Few public acts have provoked such a storm of anger
as the sus- pension of the Post-office on Sundays. Its practical inconveniences Few public acts have provoked such a storm of anger as the sus- pension of the Post-office on Sundays. Its practical inconveniences
eak with the most convincing force to everybody. Families are dismayed; commercial men are hindered and mulcted; the whole country finds itself plunged in a Puritanical custom, without being Puritanical in opinion. But even Puritans are enraged at the in- considerate manner in which the measure has been enforced, without the slightest attempt to diminish inconvenience ; and towns noted for Puritanical feeling in respect to the Sabbath are now loud in execration. The outraged newspaper interest is in arms. Lord John Russell thought it a fine thing to give the coun- try a taste of Ashleyism ; but the anger of the country is directed against himself even more than against Lord Ashley, for the reck- less manner in which he has sacrificed property and private com- forts to a party manoeuvre. The Liberals feel that he has thrust t3abbatarianism upon them without the least warning or prepara- tion; the Sabbatarians feel that he has adopted their measure only to render it intolerable.
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