The discussion of the marked disrespect shown by rich Lon-
doners to the observance of Sunday, in the Upper House of Convocation yesterday week, gave the Bishop of Exeter, who had presented the petition which gave rise to it, the oppor- tunity of quoting from one of the society papers a passage in which the writer boasted of the "bold show" made by the Hampton Court and Richmond coaches in Piccadilly, on their way Westward, and of the other amusements, some of them of the vulgarest kind,—at the Pelican Club, for example, it is stated that one can see boxing and hear the pick of the music-hall talent on Sundays,—open to the wealthy West-Enders. Of course, most of these amusements involve a great deal of labour, which makes the day anything but a day of rest to those employed; and they are, indeed, for the most part the amusements of the most frivolous and worthless class in our society. But it is impossible for the Bishops to check the evil by their resolutions, and we are sorry to find the Bishop of London, whose speech was in the main excellent, stating that he hoped that the clergy would impress upon the young that it is "wrong to enter into undue pleasures on the holy day." We should have thought that it is wrong to enter into undue pleasures on any day, Sunday or not,—but the phrase will generally be understood to mean that, without relation to the time they take up, pleasures which are innocent on week-days are not innocent on Sunday. Such a notion we heartily reject. We agree with the Bishop of Winchester, that for the poor and hard-worked, Sunday ought to be a day of recreation in every sense, as well as of spiritual life and teaching, and that the re- laxation of the rigid Puritan Sunday is one of the best features of our modern Christianity. Only, of course, in losing its rigidity, the Sunday ought to gain, not to lose, in spiritual vitality.
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