and besides the said 
 forfeitures, every person so forbearing for 12 months, 
 shall be bound with two sufficient sureties in ^200 to 
 good behaviour, and so to continue bound, until they do 
 conform and come to the church, according to the true 
 meaning of the above statute of the 1st of Her Majesty's 
 reign. 
 
 By 1 James 1, c. 22, sec. 28, no shoes, boots, &:c. are 
 to be shovai to the intent to put to sale, on pain of for- 
 feiture for every pair of 3s. 4d., and the full value of the 
 articles. 
 
 By 1 Ch. 1, c. I, intituled "An Act for punishing 
 divers Abuses committed on the Lord's-day, commonly 
 called Sunday," there shall be no meetings, assemblies, 
 or concourse of people out of their own parishes on the 
 Lord's-day, for any sports and pastimes whatsoever ; nor 
 anv bear-baiting, bull-baiting, interludes, common plays, 
 or other unlawful exercises and pastimes used by any 
 persons wdthin their own parishes, under a penalty of 
 3s. 4d. for every offence. 
 
 By 3 Ch. 1, c. 2, intituled *' An Act for the further 
 Reformation of sundry Abuses committed on the Lord's- 
 day, commonly called Sunday," no carrier with any 
 horse, nor waggonmen with any waggon, nor carmen with 
 any cart, nor wainmcn with any wain, nor drovers with 
 any cattle, shall travel upon the Sunday, under a penalty 
 of 20s. for every offence ; or if any butcher shall kill or 
 sell any victual, he shall forfeit 6s. 8d. for every offence. 
 
 Bv 29 Ch. 2, c. 7, intituled " An Act for the better 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD'S-DAY. 269 
 
 Observation of the Lord's-day, commonly called Sunday," 
 sec. 1, all the laws in force concerning the observation of 
 the Lord's-day, and repairing to the church thereon, 
 shall be carefully put in execution ; and all persons shall, 
 on every Lord's-day, apply themselves to the observation 
 of the same, by exercising themselves thereon in the 
 duties of piety and true religion, publicly and privately ; 
 and no tradesman, artificer, workman, labourer, or other 
 person whatsoever, shall do or exercise any worldly 
 labour, business or work of their ordinary callings upon 
 the Lord's-da}!-, or any part thereof (works of necessity 
 and charity only excepted) ; and every person of the age 
 of 14 years or upwards offending in the premises, shall 
 for every such offence forfeit the sum of 5s. And that 
 no person or persons whatsoever shall publicly cry, show 
 forth, or expose to sale any wares, merchandises, fruits, 
 herbs, goods or chattels whatsoever upon the Lord's-day, 
 or any part thereof, upon pain of forfeiting the same. 
 And by the second section of the same Act, no drover, 
 horse -courser, waggoner, butcher, higgler, or any of their 
 servants, shall travel or come to their inn or lodsfiucr 
 upon the Lord's-day, under the penalty of 20s. for every 
 offence ; and that no person shall use, employ, or travel 
 upon the Lord's-day with any boat, wherry, lighter, or 
 barge, except it be upon extraordinary occasion, to be 
 allowed by some justice of the peace or head officer, 
 under the forfeiture of 5s. And the justice shall give 
 warrant to the constables or churchwardens of the parish 
 to seize the goods cried, show'ed forth, or put to sale, and 
 to sell the same. The third section provides that nothing 
 
270 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 in the Act shall extend to the prohibiting of dressing of 
 meat in families, or dressing or selling of meat in inns, 
 cook-shops, or victualling houses, for such as otherwise 
 cannot be provided, nor to the crying or selling of milk 
 before nine of the clock in the morning, or after four of 
 the clock in the afternoon. And by the fifth section it 
 is enacted, that if any person who shall travel on the 
 Lord's-day shall be then robbed, no hundred, or the in- 
 habitants thereof, shall be charged with or answerable for 
 any robbery so committed, but the person robbed shall 
 be barred from bringing any action for the said robbery ; 
 nevertheless the inhabitants (after notice or hue and cry) 
 shall cry and make or cause to be made fresh suit after 
 the offenders, according to the statute 27 Eliz., upon pain 
 of forfeiting as much money as might have been recovered 
 against the hundred. And by the sixth section, no per- 
 son shall, upon the Lord's-day, serve or execute any 
 writ, process, &c., except in cases of treason, felony, or 
 breach of the peace, but the service thereof shall be 
 void ; and persons so serving shall be as liable to the suit 
 of the party grieved, and to answer damages to him, as 
 if he had done the same without writ, process, &c. 
 
 By statute 1 William and Mary, c. 18, intituled " An 
 Act for exempting their Majesties' Protestant Subjects 
 dissenting from the Church of England from the Pe- 
 nalties of certain Laws," sec. 2, the above-mentioned 
 enactments in the statutes 1 Eliz. c. 2, and 23 Ehz. c. 1, 
 are not to extend to persons dissenting from the Church 
 of England, who shall take the oaths and make the 
 declaration therein referred to. And by the 1 6th section. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 271 
 
 all the laws made and provided for the frequenting of 
 Divine service on the Lord's-day, shall be still in force 
 and executed against all persons that offend against the 
 said laws, except such persons come to some congre- 
 gation or assembly of religious worship allowed or per- 
 mitted by that Act. 
 
 By 10 and 11 Will. 3, e. 4, intituled "An Act for 
 making Billingsgate a free Market for the Sale of Fish," 
 it is enacted that Billingsgate market shall be every day 
 in the week (except Sundays) a free and open market for 
 all sorts of fish. And by the 14th section, it is provided 
 that nothing in the Act contained shall be construed to 
 prohibit the selling of mackerel before or after Divine 
 service on Sundays. 
 
 By 11 and 12 Will. 3, c. 21, being an *'Act for the Regu- 
 lation of Watermen upon the Thames," sec. 13, reciting 
 that a great number of idle and loose watermen and boys 
 do work on the Lord's-day, and exact large prices from 
 passengers whose necessary occasions oblige them to 
 pass and repass the river, and generally spend such their 
 gains in drunkenness and profaneness the succeeding 
 week ; for prevention thereof, and to the end that what 
 shall be got thereby may be applied to the charitable 
 relief of aged and maimed watermen and lightermen, 
 their widows and children, the Watermen's Company are 
 authorized to appoint any number of watermen, not ex- 
 ceeding 40, to ply and work every Lord's-day between 
 Vauxhall and Limehouse, for carrying and re- carrying 
 passengers across the river, at Id. each person. 
 
 Bv 2 Geo. 3, c. 15, intituled " An Act for the better 
 
272 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 supplying the Cities of London and Westminster with 
 Fish, and to reduce the present exorbitant Price thereof, 
 and to protect and encourage Fishermen," sec. 7, fish 
 carriages are allowed to travel on Sunday, whether laden 
 or returning empty ; and the horses which shall return 
 from drawing any such carriage, though rode on by any 
 driver, or drawing back any empty fish carriage, shall be 
 allowed to pass on Sundays, without any such driver in- 
 curring any penalty for so travelling. And by the 11th 
 section, it is enacted that all fish that shall be brought 
 by land carriage to London or Westminster, or to any 
 other place within the weekly bills of mortality, shall the 
 next morning at farthest be exposed to sale (except such 
 next day shall happen to be a Sunday, and in such case 
 then on Monday morning next following) : and by the 
 12 section, it is provided that nothing in the Act con- 
 tained shall be construed to prohibit the selling any 
 mackerel which shall be brought by any such fish car- 
 riage before or after Divine service on a Sunday. 
 
 By the Act 2 1 Geo. 3, c. 49, intituled " An Act for 
 preventing certain Abuses and Profanations on theLord's- 
 day, called Sunday," reciting that *' certain houses, 
 rooms or places within the cities of London or West- 
 minster, or in the neighbourhood thereof, have of late 
 frequently been opened for public entertainment or 
 amusement upon the evening of the Lord's-day, com- 
 monly called Sunday ; and at other houses, rooms, or 
 places within the said cities, or in the neighbourhood 
 thereof, under pretence of inquiring into religious doc- 
 trines and explaining texts of Holy Scripture, debates 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 273 
 
 have frequently been held on the evening of the Lord's- 
 day, concerning divers texts of Holy Scripture, by per- 
 sons unlearned and incompetent to explain the same, to 
 the corruption of good morals, and to the great encou- 
 ragement of irreligion and profaneness :" it is enacted, 
 that any house, room, or other place which shall be 
 opened or used for public entertainment or amusement, 
 or for publicly debating on any subject whatsoever on 
 any part of the Lord's-day, called Sunday, and to which 
 persons shall be admitted by a payment of money, or by 
 tickets sold for money, shall be deemed a disorderly 
 house or place, and the keeper thereof shall forfeit 200^. 
 for every day that such house, room, or place shall be 
 opened or used as aforesaid on the Lord's-day, to such 
 person as will sue for the samC;, and be otherwise punish- 
 able as in cases of disorderly houses ; and the persons 
 managing or conducting such entertainment or amuse- 
 ment on the Lord's-day, or acting as master of the cere- 
 monies there, or as moderator, president, or chairman of 
 any such meeting for public debate on the Lord's-dav, 
 shall likewise for every such offence forfeit 100^. to such 
 persons as will sue for the same. And every door- 
 keeper, servant, or other person who shall collect or 
 receive money or tickets from persons assembling at such 
 house, or who shall deliver out tickets for admitting per- 
 sons thereto, shall also forfeit 50/. And by the 3rd sec- 
 tion, all persons advertising such public entertainment or 
 amusement or meeting, or printing or publishing any 
 such advertisement, shall forfeit 50/. And by the 2nd 
 section, any house, room or place at which persons shall be 
 T 
 
274 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 supplied with tea, coffee, or any other refreshments of 
 eating or drinking on the Lord's-day, at any greater 
 prices than the common and usual prices at which the 
 like refreshments are commonly sold upon other days, 
 shall be deemed a place to which persons are admitted 
 by the payment of money, although money be not there 
 taken in the name of or for admittance, or at the time 
 where persons enter or depart. And any house, room, or 
 place which shall be opened or used for any public enter- 
 tainment or amusement, or for public debate, on the 
 Lord's-day, at the expense of any number of subscribers 
 or contributors, and to which persons shall be admitted 
 by tickets, to which subscribers or contributors shall be 
 entitled, shall be deemed a place to which persons are 
 admitted by the payment of money. But by the 8th 
 section, nothing therein contained shall alter any of the 
 liberties to which Protestant subjects being dissenters 
 are entitled under 1 William & Mary, c. 18. 
 
 By the 1 & 2 Geo. 4, c. 50, for making and regulating 
 the sale of bread out of the city of London, &c., s. 11, 
 it is enacted, that no master, mistress, journeyman, or 
 other person exercising or employed in the trade or 
 calling of a baker, out of the city of London and the 
 liberties thereof, and beyond the weekly bills of mortality 
 and 10 miles of the Royal Exchange, shall on the Lord's- 
 day or any part thereof make or bake any bread, rolls or 
 cakes, nor shall on any part of the said day sell or expose 
 to sale, or permit or suffer to be sold or exposed for sale, 
 any bread, rolls or cakes of any sort or kind except to 
 travellers, or in cases of urgent necessity, or bake or 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORd's-DAY. 275 
 
 deliver any meat, pudding, pie, tart, or victuals at any 
 time after half-past one in the afternoon of that day, or 
 in any other manner exercise the trade or calling of a 
 baker, or be engaged or occupied in the business or occu- 
 pation thereof, except as aforesaid, and except so far as 
 may be necessary in setting and superintending the 
 sponge to prepare the bread or dough for the following 
 day's baking. And that no meat, pudding, pie, tart, or 
 victuals shall be brought to or taken from any bakehouse 
 during time of Divine service, nor within a quarter of an 
 hour of the time of the commencement thereof. And 
 every person offending against the foregoing regulations, 
 or any one or more of them, to be subject on conviction 
 to a penalty of os. for the first offence, 10.9. for the 
 second, and 20s. for the third and every subsequent 
 offence, with costs. 
 
 By 3 Geo. 4, c. 106, being an Act to provide regula- 
 tions for the making and sale of bread in the city of 
 London and the liberties thereof, and within the w^eekly 
 bills of mortality and ten miles of the Royal Exchange, 
 sec. 16, it is enacted, that no master, mistress, journey- 
 man, or other person exercised, or employed in the trade 
 or calling of a baker within the limits aforesaid, shall on 
 the Lord's-day or any part thereof make or bake any 
 bread, rolls or cakes, or shall on any other part of the 
 said day than between nine in the forenoon and one in 
 the afternoon, on any pretence whatsoever, sell or expose 
 to sale any bread, rolls or cakes of any sort or kind, or 
 bake or deliver any meat, pudding, pie, tart or victuals, 
 except as hereinafter excepted, or in any other manner 
 
276 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 exercise the trade or calling- of a baker, except so far as 
 may be necessary in setting and superintending the 
 sponge to prepare the bread or dough for the following 
 day's baking. And every person offending against the 
 last-mentioned regulations, or any one or more of them, 
 or making any sale or delivery thereby allowed otherwise 
 than within the bakehouse or shop, and being thereof 
 convicted, shall pay for the first offence IGs., for the 
 second offence 20s., and for the third and every subse- 
 quent offence 40^. with costs : provided that it shall be 
 lawful for every master or mistress baker residing within 
 the limits aforesaid to deliver to his or her customers on 
 the Lord's-day, any bakings until half-past one in the 
 afternoon, without being liable to any of the penalties. 
 . By 9 Geo. 4, c. 61, intituled " An Act to regulate 
 the granting of Licences to Keepers of Inns, Ale-houses, 
 and Victualling-houses in England," by sec. 13, it is 
 enacted that every licence which shall be granted under 
 the Act shall be according to the form in the schedule 
 finnexed. And ever}^ licence in any other form shall 
 not entitle any person to obtain an excise licence for 
 selling excisable liquors by retail, to be drunk or con- 
 sumed on the premises of the person licensed, and shall 
 be utterly void. And by the 17th section, no licence for 
 the sale of any excisable liquor by retail, to be drunk or 
 consumed on the premises of the person licensed, shall 
 be granted by the Commissioners of Excise, unless such 
 persons shall have previously obtained from the justices 
 a licence under the Act ; and by the form of licence so re- 
 ferred to, the partylicensed is authorized to sell by retail in 
 
27^ 
 
 the inn, ale-house or victualling house therein specified, 
 and in the premises thereunto belonging, all such excis- 
 able liquors as he shall be licensed or empowered to sell 
 under the authority and permission of any excise licence, 
 and to permit all such liquors to be drunk or consumed 
 in his said house, or on the premises thereunto belonging, 
 provided (among other things) he do not keep open his 
 house except for the reception of travellers, nor permit 
 any beer or other excisable liquor to be conveyed from 
 or out of his premises during the usual hours of the 
 morning and afternoon Divine service in the church or 
 chapel of the parish or place. 
 
 By 1 Will. 4, c. 64, intituled " An Act to permit the 
 general Sale of Beer and Cyder by Retail in England," 
 sec. 14, it is enacted, that no person licensed to sell beer 
 by retail under that Act shall sell or retail beer, nor 
 suff'er any beer to be drunk or consumed in or at such 
 house at any time within the hours of ten in the fore- 
 noon and one in the afternoon, or between the hours of 
 three and five in the afternoon, on any Sunday, Good 
 Friday, Christmas-Day, or any day appointed for a pub- 
 lic fast or thanksgiving, under a penalty of 40s. for every 
 offence ; and every separate sale shall be deemed a sepa- 
 rate off"ence, and a condition to the same eff'ect is inserted 
 in the form of the licence annexed to the Act. 
 
 By 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 22, being an Act to amend the 
 laws relating to Hackney Carriages, &c., sec. 37, it shall 
 be lawful for the proprietor or driver of any hackney 
 carriage licensed under that Act to stand and ply for 
 hire for such carriage, and to drive the same on the 
 
278 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 Lord's-day. And such proprietor or driver who shall 
 so stand or ply for hire shall be compellable to do the 
 like work on the Lord's-day as he is compellable to do 
 on any other day of the week. 
 
 By the Act 1 & 2 Will. 4, c . 32, intituled " An Act 
 to amend the laws in England relative to Game," sec. 3, it 
 is enacted, that if any person whatsoever shall kill or take 
 any game, or use any dog, gun, net, or other engine or 
 instrument for the purpose of kiUing or taking any game, 
 on a Sunday or Christmas-day, such person shall, on 
 conviction thereof before two justices of the peace, forfeit 
 and pay for every such offence such sum of money, not 
 exceeding 51. , as to the said justices shall seem meet, 
 together with the costs of the conviction. 
 
 By 2 & 3 Vic. c. 47, intituled " An Act for further 
 improving the Police in and near the Metropolis," sec. 42, 
 it is enacted, that no licensed victualler or other person 
 shall open his house, within the Metropolitan Police 
 District, for the sale of wine, spirits, beer, or other fer- 
 mented or distilled liquors, on Sundays, Christmas-day, 
 and Good Friday, before the hour of one in the afternoon, 
 except refreshment for travellers." 
 
 By 7 & 8 Victoria, c. 85, intituled " An Act to attach 
 certain Conditions to the Construction of future Rail- 
 ways," it is enacted, in clause 10, that whenever any 
 railway company subject to the herein-before mentioned 
 obligation of running cheap trains shall, from and after 
 the days herein-before specified on which the said obli- 
 gation is to accrue, run any train or trains on Sundays 
 for the conveyance of passengers, it shall, under the 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD's-DAY. 279 
 
 obligations contained in its Act or Acts of Parliament, 
 and with the immunities applicable by law to carriers 
 of passengers by railway, by such train each way, on 
 every Sunday, as shall stop at the greatest number of 
 stations, provide sufficient carriages for the conveyance 
 of third-class passengers at the terminal and other 
 stations at which such Sunday train may ordinarily stop ; 
 and the fare or charge for each third-class passenger by 
 such train shall not exceed one penny for each mile 
 travelled. 
 
 By 11 & 12 Victoria, c. 49, intituled '' An Act for 
 regulating the Sale of Beer and other Liquors on the 
 Lord's-day," it is enacted, *' That whereas the provisions 
 in force within the Metropolitan Police District, and in 
 some other places in England, against the sale of fer- 
 mented and distilled liquors in the morning of the 
 Lord's-day, have been found to be attended with great 
 benefits : be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent 
 Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the 
 Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this pre- 
 sent Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the 
 same, that no licensed victualler, or person licensed to 
 sell beer by retail to be drunk on the premises, or not 
 to be drunk on the premises, or other person, in any 
 part of Great Britain, shall open his house for the sale 
 of wine, spirits, beer, or other fermented or distilled 
 liquors, or sell the same, on Sunday, before half-past 
 twelve o'clock in the afternoon, or, where the morning 
 Divine service in the church, chapel, kirk, or principal 
 place of worship of the parish or place shall not usually 
 
280 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 terminate by that time, before the time of the termination 
 of such service ; and that no licensed victualler or other 
 person in England shall open his house for the sale of 
 wine, spirits, beer, or other fermented or distilled liquors, 
 or sell the same, on Christmas-day or Good Friday, 
 or any day appointed for a public fast or thanksgiving, 
 before the respective times aforesaid, except, in all the 
 cases aforesaid, as refreshment for travellers : provided 
 always, that nothing herein contained shall authorize the 
 opening of any house for the sale of wine, spirits, beer, 
 or other fermented or distilled liquors, within the Metro- 
 politan Police District, or any city, town, or place, at an 
 earlier hour or time than is now allowed by law, where 
 the opening of such house or such sale is now specially 
 prohibited before any later hour or time than that herein- 
 before mentioned. 
 
 " That so much of an Act passed in the fourth year of 
 her present Majesty, intituled * An Act to amend the Acts 
 relating to the general Sale of Beer and Cider by Retail 
 in England,' as provides that no person licensed to sell 
 beer or cider by retail as therein mentioned should have 
 or keep his house open for the sale of beer or cider, nor 
 should sell or retail beer or cider, nor should suffer any 
 beer or cider to be drunk or consumed in or at such 
 house, at any hour before one of the clock in the after- 
 noon on any Sunday, Good Friday , Christmas-day, or 
 any day appointed for a public fast or thanksgiving, 
 shall, without prejudice to any pending proceeding for 
 breach of such enactment, be repealed. 
 
 " That it shall not be lawful for any licensed victualler. 
 
IN REFERENCE TO THE LORD^S-DAY. 281 
 
 or person licensed to sell beer by retail to be drunk on 
 the premises or not to be drunk on the premises, or any 
 person licensed or authorized to sell any fermented or 
 distilled liquors, or any person who, by reason of the 
 freedom of the mystery or craft of vintners of the city 
 of London or of any right or privilege, shall claim to be 
 entitled to sell wine by retail to be drunk or consumed 
 on the premises, to open his house for the sale of any 
 other articles whatsoever within the respective times 
 during which the sale of wine, spirits, beer, or other fer- 
 mented or distilled liquors is herein-before prohibited, 
 except as refreshment for travellers. 
 
 " That no person shall open any house or place of 
 public resort for the sale of fermented or distilled liquors, 
 or sell therein such liquors, in England or Scotland, 
 before the hour of half-past twelve of the clock in the 
 afternoon, or where the morning Divine service in the 
 church, chapel, kirk, or principal place of worship shall 
 not usually terminate by that time, before the time of 
 the termination of such service on Sunday, or in England 
 before the like hour on Christmas day or Good Friday, 
 or any day appointed for a public fast or thanksgiving, 
 except as refreshment for travellers. 
 
 •• That it shall be lawful for any constable at any 
 time to enter into any house or place of public resort for 
 the sale of wine, spirits, or other fermented or distilled 
 liquors ; and every person who shall refuse to admit or 
 shall not admit such constable into such house or place 
 shall be deemed guilty of an oiFence against this Act. 
 
 " That every person offending against this Act shall 
 
282 STATISTICS AND FACTS, ETC. 
 
 be liable, upon a summary conviction for the same 
 before any justice of the peace for the county, riding, 
 division, liberty, city, borough, or place where the offence 
 shall be committed, or in Scotland before any justice of 
 the peace or sheriff or magistrate having jurisdiction in 
 the place where the offence shall be committed, to a 
 penalty not exceeding five pounds for every such offence ; 
 and every separate sale shall be deemed a separate 
 offence." 
 
 The following is the title of the Weaver Navigation 
 Act, 3 & 4 Victoria, c. cxxiv. (4th August, 1840) : — 
 " An Act to authorize the Trustees of the river Weaver 
 in the county of Chester to apply part of the funds arising 
 from the rates and duties payable in respect o^ che Navi- 
 gation of the said river for the erecting and endowing 
 one or more church or churches for the accommodation of 
 the watermen, hawlers, and others employed upon the 
 said river, and connected with the trafl&c thereof." 
 
^'THE BOOK OP SPOETS.'* 
 
 It has been deemed desirable to place before our 
 readers that remarkable document called "The 
 Book of Sports/' so intimately connected with the 
 history of the observance of the Lord's-day in this 
 country ; the effects of which, in demoralizing the 
 populatioi, more speedily precipitated that state of 
 things which soon after led to the execution of 
 Charles I., and the temporaiy subversion of the 
 monarchy. 
 
 When King James I. was on a progress in Lanca- 
 shire, in August 1617, a petition was presented to him 
 by a gi'eat number of Lancashire peasants, trades- 
 men, and servants, requesting that they might be 
 allowed to take their diversions (as of old accustomed) 
 after Divine service on Sundays. This is said to have 
 been the origin of *^ The Book of Sports,'^ promul- 
 gated by royal authority. May 24, 1618. The book 
 was ordered to be read publicly in all churches; 
 and such ministers as refused to obey the injunction 
 were threatened with severe punishment in the High 
 Commission Court. It was called, in contempt, by 
 
284 STATISTICS AND FACTS 
 
 the seriously disposed, " The Dancing Book." — 
 (Nichols' " Progresses of James I.") 
 
 The following note to the above occurs in the 
 Appendix, 1103: — 
 
 " A new encroachment upon the Sabbath," says Wil- 
 son, meaning < The Book of Sports,' "gave both King and 
 people more liberty to profane the day with authority : 
 for if the court were to remove on Monday, the King's 
 carriages must go out the day before ; all times were 
 alike ; and the court being to remove to Theobalds the 
 next day, the carriages went through the city of London 
 on the Sabbath, with a great deal of clatter and noise, 
 in the time of Divine service. The Lord Mayor (Sir 
 George Bolles) hearing of it, commanded them to be 
 stopt ; and this carried the officers of the carriages with 
 a great deal of violence to the court; and the business 
 being presented to the King with as much asperity as 
 men in authorities (crossed in their humour) could ex- 
 press it, it put the King into a great rage, swearing he 
 thought there had been no more kings in England but 
 himself j yet, after he was a little cooled, he sent a 
 warrant to the Lord Mayor, commanding him to let 
 them pass, which he obeyed, with this answer : * While it 
 was in my power I did my duty ; but that being taken 
 away by a higher power, it is my duty to obey ;* which 
 the King, upon second thoughts, took well, and thanked 
 him for it." 
 
 " The Book of Sports " enjoins : — 
 
 " Whereas we did justly, in our progresse through 
 
285 
 
 " Lancashire, rebuke some puritanes and precise 
 " people^ in prohibiting and unlawfully punishing our 
 '^ good people for using their lawfull recreations and 
 " honest exercises on Sundayes and other holy dayes, 
 '' after the afternoon sermon or service : It is our will, 
 " that after the end of Divine service, our good people 
 '' be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any 
 " lawful recreation ; such as dancing, either for men 
 " or women ; archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or 
 " any other such harmless recreation ; nor for having 
 '^ of May-games, Whitson-ales, and morris-daunces, 
 '' and the setting up of May-poles and other sports 
 " therewith used ; so as the same be had in due and 
 " convenient time, without impediment or neglect of 
 '' Divine service. But withall, we doe here account 
 '' still as prohibited all unlawfull games to be used 
 " upon Sundayes only, as beare and bull baitings, 
 '' interludes, and, at all times in the meaner sort of 
 '^ people by law prohibited, bowling/^ — (Strutt^s 
 Sports and Pastimes, Ivi. Introduction.) 
 
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