observances of the Sunday), _will make a total force of little more than half that employed before the 28th of October last_.' So that the very expedient which, notwithstanding its beneficial effects elsewhere, was obstinately condemned on the simple ground of its augmenting Sunday labour in a particular office, has actually resulted, not only in completely effecting all its proposed ends, but in diminishing by nearly one-half the identical labour which it appeared for a moment to augment. "We think the reader will admit that, upon the whole, the outcry by which such a measure as this was represented as a profane and godless scheme for abolishing the observance of the Sabbath, has no equal in history for prodigious and incredible absurdity. Even vaccination, we believe, was never described as a device for actually perpetuating small-pox, whereas the most judicious and effective step in a series of measures expressly designed to abridge Sunday labour has been thus, in the middle of the nineteenth century, represented, taken, and accepted as a deliberate stratagem for destroying the holiness of the Sabbath-day. That the spirit which facilitated the delusion was, in itself, honourable to the country, we freely admit, but that the common sense of Englishmen should be so strangely misled is a fact not very creditable to the national intelligence, or satisfactory to the national pride." Good effects also were soon manifest in another quarter of great importance:-- "_April 30th._--Last night Mr. Hayter, in reply to a question from Mr. Fagan as to when the Sunday arrangements would be extended to Ireland, spoke of them as having given universal satisfaction; an expression which appears to have been well received in the House." In one quarter alone the former wrong was steadily persisted in:-- "_May 9th._--The Lord's Day Society has issued a manifesto in reply to our reports and minutes. It is more offensive and unprincipled than even their former publications." Meantime, as it was necessary, according to long-established practice, to allow some latitude in respect of the force to be summoned on the arrival of an extraordinary mail, I experienced no little difficulty in keeping this liberty within reasonable limits. Thus, though I found that one man was sufficient for dealing with four thousand ship letters, five men had been called in (on Sunday May 12th) to deal with seventeen hundred. I was consequently obliged to require from Mr. Bokenham a report advising a definite rule for preventing such excess; and this being obtained, matters thenceforth went on more smoothly. In short, the measures for Sunday relief being in the course of this month extended to Scotland and Ireland, I regarded the arrangement as complete.