10 JANUARY 1863, Page 13

THE BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S ON SUNDAY. TO THE EDITOR

OF THE "SPECTATOR." SIR,—Seeing your remarks on the Memorial of the Bishops on Sunday Excursion Trains, I think it right, as one of the sub-

scribers, to state that what you suppose to have been the one object of the memorial, whether desirable or not, did not enter jut) my view of the matter at all. I never expected that the London churches would be better filled if the Sunday excursion trains were to cease running ; nor, I imagine, was that the object of the various Dissenting bodies which have presented memo- rials to the same effect. But my own motive for adding my signature was simply a conviction of the generally pernicious effects of the Sunday railway excursions—a conviction which was forced upon me by the evidence laid before me. I say forced upon me, because, at first, I felt a strong doubt about the propriety of the proceeding, and was inclined to believe that it might be directed against the least of two evils.

As I have had no communication with any other bishop on the subject, I can only speak for myself. But it is not impossible that the case may have been the same with others, and that there are more who are not chargeable with the "imbecility" of "hoping to force the working classes into the churches by earthing up the paths of escape." Few, I think, can have been as sanguine about the success of the attempt, as they must have been sure that it would bring down a great deal of obloquy on themselves.—I am,