Mr. Reed, of Hackney, on Tuesday brought up the old
proposal -that no letters should be delivered on Sunday in the country, as the rural postmen wanted their day of rest, and Mr. (3-ladstone promised an official inquiry into the possibility of reducing the Sunday labour of the postmen. He, however, held out little hope, and he ought to have held out none. Except on the distinct Sabbatarian ground that anything is better than Sunday labour, there is no reason whatever in the proposal. -Country postmen are no worse off than country policemen, or 'sentries, or coastguardmen, or officers in war time, or anybody -else whose duty has to be performed on seven days instead of six. They have little to do on Mondays, when a very light London post arrives, and that little might be reduced or abolished, but to stop all deliveries everywhere on the same day would be to stop the post for two days in every week. Lord John Russell, tired of the badgering of the Sabbatarians, gave them their will, and the result was an insurrection of opinion which in six weeks abolished the new rule. Philanthropists of Mr. Reed's stamp always seem to forget that the nation is more important than its servants, and the House is, on all such subjects, simply hypocritical. Let us see the 1,000 Members of Parliament dispense on Sunday with their 1,000 coachmen. They can walk to church just as well as the poor.
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