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 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 recom- 

 mend 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 dis- 

 covered " 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 de- 

 scription of this third barrel is correct — " giving up 

 your conscience " and, " for God and the army, 

 stooping to do things which even honouiable 

 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 



