[72] Second Letter on the late Post Office Agitation, by Charles John Vaughan, D.D., p. 32.
[73] Feb. 21st, 1850.—“Professor Henslow has sent me an amusing reply to a letter from the Lord’s Day Society, requesting him to procure from his parish a petition in favour of total abolition. Mr. Henslow tells them, ‘Under the old dispensation I would willingly have joined you in such a petition, but as a Christian, I feel I ought not.’”—Sir R. Hill’s Journal.—Ed.
[74] Par. Pro. 1850, No. 185, p. 46.
[75] For this speech, which, in justice to Mr. Wallace, I give at length, see Vol. I., Appendix G.
[76] Such inconsistency was not confined to Members of Parliament; the incumbent of a certain parish in which Sunday delivery had been suspended in consequence of a memorial, to which his own signature was attached, no sooner felt the inconvenience of the change than he wrote an indignant protest against it; naïvely declaring that he had never thought the petition would be granted.
[77] “June 14th, 1850.—The Postmaster-General tells me in confidence that the Queen was very much inclined to refuse compliance with the address.”—Sir R. Hill’s Journal.—Ed.
[78] “July 9th.—At the House of Commons. . . . In the course of the evening ——, M.P. for ——, evinced a desire to renew acquaintance with me. For a time I avoided him, but when this was no longer possible, I told him very plainly my opinion as to the ‘Lord’s Day Society.’ (He was one of the deputation which came to me last year.) He replied that he had always done me justice, and referred to what Lord Ashley had said in the House of Commons. On which I rejoined that neither Lord Ashley nor any one else had spoken out in a straight-forward, manly way. He left me, apparently much nettled.”—Sir R. Hill’s Journal.—Ed.
[79] “Hansard,” Vol. CXII. pp. 1214, 1215.
[80] “Report of the Commissioners appointed to investigate the question of Sunday labour at the Post Office.” 1850.
[81] “Sept. 2nd.—Monday.—Yesterday the Sunday arrangements were restored to exactly the same state as before Lord Ashley’s motion.”—Sir R. Hill’s Journal.—Ed.