Agnew was Member of Parliament for Wigtownshire, 1830–1837. He stood as a moderate reformer, but soon became deeply attached to the cause of Sabbatarianism, and pressed for the banning of all secular labour on Sunday. For this purpose he introduced no less than four Sabbath Observance Bills in the Commons, none of which passed.[1] It was the third attempt which drew on him the wrath of Charles Dickens, whose essay Sunday Under Three Heads (1836) is very largely a personal attack on Agnew,[2] whom he described as a fanatic, motivated by resentment of the idea that those poorer than himself might have any pleasure in life.
One of Dickens' many criticisms was that the Bill would clamp down on the poor but not the rich, even though Sunday was often the only day of rest available to the poor. A comparison with Net Zero is obvious - the Puritanical suppression of working people for spurious reasons of spurious virtue.
With one exception, there are perhaps no clauses in the whole bill, so strongly illustrative of its partial operation, and the intention of its framer, as those which relate to travelling on Sunday. Penalties of ten, twenty, and thirty pounds, are mercilessly imposed upon coach proprietors who shall run their coaches on the Sabbath; one, two, and ten pounds upon those who hire, or let to hire, horses and carriages upon the Lord’s day, but not one syllable about those who have no necessity to hire, because they have carriages and horses of their own; not one word of a penalty on liveried coachmen and footmen. The whole of the saintly venom is directed against the hired cabriolet, the humble fly, or the rumbling hackney-coach, which enables a man of the poorer class to escape for a few hours from the smoke and dirt, in the midst of which he has been confined throughout the week: while the escutcheoned carriage and the dashing cab, may whirl their wealthy owners to Sunday feasts and private oratorios, setting constables, informers, and penalties, at defiance. Again, in the description of the places of public resort which it is rendered criminal to attend on Sunday, there are no words comprising a very fashionable promenade. Public discussions, public debates, public lectures and speeches, are cautiously guarded against; for it is by their means that the people become enlightened enough to deride the last efforts of bigotry and superstition. There is a stringent provision for punishing the poor man who spends an hour in a news-room, but there is nothing to prevent the rich one from lounging away the day in the Zoological Gardens.
Charles Dickens - Sunday Under Three Heads (1836)
What particularly seemed to rile Dickens was how blatant it all was. As blatant as we see today with rich proponents of Net Zero flying around in private jets. The similarity is difficult to miss.
6 comments:
"a fanatic, motivated by resentment of the idea that those poorer than himself might have any pleasure in life." Reminds me of Boris's underlings enjoying parties during lockdown, 2TK's lovely lockdown Beer & Curry, Kinnock Jr's illicit drive to London, Dominic Cummings's jaunt to the North East, the SNP MP who travelled by train while infectious with Covid, etc, etc. In other words it reminds me not just of puritanism but hypocritical puritanism.
dearieme - and today, people don't need a Dickens to tell them about it. I'm surprised those who would rule over us aren't more careful about hypocrisy, but they don't appear to see it in time.
They don't need a Dickens to tell them about it, but it often helps if a commentator helps people to see it in a particular way. Sometimes we don't even notice the obvious ethical dimension unless someone points it out.
Perhaps satire is no longer acceptable... Punch is no longer published, although Private Eye sadly is (a shadow of its former self). Spitting image never regained its popularity.
Maybe the litigious nature of the wealthy has supressed satire?
“ Kinnock Jr's illicit drive to London” … has a certain je ne sais quoi.
Sam - as if there is a division between those who notice the obvious ethical dimension and those who don't because fake ethical dimensions obscure the view.
DJ - or the best opportunities for satire have shifted towards satirising the political left which leaves many satirists floundering and afraid of offending those they must not offend.
Anon - for me there is a touch of fifties movies and a late night car journey.
Post a Comment