sanction, around the observance of the holy Sabbath. A filial and pious mind will need no other motive to insure its ready and faithful obedience. That God hath commanded and enforced it with the promise of his blessing and the threatening of his curse, is enough. "Thus saith the Lord" is final and decisive. At the same time, it will add strength to the convictions of such a mind, as well as gain many other minds, to observe how God challenges and secures a witness for himself and his Sabbath, in the actual lessons of daily human experience. To this end this chapter will be wholly occupied with extracts from actual testimony to the advantages of Sabbath observance, submitted to the British parliament in 1832.

APPOINTMENT AND REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.

In the summer of 1832, a select committee was appointed by the house of commons in Great Britain, "to inquire into the laws and practices relating to the observance of the Lord's-day, and to report their observations thereupon." The committee consisted of Sir Andrew Agnew, Mr. Fowell Buxton, Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Evans of Leicester, Mr. Stanley, Sir Robert Inglis, Mr. Andrew Johnston, Mr. Alderman Hughes, Mr. Mackinnon, Lord Viscount Morpeth, Mr. Sinclair, Mr. Charles Calvert, Mr. Sadler, Mr. Alderman Thompson, Mr. Wyse, Sir Thomas Baring, Mr. George Lamb, Mr. Briscoe, Lord Ashley, Mr. Goulburn, Mr. Littleton, Mr. Serjeant Lefroy, Mr. Alderman Venables, Mr. George Murray, Mr. Pringle,

Mr. J. E. Gordon, Mr. George Byng, Lord Viscount Sandon, and Mr. Ruthven.

The committee had "power to send for persons, papers, and records."

They entered upon their

work on the 6th of July. Ninety individuals were called before them, and seventeen days devoted to hearing their testimony. In August, the committee made their report to the house of commons, and were authorized also to report "Minutes of Evidence." The Report, with the Minutes of Evidence, was communicated by the commons to the lords, and on the 26th of February, 1833, was ordered by parliament to be printed.

The inquiry and the Report extended to many of the more prominent modes of violating the Sabbath, prevalent in Great Britain, such as, Sunday marketing; driving cattle and sheep to town for the Monday markets; unnecessary travelling for amusement or business; plying of steamboats and railroad cars; Sunday printing; Sunday baking; sale of provisions and other articles in shops; keeping open of public houses, beer shops, gin shops, &c., at which crowds of idle, lewd, and disorderly persons assemble, wasting the wages of their previous week's labor, and committing many immoralities and breaches of the peace, most offensive and injurious to their neighbors, and ultimately destructive to themselves.

In the course of the inquiry, seven thousand of the journeyman bakers in London and vicinity petitioned parliament to secure to them the Sabbath as a day of rest; and on examination it appeared that, by custom, which the law had sanctioned, nine hours of labor on every Sabbath were required of them; that they suf

fered greatly in health from this continued round of toil; and that it was nearly impossible for them to attend any place of religious worship on that day. In reference to the sacrifice of health in this case, "an acute and experienced medical gentleman," say the committee, "speaking generally of the effect, affirms that, from the constitution of the human frame, the absence of the periodical relaxation afforded by the weekly Sabbath brings on, necessarily, premature decay and death."

It was also in evidence, say the committee, that “Sunday labor is generally looked upon as a degradation; and that in each trade, in proportion to its disregard of the Lord's-day, is the immorality of those engaged in it;" and, further, "that innumerable unhappy individuals, who have forfeited their lives to the offended laws of their country, have confessed that their career in vice commenced with Sabbathbreaking and neglect of religious ordinances."

The following extracts from the "Minutes of Evidence" will show the nature of the testimony on these several points:

MR. RICHARD GREGORY.-Was born at Spitalfields; reside in that neighborhood; am treasurer of the poor and paving rates for the parish of Christ's Church, Middlesex, and also a potato salesman and large grower of potatoes in the county of Essex. In respect to the effect of the Sunday market on the morals of the people in our neighborhood, I would say, I have from seventeen to twenty laborers in our business in Spitalfields, and we generally have had, from their being suffered in public houses on a Sun

day morning, three or four, or sometimes five, who have not been able to come to work on the Monday. We give them always one pound a week, and we never give them less. From their being permitted to remain in the public houses, there is generally a fight on Sunday, and their being congregated together in the low parts of Whitechapel, they get drinking, quarrelling, fighting, and rioting to a great extent. I think if these houses were shut up on a Sunday morning, the men's morals would be greatly benefited by it.

I have had experience for many years among the butchers, and other tradesmen of that sort, and know that they are accustomed to keep open their shops for a considerable portion of the Sabbath-day. The most respectable part of the butchers would wish to sell nothing on Sunday. In our parish, we have one or two who never sell a joint of meat on that day; and they are the most respectable butchers in the parish, and do as well, or better than any body else.

I have found, in the course of my experience, that the laboring men who spend their Sunday mornings in an orderly and religious manner, are the best workmen, the best husbands and fathers, and the most industrious men. I have found this universally the case; and I employ all descriptions of countrymen Welshmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, and Englishmen.

MR. JOHN TORREY.-I reside in White Row, Spitalfields, am a currier by trade, and have served, in fact, in all the parish offices. That in which I have chiefly served is that of constable, some years ago. I am now, and have been for twelve years, a governor

of the poor of the parish of Christ Church. I have known Spitalfields market for twenty years.

When I was in office as constable, I attempted to put a stop to the Sunday traffic, and did it effectually, the whole Sabbath, for some twelve months; and, during that time, a great improvement took place in the moral condition of the inhabitants. It did not continue after I went out of office; for the gentleman who succeeded me, and the other officers, did not think we ought to have been so strict; and so it became as it is now.

I should say, decidedly, the disregard of Sunday has a very bad effect upon the morals of the inhabitants. I agree with the last witness, that those who are most strict in a decent observance of the Sabbath, are, generally speaking, the best inhabitants of the parish-best in themselves, and best towards their families. They send their children to our national school, and those who superintend the schools - and I happen to be one of them-know this.

I conceive that serving on a Sunday is injurious also to the pecuniary interests of the individual. I see, by most tradesmen round, that those who shut their shops on Sundays are the people who do the best. Mr. Gregory, I believe, mentioned one who was a church-warden, who keeps a cook-shop; and he never did serve on a Sunday, and has a good trade, and has certainly grown rich more than his neighbors.

MR. GEORGE WILSON.I reside in Tothill Street, Westminster; have been overseer of the parish of St. Margaret for the last year. I have had particular opportunity of seeing the state of the parish on Sunday mornings, and would say that drunkenness, and