the working classes are themselves supporting a system which perpetuates injustice and deprives the poor of true earthly happiness. Let the advocates of Sabbath railway and steam-boat excursions apply their minds more closely to the consideration of our social condition, and they will learn that the ‘necessity’ is to be solely attributed to the avaricious or thoughtless disposition of man, in despite of the intervention of a merciful Creator. The defence is a most wilful imputation on the wisdom and universal beneficence of God. A strict compliance with the Divine law, in any state of society, infuses peace and joy into the dwellings of the poor, and sheds a bright beam of hope across the rugged path they tread! We cannot avoid here referring to a reply, and to a certain extent a just one, which is almost invariably made whenever any remark is offered respecting the desecration of the Sabbath either by labour, railway and steam-boat excursions, or by journeys taken in vehicles. Not to do so would be partial and unjust. The reference is to the number of carriages, belonging to the wealthy, which are seen in the metropolis on that sacred day. It is easy to understand the motives which govern the fashionable _élite_, who exhibit their splendid equipages in our beautiful national Parks on the Sabbath, but it appears and is altogether contradictory when we see the more reflecting and domestic portion of the Nobility and Gentry pursuing the same gay and sinful practice, and thus setting a baneful example to those around them who occupy a more humble position in life. “_They_ have,” it is said, “six other days in the week when they can take their salutary ‘carriage-airings’—it is not so with the poor mechanic.” Nor can we pass unnoticed the number of carriages which are seen every Sabbath at the entrances to our Churches and Chapels—even while some faithful Minister of Christ is sounding the trumpet of alarm to impenitent sinners—with the servants waiting outside, unconscious of the awful warnings which are being uttered within those sacred edifices. Can it be said, in all such cases, that bodily infirmity, age, distance, or even the state of the weather, renders it necessary? Does it not more resemble the boisterous and imperious swellings of the reckless wave than the gentle flowings of the calm waters? While such inconsistencies prevail, the infidel will exult for a time over his supposed triumph, the ribaldist will continue to sneer at the efforts of Christians, and the more cautious worldling will not fail to advance it as a justification for Sabbath desecration.