That there is a wide difference
between the two cases, no one will be prepared to dispute; that the
difference is such as to prevent the application of the same
principle to both, no reasonable man, I think, will be disposed to
maintain. The great majority of the people who make holiday on
Sunday now, are industrious, orderly, and well-behaved persons. It
is not unreasonable to suppose that they would be no more inclined
to an abuse of pleasures provided for them, than they are to an
abuse of the pleasures they provide for themselves; and if any
people, for want of something better to do, resort to criminal
practices on the Sabbath as at present observed, no better remedy
for the evil can be imagined, than giving them the opportunity of
doing something which will amuse them, and hurt nobody else.
The propriety of opening the British Museum to respectable people
on Sunday, has lately been the subject of some discussion. I think
it would puzzle the most austere of the Sunday legislators to
assign any valid reason for opposing so sensible a proposition.
The Museum contains rich specimens from all the vast museums and
repositories of Nature, and rare and curious fragments of the
mighty works of art, in bygone ages: all calculated to awaken
contemplation and inquiry, and to tend to the enlightenment and
improvement of the people. But attendants would be necessary, and
a few men would be employed upon the Sabbath. They certainly
would; but how many? Why, if the British Museum, and the National
Gallery, and the Gallery of Practical Science, and every other
exhibition in London, from which knowledge is to be derived and
information gained, were to be thrown open on a Sunday afternoon,
not fifty people would be required to preside over the whole: and
it would take treble the number to enforce a Sabbath bill in any
three populous parishes.
I should like to see some large field, or open piece of ground, in
every outskirt of London, exhibiting each Sunday evening on a
larger scale, the scene of the little country meadow. I should
like to see the time arrive, when a man's attendance to his
religious duties might be left to that religious feeling which most
men possess in a greater or less degree, but which was never forced
into the breast of any man by menace or restraint. I should like
to see the time when Sunday might be looked forward to, as a
recognised day of relaxation and enjoyment, and when every man
might feel, what few men do now, that religion is not incompatible
with rational pleasure and needful recreation.
How different a picture would the streets and public places then
present! The museums, and repositories of scientific and useful
inventions, would be crowded with ingenious mechanics and
industrious artisans, all anxious for information, and all unable
to procure it at any other time. The spacious saloons would be
swarming with practical men: humble in appearance, but destined,
perhaps, to become the greatest inventors and philosophers of their
age. The labourers who now lounge away the day in idleness and
intoxication, would be seen hurrying along, with cheerful faces and
clean attire, not to the close and smoky atmosphere of the public-
house but to the fresh and airy fields.
