If among my readers there be any who have the least conception that this scheme is put forward by me from any interested motives by all means let them refuse to contribute even by a single penny to what would be, at least, one of the most shameless of shams. There may be those who are able to imagine that men who have been literally martyred in this cause have faced their death for the sake of the paltry coppers they collected to keep body and soul together. Such may possibly find no difficulty in persuading themselves that this is but another attempt to raise money to augment that mythical fortune which I, who never yet drew a penny beyond mere out-of-pocket expenses from the Salvation Army funds, am supposed to be accumulating. From all such I ask only the tribute of their abuse, assured that the worst they say of me is too mild to describe the infamy of my conduct if they are correct in this interpretation of my motives.

There appears to me to be only two reasons that will justify any man, with a heart in his bosom, in refusing to co-operate with me in this Scheme: —

1. That he should have an honest and intelligent conviction that it cannot be carried out with any reasonable measure of success; or,

2. That he (the objector) is prepared with some other plan which will as effectually accomplish the end it contemplates.

Let me consider the second reason first. If it be that you have some plan that promises more directly to accomplish the deliverance of these multitudes than mine, I implore you at once to bring it out. Let it see the light of day. Let us not only hear your theory, but see the evidences which prove its practical character and assure its success. If your plan will bear investigation, I shall then consider you to be relieved from the obligation to assist me—nay, if after full consideration of your plan I find it better than mine, I will give up mine, turn to, and help you with all my might. But if you have nothing to offer, I demand your help in the name of those whose cause I plead.

Now, then, for your first objection, which I suppose can be expressed in one word—"impossible." This, if well founded, is equally fatal to my proposals. But, in reply, I may say—How do you know? Have you inquired? I will assume that you have read the book, and duly considered it. Surely you would not dismiss so important a theme without some thought. And though my arguments may not have sufficient weight to carry conviction, you must admit them to be of sufficient importance to warrant investigation. Will you therefore come and see for yourself what has been done already, or, rather, what we are doing to-day. Failing this, will you send someone capable of judging on your behalf. I do not care very much whom you send. It is true the things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned, but the things of humanity any man can judge, whether saint or sinner, if he only possess average intelligence and ordinary bowels of compassion.

I should, however, if I had a choice, prefer an investigator who has some practical knowledge of social economics, and much more should I be pleased if he had spent some of his own time and a little of his own money in trying to do the work himself. After such investigation I am confident there could be only one result.

There is one more plea I have to offer to those who might seek to excuse themselves from rendering any financial assistance to the Scheme. Is it not worthy at least of being tried as an experiment? Tens of thousands of pounds are yearly spent in "trying" for minerals, boring for coals, sinking for water, and I believe there are those who think it worth while, at an expenditure of hundreds of thousands of pounds, to experiment in order to test the possibility of making a tunnel under the sea between this country and France. Should these adventurers fail in their varied operations, they have, at least, the satisfaction of knowing, though hundreds of thousands of pounds have been expended, that they have not been wasted, and they will not complain; because they have at least attempted the accomplishment of that which they felt ought to be done; and it must be better to attempt a duty, though we fail, than never to attempt it at all. In this book we do think we have presented a sufficient reason to justify the expenditure of the money and effort involved in the making of this experiment. And though the effort should not terminate in the grand success which I so confidently predict, and which we all must so ardently desire, still there is bound to be, not only the satisfaction of having attempted some sort of deliverance for these wretched people, but certain results which will amply repay every farthing expended in the experiment.

I am now sixty-one years of age. The last eighteen months, during which the continual partner of all my activities for now nearly forty years has laid in the arms of unspeakable suffering, has added more than many many former ones, to the exhaustion of my term of service. I feel already something of the pressure which led the dying Emperor of Germany to say, "I have no time to be weary." If I am to see the accomplishment in any considerable degree of these life-long hopes, I must be enabled to embark up on the enterprise without delay, and with the world-wide burden constantly upon me in connection with the universal mission of our Army I cannot be expected to struggle in this matter alone.

But I trust that the upper and middle classes are at last being awakened out of their long slumber with regard to the permanent improvement of the lot of those who have hitherto been regarded as being for ever abandoned and hopeless. Shame indeed upon England if, with the example presented to us nowadays by the Emperor and Government of Germany, we simply shrug our shoulders, and pass on again to our business or our pleasure leaving these wretched multitudes in the gutters where they have lain so long. No, no, no; time is short. Let us arise in the name of God and humanity, and wipe away the sad stigma from the British banner that our horses are better treated than our labourers.

It will be seen that this Scheme contains many branches. It is probable that some of my readers may not be able to endorse the plan as a whole, while heartily approving of some of its features and to the support of what they do not heartily approve they may not be willing to subscribe. Where this is so, we shall be glad for them to assist us in carrying out those portions of the undertaking which more especially command their sympathy and commend themselves to their judgment. For instance, one man may believe in the Over-Sea Colony, but feel no interest in the Inebriates' Home; another, who may not care for emigration, may desire to furnish a Factory or Rescue Home; a third may wish to give us an estate, assist in the Food and Shelter work, or the extension of the Slum Brigade. Now, although I regard the Scheme as one and indivisible—from which you cannot take away any portion without impairing the prospect of the whole—it is quite practicable to administer the money subscribed so that the wishes of each donor may be carried out. Subscriptions may, therefore, be sent in for the general fund of the Social Scheme, or they can be devoted to any of the following distinct funds: —

1. The City Colony. 2. The Farm Colony. 3. The Colony Over-sea. 4. The Household Salvage Brigade. 5. The Rescue Homes for Fallen Women. 6. Deliverance for the Drunkard. 7. The Prison Gate Brigade. 8. The Poor Man's Bank. 9. The Poor Man's Lawyer. 10. Whitechapel-by-the-Sea.

Or any other department suggested by the foregoing. In making this appeal I have, so far, addressed myself chiefly to those who have money; but money, indispensable as it is, has never been the thing most needful. Money is the sinews of war; and, as society is at present constituted, neither carnal nor spiritual wars can be carried on without money. But there is something more necessary still. War cannot be waged without soldiers. A Wellington can do far more in a campaign than a Rothschild. More than money—a long, long way— I want men; and when I say men, I mean women also—men of experience, men of brains, men of heart, and men of God.

In this great expedition, though I am starting for territory which is familiar enough, I am, in a certain sense, entering an unknown land. My people will be new at it. We have trained our soldiers to the saving of souls, we have taught them Knee-drill, we have instructed them in the art and mystery of dealing with the consciences and hearts of men; and that will ever continue the main business of their lives.

To save the soul, to regenerate the life, and to inspire the spirit with the undying love of Christ is the work to which all other duties must ever be strictly subordinate in the Soldiers of the Salvation Army. But the new sphere on which we are entering will call for faculties other than those which have hitherto been cultivated, and for knowledge of a different character; and those who have these gifts, and who are possessed of this practical information, will be sorely needed.

Already our world-wide Salvation work engrosses the energies of every Officer whom we command. With its extension we have the greatest difficulty to keep pace; and, when this Scheme has to be practically grappled with, we shall be in greater straits than ever. True, it will find employment for a multitude of energies and talents which are now lying dormant, but, nevertheless, this extension will tax our resources to the very utmost. In view of this, reinforcements will be indispensable. We shall need the best brains, the largest experience, and the most undaunted energy of the community.

I want Recruits, but I cannot soften the conditions in order to attract men to the Colours. I want no comrades on these terms, but those who know our rules and are prepared to submit to our discipline: who are one with us on the great principles which determine our action, and whose hearts are in this great work for the amelioration of the hard lot of the lapsed and lost. These I will welcome to the service.

It may be that you cannot deliver an open-air address, or conduct an indoor meeting. Public labour for souls has hitherto been outside your practice. In the Lord's vineyard, however, are many labourers, and all are not needed to do the same thing. If you have a practical acquaintance with any of the varied operations of which I have spoken in this book; if you are familiar with agriculture, understand the building trade, or have a practical knowledge of almost any form of manufacture, there is a place for you.

We cannot offer you great pay, social position, or any glitter and tinsel of man's glory; in fact, we can promise little more than rations, plenty of hard work, and probably no little of worldly scorn; but if on the whole you believe you can in no other way help your Lord so well and bless humanity so much, you will brave the opposition of friends, abandon earthly prospects, trample pride under foot, and come out and follow Him in this New Crusade.

To you who believe in the remedy here proposed, and the soundness of these plans, and have the ability to assist me, I now confidently appeal for practical evidence of the faith that is in you. The responsibility is no longer mine alone. It is yours as much as mine. It is yours even more than mine if you withhold the means by which I may carry out the Scheme. I give what I have. If you give what you have the work will be done. If it is not done, and the dark river of wretchedness rolls on, as wide and deep as ever, the consequences will lie at the door of him who holds back.

I am only one man among my fellows, the same as you. The obligation to care for these lost and perishing multitudes does not rest on me any more than it does on you. To me has been given the idea, but to you the means by which it may be realised. The Plan has now been published to the world; it is for you to say whether it is to remain barren, or whether it is to bear fruit in unnumbered blessings to all the children of men.

APPENDIX

1. The Salvation Army—A Sketch—The Position of the Forces, October, 1890.

2. Circular, Registration Forms, and Notices now issued by the Labour Bureau.

3. Count Rumford's Bavarian Experience.

4. The Co-operative Experiment at Ralahine.

5. Mr Carlyle on the Regimenation of the Out-of-Works.

6. "Christianity and Civilization," by the Rev. Dr. Barry.

THE SALVATION ARMY

The position of our forces. October, 1890.

Corps or Outposts Officers or persons Societies wholly engaged in the work.

The United Kingdom ... 1375 —- 4506

France ... ... ) 106 72 352 Switzerland ... )

Sweden ... ... ... 103 41 328

United States ... ... 363 57 1066

Canada ... ... ... 317 78 1021

Australia— Victoria ... ...) South Australia ) New South Wales ) 270 465 903 Tasmania ... ...) Queensland ...)

New Zeland ... ... 65 99 186

India ... ... ...) 80 51 419 Ceylon ... ...)

Holland ... ... 40 8 131

Denmark ... ... 33 — 87

Norway ... ... 45 7 132

Germany ... ... 16 6 75

Belgium ... ... 4 — 21

Finland ... ... 3 — 12

The Argentine Republic 2 — 15

South Africa & St Helena 52 12 162 —— —— —— Total abroad 1499 896 4910 —— —— —— Grand total 2874 896 9416

THE SUPPLY ("TRADE") DEPARTMENT At Home. Abroad

Buildings occupied ... ... ... 8 22

Officers ... ... ... ... ... 53 15

Employes ... ... ... ... ... 207 55 —- —- Total 260 70

THE PROPERTY DEPARTMENT.

Property now Vested in the Army;—

The United Kingdom ... ... ... #377,500

France and Switzerland ... ... 10,000

Sweden ... ... ... ... ... 13,598

Norway ... ... ... ... ... 11,676

The United States ... ... ... 6,601

Canada ... ... ... ... ... 98,728

Australia ... ... ... ... ... 86,251

New Zealand ... ... ... ... 14,798

India ... ... ... ... ... 5,537

Holland ... ... ... ... ... 7,188

Denmark ... ... ... ... ... 2,340

South Africa ... ... ... ... 10,401 ———— Total #644,618 ————

Value of trade effects, stock, machinery, and goods on hand, #130,000 additional.

SOCIAL WORK OF THE ARMY.

Rescue homes (fallen women) ... ... 33 Slum Posts ... ... ... ... ... 33 Prison Gate Brigades ... ... ... 10 Food Depots ... ... ... ... ... 4 Shelters for the Destitute ... ... 5 Inebriates Home ... ... ... ... 1 Factory for the "out of work" ... 1 Labour Bureaux ... ... ... ... 2

Officers and others managing those branches 384

SALVATION AND SOCIAL REFORM LITERATURE

At home. Abroad Circulation Weekly Newspapers ... 3 24 31,000,000 Monthly Magazines ... 3 12 2,400,000 — —- —————- Total 6 36 33,400,000 — —- —————-

Total annual circulation of the above 33,400,000 Total annual circulation of other publications 4,000,000 —————- Total annual circulation of Army literature 37,400,000 —————-

The United Kingdom—

"The War Cry" 300,000 weekly "The Young Soldier" 126,750 weekly "All the World" 50,000 monthly "The Deliverer" 48,000 monthly

GENERAL STATEMENTS AND STATISTICS. Accommodation Annual cost. Training Garrisons for Officers (United Kingdom) 28 #11,500 (Abroad) 38 760

Large Vans for Evangelising the Villages (known as Cavalry Forts)

Homes of Rest for Officers 24 240 10,000

Indoor Meetings, held weekly 28,351

Open-air Meetings held weekly (chiefly in England and Colonies) 21,467 ———- Total Meetings held weekly 49,818 ———-

Number of Houses visited weekly (Great Britain only) 54,000

Number of Countries and Colonies occupied

Number of Languages in which Literature is issued 15

Number of Languages in which Salvation is preached by the Officers 29

Number of Local (Non-Commissioned Officers) and Bandsman 23,069

Number of Scribes and Office Employes 471

Average weekly reception of telegrams, 600 and letters, 5,400 at the London Headquarters

Sum raised annually from all sources by the Army #750,000

Balance Sheets, duly audited by chartered accountants, are issued annually in connection with the International Headquarters. See the Annual Report of 1889—"Apostolic Warfare."

Balance Sheets are also produced quarterly at every Corps in the world, audited and signed by the Local Officers. Divisional Balance Sheets issued monthly and audited by a Special Department at Headquarters.

Duly and independently audited Balance Sheets are also issued annually from every Territorial Headquarters.

THE AUXILIARY LEAGUE.

1.—Of persons who, without necessarily endorsing or approving of every single method used by thee Salvation Army, are sufficiently in sympathy with its great work of reclaiming drunkards, rescuing the fallen—in a word, saving the lost—as to give it their PRAYERS, INFLUENCE, AND MONEY.

2.—Of persons who, although seeing eye to eye with the Army, yet are unable to join it, owing to being actively engaged in the work of their own denominations, or by reason of bad health or other infirmities, which forbid their taking any active part in Christian work. Persons are enrolled either as Subscribing or Collecting Auxiliaries.

The League comprises persons of influence and position, members of nearly all denominations, and many ministers.

PAMPHLETS.—Auxiliaries will always be supplied gratis with copies of our Annual Report and Balance Sheet and other pamphlets for distribution on application to Headquarters. Some of our Auxiliaries have materially helped us in this way by distributing our literature at the seaside and elsewhere, and by making arrangements for the regular supply of waiting rooms, hydropathics, and hotels, thus helping to dispel the prejudice under which many persons unacquainted with the Army are found to labour.

"All The World" posted free regularly each month to Auxiliaries.

For further information, and for full particulars of the work of The Salvation Army, apply personally or by letter to GENERAL BOOTH,. or to the Financial Secretary at International Headquarters, 101, Queen Victoria St., London, E.C., to whom also contributions should be sent.

Cheques and Postal Orders crossed "City Bank."

THE SALVATION ARMY: A SKETCH.

BY AN OFFICER OF SEVENTEEN YEARS' STANDING. What is the Salvation Army?

It is an Organisation existing to effect a radical revolution in the spiritual condition of the enormous majority of the people of all lands. Its aim is to produce a change not only in the opinions, feelings, and principles of these vast populations, but to alter the whole course of their lives, so that instead of spending their time in frivolity and pleasure-seeking, if not in the grossest forms of vice, they shall spend it in the service of their generation and in the worship of God. So far it has mainly operated in professedly Christian countries, where the overwhelming majority of the people have ceased, publicly, at any rate, to worship Jesus Christ, or to submit themselves in any way to His authority. To what extent has the Army succeeded?

Its flag is now flying in 34 countries or colonies, where under the leadership of nearly 10,000 men and women, whose lives are entirely given up to the work, it is holding some 49,800 religious meetings every week, attended by millions of persons, who ten years ago would have laughed at the idea of praying.

And these operations are but the means for further extension, as will be seen, especially when it is remembered that the Army has its 27 weekly newspapers, of which no less than 31,000,000 copies are sold in the streets, public houses, and popular resorts of the godless majority. From its, ranks it is therefore certain that an ever-increasing multitude of men and women must eventually be won.

That all this has not amounted to the creation of a mere passing gust of feeling, may best be demonstrated perhaps from the fact that the Army has accumulated no less than #775,000 worth of property, pays rentals amounting to #220,000 per annum for its meeting places, and has a total income from all sources of three-quarters of a million per annum. Now consider from whence all this has sprung. It is only twenty-five years since the author of this volume stood absolutely alone in the East of London, to endeavour to Christianise its irreligious multitudes, without the remotest conception in his own mind of the possibility of any such Organisation being created.

Consider, moreover, through what opposition the Salvation Army has ever had to make its way.

In each country it has to face universal prejudice, distrust, and contempt, and often stronger antipathy still. This opposition has generally found expression in systematic, Governmental, and Police restriction, followed in too many cases by imprisonment, and by the condemnatory outpourings of Bishops, Clergy, Pressmen and others, naturally followed in too many instances by the oaths and curses, the blows and insults of the populace. Through all this, in country after country, the Army makes its way to the position of universal respect, that respect, at any rate, which is shown to those who have conquered. And of what material has this conquering host been made? Wherever the Army goes it gathers into its meetings, in the first instance, a crowd of the most debased, brutal, blasphemous elements that can be found who, if permitted, interrupt the services, and if they see the slightest sign of police tolerance for their misconduct, frequently fall upon the Army officers or their property with violence. Yet a couple of Officers face such an audience with the absolute certainty of recruiting out of it an Army Corps. Many thousands of those who are now most prominent in the ranks of the Army never knew what it was to pray before they attended its services; and large numbers of them had settled into a profound conviction that everything connected with religion was utterly false. It is out of such material that God has constructed what is admitted to be one of the most fervid bodies of believers ever seen on the face of the earth.

Many persons in looking at the progress of the Army have shown a strange want of discernment in talking and writing as though all this had been done in a most haphazard fashion, or as though an individual could by the mere effort of his will produce such changes in the lives of others as he chose. The slightest reflection will be sufficient we are sure to convince any impartial individual that the gigantic results attained by the Salvation Army could only be reached by steady unaltering processes adapted to this end. And what are the processes by which this great Army has been made?

1. The foundation of all the Army's success, looked at apart from its divine source of strength, is its continued direct attack upon those whom it seeks to bring under the influence of the Gospel. The Salvation Army Officer, instead of standing upon some dignified pedestal, to describe the fallen condition of his fellow men, in the hope that though far from him, they may thus, by some mysterious process, come to a better life, goes down into the street, and from door to door, and from room to room, lays his hands on those who are spiritually sick, and leads them to the Almighty Healer. In its forms of speech and writing the Army constantly exhibits this same characteristic. Instead of propounding religious theories or pretending to teach a system of theology, it speaks much after the fashion of the old Prophet or Apostle, to each individual, about his or her sin and duty, thus bringing to bear upon each heart and conscience the light and power from heaven, by which alone the world can be transformed.

2. And step by step, along with this human contact goes unmistakably something that is not human.

The puzzlement and self-contradiction of most critics of the Army springs undoubtedly from the fact that they are bound to account for its success without admitting that any superhuman power attends its ministry, yet day after day, and night after night, the wonderful facts go on multiplying. The man who last night was drunk in a London slum, is to-night standing up for Christ on an Army platform. The clever sceptic, who a few weeks ago was interrupting the speakers in Berlin, and pouring contempt upon their claims to a personal knowledge of the unseen Saviour, is to-day as thorough a believer as any of them. The poor girl, lost to shame and hope, who a month ago was an outcast of Paris, is to-day a modest devoted follower of Christ, working in a humble situation. To those who admit we are right in saying "this is the Lord's doing," all is simple enough, and our certainty that the dregs of Society can become its ornaments requires no further explanation.

3. All these modern miracles would, however, have been comparatively useless but for the Army's system of utilising the gifts and energy of our converts to the uttermost. Suppose that without any claim to Divine power the Army had succeeded in raising up tens of thousands of persons, formerly unknown and unseen in the community, and made them into Singers, Speakers, Musicians, and Orderlies, that would surely in itself have been a remarkable fact. But not only have these engaged in various labours for the benefit of the community. They have been filled with a burning ambition to attain the highest possible degree of usefulness. No one can wonder that we expect to see the same process carried on successfully amongst our new friends of the Casual Ward and the Slum. And if the Army has been able to accomplish all this utilisation of human talents for the highest purposes, in spite of an almost universally prevailing contrary practice amongst the Churches, what may not its Social Wing be expected to do, with the example of the Army before it?

4. The maintenance of all this system has, of course, been largely due to the unqualified acceptance of military government and discipline. But for this we cannot be blind to the fact that even in our own ranks difficulties would every day arise as to the exaltation to front seats of those who were formerly persecutors and injurious. The old feeling which would have kept Paul suspected, in the background, after his conversion is, unfortunately, a part of the conservative groundwork of human nature that continues to exist everywhere, and which has to be overcome by rigid discipline in order to secure that everywhere and always, the new convert should be made the most of for Christ. But our Army system is a great indisputable fact, so much so that our enemies sometimes reproach us with it. That it should be possible to create an Army Organisation, and to secure faithful execution of duty daily is indeed a wonder, but a wonder accomplished, just as completely amongst the Republicans of America and France, as amongst the militarily trained Germans, or the subjects of the British monarchy. It is notorious that we can send an officer from London, possessed of no extraordinary ability, to take command of any corps in the world, with a certainty that he will find soldiers eager to do his bidding, and without a thought of disputing his commands, so long as he continues faithful to the orders and regulations under which his men are enlisted.

5. But those show a curious ignorance who set down our successes to this discipline, as though it were something of the prison order, although enforced without any of the power lying either behind the prison warder or the Catholic priest. On the contrary, wherever the discipline of the Army has been endangered, and its regular success for a time interrupted, it has been through an attempt to enforce it without enough of that joyous, cheerful spirit of love which is its main spring. Nobody can become acquainted with our soldiers in any land, without being almost immediately struck with their extraordinary gladness, and this joy is in itself one of the most infectious and influential elements of the Army's success. But if this be so, amid the comparatively well to do, judge of what its results are likely to be amongst the poorest and most wretched! To those who have never known bright days, the mere sight of a happy face is as it were a revelation and inspiration in one.

6. But the Army's success does not come with magical rapidity; it depends, like that of all real work, upon infinite perseverance.

To say nothing of the perseverance of the Officer who has made the saving of men his life work, and who, occupied and absorbed with this great pursuit, may naturally enough be expected to remain faithful, there are multitudes of our Soldiers who, after a hard day's toil for their daily bread, have but a few hours of leisure, but devote it ungrudgingly to the service of the War. Again and again, when the remains of some Soldier are laid to rest, amid the almost universal respect of a town, which once knew him only as an evil-doer, we hear it said that this man, since the date of his conversion, from five to ten years ago, has seldom been absent from his post, and never without good reason for it. His duty may have been comparatively insignificant, "only a door-keeper," "only a War Cry seller," yet Sunday after Sunday, evening after evening, he would be present, no matter who the commanding officer might be, to do his part, bearing with the unruly, breathing hope into the distressed, and showing unwavering faithfulness to all. The continuance of these processes of mercy depends largely upon leadership, and the creation and maintenance of this leadership has been one of the marvels of the Movement. We have men to-day looked up to and reverenced over wide areas of country, arousing multitudes to the most devoted service, who a few years ago were champions of iniquity, notorious in nearly every form of vice, and some of them ringleaders in violent opposition to the Army. We have a right to believe that on the same lines God is going to raise up just such leaders without measure and without end.

Beneath, behind, and pervading all the successes of the Salvation Army is a force against which the world may sneer, but without which the world's miseries cannot be removed, the force of that Divine love which breathed on Calvary, and which God is able to communicate by His spirit to human hearts to-day.

It is pitiful to see intelligent men attempting to account, without the admission of this great fact, for the self-sacrifice and success of Salvation Officers and Soldiers. If those who wish to understand the Army would only take the trouble to spend as much as twenty-four hours with its people, how different in almost every instance would be the conclusions arrived at. Half-an-hour spent in the rooms inhabited by many of our officers would be sufficient to convince, even a well-to-do working man, that life could not be lived happily in such circumstances without some superhuman power, which alike sustains and gladdens the soul, altogether independently of earthly surroundings.

The Scheme that has been propounded in this volume would, we are quite satisfied, have no chance of success were it not for the fact that we have such a vast supply of men and women who, through the love of Christ ruling in their hearts, are prepared to look upon a life of self-sacrificing effort for the benefit of the vilest and roughest as the highest of privileges. With such a force at command, we dare to say that the accomplishment of this stupendous undertaking is a foregone conclusion, if the material assistance which the Army does not possess is forthcoming.

THE SALVATION ARMY SOCIAL REFORM WING.

Temporary Headquarters 36, UPPER THAMES STREET, LONDON, E.C.

OBJECTS.—The bringing together of employers and workers for their mutual advantage. Making known the wants of each to each by providing a ready method of communication.

PLAN OF OPERATION.—The Opening of a Central Registry Office, which for the present will be located at the above address, and where registers will be kept free of charge wherein the wants of both employers and workers will be recorded, the registers being open for consultation by all interested.

Public Waiting Rooms (for male and female), to which the unemployed may come for the purpose of scanning the newspapers, the insertion of advertisements for employment in all newspapers at lowest rates. Writing tables, &c., provided for their use to enable them to write applications for situations on work. The receiving of letters (replies to applications for employment) for unemployed workers.

The Waiting Rooms will also act as Houses-of-Call, where employers can meet and enter into engagements with Workers of all kinds, by appointment or otherwise, thus doing away with the snare that awaits many of the unemployed, who have no place to wait other than the Public House, which at present is almost the only "house-of-call" for Out-of-Work men.

By making known to the public generally the wants of the unemployed by means of advertisements, by circulars, and direct application to employers, the issue of labour statistics with information as to the number of unemployed who are anxious for work, the various trades and occupations they represent, &c., &c.

The opening of branches of the Labour Bureau as fast as funds and opportunities permit, in all the large towns and centres of industry throughout Great Britain.

In connection with the Labour Bureau, we propose to deal with both skilled and unskilled workers, amongst the latter forming such agencies as "Sandwich" Board Men's Society, Shoe Black, Carpet Beating, White-washing, Window Cleaning, Wood Chopping, and other Brigades, all of which will, with many others, be put into operation as far as the assistance of the public (in the shape of applying for workers of all kinds) will afford us the opportunity.

A Domestic Servants' Agency will also be a branch of the Bureau, and a Home For Domestic Servants out of situation is also in contemplation. In this and other matters funds alone are required to commence operations. All communications, donations, etc., should be addressed as above, marked "Labour Bureau," etc.

CENTRAL LABOUR BUREAU. LOCAL AGENTS AND CORRESPONDENTS' DEPARTMENT.

Dear Comrade,—The enclosed letter, which has been sent to our Officers throughout the Field, will explain the object we have in view. Your name has been suggested to us as one whose heart is thoroughly in sympathy with any effort on behalf of poor suffering humanity. We are anxious to have in connection with each of our Corps, and in every locality throughout the Kingdom, some sympathetic, level-headed comrade, acting as our Agent or local Correspondent, to whom we could refer at all times for reliable information, and who would take it as work of love to regularly communicate useful information respecting the social condition of things generally in their neighbourhood.

Kindly reply, giving us your views and feelings on the subject as soon as possible, as we are anxious to organise at once. The first business on hand is for us to get information of those out of work and employers requiring workers, so that we can place them upon our registers, and make known the wants both of employers and employes.

We shall be glad of a communication from you, giving us some facts as to the condition of things in your locality, or any ideas or suggestions you would like to give, calculated to help us in connection with this good work.

I may say that the Social Wing not only comprehends the labour question, but also prison rescue and other branches of Salvation work, dealing with broken-down humanity generally, so that you can see what a great blessing you may be to the work of God by co-operating with us.

Believe me to be, Yours affectionately for the Suffering and Lost, etc.



LOCAL AGENTS AND CORRESPONDENTS DEPARTMENT.

Proposition for local agent, correspondent, etc.

Name...................................................................

Address................................................................

Occupation.............................................................

If a Soldier, what Corps?..............................................

If not a Soldier, what Denomination?...................................

If spoken to on the subject, what reply they have made?................

.......................................................................

.......................................................................

.......................................................................

.......................................................................

.......................................................................

Signed.....................................................

Corps......................................................

Date............................ 189 .

Kindly return this as soon as possible, and we will then place ourselves in communication with the Comrade you propose for this position.



TO EMPLOYERS OF LABOUR.

We beg to bring to your notice the fact that the Salvation Army has opened at the above address (in connection with the Social Reform Wing), a Labour Bureau for the Registration of the wants of all classes of Labour, for both employer and employe in London and throughout the Kingdom, our object being to place in communication with each other, for mutual advantage, those who want workers and those who want work.

Arrangements have been made at the above address for waiting rooms, where employers can see unemployed men and women, and where the latter may have accommodation to write letters, see the advertisements in the papers, &c., &c.

If you are in want of workers of any kind, will you kindly fill up the enclosed form and return it to us? We will then have the particulars entered up, and endeavour to have your wants supplied. All applications, I need hardly assure you, will have our best attention, whether they refer to work of a permanent or temporary character.

We shall also be glad, through the information office of Labour Department, to give you any further information as to our plans, &c., or an Officer will wait upon you to receive instructions for the supply of workers, if requested.

As no charge will be made for registration of either the wants of employers or the wants of the unemployed, it will be obvious that a considerable outlay will be necessary to sustain these operations in active usefulness, and that therefore financial help will be greatly needed.

We shall gratefully receive donations, from the smallest coin up, to help to cover the cost of working this department. We think it right to say that only in special cases shall we feel at liberty to give personal recommendations. This however, will no doubt be understood, seeing that we shall have to deal with very large numbers who are total strangers to us. Please address all communications or donations as above, marked "Central Labour Bureau," etc.

WE PROPOSE TO ENTER UPON A CRUSADE AGAINST "SWEATING." WILL YOU HELP US?

Dear Sir,—in connection with the Social Reform Wing a Central Labour Bureau has been opened, one department of which will deal especially with that class of labour termed "unskilled," from amongst whom are drawn BOARDMEN, MESSENGERS, BILL DISTRIBUTORS, CIRCULAR ADDRESSERS, WINDOW CLEANERS, WHITE-WASHERS, CARPET BEATERS, &C., &C.

It is very important that work given to these workers and others not enumerated, should be taxed as little as possible by the Contractor, or those who act between the employer and the worker.

In all our operations in this capacity we do not propose to make profit out of those we benefit; paying over the whole amount received, less say one halfpenny in the shilling, or some such small sum which will go towards the expense of providing boards for "sandwich" boardmen, the hire of barrows, purchase of necessary tools, &c., &c.

We are very anxious to help that most needy class, the "boardmen," many of whom are "sweated" out of their miserable earnings; receiving often as low as one shilling for a day's toil.

WE APPEAL TO ALL WHO SYMPATHISE WITH SUFFERING HUMANITY, especially Religious and Philanthropic individuals and Societies, to assist us in our efforts, by placing orders for the supply of Boardmen, Messengers, Bill-distributors, Window-cleaners and other kinds of labour in our hands. Our charge for "boardmen" will be 2s. 2d., including boards, the placing and proper supervision of the men, &c. Two shillings, at least, will go direct to the men; most of the hirers of boardmen pay this, and some even more, but often not more than one-half reaches the men. We shall be glad to forward you further information of our plans, or will send a representative to further explain, or to take orders, on receiving notice from you to that effect.

Believe me to be, Yours faithfully, etc.

CENTRAL LABOUR BUREAU.

TO THE UNEMPLOYED.—MALE AND FEMALE.

NOTICE.

A Free Registry, for all kinds of unemployed labour, has been opened at the above address. If you want work, call and make yourself and your wants known. Enter your name and address and wants on the Registers, or fill up form below, and hand it in at above address. Look over the advertising pages of the papers provided. Tables with pens and ink are provided for you to write for situations. If you live at a distance, fill up this form giving all particulars, or references, and forward to Commissioner Smith, care of the Labour Bureau.

Name.......................................................

Address....................................................

...........................................................

Kind of work wanted........................................

Wages you ask..............................................

——————————————————————————————————- I Name I I ——————————————————————————————————- I Age I I ——————————————————————————————————- I During past 10 years have I you had regular employment? I I ——————————————————————————————————- I How long for? I I ——————————————————————————————————- I What kind of work? I I ——————————————————————————————————- I What work can you do? I I ——————————————————————————————————- I What have you worked at I at odd times? I I ——————————————————————————————————- I How much did you earn when I regularly employed? I I ——————————————————————————————————- I How much did you earn when I irregularly employed? I I ——————————————————————————————————- I Are you married? I I ——————————————————————————————————- I Is wife living? I I ——————————————————————————————————- I How many children and ages? I I ——————————————————————————————————- If you were put on a farm to I work at anything you could do, I and were supplied with food, I lodging, and clothes, with a I view to getting you on your feet, I would you do all you could? I ——————————————————————————————————-



HOW BEGGARY WAS ABOLISHED IN BAVARIA BY COUNT RUMFORD.

Count Rumford was an American officer who served with considerable distinction in the Revolutionary War in that country, and afterwards settled in England. From thence he went to Bavaria, where he was promoted to the chief command of its army, and also was energetically employed in the Civil Government. Bavaria at this time literally swarmed with beggars, who were not only an eyesore and discredit to the nation, but a positive injury to the State. The Count resolved upon the extinction of this miserable profession, and the following extracts from his writings describe the method by which he accomplished it: —

"Bavaria, by the neglect of the Government, and the abuse of the kindness and charity of its amiable people, had become infested with beggars, with whom mingled vagabonds and thieves. They were to the body politic what parasites and vermin are to people and dwellings— breeding by the same lazy neglect."—(Page 14.)

"In Bavaria there were laws which made provision for the poor, but they suffered them to fall into neglect. Beggary had become general."— (Page 15.)

"In short," says Count Rumford, "these detestable vermin swarmed everywhere; and not only their impudence and clamorous importunity were boundless, but they had recourse to the most diabolical arts and the most horrid crimes in the prosecution of their infamous trade. They exposed and tortured their own children, and those they stole for the purpose, to extort contributions from the charitable."—(Page 15.)

"In the large towns beggary was an organised imposture, with a sort of government and police of its own. Each beggar had his beat, with orderly successions and promotions, as with other governments. There were battles to decide conflicting claims, and a good beat was not unfreguently a marriage portion or a thumping legacy."—(Page 16.)

"He saw that it was not enough to forbid beggary by law or to punish it by imprisonment. The beggars cared for neither. The energetic Yankee Statesman attacked the question as he did problems in physical science. He studied beggary and beggars. How would he deal with one individual beggar? Send him for a month to prison to beg again as soon as he came out? That is no remedy. The evident course was to forbid him to beg, but at the same time to give him the opportunity to labor; to teach him to work, to encourage him to honest industry. And the wise ruler sets himself to provide food, comfort, and work for every beggar and vagabond in Bavaria, and did it."—(Page 17.)

"Count Rumford, wise and just, sets himself to reform the whole class of beggars and vagabonds, and convert them into useful citizens, even those who had sunk into vice and crime.

"'What,' he asked himself, 'is, after the necessaries of life, the first condition of comfort?' Cleanliness, which animals and insects prize, which in man affects his moral character, and which is akin to godliness. The idea that the soul is defiled and depraved by what is unclean has long prevailed in all ages. Virtue never dwelt long with filth. Our bodies are at war with everything that defiles them.

"His first step, after a thorough study and consideration of the subject, was to provide in Munich, and at all necessary points, large, airy, and even elegant Houses of Industry, and store them with the tools and materials of such manufactures as were most needed, and would be most useful. Each house was provided with a large dining-room and a cooking apparatus sufficient to furnish an economical dinner to every worker. Teachers were engaged for each kind of labour. Warmth, light, comfort, neatness, and order, in and around these houses, made them attractive. The dinner every day was gratis, provided at first by the Government, later by the contributions of the citizens. Bakers brought stale bread; butchers, refuse meat; citizens, their broken victuals— all rejoicing in being freed from the nuisance of beggary. The teachers of handicrafts were provided by the Government. And while all this was free, everyone was paid the full value for his labour. You shall not beg; but here is comfort, food, work, pay. There was no ill-usage, no harsh language; in five years not a blow was given even to a child by his instructor.

"When the preparations for this great experiment had been silently completed, the army—the right arm of the governing power, which had been prepared tor the work by its own thorough reformation—was called into action in aid of the police and the civil magistrates. Regiments of cavalry were so disposed as to furnish every town with a detachment, with patrols on every highway, and squads in the villages, keeping the strictest order and discipline, paying the utmost deference to the civil authorities, and avoiding all offence to the people; instructed when the order was given to arrest every beggar, vagrant, and deserter and bring them before the magistrates. This military police cost nothing extra to the country beyond a few cantonments, and this expense to the whole country was less than #3,000 a-year.

"The 1st of January, 1790—New Year's Day, from time immemorial the beggars' holiday, when they swarmed in the streets, expecting everyone to give—the commissioned and non-commissioned officers of three regiments of infantry were distributed early in the morning at different points of Munich to wait for orders. Lieutenant-General Count Rumford assembled at his residence the chief officers of the army and principal magistrates of the city, and communicated to them his plans for the campaign. Then, dressed in the uniform of his rank, with his orders and decorations glittering on his breast, setting an example to the humblest soldier, he led them into the street, and had scarcely reached it before a beggar approached wished him a 'Happy New Year,' and waited for the expected aims. 'I went up to him, says Count Rumford, 'and laying my hand gently on his shoulder, told him that henceforth begging would not be permitted in Munich; that if he was in need, assistance would be given him; and if detected begging again, he would be severely punished.' He was then sent to the Town Hall, his name and residence inscribed upon the register, and he was directed to repair to the Military House of Industry next morning, where he would find dinner, work, and wages. Every officer, every magistrate, every soldier, followed the example set them; every beggar was arrested, and in one day a stop was put to beggary in Bavaria. It was banished out of the kingdom.

"And now let us see what was the progress and success of this experiment. It seemed a risk to trust the raw materials of industry— wool, flax, hemp, etc.—to the hands of common beggars; to render debauched and depraved class orderly and useful, was an arduous enterprise. Of course the greater number made bad work at the beginning. For months they cost more than they came to. They spoiled more horns than they made spoons. Employed first in the coarser and ruder manufactures, they were advanced as they improved, and were for some time paid more than they earned—paid to encourage good will, effort, and perseverance. These were worth any sum. The poor people saw that they were treated with more than justice—with kindness. It was very evident that it was all for their good. At first there was confusion, but no insubordination. They were awkward, but not insensible to kindness. The aged, the weak, and the children were put to the easiest tasks. The younger children were paid simply to look on until they begged to join in the work, which seemed to them like play. Everything around them was made clean, quiet, orderly, and pleasant. Living at their own homes, they came at a fixed hour in the morning. They had at noon a hot, nourishing dinner of soup and bread. Provisions were either contributed or bought wholesale, and the economies of cookery were carried to the last point of perfection. Count Rumford had so planned the cooking apparatus that three women cooked a dinner for one thousand persons at a cost though wood was used, of 4 1/2d. for fuel; and the entire cost of the dinner for 1,200 was only #1 7s 6 1/2d., or about one-third of a penny for each person! Perfect order was kept —at work, at meals, and everywhere. As soon as a company took its place at table, the food having been previously served, all repeated a short prayer. 'Perhaps,' says Count Rumford, 'I ought to ask pardon for mentioning so old-fashioned a custom, but I own I am old-fashioned enough myself to like such things.'

"These poor people were generously paid for their labour, but something more than cash payment was necessary. There was needed the feeling of emulation, the desire to excel, the sense of honour, the love of glory. Not only pay, but rewards, prizes, distinctions, were given to the more deserving. Peculiar care was taken with the children. They were first paid simply for being present, idle lookers-on, until they begged with tears to be allowed to work. 'How sweet those tears were to me,' says Count Rumford, 'can easily be imagined.' Certain hours were spent by them in a school, for which teachers were provided.

"The effect of these measures was very remarkable. Awkward as the people were, they were not stupid, and learned to work with unexpected rapidity. More wonderful was the change in their manners, appearances and the very expression of their countenances. Cheerfulness and gratitude replaced the gloom of misery and the sullenness of despair. Their hearts were softened; they were most grateful to their benefactor for themselves, still more for their children. These worked with their parents, forming little industrial groups, whose affection excited the interest of every visitor. Parents were happy in the industry and growing intelligence of their children, and the children were proud of their own achievements.

"The great experiment was a complete and triumphant success. When Count Rumford wrote his account of it, it had been five years in operation; it was, financially, a paying speculation, and had not only banished beggary, but had wrought an entire change in the manners, habits, and very appearance of the most abandoned and degraded people in the kingdom."—("Count Rumford," pages 18-24.)

"Are the poor ungrateful? Count Rumford did not find them so. When, from the exhaustion of his great labours, he fell dangerously ill, these poor people whom he had rescued from lives of shame and misery, spontaneously assembled, formed a procession, and went in a body to the Cathedral to offer their united prayers for his recovery. When he was absent in Italy, and supposed to be dangerously ill in Naples, they set apart a certain time every day, after work hours, to pray for their benefactor. After an absence of fifteen months, Count Rumford returned with renewed health to Munich—a city where there was work for everyone, and not one person whose wants were not provided for. When he visited the military workhouse, the reception given him by these poor people drew tears from the eyes of all present. A few days after he entertained eighteen hundred of them in the English garden—a festival at which 30,000 of the citizens of Munich assisted." ("Count Rumford," pages 24-25.)



THE CO-OPERATIVE EXPERIMENT AT RALAHINE,

"The outrages of the 'Whitefeet,' 'Lady Clare Boys,' and 'Terry Alts' (labourers) far exceeded those of recent occurrence; yet no remedy but force was attempted, except by one Irish landlord, Mr. John Scott Vandeleur, of Ralahine, county Clare, late high sheriff of his county. Early in 1831 his family had been obliged to take flight, in charge of an armed police force, and his steward had been murdered by one of the labourers, having been chosen by lot at a meeting held to decide who should perpetrate the deed. Mr. Vandeleur came to England to seek someone who would aid him in organising the labourers into an agricultural and manufacturing association, to be conducted on co-operative principles, and he was recommended to Mr. Craig, who, at great sacrifice of his position and prospects, consented to give his services.

"No one but a man of rare zeal and courage would have attempted so apparently hopeless a task as that which Mr. Craig undertook. Both the men whom he had to manage—the Terry Alts who had murdered their master's steward—and their surroundings were as little calculated to give confidence in the success of the scheme as they well could be. The men spoke generally the Irish language, which Mr. Craig did not understand, and they looked upon him with suspicion as one sent to worm out of them the secret of the murder recently committed. He was consequently treated with coldness, and worse than that. On one occasion the outline of his grave was cut out of the pasture near his dwelling, and he carried his life in his hand. After a time, however, he won the confidence of these men, rendered savage as they had been by ill-treatment.

"The farm was let by Mr. Vandeleur at a fixed rent, to be paid in fixed quantities of farm produce, which, at the prices ruling in 1830-31, would bring in #900, which included interest on buildings, machinery, and live stock provided by Mr. Vandeleur. The rent alone was #700. As the farm consisted of 618 acres, only 268 of which were under tillage, this rent was a very high one—a fact which was acknowledged by the landlord. All profits after payment of rent and interest belonged to the members, divisible at the end of the year if desired. They started a co-operative store to supply themselves with food and clothing, and the estate was managed by a committee of the members, who paid every male and female member wages for their labour in labour notes which were exchangeable at the store for goods or cash. Intoxicating drink or tobacco were prohibited. The committee each day allotted each man his duties. The members worked the land partly as kitchen garden and fruit orchards, and partly as dairy farm, stall feeding being encouraged and root crops grown for the cattle. Pigs, poultry, &c., were reared. Wages at the time were only 8d per day for men and 5d. for women, and the members were paid at these rates. Yet, as they lived chiefly on potatoes and milk produced on the farm, which, as well as mutton and pork, were sold to them at extremely low prices, they saved money or rather notes. Their health and appearance quickly improved, so much so that, with disease raging round them, there was no case of death or serious illness among them while the experiment lasted. The single men lived together in a large building, and the families in cottages. Assisted by Mrs. Craig, the secretary carried out the most enlightened system of education for the young, those old enough being alternately employed on the farm and in the school. Sanitary arrangements were in a high state of perfection, and physical and moral training were most carefully attended to. In respect of these and other social arrangements, Mr. Craig was a man much before his time, and he has since made himself a name in connection with their application in various parts of the country.

"The 'New System,' as the Ralahine experiment was called, though at first regarded with suspicion and derision, quickly gained favour in the district, so that before long outsiders were extremely anxious to become members of the association. In January, 1832, the community consisted of fifty adults and seventeen children. The total number afterwards increased to eighty-one. Everything was prosperous, and the members of the association were not only benefitted themselves, but their improvement exercised a beneficent influence upon the people in their neighbourhood. It was hoped that other landlords would imitate the excellent example of Mr. Vandeleur, especially as his experiment was one profitable to himself, as well as calculated to produce peace and contentment in disturbed Ireland. Just when these hopes were raised to their highest degree of expectancy, the happy community at Ralahine was broken up through the ruin and flight of Mr. Vandeleur, who had lost his property by gambling. Everything was sold off, and the labour notes saved by the members would have been worthless had not Mr. Craig, with noble self-sacrifice, redeemed them out of his own pocket.

"We have given but a very scanty description of the system pursued at Ralahine. The arrangements were in most respects admirable, and reflected the greatest credit upon Mr. Craig as an organiser and administrator. To his wisdom, energy, tact, and forbearance the success of his experiment was in great measure due, and it is greatly to be regretted that he was not in a position to repeat the attempt under more favourable circumstances." ("History of a Co-operative Farm.")



CARLYLE ON THE SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE NATION

FORTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. Inserted at the earnest request of a friend, who was struck by the coincidence of some ideas, similar to those of this volume, set forth so long ago, but as yet remaining unrealised, and which I had never read.

EXTRACTS FROM "PAST AND PRESENT."

"A Prime Minister, even here in England, who shall dare believe the heavenly omens, and address himself like a man and hero to the great dumb-struggling heart of England, and speak out for it, and act out for it, the God's-justice it is writhing to get uttered and perishing for want of—yes, he too will see awaken round him, in passionate, burning, all-defiant loyalty, the heart of England, and such a 'support' as no Division-List or Parliamentary Majority was ever yet known to yield a man! Here as there, now as then, he who can and dare trust the heavenly Immensities, all earthly Localities are subject to him. We will pray for such a man and First-Lord;—yes, and far better, we will strive and incessantly make ready, each of us, to be worthy to serve and second such a First-Lord! We shall then be as good as sure of his arriving; sure of many things, let him arrive or not.

"Who can despair of Governments that passes a Soldier's Guard-house, or meets a red-coated man on the streets? That a body of men could be got together to kill other men when you bade them: this, a priori, does it not seem one of the impossiblest things? Yet look, behold it: in the stolidest of Do-nothing Governments, that impossibility is a thing done."—(Carlyle, "Past and Present," page 223.)

"Strange, interesting, and yet most mournful to reflect on. Was this, then, of all the things mankind had some talent for, the one thing important to learn well, and bring to perfection; this of successfully killing one another? Truly, you have learned it well, and carried the business to a high perfection. It is incalculable what, by arranging, commanding, and regimenting you can make of men. These thousand straight-standing, firm-set individuals, who shoulder arms, who march, wheel, advance, retreat; and are, for your behoof a magazine charged with fiery death, in the most perfect condition of potential activity. Few months ago, till the persuasive sergeant came, what were they? Multiform ragged losels, runaway apprentices, starved weavers thievish valets; an entirely broken population, fast tending towards the treadmill. But the persuasive sergeant came, by tap of drum enlisted, or formed lists of them, took heartily to drilling them; and he and you have made them this! Most potent effectual for all work whatsoever, is wise planning, firm, combining, and commanding among men. Let no man despair of Governments who looks on these two sentries at the Horse Guards and our United Service clubs. I could conceive an Emigration Service, a Teaching Service, considerable varieties of United and Separate Services, of the due thousands strong, all effective as this Fighting Service is; all doing their work like it—which work, much more than fighting, is henceforth the necessity of these new ages we are got into! Much lies among us, convulsively, nigh desperately, struggling to be born."—("Past and Present," page 224.)

"It was well, all this, we know; and yet it was not well. Forty soldiers, I am told, will disperse the largest Spitalfields mob; forty to ten thousand, that is the proportion between drilled and undrilled. Much there is which cannot yet be organised in this world, but somewhat also which can—somewhat also which must. When one thinks, for example, what books are become and becoming for us, what operative Lancashires are become; what a Fourth Estate and innumerable virtualities not yet got to be actualities are become and becoming, one sees organisms enough in the dim huge future, and 'United Services' quite other than the redcoat one; and much, even in these years, struggling to be born!"—("Past and Present," page 226.)

"An effective 'Teaching Service,' I do consider that there must be; some education secretary, captain-general of teachers, who will actually contrive to get us taught. Then again, why should there not be an 'Emigration Service,' and secretary with adjuncts, with funds, forces, idle navy ships, and ever-increasing apparatus, in fine an effective system of emigration, so that at length before our twenty years of respite ended, every honest willing workman who found England too strait, and the 'organisation of labour' not yet sufficiently advanced, might find likewise a bridge built to carry him into new western lands, there to 'organise' with more elbow room some labour for himself? There to be a real blessing, raising new corn for us, purchasing new webs and hatchets from us; leaving us at least in peace; instead of staying here to be a physical-force Chartist, unblessed and no blessing! Is it not scandalous to consider that a Prime Minister could raise within the year, as I have seen it done, a hundred and twenty millions sterling to shoot the French; and we are stopped short for want of the hundredth part of that to keep the English living? The bodies of the English living, and the souls of the English living, these two 'Services,' an Education Service and an Emigration Service, these with others, will have actually to be organised.

"A free bridge for emigrants! Why, we should then be on a par with America itself, the most favoured of all lands that have no government; and we should have, besides, so many traditions and mementos of priceless things which America has cast away. We could proceed deliberately to organise labour not doomed to perish unless we effected it within year and day every willing worker that proved superfluous, finding a bridge ready for him. This verily will have to be done; the time is big with this. Our little Isle is grown too narrow for us; but the world is wide enough yet for another six thousand years. England's sure markets will be among new colonies of Englishmen in all quarters of the Globe. All men trade with all men when mutually convenient, and are even bound to do it by the Maker of Men. Our friends of China, who guiltily refused to trade in these circumstances—had we not to argue with them, in cannon-shot at last, and convince them that they ought to trade? 'Hostile tariffs' will arise to shut us out, and then, again, will fall, to let us in; but the sons of England—speakers of the English language, were it nothing more—will in all times have the ineradicable predisposition to trade with England. Mycale was the Pan-Ionian—rendezvous of all the tribes of Ion—for old Greece; why should not London long continue the All Saxon Home, rendezvous of all the 'Children of the Harz-Rock,' arriving, in select samples, from the Antipodes and elsewhere by steam and otherwise, to the 'season' here? What a future! Wide as the world, if we have the heart and heroism for it, which, by Heaven's blessing, we shall.

"Keep not standing fixed and rooted, Briskly venture, briskly roam; Head and hand, where'er thou foot it, And stout heart are still at home. In what land the sun does visit Brisk are we, what e'er betide; To give space for wandering is it That the world was made so wide.

"Fourteen hundred years ago it was a considerable 'Emigration Service,' never doubt it, by much enlistment, discussion, and apparatus that we ourselves arrived in this remarkable island, and got into our present difficulties among others."—("Past and Present," pages 228-230)

"The main substance of this immense problem of organising labour, and first of all of managing the working classes, will, it is very clear, have to be solved by those who stand practically in the middle of it, by those who themselves work and preside over work. Of all that can be enacted by any Parliament in regard to it, the germs must already lie potentially extant in those two classes who are to obey such enactment. A human chaos in which there is no light, you vainly attempt to irradiate by light shed on it; order never can arise there." ("Past and Present," pages 231-32.)

"Look around you. Your world-hosts are all in mutiny, in confusion, destitution; on the eve of fiery wreck and madness. They will not march farther for you, on the sixpence a day and supply-and-demand principle: they will not; nor ought they; nor can they. Ye shall reduce them to order; begin reducing them to order, to just subordination; noble loyalty in return for noble guidance. Their souls are driven nigh mad; let yours be sane and ever saner. Not as a bewildered bewildering mob, but as a firm regimented mass, with real captains over them, will these men march any more. All human interests, combined human endeavours, and social growth in this world have, at a certain stage of their development, required organising and work, the grandest of human interests, does not require it.

"God knows the task will be hard, but no noble task was ever easy. This task will wear away your lives and the lives of your sons and grandsons; but for what purpose, if not for tasks like this, were lives given to men? Ye shall cease to count your thousand-pound scalps; the noble of you shall cease! Nay, the very scalps, as I say, will not long be left, if you count only these. Ye shall cease wholly to be barbarous vulturous Chactaws, and become noble European nineteenth-century men. Ye shall know that Mammon, in never such gigs and flunky 'respectabilities' in not the alone God; that of himself he is but a devil and even a brute-god.

"Difficult? Yes, it will be difficult. The short-fibre cotton; that, too, was difficult. The waste-cotton shrub, long useless, disobedient as the thistle by the wayside; have ye not conquered it, made it into beautiful bandana webs, white woven shirts for men, bright tinted air garments wherein flit goddesses? Ye have shivered mountains asunder, made the hard iron pliant to you as soft putty; the forest-giants— marsh-jotuns—bear sheaves of golden grain; AEgir—the Sea-Demon himself stretches his back for a sleek highway to you, and on Firehorses and Windhorses ye career. Ye are most strong. Thor, red-bearded, with his blue sun-eyes, with his cheery heart and strong thunder-hammer, he and you have prevailed. Ye are most strong, ye Sons of the icy North, of the far East, far marching from your rugged Eastern Wildernesses, hitherward from the gray dawn of Time! Ye are Sons of the Jotun-land; the land of Difficulties Conquered. Difficult? You must try this thing. Once try it with the understanding that it will and shall have to be done. Try it as ye try the paltrier thing, making of money! I will bet on you once more, against all Jotuns, Tailor-gods, Double-barrelled Law-wards, and Denizens of Chaos whatsoever!"—("Past and Present," pages 236-37.)

"A question arises here: Whether, in some ulterior, perhaps not far-distant stage of this 'Chivalry of Labour,' your Master-Worker may not find it possible, and needful, to grant his Workers permanent interest in his enterprise and theirs? So that it become, in practical result, what in essential fact and justice it ever is, a joint enterprise; all men, from the Chief Master down to the lowest Overseer and Operative, economically as well as loyally concerned for it? Which question I do not answer. The answer, near or else far, is perhaps, Yes; and yet one knows the difficulties. Despotism is essential in most enterprises; I am told they do not tolerate 'freedom of debate' on board a seventy-four. Republican senate and plebiscite would not answer well in cotton mills. And yet, observe there too, Freedom—not nomad's or ape's Freedom, but man's Freedom; this is indispensable. We must have it, and will have it! To reconcile Despotism with Freedom—well, is that such a mystery? Do you not already know the way? It is to make your Despotism just. Rigorous as Destiny, but just, too, as Destiny and its Laws. The Laws of God; all men obey these, and have no 'Freedom' at all but in obeying them. The way is already known, part of the way; and courage and some qualities are needed for walking on it." ("Past and Present ," pages 241-42)

"Not a May-game is this man's life, but a battle and a march, a warfare with principalities and powers. No idle promenade through fragrant orange-groves and green flowery spaces, waited on by the choral Muses and the rosy Hours: it is a stern pilgrimage through burning sandy solitudes, through regions of thick-ribbed ice. He walks among men, loves men, with inexpressible soft pity, as they cannot love him, but his soul dwells in solitude in the uttermost parts of creation. In green oases by the palm-tree wells he rests a space, but anon he has to journey forward, escorted by the Terrors and the Splendours, the Archdemons and Archangels. All Heaven, all Pandemonium are his escort. The stars keen-glancing from the Immensities send tidings to him; the graves, silent with their dead, from the Eternities. Deep calls for him unto Deep."—("Past and Present," page 249.)



THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION.

The Rev. Dr. Barry read a paper at the Catholic Conference on June 30th, 1890, from which I take the following extracts as illustrative of the rising feeling of this subject in the Catholic Church. The Rev. Dr. Barry began by defining the proletariat as those who have only one possession—their labour. Those who have no land, and no stake in the land, no house, and no home except the few sticks of furniture they significantly call by the name, no right to employment, but at the most a right to poor relief; and who, until the last 20 years, had not even a right to be educated unless by the charity of their "betters." The class which, without figure of speech or flights of rhetoric, is homeless, landless, property less in our chief cities— that I call the proletariat. Of the proletariat he declared there were hundreds of thousands growing up outside the pale of all churches.

He continued: For it is frightfully evident that Christianity has not kept pace with the population; that it has lagged terribly behind; that, in plain words, we have in our midst a nation of heathens to whom the ideals, the practices, and the commandments of religion are things unknown—as little realised in the miles on miles of tenement-houses, and the factories which have produced them, as though Christ had never lived or never died. How could it be otherwise? The great mass of men and women have never had time for religion. You cannot expect them to work double-tides. With hard physical labour, from morning till night in the surroundings we know and see, how much mind and leisure is left for higher things on six days of the week? ... We must look this matter in the face. I do not pretend to establish the proportion between different sections in which these things happen. Still less am I willing to lay the blame on those who are houseless, landless, and property less. What I say is that if the Government of a country allows millions of human beings to be thrown into such conditions of living and working as we have seen, these are the consequences that must be looked for. "A child," said the Anglican Bishop South, "has a right to be born, and not to be damned into the world." Here have been millions of children literally "damned into the world," neither their heads nor their hands trained to anything useful, their miserable subsistence a thing to be fought and scrambled for, their homes reeking dens under the law of lease-holding which has produced outcast London and horrible Glasgow, their right to a playground and amusement curtailed to the running gutter, and their great "object-lesson" in life the drunken parents who end so often in the prison, the hospital, and the workhouse. We need not be astonished if these not only are not Christians, but have never understood why they should be....

The social condition has created this domestic heathenism. Then the social condition must be changed. We stand in need of a public creed—of a social, and if you will understand the word, of a lay Christianity. This work cannot be done by the clergy, nor within the four walls of a church. The field of battle lies in the school, the home, the street, the tavern, the market, and wherever men come together. To make the people Christian they must be restored to their homes, and their homes to them.

THE END