BOTH SIDES OF A POPULAR QUESTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume X, Issue 698, 3 April 1875, Page 7

BOTH SIDES OF A POPULAR QUESTION.

Sir, — I have ever been alive to the importance of improving the condition of my fellow men, •whether mentally or physically, yet I do not go so far as to endorse the many recreative amusements of the present day provided for them by their dictators, nor do I think that they tend to make men wiser or happier. I am aware that many of these so-called recreative pleasures are encouraged and commended by very worthy citizens for what they consider the benefit of the every day toiling classes, and what is more remarkable, our Legislature, to my mind, m a spasmodic fit of widemindedness, actually suspended the business of the Province for two days, m order to allow the whole community, if they felt so inclined, to go and see the mountebanks and thimbleriggers play their fantastic tricks on a race-course. Now I am narrow-minded enough to suppose that the said legislature would have been shocked had it been requested to suspend business, even for half a day, on Ash Wednesday, the centenary of John Wesley, or the Presbyterian festivals. Such notions would be too absurd for the enlightened or benighted rulers of the day to entertain.

I contend that many of our entertainments are baneful, injuring both health and morals ; whilst the healthier bills of fare, such as lectures, penny readings, concerts, and libraries, are seldom patronised or cared for by the classes they were intended to benefit. As witness the periodical reports from the managers of such institutions. And yet, strange to relate, m the face of this indifference, the benevolent caterers for the public weal are even willing to ignore the geueral order of thing, by tagging on the Sunda}', a day which has hitherto been reserved as one

of rest. This day, our over zealous provide es are desirous of amalgamating with the six work days. I don't think the working inr.ii will thank them for their benevolent conH'Tfraiimu-'.

Six da) 7 s, according to Jack Nastifioht's the.iry, is work enough for one week, without having 10 sweep out and cleanse the flour of a readingroom, and fire-up the furnace of a railway engine or steamboat, or other such every day employment on the Sunday. Whac recreation, I ask, could such a toiler find ? Surely our philanthropists m attempting to build up and remodel the minds of their fellow-mortals on the basis of the own imaginings, have Babel-like created a confusion of ideas and expressions ; so much so, that their towering structure must remain an unfinished and an ugly protuberance m the wake of progressiveness. Now Sir, these prefatory remarks are forced on my mind by the fact that the committee oE the Blenheim Institute and Museum j>«rp° se throwing open their rooms to the public on Sundays.

Leaving out the dire offensiveness of transgressing the Creator's law ami His proclamation, that every living thing to which He has given feeling, and a sense of appreciation of rest, should observe one day out of the seven, and dedicate it to His honour and Holiness. Therefore, how absurd and imbecile on onr parts, to treat with contempt the solemn comma ud o£ one, who might m His justice and anger cousume us m a moment, as He did Pharoah and his host. Of course I surmise that our philanthropists place faith m the Scriptures ; they are not uncivilised heathens, nor disciples of Voltaire. Nay, I feel confident many of them can assure me with virtuous pride, that they are as well up m " Moses and the Prophets," as I am. Well ! lam glad to understand this, because I have the firmer ground to stand upon whenever I can argue with this freethinking age. I would like to ask, what shadow of an excuse can any professed Christian give for diverting the Sunday from the purpose to which it has been set aside for nearly 2000 years.

Have we become wiser than our ancestors were, that we should attempt a new order of things m place of the old, which has hitherto answered our purpose exceedingly well ? A story is current that a Parisian lady of notable literary attainments, questioned the effeminate Lord Chesterfield (the paternal letter writer), as to the reason why the English nation, with its profound wisd<>;n, and superior knowledge to that of the rest r.f the world should take its fundamental principles from the Bible? The courtly nobleman with a profound bow, answered the question by assuring Madame "That so soon as the Fntglish nation could find

anything firmer to rfcac upon, it would, iv its wisdom, adopt it."

Have we but just gained that superior wisdom, that we are so desirous to change this order of things, to which England owes all its greatness, for those of volatile France, and which, by the way, have made that nation so deplorably retrogressive ? What can be gained, I ask, by changing our churches and chapels into reading rooms and theatres ; our Sunday schools into tea or bear gardens? I, for my part, cannot detect the shadow o f an argument m favor of the new regime. The only ghost of a reason our liberal miuded philantropbists can hold forth is, that the working and employed classes have no other day but Sunday wherewith to recreate themselves.

Are the employed m British Colonies so enslaved tbat they dare not agitate for the Saturday or Monday, but rather prefer breaking their Creator's command ? Now Ido not believe that the employed of any class care one iota for the agitation that is got up m their name, any more than they will thank the agitators for their pains. No one can be a more sanguine advocate for multiplying the number of legitimate recreation days for the employed than myself; yet m this Colony their state is such that they are m a better position to know and satisfy their wants than I am to inform or agitate for them. Supposing the clergy were to combine and get up a public remonstrance against the mismanagement of public-houses, the gambling practices on the race-course, the wear anil tear of the body m the midnight revelry of the dancing-room. What a shindy there would be ; how tall we would talk anent the narrow-minded Puritans poking their noses into matters they neither comprehended nor understood. Therefore m justice to them, let us not interfere with their duties, which we neither comprehend nor understand without their help, and as the Lord's Day is committed to their care and keeping, our liberal-mindedi.ess becomes onesided when we invade their territory or attempt to diminish their usefulness. Humbug assumes itself m various forms, and is found among progressionists as well as among the disciples of the old school; yet but few of us can detect it occupying a place m onr individual minds. As a matter of course, I cannot believe that this universal disease reigns m my cranium, so with all the grace m the world, I subscribe myself. —Your 3 sincerely, Anti-Humbug. [The aViove^letter is based upon a serious error. The committee of the Literary Institute have not m any sense thought of opening on Sundays ; and the subject has not even been mentioned at their meetings. It is intended to open the Institute on Saturday afternoons from 2 to 5 p.m., and it is this probably which has misled our correspondent. —Ed. M.E.]