Transcribed from the 1853 John Snow edition ,
A LETTER
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF DERBY,
ON
THE CRUELTY AND INJUSTICE OF OPENING THE
CRYSTAL PALACE ON THE SABBATH.
“Remember the Day of Rest to keep itholy.”—Fourth Commandment.
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour asthyself.”—The Gospels.
BY
THE REV. B. PARSONS,
OF EBLEY;
AUTHOR OF“ANTI-BACCHUS;” “THE MENTAL AND MORAL DIGNITYOF WOMAN;” “EDU-
CATION THE NATURAL WANT OF EVERY HUMANBEING;” “THE GREATNESS OF
THE BRITISH EMPIRE TRACED TO ITS PRINCIPALSOURCES;” ETC. ETC.
LONDON:
JOHN SNOW, 35, PATERNOSTER ROW;
BUCKNALL & HARMER, STROUD; AND ALLBOOKSELLERS.
1853.
Price One Shilling.
p. 3ALETTER, &c. &c.
My Lord,
Divided as the country is in its political and religioussentiments, there is one subject on which there is a very greatunanimity: and I may add also that this union of opinion existsamong the most moral of your countrymen; the most loyalsupporters of the throne and the constitution; the mostenlightened members of the community; and the most benevolent andphilanthropic individuals in the empire. I need not saythat the point on which all these persons are agreed is“The observance ofSabbath.” Here, my Lord, you have thousands orrather millions of citizens who never trouble the realm in anyway by their vices or disorderly conduct; who are never broughtbefore magistrates or judges for their offences; and who requireno soldiers or police to watch over them and keep them fromdisturbing the commonwealth.
It is a matter of surprise to all sober and reflecting mindsthat you, my Lord, should wish to set yourself in an attitude ofantagonism towards all these peaceful and religious men andwomen; and especially that you should do this mostgratuitously and in defiance of your own creed.
In proposing to have the Pleasure Grounds of the new CrystalPalace thrown open during one half of the Lord’s-day, youinvolved yourself in a responsibility which no one called uponyou to incur, except a small body of railway speculators, and afew theoretic and practical rejectors of the commandments of theMost High. Your coadjutors and instigators are those whonever allow a word of Scripture to stand in the way of theirviews, their pleasures, their prejudices, or their love ofgain. It has become popular of late years for primeministers “to do evil that good may come.” TheMaynooth grant was asked for by few. The Catholicsthemselves did not want it. There has rarely been a measurewhich met with such unanimous opposition; but still it wascarried—most tyrannically carried—in defianceof the voice of the nation: and, how has it worked? Thebelievers in p.4Roman Catholicism knew that it was intended as a brib