SIR,--A letter from Mr. Booth-Clibborn, dated January 3rd, appeared in
the "Times" of yesterday. This elaborate document occupies three
columns of small print--space enough, assuredly, for an effectual
reply to the seven letters of mine to which the writer refers, if any
such were forthcoming. Mr. Booth-Clibborn signs himself "Commissioner
of the Salvation Army for France and Switzerland," but he says that he
accepts my "challenge" without the knowledge of his chiefs.
Considering the self-damaging character of his letter, it was,
perhaps, hardly necessary to make that statement.
Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn speaks of my "challenge." I presume
that he refers to my request for information about the authorship and
fate of "The New Papacy," in the letter [295] published in the "Times"
on December 27th, 1890. The "Commissioner" deals with this matter in
paragraph No. 4 of his letter; and I observe, with no little
satisfaction, that he does not venture to controvert any one of the
statements of my witnesses. He tacitly admits that the author of "The
New Papacy" was a person "greatly esteemed in Toronto," and that he
held "a high position in the army"; further, that the Canadian
"Commissioner" thought it worth while to pay the printer's bill, in
order that the copies already printed off might be destroyed and the
pamphlet effectually suppressed. Thus the essential facts of the case
are admitted and established beyond question.
How does Mr. Booth-Clibborn try to explain them away?
"Mr. Sumner, who wrote the little book in a hot fit, soon regretted it
(as any man would do whose conscience showed him in a calmer moment
when his 'respectability' returned with his repentance, that he had
grossly misrepresented), and just before it appeared offered to order
its suppression if the army would pay the costs already incurred, and
which he was unable to bear."
"The New Papacy" fills sixty closely printed duodecimo pages. It is
carefully written, and for the most part in studiously moderate
language; moreover, it contains many precise details and [296]
figures, the ascertainment of which must have taken much time and
trouble. Yet, forsooth, it was written in "a hot fit."
I sincerely hope, for the sake of his own credit, that Mr.
"Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn does not know as much about this
melancholy business as I do. My hands are unfortunately tied, and I
am not at liberty to use all the information in my possession. I must
content myself with quoting the following passage from the preface to
"The New Papacy":--
"It has not been without considerable thought and a good deal of urging
that the following pages have been given to the public. But though we
would have shrunk from a labour so distasteful, and have gladly
avoided a notoriety anything but pleasant to the feelings, or
conducive to our material welfare, we have felt that in the interests
of the benevolent public, in the interests of religion, in the
interests of a band of devoted men and women whose personal ends are
being defeated, and the fruit of whose labour is being destroyed, and,
above all, in the interests of that future which lies before the
Salvation Army itself, if purged and purified in its executive and
returned to its original position in the ranks of Canadian Christian
effort, it is no more than our duty to throw such light as we are able
upon its true inwardness, and with that object and for the [297]
furtherance of those ends we offer our pages to the public view."
The preface is dated April 1889. According to the statement in the
"Toronto Telegram" which Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn does not
dare to dispute, his Canadian fellow-"Commissioner" bought and
destroyed the whole edition of "The New Papacy" about the end of the
third week in April. It is clear that the writer of the paragraph
quoted from the preface was well out of a "hot fit," if he had ever
been in one, while he had not entered on the stage of repentance
within three weeks of that time. Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn's
scandalous insinuations that Mr. Sumner was bribed by "a few
sovereigns," and that he was "bought off," in the face of his own
admission that Mr. Sumner "offered to order its suppression if the
army would pay the costs already incurred, and which he was unable to
bear" is a crucial example of that Jesuitry with which the officials
of the army have been so frequently charged.
Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn says that when "London headquarters
heard of the affair, it disapproved of the action of the
Commissioner." That circumstance indicates that headquarters is not
wholly devoid of intelligence; but it has nothing to do with the value
of Mr. Sumner's evidence, which is all I am concerned about. Very
likely London headquarters will disapprove of its French [298]
"Commissioner's" present action. But what then? The upshot of all this
is that Mr. Booth-Clibborn has made as great a blunder as simple Mr.
Trotter did. The pair of Balaams greatly desired to curse, but have
been compelled to bless. They have, between them, completely justified
my reliance on Mr. Sumner as a perfectly trustworthy witness; and
neither of them has dared to challenge the accuracy of one solitary
statement made by that worthy gentleman, whose full story I hope some
day or other to see set before the public. Then the true causes of his
action will be made known.
Paragraph 2 of the "Commissioner's" letter says many things, but not
much about Mr. Hodges. The columns of the "Times" recently showed that
Mr. Hodges was able to compel an apology from Mr. Trotter. I leave it
to him to deal with the "Commissioner."
As to the "Eagle" case, treated of in paragraph No. 3, a gentleman
well versed in the law, who was in court during the hearing of the
appeal, has assured me that the argument was purely technical; that
the facts were very slightly gone into; and that, so far as he knows,
no dissenting comment was made on the strictures of the Judge before
whom the case first came. Moreover, in the judgment of the Master of
the Rolls, fully recorded in the "Times" of February 14th, 1884, the
following passages occur:--
[299] "The case had been heard by a learned Judge, who had exercised
his discretion upon it, and the Court would not interfere with his
discretion unless they could see that he was wrong. The learned Judge
had taken a strong view of the conduct of the defendant, but
nevertheless had said that he would have given relief if he could have
seen how far protection and compensation could be given. And if this
Court differed from him in that view, and could give relief without
forfeiture, they would be acting on his own principle in doing so.
Certain suggestions had been made with that view, and the Court had to
consider the case under all the circumstances.... He himself (the
Master of the Rolls) considered that it was probable the defendant,
with his principles, had intended to destroy the property as a
public-house, and that it was not right thus to take property under a
covenant to keep it up as a public-house, intending to destroy it as
such. He did not, however, think this was enough to deprive him of
all relief. The defendant could only expect severe terms."
Yet, Sir, Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn, this high official of the
Salvation Army, has the audacity to tell the public that if I had made
inquiries I should have found that "in the Court of Appeal the Judge
reversed the decision of his predecessor as regards seven eighths of
the property, and the General was declared to have acted [300] all
along with straight forwardness and good faith."
But the nature of Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn's conceptions of
straightforwardness and good faith is so marvellously illustrated by
the portions of his letter with which I have dealt that I doubt not
his statements are quite up to the level of the "Army" Regulations and
Instructions in regard to those cardinal virtues. As I pointed out must
be the case, the slave is subdued to that he works in.
For myself, I must confess that the process of wading through Mr.
"Commissioner's" verbose and clumsy pleadings has given me a "hot
fit," which, I undertake to say, will be followed by not so much as a
passing shiver of repentance. And it is under the influence of the
genial warmth diffused through the frame, on one of those rare
occasions when one may be "angry and sin not," that I infringe my
resolution to trouble you with no more letters. On reflection, I am
convinced that it is undesirable that the public should be misled, for
even a few days, by misrepresentations so serious.
I am copiously abused for speaking of the Jesuitical methods of the
superior officials of the Salvation Army. But the following facts have
not been, and, I believe, cannot be, denied:--
1. Mr. Booth's conduct in the "Eagle" case has been censured by two
of the Judges.
[301] 2. Mr. Bramwell Booth admitted before Mr. Justice Lopes that he
had made an untrue statement because of a promise he had made to Mr.
Stead.*
* This statement has been disputed, but not yet publicly. (See p. 305.)
And I have just proved that Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn asserts
the exact contrary of that which your report of the judgment of the
Master of the Rolls tells us that distinguished judge said.
Under these circumstances, I think that my politeness in applying no
harder adjective than "Jesuitical" to these proceedings is not
properly appreciated.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. H. Huxley.