Under a combined pressure from the Primate of all England,
the representatives of Exeter Hall, and the Scotch Members of Parliament, Lord Palmerston has caused the performances of music in the Parks on Sunday evening to be discontinued. This is one of the most unpleasant oeeurrenees during the Ministry of Lord Palmerston. It is a concession made confessedly against the, oonviotion and the wish of the Minister. It is a triumph to one aide at the expense of a public mortification. It is a ques- tion of conscience in which one part of the community has been compelled to obey the scruples of the other. The conflicts upon the irreconcilable differences of religion never take so disagreeable, and in some respects so dangerous a form, as when they turn upon the minor questions of custom or manners ; and the Government has in this ease found itself in a false position that should never have been assumed. The difficulties to be encountered in attempting the innovation ought to have been foreseen, and Government should have pondered well before It commenced a practice for which there was no peremptory demand, but from which, having begun, it could not turn back without • loss of character.
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