The Paris Sunday Convention
A CORRESPONDENT of the New York Observer, writing of the late Paris Sunday-convention, says:— “The subject was treated chiefly from an economic and sanitary point of view, though the moral and religious advantages of Sabbath-keeping were not lost sight of. . . . The main resolutions, which were adopted after full discussion, favored the observance of the Sabbath by all companies and manufacturing establishments, as well as by private individuals, and urged that in cases where the business required continuous labor, arrangements should be made to allow all employees entire rest for one-seventh portion of time.” Thus it seems that a rather more liberal spirit prevails in France in regard to Sunday than in our own country. Here the one great and all-absorbing object of Sunday-law advocates is to protect the day, while there it appears that a regular weekly rest is the great thing. Nevertheless, the day cannot be separated from the religious character which has been given to it, and legislation must touch it very lightly if it does not afford one class an opportunity to oppress another for failure to conform to their ideas of propriety upon that day.