It is proper to add, in order to prevent misconceptions, that this paper in no way bears on, or is affected by, the question of Establishment or Voluntaryism, compulsion or free action. In some quarters the name of Sir Andrew Agnew has come to be so associated with Sabbath legislation, that his general measures have too often been regarded with some prejudice, even by good men yielding to an undefined alarm about voluntaryism. It is due, however, to his memory to say, that while adhering to the last, with fresh constancy, to his original principles on the subject of legislation, he freely, and as faithfully as freely, held these in suspense in all those Sabbath enterprises where men of opposite views on that point agreed to act together. And, in regard to these pages, let no doubt or suspicion arise in any quarter. Their sole object is to promote harmonious action on the part of lovers of the Lord’s day in the practical promotion of its sanctity by means of moral suasion efficiently directed. The Churchman or the Dissenter who objects to this, because it does not compel, or because it is suspected as compelling, is no true friend of the Sabbath. It has been stated that the agitation of the Sabbath question took its origin in England. It was soon, however, imported into Scotland. Various causes had both delayed the measure there, and at length made way for it. Scotland had long, and for long deservedly, possessed the character of a Sabbath-observing nation; and, notwithstanding its days of declension, the people had been so accustomed to this character, that they lived very complacently on the strength of it. Nor was it till circumstances had awakened them to the sense of the change that had come over their dream, that it was felt necessary to do something in the north actively, as well as elsewhere. The publication of the evidence of Sir Edward Lees, the secretary of the Post-Office, in regard to the Edinburgh mobs which crowded Waterloo Place every Sunday in quest of their letters, and which excited much surprise and not a little displeasure, but was all the while too true, was one of those circumstances which stirred up the Scotch mind to active resistance of the evil. It may also be added, that the very constitution of the Churches in the north tended for a time to lull the people into quietness; for the popular character of these Churches, with their parochial, provincial, and General Assemblies and debates, might well be regarded as in some measure superseding popular agitation. Accordingly, when the English fire crossed the borders, it did not spread at first with any exemplary energy, nor did it burst out with force at all, till a movement took place within the Scottish railway companies to run coaches on the Sabbath-day, in the face of the long-settled convictions and habits of the country. Then, indeed, was shown the efficacy of the popularly constituted Churches in the north,