out in such stews as these, and makes it criminal for them to eat
or drink in the fresh air, or under the clear sky. Here and there,
from some half-opened window, the loud shout of drunken revelry
strikes upon the ear, and the noise of oaths and quarrelling--the
effect of the close and heated atmosphere--is heard on all sides.
See how the men all rush to join the crowd that are making their
way down the street, and how loud the execrations of the mob become
as they draw nearer. They have assembled round a little knot of
constables, who have seized the stock-in-trade, heinously exposed
on Sunday, of some miserable walking-stick seller, who follows
clamouring for his property. The dispute grows warmer and fiercer,
until at last some of the more furious among the crowd, rush
forward to restore the goods to their owner. A general conflict
takes place; the sticks of the constables are exercised in all
directions; fresh assistance is procured; and half a dozen of the
assailants are conveyed to the station-house, struggling, bleeding,
and cursing. The case is taken to the police-office on the
following morning; and after a frightful amount of perjury on both
sides, the men are sent to prison for resisting the officers, their
families to the workhouse to keep them from starving: and there
they both remain for a month afterwards, glorious trophies of the
sanctified enforcement of the Christian Sabbath. Add to such
scenes as these, the profligacy, idleness, drunkenness, and vice,
that will be committed to an extent which no man can foresee, on
Monday, as an atonement for the restraint of the preceding day; and
you have a very faint and imperfect picture of the religious
effects of this Sunday legislation, supposing it could ever be
forced upon the people.

But let those who advocate the cause of fanaticism, reflect well