THE LAW OF SABBATH-PROFANATION.
MODERN zeal for the sanctification of the Sabbath promises to sup- ply us not only with a number of statutes, but with such a body of judicial precedents as may go near to make out a department of the law worthy of being digested into four octavo volumes neatly bound in calf ; and affording, like Doctors Commons and the Old Bailey, employment for a distinct body of lawyers. Two import- ant classes of cases came under discussion at Bow Street on Monday last, in consequence of several publicans being summoned for having opened their doors before one o'clock on Sunday. The landlord of the Sun was fined five shillings, for having opened five minutes too soon ; the landlords of the Artichoke and Blue Anchor, ten shillings, for having opened ten minutes too soon. These decisions seem to establish that the penalty for breaking the Sabbath is one shilling sterling for every minute so employed. A more difficult point was mooted in the case of the landlord of the Crown and Still : he had set his clock by St. Paul's, which he heard strike at twelve, and had opened as soon as it pointed to one : the Police had been guided by the clock of St. Clement's church. The Magistrate intimated, that, in his opinion, the clock of the parish-church ought to be the publican's guide ; but he hesitated to settle the point by a decision, and dismissed the case. So we shall probably have a declaratory act of Parliament on the subject.
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