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The following item is from the “Observer” of Jan. 21, 1829:—­

THE REPORT OF THE SENATE ON THE SUNDAY MAILS.  The Portsmouth Advertiser has attacked this Report, “tooth and nail,” imputing to it an influence as disastrous as that which attends the writings of Tom Paine or Citizen Brisset.  The writer states, that the Senate by adopting it, “has virtually declared, that the laws of Almighty God are no rule for human legislation.”  We will give one more extract from these remarks, to enable our readers to form a judgment of the writer’s character.  He must certainly belong to that unfortunate class of the community, for whom “strait-jackets and a spare diet,” are usually prescribed.

“By this report, Col.  Johnson has put weapons into the hands of infidelity to annoy and harass that very portion of the republican community, which furnishes the only hope, and pledge, that our free institutions will continue permanent.”

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The following account of a Parisian Sabbath we find in the “Salem Observer” of 1830: 

PARISIAN SABBATH.  There is little in the appearance of Paris on a Sabbath morning to remind us that it is a day of rest; the markets are thronged as on other days, carts and drays and all sorts of vehicles, designed for the transportation of merchandise are in motion; buying and selling and manual labor proceed as usual; there is rest for neither man nor beast.  In the afternoon the shops are usually closed; and labor is suspended, and the remainder of the day is devoted to pleasure.  Few of those who go to church appear to have any other motive than amusement.  They walk about the aisles, gazing at the pictures, and listening to the solemn music of the mass and go away when they are tired.  Those whom I have seen really engaged in worship appeared to belong to the lower classes; and with the exception of those few, the persons you see in church are merely idle spectators, attracted thither by curiosity, or to pass an idle half hour before they go to promenade in the gardens. —­Wheaton’s Travels.

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In the “Salem Observer” of Dec. 10, 1829, is the following notice on the Sunday-mail question:—­

     SUNDAY MAILS.  The following resolution on the subject of stopping
     the mails on Sundays, was passed at a recent session of the Salem
     Baptist Association in Kentucky:—­

“Resolved, That we as an Association cordially approve the Report and resolution, as presented to the Senate of the United States, by Col.  R.M.  Johnson, Chairman of the Committee upon the subject of the petition to stop the mail on the Sabbath:  and sincerely advise all friends of civil and religious liberty, to refuse to subscribe any petition that has the least tendency to influence the legislative