266 LETTERS TO THE "TIMES." v 



"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 head- 

 quarters 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 disap- 

 peared " (p. 7). " In reference to the religious 

 bodies at large the army has become entirely an- 

 tagonistic. Soldiers are forbidden by its rules to 

 attend other places of worship without the per- 

 mission of their officers. . . . Officers or soldiers 

 who may conscientiously leave the service or the 

 ranks are looked upon and often denounced pub- 

 licly as backsliders. . . . Means of the most de- 

 spicable 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 rea.d 



