Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays
by
Thomas H. Huxley
Part 5 out of 6
So much for the Salvation Army as a teacher of questionable ethics and
of eccentric economics, as the legal adviser who recommends and
practices the extraction of money by intimidation, as the fairy
godmother who proposes to "mother" society, in a fashion which is not
to my taste, however much it may commend itself to some of Mr. Booth's
supporters.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.
[255]
III
The "Times," December 11th, 1890
Sir,--When I first addressed you on the subject of the projected
operations of the Salvation Army, all that I knew about that body was
derived from the study of Mr. Booth's book, from common repute, and
from occasional attention to the sayings and doings of his noisy
squadrons, with which my walks about London, in past years, have made
me familiar. I was quite unaware of the existence of evidence
respecting the present administration of the Salvation forces, which
would have enabled me to act upon the sagacious maxim of the American
humourist, "Don't prophesy unless you know." The letter you were good
enough to publish has brought upon me a swarm of letters and
pamphlets. Some favour me with abuse; some thoughtful correspondents
warmly agree with me, and then proceed to point out how much worthier
certain schemes of their own are of my friend's support; some send
valuable encouragement, for which I offer my hearty thanks, and ask
them to excuse any more special acknowledgment. But that which I find
most to the purpose, just now, is the revelation made by some of the
documents which have reached me, of a fact of which I was wholly
ignorant--namely, that [256] persons who have faithfully and zealously
served in the Salvation Army, who express unchanged attachment to its
original principles and practice, and who have been in close official
relations with the "General" have publicly declared that the process
of degradation of the organization into a mere engine of fanatical
intolerance and personal ambition, which I declared was inevitable,
has already set in and is making rapid progress.
It is out of the question, Sir, that I should occupy the columns of
the "Times" with a detailed exposition and criticism of these pieces
justificatives of my forecast. I say criticism, because the assertions
of persons who have quitted any society must, in fairness, be taken
with the caution that is required in the case of all ex parte
statements of hostile witnesses. But it is, at any rate, a notable
fact that there are parts of my first letter, indicating the inherent
and necessary evil consequences of any such organization, which might
serve for abstracts of portions of this evidence, long since printed
and published under the public responsibility of the witnesses.
Let us ask the attention of your readers, in the first place, to "An
ex-Captain's Experience of the Salvation Army," by J. J. R. Redstone,
the genuineness of which is guaranteed by the preface (dated April
5th, 1888) which the Rev. Dr. Cunningham Geikie has supplied. Mr.
Redstone's story is well worth reading on its own account.
[257] Told in simple, direct language such as John Bunyan might have
used, it permits no doubt of the single-minded sincerity of the man,
who gave up everything to become an officer of the Salvation Army,
but, exhibiting a sad want of that capacity for unhesitating and blind
obedience on which Mr. Booth lays so much stress, was thrown aside,
penniless--no, I am wrong, with 2s. 4d. for his last week's salary--to
shift, with his equally devoted wife, as he best might. I wish I could
induce intending contributors to Mr. Booth's army chest to read Mr.
Redstone's story. I would particularly ask them to contrast the pure
simplicity of his plain tale with the artificial pietism and
slobbering unction of the letters which Mr. Ballington Booth addresses
to his "dear boy" (a married man apparently older than himself), so
long as the said "dear boy" is facing brickbats and starvation, as per
order.
I confess that my opinion of the chiefs of the Salvation Army has been
so distinctly modified by the perusal of this pamphlet that I am glad
to be relieved from the necessity of expressing it. It will be much
better that I should cite a few sentences from the preface written by
Dr. Cunningham Geikie, who expresses warm admiration for the early and
uncorrupted work of the Salvation Army, and cannot possibly be accused
of prejudice against it on religious grounds:--
(1) "The Salvation Army is emphatically a [258] family concern. Mr.
Booth, senior, is General; one son is chief of the staff, and the
remaining sons and daughters engross the other chief positions. It is
Booth all over; indeed, like the sun in your eyes, you can see nothing
else wherever you turn. And, as Dr. Geikie shrewdly remarks, 'to be
the head of a widely spread sect carries with it many advantages--not
all exclusively spiritual.'"
(2) "Whoever becomes a Salvation officer is henceforth a slave,
helplessly exposed to the caprice of his superiors."
"Mr. Redstone bore an excellent character both before he entered the
army and when he left it. To join it, though a married man, he gave up
a situation which he had held for five years, and he served Mr. Booth
two years, working hard in most difficult posts. His one fault, Major
Lawley tells us, was, that he was 'too straight'--that is, too honest,
truthful, and manly--or, in other words, too real a Christian. Yet
without trial, without formulated charges, on the strength of secret
complaints which were never, apparently, tested, he was dismissed with
less courtesy than most people would show a beggar--with 2s. 4d. for
his last week's salary. If there be any mistake in this matter, I
shall be glad to learn it."
(3) Dr. Geikie confirms, on the ground of information given
confidentially by other officers, [259] Mr. Redstone's assertion that
they are watched and reported by spies from headquarters.
(4) Mr. Booth refuses to guarantee his officers any fixed amount of
salary. While he and his family of high officials live in comfort, if
not in luxury, the pledged slaves whose devotion is the foundation of
any true success the Army has met with often have "hardly food enough
to sustain life. One good fellow frankly told me that when he had
nothing he just went and begged."
At this point, it is proper that I should interpose an apology for
having hastily spoken of such men as Francis of Assisi, even for
purposes of warning, in connection with Mr. Booth. Whatever may be
thought of the wisdom of the plans of the founders of the great
monastic orders of the middle ages, they took their full share of
suffering and privation, and never shirked in their own persons the
sacrifices they imposed on their followers.
I have already expressed the opinion, that whatever the ostensible
purpose of the scheme under discussion, one of its consequences will
be the setting up and endowment of a new Ranter-Socialist sect. I may
now add that another effect will be--indeed, has been--to set up and
endow the Booth dynasty with unlimited control of the physical, moral,
and financial resources of the sect. Mr. Booth is already a printer
and publisher, who, it is plainly declared, utilizes the officers of
the [260] Army as agents for advertising and selling his publications;
and some of them are so strongly impressed with the belief that active
pushing of Mr. Booth's business is the best road to their master's
favour, that when the public obstinately refuse to purchase his papers
they buy them themselves and send the proceeds to headquarters. Mr.
Booth is also a retail trader on a large scale, and the Dean of Wells
has, most seasonably, drawn attention to the very notable banking
project which he is trying to float. Any one who follows Dean
Plumptre's clear exposition of the principles of this financial
operation can have little doubt that, whether they are, or are not,
adequate to the attainment of the first and second of Mr. Booth's
ostensible objects, they may be trusted to effect a wide extension of
any kingdom in which worldly possessions are of no value. We are, in
fact, in sight of a financial catastrophe like that of Law a century
ago. Only it is the poor who will suffer.
I have already occupied too much of your space, and yet I have drawn
upon only one of the sources of information about the inner working of
the Salvation Army at my disposition. Far graver charges than any here
dealt with are publicly brought in the others.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.
[261] P.S.-- I have just read Mr. Buchanan's letter in the Times of
to-day. Mr. Buchanan is, I believe, an imaginative writer. I am not
acquainted with his works, but nothing in the way of fiction he has
yet achieved can well surpass his account of my opinions and of the
purport of my writings.
IV
The "Times" December 20th, 1890
Sir,--In discussing Mr. Booth's projects I have hitherto left in the
background a distinction which must be kept well in sight by those who
wish to form a fair judgment of the influence, for good or evil, of
the Salvation Army. Salvationism, the work of "saving souls" by
revivalist methods, is one thing; Boothism, the utilization of the
workers for the furtherance of Mr. Booth's peculiar projects, is
another. Mr. Booth has captured, and harnessed with sharp bits and
effectual blinkers, a multitude of ultra-Evangelical missionaries of
the revivalist school who were wandering at large. It is this
skilfully, if somewhat mercilessly, driven team which has dragged the
"General's" coach-load of projects into their present position.
[262] Looking, then, at the host of Salvationists proper, from the
"captains" downwards (to whom, in my judgment, the family hierarchy
stands in the relation of the Old Man of the Sea to Sinbad), as an
independent entity, I desire to say that the evidence before me,
whether hostile or friendly to the General and his schemes, is
distinctly favourable to them. It exhibits them as, in the main,
poor, uninstructed, not unfrequently fanatical, enthusiasts, the
purity of whose lives, the sincerity of whose belief, and the
cheerfulness of whose endurance of privation and rough usage, in what
they consider a just cause, command sincere respect. For my part,
though I conceive the corybantic method of soul-saving to be full of
dangers, and though the theological speculations of these good people
are to me wholly unacceptable, yet I believe that the evils which must
follow in the track of such errors, as of all other errors, will be
largely outweighed by the moral and social improvement of the people
whom they convert. I would no more raise my voice against them (so
long as they abstain from annoying their neighbours) than I would
quarrel with a man, vigorously sweeping out a stye, on account of the
shape of his broom, or because he made a great noise over his work. I
have always had a strong faith in the principle of the injunction,
"Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn." If a
kingdom is worth a Mass, as a great [263] ruler said, surely the reign
of clean living, industry, and thrift is worth any quantity of
tambourines and eccentric doctrinal hypotheses. All that I have
hitherto said, and propose further to say, is directed against Mr.
Booth's extremely clever, audacious, and hitherto successful attempt
to utilize the credit won by all this honest devotion and
self-sacrifice for the purposes of his socialistic autocracy.
I now propose to bring forward a little more evidence as to how things
really stand where Mr. Booth's system has had a fair trial. I obtain
it, mainly, from a curious pamphlet, the title of which runs: "The New
Papacy. Behind the Scenes in the Salvation Army," by an ex-Staff
Officer. "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise" (John ii.
16). 1889. Published at Toronto, by A. Britnell. On the cover it is
stated that "This is the book which was burned by the authorities of
the Salvation Army." I remind the reader, once more, that the
statements which I shall cite must be regarded as ex parte; all I can
vouch for is that, on grounds of internal evidence and from other
concurrent testimony respecting the ways of the Booth hierarchy, I
feel justified in using them.
This is the picture the writer draws of the army in the early days of
its invasion of the Dominion of Canada:--
[264] "Then, it will be remembered, it professed to be the humble
handmaid of the existing churches; its professed object was the
evangelization of the masses. It repudiated the idea of building up a
separate religious body, and it denounced the practice of gathering
together wealth and the accumulation of property. Men and women other
than its own converts gathered around it and threw themselves heart
and soul into the work, for the simple reason that it offered, as they
supposed, a more extended and widely open field for evangelical
effort. Ministers everywhere were invited and welcomed to its
platforms, majors and colonels were few and far between, and the
supremacy and power of the General were things unknown . . . Care was
taken to avoid anything like proselytism; its converts were never
coerced into joining its ranks... In a word, the organization
occupied the position of an auxiliary mission and recruiting agency
for the various religious bodies.... The meetings were crowded, people
professed conversion by the score, the public liberally supplied the
means to carry on the work in their respective communities; therefore
every corps was wholly self-supporting, its officers were properly, if
not luxuriously, cared for, the local expenditure was amply provided,
and, under the supervision of the secretary, a local member, and the
officer in charge, the funds were disbursed in the towns where they
were collected, and the [265] spirit of satisfaction and confidence
was mutual all around" (pp. 4, 5).
Such was the army as the green tree. Now for the dry:--
"Those who have been daily conversant with the army's machinery are
well aware how entirely and radically the whole system has changed,
and how, from a band of devoted and disinterested workers, united in
the bonds of zeal and charity for the good of their fellows, it has
developed into a colossal and aggressive agency for the building up of
a system and a sect, bound by rules and regulations altogether
subversive of religious liberty and antagonistic to every (other?)
branch of Christian endeavour, and bound hand and foot to the will of
one supreme head and ruler.... As the work has spread through the
country, and as the area of its endeavours has enlarged, each leading
position has been filled, one after the other, by individuals strangers
to the country, totally ignorant of the sentiments and idiosyncrasies
of the Canadian people, trained in one school under the teachings and
dominance of a member of the Booth family, and out of whom every idea
has been crushed, except that of unquestioning obedience to the
General, and the absolute necessity of going forward to his bidding
without hesitation or question" (p. 6).
[266] "What is the result of all this? In the first place, whilst
material prosperity has undoubtedly been attained, spirituality has
been quenched, and, as an evangelical agency, the army has become
almost a dead letter... In seventy-five per cent of its stations its
officers suffer need and privation, chiefly on account of the heavy
taxation that is placed upon them to maintain an imposing headquarters
and a large ornamental staff. The whole financial arrangements are
carried on by a system of inflation and a hand-to-mouth extravagance
and blindness as to future contingencies. Nearly all of its original
workers and members have disappeared" (p. 7). "In reference to the
religious bodies at large the army has become entirely antagonistic.
Soldiers are forbidden by its rules to attend other places of worship
without the permission of their officers... Officers or soldiers who
may conscientiously leave the service or the ranks are looked upon and
often denounced publicly as backsliders... Means of the most
despicable description have been resorted to in order to starve them
back to the service" (p. 8). "In its inner workings the army system is
identical with Jesuitism... That 'the end justifies the means,' if
not openly taught, is as tacitly agreed as in that celebrated order"
(p. 9).
Surely a bitter, overcharged, anonymous libel, is the reflection which
will occur to many who read [267] these passages, especially the last.
Well, I turn to other evidence which, at any rate, is not anonymous.
It is contained in a pamphlet entitled "General Booth, the Family, and
the Salvation Army, showing its Rise, Progress, and Moral and
Spiritual Decline," by S. H. Hodges, LL.B., late Major in the Army,
and formerly private secretary to General Booth (Manchester, 1890). I
recommend potential contributors to Mr. Booth's wealth to study this
little work also. I have learned a great deal from it. Among other
interesting novelties, it tells me that Mr. Booth has discovered "the
necessity of a third step or blessing, in the work of Salvation. He
said to me one day, 'Hodges, you have only two barrels to your gun; I
have three'" (p. 31). And if Mr. Hodges's description of this third
barrel is correct--"giving up your conscience" and, "for God and the
army, stooping to do things which even honourable worldly men would
not consent to do" (p. 32)--it is surely calculated to bring down a
good many things, the first principles of morality among them.
Mr. Hodges gives some remarkable examples of the army practice with
the "General's" new rifle. But I must refer the curious to his
instructive pamphlet. The position I am about to take up is a serious
one; and I prefer to fortify it by the help of evidence which, though
some of it may be anonymous, cannot be sneered away. And I shall [268]
be believed, when I say that nothing but a sense of the great social
danger of the spread of Boothism could induce me to revive a scandal,
even though it is barely entitled to the benefit of the Statute of
Limitations.
On the 7th of July, 1883, you, Sir, did the public a great service by
writing a leading article on the notorious "Eagle" case, from which I
take the following extract:--
"Mr. Justice Kay refused the application, but he was induced to refuse
it by means which, as Mr. Justice Stephen justly remarked, were highly
discreditable to Mr. Booth. Mr. Booth filed an affidavit which appears
totally to have misled Mr. Justice Kay, as it would have misled any one
who regarded it as a frank and honest statement by a professed teacher
of religion."
When I addressed my first letter to you I had never so much as heard of
the "Eagle" scandal. But I am thankful that my perception of the
inevitable tendency of all religious autocracies towards evil was
clear enough to bring about a provisional condemnation of Mr. Booth's
schemes in my mind. Supposing that I had decided the other way, with
what sort of feeling should I have faced my friend, when I had to
confess that the money had passed into the absolute control of a
person about the character of whose administration this [269]
concurrence of damnatory evidence was already extant?
I have nothing to say about Mr. Booth personally, for I know nothing.
On that subject, as on several others, I profess myself an agnostic.
But, if he is, as he may be, a saint actuated by the purest of
motives, he is not the first saint who, as you have said, has shown
himself "in the ardour of prosecuting a well-meant object" to be
capable of overlooking "the plain maxims of every-day morality." If I
were a Salvationist soldier, I should cry with Othello, "Cassio, I
love thee; but never more be officer of mine."
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.
V
The "Times," December 24th, 1890--
Sir,--If I have any strong points, finance is certainly not one of
them. But the financial, or rather fiscal, operations of the General
of the Salvation Army, as they are set forth and exemplified in "The
New Papacy," possess that grand simplicity which is the mark of
genius; [270] and even I can comprehend them--or, to be more modest, I
can portray them in such a manner that every lineament, however harsh,
and every shade, however dark, can be verified by published evidence.
Suppose there is a thriving, expanding colonial town, and that,
scattered among its artisans and labourers, there is a sprinkling of
Methodists, or other such ultra-evangelical good people, doing their
best, in a quiet way, to "save souls." Clearly, this is an outpost
which it is desirable to capture. "We," therefore, take measures to
get up a Salvation "boom" of the ordinary pattern. Enthusiasm is
roused. A score or two of soldiers are enlisted into the ranks of the
Salvation Army. "We" select the man who promises to serve our purposes
best, make a "captain" of him, and put him in command of the "corps."
He is very pleased and grateful; and indeed he ought to be. All he has
done is that he has given up his trade; that he has promised to work
at least nine hours a day in our service (none of your eight-hour
nonsense for us) as collector, bookseller, general agent, and anything
else we may order him to be. "We," on the other hand, guarantee him
nothing whatever; to do so might weaken his faith and substitute
worldly for spiritual ties between us. Knowing that, if he exerts
himself in a right spirit, his labours will surely be blessed, we
content ourselves with telling him that if, after all [271] expenses
are paid and our demands are satisfied each week, 25s. remains, he may
take it. And, if nothing remains, he may take that, and stay his
stomach with what the faithful may give him. With a certain grim
playfulness, we add that the value of these contributions will be
reckoned as so much salary. So long as our "captain" is successful,
therefore, a beneficent spring of cash trickles unseen into our
treasury; when it begins to dry up we say, "God bless you, dear boy,"
turn him adrift (with or without 2s. 4d. in his pocket), and put some
other willing horse in the shafts.
The "General," I believe, proposes, among other things, to do away
with "sweating." May he not as well set a good example by beginning at
home? My little sketch, however, looks so like a monstrous caricature
that, after all, I must produce the original from the pages of my
Canadian authority. He says that a "captain" "has to pay 10 per cent.
of all collections and donations to the divisional fund for the
support of his divisional officer, who has also the privilege of
arranging for such special meetings as he shall think fit, the
proceeds of which he takes away for the general needs of the division.
Headquarters, too, has the right to hold such special meetings at the
corps and send around such special attractions as its wisdom sees fit,
and to take away the proceeds for the purposes it decides upon.
[272] He has to pay the rent of his building, either to headquarters or
a private individual; he has to send the whole collection of the
afternoon meeting of the first Sunday in the month to the 'Extension
Fund' at headquarters; he has to pay for the heating, lighting, and
cleaning of his hall, together with such necessary repairs as may be
needed; he has to provide the food, lodging, and clothing of his
cadet, if he has one; headquarters taxes him with so many copies of
the army papers each week, for which he has to pay, sold or unsold;
and when he has done this, he may take $6 (or $5, being a woman), or
such proportion of it as may be left, with which to clothe and feed
himself and to pay the rent and provide for the heating and lighting
of his quarters. If he has a lieutenant he has to pay him $6 per week,
or such proportion of it as he himself gets, and share the house
expenses with him. Now, it will be easily understood that at least 60
per cent. of the stations in Canada the officer gets no money at all,
and he has to beg specially amongst his people for his house-rent and
food. There are few places in the Dominion in which the soldiers do
not find their officers in all the food they need; but it must be
remembered that the value of the food so received has to be accounted
for at headquarters and entered upon the books of the corps as cash
received, the amount being deducted from any moneys that the officer
is able to take from the [273] week's collections. So that, no matter
how much may be specially given, the officer cannot receive more than
the value of $6 per week. The officer cannot collect any arrears of
salary, as each week has to pay its own expenses; and if there is any
surplus cash after all demands are met it must be sent to the 'war
chest' at headquarters."--"The New Papacy" (pp. 35, 36).
Evidently, Sir, "headquarters" has taken to heart the injunction about
casting your bread upon the waters. It casts the crumb of a day or
two's work of an emissary, and gets back any quantity of loaves of
cash, so long as "captains" present themselves to be used up and
replaced by new victims. What can be said of these devoted poor
fellows except, O sancta simplicitas!
But it would be a great mistake to suppose that the money-gathering
efficacy of Mr. Booth's fiscal agencies is exhausted by the foregoing
enumeration of their regular operations. Consider the following
edifying history of the "Rescue Home" in Toronto:--
"It is a fine building in the heart of the city; the lot cost $7,000,
and a building was put up at a cost of $7,000 more, and there is a
mortgage on it amounting to half the cost of the whole. The land
to-day would probably fetch double its original price, and every year
enhances its value....In the first five months of its [274] existence
this institution received from the public an income of $1,812 70c.;
out of this $600 was paid to headquarters for rent, $590 52c. was
spent upon the building in various ways, and the balance of $622 18c.
paid the salaries of the staff and supported the inmates" (pp. 24,
25).
Said I not truly that Mr. Booth's fisc bears the stamp of genius? Who
else could have got the public to buy him a "corner lot," put a
building upon it, pay all its working expenses: and then, not content
with paying him a heavy rent for the use of the handsome present they
had made him, they say not a word against his mortgaging it to half
its value? And, so far as any one knows, there is nothing to stop
headquarters from selling the whole estate tomorrow, and using the
money as the "General" may direct.
Once more listen to the author of "The New Papacy," who affirms that
"out of the funds given by the Dominion for the evangelization of the
people by means of the Salvation Army, one sixth had been spent in the
extension of the Kingdom of God, and the other five sixths had been
invested in valuable property, all handed over to Mr. Booth and his
heirs and assigns, as we have already stated" (p. 26).
And this brings me to the last point upon which I wish to touch. The
answer to all inquiries as to what has become of the enormous [275]
personal and real estate which has been given over to Mr. Booth is
that it is held "in trust." The supporters of Mr. Booth may feel
justified in taking that statement "on trust." I do not. Anyhow, the
more completely satisfactory this "trust" is, the less can any man who
asks the public to put blind faith in his integrity and his wisdom
object to acquaint them exactly with its provisions. Is the trust
drawn up in favour of the Salvation Army? But what is the legal status
of the Salvation Army? Have the soldiers any claim? Certainly not.
Have the officers any legal interest in the "trust"? Surely not. The
"General" has taken good care to insist on their renouncing all claims
as a condition of their appointment. Thus, to all appearance, the
army, as a legal person, is identical with Mr. Booth. And, in that
case, any "trust" ostensibly for the benefit of the army is--what
shall we say that is at once accurate and polite?
I conclude with these plain questions--Will Mr. Booth take counsel's
opinion as to whether there is anything in such legal arrangements as
he has at present made which prevents him from disposing of the wealth
he has accumulated at his own will and pleasure? Will anybody be in a
position to set either the civil or the criminal law in motion against
him or his successors if he or they choose to spend every farthing in
ways very different from those contemplated by the donors?
[276] I may add that a careful study of the terms of a "Declaration of
Trust by William Booth in favour of the Christian Mission," made in
1878, has not enabled persons of much greater competence than myself
to answer these questions satisfactorily.*
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.
* See Preface to this volume, pp. ix-xiii.
On December 24th a letter appeared in the "Times" signed "J. S.
Trotter," in which the following passages appear:--
"It seems a pity to put a damper on the spirits of those who agree
with Professor Huxley in his denunciation of General Booth and all his
works. May I give a few particulars as to the 'book' which was
published in Canada? I had the pleasure of an interview with the
author of a book written in Canada. The book was printed at Toronto,
and two copies only struck off by the printers; one of these copies
was stolen from the printer, and the quotation sent to you by
Professor Huxley was inserted in the book, and is consequently a
forgery. The book was published without the consent and against the
will of the author.
[277] "So the quotation is not only 'a bitter, overcharged anonymous
libel,' as Professor Huxley intimates, but a forgery as well. As to
Mr. Hodges, it seems to me to be simply trifling with your readers to
bring him in as an authority. He was turned out of the army, out of
kindness taken on again, and again dismissed. If this had happened to
one of your staff, would his opinion of the 'Times' as a newspaper be
taken for gospel?"
But in the "Times" of December 29th Mr. J. S. Trotter writes:--
"I find I was mistaken in saying, in my letter of Wednesday, to the
'Times' that Mr. Hodges was dismissed from the service of General
Booth, and regret any inconvenience the statement may have caused to
Mr. Hodges."
And on December 30th the "Times" published a letter from Mr. Hodges in
which he says that Mr. Trotter's statements as they regard himself
"are the very reverse of truth.--I was never turned out of the
Salvation Army. Nor, so far as I was made acquainted with General
Booth's motives, was I taken on again out of kindness. In order to
rejoin the Salvation Army, I resigned the position of manager in a
mill where I was in [278] receipt of a salary of [Pounds] 250 per
annum, with house-rent and one third of the profits. Instead of this
Mr. Booth allowed me [Pounds] 2 per week and house-rent."
VI
The "Times," December 26th, 1890
Sir,--I am much obliged to Mr. J. S. Trotter for the letter which you
published this morning. It furnishes evidence, which I much desired to
possess on the following points:--
1. The author of "The New Papacy" is a responsible, trustworthy
person; otherwise Mr. Trotter would not speak of having had "the
pleasure of an interview" with him.
2. After this responsible person had taken the trouble to write a
pamphlet of sixty-four closely printed pages, some influence was
brought to bear upon him, the effect of which was that he refused his
consent to its publication. Mr. Trotter's excellent information will
surely enable him to tell us what influence that was.
3. How does Mr. Trotter know that any passage I have quoted is an
interpolation? Does he possess that other copy of the "two" which
alone, as he affirms, were printed?
[279] 4. If so, he will be able to say which of the passages I have
cited is genuine and which is not; and whether the tenor of the whole
uninterpolated copy differs in any important respect from that of the
copy I have quoted.
It will be interesting to hear what Mr. J. S. Trotter has to say upon
these points. But the really important thing which he has done is that
he has testified, of his own knowledge, that the anonymous author of
"The New Papacy" is no mere irresponsible libeller, but a person of
whom even an ardent Salvationist has to speak with respect.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.
[I may add that the unfortunate Mr. Trotter did me the further service
of eliciting the letter from Mr. Hodges referred to on p. 277--which
sufficiently establishes that gentleman's credit, and leads me to
attach full weight to his evidence about the third barrel.]
January, 1891.
[280]
VII
The "Times," December 27th, 1890
SIR,--In making use of the only evidence of the actual working of Mr.
Booth's autocratic government accessible to me, I was fully aware of
the slippery nature of the ground upon which I was treading. For, as I
pointed out in my first letter, "no personal habit more surely
degrades the conscience and the intellect than blind and unhesitating
obedience to unlimited authority." Now we have it, on Mr. Booth's own
showing that every officer of his has undertaken to "obey without
questioning or gainsaying the orders from headquarters." And the
possible relations of such orders to honour and veracity are
demonstrated not only by the judicial deliverance on Mr. Booth's
affidavit in the "Eagle" case, which I have already cited; not only by
Mr. Bramwell Booth's admission before Mr. Justice Lopes that he had
stated what was "not quite correct" because he had "promised Mr. Stead
not to divulge" the facts of the case (the "Times," November 4th,
1885); but by the following passage in Mr. Hodges's account of the
reasons of his withdrawal from the Salvation Army:--
"The general and Chief did not and could [281] not deny doing these
things; the only question was this, Was it right to practise this
deception? These points of difference were fully discussed between
myself and the Chief of the Staff on my withdrawal, especially the
Leamington incident, which was the one that finally drove me to
decision. I had come to the conclusion, from the first, that they had
acted as they supposed with a single eye to the good of God's cause,
and had persuaded myself that the things were, as against the devil,
right to be done, that as in battle one party captured and turned the
enemy's own guns upon them, so, as they were fighting against the
devil, it would be fair to use against him his weapons. And I wrote to
this effect to the "General" (p. 63)."
Now, I do not wish to say anything needlessly harsh, but I ask any
prudent man these questions. Could I, under these circumstances, trust
any uncorroborated statement emanating from headquarters, or made by
the General's order? Had I any reason to doubt the truth of Mr.
Hodges's naive confession of the corrupting influence of Mr. Booth's
system? And did it not behove me to pick my way carefully through the
mass of statements before me, many of them due to people whose moral
sense might, by possibility, have been as much blunted by the army
discipline in the [282] use of the weapons of the devil as Mr. Hodges
affirms that his was?
Therefore, in my third letter, I commenced my illustrations of the
practical working of Boothism with the evidence of Mr. Redstone,
fortified and supplemented by that of a non-Salvationist, Dr.
Cunningham Geikie. That testimony has not been challenged, and, until
it is, I shall assume that it cannot be. In my fourth letter, I cited
a definite statement by Mr. Hodges in evidence of the Jesuitical
principles of headquarters. What sort of answer is it to tell us that
Mr. Hodges was dismissed the army? A child might expect that some such
red herring would be drawn across the trail; and, in anticipation of
the stale trick, I added the strong prima facie evidence of the
trustworthiness of my witness, in this particular, which is afforded
by the "Eagle" case. It was not until I wrote my fourth letter to you,
Sir--until the exploitation of the "captains" and the Jesuitry of
headquarters could be proved up to the hilt--that I ventured to have
recourse to "The New Papacy." So far as the pamphlet itself goes, this
is an anonymous work; and, for sufficient reasons, I did not choose to
go beyond what was to be found between its covers. To any one
accustomed to deal with the facts of evolution, the Boothism of "The
New Papacy" was merely the natural and necessary development of the
Boothism of Mr. Redstone's case and of the [283] "Eagle" case.
Therefore, I felt fully justified in using it, at the same time
carefully warning my readers that it must be taken with due caution.
Mr. Trotter's useful letter admits that such a book was written by a
person with whom he had the "pleasure of an interview," and that a
version of it (interpolated, according to his assertion) was published
against the will of the author. Hence I am justified in believing that
there is a foundation of truth in certain statements, some of which
have long been in my possession, but which for lack of Mr. Trotter's
valuable corroboration I have refrained from using. The time is come
when I can set forth some of the heads of this information, with the
request that Mr. Trotter, who knows all about the business, will be so
good as to point out any error that there may be in them. I am bound
to suppose that his sole object, like mine, is the elucidation of the
truth, and to assume his willingness to help me therein to the best of
his ability.
1. "The author of 'The New Papacy' is a Mr. Sumner, a person of
perfect respectability, and greatly esteemed in Toronto, who held a
high position in the Army. When he left, a large public meeting,
presided over by a popular Methodist minister, passed a vote of
sympathy with him."
[284] Is this true or false?
2. "On Saturday last, about noon, Mr. Sumner, the author of the
book, and Mr. Fred Perry, the Salvation Army printer, accompanied by a
lawyer, went down to Messrs. Imrie and Graham's establishment, and
asked for all the manuscript, stereotype plates, &c., of the book. Mr.
Sumner explained that the book had been sold to the Army, and, on a
cheque for the amount due being given, the printing material was
delivered up."
Did these paragraphs appear in the "Toronto Telegram" of April 24th,
1889, or did they not? Are the statements they contain true or false?
3. "Public interest in the fate or probable outcome of that mysterious
book called 'The New Papacy; or, Behind the Scenes in the Salvation
Army,' continues unabated, though the line of proceedings by the
publisher and his solicitor, Mr. Smoke, of Watson, Thorne, Smoke, and
Masten, has not been altered since yesterday. The book, no doubt, will
be issued in some form. So far as known, only one complete copy
remains, and the whereabouts of this is a secret which will be
profoundly kept. It is safe to say that if the Commissioner kept on
guessing until the next anniversary, he would not strike the secluded
[285] location of the one volume among five thousand which escaped,
when he and his assistant, Mr. Fred Perry, believed they had cast
every vestige of the forbidden work into the fiery furnace. On Tuesday
last, when the discovery was made that a copy of 'The New Papacy' was
in existence, Publisher Britnell, of Yonge Street, was at once the
suspected holder, and in a short time his book-store was the resort of
army agents sent to reconnoitre" ("Toronto News," April 28th, 1889).
Is this a forgery, or is it not? Is it in substance true or false?
When Mr. Trotter has answered these inquiries categorically, we may
proceed to discuss the question of interpolations in Mr. Sumner's
book.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.
[On the 26th of December a letter, signed J. T. Cunningham, late Fellow of
University College, Oxford, called forth the following commentary.]
[286]
VIII
The "Times," December 29th, 1890--
Sir,--If Mr. Cunningham doubts the efficacy of the struggle for
existence, as a factor in social conditions, he should find fault with
Mr. Booth and not with me.
"I am labouring under no delusion as to the possibility of inaugurating
the millennium by my social specific. In the struggle of life the
weakest will go to the wall, and there are so many weak. The fittest
in tooth and claw will survive. All that we can do is to soften the
lot of the unfit, and make their suffering less horrible than it is at
present" ("In Darkest England," p. 44).
That is what Mr. Cunningham would have found if he had read Mr. Booth's
book with attention. And, if he will bestow equal pains on my second
letter, he will discover that he has interpolated the word "wilfully"
in his statement of my "argument," which runs thus: "Shutting his eyes
to the necessary consequences of the struggle for life, the existence
of which he admits as fully as any Darwinian, Mr. Booth tells men
whose evil case is one of those consequences that envy is a
corner-stone of our competitive system." Mr. [287] Cunningham's
physiological studies will have informed him that the process of
"shutting the eyes," in the literal sense of the words, is not always
wilful; and I propose to illustrate, by the crucial instance his own
letter furnishes, that the "shutting of the eyes" of the mind to the
obvious consequences of accepted propositions may also be involuntary.
At least, I hope so.
1. "Sooner or later," says Mr. Cunningham, "the population problem
will block the way once more." What does this mean, except that
multiplication, excessive in relation to the contemporaneous means of
support, will create a severe competition for those means? And this
seems to me to be a pretty accurate "reflection of the conceptions of
Malthus" and the other poor benighted folks of a past generation at
whom Mr. Cunningham sneers.
2. By way of leaving no doubt upon this subject, Mr. Cunningham
further tells us, "The struggle for existence is always going on, of
course; let us thank Darwin for making us realize it." It is pleasant
to meet with a little gratitude to Darwin among the epigoni who are
squabbling over the heritage he conquered for them, but Mr.
Cunningham's personal expression of that feeling is hasty. For it is
obvious that he has not "realized" the significance of Darwin's
teaching--indeed, I fail to discover in Mr. Cunningham's letter any
sign that he has even "realized" what [288] he would be at. If the
"struggle for existence is always going on"; and if, as I suppose will
be granted, industrial competition is one phase of that struggle, I
fail to see how my conclusion that it is sheer wickedness to tell
ignorant men that "envy" is a corner-stone of competition can be
disputed.
Mr. Cunningham has followed the lead of that polished and instructed
person, Mr. Ben Tillett, in rebuking me for (as the associates say)
attacking Mr. Booth's personal character. Of course, when I was
writing, I did not doubt that this very handy, though not too clean,
weapon would be used by one or other of Mr. Booth's supporters. And my
action was finally decided by the following considerations: I happen
to be a member of one of the largest life insurance societies. There
is a vacancy in the directory at present, for which half a dozen
gentlemen are candidates. Now, I said to myself, supposing that one of
these gentlemen (whose pardon I humbly beg for starting the
hypothesis), say Mr. A., in his administrative capacity and as a man
of business, has been the subject of such observations as a Judge on
the Bench bestowed upon Mr. Booth, is he a person for whom I can
properly vote? And, if I find, when I go to the meeting of the
policy-holders, that most of them know nothing of this and other
evidences of what, by the mildest judgment, must be termed Mr. A.'s
unfitness for administrative [289] responsibilities, am I to let them
remain in their ignorance? I leave the answer and its application to
men of sense and integrity.
The mention of Mr. Cunningham's ally reminds me that I have omitted to
thank Mr. Tillett for his very useful and instructive letter; and I
hasten to repair a neglect which I assure Mr. Tillett was more
apparent than real. Mr. Tillett's letter is dated December 20th. On
the 21st the following pregnant (however unconscious) commentary upon
it appeared in "Reynolds's Newspaper":-
"I have always maintained that the Salvation Army is one of the
mightiest Socialistic agencies in the country; and now Professor
Huxley comes in to confirm that view. How could it be otherwise? The
fantastic religious side of Salvationism will disappear in the course
of time, and what will be left? A large number of men and women who
have been organized, disciplined, and taught to look for something
better than their present condition, and who have become public
speakers and not afraid of ridicule. There you have the raw materials
for a Socialist army."
Mr. Ben Tillett evidently knows Latin enough to construe proximus
ardet.
I trust that the public will not allow themselves to be led away by
the false issues which are [290] dangled before them. A man really may
love his fellow-men; cherish any form of Christianity he pleases; and
hold not only that Darwinism is "tottering to its fall," but, if he
pleases, the equally sane belief that it never existed; and yet may
feel it his duty to oppose, to the best of his capacity, despotic
Socialism in all its forms, and, more particularly, in its Boothian
disguise.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T.H. Huxley.
[Persons who have not had the advantage of a classical education might
fairly complain of my use of the word epigoni. To say truth, I had
been reading Droysen's "Geschichte des Hellenismus," and the familiar
historical title slipped out unawares. In replying to me, however, the
late "Fellow of University College," Oxford, declares he had to look
the word out in a Lexicon. I commend the fact to the notice of the
combatants over the desirability of retaining the present compulsory
modicum of Greek in our Universities.]
[291]
IX.
The "Times," December 30th, 1890
Sir,--I am much obliged to Messrs. Ranger, Burton, and Matthews for
their prompt answer to my questions. I presume it applies to all money
collected by the agency of the Salvation Army, though not specifically
given for the purposes of the "Christian Mission" named in the deed of
1878; to all sums raised by mortgage upon houses and land so given;
and, further, to funds subscribed for Mr. Booth's various projects,
which have no apparent reference to the objects of the "Christian
Mission" as defined in the deed. Otherwise, to use a phrase which has
become classical, "it does not assist us much." But I must leave these
points to persons learned in the law.
And, indeed, with many thanks to you, Sir, for the amount of valuable
space which you have allowed me to occupy, I now propose to leave the
whole subject. My sole purpose in embarking upon an enterprise which
was extremely distasteful to me was to prevent the skilful "General,"
or rather "Generals," who devised the plan of campaign from sweeping
all before them with a rush. I found the pass already held by such
stout defenders as Mr. Loch and the Dean [292] of Wells, and, with
your powerful help, we have given time for the reinforcements, sure to
be sent by the abundant, though somewhat slowly acting, common sense
of our countrymen, to come up.
I can no longer be useful, and I return to more congenial occupations.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.
The following letter appeared in the "Times" of January 2nd, 1891:--
"Dear Mr. Tillett,--I have not had patience to read Professor Huxley's
letters. The existence of hunger, nakedness, misery, 'death from
insufficient food,' even of starvation, is certain, and no agency as
yet reaches it. How can any man hinder or discourage the giving of
food or help? Why is the house called a workhouse? Because it is for
those who cannot work? No, because it was the house to give work or
bread. The very name is an argument. I am very sure what Our Lord and
His Apostles would do if they were in London. Let us be thankful even
to have a will to do the same.
"Yours faithfully,
Henry E. Card. Manning."
[293]
X.
The "Times," January 3rd, 1891
SIR,--In my old favourite, "The Arabian Nights," the motive of the
whole series of delightful narratives is that the sultan, who refuses
to attend to reason, can be got to listen to a story. May I try
whether Cardinal Manning is to be reached in the same way? When I was
attending the meeting of the British Association in Belfast nearly
forty years ago, I had promised to breakfast with the eminent scholar
Dr. Hincks. Having been up very late the previous night, I was behind
time; so, hailing an outside car, I said to the driver as I jumped on,
"Now drive fast, I am in a hurry." Whereupon he whipped up his horse
and set off at a hand-gallop. Nearly jerked off my seat, I shouted,
"My good friend, do you know where I want to go?" "No, yer honner,"
said the driver, "but, any way, I am driving fast." I have never
forgotten this object-lesson in the dangers of ill-regulated
enthusiasm. We are all invited to jump on to the Salvation Army car,
which Mr. Booth is undoubtedly driving very fast. Some of us have a
firm conviction, not only that he is taking a very different direction
from that in which we wish to go, but that, before long, car and
driver will come to grief. Are we to accept [294] the invitation, even
at the bidding of the eminent person who appears to think himself
entitled to pledge the credit of "Our Lord and His Apostles" in favour
of Boothism?
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.
XI.
The "Times," January 13th, 1891
SIR,--A letter from Mr. Booth-Clibborn, dated January 3rd, appeared in
the "Times" of yesterday. This elaborate document occupies three
columns of small print--space enough, assuredly, for an effectual
reply to the seven letters of mine to which the writer refers, if any
such were forthcoming. Mr. Booth-Clibborn signs himself "Commissioner
of the Salvation Army for France and Switzerland," but he says that he
accepts my "challenge" without the knowledge of his chiefs.
Considering the self-damaging character of his letter, it was,
perhaps, hardly necessary to make that statement.
Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn speaks of my "challenge." I presume
that he refers to my request for information about the authorship and
fate of "The New Papacy," in the letter [295] published in the "Times"
on December 27th, 1890. The "Commissioner" deals with this matter in
paragraph No. 4 of his letter; and I observe, with no little
satisfaction, that he does not venture to controvert any one of the
statements of my witnesses. He tacitly admits that the author of "The
New Papacy" was a person "greatly esteemed in Toronto," and that he
held "a high position in the army"; further, that the Canadian
"Commissioner" thought it worth while to pay the printer's bill, in
order that the copies already printed off might be destroyed and the
pamphlet effectually suppressed. Thus the essential facts of the case
are admitted and established beyond question.
How does Mr. Booth-Clibborn try to explain them away?
"Mr. Sumner, who wrote the little book in a hot fit, soon regretted it
(as any man would do whose conscience showed him in a calmer moment
when his 'respectability' returned with his repentance, that he had
grossly misrepresented), and just before it appeared offered to order
its suppression if the army would pay the costs already incurred, and
which he was unable to bear."
"The New Papacy" fills sixty closely printed duodecimo pages. It is
carefully written, and for the most part in studiously moderate
language; moreover, it contains many precise details and [296]
figures, the ascertainment of which must have taken much time and
trouble. Yet, forsooth, it was written in "a hot fit."
I sincerely hope, for the sake of his own credit, that Mr.
"Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn does not know as much about this
melancholy business as I do. My hands are unfortunately tied, and I
am not at liberty to use all the information in my possession. I must
content myself with quoting the following passage from the preface to
"The New Papacy":--
"It has not been without considerable thought and a good deal of urging
that the following pages have been given to the public. But though we
would have shrunk from a labour so distasteful, and have gladly
avoided a notoriety anything but pleasant to the feelings, or
conducive to our material welfare, we have felt that in the interests
of the benevolent public, in the interests of religion, in the
interests of a band of devoted men and women whose personal ends are
being defeated, and the fruit of whose labour is being destroyed, and,
above all, in the interests of that future which lies before the
Salvation Army itself, if purged and purified in its executive and
returned to its original position in the ranks of Canadian Christian
effort, it is no more than our duty to throw such light as we are able
upon its true inwardness, and with that object and for the [297]
furtherance of those ends we offer our pages to the public view."
The preface is dated April 1889. According to the statement in the
"Toronto Telegram" which Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn does not
dare to dispute, his Canadian fellow-"Commissioner" bought and
destroyed the whole edition of "The New Papacy" about the end of the
third week in April. It is clear that the writer of the paragraph
quoted from the preface was well out of a "hot fit," if he had ever
been in one, while he had not entered on the stage of repentance
within three weeks of that time. Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn's
scandalous insinuations that Mr. Sumner was bribed by "a few
sovereigns," and that he was "bought off," in the face of his own
admission that Mr. Sumner "offered to order its suppression if the
army would pay the costs already incurred, and which he was unable to
bear" is a crucial example of that Jesuitry with which the officials
of the army have been so frequently charged.
Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn says that when "London headquarters
heard of the affair, it disapproved of the action of the
Commissioner." That circumstance indicates that headquarters is not
wholly devoid of intelligence; but it has nothing to do with the value
of Mr. Sumner's evidence, which is all I am concerned about. Very
likely London headquarters will disapprove of its French [298]
"Commissioner's" present action. But what then? The upshot of all this
is that Mr. Booth-Clibborn has made as great a blunder as simple Mr.
Trotter did. The pair of Balaams greatly desired to curse, but have
been compelled to bless. They have, between them, completely justified
my reliance on Mr. Sumner as a perfectly trustworthy witness; and
neither of them has dared to challenge the accuracy of one solitary
statement made by that worthy gentleman, whose full story I hope some
day or other to see set before the public. Then the true causes of his
action will be made known.
Paragraph 2 of the "Commissioner's" letter says many things, but not
much about Mr. Hodges. The columns of the "Times" recently showed that
Mr. Hodges was able to compel an apology from Mr. Trotter. I leave it
to him to deal with the "Commissioner."
As to the "Eagle" case, treated of in paragraph No. 3, a gentleman
well versed in the law, who was in court during the hearing of the
appeal, has assured me that the argument was purely technical; that
the facts were very slightly gone into; and that, so far as he knows,
no dissenting comment was made on the strictures of the Judge before
whom the case first came. Moreover, in the judgment of the Master of
the Rolls, fully recorded in the "Times" of February 14th, 1884, the
following passages occur:--
[299] "The case had been heard by a learned Judge, who had exercised
his discretion upon it, and the Court would not interfere with his
discretion unless they could see that he was wrong. The learned Judge
had taken a strong view of the conduct of the defendant, but
nevertheless had said that he would have given relief if he could have
seen how far protection and compensation could be given. And if this
Court differed from him in that view, and could give relief without
forfeiture, they would be acting on his own principle in doing so.
Certain suggestions had been made with that view, and the Court had to
consider the case under all the circumstances.... He himself (the
Master of the Rolls) considered that it was probable the defendant,
with his principles, had intended to destroy the property as a
public-house, and that it was not right thus to take property under a
covenant to keep it up as a public-house, intending to destroy it as
such. He did not, however, think this was enough to deprive him of
all relief. The defendant could only expect severe terms."
Yet, Sir, Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn, this high official of the
Salvation Army, has the audacity to tell the public that if I had made
inquiries I should have found that "in the Court of Appeal the Judge
reversed the decision of his predecessor as regards seven eighths of
the property, and the General was declared to have acted [300] all
along with straight forwardness and good faith."
But the nature of Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn's conceptions of
straightforwardness and good faith is so marvellously illustrated by
the portions of his letter with which I have dealt that I doubt not
his statements are quite up to the level of the "Army" Regulations and
Instructions in regard to those cardinal virtues. As I pointed out must
be the case, the slave is subdued to that he works in.
For myself, I must confess that the process of wading through Mr.
"Commissioner's" verbose and clumsy pleadings has given me a "hot
fit," which, I undertake to say, will be followed by not so much as a
passing shiver of repentance. And it is under the influence of the
genial warmth diffused through the frame, on one of those rare
occasions when one may be "angry and sin not," that I infringe my
resolution to trouble you with no more letters. On reflection, I am
convinced that it is undesirable that the public should be misled, for
even a few days, by misrepresentations so serious.
I am copiously abused for speaking of the Jesuitical methods of the
superior officials of the Salvation Army. But the following facts have
not been, and, I believe, cannot be, denied:--
1. Mr. Booth's conduct in the "Eagle" case has been censured by two
of the Judges.
[301] 2. Mr. Bramwell Booth admitted before Mr. Justice Lopes that he
had made an untrue statement because of a promise he had made to Mr.
Stead.*
* This statement has been disputed, but not yet publicly. (See p. 305.)
And I have just proved that Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn asserts
the exact contrary of that which your report of the judgment of the
Master of the Rolls tells us that distinguished judge said.
Under these circumstances, I think that my politeness in applying no
harder adjective than "Jesuitical" to these proceedings is not
properly appreciated.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.
XII.
The "Times," January 22nd, 1891
SIR,--I think that your readers will be interested in the accompanying
opinion, written in consultation with an eminent Chancery Queen's
Counsel, with which I have been favoured. It will be observed that
this important legal deliverance [302] justifies much stronger
language than any which I have applied to the only security (?) for
the proper administration of the funds in Mr. Booth's hands which
appears to be in existence.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.
1, Dr. Johnson's Buildings, Temple, E.C.,
January 14, 1891.
MR. BOOTH'S DECLARATION OF TRUST DEED, 1878.
"I am of opinion, subject to the question whether there may be any
provision in the Charitable Trusts Acts which can be made available
for enforcing some scheme for the appropriation of the property, and
with regard to the real and leasehold properties whether the
conveyances and leases are not altogether void, as frauds on the
Mortmain Acts, that nothing can be done to control or to interfere
with Booth in the disposition or application of the properties or
moneys purported to be affected by the deed.
"As to the properties vested in Booth himself, it appears to me that
such are placed absolutely under his power and control both as to the
disposal and application thereof, and that there are no trusts for any
specific purposes declared which [303] could be enforced, and that
there are no defined persons nor classes of persons who can claim to
be entitled to the benefits of them, or at whose instance they could
be enforced by any legal process.
"As to the properties (if any) vested in trustees appointed by Booth,
it appears to me that the only person who has a locus standi to
enforce these trusts is Booth himself, and that he would have absolute
power over the trusts and the property, and might deal with the
property as he pleased, and that, as in the former case, nothing could
be done in the way of enforcing any trusts against him.
"As to the moneys contributed or raised by mortgage for the general
purposes of the mission, it appears to me that Booth may expend them
as he pleases, without being subject to any legal control, and that he
cannot even be compelled to publish any balance-sheets.
"Whether there are any provisions in the Charitable Trusts Acts which
could be made available for enforcing some scheme for the application
of the property or funds is a question to which I should require to
give a closer consideration should it become necessary to go into it;
but at present, after perusing these Acts, and especially 16 and 17
Vict. c. 137 and 18 and 19 Vict. c. 124, I cannot see how they could
be made applicable to the trusts as declared in this deed.
[304] "As to the Mortmain Acts, the matter is clearly charitable, and
unless in the conveyances and leases to Booth, or to the trustees (if
any) named by him, all the provisions of the Acts have been complied
with, and the deeds have been enrolled under the Acts, they would be
void. It is probable, however, that every conveyance and lease has
been taken without disclosing any charitable trust, for the purpose of
preventing it from being void on the face of it. It is to be noted
that the deed is a mere deed poll by Booth himself, without any other
party to it, who, as a contracting party, would have a right to
enforce it.
"Whether there are any objects of the trust I cannot say. If there is,
as the recital indicates, a society of enrolled members called 'The
Christian Mission,' those members would be objects of the trust, but
then, it appears to me, Booth has entire control and determination of
the application. And, as to the trusts enuring for the benefit of the
'Salvation Army,' I am not aware what is the constitution of the
'Salvation Army,' but there is no reference whatever to any such body
in the deed. I have understood the army as being merely the
missionaries, and not the society of worshippers.
"If there is no Christian Mission Society of enrolled members, then
there are no objects of the trust. The trusts are purely religious,
and trading is entirely beyond its purposes. Booth can [305] 'give
away' the property, simply because there is no one who has any right
to prevent his doing so.
"Ernest Hatton."
It is probably my want of legal knowledge which prevents me from
appreciating the value of the professed corrections of Mr. Hatton's
opinion contained in the letters of Messrs. Ranger, Burton, and
Matthews, "Times," January 28th and 29th, 1891.
The note on page 301 refers to a correspondence, incomplete at the
time fixed for the publication of my pamphlet, the nature of which is
sufficiently indicated by the subjoined extracts from Mr. Stead's
letter in the "Times" of January 20th, and from my reply in the
"Times" of January 24th. Referring to the paragraphs numbered 1, 2, at
the end of my letter XI., Mr. Stead says:--
"On reading this, I at once wrote to Professor Huxley, stating that, as
he had mentioned my name, I was justified in intervening to explain
that, so far as the second count in his indictment went--for the Eagle
dispute is no concern of mine--he had been misled by an error in the
reports of the case which appeared in the daily papers [306] of
November 4, 1885. I have his reply to-day, saying that I had better
write to you direct. May I ask you, then, seeing that my name has been
brought into the affair, to state that, as I was in the dock when Mr.
Bramwell Booth was in the witness-box, I am in a position to give the
most unqualified denial to the statement as to the alleged admission
on his part of falsehood? Nothing was heard in Court of any such
admission. Neither the prosecuting counsel nor the Judge who tried the
case ever referred to it, although it would obviously have had a
direct bearing on the credit of the witness; and the jury, by
acquitting Mr. Bramwell Booth, showed that they believed him to be a
witness of truth. But fortunately the facts can be verified beyond all
gainsaying by a reference to the official shorthand-writer's report of
the evidence. During the hearing of the case for the prosecution,
Inspector Borner was interrupted by the Judge, who said:--
"'I want to ask you a question. During the whole of that conversation,
did Booth in any way suggest that that child had been sold?' Borner
replied:--
"'Not at that interview, my Lord.'
"It was to this that Mr. Bramwell Booth referred when, after
examination, cross-examination, [307] and re-examination, during which
no suggestion had been made that he had ever made the untrue statement
now alleged against him, he asked and received leave from the Judge to
make the following explanation, which I quote from the official
report:--
"'Will you allow me to explain a matter mentioned yesterday in
reference to a question asked by your Lordship some days ago with
respect to one matter connected with my conduct? Your Lordship asked,
I think it was Inspector Borner, whether I had said to him at either
of our interviews that the child was sold by her parents, and he
replied "No." That is quite correct; I did not say so to him, and what
I wish to say now is that I had been specially requested by Mr. Stead,
and had given him a promise, that I would not under any circumstances
divulge the fact of that sale to any person which would ma ke it at
all probable that any trouble would be brought upon the persons who
had taken part in this investigation.' (Central Criminal Court Reports,
Vol. CII., part 612, pp. 1,035-6.)
"In the daily papers of the following day this statement was
misreported as follows:--
"'I wish to explain, in regard to your Lordship's condemnation of my
having said "No" to [308] Inspector Borner when he asked me whether
the child had been sold by her parents--the reason why I stated what
was not correct was that I had promised Mr. Stead not to divulge the
fact of the sale to any person which would make it probable that any
trouble should be brought on persons taking part in this proceeding.'
"Hence the mistake into which Professor Huxley has unwittingly fallen.
"I may add that, so far from the statement never having been challenged
for five years, it was denounced as 'a remarkably striking lie' in the
'War Cry' of November 14th, and again the same official organ of the
Salvation Army of November 18th specifically adduced this misreport as
an instance of 'the most disgraceful way' in which the reports of the
trial were garbled by some of the papers. What, then, becomes of one
of the two main pillars of Professor Huxley's argument?"
In my reply, I point out that, on the 10th of January, Mr. Stead
addressed to me a letter, which commences thus: "I see in the 'Times'
of this morning that you are about to republish your letters on
Booth's book."
I replied to this letter on the 12th of January:--
[309] "Dear Mr. Stead,--I charge Mr. Bramwell Booth with nothing. I
simply quote the 'Times' report, the accuracy of which, so far as I
know, has never been challenged by Mr. Booth. I say I quote the
'Times' and not Mr. Hodges,* because I took some pains about the
verification of Mr. Hodges's citation.
* This is a slip of the pen. Mr. Hodges had nothing to do
with the citation of which I made use.
"I should have thought it rather appertained to Mr. Bramwell Booth to
contradict a statement which refers, not to what you heard, but to what
he said. However, I am the last person to wish to give circulation to
a story which may not be quite correct; and I will take care, if you
have no objection (your letter is marked 'private'), to make public as
much of your letter as relates to the point to which you have called
my attention.
"I am, yours very faithfully,
T. H. Huxley."
To this Mr. Stead answered, under date of January 13th, 1891:--
"Dear Professor Huxley,--I thank you for your letter of the 12th inst.
I am quite sure you would not wish to do any injustice in this matter.
But, instead of publishing any extract from my letter, might I ask you
to read the passage as it [310] appears in the verbatim report of the
trial which was printed day by day, and used by counsel on both sides,
and by the Judge during the case? I had hoped to have got you a copy
to-day, but find that I was too late. I shall have it first thing
to-morrow morning. You will find that it is quite clear, and
conclusively disposes of the alleged admission of untruthfulness.
Again thanking you for your courtesy,
"I am, yours faithfully,
W. T. Stead."
Thus it appears that the letter which Mr. Stead wrote to me on the 13th
of January does not contain one word of that which he ways it
contains, in the statement which appears in the "Times" to-day.
Moreover, the letter of mine to which Mr. Stead refers in his first
communication to me is not the letter which appeared on the 13th, as
he states, but that which you published on December 27th, 1890.
Therefore, it is not true that Mr. Stead wrote "at once." On the
contrary, he allowed nearly a fortnight to elapse before he addressed
me on the 10th of January 1891. Furthermore, Mr. Stead suppresses the
fact that, since the 13th of January, he has had in his possession my
offer to publish his version of the story; and he leads the reader to
suppose that my only answer was that he "had better write to [311] you
direct. All the while, Mr. Stead knows perfectly well that I was
withheld from making public use of his letter of the 10th by nothing
but my scruples about using a document which was marked "private"; and
that he did not give me leave to quote his letter of the 10th of
January until after he had written that which appeared yesterday.
And I add:--
As to the subject-matter of Mr. Stead's letter, the point which he
wishes to prove appears to be this--that Mr. Bramwell Booth did not
make a false statement, but that he withheld from the officers of
justice, pursuing a most serious criminal inquiry, a fact of grave
importance, which lay within his own knowledge. And this because he
had promised Mr. Stead to keep the fact secret. In short, Mr. Bramwell
Booth did not say what was wrong; but he did what was wrong.
I will take care to give every weight to the correction. Most people,
I think, will consider that one of the "main pillars of my argument,"
as Mr. Stead is pleased to call them, has become very much
strengthened.
[312]
LEGAL OPINIONS RESPECTING
"GENERAL" BOOTH'S ACTS.
In referring to the course of action adopted by "General" Booth and
Mr. Bramwell Booth in respect of their legal obligations to other
persons, or to the criminal and civil law, I have been as careful as I
was bound to be, to put any difficulties suggested by mere lay
commonsense in an interrogative or merely doubtful form; and to
confine myself, for any positive expressions, to citations from
published declarations of the judges before whom the acts of "General"
Booth came; from reports of the Law Courts; and from the deliberate
opinions of legal experts. I have now some further remarks to make on
these topics.
I. The observations at p. 305 express, with due reserve, the
impression which the counsel's opinions, quoted by "General" Booth's
solicitors, made on my mind. They were written and sent to the printer
before I saw the letter from a "Barrister NOT Practising on the Common
Law Side," and those from Messrs. Clarke and Calkin and Mr. George
Kebbell, which appeared in the "Times" of February 3rd and 4th.
These letters fully bear out the conclusion which I had formed, but
which it would have [313] been presumptuous on my part to express,
that the opinions cited by "General" Booth's solicitors were like the
famous broken tea-cups "wisely ranged for show"; and that, as Messrs.
Clarke and Calkin say, they "do not at all meet the main points on
which Mr. Hatton advised." I do not think that any one who reads
attentively the able letter of "A Barrister NOT Practicing on the
Common Law Side" will arrive at any other conclusion; or who will not
share the very natural desire of Mr. Kebbell to be provided with clear
and intelligible answers to the following inquiries:--
(1) Does the trust deed by its operation empower any one legally to
call upon Mr. Booth to account for the application of the funds?
(2) In the event of the funds not being properly accounted for, is
any one, and, if so, who, in a position to institute civil or criminal
proceedings against any one, and whom, in respect of such refusal or
neglect to account?
(3) In the event of the proceedings, civil or criminal, failing to
obtain restitution of misapplied funds, is or are any other person or
persons liable to make good the loss?
On December 24th, 1890, a letter of mine appeared in the "Times" (No.
V. above) in which I put questions of the same import, and asked Mr.
Booth if he would not be so good as to take counsel's opinion on the
"trusts" of which so [314] much has been heard and so little seen, not
as they stood in 1878, or in 1888, but as they stand now? Six weeks
have elapsed, and I wait for a reply.
It is true that Dr. Greenwood has been authorized by Mr. Booth to
publish what he calls a "Rough outline of the intended Trust Deed"
("General Booth and His Critics," p. 120), but unfortunately we are
especially told that it "does not profess to be an absolutely accurate
analysis." Under these circumstances I am afraid that neither lawyers
nor laymen of moderate intelligence will pay much attention to the
assertion, that "it gives a fair idea of the general effect of the
draft," even although "the words in quotation marks are taken from it
verbatim."
These words, which I give in italics, (1) define the purposes of the
scheme to be "for the social and moral regeneration and improvement of
persons needy, destitute, degraded, or criminal, in some manner
indicated, implied, or suggested in the book called 'In Darkest
England.'" Whence I apprehend that, if the whole funds collected are
applied to "mothering society" by the help of speculative attorney
"tribunes of the people," the purposes of the trust will be
unassailably fulfilled. (2) The name is to be "Darkest England
Scheme," (3) the General of the Salvation Army is to be "Director of
the Scheme." Truly valuable information all this! But taking it for
what it is worth, the [315] public must not be misled into supposing
that it has the least bearing upon the questions to which neither I,
nor anybody else, has yet been able to obtain an intelligible answer,
and that is, where are the vast funds which have been obtained, in one
way or another, during the last dozen years in the name of the
Salvation Army? Where is the presumably amended Trust Deed of 1888? I
ask once more: Will Mr. Booth submit to competent and impartial legal
scrutiny the arrangements by which he and his successors are prevented
from dealing with the funds of the so-called "army chest" exactly as
he or they may please?
II. With respect to the "Eagle" case, I am advised that Dr. Greenwood,
whose good faith I do not question, has been misled into
misrepresenting it in the appendix to his pamphlet. And certainly, the
evidence of authoritative records which I have had the opportunity of
perusing, appears to my non-legal mind to be utterly at variance with
the statement to which Dr. Greenwood stands committed. I may observe,
further, that the excuse alleged on behalf of Mr. Booth, that he
signed the affidavit set before him by his solicitors without duly
considering its contents, is one which I should not like to have put
forward were the case my own. It may be, and often is, necessary for a
person to sign an affidavit without [316] being able fully to
appreciate the technical language in which it is couched. But his
solicitor will always instruct him as to the effect of these terms.
And, in this particular case where the whole matter turns on Mr.
Booth's personal intentions, it was his plainest duty to inquire, very
seriously, whether the legal phraseology employed would convey neither
more nor less than such intentions to those who would act on the
affidavit, before he put his name to it.
III. With respect to Mr. Bramwell Booth's case, I refer the reader to
p. 311.
IV. As to Mr. Booth-Clibborn's misrepresentations, see above, pp. 298,
299.
This much for the legal questions which have been raised by various
persons since the first edition of the pamphlet was published.
DR. GREENWOOD'S "GENERAL BOOTH AND HIS CRITICS"
So far as I am concerned, there is little or nothing in this brochure
beyond a reproduction of the vituperative stuff which has been going
the round of those newspapers which favour "General" Booth for some
weeks. Those who do not want to see the real worth of it all will not
read [317] the preceding pages; and those who do will need no help
from me.
I fear, however, that in justice to other people I must put one of Dr.
Greenwood's paragraphs in the pillory. He says that I have "built up,
on the flimsy foundation of stories told by three or four deserters
from the Army" (p. 114), a sweeping indictment against General Booth.
This is the sort of thing to which I am well accustomed at the hands
of anonymous newspaper writers. But in view of the following easily
verifiable statements, I do not think that an educated and, I have no
doubt, highly respectable gentleman like Dr. Greenwood can, in cold
blood, contemplate that assertion with satisfaction.
The persons here alluded to as "three or four deserters from the army"
are:--
(1) Mr. Redstone, for whose character Dr. Cunningham Geikie is
guarantee, and whom it has been left to Dr. Greenwood to attempt to
besmirch.
(2) Mr. Sumner, who is a gentleman quite as worthy of respect as
Dr. Greenwood, and whose published evidence not one of the champions
of the Salvation Army has yet ventured to impugn.
(3) Mr. Hodges, similarly libelled by that unhappy meddler Mr.
Trotter, who was compelled to the prompt confession of his error (see
p. 277).
(4) Notwithstanding this evidence of Mr. Trotter's claims to
attention, Dr. Greenwood quotes a [318] statement of his as evidence
that a statement quoted by me from Mr. Sumner's work is a "forgery."
But Dr. Greenwood unfortunately forgets to mention that on the 27th of
December 1890 (Letter No. VII. above) Mr. Trotter was publicly
required to produce proof of his assertion; and that he has not
thought fit to produce that proof.
If I were disposed to use to Dr. Greenwood language of the sort he so
freely employs to me, I think that he could not complain of a handsome
scolding. For what is the real state of the case? Simply this--that
having come to the conclusion, from the perusal of "In Darkest
England," that "General" Booth's colossal scheme (as apart from the
local action of Salvationists) was bad in principle and must produce
certain evil consequences, and having warned the public to that
effect, I quite unexpectedly found my hands full of evidence that the
exact evils predicted had, in fact, already shown themselves on a
great scale; and, carefully warning the public to criticize this
evidence, I produced a small part of it. When Dr. Greenwood talks
about my want of "regard to the opinion of the nine thousand odd who
still remain among the faithful" (p. 114), he commits an imprudence.
He would obviously be surprised to learn the extent of the support,
encouragement, and information which I have received from active and
sincere members of the Salvation Army [319] --but of which I can make
no use, because of the terroristic discipline and systematic espionage
which my correspondents tell me is enforced by its chief. Some of
these days, when nobody can be damaged by their use, a curious light
may be thrown upon the inner workings of the organization which we are
bidden to regard as a happy family, by these documents.
[320] (blank page)
[321]
THE SALVATION ARMY
ARTICLES OF WAR,
To be signed by all who wish to be entered on the roll as soldiers.
Having received with all my heart the Salvation offered to me by the
tender mercy of Jehovah, I do here and now publicly acknowledge God to
be my Father and King, Jesus Christ to be my Saviour, and the Holy
Spirit to be my Guide, Comforter, and Strength; and that I will, by
His help, love, serve, worship, and obey this glorious God through all
time and through all eternity.
Believing solemnly that The Salvation Army has been raised up by God,
and is sustained and directed by Him, I do here declare my full
determination, by God's help, to be a true soldier of the Army till I
die.
I am thoroughly convinced of the truth of the Army's teaching.
I believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ, and conversion by the Holy Spirit, are necessary to Salvation,
and that all men may be saved.
I believe that we are saved by grace, through faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ, and he that believeth hath the witness of it in himself.
I have got it. Thank God!
I believe that the Scriptures were given by inspiration of God, and
that they teach that not only does continuance in the favour of God
depend upon continued faith in, and obedience to, Christ, [322] but
that it is possible for those who have been truly converted to fall
away and be eternally lost.
I believe that it is the privilege of all God's people to be
"wholly sanctified," and that "their whole spirit and soul and body"
may "be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
That is to say, I believe that after conversion there remain in the
heart of the believer inclinations to evil, or roots of bitterness,
which, unless overpowered by Divine grace, produce actual sin; but
these evil tendencies can be entirely taken away by the Spirit of God,
and the whole heart thus cleansed from anything contrary to the will
of God, or entirely sanctified, will then produce the fruit of the
Spirit only. And I believe that persons thus entirely sanctified may,
by the power of God, be kept unblamable and unreprovable before Him.
I believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of
the body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the
eternal happiness of the righteous; and in the everlasting punishment
of the wicked.
THEREFORE, I do here, and now, and for ever, renounce the world with
all its sinful pleasures, companionship treasures, and objects, and
declare my full determination boldly to show myself a Soldier of Jesus
Christ in all places and companies, no matter what I may have to
suffer, do, or lose, by so doing.
I do here and now declare that I will abstain from the use of all
intoxicating liquors, and also from the habitual use of opium,
laudanum, morphia, and all other baneful drugs, except when in illness
such drugs shall be ordered for me by a doctor.
I do here and now declare that I will abstain from [323] the use of
all low or profane language; from the taking of the name of God in
vain; and from all impurity, or from taking part in any unclean
conversation or the reading of any obscene book or paper at any time,
in any company, or in any place.
I do here declare that I will not allow myself in any falsehood,
deceit, misrepresentation, or dishonesty; neither will I practise any
fraudulent conduct, either in my business, my home, or in any other
relation in which I may stand to my fellow men, but that I will deal
truthfully, fairly, honourably, and kindly with all those who may
employ me or whom I may myself employ.
I do here declare that I will never treat any woman, child, or
other person, whose life, comfort, or happiness may be placed within
my power, in an oppressive, cruel, or cowardly manner, but that I will
protect such from evil and danger so far as I can, and promote, to the
utmost of my ability, their present welfare and eternal salvation.
I do here declare that I will spend all the time, strength, money,
and influence I can in supporting and carrying on this War, and that I
will endeavour to lead my family, friends, neighbours, and all others
whom I can influence, to do the same, believing that the sure and only
way to remedy all the evils in the world is by bringing men to submit
themselves to the government of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I do here declare that I will always obey the lawful orders of my
Officers, and that I will carry out to the utmost of my power all the
Orders and Regulations of The Army; and further, that I will be an
example of faithfulness to its principles, advance to the utmost of my
ability its operations, and never allow, where I can prevent it, any
injury to its interests or hindrance to its success.
[324] And I do here and now call upon all present to witness that I
enter into this undertaking and sign these Articles of War of my own
free will, feeling that the love of Christ who died to save me
requires from me this devotion of my life to His service for the
Salvation of the whole world, and therefore wish now to be enrolled as
a Soldier of the Salvation Army.
________________________________________
_____________CORPS______________ 18___
____________________________________
______________________________ Corps
___________________________ Division
_____________________ 18____
(SINGLE)
FORM OF APPLICATION
FOR AN APPOINTMENT AS AN
OFFICER IN THE SALVATION ARMY
Name _____________________________________________________________________
Address __________________________________________________________________
1. What was your AGE last birthday? ___________________
What is the date of your birthday? _________________
2. What is your height? __________________
3. Are you free from bodily defect or disease? ____
4. What serious illnesses have you had, and when? ________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
5. Have you ever had fits of any kind? __________________
If so how long, and what kind? ___________________________________________
6. Do you consider your health good, and that you are strong enough for
the work of an officer? __________________________________________________
If not, or if you are doubtful, write a letter and explain the matter.
7. Is your doctor's certificate a full and correct statement so far as you
know? ___________________________________________________________
8. Are you, or have you ever been, married? ___________
9. When and where CONVERTED? ____________________________
10. What other Religious Societies have you belonged to? _________________
__________________________________________________________________________
11. Were you ever a Junior Soldier? _____________________
If so, how long? ________________________________________
12. How long have you been enrolled as a SOLDIER? _______
and signed Articles of War? ____________________
13. If you hold any office in your Corps, say what and how long held? ____
__________________________________________________________________________
14. Do you intend to live and die in the ranks of the Salvation Army? ____
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
15. Have you ever been an open BACKSLIDER? ______________
If so, how long? ________________________________________
16. Why? _________________________________________________________________
Date of your Restoration? ___________________
17. Are you in DEBT? __________________
If so, how much? ______________________
18. How long owing? ______________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
19. Did you ever use Intoxicating Drink? _____________
If so, how long is it since you entirely gave up its use? ________________
20. Did you ever use Tobacco or Snuff? _________
If so, how long is it since you gave up using either? ____________________
------------------------
21. What UNIFORM do you wear? ____________________________________________
22. How long have you worn it? ___________________________________________
23. Do you agree to dress in accordance with the direction of Headquarters?
_________________
24. Can you provide your own uniform and "List of Necessaries" before
entering the Service? ____________________________________________________
--------------------------------
25. Are you in a Situation? _____________
If so, how long? ________________________
26. Nature of duties, and salary _________________________________________
27. Name and address of employer? ________________________________________
28. If out, date of leaving last situation? _________________________
How long there? _____________________________________________________
29. Why did you leave? ___________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
30. Name and address of last employer? ___________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
31. Can you start the SINGING? __________
32. Can you play any musical instrument? _________________
If so, what? _____________________________________________________________
33. Is this form filled up by you? ________________________
Can you read well at first sight? _________________________
34. Can you write SHORTHAND? _________________________
If so, what speed and system? ____________________________________________
35. Can you speak any language other than English? _______________________
If so, what? _____________________________________________________________
36. Have you had any experience and success in the JUNIOR SOLDIERS' WAR? _
37. If so, what? _________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
_
38. Are you willing to sell the "WAR CRY" on Sundays? ____________
39. Do you engage not to publish any books, songs, or music except for the
benefit of the Salvation Army, and then only with the consent of
Headquarters? ________________
40. Do you promise not to engage in any trade, profession, or other money-
making occupation, except for the benefit of the Salvation Army, and then
only with the consent of Headquarters? _________________________
41. Would you be willing to go ABROAD if required? _______________________
42. Do you promise to do your utmost to help forward the Junior Soldiers'
work if accepted? _____________
43. Do you pledge yourself to spend not less than nine hours every day in
the active service of the Army, of which not less than three hours of each
week day shall be spent in VISITATION? ______________________
44. Do you pledge yourself to fill up and send to Headquarters forms as to
how your day is spent? ______________________
----------------------------
45. Have you read, and do you believe, the DOCTRINES printed on the other
side? ____________________
46. Have you read the "Orders and Regulations for Field Officers" of the
Army? ________________________________
If you have not got a copy of "Orders and Regulations," get one from
Candidates' Department at once. The price to Candidates is 2s. 6d.
47. Do you pledge yourself to study and carry out and to endeavour to
train others to carry out all Orders and Regulations of the Army? ________
48. Have you read the Order on page 3 of this Form as to PRESENTS and
TESTIMONIALS, and do you engage to carry it out? _________________________
49. Do you pledge yourself never to receive any sum in the form of pay
beyond the amount of allowances granted under the scale which follows?
___________
ALLOWANCES-- From the day of arrival at his station, each officer is
entitled to draw the following allowances, provided the amount remains in
hand after meeting all local expenses, namely:
-- For Single Men: Lieutenants, 16s. weekly, and Captains, 18s.
-- for Single Women: Lieutenants, 12s. weekly, and Captains, 15s. weekly.
-- Married Men, 27s. per week, and ls. per week for each child under 14
years of age; in all cases without house-rent.
50. Do you perfectly understand that no salary or allowance is guaranteed
to you, and that you will have no claim against the Salvation Army, or
against any one connected therewith, on account of salary or allowances
not received by you? _____________________________________________________
-----------------------------
51. Have you ever APPLIED BEFORE? ___ If so, when? ______________________
52. With what result? ____________________________________________________
53. If you have ever been in the service of the Salvation Army in any
position, say what? ______________________________________________________
54. Why did you leave? ___________________________________________________
55. Are you willing to come into TRAINING that we may see whether you
have the necessary goodness and ability for an Officer in the Salvation
Army, and should we conclude that you have not the necessary qualifications,
do you pledge yourself to return home and work in your Corps without
creating any dissatisfaction? ____________________________________________
56. Will you pay your own travelling expenses if we decide to receive you
in Training? _____________________________________________________________
57. How much can you pay for your maintenance while in Training? _________
__________________________________________________________________________
58. Can you deposit [Pound] 1 so that we can provide you with a suit of
Uniform when you are Commissioned?
______________________________________________________
59. What is the shortest NOTICE you require should we want you? __________
60. Are your PARENTS willing that you should become an Officer? __________
61. Does any one depend upon you for support? _________ If so, who? ______
__________________________________________________________________________
62. To what extent? ______________________________________________________
63. Give your parents', or nearest living relatives', full address _______
__________________________________________________________________________
---------------------------------
64. Are you COURTING? ________ If so, give name and address of the person:
__________________________________________________________________________
65. How long have you been engaged? _____________ What is the person's age?
__________________________________________
66. What is the date of Birthday? _______________________
How long enrolled as a SOLDIER? _________________________
67. What Uniform does the person wear? ___________________________________
How long worn? ______________________
68. What does the person do in the Corps? ________________________________
69. Has the person applied for the work? _________________________________
70. If not, when does the person intend doing so? ________________________
71. Do the parents agree to the person coming into Training? _____________
---------------------------------
72. Do you understand that you may not be allowed to marry until three
years after your appointment as an Officer, and do you engage to abide
by this? __________________
73. If you are not courting, do you pledge yourself to abstain from
anything of the kind during Training and for at least twelve months
after your appointment as a Commissioned Field Officer? __________________
74. Do you pledge yourself not to carry on courtship with any one at the
station to which you are at the time appointed? __________________________
75. Do you pledge yourself never to commence, or allow to commence, or
break off anything of the sort, without first informing your Divisional
Officer, or Headquarters, of your intention to do so? ____________________
76. Do you pledge yourself never to marry any one marriage with whom would
take you out of the Army altogether? _____________________________________
77. Have you read, and do you agree to carry out, the following
Regulations as to Courtship and Marriage? ___________________
(a) "Officers must inform their Divisional Officer or Headquarters of
their desire to enter into or break off any engagement, and no Officer is
permitted to enter into or break off an engagement without the consent of
his or her D.O.
(b) "Officers will not be allowed to carry on any courtship in the Town in
which they are appointed; nor until twelve months after the date of their
Commission.
(c) "Headquarters cannot consent to the engagement of Male Lieutenants,
until their Divisional Officer is prepared to recommend them for command
of a Station as Captain.
(d) "Before Headquarters can consent to the marriage of any Officer, the
Divisional Officer must be prepared to give him three stations as a married
man.
(e) "No Officer accepted will be allowed to marry until he or she has been
at least three years in the field, except in cases of long-standing
engagements before application for the work.
(f) "No Male Officer will, under any circumstances, be allowed to marry
before he is twenty-two years of age, unless required by Headquarters for
special service.
(g) "Headquarters will not agree to the Marriage of any Male Officer
(except under extraordinary circumstances) until twelve months after
consenting to his engagement.
(h) "Consent will not be given to the engagement of any male Officer
unless the young woman is likely to make a suitable wife for an Officer,
and (if not already an Officer) is prepared to come into Training at once.
(i) "Consent will be given to engagements between Female Officers and
Soldiers, on condition that the latter are suitable for Officers, and are
willing to come into Training if called upon.
(j) "Consent will never be given to any engagement or marriage which would
take an Officer out of the Army.
(k) "Every Officer must sign before marriage the Articles of Marriage,
contained in the Orders and Regulations for Field Officers."
----------------------------
PRESENTS AND TESTIMONIALS.
1. Officers are expected to refuse utterly, and to prevent, if possible,
even the proposal of any present or testimonial to them.
2. Of course, an Officer who is receiving no salary, or only part salary,
may accept food or other gifts, such as are needed to meet his wants; but
it is dishonourable for any one who is receiving their salary to accept
gifts of food also.
THE DOCTRINES OF THE SALVATION ARMY.
The principal Doctrines taught in the Army are as follows: --
1. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were given
by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of
Christian faith and practice.
2. We believe there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the
Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things.
3. We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead--the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, undivided in essence, coequal in power and glory,
and the only proper object of religious worship.
4. We believe that, in the person of Jesus Christ, the Divine and human
natures are united, so that He is truly and properly God, and truly and
properly man.
5. We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency,
but by their disobedience they lost their purity and happiness; and that,
in consequence of their fall, all men have become sinners, totally
depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.
6. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has, by His suffering and death,
made an atonement for the whole world, so that whosoever will may be
saved.
7. We believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,
and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, are necessary to Salvation.
8. We believe that we are justified by grace, through faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ, and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself.
9. We believe the Scriptures teach that not only does continuance in the
favour of God depend upon continued faith in, and obedience to, Christ,
but that it is possible for those who have been truly converted to fall
away and be eternally lost.
10. We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be "wholly
sanctified," and that "the whole spirit and soul and body" may "be
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." That is to
say, we believe that after conversion there remain in the heart of the
believer inclinations to evil, or roots of bitterness, which, unless
overpowered by Divine grace, produce actual sin; but that these evil
tendencies can be entirely taken away by the Spirit of God, and the whole
heart, thus cleansed from everything contrary to the will of God, or
entirely sanctified, will then produce the fruit of the Spirit only. And
we believe that persons thus entirely sanctified may, by the power of God,
be kept unblamable and unreprovable before Him.
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