THE ATHENAEUM QUESTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3455, 19 March 1874, Page 3

THE ATHENAEUM QUESTION.

At a meeting yesterday of gentlemen interested in having the Athenaeum closed on Sundays, the opinions of the legal gentlemen who were consulted as to whether it was legal to open the institution on Sundays, were read. Messrs Macassey, Smith, G. E. Barton, and Haggitt were consulted, and the question put to them was : As Sunday is, by the common and statute laws of England, j. dies non, and as neither the Provincial Ordinance incorporating the Athenamm, hor the rules on the schedule, say anything of Sunday, have the committee the power to open the institution on Sunday ? Mr Macassey answers that he sees nothing in the Ordinance prohibiting the opening of the Athenaeum on Sundays, the second rule in the schedule vesting the committee with the most absolute power of determining when and under what conditions the institution shall be open to members. He adds; The opening of the Athenaeum on fcsuuaay is obviously a matter connected with the management of the Institution, and I have little doubt that under the 2nd rule the Committee could have authorised the opening of

i ii. k ecß ? um 011 Sunday, without reference to the members for their opinion or approval, ihe action of the Committee would probably nave been open to a different consideration, had they required any of the naid servants of the Institution to attend on Sunday. Such attend-; ance could not have been legally enforced, ihat, however, would be a question between the Committee and the servants, and has no direct bearing upon the abstract power of the Committee to open the Athenaeum on Sunday, it will be clearly competent to the present or a succeeding Committee to close the Institution on Sunday at any time.” Mr Barton, after reviewing, elaborately the English law on the i. c J» s ays '• —“ My own opinion is that the English law allows the opening of the Athenaeum on Sundays. I think the real question is whether the opening is or is not a radical of the Committee of Management, and -in making it the Committee has acted ultra vires I have simply to advise whether the change is a lawful::6ne, and if' so, whether it has been effected in a lawful manner. It is in my- opinion, a lawful change, but it has not been effected in a lawful manner.” Mr Smith says—lu my opinion the Com-mittee-have fuR power to open the Institution on Sundays, Ihe objects of the Institution, as denned in section' 3 of the Ordinance, are, in my opinion, all such as may lawfully be carried out on Sundays ; and, therefore, the presumption.is that the Legislature intended the. Institution to be open on Sundays as well as other days, unless the Coixitriittec, in the exercise of

tue .discretion-which- they possess under-their general power of management, should think fit to close it oh Sundays; . T-V.S . . I a i» not aware of any statute which has made any of the objects of the Institution iti question unlawful on Sundays. The Provincial Ordinance is silent on the subject, and therefore the common law prevails., /The result .is that, in my opinion, the Committee, under their general power of management, may open or close the Institution on Sundays at their discretion. . , . The real question is Have the Committee acted ultra «im in opening the Institution on Sundays’ In my. opinion, as above stated, they have not. They have, in my opinion, introduced no fundamental change, but have only exercised a lawful discretion contemplated by th e Ordinance, and one, which does not require the sanction of any portion of the members outside of the Committee.” And lastly, Mr Haggitt says—-“I;am of opinion that the opening of the Athcn.eum on Sundays is a matter connected iVith tne genferal management of the Institution, and is therefore (under Rule No, 2) vested in the Committee. Sunday is not a dies non, except in those enseg where the statute law has tqado it ao, either in terms or by the doing of certain acts upon that day. Ip the section of the Ordinance quoted, ip the case, eight days’ notice is mentioned, and no one would contend that in computing those eight days Sunday would have to be excluded. It would not be contrary to law to

hold a special meeting of tb e members on a Sunday if the meeting was otherwise properly convened. As the law does not forbid the keeping open of such an Institution as the Athenaeum on a Sunday, it is perhaps 'fortunate that the rules are quite silent as to what days the Institution is to be kept open upon; for had the rules required it to be kept open daily during certain hours (not expressly excepting Sunday), the Committee inight have been compelled by process of law to keep it open during those hours on Sundays as well as other week days. Had any of tbe rules in any way regulated the opening of P l 6 two-thirds of. the members present at a properly constituted meeting to alter or vary such *■}*■ lea* having been decided at a former sitting that tbe meeting should be guided by the majority of the opinions of the legal gentlemen, it was now resolved that no legal action should be taken for the closing of the Athenseum on Sundays, • »