10 
To the same effect, said Lord Cairns, in the same debate : 
‘** The institution of Sunday is only maintained because the vast majority 
of the people of this country, altogether irrespective of churches or denomi- | 
nations, are convinced that it depends not upon human law, but upon a higher 
and greater law which we are all bound in conscience to obey. If your Lord- 
ships, by your vote, leave the country to think that the institution of Sunday 
has no such sanction as those to which I allude. you will shock the conscien- 
ces of a vast majority of the people of this country, and also lead, in my opin- 
ion, to the destruction of Sunday as a day of rest.” 
In the House of Commons, the last discussion of af motion 
was in May, 1882. Mr. Broadhurst, member for Stoke, the leading 
representative in Parliament of the Trades Unions, himself a Trades 
Unionist of twenty-four years’ mombership, opposed the motion, 
and proposed the following amendment: ‘“ That in the opinion of 
the House it is undesirable that Parliament should further promote _ 
the employment of Sunday labor by authorizing the opening of the 
National Museums and Galleries, which are now closed on that day, 
but that such Museums and Galleries should be open between the 
hours of six and ten P. M., on at least three evenings in each 
week.” He said : 
Le, 
“T regret exceedingly to find myself compelled to vote against the motion 
now under debate. I have taken this action entirely and distinctly in the in- 
terest of labor, and on behalf of that cause, with which I have been identified 
nearly all my life; and I say most distinctly that it is in the interest of labor 
that we should keep the seventh day as free and as fully relieved from all 
associations of labor as it is possible for us to do. I oppose this resolution —_ 
also on the ground—and there can be no doubt upon the point—that there is 
no sufficient demand in the country to warrant the House in adopting the 
resolution submittéd to it; and if the object aimed at is to bring the people 
nearer to the museums, or the museums nearer to the people, it would be far 
better and more safely accomplished by the plan which I have suggested in 
my amendment than it could possibly be by the motion of my honorabl® | 
friend. Then again, if the resolution has any effect, it will only loosen the 
ties which now bind us together in defence of an absolute rest from labor on 
one day in seven. (Hear, hear.) With regard to the supposed demand in the 
country in favor of this motion, I find that there is not a single speaker on 
the opposite side who has for a moment atiempted to contend that there is 
any considerable demand for this motion. Now, it is said that our working 
people have no opportunity of visiting those places unless we give them an 
opportunity of going on Sunday. (Dissent from an honorable member.) 
Well, my honorable friend, I fear, has not followed the change in the cireum- 
stances of the people as closely as I have. Consider what has been done 
during the last twenty-five years in favor of lessening our working hours on 
Saturday, and for starting ata later hour on Monday morning. If you peruse — 
the arguments that have been used by the workingmen in conferences between 
the employers and the employed, upon the platform and in the press, in sup- 

