- 
Ld 
; 
, 4 
4’ 
13 
mood, it is up-hill work for his self-constituted friends. Their strongest 
ground is cut away from them. Their ¢ /riori arguments as to the right use 
of a Sunday holiday lose all their force. The working man knows now that 
he has one day in the week to himself, and he declines to be roused to indig- 
nation at restrictions which he does not feel, and at the absence of privileges 
which are of far less importance to him than those which he actually enjoys.” 
—The Times, May 20th, 1882. 
Pending these discussions in Parliament, the question has been 
widely agitated outside of Parliament. 
After the decisive vote in the House of Commons in 1882, an 
appeal was made by both sides to the trades unions and other work- 
ingmen’s societies. The result was that 62 such societies, with 
45,482 members, voted in favor of the opening ; on the other hand, 
2,412 societies, with 501,705 members voted against the Sunday 
opening, and in favor of Broadhurst’s amendment, in addition to 
which the officers of 38 societies, with 29,812 members, signed on 
the same side, in their individual capacity (because their rules for- 
bade political and similar discussions), but expressing their belief 
that their members held the same views. 
These figures were publicly confirmed ,by Earl Cairns in the 
House of Lords last March. Summing up the petitions addressed 
to the House of Commons during the last ten years, he said there 
_ were 3,886 petitions with 524,000 names against the Sunday open- 
ing, 1,587 petitions with 79,900 names in favor of it. (London 
Times, March 21st, 1885). 
The last canvass of clergy (Church of England) in London gave 
six to one against the Sunday opening, while of a total of 744 cler- 
gymen and Nonconformist ministers who voted on a like occasion 
in 1884, there were only 80 who favored even a modified Sunday 
opening, while 664 opposed it —KHnglish Churchman, March 26th, 
1885. 
The most recent expression of the views of workingmen was 
made at the Trades Union Congress, at Southport, in September last. 
A resolution in favor of the Sunday opening of Museums was lost by 
a vote of 69 to 51. 
The London Times of September 12th thus remarks about 
this :— | 
“It is impossible in the space at our command to deal adequately with 
the wide range of subjects on which the Congress has been busy during the 
last few days. There are parts of the election address which we have read 
with pleasure, especially the clause which tells the workingman that his high- 
est duty is not disposed of by attending to his own wants. The Sunday 
opening of museums and picture galleries gave occasion yesterday to a long 
