Allusion has already been made to the proclamation of the Grand Council
of Neuchâtel, on the 30th January. The news of this proclamation was
telegraphed to England, and cheered the hearts of all lovers of liberty
here, who rejoiced to think that while Geneva was acting in so arbitrary
a manner, in regard to religious and civil liberty, the Canton of
Neuchâtel, faithful to its great traditions, had opened its doors to
strangers guiltless of breaking any law, and had spoken publicly in the
tone with which we are familiar as emanating from free Switzerland. The
following is the text of the proclamation:—
“TO THE CITIZENS RESIDENT IN THE CANTON.
“DEAR CITIZENS,—
“For several days past disturbances of a grave character have taken
place on the occasion of certain religious meetings. At la Chaux de
Fonds as well as Neuchâtel, public meetings have been disturbed,
inoffensive persons assaulted in the streets, and windows broken by
projectiles. At Neuchâtel the worship of a church, long established in
our Canton, has been violently broken in upon.
“The Council of State is determined to enforce respect for public
order, liberty of meeting and liberty of worship. It has nothing
whatever to do with the particular tendencies of this or that public
assembly, or of this or that form of worship. It does not regard the
doctrines professed in these places. Its duty is to protect the
liberties and security of all. It will not fail in this duty. But
before taking exceptional measures for the re-establishment of public
order and liberty of meeting, which up to this date had been respected
in our Canton, we desire to appeal to the Republican sentiments of our
fellow citizens. One of the most glorious conquests of our Revolution
of 1848, was the securing of liberty of public meeting, and absolute
liberty of worship. These liberties are enshrined as follows in our
Cantonal Constitution:—
“‘_Article 11._—Public Assemblies, as well as Associations, which, in
their object and in their methods have nothing illegal, cannot be
either restrained or forbidden;
“‘_Article 13._—Every profession of faith, and every form of worship
alike shall enjoy full liberty, and shall have an equal right to
protection, on the condition that those who profess and follow such
forms of faith and worship conform to the law for the regulation of
the external exercises of public worship.’
“Up to the present time no special action has been judged necessary to
put in force the law on the external and public exercise of worship.
Absolute liberty is given to all churches and to all religious
societies. Why should we now abandon this liberal practice so
honourable to our Canton?
“We appeal, dear citizens, to your feelings of justice and toleration.
Let us give full liberty to the manifestation of all opinions, and of
all creeds. Let us discuss them, if we will, and even judge them
severely; but let us beware of seeking to suppress them. Let us avoid
even the appearance of persecution. If that which you may hear in some
public assemblies is repugnant to your feelings, avoid these meetings,
and cease to support their promoters. It may be that these people are
seeking to advertise themselves by an unwholesome notoriety. You can
refuse then to give them the pleasure of creating such notoriety for
them. If you wish to protest, convene yourselves public meetings.
Discuss these matters, and manifest your opposition by reasoning and
argument, and not by noise, mockery, and acts of violence. We have a
confident hope, dear citizens, that you will respond to our appeal,
and will again assume the calm and dignified attitude so appropriate
to free Republicans. Do not let it be said that the right of meeting
and liberty of worship guaranteed by our constitution are a dead
letter.
“Citizens of Neuchâtel, we boast of being a free and civilized people;
let us show that we know how to respect the public manifestation of
convictions, religious or otherwise, however absurd they may appear to
us. Let us carefully guard all our liberties, and let us not destroy
them for ourselves by ceasing to respect them in others. Let us know
how to be tolerant, if we desire that others shall be tolerant to us.
“In the name of the Council of State,
(Signed),
COMTESSE, President.
GILLAUME, Secretary.
“Neuchâtel, 30th January, 1833.”
The reign of justice and of liberty, however, in this Canton was but too
brief. The evil influences which had been at work in Geneva appear to
have travelled with telegraphic swiftness, and swept down on Neuchâtel
like a storm from the Jura. The letter of Mme. de Gasparin was in the
hands of all, as soon as an intimation reached the Geneva authorities of
the probability of the persecuted Salvationists taking refuge in the
neighbouring Canton. The evil seed found only too many minds well
prepared to receive it and to develop rancorous fruits “after its kind.”
It is said also that M. Héridier was at this time in communication with
his friend M. Cornaz, who occupies a similar position with himself as
head of the Department of Justice and Police in Neuchâtel. As kindred
spirits, probably they found it not difficult to agree as to the
continuance of the extraordinary measures already familiar to the public
of Geneva. The Salvationists—who had been invited to come to Neuchâtel,
by a letter signed by a certain number of the citizens—in the hope and
faith that their work would be now carried out under conditions of
freedom, had engaged the great rooms at the Hotel de Mont Blanc, the
proprietor of which, M. Elskes, had shown himself liberally disposed, in
this as well as in other matters, towards English visitors. In January,
the first pioneers of the Salvation Army arrived in Neuchâtel, and,
though welcomed by many, were assailed from the first with opposition
from the most noisy and degraded of the population.
In giving the sequence of the events which ensued, M. Du Pasquier spoke
as follows,—at the trial at Bondry:—“The Council of State, repudiating
the principles set forth in its firm and noble proclamation of the 30th
January, and allowing itself to become the docile instrument of certain
rioters, who could have been promptly brought to reason by a little
vigorous action, entered on a false path by partially putting a stop to
the Salutist meetings. The disturbances were the more encouraged by the
voluntary inactivity of the police, and their development led to the
Decree of the 15th of June, forbidding all meetings whatsoever of the
Salvation Army, until such time as it should have received the
authorization of the State; this prohibition being based on the
assumption that the Army was a ‘religious corporation,’ in the sense
laid down in Article 72 of our Neuchâtel constitution.”
A few friends subsequently opened their houses for private meetings, as
there was no prohibition to such. This, however, as we shall see, did
not prevent the roughs from persecuting and ill-treating all who were
seen attending such meetings.
One of the Salvation Soldiers wrote thus at the time of the earlier
meetings at the Mont Blanc:—
“I cannot describe to you all that has passed during this day. Two
hundred and fifty people in the Hall at half-past seven in the morning
to sing and pray. At three o’clock the Hall was more than full. There
are 500 seats, but there were more than 1,000 people crushed into the
Hall, and several hundreds in the corridors. But in the evening, what
a crowd when we came to open! Cries from all sides from those who were
being almost suffocated in the crush. The movement in the crowd was at
times like the waves of the sea. They say that never has Neuchâtel
seen such a crowd at a meeting, either religious or political. The
people in the houses opposite lit up the street and the crowd by
coloured Bengal fire, which they lit in their windows. I could see
that there were souls there who were thirsting for Salvation.”
A little noise commenced, when at once one of our Neuchâtel friends
rose up, and speaking to the meeting, said—“In the name of Neuchâtel I
protest against this noise!” Then about 500 persons rose up and
seconded the speaker, and out went the disturbers.
When the invitation was given for those who desired Salvation to come
forward and give themselves to God, two young men came out. One of these
came forward hurriedly from his place, and threw himself down, saying,
“I will! I will!”
Another soldier wrote at this time:—
“Hallelujah, for all the Saviour has done in Neuchâtel during my
absence. What a change! When I left there were only a few soldiers
upon a very small platform, and now the platform is three times as
large as that of Paris, and yet it is too small. On my arrival I
attended a Holiness meeting for soldiers. What a joy to find myself
amongst these redeemed of Jesus, won through the instrumentality of
the Army which has been so despised, and where the devil has so
furiously endeavoured to hinder the work of our brothers. Certainly
Satan has not been dethroned from all hearts, but glory to God he has
from many. Many souls have been rescued, and others who slept in false
security had been awakened.
“Yes, He manifests His power here, and if His servants have had to
suffer persecution, and will have to suffer it, yet they begin now to
rejoice over the fruit of their labours. The Saviour is faithful to
His promises.
“Since Saturday we have had two meetings—one on Sunday morning at 7,
and another at 3. The hall was crowded, and many had to be sent
away—but more than all was the blessing received. God alone knows how
many have been blessed besides those who testified.... Tuesday at 3
o’clock another meeting. On Wednesday morning at 6 o’clock again
another, at which at least 400 were present. What slaughter in the
ranks of the devil!
“The Lord bless the Salvation Army at Paris. Amen!
“Neuchâtel.
“C. H.”
The storm, which had been daily gathering strength, now burst forth
first more openly at a meeting in the Hotel Mont Blanc at which Miss
Booth was present. The Neuchâtel authorities pretended that their police
force was insufficient to keep order. It is impossible here to refrain
from a brief criticism in advance. When Miss Booth was arrested in
September following, in the forest at a considerable distance from
Neuchâtel, the journey to which place involved rough work for those who
arrested her, there appeared on the spot the Prefect of Police with two
of his police staff and fifteen Gendarmes. Now if it was possible to
provide at a short notice so strong a force, in order to arrest an
unresisting girl in a remote forest, it surely would have been equally
possible to have supplied a sufficient force to prevent the disgraceful
outrages committed by the mob night after night in the streets around
the Hotel Mont Blanc, in the city itself. On the occasion of the meeting
referred to, the noise and disturbances within the hall were so great
that the words spoken could only be heard, as in the first meeting in
Geneva, in the intervals of uproar. The chief disturbances came,
however, from the outside. In an open space surrounding the Mont Blanc
there was a surging mass of rude noisy people. In the hope of quelling
the uproar, and of winning some of those souls, Miss Booth left the hall
and presented herself among them in the open air. She gained their
attention in a few moments, and spoke gently but firmly of the aims of
the Salvation Army, and their desire to win the people to true happiness
and peace. A ringleader of the mob, a man of some intelligence and of
powerful appearance, rudely interrupted her, and, holding up his pipe,
cried, “This is my god.” Then there came a wild response from the
people—“And the money-box is their god”—meaning that the object of the
Salvationists was to gain money. Confusion and uproar followed. But once
more Miss Booth gained a hearing, and then with much power she argued as
a messenger of Christ. “I appeal to you,” she said, “as intelligent men,
as men able to reason. Do you really believe that we would have left our
homes, our friends, our country, to come to Switzerland to be treated as
we have been treated, to be hooted, pelted, ill-used and blamed in every
way, in order to get money? No; I believe you have more good sense than
to believe such folly as this. You know what our motive is—that we wish
to see you delivered from the slavery of sin, and brought into the
glorious liberty of the children of God.” The man with the pipe stared
at her open-mouthed as she spoke. Looking at him she said, “You will
follow me into the hall, and you will listen to me?” She retired, and
this leader of the roughs quietly followed her accompanied by many
others. He put his pipe in his pocket, sat down, and listened with
wondering attention. With the ordinary protection which justly they
ought to have had from the authorities, and with liberty to make such
appeals as these in the midst of the storms of noise, blasphemy, and
ridicule they were accustomed to meet, there can be no doubt that the
Salvation Army would have won its own way, peace would have been
restored, and much blessing would have been the result for the
population of that Canton, concerning whom we hear the constant lament
of demoralization and lawlessness through habits of drink, and other
vices.
On such occasions as the above, Miss Booth said to me,—“I was powerless;
there was no one there to enforce order; and I just threw myself on God,
asking Him to silence the people for a moment. He heard my cry; He did
it for me; He held the people in silence and attentive suspense until I
had given them _His_ message.”
The following extracts from letters (the originals of many of which I
have seen) will give some idea of the work accomplished in spite of the
interdictions of the authorities and the violence of the mob:—
“Although the hall of Mont Blanc is still closed at night, and we are
pulling against wind and tide, we are conquering, for the ‘Lord of
Hosts is with us.’ It is easy enough to write pamphlets against us;
easy to close halls; quite easy for the ‘enemies of the cross of
Christ’ to hinder work in many ways, but when the Holy Spirit works in
hearts and consciences, _who shall_ hinder? And, bless His name! He is
working here.”
Another wrote:—
“For many weeks I have wanted to tell you of the happiness I have in
my heart since Jesus is mine. Blessed be the day when you came to our
country; it had need of some ardent servants of God who would proclaim
without fear His salvation. I know that I am not magnetised, as some
here say; but I have found the way to true happiness. And you, dear
friends, take courage; yours is the King’s work, and you, will be
‘more than conquerors’ through Him who has loved us.”
Another says:—
“Before the Armée du Salut came to Neuchâtel I wanted to be saved, but
I always fell again into sin and had lost courage. I praise Him that
He sent you here to touch my heart. I had heard the Gospel often, but
it now seemed new to me. I could not keep away from the meetings, and
one day I resisted no longer, and gave myself to God. Since then the
chains that held me to sin are broken, and my heart is at peace.”
“How often I am asked,” wrote another Neuchâtel citizen, “What do you
think of the Salvation Army? I should like to give you the answer from
my own experience. I am sure it is just the sort of people we need in
Neuchâtel. We are tired of studied sermons, most of which do not come
from the heart, and therefore do not reach it. We need the Word of God
with power, and the Holy Spirit. We are not at all surprised to see
these dear friends amongst us; it is an answer to the prayers of many
a child of God; but we are grieved indeed to see what hard work they
find, and much of it because of the so-called Christians. The devil,
too, sees he has already lost some of his slaves, and is raging.”
A girl soldier wrote:—
“Last afternoon meeting (Saturday), they locked us into the hall with
an immense chain and padlock, and after some time only we succeeded in
getting free through another door, having made it known to the
proprietor. The mob followed us home, throwing stones, mud, &c., and
saying the most awful things. Few of our friends come now to the
afternoon meetings, as there is always a crowd, and they don’t like
stones and mud thrown at them, and some declare they are afraid of
_being blown up_, as dynamite stories are still being circulated!”
After a meeting in which the danger of harbouring bitterness in the
heart had been dwelt upon, a soldier wrote:—
“A man came to see me next morning, and said he had kept _rancune_ in
his heart against a man; he must go and put things square or else no
peace for him. A testimony from a thief, who told of deliverance from
sin, stirred the whole meeting, and as Captain Becquet talked of the
‘love that thinketh no evil,’ hearts darkened by jealousy and hatred
were broken down, and many were those who for the first time could
honestly pray, ‘Forgive us, as we forgive others.’ On Sunday morning
the hall was full at seven, and many standing. A powerful meeting. In
the afternoon, 1,000 people in the open air. A young German, who has
been one of the worst of our persecutors, gave his testimony for the
first time, to the wonderment of his old comrades, some of whom have
since followed his example in giving themselves to God. Glory to
Jesus. Although surrounded by difficulty, we are marching forward;
gentlemen and ladies have offered their houses for evening meetings.
“Few of the Neuchâtelois Christians probably guessed that sin existed
to such an extent so near their peaceful dwellings until its
originator was openly attacked in the Salvation Hall, but they are
fully alive to it now, and most anxious that war should be waged.
Although all the public evening meetings have been forbidden by the
police authorities, every afternoon sees a goodly congregation of men
and women assembled together to hear of full salvation. The dear Lord
meets with them, and sin-weary souls find rest in His presence. Most
of these are women, of all ages. The tales they tell us of long
unfaithful years spent in silence, and Divine calls to testimony to
Jesu’s saving power which have been quenched, stifled, and unheeded,
because of the universal tradition handed down from their fathers
which shuts their mouths, calling them disobedient children if they
dare to praise their Lord openly, have made us shudder for the
responsibility the authors of these traditions have taken upon
themselves.
“Every day fresh cases come to our knowledge of this description. At
last they are hearing and heeding their Saviour’s voice, saying, ‘Ye
are my witnesses.’”
Two of the officers who had been walking through the streets on a Sunday
evening, wrote:—
“The streets were mostly deserted at that hour, but the first band of
people we met was a dozen or so of roughs, who not being able to
disturb a Salvation meeting, were singing Salvation songs as an
amusement—
‘I do believe, I will believe,
That Jesus died for me;
That on the Cross He shed His blood,
From sin to set me free.’
“Oh, how we longed that the words they idly and mockingly sung might
sink into their hearts and awaken their slumbering consciences?
Perhaps they did; who knows? We walked on through one street and
another, longing to find an opportunity of inviting sinners to Jesus.
Loud talking in a room with partly closed shutters attracted us. We
peeped in; and there we saw several small tables surrounded by groups
of sturdy fellows, just the kind the Lord wants, drinking freely, and
spending their Sabbath evening in coarse talking and jesting.
“We longed to go in, but, alas! we must not.”
From another Neuchâtel Salutist:—
“The infidel doctor, with two other men of the same character, was at
the afternoon meeting. I feel sure he will be saved. He listened to
all that was said, and never smiled; had not even the courage to light
his cigarette, but kept rolling it all the time between his fingers.
Pray for the doctor—he is miserable. I wish you had seen him. O Lord,
save our enemies, we constantly pray!”
Miss Booth thus wrote herself of one of the meetings, which were still
allowed to be held on Sunday, being forbidden during the week:—
“On Sunday morning the meeting lasted from seven until a quarter to
eleven. It was raining hard, yet the hall was quite full, and it was
one of the most blessed meetings I ever attended. After singing and
some prayer from two or three soldiers, the meeting was opened for
testimony; and having so rarely a chance to testify in these times,
they rose three and four at a time; although the meeting lasted four
hours, they had not nearly all an opportunity....
“A sister said that it was her wish that the Army should go all over
Switzerland to bring the same happiness it had brought to her heart.
“And then followed our French version of—
‘I mean to fight for Jesus,’
and certainly, judging from the way our Neuchâtel comrades joined in
that song, there is no doubt about their determination.
“Here a man rose, who I was told could neither read nor write. There
was perfect stillness when he told us how God had saved him, what he
and his wife were, and what they are now. I was much struck, as was
everybody, with his earnestness, and the power in his prayer
afterwards, showing that he had received the Holy Ghost, which had
done more for him than all the education in the world could do. Then
rose Jacques. Everybody knows him; a very big powerful man. He told us
how he was scoffed at and persecuted, but how happy he was in spite of
all. A sister followed who has been suffering much from friends who
ought to have been the first to pray for her. She said—‘You can take
all away—reputation, everything—but you cannot take Jesus, who lives
in my heart. He is everything to me. I can suffer all while I have
Him.’
“I cannot but glorify God for the wonderful things He has done in
Neuchâtel when all has been, and is, in the dark. Our hall shut
up—forbidden even to meet to pray; opposition of the bitterest kind
and from all sides to contend with; yet on Sunday morning I felt like
Miriam, after hearing those wonderful testimonies, taking a
tambourine, and saying, ‘Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed
gloriously.’”
Extract from the Journal _L’Aurore_, March, 1883. Special correspondence
from Neuchâtel:—
“The great news of the day is the presence of the Salvation Army. They
have hired an immense hall in the Hotel Mont Blanc. Their meetings
have been often disturbed from the outside by a noisy and
evil-disposed crowd. There has been an outburst of hatred and
exasperation, such as one would not have thought possible in our
little town—windows broken, blows, ribald songs, and savage cries.
Everything has been done to upset the meetings, which have, however,
continued with calmness and courage, God being evidently with these
people.
“I was, for my part, much prejudiced against the Army and their manner
of working. _But since I have seen them at their work_, and witnessed
their ardent love for souls, and the strength and power which this
consecration of body and soul to the Saviour gives them (the sacrifice
even of their lives), I am fully persuaded that their work will be
blessed to many. Immense crowds rush to their meetings—men in rags,
poor women, porters, workmen, together with altogether different
classes. These evangelists present an immediate, _present_ salvation,
with much power and with so much simplicity that every child can
understand it.
“They have already many converts and many testimonies. We are not
accustomed here to these public testimonies, and this habit shocks
many people; but it certainly gives to those who testify a decided
position as converts, and a great blessing accompanies it.”
I make no apology for the introduction here of a letter written to me by
Miss Patrick, the gallant little Salvation soldier at Neuchâtel, who
patiently endured insult and even personal violence, in the course of
the campaign at Neuchâtel, and who asked to be allowed at the end to
share Miss Booth’s imprisonment in order to minister to and cheer her,—a
favour which was granted to her. She wrote as follows:—
“DEAR MRS. BUTLER.—I will give you as well as I can, the principal
facts of our Neuchâtel warfare. Our first meeting was held on Sunday,
January 21st, at 7 a.m., attended by a good number of Christians, most
of whom gave us a welcome as servants of God, although many of them
are now our opponents. It was a blessed time of consecration, and of
supplication that the blessing of God might rest on our future work.
The afternoon and evening services were very short, difficulty
presenting itself in an overcrowded hall and a few disturbers. On
Monday evening, amidst much crowding and confusion, God helped us to
hold a Salvation meeting, several gentlemen of the town offering to
keep order in the hall. After a powerful address by Captain Becquet,
specially bearing upon the necessity of instant decision, and
concluding by the question ‘who will give himself to God now?’ two
young men sprang out from among the audience with the words—‘Je veux,
je veux,’ and knelt down to implore mercy and pardon. These two are
good soldiers under the banner of Christ to-day. The next evening the
first serious disturbance occurred, a rush to the hall beginning an
hour or two before the time for opening, and we soon saw that mischief
was contemplated. When once the hall was full, the doors were closed,
the police having arrived to quiet the impatient mob outside; but from
the first it was easy to see their power was little or nothing. This
night a band of organized roughs had entered the hall, the meeting was
rendered impossible by laughing, shouting, whistling and song-singing,
and although by far the greater part of our audience were anxious to
listen, it was useless; we therefore cleared the hall as quickly as
possible and passed out, followed by a howling mob, who laughed at the
police, calling them ‘old women.’ No announcements of our meetings
having been published, we were surprised at the rush of people.
“Anxiously wishing to avoid any ‘scandale,’ we decided to close our
hall for a few evenings, and continue only day meetings. A few nights
later we opened with admission tickets. Storming, window-breaking
etc., followed, which might with a little firm dealing on the part of
the police, have been stopped at once, the rioters being chiefly boys
from 16 to 20 years of age. The police however only proved useful in
walking with drawn swords home with Captain Becquet, cries of ‘Au lac,
au lac,’ resounding from all sides. Surprised and startled at this
reception from the so-called Christian town of Neuchâtel, and
surrounded by many Neuchâtelois who confessed their shame of these
proceedings, we expected some means would be taken to render our
meetings practicable. Instead of this, we received an order to close
our hall at nights. This we did, although sadly enough, as the class
we wished to reach and lead to the Saviour could not come until
working hours were over. Still, God blessed our day meetings,
especially one just then held for young women, when thirty-eight
professed to give themselves to God. Our morning meetings also, often
commencing at 6 a.m. were abundantly owned by God.
“Slander and calumny was our next difficulty. A dear old French lady
working with us was the first object of attack. Her character was
called in question, and falsehoods set adrift, and after a few weeks,
when leaving Neuchâtel for another field of labour, she remarked, ‘My
people (in France) laugh at God; but this is worse; these people are
too cruel!’ Cruel, indeed, was the pamphlet which a few days after was
scattered through Neuchâtel, _i.e._, that of Madame de Gasparin, a
book which will have to bear the light and judgment of eternity. ‘I
will repay, saith the Lord.’ The charge of Jesuitism there brought
against us, spread like poison; we were met by it in the streets, even
in little children who shrank from us as if we would do them harm.
“In visiting houses, door after door was shut in our faces; former
friends were now foes, and would cross the street to avoid us; a tide
of opposition swept against us; our friends were the omnipotent, the
unchanging God, and a handful of those who dared to go against the
tide, to stand with us in the dark, feeling that the King of Glory was
our guide.
“About this time our dear Maréchale, Miss Booth, arrived. In the
evening we held many meetings in a crowded hall, with wondrous power
and blessing. On Sunday, special meetings. But presently another
arrêté came forbidding these meetings on Sunday, as the report was
circulated that some roughs from Geneva intended to ‘blow up our
hall!’ Once more these rioters were encouraged, and we were forbidden
to hold meetings. I cannot remember the dates, but from this time one
‘decree’ followed another; forbidding first Sunday meetings, and then
afternoon meetings, and then every meeting whatsoever at our _locale_.
During this time many friends had thrown open their houses to us, and
we accepted their invitations gratefully; every evening in crowded
rooms of private houses we worked on. Many a happy, holy gathering we
have had in tiny rooms and passages, many a sinner has ‘crossed over
the line’ and is on God’s side to-day as a result of these meetings;
so we praised God and took courage. Still papers, secular and
religious, rained accusations upon us, the latter more bitterly than
the former.
“One Sunday evening—our hall being closed, and we longing for a united
prayer-meeting with our soldiers (many of whom had been discharged
from good situations because they were _Salutistes_)—we received an
invitation from one of the leading members of a Christian Church to
join with all our soldiers in their evening service. It was accepted—a
prayer meeting was announced—a wonderful time followed—tears and
prayers were mingled. Amongst others, led by the Spirit of God, our
beloved Maréchale prayed. _God_ was not angry, for he answered in
filling us all with joy and strength. But, as a result, a confused,
divided church followed. We stood and wondered! What had we done? A
_woman_ had prayed in a chapel! Just now a large meeting was held at a
café against us; the avowed enemies of Jesus joined hands with His
professed followers in order to have us sent away. A petition was
started against us, to be signed at all the cafés; dear Miss Booth was
struck in the street; ink, water, &c., were showered upon us from the
windows of private houses;—in the streets, sticks, blocks of wood, mud
and stones. Anonymous letters, threats and curses met us at every
turn.
“One evening our soldiers were attacked when leaving one of the
private houses after a small meeting, and only because God kept us,
did we escape and got home without anything serious. On June 12th, the
house of Monsieur Aimé Humbert was assailed while a few friends were
met for prayer;—from the Salvation band only myself and two soldiers
being present. On Wednesday, June 13th, the house of Monsieur Convert
was besieged by hundreds of infuriated people who stoned and yelled,
smashing all the windows within reach, until after midnight, our
soldiers escaping by means of a ladder.
“This brought not a single reprimand for one of our assailants,
although the ringleaders must have been recognised by the police who
were present looking on; but it brought a prohibitory decree against
all meetings in any place whatsoever, ‘even forbidding a Swiss citizen
to receive us in his home for singing and prayer.’ The people, excited
and led on by those who should have protected us, proceeded to all
lengths. Some, we know, were paid to give us blows; and so many pints
of beer were given for panes of glass broken, &c. After all my
comrades had left Neuchâtel I stayed to cheer and encourage the Swiss
soldiers; and the fire was hotter than ever. As I walked down the
street, windows were thrown open, and I was hissed and spit upon,
pushed off the pavement and followed by the police. One day I was
chased partly through the town by a man who held a huge hatchet over
his head, threatening to bring it down on mine. He said, ‘If you are
saved you are ready to die, you say! Then death to the Jesuits!’
Praise the dear Lord, it did not come down, although I was ready. At
other times we heard from bedroom windows schemes to do us harm, and
especially the English girl who would not go away. Never, perhaps,
have we had such deadly opposition; never, perhaps, lighter and
brighter hearts; for God was with us at Neuchâtel, and we are
convinced that His work there shall never fall.
“I write to you about these little sufferings for Christ’s sake,
because I was told you wished to hear; but they are so little, and
have been so outweighed by the blessing and joy by their side that
they are as nothing, and we can only look back on these months with
thankfulness for many lessons learned in the darkness.—Dear Mrs.
Butler,
“Yours’ fighting for Jesus,
KATE H. PATRICK.”
Miss Charlesworth also wrote to me as follows:—
“Miss Booth and Miss Patrick were both struck in the streets of
Neuchâtel. We were kicked almost every day in the streets, in broad
daylight, pelted with stones, sticks, mud, glass, &c., &c., and even had
ink thrown over us. Miss Patrick was struck in the face, and so were
some of the soldiers.”
Miss Booth wrote to her friends about this time from Neuchâtel:—
“I snatch a moment in the midst of numerous occupations to send you a
line. This town is in a state of great agitation. Meetings are held
against us to consider how to put an end to the Salvation Army. A very
crowded meeting was held the other night. The leader spoke of
expelling us, saying that we got money and brought disunion into
families, and that we must be hunted out. Here a gentleman of the
town, who stands up for liberty, defied them to expel us under their
present constitutional laws, and said that liberty of conscience and
meeting existed among them. The speaker was interrupted with cries of
‘To the lake, to the lake!’ Another meeting is to be held to-night to
vote against us. A petition is also being signed against us; one is
also being signed for us.
“I feel impressed that God is about to undertake for us in a wonderful
manner. The spirit of prayer has specially come upon me lately. If we
only had a barn to meet in—any place for prayer. On Sunday evening I
went to hear a pastor in the Eglise Libre; a great number of our
soldiers present. When the preaching was over, a gentleman rose and
said that he wished to continue the prayer meetings, such as he had
held last year. I had before expressed to him a wish that, our hall
being shut up, our soldiers could meet somewhere to pray, and he had
asked me to attend this meeting, and ‘I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go up into the house of the Lord.’ My soul longed for
united prayer at this moment. The pastor left, and the after prayer
meeting was opened by this gentleman, who asked that the prayers might
be short and to the point. One after another prayed, our soldiers also
and Captain Becquet, and, although I had not intended to do so, I
followed. It was a blessed meeting, and I felt it very good to be
there. One has since remarked, ‘Oh, I felt impressed that we should
have stayed all night before the Lord. I can understand your all-night
meetings now, and my spirit longed for one.’ And so did mine, but the
devil, who knows too well the force of prayer, is doing his utmost to
stop us.
“The next morning (Monday) I hear a Council of the Church was called.
It appears I should not have prayed; but the Holy Spirit led me and I
dared not disobey; besides, great blessing was given.
“Well, I am grieved to tell you that the church is closed against the
night meetings. It is one of the saddest things I have heard of. But
we must go on praying and believing. Meetings are being held in
drawing-rooms of different friends every night; but the rooms are
crowded and very hot, and it tries our strength very, very much. Just
now is a critical moment with us. I do hope you pray.
“Next Sunday morning we are going to have a special prayer meeting at
six a.m. Expectation runs high. Oh, my soul, believe for great things!
“CATHERINE BOOTH.”
I received from a citizen of Neuchâtel the following account of some of
the scenes already mentioned:—
“On the 8th May, some sixty persons were assembled in a private room for
prayer, when a great noise was heard in the street, and stones were
thrown against the doors and windows. The persons leaving the meeting
later were insulted, pursued in the streets, and pelted with stones and
mud. Four windows were broken, and it was with the greatest difficulty
that members of the Salvation Army at this private meeting succeeded in
escaping by means of a back door. The mob seemed bent on their
extermination. A complaint was lodged with the Prefect by the master of
the house (M. Aimé Humbert), but with no result whatever. The same house
(in the Rue du Château) was a second time attacked.
“On the 12th June thirty persons were assembled for prayer in response
to special personal invitations. They were nevertheless attacked by a
part of the population.” (A crowd of men stationed themselves around the
house, and when one of the young daughters of M. Humbert went to the
door to entreat them to desist, they assailed her with weapons which she
herself said were far more intolerable than stones or mud—that is, with
the most gross and indecent language, mixed with reproaches against her
father on account of his noble work for the abolition of the institution
of patented vice. Before these she felt compelled to retire, though
difficulties of another nature would not have daunted her). “Again was
heard the cry of the crowd, ‘We have our pastors—our good pastors—we
have no need here of salvation.’ It was generally, alas! in the name of
the pastors that they perpetrated the most illegal and outrageous deeds.
One of the Municipal Guards happened to pass at this moment, without
interfering or even noticing the violence of the mob. They cried after
him, ‘There is a meeting of the Salvation Army here, and these are
forbidden by the Council of State.’ ‘You can arrange the matter with
Mademoiselle,’ the officer calmly replied, and passed on. Shortly
afterwards a great crash was heard as an immense stone was flung into
the court, breaking several panes of glass, and covering the outside
roof of the court with the fragments. Several other windows were also
broken. This state of siege lasted till 11 o’clock at night, when the
mob, tired out, dispersed.
“Two days previously to this a similar private meeting had been arranged
by a well-known citizen of Neuchâtel, M. Convert, at his own house,
where the same kind of scene had been enacted. A crowd of three hundred
men surrounded the house, and bombarded it with stones and other heavy
missiles, yelling furiously. Above all the noise was heard the familiar
cry, ‘We have our pastors; we want no Salvation.’ The front door was
broken to pieces, and several windows were destroyed. M. Convert, who
had gone to make an application to the Prefect of Police, arrived, and
was pelted, and received with yells and groans from the populace. M. de
Montmollin, the chief of the Municipal Police of Neuchâtel, always the
friend of justice and order, endeavoured, but without success, to
disperse the mob and restore quiet. Two of his gendarmes who were
present endeavoured to the best of their power to quell the disturbance,
and were furiously threatened with being thrown into the Lake. The
persons attending the meeting only escaped by means of a ladder hastily
planted against a window opening on a small back court. M. de Montmollin
received them in a room of the Municipal Hotel, which stands at the
other side of the said court. The rioters having discovered their
successful flight, moved round and renewed their attack on the Municipal
Hotel itself. It was after midnight when, wearied out with this coarse
and illegal amusement, they retired, and the persons who had attended
the meetings were able to return to their homes. Private meetings in
houses were from this time almost abandoned, as it seemed useless to
endeavour to hold them without the smallest assurance of police
protection and at hazards so great as these.”
In regard to the pastors whose names have been so unhappily used as a
rallying cry by the enemies of religion and justice, it is certain that
they also will have to suffer persecution in their turn if they are
absolutely faithful to the trust now committed to them. Their sorrow
must have been great in witnessing the manner in which their own work
for the Master had been placed in direct opposition to a work equally
undertaken in His name. The mob, however, who thus professed loyalty to
their ‘beloved and honoured pastors,’ had probably never seen their
faces, nor ever heard the gospel message from their lips, and are as
ready at this moment to stone and insult these very men whose names they
have dishonoured, the moment they perceive that _their_ teaching also
strikes directly against all the vicious habits and institutions to
which they are in their secret hearts so deeply pledged.
During the earlier days of this agitation in Neuchâtel, M. Aimé
Humbert[26] wrote in a _brochure_ published at that time:—
“For several years past my educational work has led me to inquire into
certain economic questions, amongst which that of the influence of
spirituous liquors and narcotics has presented itself in relation to
its effect on families and on society. I was struck with the severity
of the judgment which came under my eyes of one of the greatest
historians of France—the Freethinker and Democrat, Jules Michelet. He
says that, ‘in 1610 men began to have recourse more and more to the
brutalizing habit of drowning their senses in drink, and soothing
themselves into oblivion with tobacco. Two new devils then appeared in
the world—alcohol and tobacco. Nations and entire races have been
since enfeebled by them, losing themselves in this silent abyss, the
depths of which means the annihilation of love?’ Nothing has given me
so much pain as a recent report from the Director of the Normal School
of Hindelbank upon the degeneracy of the youth of the Canton of Berne.
The Educational Synod of Berthoud has expressed the same opinion.
Amongst the principal causes of the degeneracy of the race, formerly
so strong, all who have anything to do with schools and all the
friends of the people write down on the first line—bad nourishment,
whiskey, and the immoderate use of tobacco.”
M. Humbert goes on to record the fact that the first temperance society
in Switzerland, was formed in 1877 (during the session in Geneva of the
first Congress of the British and Continental Federation) and reminds
his fellow-citizens that when a law was framed by the Neuchâtel
Government for the repression of drunkenness, it passed to the
_Referendum_, and was rejected by the people. He observes that the
Salvation Army requires of its adherents abstention from drink and
tobacco. Will the people again protest against a moralizing influence,
so much needed, by driving out these new reformers? M. Aimé Humbert, was
one of the combattants in the struggle which preceded 1848, and one of
the chief actors in the deliverance of the Canton of Neuchâtel from the
Prussian yoke. He continues to be ever watchful for the true interests
of his country. He concludes his careful examination of the legal aspect
of the question of the Salvation Army as follows:—“The fall of Neuchâtel
will be all the greater from the fact that no State in Europe has
occupied so advanced a position since 1848, from the point of view of
the great principles of the common law. It would not be difficult to
demonstrate this by citing a whole series of legal measures of our
Canton. I need only, however, mention that which refers to religious
liberty. No commentary can be stronger on the spirit in which that
article was conceived, than the fact that although it has been put in
practice since 1848, up to the present day, the final clause, “freedom
of worship is guaranteed on condition that the worshippers conform to
the legal regulations on its external observance,” has been practically
a dead-letter; for our authorities have never found it necessary, nor
have they had the desire, to regulate the external exercise of forms of
worship. They have justly felt that the common law offers at all times,
and in all places, the best and surest guarantees.... I have set forth
the constitutional principles concerning liberty of thought, of belief,
of speech, of meeting &c., under which we have lived, and which have
been observed, whether they please every one or not. In this respect
Neuchâtel and Switzerland itself are only acting conformably with the
general law of progress, which constantly tends towards the elevation of
the intellectual standard of humanity. This law is inflexible; it does
not fail to come to the aid of peoples and governments who are faithful
to it; while it comes in open contact with all retrograde tendencies,
whatsoever may be their origin. The Federal Constitution of 1848 was a
work of progress, resulting from the Pact of 1815. Ancient prejudices
and selfish interests however, had succeeded in limiting the guarantee
of freedom of worship to the Swiss who belonged to one or other of the
Christian professions of faith. According to Articles 41 and 42 of the
above Constitution, Jews, even if they were Swiss, were on these points
excluded from the common law of the Federation. The great law of
progress was, so to speak, endangered by these two articles. The people,
it is said have sanctioned them. This is true; but liberty must be made
to enter Switzerland by another door; and the Spirit of progress set to
work simply to conclude the treaty of commerce between France and
Switzerland, which placed reciprocally on a footing of perfect equality
the rights of the citizens of these two nations, abstraction made of all
considerations of religious faith; and shortly afterwards (January,
1866), the Swiss ratified a new edition of the defective articles, which
the Federal Assembly were asked to revise in accordance with the spirit
of progress. It is absolutely useless to endeavour to promote a
retrograde movement in Switzerland, in this domain, or in any other
whatsoever. Just as well might we attempt to return to the days of
_diligences_. For those who complain of the inconveniences which steam
presents as a motive force, progress has no consolation to give. Rather
she warns—‘Wait a moment, and you shall have electricity!’ Let us get
out of this retrograde agitation as out of a bad dream; let us follow on
the path which our liberal institutions have indicated to us, outside of
which there is nothing for us but confusion and anarchy. Thus alone can
we work for the maintenance of our good reputation, and the
uninterrupted reign of peace and purity in our own dear country....
Instead of repressing and silencing the agitation around us, we must let
the steam escape, open the safety-valves, and bring all to the light—the
full light—of rational discussion. In the presence of every new problem
which arises in our troubled epoch we must never forget that in liberty
alone we have the key to every solution. To sum up:—The impressions
which I carried away from the meetings at the Hotel Mont Blanc, and
which were subsequently confirmed, are that the Salvation Army must rank
amongst the list of the strangest phenomena of our great social,
political, and religious crisis, while it is one of those enterprises
which neither ridicule nor violence will succeed in annihilating. Here,
if ever, the saying of the wise Gamaliel ought to be remembered:—“If
this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught; but if it
be of God ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found to fight
against God.”
The Council of State having received certain petitions for and against
the continuance of the Salvation Army in the Canton, and a further
petition signed by pastors who, while not sympathising with the methods
of the Army, claimed liberty for it as for all, proceeded to draw up a
report on the whole question to be presented to the Grand Council. It
seems desirable to give large extracts from that Report as follows—
“Report upon the three petitions presented, namely:
“That containing 9,944 signatures, demanding severe measures against
the Salvationists.
“That containing 163 signatures, claiming for the Salvationists
freedom of worship and of meeting, and
“That signed by 56 pastors and ministers of the Canton which, while
condemning the practices of the Salvation Army, pray, that its
adherents may be allowed freedom of action so long as their practices
have nothing in them contrary to law and good behaviour, and demanding
the continuance of religious liberty.”
The report gives a complete history of the action of the Salvation Army
in Neuchâtel, and from it I take the following extracts:—
“It was on the 21st January that this sect held its first meeting at
Neuchâtel in a hall which some one had let to them. Preceded by its
renown for eccentricity, and accustomed to stir up noise and scandal
wherever it gives its representations, the Salvation Army could not
fail to attract the curiosity of a number of Neuchâtel idlers. Very
soon the peculiarity of their proceedings, the erection of a platform,
and the monotonous repetition of mystical hymns sung to vulgar airs,
allocutions, appeals to come to public confessions, sale of songs and
pamphlets, and repeated collections of money served to stir up
opposition of different kinds. Many turned these proceedings into
ridicule, while others were indignant, looking on the whole thing as a
profanation of religion. Others, however, already accustomed by the
practices of the Methodist sect to mystical exhortations, stood up
energetically in defence of the Salvationists. Hence arose conflicts,
and on the 25th January a window at the Hotel Mont Blanc was broken,
on the 27th a tumult occurred inside the hall, and on the 28th the
disturbances were repeated.
“... The Council of State therefore has thought it desirable to refer
to the constitutional principles by which it is guided in the matter
of freedom of worship and public assembly. An appeal was made to the
population to abstain from attending the meetings, but this was not
heeded. The crowd continued to frequent the Hotel Mont Blanc, the
tumult becoming so great that the gendarmerie, although reinforced,
found itself powerless to repress the disturbances without resorting
to force.... The Prefect of Neuchâtel received on the 2nd February an
order to notify prohibition of the meetings to the Chiefs of the
Salvation Army residing in Neuchâtel. Up to that time the Salvation
Army had been looked upon as one of the numerous Methodist sects which
under different names have invaded French Switzerland for fifty years
past. We esteemed it right to follow in regard to them Article 13 of
the Constitution. We acknowledged that by that, all Christian sects
ought to enjoy equal liberty and protection, provided that they do not
offend against public order and good behaviour.”
(After considering the question as to whether these conditions had
been observed, the report goes on to say):—
“But in the meantime an unexpected event occurred; the publication of
the Orders and Regulations of the Salvation Army by the Countess de
Gasparin, from which we learned that this Army is not a simple sect or
religious association, but that it possesses very much more the
character of a religious corporation. The Council of State therefore
put out on the 9th February the following decree:—
“‘Considering the establishment at Neuchâtel of a sect known as the
Salvation Army;
“‘Considering the extracts from the Orders and Regulations of the Sect
published at Geneva by Madame de Gasparin;
“‘Considering Article 72 of the Cantonal Constitution, which
prescribes that no religious corporation shall establish itself in the
Canton without an express and always revocable authorisation of the
Grand Council;
“‘Considering that it is necessary to decide by a formal inquiry
whether the Salvation Army does possess the character of a religious
corporation before calling upon it to claim the authorisation of the
Grand Council;
“‘The Council decrees:
“‘That it charges the Department of Public Worship to proceed to the
above-mentioned inquiry.’
“The different documents treating of the Salvation Army were
consequently collected and studied by the Department of Public
Worship, which, on the 14th March, addressed a succinct report to us,
accompanied by the original documents. This report concludes that the
Salvation Army constitutes really a religious Corporation, and that in
order to establish itself in the Canton it must have the authorisation
of the Grand Council. Just at this moment, however, the Army seems to
have been forgotten; its meetings were not attracting any except a few
devotees and inquisitive persons, and, after having consulted our
Department of Public Worship, we did not think it expedient to attract
public attention again to the question. We therefore reserved the
right to act on the opinion of the Department of Public Worship until
fresh disturbances should call for action. The Salvation Army was not,
however, satisfied that its scandals should cease. New leaders
presented themselves in order to stimulate the zeal of their
adherents, and re-excited the curiosity which had partly died out.
Miss Booth, the _Maréchale_, appeared in person, accompanied by her
faithful adjutant, Miss Charlesworth. The meetings were now more
frequented than ever, and were organised in the houses of private
persons, to which the audience was invited by cards. After this
certain persons of Neuchâtel were elevated to the rank of officers,
and received the distinctive signs of this new religious order. The
disturbances in the streets recommenced. The chiefs of the Army having
attempted to recommence the meetings at the Hotel Mont Blanc, the
Council of State thought it right to confirm its previous order, by a
letter addressed to the Prefect of Neuchâtel on the 29th March.
“... Although the chiefs of the Army had promised to conform to the
order transmitted to the Prefect, we soon learned that meetings were
continued. There was a meeting held in the open air at Pierre a Bot on
the Sunday afternoon. Private meetings became more frequent, and
invitations were so numerous that the enemies of the Army came to know
of them. Complaints were made _apropos_ of broken windows and other
damages, but nothing could be done, seeing that no one was able to
indicate the authors of these excesses. The report of the Council of
State goes on to describe another order given to the Prefect on the
same subject, much in the same sense as the previous one. The
Salvation Army now gave up all meetings except those in the open air,
or those which were strictly private in the houses of friends.
“‘Private meetings,’ says the report, ‘continued as usual, and we
received a petition signed by Edward Becquet, Anna Furrer, and Kate H.
Patrick, in the following terms:—
“‘To the Republican Canton of Neuchâtel.
“‘Gentlemen,—
“‘The undersigned officers of the Salvation Army present in Neuchâtel,
have received from the Prefect a communication concerning the letter
you addressed to him on the 14th current, and take the liberty
respectfully to present to you the following observations:
“‘The Council of State forbade the public meetings in the evening and
those on Sunday held by the Salvation Army, and embraced in this
prohibition even meetings which might be held in private houses. The
Council of State grounds its prohibition on Article 72 of the Cantonal
Constitution, which runs thus:— “No religious corporation may
establish itself in the Canton without an express and always revocable
authorisation of the Grand Council.” Now, if we mistake not, this
article was introduced to forbid the establishment in the Canton of
religious Orders, but it never had in view religious associations
which might hold meetings in the Canton. This may be proved by the
fact that no religious association independent of the State has ever
been called upon to demand the authorisation of the Grand Council. The
State ignores them, or only accords to them the protection which it
accords to all the other inhabitants of the country, as your
proclamation of the 30th January so well sets forth. The Salvation
Army is not a religious corporation, nor does it seek to be recognised
as such. Hence we do not understand in what manner the Council of
State is able to attribute to it that character. The Salvation Army is
simply an association of persons who enter it and leave it freely at
will, and who never take any vows of obligation. As such it has a
right to the protection of Article 11 of the Cantonal Constitution,
since it is impossible to find any proof that there is anything
contrary to law either in its aims or the means it employs. Now such
proof has not been adduced, and in the letter addressed to the Prefect
of Neuchâtel the Council of State alleges absolutely nothing which
could justify the exceptional measures adopted against us. Our
meetings take place in private houses, and they have not in any way
troubled public order or tranquillity. Consequently, basing our appeal
upon Articles 49, 50, and 56 of the Federal Constitution, and Articles
11 and 13 of the Neuchâtel Cantonal Constitution, we respectfully beg
you, gentlemen, to be so good as to annul the decree which you
published on the 14th of this month, and to give us freedom of
meeting.
(Signed)
“‘EDWARD BECQUET.
“‘ANNA FURRER.
“‘KATE PATRICK.
“‘April 20th.’
“We cannot conceal our astonishment, Gentlemen, at the sight of two
foreigners and a young lady of Lausanne taking upon themselves to give
us a lesson in Constitutional law! It is true, however, that the same
persons take upon themselves to preach lessons of Christianity to our
pastors. The population of Neuchâtel continued to be agitated by the
persistent presence of the Salvation Army. The Sunday morning meetings
began again to be disturbed, and on the 4th May the popular meeting
held on the Place du Port appointed an Active Committee which drew up
the petition (against the Salvationists), which is now before us
signed by 9,944 persons. The Council of State, after having examined
again the publications relating to the Salvation Army, became more and
more convinced of the special character of that association, which
undoubtedly has the character of a religious corporation.
Consequently, on the 22nd of May, the Council of State issued the
following decree:—
“‘Having received a request from the officers of the Salvation Army
residing at Neuchâtel, demanding of the Council of State to repeal its
decree of the 14th April forbidding the meetings of the Army in the
evening, and on Sunday, and to authorise again freedom of meetings as
often and whenever the Army may please to hold them.
“‘Seeing that in accordance with the result of the inquiry made by the
Department of Public Worship, the Council of State deems that the
Salvation Army has the character of a religious order or corporation,
being constituted upon a military basis, and placed under the
authority, unlimited and uncontrolled, of a General, to whom all the
officers of the Army owe absolute obedience; that such an institution
cannot be compared to any simple association freely pursuing a
religious end, and not interfering with the rights of the citizens or
of society, but must be looked upon as a corporation such as is
contemplated by Article 72 of the Cantonal Constitution, and the
establishment of which cannot take place in the Canton without the
authorisation of the Grand Council—
“‘Seeing, moreover, that a petition is being signed in the Canton
demanding of the Grand Council to take such measures as are necessary
against the Salvation Army,
“‘The Council decrees:
“‘1. That it cannot grant to M. Becquet and his companions calling
themselves officers in the Salvation Army the permission which they
demand in their letter of the 20th April;
“‘2. That the Council forbids provisionally for as long time as the
officers of the Salvation Army shall not have received the
authorisation prescribed by Article 72 of the Constitution, all
meetings whatsoever and wheresoever of the Army.’
“Since the publication of this decree the Salvation Army seems to have
beaten a retreat. Occasionally some timid attempts have been made to
hold meetings, but we have undertaken that all such meetings shall be
repressed until the Corporation in question has received from the
Grand Council the authorisation which is requisite.
“After this historical exposition of the facts, it may seem useful to
examine into the causes why the population of Neuchâtel, generally
indifferent spectators of all such things, have been so much agitated
with regard to the Salvation Army’s meetings. If this agitation had
not existed, and if the authors of the disturbances in the streets had
not felt themselves supported by the inward convictions of the great
majority of the population, it is very clear that the public peace
would not have been troubled as it has been. We shall endeavour to
explain the matter. For several years past we have seen passing
through our Canton missionaries of every kind and of both sexes, who,
with the object of rekindling religious zeal, have organised meetings
under different names. Our population, frequently annoyed by the
intrusions of these modern apostles, and irritated at seeing
themselves treated by them as if they were pagans, have not until now,
however, disturbed their assemblies. Nevertheless complaints have been
frequently heard on the part of those who found it disagreeable to see
their wives and daughters leaving the domestic hearth in order to go
to these meetings. Others were indignant, and justly so, on finding
that secrets which ought to have remained restricted to the family
circle were divulged in confessions publicly organised by the
missionaries in question. Seeing that these so-called religious
meetings were only temporarily maintained, those who suffered on
account of them exercised patience; but now that the Salvation Army
has published its intention to establish itself at Neuchâtel in a
permanent manner, and to hold three meetings a day, and to introduce,
so to speak, an element of permanent trouble among our families, our
population have revolted. Three facts principally tended to exasperate
the public: The frequency of the meetings; the manner of conducting
them; and the collections of money. When a father of a family sees his
wife or daughter leaving his house at half-past six in the morning,
only to return at eight or nine o’clock, and then going out to a
prayer-meeting at three or four o’clock in the afternoon, and perhaps
also to a religious meeting in the evening, he may well ask himself,
‘What will become of the housekeeping, and what will the children do
in the absence of their mother?’ Also there are women to whom it is
necessary to earn money for the support of their families, and who
must consequently sacrifice their work to join the mystic worship of
the Army. It is not to be wondered at that the indignation felt at
these things should overflow, and that anger should be kindled against
those who thus draw away mothers of families from their domestic
duties. Religious fanaticism evidently cannot become the ideal of
modern society, and if we see violent manifestations against the
attempt to introduce it into our midst we must not be astonished. We
are accustomed to simple and dignified religious ceremonies, and our
inward sentiment is wounded when we see sacred things lightly treated.
We are not accustomed to see the state of souls and consciences
paraded outwardly. A certain instinctive modesty tells us that the
religious man must always remain modest and reserved. We would stamp
under our feet these habits and sentiments of the Salvation Army.
Their worship seems to us a vulgar parade. They think it necessary to
cultivate a noisy style of music, to sing mystical hymns adapted to
vulgar tunes, and incessant repetitions of the same cries and the same
phrases. Their object is to produce excitement, madness, religious
hallucination. They see that, rendered by their influence more or less
unconscious of what they are doing, those who assist at their meetings
will more readily give themselves up to pantomime and acting, will
jump on the platform and confess their sins and the sins of their
neighbours. Is it strange that those who desire to increase respect
for religion, and not make it an object of derision should protest?
and those who do not wish that such practices should lead to hysteria
and madness, can they be said to be in the wrong?... And when we hear
it asserted that that is the true Christian worship, that outside of
these practices there is no serious religion, and when one sees people
who pass for coryphites of the purest churches attending and
supporting these practices of the Salutists, may there not be a
temptation in the minds of many to take exception to Christianity
itself, and to turn every kind of worship into ridicule? Truly it is
an astonishing thing to have seen the pastors of our different
churches taking under their protection a sect which despises them.
“But the essential object of the Salvation Army is to collect money.
Its publications turn continually on this point. The sale of pamphlets
and journals in order to realise money, repeated collections,
reiterated appeals for funds, &c., make it clear enough that the good
things of this world have a great attraction for them. A book of hymns
edited by Miss Booth, the Maréchale, concludes thus:—‘Funds are always
needed.’ The report of the Salvationists war in 1882, published by
their General-in-Chief, terminates with a subscription form in favour
of the above-mentioned leader. Readers are invited to fill it up....
On account of these incessant appeals for money, the Salvation Army
realises large receipts. The effect produced on its friends is so
powerful that they will go through all kinds of hardships to increase
the collections. As the Salvation Army has a good end in view, they
say the money originally destined for the support of the family may as
well go to enrich the Army. The end, which is the sanctification of
souls, will sanctify the means—that is to say, domestic robbery. Hence
furious discussions, quarrels, and troubles brought into the midst of
the family.
“It is worthy of remark, that the Salvation Army began its operations
in Neuchâtel on a ground which was well prepared. We have already said
that for many years past, meetings of different kinds had led the way.
Moreover, for a long time certain pastors of our churches have
emulated each other in their zeal in organising outside of the regular
forms of worship, meetings of every kind. They seem to have imagined
that religion consisted essentially in going constantly to these
extraordinary services, and those who took part in them did not
hesitate to speak of themselves as the only true Christians. ‘Oh, he
is a good man, he goes to the prayer meetings,’ we have frequently
heard it said. Following the natural bent of the human mind, these
Christians have been superceded by others professing to be still more
Christian than themselves, who brought these meetings to perfection,
adding to them more fervent prayer with the addition of groans and
tears. Others followed with new hymns of a somewhat mystical nature,
then a form of confession made its appearance, at first timid, but
afterwards growing in publicity. Professions of faith were demanded;
and last of all the Salvation Army arrived, outstripping all these in
its practices, so much so that even some of the ‘mystics’ thought they
went too far. No doubt the Salvation Army will in its time find
another sect which will profess to be still more Christian than
itself. We can only hope that the example the Salvation Army has
given, will cause those persons who carry religion to extremes to
pause and reflect. It is to be hoped that they will see that nothing
can be more hurtful to the cause which they defend than to choose in
place of a simple and dignified public worship which is open to all,
and at which everyone may find himself at his ease, conventicles
frequented by persons believing themselves more religious than their
neighbours, and who unfortunately are very far from proving by their
conduct that their religion has moralised them. The Salvation Army is
the last drop in the already over full cup of popular indignation
swelling day by day against those who by their religious exaggerations
bring trouble into families. Though we may have to regret the
unfortunate manifestations of this indignation, we must remember that
those whom we blame are persons not accustomed to moderate their
feelings. True indignation ought never to excuse violence, and it is a
pity that certain of our citizens have not more self-control. A
dignified and calm protest would have brought about more quietly the
result we all desire.
“It now remains for us to justify the last measure we have taken in
regard to this question.... We are at liberty to examine how far the
presence of this Salvation Army as a religious corporation is
compatible with public order and good behaviour. In what sense do we
call the Salvation Army a religious corporation? The special character
of a corporation is that those who are adherents of it are placed
under the discipline of, and are dependent entirely on the authority
of a chief, while devoting their activity to the service of this
corporation. We observe also that all religious corporations occupy
themselves in amassing capital.”
(The report goes on to argue further that the Salvation Army must be
regarded as a corporation.)
“All that we have stated appears sufficient to prove that the
Salvation Army certainly constitutes a corporation, and we are of
opinion, gentlemen, that you will approve of our having made reference
to the necessity of your authorisation before permitting the
continuation of meetings which we should not have forbidden if it had
been the case of an ordinary sect. If this corporation demands your
authorisation, we beg leave to pronounce our opinion on that head; it
will be our duty to decide whether the existence of this corporation
in our Canton is compatible with public order, and whether anything in
its proceedings and manner of worship is an offence against decency
and good behaviour....
“Consequently, we propose to you, gentlemen, the adoption of the
following decree:”—
(The decree has been cited before, and ends thus):—
“The Grand Council approve of the action of the Council of State in
having forbidden the meetings of the Salvation Army until the
authorisation for establishing itself in the Canton has been granted,
and charges the said Council to take care that this decree is observed
by all whom it may concern.
(Signed),
“COMTESSE, President,
“G. GULLAUME, Secretary.
“13th June.”
This decree was adopted and published throughout the Canton.
One of my objects in this narrative being to present a true picture of
the state of feeling on each side concerning the events which occurred
in Switzerland in relation to the question before us, I think it well to
give to the reader, as much as possible, the documents and written
testimonies referring to them, rather than to tell the story throughout
in my own words. These testimonies and documents speak for themselves
with no uncertain sound.
Here follows one of the petitions upon which the Grand Council based the
judgment and decree of June 20th, on the report presented to it by the
Council of State:—
“MM. President and Gentlemen,—
“At the beginning of this year a corporation called the Salvation Army
entered our Canton professedly in order to preach the Christian
religion. This corporation, organised in England, has produced amongst
us a great perturbation, public order has been troubled at Neuchâtel,
families are divided, and the peace of the country is compromised. The
Salvationists as they are called make public collections of money, the
employment of which it is impossible for us to control; and certain
facts lead us to believe that our fellow-citizens have been more or
less the victims of their speculations. Our population is excited, our
youth above all are subjected to an evil influence, religion is
profaned, and the great majority of the people are agreed in
testifying that the manœuvres of the Salvation Army are a cause of
demoralisation and of the negation of all the principles which lie at
the root of our Neuchâtel constitution. Paternal authority is
undermined, social ties are relaxed, the indigent classes instead of
being succoured, suffer from this state of things; and in spite of all
this, regardless of the maintenance of public peace, this corporation
continues its agitation. Several citizens of Neuchâtel have taken the
initiative of this petition, hoping that the whole Canton will join in
it. The undersigned address themselves to the Grand Council with full
confidence, entreating it to take into consideration the ways and
means necessary for restoring order, by causing these speculators to
cease their operations. In one word they pray that the practices of
the Salvation Army may be put a stop to as quickly as possible. While
bearing in mind Article 13 of our Constitution, we take the liberty,
gentlemen, to draw your attention especially towards Article 72 of the
same Constitution, which treats of the formalities to be observed by
religious corporations.”
Here follow 2,278 signatures.
It should be observed that a large number of these signatures were
collected in the country villages of the Canton, and are those of
persons who had probably never seen or heard the Salvation Army, and who
readily adopted the views concerning it expressed by the zealous
collectors of the names. How many of these persons really regarded as a
grievous thing the “profanation of religion” referred to in the
petition, it would be difficult to estimate; certainly it could not be
said of the drinking, vicious, and irreligious portion of the people
that any feeling of respect for religion prompted their protest against
the Salvation Army.
The following counter-petition was presented by citizens of Neuchâtel,
which only received sixty-three signatures, some of those being,
however, names of weight:
“M. President and Gentlemen,—
“The undersigned citizens of Neuchâtel, or Swiss living at Neuchâtel,
having learned that a petition is in course of being signed in our
city praying the Grand Council to take measures in respect of the
Salvation Army in order to forbid their meetings, feel it to be their
duty to claim, on the other hand, from the Grand Council, that it
shall respect the right of meeting and the law of the constitution by
which it is conferred.
“The undersigned are strangers to the Salvation Army, and reserve
their judgment of it from a religious point of view, but they claim
for its adherents, as they would claim for others and for themselves,
the right of meeting, and of continuing their religious worship
according to their own views; for this is a Constitutional right which
cannot justly be either restricted or violated, even as the Council of
State itself acknowledged in its proclamation of the 30th January.
“Therefore the undersigned are persuaded that the Grand Council,
acting now upon the same principles, will exercise in this particular
case, as in every other, its high authority in order to maintain them,
and in this persuasion we beg you to receive the expression of our
profound respect.”
The third petition addressed to the Grand Council was from 59 pastors of
the Canton of Neuchâtel, who, while expressing disapproval of the
methods and action of the Salvation Army, besought for them, as for all,
freedom of meeting and of worship, pleading on behalf of complete
liberty of conscience.
A curious view of the duties of the Police in those troubled days was
expressed in M. Cornaz’s organ, _Le Reveil_, of May 14th, as follows:—
“Some of our journals are raising a hue and cry about the inactivity
of the police. It seems to us that they have a false notion of the
duties of the police in a free country. The public force has no
business to interfere for the protection of persons who exercise their
functions in the _etat major_ of the Salvationists. It has no business
to be accompanying the Maréchale wherever she pleases to walk,
following her at a distance as though she were a Princess of the blood
royal. It is not the business of the police to stand in the evening
before the houses where the Salvation Army are pleased to hold their
private meetings, which, however, strongly resemble public meetings,
and at which are found persons who had no previous knowledge of each
other. If these meetings are private, those who convene them have no
more right to the protection of the police than a person who asks a
few friends to take tea.[27] If, on the contrary, these meetings may
truly be called public meetings, owing to the number of those
attending them, they are illegal, and a violation of the formal decree
of the Council of State. The police have no right to take any steps
for the protection of an illegal thing. The Salvation Army is in our
Canton a permanent occasion of scandal and disorder. Excepting a few
honest persons like Colonel de Perrot, the greater number of its
adepts are very worldly people who simply wish to give themselves the
airs of religious folk. They think they have found a means, for want
of any other, of distinguishing themselves from the vulgar mob. They
have a jargon, a fashion of their own; they are a mixture of vanity
and false humility, of mimicry and false education. For a long time
past we have been disgusted with British importations of this
character, which so strongly savour of base speculation that the most
improbable thing that could happen (even in the opinion of the
Salvationists themselves) is that they should voluntarily and
spontaneously give up collecting money, amassing large sums, and
living at the expense of the public like any wretched mountebanks who
might visit our town. Our people who toil from morning till evening do
not quite understand that there is any obligation to show any
particular respect to people without education and without talent, who
pay themselves out of their pockets for gesticulating for two or three
hours a-day, and shouting ‘hallelujahs’ and ‘amens.’ They think that
the _Maréchale_ and her female companions would be better employed—and
more usefully—knitting stockings or studying a cookery book. Some of
our contemporaries have come to the conclusion that it would be well
to ask for the establishment of _special constables_, who would be a
kind of body guard for Miss Booth, and sentinels at the Mont Blanc. We
doubt if they would find many persons willing to carry out this
brilliant idea, and we think that, if carried out, it might only prove
the signal for street brawls in which the Salvationist acrobats might
come badly off. And after all, what right would these gentlemen have
to act as police against their fellow-citizens? and what measures
could they take to prevent the formation in turn of a special
batallion opposed to them, who would make short work of their
usurpation of public police functions? There is no doubt that the
Salvation Army in coming here has greatly shaken and shattered the
nervous system of our population, who are naturally very
impressionable. If it has succeeded in exalting some, however, it has
completely exasperated others; and herein it has obtained what it
sought. ‘Those who sow the wind, must reap the tempest.’”
The _Evangeliste_ referred to the same events in the following remarks:—
“The town of Neuchâtel continues to be greatly agitated on the
question of the Salvation Army. The meetings which the English
Evangelists held on Sunday, 6th May, at the Hotel Mont Blanc, were
violently assailed, and people going out from these were grossly
insulted and maltreated. The Federal Colonel, M. de Perrot, instructor
of artillery, who was present in uniform, kept order to the utmost of
his power in the hall. He was himself assaulted and abused by the
rioters,—‘indignant,’ as certain of the journals say, ‘at seeing an
officer in active service, fulfilling the functions of a policeman
amidst a troop of mountebanks, who have made such a ridiculous noise
in the world.’ The same day Colonel de Perrot wrote to the _Gazette_
of Lausanne a letter, in which he complains of the attitude of the
religious journals, and declares that the Salvationists are Christians
such as have never yet been seen, who are not content with fine words
and phrases, but who practice the Gospel in the manner of the
Christians of the Primitive Church.”
Colonel de Perrot, a member of one of the ancient families of
Switzerland, is instructor in musketry practice of the Swiss troops. The
discipline and influence he exercises in that capacity cannot be too
highly commended. In conversation with him one is reminded of our
historical portraits of some of Cromwell’s Ironsides. A man of fervent
and practical piety, great simplicity of character, and with a short
brusque mode of expressing himself, even in religious exercises, he
appears a thorough type of the old-fashioned Christian soldier.
The following is the letter of Colonel de Perrot alluded to; addressed
to the _Gazette de Lausanne_.
“I ask for a small space to protest publicly against the infamous
treatment and calumnies to which the members of the Salvation Army are
exposed at Neuchâtel. I know these people personally; I have both seen
and heard them in public. I have had the honour and privilege to receive
them at my table, and even to offer to one of them hospitality for a
short time. I have read all the polemical arguments of Madame de
Gasparin, &c., all the attacks of the so-called religious journals
which, with an exception here and there, have scattered these calumnies
broadcast, while never yet have they shown the common fairness of openly
retracting the infamies they have published. “Every day one hears these
clever writers and pious orators attack the Salvation Army in public.
But has anyone ever heard or seen them speak or take up the pen to claim
the protection of the laws in favour of these persecuted brothers and
sisters? No! these good people in clerical garb, and these well-known
writers busy themselves only, like many others, in the ignoble work of
throwing stones at two men and two women! They say it is a foreign
importation, and must be expelled! It is too late! The truth has burst
upon us! We have seen these simple, modest, fearless, loving Christians
at work. If they are expelled, there will be hundreds of persons who
must be expelled with them.
“The Salvation Army is exposed at Neuchâtel to the insults, the hatred,
the contempt, of a certain number of blackguards who, feeling themselves
supported by an approving silence on the part of their betters, take the
liberty, and are permitted in broad daylight, to attack and burst in the
doors of the Hotel Mont Blanc—to throw mud and offal at the officers,
and even to _strike women_. How is it that these people enjoy full
liberty for this, whilst their victims are deprived of the protection of
the laws? Is it right that a troop of boys, or a few savages, should
make the laws and form the police of the town? If the authorities are
powerless now to enforce respect for the law in favour of the Salvation
Army, they will in like manner plead that they are powerless to protect
us in our houses from being assaulted and broken into one of these days.
If the police were only to claim the assistance of fifty citizens, we
should soon see whether, in twenty-four hours, all these disturbances
could not be brought to an end. I declare openly, and after all that I
have read and heard against the Salvation Army as it appears at
Neuchâtel, that there exists in my mind only _one thought_ ... and it is
this: Here are Christians such as I have never yet known, who are not
content with words and phrases, but who _practice_ the gospel as in the
times of the primitive Church, and this is the reason why I love them.
(Signed) “DE PERROT, Colonel.”
Among the various testimonies cited, the following, emanating from a
public-house organ, may be interesting:—
“These new visitors to our town have from the first aroused the most
complete and unmistakeable antipathy of our citizens. How could it be
otherwise? for their conceit, self-sufficiency, &c., are not at all in
harmony with our simple and laborious life? These enlightened
preachers do not seem to make a sufficiently careful choice of their
expressions; for example, they say, ‘the devil is among the
public-house keepers, the devil is in the whiskey, the devil in the
wine, &c.’ You can very well understand that preaching like this is
not at all to our taste. Do they wish us to be plagued with a new
Phylloxera? They come to tell us that our vineyards are our enemies,
that the vines must be pulled up! Surely it is already quite enough to
have two Protestant churches in our midst which hold exactly the same
dogmas. It has already been rather more than we could bear to have for
several years past acrimonious conflicts going on upon grounds of
faith and religious practice. These modern warriors might have done
better to leave us at peace. They would, in doing so, have better
followed the advice of Christ, who said: ‘Peace on earth and goodwill
toward men.’ But now we see what is the end of the work of these
marplots, these meddlers with our enjoyments, in regard to our city
which was so quiet before these new preachers came to make a
revolution among us. Now what is the remedy? When a troop of comic
actors, mountebanks, or vagabonds of any kind come to a town, and
trouble the public peace, the authorities—that is to say, the Prefect
of Police—takes care that they are immediately sent away. This is what
we demand in the interest of our good and honest population. Let these
comedians—(with all due regard to their high profession)—be thanked
for the services they have rendered us, and requested to return to us
that which they have taken from us—_peace_.”
Previously to the publication of the decree of the 20th June, forbidding
all meetings of the Salvation Army, and, subsequently to a decree of the
22nd May, closing the meetings held on the week days in the evening, M.
Convert, being convinced of the illegality of that decree, continued to
invite the Salvationists to his house, using his freedom and rights of
citizenship as he and his fathers before him had ever done. In
consequence of this, the following correspondence took place between the
head of the police and M. Convert and others:—
“To Mr. Robert Convert.
“SIR,—I have the honour to inform you that the Council of State has
this day ordered me to keep a very strict watch over the carrying out
of its decree of the 22nd May last, a copy of which has been supplied
to Mr. Becquet, captain of the Salvation Army, and to bring up to the
Tribunals all those who shall be found disobeying it. I therefore
invite you to abstain henceforward from calling together at your house
any members of the Salvation Army, either Swiss or foreign, _or to
take part in any meeting of this kind, whether in a private house or
in public_. Trusting that you will take this warning into your serious
consideration, I am, Sir, &c.,
(Signed) “For the Prefect, C. GERSTER.
“June 16.”
To what an extraordinary state of siege freedom had been reduced, at
this date, in Neuchâtel, when a citizen, a man of high character and
respectability, could be forbidden to take part in a private meeting in
a private house!!
The following is M. Convert’s reply:—
“To the Prefect of the District of Neuchâtel.
“SIR,—The undersigned have received the letter which you have done
them the honour to address to them of the 16th June, in which letter
occurs the following passage:— ‘I invite you to abstain henceforward
from calling together at your house any member of the Salvation Army,
either Swiss or foreigner, or to take part in any meeting of this
kind, whether in a private house or in public.’ They consider that the
above invitation is contrary to the declaration of Articles 49, 50,
and 56 of the Federal Constitution, as well as of the 11th and 13th of
the Cantonal Constitution, and they protest against this restriction
imposed upon their Constitutional rights. They take, moreover, the
liberty, Sir, of begging you to observe that, according to the terms
of your letter every meeting whatsoever which may have a religious,
moral, or philanthropic character is rendered impossible, if it is
made compulsory to prove that no member of the Salvation Army has
taken part in it.
“We have the honour to remain, Sir, &c.,
“CONVERT and NIESTLE.”
Rejoinder to the above:—
“To Mr. Convert,
“SIR,—I have received the protest which you have addressed to me this
day in your name, and in that of Mr. Niestle, against the invitation
contained in my letter of the 16th. This protest leads me to think
that I have not clearly explained myself, or else that you wilfully
fail to understand me. That being so, I will endeavour to be more
clear. The decree of the Council of State of the 2nd May, to which I
called your attention, does not, as you appear to think, contemplate
interference with all meetings whatsoever which have a religious,
moral, or philanthropic character, but the meetings of the Salvation
Army, or (in order to be still more explicit) such meetings as those
which have taken place at the houses of M. Aimé Humbert, M. Coulin,
and more recently at your own house, Sir, and which have been
occasions of tumult and disorder, of which you are cognizant. This
decree is perfectly consistent with Article 50 of the Federal
Constitution, to which you draw my attention, and which only
guarantees the free exercise of public worship within limits
compatible with public order. Now it is incontestible that public
order has been greatly disturbed on these occasions, and that the
superior authority has the right, as the Grand Council lately stated,
to take measures to prevent the renewal of such scandals, and to
secure that the tranquillity of the town be not imperilled without any
reason for the same, by a limited number of citizens, however
honourable they may be, who only look at one side of the question,
braving public sentiment, and persisting in claiming rights which are
disputed by the majority of the population. There are circumstances,
and this is one, in which men should know how to give way, and to wait
patiently rather than to run counter to public opinion, or to wait
till time has done its work and modified that public opinion if at
present it is erroneous. Be so good as to communicate this letter to
Mr. Niestle.
“I am, &c.,
“CORNAZ.”
“22nd June.”
The three petitions before alluded to, and the report of the Council of
State, of which extracts have been already given, having been considered
by the Grand Council, the public discussion of the same took place in
the Council Room of Neuchâtel. Strangers are admitted to those debates.
Several ladies attended on this occasion. The debate lasted many hours.
The following is an abridged report of portions of that debate, which
produced at the time such a melancholy impression on many of our minds
and stirred up our forebodings for the future.
It took place on the 15th June; M. Cornaz, Director of the Department of
Justice and Police at Neuchâtel, taking up the question in opposition to
M. Jacottet, “according to his custom when answering that Deputy, began
with a series of personal attacks.” He acknowledged that the question
before the Council was a very grave one. That was the first time it had
been submitted to the Council in a practical form. Nevertheless he
besought the Grand Council to cut it short at once; for in his opinion,
as Director of Police, it was absolutely necessary that he should know
what he was expected to do. “What must I do (he asked) pending the
decision? For example, suppose the Salutists continue their meetings and
provoke new disturbances?” The Canton of Neuchâtel, was not, he
declared, a police-governed State. It had a gendarmerie of ninety men,
eight of whom were stationed at Neuchâtel. Those eight were manifestly
powerless to protect the Salvation Army. The chief of the Council of
State even, had declared that order could not be maintained without
resort to force. Did the Council wish that these gendarmes should use
their swords and revolvers against the people? Did they propose to form
a troop of soldiers to protect the Salvation Army? Let M. Jacottet
answer. M. Jacottet had declared that they had to do not only with
foreigners but with Neuchâtel citizens, who were then making use of
their constitutional rights by having Salutist’s meetings in their
private houses. He (the speaker) asked how far those people of
Neuchâtel, who knew their country, and were perfectly well aware that
their conduct was a braving of public opinion, deserved sympathy? He
insisted upon an immediate decision of the question.
M. Alphonse Du Pasquier declared that the responsibility of recent
events undoubtedly lay at the door of the citizens who invited the
Salvation Army to come to Neuchâtel. He had been at some of the meetings
at the Hotel Mont Blanc, and observed that the disturbances were at
first caused by eight or ten children or young men. The other persons
assembled were listening quietly. It would only have been necessary to
make an appeal to the quiet part of the auditory in order to give effect
to the action of the gendarmes. He regretted for the honour of the
Canton that the police had shown itself so powerless to quell the
disturbances. If it had taken up the matter at the beginning it would
have found no difficulty in fulfilling its duties. He could scarcely
believe the sight before him. The Council of State sitting to forbid
private meetings! If the Neuchâtel citizens then had no longer any right
to invite to their houses whom they pleased, and if gendarmes were sent
to interrupt private meetings, what became of the inviolability of
domicile, guaranteed by the Constitution? The Council regarded the
Salvation Army as a corporation because its members obeyed a chief.
According to that theory the whole Roman Catholic Church would be
entitled a corporation, seeing that all its members were obedient to a
chief also. Among us we have no official definition of a religious
corporation, and the question has never been raised practically. M. Du
Pasquier considered the question ought to be examined by a Legislative
Commission. It seemed to him that there were times when Republican
magistrates, in spite of the unpopularity which they might risk in doing
so, ought boldly to do their duty in defence of the Constitution,
whatever might be the consequences.
M. Comtesse, President of the Grand Council, made merry over the
question, regretting that the eccentricities of the Salvation Army had
not been treated by the people of Neuchâtel as a simple religious
epidemic, after the passage of which it would be necessary to disinfect
the town. Unfortunately, the matter was too grave for that, and the
disturbances had been so serious that the police had been powerless to
repress them. A good deal had been said about the advisability of having
special constables[28]—a voluntary police—but such special constables
would be impossible at Neuchâtel. Their presence would inevitably have
given rise to conflicts and rows, and perhaps even to bloodshed. The
very sight of such constables would have created disturbances. The
Government had been obliged to take account of the facts, and it was
impossible to remain indifferent to them. The inquiry which they had
instituted concerning the Salvation Army, had brought out the fact that
it is a religious corporation, and even styled itself a corporation. Its
primary motive, he said, was to make money—to amass a great fortune; it
rested on the principle of absolute obedience to a chief, no discussion
or voting being allowed. If it was not a corporation, what was a
corporation? Hence the Council of State was forced to impose upon it the
conditions of Article 72 of the Constitution, and to forbid its
meetings. He assured M. Du Pasquier that he had no idea that the Council
of State would send gendarmes to violate the houses of private persons:
but if the police should hear that meetings were held in spite of the
prohibition of the authorities, it would report to the magistrates, and
the delinquents would be prosecuted.
M. Jacottet, in reply to the question of M. Cornaz, “What was to be done
in the meanwhile?” said the Council of State would no doubt cause its
decree of prohibition to be respected as soon as it was pronounced. But
in the meanwhile, was it not necessary to defend the right of meeting
and the right of association?
M. Cornaz: By no means.
M. Jacottet (with a shrug of the shoulders): Have we come to that? Does
the Council of State, he asked, declare itself powerless in the presence
of these disturbances, and pretend to have no means of protecting
private houses, religious liberty, personal liberty, and the right of
public meeting against such attacks as occurred the other evening? In
one word, has the Council of State professed itself too weak to uphold
the Constitution?—for it was the Constitution which was imperilled, not
the Salvation Army. The police had been very weak, no doubt, simply
because the police had not been backed up; but if it were necessary, the
Militia might be called up, and they could not be better employed, or in
a nobler cause than in defending the liberty of the citizens. He was as
much a friend of the people as M. Cornaz, but he would never sacrifice
his convictions to the desire of popularity.
M. H. Morel spoke strongly of the restrictions to religious liberty in
the Article of the Constitution, in which it is stated that the liberty
of worship could only be claimed if the worship was carried on in a
manner not contrary to “public order and good behaviour.” He maintained
that the Salvation Army had disturbed public order. M. Jacottet had
spoken of calling out the troops. He (the speaker), was shocked to hear
such words. Might not this lead even to civil war? Moreover, where would
they find soldiers willing to defend the Salvation Army?
M. Cornaz accused M. Jacottet of being a _doctrinaire_, and wishing to
kindle a civil war. Replying to M. Du Pasquier, he said special
constables were one of those importations from Great Britain which they
in Switzerland did not want to have anything to do with. The Salvation
Army, the British and Continental Federation, and a Special
Constabulary! The people of Neuchâtel wished nothing better than that
they should all be packed off again across the English Channel, whence
they came!
M. Jacottet said he was accused of wishing to kindle civil war, when he
said the first duty of the State was to guarantee the rights of
citizens, and if necessary even to employ public force. He maintained
that opinion. M. Cornaz had called him a _doctrinaire_; so he was, and
he hoped to remain so. Everyone needed a doctrine—that is to say, a
principle—and he who was without one was like a mariner without a
compass.
M. Jeanrenaud maintained in the name of the people, to whom he was
attached, that he had no sympathy with the handful of cowards who caused
the disturbances in the streets. There would have been no need of
gendarmes to keep order if the Council of State had accepted the offer
made by a certain number of citizens belonging to all classes and to
different political and religious parties to form themselves into a band
of special constables. Order would then have been promptly
re-established. In support of the motion of M. Jacottet, he proposed
that all the petitions relative to the Salvation Army should be placed
on the same footing, and that the Council should not pass to the Orders
of the Day upon the two latter only.
The debate being closed, the voting began.
A motion of M. Jacottet was rejected by 50 votes against 15.
M. Jeanrenaud’s motion was rejected by 43 votes against 14.
An amendment proposed by M. Morel was adopted.
The decree of the Grand Council, forbidding the meetings of the
Salvation Army, was then carried by 57 votes against 14.
A Swiss friend, who was present at this debate, wrote to England as
follows:—
“The debates were most interesting, but very, very sad; for only two or
three speakers dealt with the question from the point of view of
principle. Liberty and justice were represented in this Council by a
minority of 14 against 57, and a revolting resolution was passed,
proclaiming that all religious exercises connected with this movement
should be stopped, whether conducted by English or Swiss people, in
private houses or anywhere else. _All persons who have taken part in
such meetings received a circular the next day from the Prefect of
Police, forbidding them not only to hold any such meetings again, but
never again even to attend any such meetings in any place whatsoever._”
A correspondent of the _Christian_ wrote:—
“The tremendous significance of such an attack on freedom and personal
rights must surely be evident to every man and woman who understands the
merest elements of justice. This precedent will serve as a justification
for the tyrannical suppression of any movement in future which may not
happen to please the dominant party of the day in Switzerland—a party
hostile to religion, and leaning towards a strongly centralized and
despotic form of Government.”
The final decree of the Council of State forbidding all Salvationist
meetings was published, as has been said, on the 20th of June. M.
Cornaz, the President of the Department of Justice and Police, gave
thanks for this event in his own fashion in his organ, the _Reveil_, and
in the following words:—
“It is finished! Thank God! For some years past from time to time the
good city of Neuchâtel has been visited by those talkers and workers
of miracles, who appeal to the nervous sensibilities of certain
people, and to those depths of human folly, to which, a philosopher
has said, there are no limits. We had the Missionary Havich, then
Donato; and now we have the Salvation Army. There is a family likeness
amongst all these invasions. The same infamous quackery on the one
side, the same inexhaustible credulity on the other. It makes one
doubt whether a portion of the citizens retain any remnants of good
sense. Every one who attends these representations is doubtless placed
in a dilemma—they must either figure as dupes or as accomplices. It
does not surprise us to see the persons who are possessed of a
religious monomania going in for the eccentric practices of this new
sect. They are all marching along the highway to Prefargier. The
lunatic asylums will have a large number of additional inmates
presently. Public opinion has been grieved, on the other hand, to see
a man whose name is connected in the most honourable manner possible
with the establishment of our Republic, entering into the debates
relative to the Salvation Army. An experienced patriot, and a just and
high-minded magistrate as he was in the most difficult and agitated
times in our history, the Canton of Neuchâtel owes him a great debt.
We speak of M. Aimé Humbert. But has not his judgment been warped by
the British and Continental Federation (for the Abolition of Regulated
Vice) for whose presence amongst us there is not the shadow of an
excuse? Their advent here was already too much, and the more recent
advent of the Salvation Army is the consummation.”
After the Grand Council’s decree of the 20th June, M. Convert continued,
as before, to maintain his rights as a Swiss citizen, and to open his
house to whom he pleased. Others did the same. The more violent portion
of the population, under the influence of their sympathising leaders in
authority, seeing that even this measure did not prevent the Salutistes
from being received by Neuchâtel citizens, and from worshipping God
after their own manner, formed themselves into a sort of police, and,
stationing themselves every night at the corners of all the principal
streets, they watched for the appearance of Salvationists; as soon as
one was perceived, a signal was given by a whistle, the steps of the
Salvationist were dogged, and a watch was posted at the door of any
house he or she was seen to enter. If other persons were seen to enter
also, the alarm was raised, a crowd collected, and speedy notice was
given to the police to come to the spot. This self-constituted
anti-Salvationist police on one occasion perceived several friends of
the Army entering a house. They immediately collected a crowd, which
besieged the house, and the Prefect was sent for in all haste. He
arrived with two gendarmes. On entering the drawing-room, they found
half-a-dozen people quietly chatting together. The Prefect immediately
charged them with the offence of holding an illegal Salvation meeting.
They replied that they were not members of the Salvation Army, and were
only having a simple conversation. But the Prefect, pointing to a bible
which lay upon the table, declared that that furnished proof that the
meeting was a Salvation meeting, and therefore illegal. The inmates of
the house having at last succeeded in satisfying him that their little
gathering was not such as to endanger the interests of the State, he
left. On going out into the street, he was grossly insulted by the mob,
enraged at finding themselves disappointed of their prey.
A similar incident had occurred at la Coudre, a village between
Neuchâtel and St. Blaise. A band of roughs attacked a private house in
which a few persons, strangers to the Salvation Army, had assembled for
reading and prayer. The windows were broken, several of the persons
present were assaulted and hurt, and the bible which they had been
reading was trampled under foot.
In the month of July, being at Neuchâtel, I attended a meeting (in the
Temperance Hall in the Rue du Château), of members of the British and
Continental Federation for the Abolition of the State-Regulation of
Vice. The weather was intensely hot, and the windows were of necessity
kept wide open. The proceedings had been very quietly conducted, and the
suspicions therefore of the Salutist-hunters had not been excited. But
at the close of the meeting, a venerable pastor, moved, as were many
others, by the contemplation of the subject which had been treated—the
prevalence of impurity and its sanction, in Switzerland as well as
elsewhere, as an organised institution of the State—offered a fervent
prayer for the purification of his country, and for the youth of his own
and all lands. He raised his voice in the earnestness of his pleading
and was heard in the streets. The ringleaders of the opposition to
religion and law were skulking in the neighbourhood, according to their
wont, watching the movements of those suspected of being about to meet
to pray. The voice of prayer is to them the signal to be on the alert,
and they rush upon those who are heard as worshipping God outside a
church, like bloodhounds upon their prey. On this occasion we caught the
sound of their deep-throated growlings under the windows, and I then
realized more fully than before the folly of the authorities of that
city, in thus permitting the worst passions and prejudices to rule, and
freely to run riot among the liberties of the people. Some explanation
adroitly given by a young lady from a window above us, concerning the
object of the meeting, in the course of which she remarked, “certain of
_your own pastors_ are there,” had the effect of allaying the suspicions
of these wretched men, and they retired. There were present amongst us
“tall Jacques” and several other Swiss Salvationists, converts from a
life of sin or carelessness, and now ready to help the work of the
Federation, seeing it to be a part of the great world-wide conflict
against the powers of darkness. On retiring to my hotel that night I
found rest and sleep prevented until the morning by the continued wild
cries and coarse songs of drunken men,[29] whose voices, singly or in
chorus, echoed through the streets and open spaces of the city as they
reeled along or hung about in groups. There was no police to interfere
with these, although their ribaldry might strike on the ears of many a
pure woman or child, or Christian man on his knees at the midnight hour.
But a voice raised in prayer to God is so discordant in the ears of the
party which now reigns, that it must be silenced; and if silenced by
violence, it may be “regrettable,” but cannot be interfered with by the
police.
Happily now for the Salutistes the summer was at hand. Meetings were
held in the Canton, in forests, and on the Jura slopes, where no
annoyance could be caused to M. Cornaz and his friends the roughs, by
their fervent prayers or their glad songs of praise. Probably at the
early hours when they met, most of the public functionaries and rioters
were still in their beds. Captain Becquet continued his labours for the
salvation of souls with his usual indomitable cheerfulness. A little
man, of sprightly bearing and character—humorous, playful, courageous as
a lion, lythe as a squirrel, he seemed the very man for such times. His
constant joy of soul won many to inquire concerning the salvation which
had thus set him free from all care, while it seemed to aggravate the
hatred of his enemies. He was often attacked and pursued. On one
occasion gendarmes surrounded a house in which Becquet was with others
at prayer, in order to arrest him. His friends considered, and Becquet
agreed, that he could be of more use to the cause for the present if
free, than he could be in prison. He ran upstairs, crept out upon the
roof of the house, scrambled across several roofs, first taking an
amused and furtive look down over the eaves at the gendarmes waiting
below for their escaped victim, and then scrambled down without much
difficulty to his own dwelling, and was in bed and fast asleep when the
police came round to enquire for him. The possibility of so nimble an
escape did not occur to them, and he was left unmolested. Miss Patrick
wrote at this time:—
“We have marched through difficulty after difficulty in Neuchâtel, and
at this moment if our trust were not in God we should be without hope.
But we know that at one word from Him all our enemies would be
confounded. He does not, perhaps, pronounce this word now, in order to
prove us; but we have the conviction that the Lord of Hosts will not
permit His work to be destroyed. It would be impossible to give here all
the details of what has passed during the last few weeks. Those whom we
have sought to rescue from evil have been deceived, prejudiced by our
enemies, who have succeeded in making them believe that we seek our own
interests, and thus they are furious against us. The troubles occasioned
by the last private meeting have manifested this. On Wednesday evening
the house of one of our friends was besieged by a band of roughs, who
hurled against it a torrent of stones, even tearing up the pavement to
furnish missiles. (And this occurs in the nineteenth century, and in a
free country so-called.) We attended the sitting of the Grand Council,
which reminded us forcibly of the times when the Apostles appeared
before the Sanhedrim; there was the same hatred, the same false
accusations, the same evident purpose to stamp out these people ‘who
exceedingly trouble our city,’ (Acts xvi., 20). Our enemies do not
hesitate to say boldly that we bring divisions into families, that our
end is to amass a great fortune, &c., &c., &c. We put all that into the
hands of our God, who searches all hearts, and before whom these men
will have to appear face to face with us. I ask myself if our
persecutors can think as calmly of that moment as we do. One thing which
has pained us is to see how little they understand the Gospel, how
little they know Him who is the friend of publicans and sinners. They
show this in accusing us of trailing religion in the mud, of exhibiting
upon our platforms jail birds and drunkards, who say they are saved. The
result of this is not only that the English are forbidden to hold their
meetings, but that _a Swiss in his own country and in his own Canton
must not pray and sing with whom he likes_.
“God keep our soldiers in all these storms! We believe they will come
through the fight as gold proved by fire—more independent of man, more
dependent upon God—sanctified soldiers, filled with the Holy Ghost. Pray
for us, and bless God for all that He has done, and all that He will do
at Neuchâtel.
“Yours, fighting for Jesus,
K. H. PATRICK.”
Another writes:—
“Our friends who used to receive us have been notified by the Prefect
that they must cease to receive the Salutistes. X. (a man high in the
country ) says that law is set aside just now; the roughs are masters;
what they ask they must have. Our brave soldiers are like fishes out
of water—they cannot assemble anywhere to pray; they are spied upon
and hunted like brigands. I tremble for Neuchâtel. They have been
unwise not to accept the Saviour. What folly to reject their best
friend! If they only knew how good He is! We will continue to put our
trust in Him.”
From the same officer:—
“The soldiers meet in groups of half-a-dozen in their own houses, and
must take great care not to be spied. This time the authorities show
themselves in their true colours; hatred of the Gospel, and of Jesus
the Crucified. There in two words is the whole of the cause of the
persecution which rages at this moment. If there were no converts they
would have left us perfectly quiet. But the Prince of this world is
roused when he sees his kingdom attacked. It is not over—he still
roars, and he will roar again; for the ranks of Christ are preparing
for a _lutte acharnée_ against the principalities and powers and the
evil spirits which are in the air. Our God and His Christ shall have
the victory. We are persuaded that neither persecution nor affliction,
nor prison nor sword, nor Councils of State, can separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I conclude this portion of my narrative with the following beautiful
testimony from a Neuchâtel convert:—
“I render thanks to God for what He has done for me. At the age of
thirteen I was apprenticed. I remained four and a-half years with my
master, during which time I went through my religious instruction. What
a sad time was that! I am ashamed when I think of it. Religion was for
me a mere show by which I obtained a reputation. My life in the world
was a deception. I was honest in the world’s eyes, but God alone knows
what was in my heart. My body a temple of the Holy Spirit! No, it was
the temple of a LEGION OF DUMB DEVILS. I was restrained in my outward
life. I went to church; I went there voluntarily, and was indeed a
pillar of it. The Christian Union also counted on me as one of its most
assiduous and Christian members. All that did not hinder me from being
the slave of my earthly desires and lusts. What a sad life! I wished to
be saved by faith, but I kept my pleasures. I was saved in hope, but not
in reality—not from sin. When the Salvation Army arrived in Geneva they
spoke of it in Neuchâtel, both good and evil. It was at a moment when I
was most discouraged, and most miserable spiritually; it was also a
moment when my sins weighed most heavily on me, and I thirsted for
salvation. At last the blessed Army came to Neuchâtel. At first sight I
thought it was eccentric. But when I heard its members speak with such
force of persuasion, and such love, and above all such faith in the
efficacy of the blood of Jesus to purify, to save, to deliver, to
vivify, I was irresistably impelled to accept this salvation, this
complete deliverance from sin. I resisted for three days—pride kept me
back. It was on the 24th January, 1883 (happy day), when Jesus Christ
saved me from my sins, and cleansed me for His service.
“Now, my only wish is to do the will of my Heavenly Father, that He may
be glorified in me.
“HENRI ——
“Neuchâtel, June, 1883.”