v "DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME. 259 



Mr. Bedstone's assertion that they are watched 

 and reported !>y 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 inter- 

 pose an apology for having hastily spoken of such 

 men as Francis of Assisi, even for purposes of 

 warning, in connection with Mr. Booth. What- 

 ever may be thought of the wisdom of the plans 



of the founders of the great monastic orders of 



m 



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, utilises the officers of the 



