2. A great diminution of the former amount of letters written and read in the country on that day. [11b]
3. The entire discontinuance of a second delivery of letters on Sunday throughout England and Wales: [12] a measure affecting considerably more than two hundred Towns, and affording direct and immediate relief to a very far larger number of persons.
Nor is it, perhaps, altogether presumptuous to express a hope that the unrestricted transmission of letters on the Sunday may eventually be followed by an equally general suspension of their delivery; by which London and the country would be placed, in this respect, on a footing of perfect equality; the due observance of the Sunday being alike in both secured, with no injurious consequences, in either, to the business of the following day.
Meanwhile, it is ascertained that, by the alterations already effected, a very large body (amounting to some hundreds at least) of persons now occupied on the Sunday in the provincial Offices, even during the hours of public worship, will be enabled to obtain rest on that day, and to enjoy without interruption the benefit of its religious services. [13] The number of principal Post Offices thus benefited, in a greater or less degree,—some to the extent of seven hours of additional suspension of business on every Sunday,—amounts very nearly to five hundred. A very far larger number, at present imperfectly ascertained, of Sub-offices throughout the country, will partake of the same advantage. The total number of persons thus relieved will obviously far exceed that of the aggregate of Offices. And who will say that these great benefits, the direct and principal object (be it remembered) of the whole measure, are utterly vitiated by their unavoidable accompaniment—the employment, namely, of a small additional force in one, the Metropolitan Office, on the same day?
What, then, remains, to justify the agitation occasioned by this measure, but a vague and indefinite suspicion that a change in one direction may lead to a change in the other? that a measure which proposes neither to bring in nor take out a single London letter on the Sunday, [14] may eventually cause, in London itself, both a Sunday collection and a Sunday delivery? that he who now seeks to lighten Sunday labour, to diminish Sunday deliveries, Sunday letter-writing and letter-reading, may hereafter lend his aid to their augmentation and diffusion? Let these evils be met, on their proper ground, and at the proper time. Let the good sense and the religious feeling of the country be appealed to when the danger really threatens. At present, it is as remote as ever. It will not be brought one step nearer by this measure. But it may be increased by a premature and unreasonable outcry, to be succeeded, as usual, by a very natural recoil.
I remain, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
C. J. VAUGHAN.
Harrow,
November 16, 1849