T "DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME. 297 



ance of those ends we offer our pages to the public 

 view." 



The preface is dated April, 1889. According 

 to the statement in the " Toronto Telegram/' 

 which Mr. " Commissioner " Booth-Clibborn does 

 not dare to dispute, his Canadian fellow-" Com- 

 missioner" bought and destroyed the whole edi- 

 tion of " The New Papacy " about the end of the 

 third week of April. It is clear that the writer of 

 the paragraph quoted from the preface was well 

 out of a " hot fit," if he had ever been in one, while 

 he had not entered on the stage of repentance 

 within three weeks of that time. Mr. " Commis- 

 sioner" Booth-Clibborn's scandalous insinuations 

 that Mr. Sumner was bribed by " a few sover- 

 eigns," and that he was " bought off," in the face 

 of his own admission that Mr, Sumner " offered to 

 order its suppression if the army would pay the 

 costs already incurred, and which he was unable 

 to bear," is a crucial example of that Jesuitry with 

 which the officials of the army have been so fre- 

 quently charged. 



Mr. '' Commissioner " Booth-Clibborn says that 

 when " London headquarters heard of the affair, 

 it disapproved of the action of the Commissioner." 

 That circumstance indicates that headquarters is 

 not wholly devoid of intelligence; but it has noth- 

 ing to do with the value of Mr. Sumner's evidence, 

 which is all I am concerned about. Very likely 

 London headquarters will disapprove of its French 



