SUNDAY LETTERS.
THE memorial of the London bankers against the delivery of letters from the Post-office on Sunday, states the only tenable ob- jection to a departure from the present system ; which, It must be admitted, occasions, to an extent not ascertainable, inconvenience, anxiety, and loss. The bankers say that "the quiet and domestic comfort which they, their clerks and dependents, have hitherto derived from the rest of Sunday, has been mainly secured to them by the total cessation of business at the London Post-office on that day." There is no Sir ANDREW AGNEW sanctimony or Juda- ism here. The memorialists, most of whom ride in their carriages to church on Sunday, and return home to dine on game or fish delivered the same morning by the coach-office vans, cannot see any great offence against Christianity in the very quiet operation of taking a few letters out of a post-office box, or the making up of a mail-bag for the country. They rejoice that their " clerks and dependents" should get a supply of fresh air on coaches or steam-boats ; and would not close the shops which supply the Metropolitan population with their weekly joint and potatoes on Sunday morning. Mindful of all that does and must go on in this great city on a Sunday, they do not urge their regard for re- ligien against the delivery of letters. After their example, setting aside all cant on the subject, let us consider both sides of this really very interesting and important question. There are probably few persons who have not been annoyed, if not injured, by the regulation which has delayed the receipt of anxiously-expected communications for twenty-four hours. The inconvenience is not confined to London ; the country suffers from the same cause. In every town and village, there is what the Standard expressively calls "a blank day "in every week, on which no intelligence by mail can be received from the Metropolis : letters not ready in due time on Saturday evening must wait till the following Monday before they can be despatched. Frequently no opportunity occurs of sending parcels by coach on Sunday to the quarter where the accounts are needed. The nearest and dearest relations a man has may be dying, and no means within reach exist of summoning him up to town. Grievous misfortunes might be prevented by the interchange of a line; but it is not permitted to receive or transmit a letter. And the prohibition affects the whole country as far as its intercourse with London is concerned : so that this is not merely a metropolitan, it is a na- tional question ; and though it can be briefly stated, the evil ex- tends far and wide.
On the other hand, consider not only the inconvenience, for that is a very inadequate expression, but the destruction of comfort and happiness, which would arise from the general delivery of letters on Sunday. The competition in every employment is so intense— a slight advantage of time, gained or lost, may be used with such effect for good or evil—that no man of business could safely yen- ture to neglect the means in his power to obtain at least as early information as his neighbour. Every merchant and banker in London would have his clerk stet oned at the Post-office, and his letters on his breakfast-table, or more probably at his counting- house, as regularly on that day as on any other. There would be many letters written to be despatched by express. The London coaches would go out of town laden with clerks and messengers. The anxiety, toil, and weariness of business, would make Sunday a day to be dreaded by masters and clerks. Nor by them only : no small portion of the labouring population—a class, be it ob- served, who, having little correspondence by letter, do not suffer much from the non-delivery on Sunday—would be kept in readi- ness for work, and not unfrequently be employed in it. Suppose an order requiring immediate despatch came to hand on Sunday morning, would not multitudes of employers order their hands to work at it ? The day's wages and a promise of a holyday in the course of the week would overcome most men's scruples. It will be said that letters are delivered in the country on Sun- day, and no such practices follow. This is not entirely true : we have heard of instances in which Sunday letters have made much bustle in country towns. Once upon a time, a glreat London banking-house, with numerous country correspondents, stopped payment late on Saturday ; and the next day, was there not trouble in the provinces ? But, granting that the receipt of cor- respondence does not distract men from their Sabbath rest or en- joyments in the country, does it follow that it would not have that effect in London? It must be noted, that the number of commu-
nications would be incalculably greater than in any other town or district; that they would be generally of more importance, and relate to matters requiring perhaps quicker despatch. Loudon is the centre not only of home but of foreign correspondence. Letters from all parts of the world would be received, and their contents considered, and acted upon in many instances. There would be the same anxious look-out for vessels on a Sunday as on the other six days, and the same eager earnestness for the quick landing of the captains and letter-bags. It should also be recollected, that no part of the British popula- tion require rest so much as the Londoners. The wear and tear of existence is now such as multitudes sink under. Perambulate London streets early on a Sunday morning, and behold the crowds whose week's work is scarcely finished at sunrise. The class above- these is weary and worn by labour of another sort. They all sup- port life by the aid of the weekly rest. There is, then, a choice of evils. We do not under-estimate those which are caused by the stoppage of communication by letter on Sunday ; but we put the question to persons actively en- gaged in the business of life—is not the balance of comfort in tiivour of the present practice ? You have suffered inconvenience,
loss, and trouble, by it —grantel : but would you not, on the whole, suffer more by the change in question, accompanied with the ne- cessity of attending to your secular affairs with all their desagre- meas., instead of enjoying the comparative freedom from care and trouble which the shut letter-box procures for you ?
We suspect that, as regards the great mass of the Londoners, the question is already answered, and that. a more unpopular mea- sure than that of opening the Post-office on Sunday could scarcely be proposed.
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