: The People's Palace and the Religious World or thoughts on public agitation against the promised charter to the new Crystal Palace Company and on Sabbath desecration by Layman - Crystal Palace (Sydenham London England); Sunday legislation Great Britain

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THE PEOPLE'S PALACE AND THE RELIGIOUS WORLD;

OR,

THOUGHTS ON PUBLIC AGITATION AGAINST THE PROMISED CHARTER TO THE NEW CRYSTAL PALACE COMPANY, AND ON "SABBATH DESECRATION."

BY

A LAYMAN.

"THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN, NOT MAN FOR THE SABBATH."

INTRODUCTION.

DISAGREEMENT with the object and dislike of the tone of the incipient agitation for preventing the concession of a Royal Charter to the Crystal Palace Company, except upon the condition of its gates being closed on Sunday--a desire to vindicate the consistency of many religious people, whose silence might be construed into sympathy with the movement--and the wish to offer a few thoughts on the impolicy, in a religious point of view, of such attacks on the pleasures of the poor:--are, in brief, the motives which have determined the printing of the following pages. The Writer believes the ground traversed is firm and solid, though he is unable to beguile the journey with those flowers of rhetoric and gleams of warm fancy with which more gifted writers can brighten their course. Though inexperience in book-making and pamphleteering is no excuse for unsound conclusions, he hopes it may avail to disarm the severity of criticism. Convinced that for the advantage of true religion, as well as its professors, the ideas he has broached require to be freely, closely, and sincerely discussed, he ventures to claim for them candid and unprejudiced consideration. He hopes it is superfluous to state that he has no pecuniary interest in, nor connexion with, the project in question.

SHALL the new Crystal Palace be open on Sunday? This question is exciting a good deal of attention--especially in the religious world, and is likely to attract more, ere finally set at rest. It is a question of magnitude, and possibly of political importance. It becomes, therefore, the duty of all who feel interested in its solution, to ascertain clearly the facts upon which it is based, the principles with which it is bound up, and the consequences which will flow from its decision. The occasion seems to have been seized upon by what may be called the Sabbatarian party, to make a determined stand on behalf of the principle for which they have often fought and been vanquished--the right of the religious world to impose their notions of Sabbath observance upon the community at large. The particular point at issue may be readily decided by any unbiassed mind, on examination of the actual facts. But the Sabbatarians refuse to be bound down to the case as it stands. They exaggerate and pervert the facts; and, under cover of the smoke and excitement thus created, advance to a general assault upon what they term "Sabbath desecration." The design of the next few pages is rather to point out the impolicy, danger, and hopelessness of any public movement to prevent the opening of this place of recreation on the Sunday, than to advocate or defend that step.

The end sought by the objectors is twofold--first, the prevention of the threatened act of "Sabbath desecration" by Royal authority; and second, the entire closing of the Palace on Sunday. To produce the greater effect upon the public, the two questions are ingeniously, but unscrupulously, mixed up, and furnish a wide margin for that kind of indignant declamation on encroaching upon "the poor man's day of rest," opening the floodgates of vice and irreligion, &c., &c., which is likely to tell on the unreflecting. For purposes of dispassionate inquiry, the questions are better separated.

There is no escape, therefore, from the conclusion, that if the Crystal Palace grounds are to be closed on Sunday--the present law being confessedly inadequate for that purpose--it must be by a new act of legislation, not of specific, but of general application--an act which will include Hampton Court as well as Sydenham, and Rosherville as well as Hampton Court--which will have the effect of shutting up every place of popular recreation on Sunday. Are the objectors to the Crystal Palace Charter prepared for such a wholesale crusade against the recreations of the people? Have they contemplated such an alternative? Probably not--that is, so far as the rank and file of the new agitation are concerned. As respects the leaders, experience is the best test; and from the avowed desire of the Lord's Day Society, the Agnewites and the Plumptres, to enforce by law the "bitter observance of the Sabbath" upon the nation, it may be easily imagined that they have anticipated such a crisis, and rather chuckle at the dilemma in which many timid friends of religious freedom--panic-stricken at the prospect of increased "Sabbath desecration"--would thereby be placed. Let the latter take warning in time. It is only by a sweeping measure of legislation which would raise the working classes up in arms against the religious world, that the new Crystal Palace, or rather its grounds, can be closed on Sunday.

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