Wayland, the Marylebone City missionary, and others, all went to show that it is the Sunday drinking that does so much harm, and that was the effect of the late hours at which public-houses were allowed to be kept open. I have just seen forty-eight circulars returned from various employers of labour in different parts of the metropolis, addressed to them by the Committee of the London Temperance League. The questions proposed were as follows:—“Have you perceived any change with respect to the hour at which your workpeople commence their labours on Monday morning? Have you noticed any improvement, or otherwise, with respect to the aggregate amount of time your workpeople are at their employment during the entire week? What is your opinion as to the general effects of the recent Act or Parliament in relation to the management of public-houses, or upon the happiness and well-being of your workpeople? Is it your opinion that the hours during which spirituous and fermented drinks may be obtained on Sundays should be subject to further restrictions?” Of these replies thirty-two were favourable,—twelve decidedly the reverse, and four neutral. Thus we have employers in favour of the new Bill,—the poor in its favour,—many of the publicans, who feel the Sunday trade not to be respectable,—in short all classes in its favour except one, and that a section of the publicans who want to sell more beer, and, to do so, cant about the interests of the working classes and the liberty of Englishmen. Cant at all times is loathsome; the cant of the hypocrite is bad enough, but this is infinitely worse. I know nothing more nauseating, nothing more false. Men talk about the cant of the religious—and we have too much of that; but that does no harm: but this cant is intolerable, one’s stomach turns at it; this raising the fair banner of freedom to pander to the demoralization of the public,—this talk by the publican of the rights of the working-man, in order that he may be decoyed into the public-house and made drunk, and robbed of all he has, is cant as fearful and sickening as any ever uttered.