I have now discharged, however imperfectly, the task imposed upon me by circumstances which I must still deplore. Earnestly, most earnestly, do I desire the thankful and reverent observance of the Lord’s Day, with which I believe our national as well as individual welfare to be closely, inseparably linked. Deeply do I lament the condition of those weary and comfortless labourers, who are cut off from the inestimable blessings to be derived from its holy rest. It is because I believe that many of the provincial officers of our national Post Office are involved in this calamity, and that the present measure contemplates, and in part effects, their emancipation, that I have condemned the blind hostility with which it has been assailed, and laboured to expose the misrepresentations by which that hostility has been fostered. While, however, the late alteration has been, in my opinion, a measure of relief, for which many will have cause to be thankful, it is not a final measure. The Government itself has not so regarded it. Other measures of Sunday relief have followed and are following it in quick succession. Already the order is given for the final closing (as a general rule) of every country Post Office on the Sunday, at ten o’clock in the morning. I have intimated in my former Letter the particular hopes which I entertain of a still further reform. {33} I do not despair of the arrival of a day when every Post Office throughout England and Wales shall have followed yet more completely the example of the Post Office of London; when the ordinary delivery of letters shall be totally suspended every where on the Sunday, while at the same time, from a due regard to the infinite necessities of a great country in an advanced stage of civilization, the sanctity of the day of rest is not so interpreted as to shorten practically by one the six days of labour. To this extent, at least, my own hopes and wishes are carried. If it should prove that even more than this can safely be attempted; that the transmission, as well as the delivery, of letters may from the Saturday to the Monday be suspended; far be it from me to raise a finger in hindrance of so unexpected, yet theoretically so desirable, a result. Let me only express a hope, that, if this demand be seriously urged upon the attention of the Government and the Legislature, it may not be made in a spirit which must rouse the just indignation of those to whom it is addressed, while it alienates the sympathy of every candid and reasonable mind. Believe me, my dear Sir, Yours very truly, C. J. VAUGHAN. LAPWORTH RECTORY, _December_ 29, 1849. _By the Same Author_. SERMONS, chiefly Parochial. 8vo. 1845. SERMONS, preached in the Chapel of Harrow School. 8vo. 1847.