V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 295 



request for information about the authorship and 

 fate of " The New Papacy," in the Jetter published 

 in the " Times " on December 27th, 1890. The 

 " Commissioner " deals with this matter in para- 

 graph No. 4 of his letter ; and I observe, with no 

 little satisfaction, that he does not venture to con- 

 trovert 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 " Commis- 

 sioner " 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 repent- 

 ance, 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; 



