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/iMrim /P'rt1tttT*rl w4ini VlbUUUlM* ait i MT vvll
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that it never pays to starve your horse : how then your labourer ? . I say that in these chronic disorders and their nature we must seek the idea of the remedies ; and therefore is it that in these letters I propose that we should discuss , without stinted language , the principles on which we are to seek for progressive improvement . The series will include the following
topics : — Religion , its discords and its unity . Land , its slavery , its emancipation , and culture . Labour , its maimed productiveness , its freedom , and protection . Capital , its tyranny and bankruptcy , its use and regulation . Taxation , its equalized incidence and diminution . Poverty , its rights and support .
Ignorance and crime , their provocatives and counteractives . Carlyle , the eloquent , the prophet of our day , calls out for a " government , " ' a king ; " to attain any such blessing I say we must know what disorder it is that ails and frustrates so much of our energies ; and to know , we must discuss our ills without disguise or equivocation , but with all our faculties and all our hearts . The cant of intellectualism has made men think it wise to leave their hearts behind when they approach these subjects ;
hence those galvanic antics that dismay and perplex the poor " march of intellect , " such homicide goblins as Malthus , who bids surplus man " begone" from the feast of Nature , and Marcus , who would make a pleasure-ground of the cemetery for surplus babies ; as Newcastle , disposing of " his own , " and Hudson , idol of the market . I say the poor need not be so poor , nor " poor" all in any evil sense ; nor needs society endure its miseries : if we are miserable , if the poor continue to suffer , it is because we are
deliberately left to our evils by those who undertake to govern and legislate , but lack either the understanding , the courage , the honesty , or the heart , to make the effort in good faith . Sincerity is the panacea for that corrupted supineness ; and I know not why the many should not speak to each other—for however many they are still men and women—with as great sincerity as you and I in these matters of human concernment . Lend me , then , the help of your sanction while I essay to move in this behalf . Thornton Hunt .
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In this department , as am . opinions , iiowrvkii wxtreme , auk allowed an kxl'ukssion , tiie bditou neoe . ssaiuly HOLDS HIMSELF KESl'ONSIULB l'OIl NONB . l
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'hore is no learned man but will confess he hnt . h much ironterl by reading controversies , his senses awakened , . lid Jus judgment sharpened . If , then , it be prod table for lira to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for us adversary to ' write . —M i lton .
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SUNDA Y , AND THE SUNDAY QUESTION . Exeter , July , 1850 . Siu , —Your "Open Council" is certainly a very amiable feature in the economy of your Leader ; and [ , -who scarcely hold one theological or political opinion in common with you and it , —in literary matters we may , however , often bo allies , —I , at least , sincerely sympathize with your courage and impartiality in giving a h ^ arm ** to your most decided opponent * . Nevertheless , allow " me to surliest , that Mu-h a singulnrly imaginative writer as Mr . Henry Melville ( for whom I wish to express all possible re-? poct . ) is not precisely calculated to bring this department of your journal into the highest credit with the public gimcrully . What can this worthy gentleman menu by his astronomical aberrations ? or , rather , what can he persuade himself that ho means?—Hut it is not with him I would deal ; rnthcrwith your valnurous l . uly correspondent , Miss , or Mrs . Clara Walboy , as the ease may biv—who is ready to challenge , and contend , and prove ,- — -what will she not prove?—but , at all events , that there is no Christian
Sabbath . ; and , consequently , that letters should be delivered on Sundays ! I do not see that this would precisely follow , even if there were no Christian Sabbath ; unless men have arrived at the conclusion generally , that the human race no longer needs the rest of one day out of seven . Such , I presume , is this lady ' s opinion ; for she enquires , why a man should not " earn his dinner " on a Sunday as well as on any other day by * ' any useful occupation . "—Now , / am prepared to aver and contend , in my turn , that if there were no such thing as a Revelation , or even as Religion extant , the human race would still require periodical intervals of rest
from labour : and I think the experience of ages entitles me to assume that one day out of seven is a reasonable average , and may very fitly be set apart for this purpose of rest from the ordinary occupations of life ; not to speak of devotion . Now , if it be conceded , as it probably will be by all reasonable persons , that , from this point of view , the Sunday is a most useful institution and should be held sacred , it will be obvious that all arguments addressed against the Church ' s dogmas on that head will leave the real point at issue untouched , and , for any practical bearing they can have upon it , may as well be plunged at once into the gulf of Acheron , or , let us say of Lethe , that we may avoid the imputation of
bigotry I So far so good . Man needs a Sabbath , needs a seventh day of rest , one day out of seven ; on it , therefore , only works of necessity or charity should be discharged : —which last is a wide word , capable of no strict or thoroughly self-consistent interpretation , for which small men are so apt to call out . Truly , their call for self-consistency in their sense ( not in " Emersons" ) is almost always the mark of narrow minds , and of a very limited amount of brain . But , now for the particular question , whether or no the delivery of letters pertain to these works of
necessity and charity , —this is , of course , " a moot point , " and much may be said on both sides . I incline decidedly to the negative , though not without some doubts , or half doubts : for we do hear of very awful miseries which are to result from the stoppage of communications , —heart-breaking separations for ever , at least in this woild , without an opportunity for one farewell glance , anS a whole heap of kindred woes . But , I cannot but ask the question in my own mind , —to which neither I , nor any one else as far as I know , has yet returned an answer , — "Why have we heard nothing of such terrible domestic catastrophes
for so many years past in the modern . ' Urbs , the capital of England and the world ? Saturday country letters have now for a long time been only delivered on Monday mornings : and what hearts have been broken in consequence ? How comes it , at least , that we have never heard of such hearts , of any of these conjectured horrors ? "—The truth is , that scarcely a complaint has been uttered ; and the remembrance of this fact goes a very long way to leconcile my mind to the endurance of the calamities suspended in terroreni over us , if the present experiment be finally perpetuated .
But , again , admitting that evils , great evils even , may occasionally arise from the non-delivery of letters , are there no benefits to set off against these ? Ay ; and very considerable and certain benefits ; benefits which appear to me at least to preponderate vastly in the scale ? Need these be named ? Ask « he opinion of the merchants of London as a body . But you need not ask it , lor it has already been expressed veiy definitely ; as has also that of Liverpool and Glasgow ' s wealthy citizens . As for the suggestion that the merchant need not open his letters , if received , unless he likes , it is not practical : why
should the honest or the religious man he alwa \ s distanced in the race ? he who would spare his clerks , and secure a Sabbath , a day of rest , for them and himself ? It is too plain , I fear , that competition will always induce the vast majority of otherwise well-meaning men to avail themselves of that power which is yielded to and employed by one naturally unscrupulous member of their body . The same consideration will apply to country solicitors , and to many another man who receives his letters marked
" Immediate . " He need not open them ; very true ; but he delays at his peril ; and if he does delay , less squeamish " men will certainly and easily be found and employed for the future . Of course , I do not attempt to vindicate this as any lack of principle : men should be prepared to make sacrifices for their convictions , wherever needful ; but I ailirm that , if man requires the rest of one day out of seven , ho ought to have it , and that he ought further , as far as possible , to be placed out of the reach of temptations to transgress .
Even sotting aside Christianity , then , I hold it essential to the interests of labour , labour of every degree , that the Sabhath should be kept holy , "that is , that there should he as little work as may bo on Sundays : and though I do not profess , indeed it is impossible , to lay down any rig . irons rule on this subject , I believe that the delivery of letters on a Sunday , though in individual cases ' it may be a work of charity , almost of necessity , is , on the whole , a grievance , involving a vast amount of needless and mischievous labour , which can only be put an end to
by the stoppage of such delivery . And , therefore , it is I give my vote with the Puritans , though I am no Puritan myself . To avoid misconception , however , I must add , that , being a believer in revelation , and in the Hebrew Book or Bible as its great exponent , I further believe that the Sabbatic law was given from the beginning and is perpetual in its obligation ; the law , namely , that one day out of seven should be kept
holy , devoted more especially to rest , religion , and innocent recreation . I believe , that this day was to be one day out of seven ; but not any one day of the week more than another . I believe , that Moses on specific grounds was commissioned to appoint the Saturday for the Sabbath ; but that this was a'strictly Judaic regulation pertaining to the Jewish law . I believe , and I know , that the Christian Church has substituted the Sunday for the Saturday , in commemoration of the Resurrection from the dead of its
Divine Founder ; but the obligation to keep the seventh day , every seventh day , that is , one day out of every seven , still remains in force , and will do so to the end of time . Such is my faith as a Christian ; but in discussing this question it is unnecessary to be dogmatic or anti-dogmatic ; or to drag in Tertullian , Origen , and Jeremy Taylor , as I see the Leader does elsewhere in a quotation . Is the seventh day of rest to be reserved or not ? If it is , the Postoffice question is plainly one of detail . Here I leave this subject , trusting your readers will have the candour to appreciate what has been written ; and so believe me , Your very humble servant , AltCHER GuiiNEY , Deacon in the English Church .
P . S . As for the newspapers , there may be a Saturday evening edition for London ; but , generally speaking , nobody cares for the Postscript in the weekly papers . Those who see no other paper look for the news of the whole week ; those who read a daily paper look for novelty of idea and illustration . Let John Bull buy or receive his paper on Saturday evening , and read it on Sunday morning , if he thinks it right and fitting so to do .
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THE RULING IDEA OF SOCIETY . LETTER HI . London , July 29 , 1850 . Sir , —When , by the discovery that the formation of our character , and convictions , feelings , will , and actions , is the result of a natural intelligible process of causation , and not , as has hitherto been blindly and irrationally imagined ( in opposition to continually-recurring facts ) , of some mysterious uncaused operation of free agency , the mist which has litherto obscured our mental vision begins to be
dissipated , and we are prepared gradually to acquire the power to look intelligently around us and within us to ascertain what manner of beings we really are , —then , and not before , we shall be enabled to understand how much we have been made to be what we are by the natural powers and tendencies with which we were born , and which we did not make in the least degree , and how much by the external influences which have acted upon us from our birth , and which , also , we had no power to choose or to form , until we had previously received it from external and internal causes beyond our control ; and then , not as a power of free agency , but merely as a capability to think , feel , will , and act , as we are enabled and made to do by our previously-acquired nature or character and the circumstances of the
time . We shall also be enabled to perceive how much we are made to think , feel , will , and act , at every period of our lives , by the character which we have previously been caused to acquire , and how much by the external circumstances of the time ; how much our character is continually being modified by circumstances ; and how much it is capable of being modified and reformed by new and rational influences and impressions , after having previously been misformed by the deranging influences and impressions of the erroneous instruction and other injurious circumstances of the past irrational condition of society .
Then , and not before , we shall be enabled fully to comprehend how fatally injurious in its efFects upon the development of our natural powers and tendencies is the false fundamental idea of present and past society , and how unjust and injurious are all the consequent notions and practices of merit and demtiiit , praise and blame , and artificial rewards and punishments , —that is to say , of rewards and punishments superadded by human ingenuity to the rewards and punishments of natural good or evil consequences .
Then , by tracing effects back to their causes , wo shall discover how poor abused and tormented human nature , besides being cramped and distorted by the vicious influences which have just been aarned , has been further maltreated and duiormed by other causes of evil , and especially by the ignoranceertntid institutions of separate and opposing in * tcrests , and inequalities oi' education and conditioninstitutions entirely at variance with the dictates of equal justice and universal kindness , —with the i > re-
/Imrim /P'Rt1tttt*Rl W4ini Vlbuuulm* Ait I Mt Vvll
( Emm Cmraril .
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446 & !> £ $ Le& 1 iet * [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 3, 1850, page 446, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1849/page/14/
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