RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN RHODE ISLAND.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Providence (R. I.) Daily Journal, in its issue of August 27, 1879, thus pointedly states the condition of religious liberty in Rhode Island, and appeals for justice:— A few days ago I was at Newport, and while there met Solomon R. Edwards, who keeps a store on Washington square, where, in a small way, he sells meat, milk, etc. He is a member of the Seventh-day Baptist church of Westerly, which comprises (as no doubt you know) many of the most prominent citizens of that town. Mr. Edwards observes very faithfully the seventh day as the Sabbath, in obedience to the fourth commandment of the decalogue, but has no scruples against working on Sunday, though not so as to disturb the quiet of his neighbors or the peace of the community. Not long ago he was sued before a Justice for a breach of the Sunday law, and paid a fine of $5 and costs. The following Sunday he pursued his usual business, was again sued, and fined $10 for this second offense. I learn that the act for which this Christian man was prosecuted was selling a quart of milk and a couple of beefsteaks to one of his neighbors, on Sunday morning. I state this fact so that people who read the Journal may know that religious bigotry has not died out in the Roger Williams State, and also to inquire why this one man, who keeps the Sabbath prescribed by the fourth commandment more scrupulously than we first-day people keep Sunday, should be fined, not for annoying or disturbing his neighbors, but for supplying them with the necessaries of life, while the steamboats are permitted to land hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of excursionists at the Newport wharves every Sunday, and railroads run their morning trains, and ice-men deliver their ice, cigar stores sell their wares, and hackmen carry their loads all over the city, without let or hindrance. The writer is a first-day observer, but believes in granting to others the same rights of conscience which he claims for himself. If the officials of Newport are resolved to carry out the Sunday law, let the city marshal detail a force of his police to visit Commercial wharf, or the railroad depot, or the Ocean House, every Sunday, and arrest those who disturb the peace and quiet of the day. Let them visit the cigar stores. None of these open transgressors of the Sunday law can claim the same exemption which Mr. Edwards claims; for he has kept, and does keep strictly, his Sabbath, while the others keep none. If the law is not obsolete, let it be fully enforced against the first-day as well as the seventh-day Christian, and in Providence as well as Newport.