BANK HOLIDAYS' ACT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 182, 4 August 1871, Page 4

BANK HOLIDAYS' ACT.

From the London Telegraph May 29. There are two omnipotent authorities which at different periods rule our lives — Parliament and head masters — and of all the prerogatives exercised by the masters, tbe most fascinating used to be that of giving holidays. We appeal to the memory of every schoolboy upon the subject. There was a cricket match coming off, a game at football, or some other youthful pleasure, if the dread being who presided over the school destinies could only be brought to smile upon the design. The matter of begging for a half-holiday was anxiously debated in a school assembly, where the lucky lads who happened to be in favor, or whose Latin prose had woo an applauding bene, were thrust upon the dreadful honor of forming the deputation, Sometimes even the boldest shrank from that terrible interview — for who could tell ? — the head mast3r might have a toothache, or be laboring under severe indigestion; he might be "not i' the vein" for a hundred reasons, in which case the ambassadors of the daring message would not only encounter a stony refusal, but be furthermore set down in tbe black books of the despot as lazy and intrusive. When the school met, and the thrilling moment approached, how the head master's countenance was scanned ! A battery of keen young eyes watched to see if he looked good-humored. "He smiles ! Great Jove, he smiles ! " Some happy thought about tbe digamma or the enclitic de tickled his mighty mind; and in that same auspicious instant the heroic deputation ventured to accost him. The prayer was tremblingly uttered by theßarnabas — the chief speaker — of the occasion. The poor little boyish pleas were all urged, and, O n ii majores ! necon minores! the tyrant affably granted the boon. Then what a joyoua closing of hateful books S what a wild and happy rush to the free golden, outside air ! But, as the hours of gratuitous play passed gloriously, a thought of wondering speculation used to fill those small hearts. They speculated in secret on the superb privilege of giving holidays, and felt that if so tremendous a power were confided to them, there should be holidays every day — holidays for the asking — holidays whether they were asked for or not. The mystery which always hangs about the passion of head masters for grammars and dictionaries deepened in presence of this magnificent unbridled ability to shut them all up and put them away. " Why, then, ever open them at all ?" it was asked ; and when, in later and more serious years, life explained to the unwilling spirit the necessity of study and of work, there still lingered an ineradicable admiration for the prerogative of grantiog holidays. With the painful thought of the head master always arose the fascinating memory of him as a man

greater than Kings, Queens, or Archbishops, because, when he liked, he could "give us a half-holiday." The only power which distantly resembles that possessed by tbe formidable autocrat of our youth is the authority of Parliament, and it has recently been exercised in the same pleasant way. Four annual holidays— four splendid whole holidays — have just been given to the nation by a Bill which has received the Royal assent and become law under the name of the "Bank Holidays Act." Know all men whom it concerns— and it concerns, be it understood, an immense number of young men — that from and after the passing of this measure last week there are established four fresh and irreversible play-days in the year — viz., Easter Monday, Whit Monday, the first Monday in August, and the day after Christmas Day. These are Parliamentary feasts, dies slativi, which cannot be refused or tampered with ; and to-day's relaxation is a boon which employers may concede without mischief to themselves, while, by the ppirit of tbe Act, it is also the right and privilege of the clerks, of the shopman, and of the pendriver. For what the Act says is that " no person shall be compellable to make any payment or do any act on any of these four days which would not be compellable to make or do on Good Friday or Christmas Day." This, therefore, puts the four days ou the footing of "the most favored " feasts, and essentially constitutes them general holidays. The Lord Mayor, so interpreting the measure, announced last week that all public offices in the City would be closed, and further stated that he had given instructions to tha keeper of the Royal Exchange to shut it up in conformity with the Act. With business thus authoritatively suspended, it can scarcely be worth the while of the respectable employers of clerks and officeservants to keep their houses open and their staff at the desk on this or any of the four days. But if they do they will make an undesirable use of their individual power, for the House of Lords amended Sir John Lubbock's measure in the sense of granting an universal rest-day, not merely to banking houses, but to all commercial establishments ; the House of Commons accepting the amended Bill in that sense and in no other. We trust, then, that this morning, in all the centres of business, and all over the country, there will be a willing and intelligent co-opera-tion on the intentions of the Legislature. The Act is especially meant for the "slaves of the desk," and this Whitsuntide dawn, we hope, they are away from pens and ink, "in their thousands." If any employers ignore the new Act, they can find no excuse in inadvertence. These four days, we repeat emphatically, are presented by Parliament to the great business establishments of the country, and also, in spirit, to the whole useful and hard-work-ing tribe of quilldrivers. The managing men, in every class, we have little doubt, will see that those under them get their holiday with full freedom to enjoy it. If Parliament could only arrange to make the four days sunshiny, then the Act would be perfect so far as it goes ; but the Clerk of the Weather does as he pleases in his own department. Nevertheless these new days, as days, are at least secured, and we shall not again have to plead for the " one after Christmas Day ; " while the Monday in August supplies a most desirable " outing " just at that season when the unkind Calendar did not furnish a rtingle day, although the country is so beautiful with its harvest scenes, and the interval between Whitsuntide and winter for the hard-worked clerks was so unbroken. There must be some nam6 given to the new August holiday, and nothing can be better than the old one of " Lammas." The word by immemorial usage, belongs to the first days of the month, but it has outlived its ancient and pretty significance, which should now be solemnly restored. Lammas is the Anglo-Saxon compound word hlam messe, which is derived from hlaf, a loaf, and masse, a feast — Lammas being, therefore, the festival of the ripening grain, of the bread-platter, the harvest holiday. Whit Monday and Easter Monday were already, by "Act of Custom," holidays for the people generally; and the day following Christmas Day waa becoming almost as generally appropriated. Lammas is new, and is well chosen, we say, to break the long toil from Bummerto autumn; for now there is a special resttime alike in spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And these, let it be remembered, are made holidays for the middle-class industrials, by becoming statutable and nefasti as regards commercial and legal business. By-and-by, perchance, courage will be summoned by that /'good boy" Sir John Lubbock, to ask the awful head master? for some more ; holiday Si One about Midsummer, for instance, would be very welcome, when, Nature .jf.-ty f her riche t, and one between Lammaa-time and Christmas-time would be 'also greatly prized. * But let those concerned take

care to secure these precious days ;0f repose first, and to show that the. more indulgence and recreation the workers of our daily life obtain, the better service they can render. When this simple truth about human labor is demonstrated, while the machinery of willing and exhaustless practical science has taken its proper place as the s'eve of mankind, holidays will be more frequent still, though the work accomplished will prove richer and more abundant in its fruits than ever.