v "DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME. 267 



these passages, especially the last. Well, I turn to 

 other evidence which, at any rate, is not anony- 

 mous. It is contained in a pamphlet entitled 

 " General Booth, the Family, and the Salvation 

 Army, showing its Kise, Progress, and Moral and 

 Spiritual Decline," by S. H. Hodges, LL.B., late 

 Major in the Army, and formerly private secre- 

 tary 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 in- 

 teresting novelties, it tells me that Mr. Booth has 

 discovered " the necessity of a third step or bless- 

 ing, 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 



