ater. The time was spent
in riding into the country, walking about the fields and
pastures, and visiting friends in town. But little order was
preserved in the streets on that day. People in passing to
meeting thro' Prison Lane, (as County-street was then called) and
its environs, encountered frequent and large groups of men and
boys, noisily engaged in gambling with props, pitching coppers,
&c. occasionally enlivened by the uproar of a quarrel.

The doctrines of Tom Paine and his French coadjutors, were much
more in vogue then than now. Infidelity stalked over the land
with a giant stride, to which the mincing pace of the fooleries
of Fanny Wright can bear no comparison; and virtue and good order
were almost put out of countenance. Intemperance, habitual or
occasional, was so common, as to be hardly considered a matter of
reproach; and the kindred vices abounded, which usually follow in
its train.

The state of society has been continually improving since. The
bad habits of that time have been discarded one after another, by
all who would maintain a reputable standing; and open immorality
now places a man at once in the lowest rank of society.
Intemperance has been diminished in a surprising degree.
Debauchery has been compelled to retreat to lurking holes and
corners, instead of obtruding its "horrid front" to the public
gaze. Education has been improved, and universally diffused; and
public worship is more generally attended.--Terrible crimes have
indeed been committed amongst us, and may be again, but the
habits and manners which lead to crime, are less prevalent at the
present time than they have been for fifty years before.

It seems to us to be clearly a mistake for those of ultra-liberal notions
to suppose that all who cannot assent to their views of Sunday must of
necessity be either Pharisees or hypocrites,--quite as great a mistake as
that of the ultra-conservatives, who condemn as wicked all who do not
believe in a puritanical observance of Sunday.

Whatever we may think or say or do, people nowadays will not be forced to
attend church. Among all denominations the services are more attractive
than they once were, and every year there is less and less of the repulsive
kinds of doctrine preached. But in spite of this, while many men regard
attendance on divine service as bo