Object of the month February 2012
Dickens ‘Sunday under Three Heads', 1836
Every month a volunteer chooses an interesting object, book or document from the Library collection, which is displayed in the hall of the Library.
We celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Dickens's birth (7 February 1812) with our object of the month, his pamphlet ‘Sunday under Three Heads', which was published in 1836 under the pseudonym ‘Timothy Sparks'.
Dickens wrote the pamphlet in response to Sir Andrew Agnew's proposal in 1836 of the Sunday Observance Bill, which would outlaw not only Sunday trading and labour but also travelling in steam boats and the hiring of carriages, restricting access to recreational pleasures like travelling to the countryside. At least it would for the working class; the rich could afford to own a carriage and thereby avoid penalties. As Dickens puts it, ‘it is directed exclusively ... against the amusements and recreations of the poor'. Opposition to the Bill pointed out this inequality, and Dickens uses his novelistic skills to sketch a vision of three Sundays: ‘As it is', ‘As Sabbath Bills would make it', and ‘As it might be made'.
According to Dickens, legislation like this would have the effect of turning the working class away from religion as they would associate it with unfair prohibitions. Genuine religious feeling could be cultivated in them, but never forced by imposing hardships such as restricting their access to innocent pastimes on their day off. For him, the Bill would increase conflict between rich and poor but the ideal Sunday would heal it. His sketch of a Sunday in the countryside illustrates what he would like to see provided for the urban poor: large fields on the outskirts of London to allow them to play games and enjoy fresh air, and Sunday hours at the British Library and the National Gallery to allow access to culture. Our current exhibition, ‘The Clarion - a paper, a movement, a way of life', shows how working-class people in the early 20th century would provide this for themselves.
The Bill was defeated in 1836, but was passed in a revised form in 1837. The death of William IV in that year caused the dissolution of Parliament, and the Bill was not implemented since Agnew was not returned to the House in the general election which followed.