BLACKWELL FAMILY ELIZABETH BLACKWELL Printed MatterThe Layman. Vol. 1.--No. 14.] March 2, 1906. Page 565 REVIEWS OF CURRENT BOOKS. FREDERICK TEMPLE. (Second Notice.) Memoirs of Archbishop Temple. By Seven Friends. Edited by E. G. Sandford, Archdeacon of Exeter. With photogravure and other illustrations. Two Vols. Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Limited. 36s. net. LONG before his appointment to Exeter Temple's name had been mentioned in connection with the episcopate. in 1856, when he was at the Education Office, rumour had appointed him to the See of Ripon, and although there was no truth in the report it had set him thinking, and in a letter to Dr. Scott he wrote: "I am far enough from seeking such an office as a Bishopric must be to me if ever I am put into one. . . . I have not changed my opinion of what a Bishop could and ought to do, though thinking of it has made me much doubt whether I am the man who could attain that standard or even so approach it as not to be a reproach to it." It is impossible to know whether Temple ever attained to the level of his own standard, but the verdict of history will be that in devotion to duty, love of his people, and unworldiness and humility of life he stood second to none amongst the Prelates of the nineteenth century. He was passionately attached to Rugby, and in June 1869 he refused the Deanery of Durham. But his time at Rugby was drawing to a close. Mr. Gladstone had determined to offer him a Bishopric even though he knew that "when the time comes there will be an outcry." In the autumn of 1869 there were four sees vacant, and Dr. Temple was invited to choose which he would prefer to accept. He selected Exeter because of his strong affection for the place and for the people. But he felt the wrench of leaving Rugby. "I doubt much," he wrote to Mrs. Arnold, "If I shall be quite as happy again." Why then did he choose to become a Bishop? "It seems a duty to go and so I am going," and this was the principle he acted upon throughout his life. The appointment to Exeter was well received. Tait, Harold Browne, and Wilberforce amongst the Prelates, and Benson and Stanley amongst personal friends, were warm in their recognition of his fitness for the office, Stanley saying that the appointment "may yet be the salvation of the Church of England." But there were storms ahead, the criticisms over Essays and Reviews, which had caused him much anxiety in his Rugby days, were renewed with additional severity, and a determined effort was made to prevent his election by the Dean and Chapter. He was pressed by some of his warmest friends to make a public declaration of his faith, but he gave no sign, and his election was carried in the Chapter by thirteen to six. His opponents tried next to prevent the confirmation of the election and even challenged proof that he had been born in wedlock! They were defeated, but the feeling was so strong against him that even Benson begged him to break silence before his consecration, a request which was reinforced by Bishop Wordsworth, who wrote: "The minds of many are now distressed and distracted by your coming to the episcopal office with that book [Essays and Reviews] in your hands. They who are thus disturbed may be in error. But will you not feel compassion for them?" Temple's reply was that "the one safe rule" for him to follow was "the law of the Church of England." A final attempt to keep him from the episcopate was made on the day of his consecration, protests being forwarded from several of the Bishops. But the law was too strong for the objectors and after a period of delay the service proceeded. The Exeter Memoir is the work of Archdeacon Sandford, who has written it will a fullness of detail, a keenness of insight, and an affectionate appreciation which leave nothing to be desired. The Memoir gives a beautiful picture of the Bishop, and as we follow it in outline it is not difficult to see the secret of his wonderful success in winning the hearts of clergy and people. It was the power of an unselfish and unworldly life. He had withstood all demands for a declaration of faith before his consecration, but in the noble sermon he preached at his enthronement, when he met the diocese face to face and poured out all that was in his heart "of devotion to you and our common Master, our Lord God, the Son of God, Jesus Christ," he left no room for doubt as to his orthodoxy, and very soon afterwards the storm passed away. Temple threw himself into the work of the diocese with much zest. "The remotest country parishes were visited-- the inhabitants of which had never seen a Bishop before-- as well as the more populous towns." It was to be expected of one who had been a great public-school master that he would develop diocesan organization, but with Temple it was not organization only that gained much from his plans; he quickened and deepened the spiritual life of the diocese. Prebendary Pigot recalls a series of addresses the Bishop gave at a Quiet Day for the clergy at Barnstaple from the text, "For their sakes I sanctify Myself," while "burning tears were coursing down his face and his whole attitude seemed transformed." His confirmation addresses were particularly effective and his dealings with candidates for the ministry were of a most heart-searching character. It was his custom to point out to them that while "you can get out of any other profession if you don't like it, you can get out of the ministry." he insisted that the candidate should be able to honestly say that "he conscientiously believed that the work of the ministry was the work which God intended him to do here in this present world," and some there were who could not bring themselves to the great surrender. In no part of the then undivided diocese of Exeter was his spiritual power more deeply felt than in Cornwall. "When he preached in the Cornish pulpits some reflection of the spirit of John Wesley seemed cast upon him, and the rugged eloquence had even more than its usual power. Simple incidents come back recalling the impression produced. On one occasion an old peasant woman trudged many miles across the moor, bringing a present of honeycomb because the Bishop was Cornish like herself. Often ejaculations of 'Alleluiah,' 'Praise the Lord,' and loud 'Amens,' after the Cornish manner, used to sound in the crowded seats." The revival of the Cornish see had been seriously mooted566 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. before his appointment to Exeter, and he had given a promise that he would seriously consider the necessity and the possibility of the scheme. Of the necessity he was not long left in doubt. He told the House of Lords that during his first year in the diocese he was at work every day from an early hour in the morning until a late hour at night; and when he headed a deputation to lay the plans before Disraeli he told the Prime Minister that the extremity of the diocese was 140 miles distant from its centre, and that "in order to have the opportunity of meeting you this morning, being at present engaged in work near Penzance, I found it necessary to travel all night." "You must be very tired," replied Disraeli; "won't you sit down?" and Temple, whose flow of eloquence had been thus abruptly stopped, used to say that he "never felt so exquisitely snubbed" in his life. Temple volunteered to surrender 800l. of the income of his See for the new Bishopric, and he appealed for "large Cornish subscriptions." He said quite frankly that he was "decidedly against the creation of a new set of Bishops at lower salaries; Bishoprics so endowed will either be filled by men of less ability, or be made stepping-stones"—a statement which we find difficult to reconcile with his own example of unworldly life. A donation of 40,000l. from Lady Rolle helped the Endowment Fund, and in 1876 the Bill passed through Parliament and shortly afterwards Benson was nominated Bishop of Truro. How far, if at all, Temple's influence counted in the appointment does not appear, but he was delighted at the choice. "You must like your Bishop very much," he wrote of Benson; "he is without any equal." The new Bishop was constantly—"almost daily"—seeking advice from Temple, who never tired of responding, and all through his subsequent career Benson leaned for support on Temple, so much so indeed that when Temple succeeded Benson in the Primacy he remarked "I do not think I shall find the work very new." It was in 1876, the year of the establishment of the Truro Bishopric, that Temple married. His sister, who had hitherto kept house for him, wrote to Benson of his engagement to Miss Beatrice Lascelles, "a true, sweet woman with a most pleasant voice and charming, simple manner." The marriage took place at St. Michael's, Chester Square, and Archdeacon Sandford gives us a delightful appreciation of the happiness which the event brought into Temple's life. "The peals which rang out on the marriage day from the tower of Exeter Cathedral were on omen of the happy years which followed, and in that happiness both the western diocese and the whole Church of England may be said to have had their share. The debit which both, owe to Mrs. Temple is very large. To her the vigorous and prolonged service of the twenty-six years which succeeded the marriage is mainly due. When men looked at the cheerful face and unabated force of Dr. Temple in old age and rejoiced in the sense of security which his rule of the English Church inspired, they instinctively thought to Mrs. Temple; they knew that she made his life and lightened the burden of 'the care of all the churches.' She did not intensity the strong characteristics of the strong personality, but she supplemented and interpreted them. No one fully read Dr. Temple until they had seen him with his wife and boys. A new brightness came into the home at Exeter; the boy nature in him awoke and helped to keep him young. 'A wonderful wife and two perfect boys,' he wrote to his old friend, Canon Saltren Rogers. Both the sons were born at Exeter, Frederick Charles, June 25, 1879, and William, October 15, 1881. Both were baptised after the second lesson at Evensong on Sunday in Exeter Cathedral. To play with them as children, to take long walks with them and inspire them with his own love of the country, as they grew older, to be in their company, to poke fun at them, was a daily joy. No home life was freer or more happy; it was good to see." The relations which existed between the Bishop and his clergy were of the happiest description. His advice on difficult questions was freely sought, and was always generously given. There are pages and pages of letters and memoranda in the Memoir which give a clear indication of Temple's views on many vexed problems, and they show that his counsel was always clear, consistent, and logical. Quite early in his Episcopate he put his finger on the patronage system as "the greatest external hindrance to the well-being of the parochial ministry," but he did not live to reach his ultimate goal, "the entire abolition of the sale of livings." He had an aptitude for legal questions, but there were some points submitted to him which he did not like to settle without consideration and consultation. The marriage of unbaptised persons was one of such questions. He wrote to the Incumbent who raised the problem:— "I am advised by high legal authority (and I fear there is no doubt that it is true) that we cannot refuse the marriage service to unbaptised people. There is a special provision for Jews and Quakers. But all others we must marry. This is what the law is: I cannot say I think that it is what the law ought to be." He was tender in his dealings with those in trouble. An old clergyman whom he had heard privately was in financial difficulties was summoned to the Palace. "What will clear you of your debts?" asked the Bishop. "Fifty pounds," was the reply. "The Bishop at once wrote and gave me a cheque for 50l., and said 'good-day.'" But the Bishop could be very stern on occasions, especially with cases of gross neglect of duty, while with proved guilt, which persisted in screening itself by falsehood, he would make no terms, even though, as his rule both in Exeter and London clearly showed, he would act mercifully towards the individual man. Temple ruled the diocese of Exeter for fifteen years, and with what result? Let these two facts answer the question. In 1869 clergy in the diocese memorialized the Dean and Chapter, expressing their "earnest hope" that they would not elect him to the Bishopric; in 1885, when he was laying down the reins of office, a valedictory clerical address testified that he had ever been in the highest sense their father in God, and that they had found in him "an example, a guide, and a friend":— "The now perfectly organized Diocese of Exeter tells with a voice that cannot be mistaken what your work among us has been, and the uninterrupted peace of the Diocese during your Episcopate speaks with no uncertain sound of the firm but gentle hand which has guided its destinies to so happy a result. We grieve to say 'good-bye', but we do so with heartfelt gratitude and affection, and with earnest prayers that your future career may be fraught with blessings to you, and to all dear to you, as your past has been to us." The sorrow with which clergy and people bade "goodbye" to their Bishop was shared by Temple himself. "You cannot tell how far rather I would stay here," he wrote to Benson when the offer of the Bishopric of London had been made to him. Why then did he accept it? For the same reason which prompted him to lay aside his happy work at Rugby. "I have said yes because it seemed to be a duty." His love for Exeter was very great. "I am not sure," he said on one of his return visits, "that I shall not feel on myMARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 567 death-bed that of all places where I have been, Exeter stands above every other in my heart." The London Memoir is contributed by Archdeacon Bevan. It suffers, in comparison with the Exeter Memoir, from lack of material and to a certain extent from less intimacy of knowledge. It covers ground with which every student of Church affairs is more or less familiar, but this is probably inevitable owing to the absence of a diary and of private letters. Temple came as a stranger and the clergy were apt at the first to misunderstand his brusqueness. They came into collision with him over the appointment of Rural Deans, but when they heard his own explanation many of them realized, as Canon Capel Cure put it, "we have a man here; we shall get on all right." And they did. He set the standard of hard work. "Except for his annual summer holiday he seldom left the diocese, and he was incessant in preaching, confirming, attending Meetings and Conferences, and performing in an absolutely ungrudging spirit every duty which attached to his office." He would never admit that he was tired. The incidents which Arch-deacon Bevan strings together in his chapter--Breaking Ground in London-- are interesting and show the tender character of the man, especially in dealing with delinquents. "Here are we, two ministers of God," he said to a friend and colleague, "going to talk about another in trouble; let us kneel and pray for him and for ourselves." As at Exeter so in London he threw his whole strength into the work of diocesan organization. It was unfortunate that he came so early into conflict with Bishop Walsham How, but their differences left no trace of bitterness behind, and the relations between them were of the most brotherly kind. The development of the suffragan system in London is fully described, and the Archdeacon, noting Temple's desire to bring Dr. Sandford to London as Bishop of Bedford, after he had introduced Dr. Earle as Bishop of Marlborough, records that the Crown selected instead Dr. Billing; but the story which he reproduces that Dr. Billing was unaware of the honour proposed for him until he read the announcement of his appointment in the Times is not, as we have reason to know, correct. The Bishop reposed the utmost confidence in his Suffragans and Archdeacons, and appointments were freely discussed with them. His letters offering preferment were usually models of brevity, but this was pardonable in a man who had to deal with ten thousand letters a year and wrote some three or four thousand with his own hand, notwithstanding his defective eyesight. But we fear that the same excuse can hardly be urged for the brevity of a letter to the Cbairman of the Church Association, who had forwarded a very proper protest against a service for commemorating the Christian dead at Old St. Pancras Church: -- "The Bishop of London is much obliged by being informed of the view which Captain Cobham takes of the duty of a Bishop." More detailed was his reply to the Church Association memorial, with 9,000 signatures, asking that action should be taken against the authorities of St. Paul's Cathedral in connection with the reredos. It was on this occasion that he admitted that he "had always looked upon the Reformation as the greatest blessing bestowed by God on the Church of England since the first Gospel was preached in this country." He refused to allow the case to go forward on the ground that the point had been decided in the Exeter case, and his decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords, although the Queen's Bench judgment was not favourable to him. We confess that we should have liked to see the Bishop's attitude to ritual questions more clearly defined than we find it in these pages, for the suspicion that up to a certain point his policy was a "go-as-you-please" policy is hardly removed by the Memoir. But, perhaps, the most interesting section of this part of the Life is that on Social Questions, in which, it is admitted, that his interest was keen and constant. He was "a wise and cautious reformer" and he was never led by popular clamour. On questions of Sweating, the Unemployed, Poor Relief, and Social Purity he spoke out with no uncertain sound. He refused to become identified with the Church and Stage Guild, believing "there is much on the stage, and in particular in the ballet, which does grave mischief." But his zeal for Temperance work knew no bounds. He readily admitted that the people wanted better means of recreation, but he added -- and his words are not without their application to the action of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the case of the proposed Shepherd's Bush Exhibition-- "If places of recreation are to be supplied with an abundance of liquor they will be no whit better than the public-house." He took a leading part in the settlement of the great Dock Strike, although he allowed himself to be out-manoeuvred by Manning. Buried amongst the narratives of this period is an excellent story told by Canon Mason, which we reproduce: -- "One day he was very full of a visit which he and the rest of the conciliators had paid to the board of directors of the Docks Company, where a member of the board had treated them to a prolonged discourse upon the rise and history as well as the nature of Socialism, telling them that it had its origin in Germany and a great deal more which the Bishop felt that they could have done without. 'It reminded me of nothing so much as the Bishop of -- --' (naming a particular friend of mine). 'I remember once,' he continued, 'saying to the Archbishop [Benson], "It is a pity that the Bishop of -- -- preaches to us so much in Convocation." "Yes," the Archbishop answered, "and he forgets that he is preaching to twenty-three of the hardest hearts in Christendom," ' " Temple played a great part in Convocation, where he was always listened to with respect, but in the House of Lords, as Benson regretfully recorded in his Diary, the peers were for years unappreciative, although at a later period, and particularly during his Primacy, they recognized his worth. Archdeacon Bevan tells us in a footnote that Temple was Benson's chief adviser throughout the Lincoln case, but we read very little in the Memoir of the great part he played in that historic trial. In the Editor's supplement, however, we are given large extracts from the memorandum Temple laid before Benson on the North-end position at the celebration of Holy Communion. Temple throughout his life adopted the North-end and stoutly maintained that "no authority short of Convocation and Parliament ought to sanction its disuse." The concluding paragraph of this Memorandum we must quote at length:-- "In these cases the controversy is between the clergyman and the layman. The Church of England has done her very utmost to encourage the layman to think for himself. The worship is in his own language; the Bible is in his hands; more of the Bible is read to him in Church than is read in the worship of any other Christian body; the clergy incessantly preach from it and explain it; the clergy are foremost in teaching the young to use it. A man so treated inevitably forms opinions and tastes and feelings of his own. But meanwhile the Church of England has preserved the medieval autocracy of the clergyman in the worship, and568 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. this autocracy stronger than of old because the power of the Bishops over the clergy is distinctly less. And so the clergyman can mould the services to his liking, may, and frequently does, indulge his own tastes, feelings, and opinions without any regard to the layman whatever. The position of the layman is certainly hard, and indeed if it were not for the regulations of the Church would be intolerable. The regulations of the Church, and in the worship these regulations take the form of Rubrics, check in some degree the clergyman's autocracy. The layman has no voice, but he is protected by the Rubrics. Every release of the clergyman from the rubrics is a diminution of the protection of the layman. Liberty to the one very often means oppression on the other. A Court of Bishops is especially bound to be guarded on this point. They above all other men are called on to be fair between the clergyman and the layman. And to be indifferent to the religious feelings of the latter is a serious discredit to the Court and lowers its authority. In this case there seems to me no reason for giving the clergyman a liberty which there is no evidence that he ever was in- tended either by Convocation or by Parliament to have." The Archbishop's decision went against him, but Temple, although he never varied his own practice, was thoroughly loyal to the Archbishop. "I believe it to be my duty," he wrote finally to Benson, "to hold my tongue. I cannot do everything; but I can certainly do that, and I will. But with what pain I cannot express. Benson died suddenly on Sunday, October 11, but the news did not reach Fulham until next morning: -- "The Bishop was profoundly moved and acquainted his Chaplain with the fact on his way to service in the chapel. As soon as he had knelt in prayer he burst out sobbing, and it was several moments before his sobbing ceased. None of those who were in the chapel will ever forget the scene, or the wonderful self control with which the Bishop rose from his knees and real aloud the solemn words of the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians." Ten days later he received from Lord Salisbury the offer of the Primacy, and he accepted it the next day. He was then seventy-five years of age, and he felt that he had "still five years' work" in him-- a forecast which was strikingly verified, as he died just after he had completed his sixth year. The Bishop of Bristol holds the opinion that "if Dr. Temple could have been persuaded to husband his reserves of physical strength he might have been at work among us now," but we dissent from the view that ten years of quieter, would necessarily have been more effective, work. The Arch-bishop's rule at Canterbury is described by Archdeacon Spooner, but the Memoir adds very little to our knowledge, and is chiefly of local interest. Very different is it with the contribution of the Bishop of Bristol, who deals with the events of Temple's Primacy with some frankness of criticism. On the death of Benson his "isolation from the rest of the Bishops of the province continued." "Indeed," writes Bishop Browne, "the isolation went further than that. The 'Encyclical Letter of the Bishops' at the Lambeth Conference, and the 'opinion' on the question of incense, were written by himself without any consultation with anyone, and submitted in their complete form to his colleague or colleagues." The chief incidents of the Primacy are detailed in order, and Bishop Browne throws a ray or two of new light upon them. Thus in a footnote, in reference to the objection raised to the confirmation of the Archbishop's election, he tells us that Temple had authorized one of his London Suffragans to say to friends that he had never (as alleged) accepted "the full doctrine of evolution." The discussion in connection with the formalities attending upon the confirmation of episcopal elections reached a crisis in the case of Dr. Gore. The objectors obtained a rule for a mandamus, and the case could not be argued until after the date fixed for Dr. Gore's consecration. But the Archbishop was equal to the occasion. "I shall be there" [at the Abbey], he said, "to consecrate the King's man, but if the King's man does not come I cannot help it." "The King's man" -- a phrase which well illustrates Temple's position in regard to the appointment of Bishops--did not present himself for consecration. Two missionary bishops were, however, consecrated at the service, and the Archbishop himself preached the sermon, "the first occasion on which an Archbishop of Canterbury had preached a consecration sermon for some- thing like two centuries." Very early in his Primacy Temple had to consider the Responsio to the Papal Letter on Anglican orders. It had been drafted by the Bishop of Salisbury and was adopted by the two Archbishops after Temple had "cut out all the thunder." Very early, too, in his reign he solved the question of the archiepiscopal residences. He sold Addington and silenced objectors by saying that "the day is past when Archbishops of Canterbury should appear as country gentlemen." He restored the old Palace at Canterbury, and in response to a Bishop who asked if he thought his successors would wish to live in the Cathedral city, said "No, I don't. I want to make 'em." The leading events in Temple's Primacy were not unimportant. The Diamond Jubilee celebration in 1897 was quickly followed by the Lambeth Conference, of which he was a ideal President, even though at times he was frank- ness itself. "Bishop of -- --" he said to one member of the Conference whose intervention in debate had stirred up discussion, "next time you don't want others to talk, keep your own mouth shut." The next great event, or rather events, in the Primacy were the Lambeth Hearings on Incense and Reservation. The Bishop of Bristol examines the "opinion" of Dr. Temple on these points with some care, but he makes the curious blunder of saying that in the Reservation case Temple sat alone. "There was no case brought up from the province of York, and the Archbishop of York did not sit." As a matter of fact the principal case was that of the Rev. Edgar Lee, Vicar of Christ Church, Doncaster, and the Archbishop of York delivered a long "opinion." On the death of Queen Victoria the Archbishop, in the House of Lords, "with all the deep emotion of a strong man moved to the very limits of self-control, delivered an unstudied speech, which led one of those present to say him, 'Well, your Grace, you made us all cry.'" The Archbishop was loyally devoted to the Queen, and it is one of the most remarkable omissions of these volumes that they tell us so little of Temple's relations to the Court. The preparations for the Coronation of King Edward are dwelt upon and the events of the great day itself are fully described by the Bishop of Bristol. The touching incident connected with the act of homage was fully reported in the papers at the time, but Dr. Browne adds a fresh detail:-- "When the Archbishop recovered his erect attitude he laid his hand upon the crown on the King's head, and in a voice of deep emotion said: 'God bless you, sir; God bless you; God be with you." The King caught his hand and kissed it." The end was now not far off. The Archbishop was nearly eighty-one years of age, yet he did not spare himself, and during the autumn he visited many parts of the country,MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 569 and also delivered his Visitation Charge. In December the Education Bill of 1902 reached the Lords, and the Archbishop spoke on the motion for second reading. The Bishop of Bristol states “on absolute authority that neither of the Archbishops, nor any of the Bishops knew anything of what the provisions of the Bill were until the Bill itself was made public property." Archbishop Temple obviously had his doubts about the measure, but he commended it in the Lords and with almost his dying breath - for he had collapsed once during the speech—he begged the House to pass the Bill and "let us see how it will act when it begins to work." He was removed to Lambeth, and after lingering for three weeks passed peacefully to his rest. Such is the story of the life and work at Frederick Temple. These two volumes give an admirable delineation of his strong character, and form a solid memorial of his great career. No one can read them without feeling the force of their inspiration. The lesson of the life of Frederick Temple is a lesson for all time, and its wholesome influence may be looked upon as one of the most precious legacies bequeathed to the Church of England. IDEALS IN ART. 8 Ideals in Art. Papers. The Theoretical, Practical, Critical. By Walter Crane, Author of "Line and Form," etc. London: George Bell and Sons, 1905. 10s. 6d. net. THIS book, with it’s rather ambitious title, is in reality a series of papers and articles on various sites and functions of Art, now collected together into a somewhat miscellaneous volume. The first paper, which is one of the most interesting, deals with the Arts and Crafts movement and is a valuable note, as being by one of the principal actors in bringing about the change that has taken place in taste and thought, with regard to houses and their furnishings in the last five and twenty years. It is curious, in looking back now, to remember that it would then Has been considered by most of a strange and almost impossible concession to any but the painter of easel pictures and the sculpture the name of artist. The idea that a table or a chair could be a work of art! Mr. Crane gives honour where honour indeed is the most justly due to William Morris and to John Ruskin. Have nothing in your house but what you believe to be beautiful or what you know is useful," said that "great conservative revolutionist in English decorative art—William Morris—and he certainly acted up to it in his own house" (p.156). With regard to Ruskin, the author allows that "it is the fashion now in some quarters to undervalue his influence," but "the stimulating writings of Ruskin must be counted a factor in the movement in his recognition of the fundamental importance of beautiful and sincere architecture and its relation to the sister arts; in his enthusiasm for truer ideals both in art and life; in the ardent love of and study of nature so constantly, so eloquently, expressed throughout his works. Despite all controversial points, despite all contradictions—mistakes even—I think that everyone who has at any time of his life come under influence of Ruskin's writings must acknowledge the nobility of purpose and sincerity of spirit which animates them throughout." The author very justly points out the simplicity and reserve that has characterized the work of the leaders of the movement and has through them penetrated to the purely commercial undertaking of the upholster. It seems to us an entirely healthy reaction, as reaction it undoubtedly is, but there seems a certain danger of its leading to baldness and crudeness, even to want of appreciation of really fine and rich ornament where rightly used. The keynote of the next two Essays—"On the teaching of Art" and "Of Methods of Art Teaching"—is well struck by the author. "Let the two sides of art be clearly and empathically put before him (the student), which may be distinguished broadly as: (1) Aspect or the imitative; (2) adaptation or the imaginative. Let the student see that it is one thing to be able to make an accurate presentment of a figure, or any object, in its proper light and shade and relief in relation to its background and surroundings, and quite another to express them in outline, or to make them into organic pieces of decoration to fit a given space" (p.48). Generally it is a plea for something more than the ordinary routine of the art school and the mere correction of faults of drawing. Indeed, this "something more" is mostly but the inspiring influence of the real, but rare, teacher, and much may be done in the way of suggestion where the soil is ready to receive the seed, though even then, as Mr. Crane says: "The teaching of Art! Well, to begin with, you cannot teach it. You can teach certain methods of drawing and painting, carving, modelling, construction, what not—you can teach the words, you can teach the logic and principles, but you cannot give the power of original thought and expression in them" (p. 35). As an artist criticizing Tolstoi's "What is Art?" Mr. Crane seems to us singularly temperate. Tolstoi's definition of art and his setting up of the Russian peasant as the final court appeal and his condemnation of many- including himself—whom we ordinarily regard as the heroes of the world of literature and art, can hardly commend themselves to an English artist. Mr. Crane very properly points out the fallacy of making universality a test, nor does Tolstoi "seem to recognize that age demands a fresh interpretation of life in art. Form, spirit, and methods in art all change with the different temper of the times." An evident sympathy with Tolstoi's ideals of life leads Mr. Crane to speak more sympathetically than would many an artist, and his final sentences on the subject are significant: "His deeply-rooted idea that all good art must convey a definite message which can be universally understood gives the impression that he only values art in so far as this definite message can be read in it; and, by his denial of the validity of beauty as an ideal and object in art, he removes himself, curiously enough, from where his sympathies lie really, from the acknowledgement and appreciation of the far-reaching influence of beauty in the commonest things of daily life—things of use which the touch of art makes vocal- things without which even the Tolstoian ideal of simple useful life would be impossible, to which the spontaneous and traditional handicraft art of the peasant in primitive countries has so largely contributed, and which reveal more definitely the character and artistic capacity and feeling of a people than whole galleries of self-conscious painting and sculpture" (p. 75). Of the remaining Essays that "Of the Progress of Taste in Dress" and that relating to "Street Decorations" are perhaps the more suggestive. Mr. Crane pleads for more utility and picturesqueness in modern dress, he contrasts the dress of the mediaeval gentlemen with that of the twentieth century, with some caustic remarks on the absurdities of the latter. To those impartial observers of the times, who have freed themselves from prejudice on this subject, Mr. Crane's words must heartily commend themselves. The subject of Street Decoration is worthy of discussion. Mr. Crane's suggestions are interesting: "Fleet Street should be arcaded by a series of simple timber supports upholding a balcony or tier of seats, at the height of the first-570 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. floor windows. The timbers might be white-washed and decorated with chevrons or other simple patterns in black or red, but the construction not concealed. And at regular intervals, upon piers, a bold heraldic beast (say the dragon of St. George) might support the City banner; Pegasus and the Lamb those of the Inner and Outer Temple to mark their boundaries, with the Red and White Rose" (p. 200). These and other remarks should demand attention and suggest further possibilities to those public bodies to whom we look for our street decoration to-day. Mr. Crane's book is fully illustrated. In it he certainly furthers his mission in preaching that Art is not merely the production of the likeness of an object or scene, but is a vital factor in the life and education of the nation. PSALMS FOR THE CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS. Psalms for the Christian Festivals. By Elizabeth Wordsworth, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Messrs. Longmans, Green and Co. 3s. net THIS little volume, which will doubtless be welcomed by many of Miss Wordworth's pupils, past and present, contains some addresses given by her to a class of lady students some nine years ago. Miss Wordsworth describes their object as "not, of course, to say anything new in the way of scholarship or Biblical criticism, but to illustrate from the Church's use of the Psalter for the Christian seasons, the bearing of the Psalms on great doctrinal truths, as well as their fitness to minister to the needs of individuals, and their relation to our personal lives." It may be said at once that the object of the addresses is fully attained. Miss Wordsworth has an interesting paragraph, especially in view of a recent essay by Canon Wilson, on the Jews as witnesses to Divine truth. "Again, the Jews were, from a Western point of view, defective in the power of close syllogistic reasoning. If we put the Book of Job beside Plato or Aristotle we shall see this very markedly. The usual attitude of the Jew towards truth was that of something externally revealed to him, not reasoned up to by difficult and persistent thought. His mental processes were deductive, not inductive. Some men have reasoned their way up to God along philosophic lines; but for the jew, God was always there; for him it was only the fool who said in his heart, 'There is no God.' His difficulty was, not to believe in the existence of God, but to explain His attitude to the wrong and injustice in the world. That he made progress in the knowledge of God and His attributes was undoubtedly true; but all along the line of Jewish history God manifests Himself primarily by revelation; and it would be difficult to account for the character and history of the Jews without some such hypothesis as that of direct revelation" (Pref. viii f.). Of inspiration she says a little later on :--- "It is difficult, nay, impossible to define what we mean by inspiration. Perhaps the closest analogy to it which we feel in modern days is that sense of 'leading' which some of God's servants undoubtedly have in their own daily lives. There are earnest prayerful men and women among us now who would own that they hardly knew why they were moved to say and do such and such things, to adopt or recommend such and such a course of action, and who even perhaps tremble afterwards at the thought of how fatally different things might have been had they acted otherwise. It is no doubt possible to presume upon such feelings, but that there is some reality behind them, experience seems certainly to teach" (Pref. xii). Miss Wordsworth writes throughout with full knowledge of the results of moderate critical work in connection with the Psalter, and with a readiness to accept them. She writes tentatively of the authorship of the 110th psalm, but she evidently shrinks from that view of the kenosis which denies the final character of Christ's authority on such a point. She also adds that "supposing for the moment our Lord to have been nothing more than a well-read and intelligent Jew, disputing with other well-read Jews who would have given all they were worth to put Him in the wrong, is it probable that they would not have known the real author of a Psalm so lately written, or at least that it proceeded from the pen of a writer of recent date?" (pp. 37 f.). As an example of Miss Wordsworth's method of application the following simple but far from ineffective passage may be quoted. it comes in the address on the 48th Psalm. "And just as the Psalmist seems to pause here, and cast an upward glance at the beautiful city, with her temple, her fortifications, and her houses, each and all growing more distinct as the march of the pilgrim brings them nearer, so we, as Whitsuntide comes round, pause on our spiritual march, and gaze for a moment on the beauty of the Church of Christ, 'that Holy City, the New Jerusalem,' seen in the Apocalypse 'coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.' We mark her bulwarks, we consider her houses, we trace her history, we wonder at her development, we marvel at her stately growth. But what is that city built of? Why, it is built of us---of men and women. We are, we may be, we ought to be, the stones of the city. Each one of us has a place in that building. Some perhaps are, as it were, the fortifications---those brave, strong souls who are set for the defence of the truth upon earth; some are built, as it were, into the houses of the city: they make our homes what Christian homes should be. But just as the earthly Jerusalem melted away into the heavenly Jerusalem, as the type gives way to the antitype, so our earthly homes melt away when souls are ripe for their heavenly home. A good christian home is an exquisite type of heaven---a type that appeals silently to everyone who enters what one might truly call its sacred doors" (pp.112 f.). As has been already observed the volume will be very welcome to many who have known Miss Wordsworth. It goes without saying that it is marked throughout by sincere religious feeling. Those who desire a simple earnest, scholarly exposition of the Psalms which we use on our Christian festivals will find it in these well-written and carefully prepared pages. --- SHORT NOTICES. The Devout Life of St. Francis De Sales. (Translated with Notes and Introduction by the Rev. Thomas Barns. Messrs. Methuen and Co. 2s.) THE "Library of Devotion," published by Messrs. Methuen, is a very choice collection from the writings of those who in the ages past did much to build up the spiritual life of the faithful. This latest addition to the series---The Devout Life of St. Francis De Sales---is a welcome addition to the series, and the translator has done his work admirably. Of course there is much in these writings which we as English Churchmen cannot accept; but the reader who can discriminate will find a great deal in them that is helpful and inspiring. Tempted in all Points. (By the Rev. Canon Duncan. Mr. C. J. Thynne.) THIS is an altogether admirable little volume of sermons on the Temptations of our Lord. Canon Duncan's treatment of the subject is marked by originality and freshness of thought, and his sermons, which cover the Sundays in Lent, will afford some help to clergy who seek to make their appeals to their congregations simple and practical, and will be valued by laity who make a practice of quiet devotional reading. Starting from the point "tempted of the Devil," Canon Duncan proceeds to consider the time, place, and character of the temptations which assailed our Lord, and shows their application to the individual life of to-day. To those who are struggling against temptation this little volume will come as a source of inspiration and strength.MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 571 The Secretary of State. (By H. Maxwell. Messrs. Digby, Long and Co. 6s.) THIS is an altogether impossible story of political intrigue. The Duke of Bury is Prime Minister of England and Everard Markham Home Secretary. Michael Stoner, M.P., is Secretary to the Premier and is engaged to be married to Hilda Markham, the niece of the Home Secretary. The Duke objects, as for political reasons he desires Hilda to marry his son. In order to prevent the wedding he poisons Hilda's mind against her fiancée. The Home Secretary is just as anxious for his niece to be married to the Prime Minister's son as to Mr. Stoner, but the young lady's disreputable father, Talbot Markham, stands in the way. A plot to have Talbot shut up in an inebriates' home is frustrated and the Home Secretary is made the victim of his own designs. These two brothers are twins, and Talbot has no difficulty in stepping into his brother's shoes and masquerading as Home Secretary for a few weeks! Wrongs are at last righted, and the story has a fitting conclusion. It is cleverly written and its wild improbability is not without an interest of its own. A Supreme Moment. (By Mrs. Hamilton Synge. T. Fisher Unwin. 6s.) ALTHOUGH perhaps not equal to her best work, Mrs. Synge has produced in this volume a pleasant and exceedingly interesting story. The introduction of a vivacious young girl who has lost both her parents and has spent her early days amongst livelier and more exciting surroundings, into a quiet and somewhat conventional country district in England, and the consequences and complications which follow the introduction form the main structure of the story. There is much thoughtful writing in the book, in which the authoress shows a keen insight into character, and her skill in compelling the attention of the reader. WE have also received "BUNYAN'S GRACE ABOUNDING" (R.T.S., 1s.) - a reprint of the eighth edition, illustrated with some striking pictures by Mr. Harold Copping; "FAMOUS MUSICAL COMPOSERS," by Lydia T. Morris (T. Fisher Unwin, 3s. 6d.) - the fifth impression of a charming collection of biographies, accompanied by portraits of eminent musicians; "THE IRISH SONG BOOK," edited by Alfred Perceval Graves (T. Fisher Unwin, 2s.) - the tenth impression of a selection of Irish songs with original Irish airs; "THE COMING OF THE FRIARS," by the Rev. Augustus Jessopp, D. D. (T. Fisher Unwin, 3s. 6d.) - the fourteenth impression of Dr. Jessopp's delightful volume of historical essays. MARCH MAGAZINES - I. THE Nineteenth Century and After (Messrs. Spottiswoode and Co., Ltd., 2s. 6d.) is again a brilliant number. Sir Herbert Maxwell opens it with a slashing reply to Mr. Herbert Paul's paper on "The Deluge," the title of Sir Herbert Maxwell's article being "The Flood - and After." He is hopeful of the prospect. With Mr. Balfour as Commander- in-Chief and Mr. Chamberlain as Chief of the Staff, the Unionist Party enters upon the campaign with perfect confidence in its leaders. Lord Hugh Cecil follows with a striking and effective article on "The Life of Gladstone," but it is remarkable not so much for its review of Mr. John Morley's great work as for its analysis of some of the leading characteristics of Mr. Gladstone, who "is, in an unusual degree among great men, an edifying and invigorating example." Mr. Gladstone's "power of concentration" or "economy of mind" was wonderful; "he used every minute of his time and made available for his purpose every atom of his intellect." But it had divers effects on his mind. It gave him " the simplicity and want of self-consciousness" which were such notable features of his nature." If this were a gain to his strength, it also imposed upon him some limitations - e.g. his sense of humour was limited. More serious was his "occasional apparent lapse from perfect candour." To this he was made unusually liable by incapacity to know how things look to others. But the most notable injury arising from this simplicity of mind was in respect to consistency, and upon this Lord Hugh Cecil points out that a party leader ought to shrink from inconsistency "unless the public interest does most imperatively demand it, and if he finds himself obliged to it should spare no care to show what consideration may be possible to those of his followers who cannot change their minds at the same moment that he changes his." This Mr. Gladstone did not do. "He could not see himself as others saw him, could not in imagination suppose himself a Liberal-Unionist and realize how things would look from that point of view." Lord Hugh Cecil is severe upon another aspect of the inconsistency of 1886, which led Mr. Gladstone to change his mind on the morality of the Land League agitation. But the most striking part of Lord Hugh Cecil's article is that in which he deals with Mr. Gladstone's religious faith, which saturated and coloured every part of his mind:- "There was never a time in which it did not occupy the place of honour both in his intellect and in his affections; nor was there ever an occasion on which he was not ready to turn with an instinctive ease to the support and consolations of devotion. Excitement and strain bring out what is most real in a man, and the more Mr. Gladstone was wrought up, the greater the burden upon him, the more apparent became the devout bias of his mind. Unquestionably here is one of the explanations of his unequalled courage. The conscious dependence on unseen help; the inner vision which never was hidden from him that, great as were political affairs, there were much greater things going forward; the Mosaic sight of the invisible, which is the strength of the religious character, gave him a steadiness of purpose and a dignity of bearing which no stress could subvert." In conventional phrase Mr. Gladstone was a High Churchman, but Lord Hugh Cecil thinks that "if the word be strictly understood, it is much more illuminating to call him a Catholic . . . conscious and proud of his membership of the Apostolic and Universal Church, a patriot citizen of the City of God." His Catholicism gradually loosened his attachment to the principles of Church Establishments, and made him the opponent of Imperialism. Upon each of these points Lord Hugh Cecil's comments are marked by originality of thought and piquancy of expression. The whole article - the most notable in the number - will be read with the deepest interest and pleasure. Lord Stanley of Alderley unfolds his plan for the settlement of the Education difficulty, but more striking is Lady Wimborne's paper on "Evangelicals and the Education Question." After a scrupulously fair analysis of the Nonconformist and Church positions respectively Lady Wimborne says that it fills her with amazement when she reads of the line which strong Evangelicals are taking in this matter :- "Connected as I have been for some years with Protestant work, and claiming, therefore, some insight into the Romeward movement, I cannot help addressing a very earnest appeal to them to consider whether this line is a wise one in the interests of that Protestantism which we Evangelicals all believe to be vital to the nation's well-being. I own to some feeling of alarm when I read of the leaders of our Evangelical party fighting shoulder to shoulder with men of the Ritualistic school, and Lord Halifax thanking the Record for the noble stand it is making in defence of the Church's claims. The claims are, as have been shown, both illogical and untenable, but even were they of the strongest description, are they wise to desire to perpetuate a system which is giving the Ritualistic clergy the very opportunity that they need for undermining our Protestant faith? A system which leaves to the clergy a control still practically undisputed is one which, in the altered conditions572 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. of our Church, cannot be viewed with anything but alarm. Quietly, silently, stealthily, the work is proceeding; but, owing to the fact that it only affects children, it arouses no notice, and the world passes it unconsciously by. As men and women go about their business or their pleasure day by day, little do they reck how, in the village school hard by, the children are being weaned from the faith which the martyrs died to defend. They do not trouble to follow them from the school into the church, where they, and frequently they alone, are the witnesses of the Roman Mass, nor to note how by precept and by example they are being familiarized with all that our ancestors rejected at so great a cost." Lady Wimborne pleads - as they Layman has done - for instruction in the fundamental truths of Christianity on the lines of the religious syllabuses which have been published in our columns. We heartily agree with her in thinking that "the result of the adoption of such a syllabus would be to produce a generation of children who had acquired a substantial knowledge of the Bible, and who had learnt all those essential truths of Christianity which so vastly transcend in importance at that early age the inculcation of dogmas." Lady Wimborne also refers in her article to the attitude of Evangelical Churchmen towards political parties :- "Tory Governments and the High Church party are the determined opponents of Evangelicalism, and the unwavering supporters of the principle of authority in the Church. As long as Evangelicals fail to see this and raise no loud voice in favour of the principles in which they believe, even if their maintenance involves a support of the Liberal party, so long will they be merely used as cats'-paws by their opponents. With a fidelity worthy of a better cause, they stick to those who have traditionally been the allies of the Church, and with a patience and hope beyond all praise, but melancholy in its futility, they wait for deliverance at the hands of those whose interest it is to annihilate them. In supporting the Tory and High Church party, they do not see that they are committing political suicide, and bringing about their own extinction." Lady Wimborne's article is one of supreme importance at the present juncture, and its clear and cogent reasoning should claim for it the most careful attention on the part of those to whom it is specially addressed. Mr. W. S. Blunt contributes an eminently readable "Personal Recollection" of Lord Randolph Churchill, and there are many other contributions of interest, notably one by the Hon. Mrs. Conrad Dillon, who endeavours to paint in less lurid colours than has hitherto been the case the character of George IV. The number is delightfully varied and appeals to many interests. The Pall Mall magazine is a brilliant number, with many features of striking interest. An old Etonian writes on the Eton life of Bishop Welldon, whom he describes as one of the greatest scholars ever turned out by Eton. Under the title of "From the Factory to the Front Bench" Mr. Robert Donald gives an appreciative character sketch of the Right Hon. John Burns, M.P., bringing out the salient points in his remarkable career. The extremely interesting papers on "London at Prayer" are continued, Mr. Charles Morley dealing this month with "Nobody's Children," and giving an account of the work of the National Waifs' Association (Dr. Barnardo's Homes). Mr. Alfred Kinnear writes on the position of "The Freshman" in the House of Commons, whilst Mr. G. R. Halkett, a former editor of the magazine, contributes an appreciative notice of the work of Mr. Edward Stott, A. R. A. The fiction is good, and the illustrations excellent. Temple Bar publishes some extremely interesting reminiscences of Leopol Von Ranke by his son General Freduhelm Von Ranke. Other features include an amusing paper on American manners, and two or three good stories. In Macmillan's Magazine Mr. Stanley P. Hyatt's article on "The Black Peril in South Africa" is well worth reading. "The native question is one," he says, "which can only be handled by a very strong man, a statesman powerful enough to withstand a torrent of abuse and calumny, one who is willing to fight against popular prejudice, fanaticism, and ignorance, until he has worn down the opposition and is able to impose his own policy on the nation. At the moment there is no public man in the British Empire who seems to be ready to undertake the task." The whole number is interesting, there being many readable features. In the Cornhill the reader's attention will be attracted chiefly to Sir Algernon West's striking article on "Mr. Gladstone as I Knew Him," in which he gives some interesting personal reminiscences of the deceased statesman. We know now that the writer of the delightful papers under the heading "From a College Window," is Mr. A. C. Benson, and an added piquancy is thus given to them. The subject dealt with this month is the criticism of one's friends. Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.I.E., writes a concise account of a distinguished soldier in "General Romer Younghusband and Scinde." In the "Judgment of OEtone," R. A. K. - himself a denizen - describes in a Tennysonian parody the choice between Volunteering, Music, and Handicraft impending over Eton. There are the usual instalments of the two serial stories, and Mr. Halliwell Sutcliffe contributes a capital short story of the North Country entitled "The Lass of Windward Farm." The World's Work and Play contains, amongst many attractive features, a beautifully illustrated article by the Editor on the House of Commons, its history, and its work; an extremely interesting article by Mr. Ian Malcolm descriptive of life on the frontier of Tibet, illustrated by some striking new photographs; a description of the new battleship, H.M.S. Dreadnought, and articles on bee-keeping and life and sport in Spain. The Sunday at Home has the first of a series of papers by Mr. T. H. S. Escott on the country house as a moral and social force. There are other features which will be found interesting and a full complement of fiction. Mr. Douglas Sladen continues in the Girl's Own Paper his exceedingly interesting glimpses of oriental life. In the Boy's Own Paper and Every Boy's Monthly boys of various ages will find much that is to their taste. The Connoisseur has an attractive programme for collectors and contains articles on Hispano-Mauro lustre-ware at Warwick Castle, first editions of Thackeray, Alencon lace, skating prints, Louis XVI. furniture, and stamp notes. The All Story Magazine, as its name implies, is devoted entirely to fiction and contains a number of readable stories, serial and otherwise, mostly by American authors. The Royal Magazine has many interesting articles and stories. "The Wonderful Underground City of Salt" is a short but readable description of the salt mines at Wieliczka, one of the chief sights of Austria. An account of the Battle of Sedan figures amongst its principal contents, whilst the "Cap and Bells" page is full of wholesome fun. Messrs. Whittaker and Co. have issued a February supplement (1s. net) to Dod's Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage for 1906, containing the numerous entries necessitated by the recent change of Government. The honours conferred since the publication of the Peerage are chronicled, accompanied by biographical notes of the recipients, and there is an interesting article on the choice of peerage titles. The table of Ministers and Officers of State in the Liberal and Unionist Administrations since 1892, which was issued as a special addendum to the 1906 edition of Dod, has also been brought up to date and reissued. It is intended to issue these supplements quarterly, and they will, we are sure, be very popular and widely used. We have also received The Mission Field (S.P.G.), with articles on the Chinese in British Guiana, and on work on the Rand and in Natal; Church and People (C.P.A.S.), containing an account of C.P.A.S. work in Hull; Friendly Greetings, Cottager and Artisan, Our Little Dots, and The Child's Companion (R.T.S.). Printed by SPOTTISWOODE & CO. Ltd., New-street Square, London, E.C., and published for the Proprietors (THE CHURCH REFORM PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED) by HERBERT HOGAN, at 27 & 28 Fetter Lane, London, E.C. - Friday, March 2, 1906.MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 537 THE BISHOP OF DERRY AND THE SCIENCE OF MISSIONS. (Specially reported for the LAYMAN.) THE first of a series of Lenten lectures on the science of Missions arranged by the United Boards of Missions for the provinces of Canterbury and York was given yesterday afternoon by the Bishop of Derry in the Hoare Memorial Hall at the Church House, Westminster. Sir John Kennaway, Bart., M. P., President of the Church Missionary Society, occupied the Chair, being supported by the Bishop of Derry, Bishop Johnson, late of Calcutta, Bishop Montgomery, Secretary of the S.P.G., Mr. Eugene Stock, of the C.M.S., and the Rev. E. D. Stead, Hon. Secretary of the United Boards of Missions. Sir JOHN KENNAWAY, in a brief opening address, said they thanked God for the effort made during the last century to awaken the English Church to its enormous responsibility in regard to the last command of our Lord. They knew that those efforts made by a few feeble men at the beginning of the last century had succeeded in relighting the missionary torch, the flame of which had been suffered to die. There had been throughout the whole Church an awakening in regard to the missionary work of that Church which could not fail to call down upon it great blessings. He referred to the useful work done by the United Boards of Missions in bringing together all the different missionary societies, and pointed out that the purpose of its work was not to interfere with the various missionary organizations, but to incite, inspire, and inform the whole Church and the whole body of English Churchmen who needed to be incited, inspired, and informed. Sir John Kennaway was unable to stay for the lecture, and his place was taken in the chair by Bishop JOHNSON, who at once called upon Dr. Chadwick to deliver his lecture. The Bishop of DERRY said that the subject of his lecture was "The Faith of Christ and the other Religions of the World." At the outset he said that he was not there as a specialist, and he did not undertake to lay before them any new views. More than thirty years ago Professor Tyndall, addressing the members of the British Association in Belfast, used some remarkable words Speaking of the religions of the world, he said that they might deride them, but in doing so they derided the existence of form only, and they failed to touch the immovable basis of religious sentiment in the nature of man. He went on to say that to hold that sentiment with reasonable satisfaction was the problem of problems at that time. Thirty years had passed since then, added the Bishop, and what had science done in regard to that immovable sentiment which was the problem of problems at the present time? Science had done absolutely nothing. It was no shame to science that she had done nothing, for it was not her province or her trade. She had nothing to do with natural vocation, or with religious sentiment, for the same reason that she escaped the grasp of sentiment. He therefore insisted that in deriding the immovable instinct in human nature they were deriding the existence of form only. The instinct of adoration was deep seated in our mystic frame, as deep seated in human nature as the instinct which bound together husband and wife and any of the fundamental instincts of humanity. The instinct was universal, and it existed because its environment evoked it. As there would be no aquatic animals if there was no water, and no flying animals if there were no atmosphere, so a man worshipped and adored because, as Scripture told them, he lived and moved and has his being in an atmosphere of the adorable. What religion answered most truly to the test of the purest and the deepest longings of human nature? What religion lifted them up nearest to the heaven to which they held up their hands in prayer? What had they learnt from the degraded creeds of the savages? If religious instinct rested upon the satisfaction it gave to the nature of the man, it must break down unless it satisfied the deepest and purest laws of human nature precisely as the body of man broke down under unwholesome or unnatural food. If religion was the outcome of primitive misunderstandings and primitive nightmares, it ought to be most vigorous and most sharply defined amongst the savage races. But they could not say that they found that. The religion of Jesus Christ enabled them to gain remarkable victories over the strange and degraded creeds of the savages. The religion of Jesus Christ appealed to the Hottentot and the skull hunter in a way that no other religion did. He had two children working for the missionary cause in Central Africa, and he spoke, therefore, from first-hand knowledge when he asserted that no one who had ever seen the difference between a pagan and a Christian native would say that it was a mistake to wipe out the primitive beliefs of the savage. He spoke from first-hand knowledge when he asserted that if they mingled three Christianized pagans of the lowest type with a score of unChristianized pagans of the same type it was possible for anyone who had seen the experiment repeated three times to pick out with absolute confidence the three who were Christianized from that group by the light on their faces and the happiness and contentment in their hearts. And again, when they entered a native village they did not need to ask whether it was evangelized or not; they had only to look around them to see the Gospel living in the hearts and souls of the men and women. Christianity appealed to the highest, the purest, and the noblest ideals in human nature, and it was in that that its power lay. Mohammedanism, it was true, was still a power in certain parts of Africa. Of those parts which he knew well, the very few Catechumens who had been under Christian influence and had turned again to Mohammedanism had given a very feasible explanation of their motive. They were not going back to heathenism, they said, they were still going to worship the one and only God, but Christianity was too hard on them, and Mohammedanism gave them their freedom - that was to say, polygamy. That was the meaning of it all - polygamy. It was well known that the late King of Uganda remained outside the faith of Christ, in spite of many agonizing interviews, in spite of many anxieties and many tears, solely because if he accepted Christianity he would have to abandon polygamy. All over Africa to-day the faith of Jesus Christ was fighting Mohammedanism for the very conception of a pure, united, loving Christian family, and for the rights of women upon which Mohammed trampled. That was the fundamental difference between the creed of Mohammedanism and the creed of Christianity. Mohamed plucked by the root from his religion all that made Christians of our children and enabled them to kneel beside their mothers' knees and say "Our Father which art in Heaven." Christ must be the living force in our religion; without Him our faith would be worth nothing. Passing from Africa, the Bishop proceeded to deal at some length with the most important of the Asiatic religions, reviewing in detail Pantheism. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shintoism. Asiatic philosophy, he pointed out, was frankly and altogether pantheistic. Pantheism was able to absorb528 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. all creeds on condition that they would allow her to absorb them, and as a matter of fact it had already made its mark on Hinduism and Buddhism. In regard to Shintoism, the Bishop pointed out that they must glance for a moment at the primitive religion of China and Japan, and all the best judges told them that Shintoism had made its influence felt in the life of both nations. It had its birthplace in China, and was a Chinese creed which had been borrowed by Japan. its chief characteristic was the adoration of spirits, especially the spirits of ancestors, and more particularly the spirits of the ancestors of the Emperors. It was for political reasons that Japan not very long ago made it its national religion. It was, however, regarded as traditional and commemorative, and had no real religious significance whatever. From Shintoism sprung the twin philosophies of Laotze and Confucius. Confucianism was cold, formal, uninspiring. It had no sense of sin, no desire for pardon, and no spiritual force. The difference between Christianity and Confucianism was well illustrated by a celebrated phrase which was often quoted. The one said "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye unto them." The other said, "Whatsoever ye would not that men should do unto you do ye not unto them." The one bade you launch the lifeboat; the other bade you abstain from piracy. After explaining the principles of Buddhism and the unsatisfying qualities of the Asiatic religions in comparison with the power and greatness of Christianity, the Bishop, in summing up, said it must ever be their duty to proclaim that Christianity was the only religion that could satisfy the souls of men; that was in fact the power of God unto salvation. They could go to the devotees of the other religions and say that their only hope was in an implicit faith in Christ, Who had died for them. They must learn to walk with God and to say with them "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." They could go to them and say that their religion should be like the lamp which shone forth as the Son in the Kingdom of the Father. They could point them to Christ as the Comforter of the perplexed, of the unhappy, of the friendless, of the sinful, and they could tell them that His words were comfortable words. "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Not "Nirvana," but "rest unto your souls." A very hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the Bishop of Derry for his valuable and forcible lecture, and Bishop Johnson closed the proceedings with the Benediction. OUR WAIFS AND STRAYS. This year will see a further extension of the work of the Church of England Waifs' and Strays' Society. Homes for boys are in course of erection at Tynemouth and Bolden, near Sunderland. The St. Lawrence Home, Worcester, formerly carried on by Lady Alice Nelson, the Home for Friendless Girls, Gloucester, and the Wincheap Home, Canterbury, have been taken over by the Society. A new Home for girls will shortly be opened at Kettering, and one for boys at Moseley, Birmingham. The small boys' Home at Dover will shortly be removed to larger premises at Tunbridge Wells, and a new girls' Home will be opened in the Lincoln Diocese as soon as suitable premises can be obtained. The fortnightly Meeting of the Executive was held at the Society's offices, Savoy Street, London, W.C., on Monday last, Mr. Frank B. Jackson in the chair. The receipts during the last fortnight amounted to 3,566l., and the payments voted for the maintenance of Homes and boarded-out children to 2,8671l. Forty-two children were passed for admission to the Society's Homes, 11,552 having been provided for since the commencement of operations in 1881. An important public Meeting in connection with the Forward Movement will take place on March 6 in the Shire Hall, Chelmsford, the Bishop of St. Albans in the chair. "ORDINATION" BY A PRESBYTER. SUSPENSION OF THE REV. R. C. FILLINGHAM. SIR LEWIS DIBDIN, Dean of the Arches, held a sitting of the Court of Arches on Tuesday to further consider the case of the Bishop of St. Albans v. Fillingham, judgment in which was delivered on February 14, and reported in the Layman of February 16. It will be remembered that the learned Judge, in the course of his judgment, said he thought he ought to give Mr. Fillingham an opportunity of reconsidering his position after he was in possession of the judgment. Sir Lewis Dibdin, on Tuesday, said he had received a letter from Mr. Fillingham in which he stated that he had come to the conclusion that he ought to submit himself to the Court. He frankly admitted his error in purporting to ordain Mr. White, and promised not to repeat the offence. He (Sir Lewis Dibdin) was glad to be able to say that Mr. Fillingham's submission relieved him from the necessity of depriving him of his benefice. But he thought his wrongful acts must be the subject of "censure," and that the sentence could not be other than severe. He had been guilty of an outrageous offence against the Church of England's Constitution in a very important particular. Further, his offences had been aggravated by persistent contumacy towards his Bishop, and they had caused scandal which was notorious. Under the circumstances he suspended Mr. Fillingham from office and benefice for two years. He monitored him not to offend again, either by repeating his act of so-called "ordination," or of contumacy against the Bishop of St. Albans' lawful commands, or of intrusion into parishes in the diocese of St. Albans other than his own by officiating or preaching therein without the Bishop's license. The suspension was to be published in the usual way at Hexton on Sunday, March 11, and would run from that date. Mr. Fillingham must pay the promoter's cost of the suit. Disobedience to the monition, if brought to the notice of the Court on motion in a summary way, without any fresh suit could be, and probably would be, dealt with by the infliction of an even severer sentence. THE LATE BISHOP OF ARGYLL. The Tribune recalls that when the Diocesan Synod for Argyll met in Oban on the 31st ult., the Dean read a long letter dictated by the Bishop to his wife on the Sunday ten days previously. In this he said :- "In the light of the eternal world, I feel, my dear brethren, more and more convinced of the vital importance (for our own souls, and for the souls of those whom we may desire to benefit) of those doctrines commonly called 'evangelical.' I do not use this word in its 'Protestant' sense, whatever that may be. What I mean is that in our teaching we should be determined to know nothing among those to whom we are sent but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We should point to sin as we must see it in ourselves, and then point to Him nailed to the Cross, as our only hope of pardon and acceptance. We should point to Him risen from the dead as our assurance of eternal life, and we should point to Him ascended into Heaven that He might be our Advocate with the Father, as well as the Propitiation for our sins, 'the Lamb upon His throne,' to Whom be all glory for ever and ever. And now farewell, my beloved brethren. I would commend you to the grace of the Lord and Saviour, of Whom I have spoken, to the love of God our Father, and to the help and protection of the Holy Ghost, now and for evermore." The Christian Blackfoot Indians in the Diocese of Calgary, in North-West Canada, are taking part in the evangelization of their neighbours, the Blood Indians. Recently, on the suggestion of one of their chiefs, named Daniel Little Axe, the Blackfeet began a collection at their Sunday services with a view to forming a fund out of which to pay the travelling expenses incurred by their catechists in visiting the Blood Indians for evangelistic purposes. MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 539 THE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS AND THE DRINK TRAFFIC. QUESTION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. (Specially reported for the LAYMAN.) House of Commons, Monday. IN the House of Commons on Monday Mr. HERBERT ROBERTS asked the hon. member for the Eye Division of Suffolk (Mr. Stevenson), as Church Estates Commissioner, whether his attention had been drawn to the circumstances attaching to a long lease of eighty-four acres of land recently granted by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at Shepherd's Bush for the purpose of an exhibition, and to the absence from the lease of any covenant prohibiting the lessee from applying for a licence to sell beer, wine, or spirits theron. Whether he was aware that licences had been applied for to sell such liquors on forty-four places on the land, and whether he was in a position to give on behalf of the Commissioners any explanation as to the omission from the lease of any such condition, and an assurance that in future all leases granted by them should contain either a restrictive or prohibitive covenant in connection with such application. Mr. STUART WORTLEY (who replied to the question) said the facts relating to this letting were given to the hon. member in answer to his question on the same matter in May last in the following terms: "The Ecclesiastical Commissioners have agreed to let an area of about eighty-four acres of land at Hammersmith for a long term of years for the purposes of an Exhibition similar to that at Earl's Court or at the Crystal Palace. As regards the lands used for Exhibition purposes the Commissioners do not think it practicable to prohibit any application by the lessee for licences for the sale thereon of wine, beer, and spirits in connection with the supply of refreshments. The recent application to the licensing Justices, to which the question refers, was made by the intending lessee, and the Commissioners had no knowledge that any application was about to be made, or as to the number of places in which it would be asked that liquors might be sold." In addition I am now able to say that the Ecclesiastical Commission have received notice that a fresh application will be made by the lessee to the licensing Magistrates in the present month, and it is the Commissioners' intention to be then represented. The Commissioners are informed that the application will be for a licence in respect of eleven places only within the Exhibition and grounds. With regard to the last part of the question, it is the policy of the Commissioners to limit the number of licences on their building estates in accordance with the real needs of the neighbourhoods, but within that limit they deal with any application of their lessees for permission to acquire a licence as they deem most reasonable, having regard to all the circumstances. THE LICENSE REFUSED. AT Brewster Sessions for the County of London, held on Tuesday at Kensington, Mr. H. B. Halswell presiding, application was made on behalf of Mr. Imre Kiralfy for a provisional grant of a full licence for exhibition buildings proposed to be erected in Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, and to be known as the International Industrial Exhibition. Sir Edward Carson, K.C. (Mr. Bodkin with him), in making the application, said (we quote from the Morning Advertiser report) that the monopoly value of the licence would be paid by the applicant in full, and this be regarded as an important matter. Moreover, the licence, if granted, would not come into operation until the buildings were complete. The licence would only be for a year, and the justices had full power under the Act of 1904 to attach any condition to the licence. The applicant had obtained a ninety- nine years' lease of the site, covering ninety-four acres, and had engaged to erect buildings similar to those at Earl's Court and the Crystal Palace at considerable cost, and to pay a rental commencing with 1,000l. and rising by instalments of 3,400l. The applicant was a man fully qualified to conduct such an exhibition as the one suggested, and his application was that he should be allowed to sell liquors at twelve places only - not a very extravagant request. The licence would be for six days only, and the exhibition would be a great improvement to the neighbourhood, besides being a great undertaking. He invited the Court to say that the application was a reasonable one - intended only to give facilities to the public using the exhibition - and should be granted. Lord Robert Cecil, M.P., who appeared for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, said (we quote from the Morning Post report) that there was some misconception in the public mind as to the attitude the Commissioners had adopted with regard to granting an option for the leasing of land of which they were owners, and on which licensed buildings were to be erected. The Commissioners were owners of very large estates in trust for public purposes, and they considered it would not be right, so long as the sale of intoxicating liquor was not forbidden by law, for them to usurp the position of the Legislature and forbid the erection of buildings on any of their estates intended to be licensed. The application to them by Mr. Kiralfy was of an exceptional character. The Commissioners left it entirely to the judgment of the Justices as to whether this licence should be granted. They neither supported nor opposed the application. The applicant was called, and said he was the largest shareholder in Earl's Court Exhibition, and the one at Shepherd's Bush would be conducted on improved principles. There was a petition signed by 1,700 persons in his favour. He was under an agreement to expend 15,000l. in two years. The buildings as shown on the plans produced would cost between 300,000l. and 365,000l. Mr. Gill, K.C.: Where is that money to come from? The Applicant: Partly from myself and friends. The public would also come in. He had not approached any financial group or said that the buildings would cost 500,000l., 350,000l. of which would be spent in construction and 150,000l. divided between the promoters. He could not say whether he would go on with the scheme if he did not get the licence. If at any time he surrendered the lease he would forfeit the 5,000l. he had already paid. Mr. Gill, K.C., said that it was never the practice of a licensing bench to grant a licence to premises in respect to which there was no guarantee that they would be completed. The Chairman announced that the justices were equally divided, and consequently the application would be refused. At the monthly Meeting of the Committee of the Friend of the Clergy Corporation, held at the offices, 17 King William Street, Strand, W.C., on February 20, the Rev. F. W. A. Wilkinson in the chair, the usual current business was transacted and preliminary arrangements made in connection with the forthcoming festival dinner!540 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. MUSIC. The Philharmonic Society's Opening Concert. THE Philharmonic Society's concert on Tuesday evening - the first concert of their new season - was of great interest. It opened with the late Sir Arthur Sullivan's striking and effective overture to "Macbeth," which was composed for the revival of the play at the Lyceum in the winter of 1888. It was splendidly played. Rubinstein's Concerto in D minor for orchestra and piano followed. Mme. Teresa Carreno was the pianist and gave what was certainly a very fine performance. The Andante - one of surpassing beauty - was exquisitely given both by her and the orchestra, and the last movement was brilliantly rendered. Mme. Carreno received an ovation at the end, being recalled five times. Mr. Frederic Austin sang "Wotan's Abschied" admirably and with much success. The special feature, however, of the concert was a new symphony by Herr Weingartner. It was described in the programme as a "revised version," and it was the first performance in London. The composer himself conducted it. It is unquestionably a most beautiful composition. It might from the prominence of pastoral music in it be described as a new Pastoral Symphony. The opening theme is delightful in itself, and it is delightfully worked out. It reminds one a little of the opening of the overture to "William Tell." The whole of the first movement - Allegro moderato grazioso - is full of melody and loveliness. The second movement - Allegretto alla marcia - starts with a somewhat martial theme, soon to be followed by one of renewed beauty, in which "the strings sing a soaring strain." It is succeeded by another of a most charming character, which is worked up to a splendid climax. Then it drops away to a pp. and gives way to the first martial subject. The whole movement is extremely effective. The Vivace scherzoso which comes next was much applauded, and deservedly. It opens as a sort of witch movement. Indeed it recalled the scene in "Macbeth." From this it passes to a weird and beautiful section in which the beauty conquers the weirdness. Thence it goes to pure romance, and finally returns to mischief and witchery. It ends abruptly with a sudden pp. The last movement - Allegro vivio - is like the first largely pastoral in character. It is to a great extent suggestive of a joyous and innocent merry-making - a May-day carnival. The symphony was greatly appreciated by the large audience, who recalled the author four times. Mme. Carreno next played Chopin's Nocturne in B major, the Etude in G flat, and the Polonaise in A flat. Her rendering of the Nocturne was most tender, and the Etude was given so gracefully that the audience insisted on its being repeated. The Polonaise was played very finely. Mme. Carreno was further encored, and was persuaded to play again. Of her consummate skill as a pianist there can, of course, be no doubt; but there is a strong contrast between the delicacy and gentleness of her touch in soft passages and her hardness in loud ones. The last item in the programme was Dvorak's Dramatic Overture "Husitzka" - rightly called "dramatic" - which was played with very great spirit. Dr. F. Cowen conducted. It was a memorable witsch) in Cesar Franck's Sonata in A. He played well and tastefully. Miss Jerome sang as solos "Musica Proibita," by S. Gastalaon, Brahms' "Liebestreu," Tschaikowsky's "Why" - a lovely song - Liszt's charming setting of "Mignon's Lied," and Mr. S. Liddle's dainty "In My Garden." She was apparently suffering from a cold, and it was only now and then that the full quality of her voice became apparent. Her work, however, was thoroughly artistic. M. Zacharewitsch played Franck's interesting and delightful Sonata in A - it was beautifully rendered - Mozart's Violin Concerto (No. 6) - most admirably and impressively performed - three short pieces - including Wieniawsky's "Polonaise" in D, which was brilliantly played - and the first movement of Tschaikowsky's Violin Concerto, which was very strikingly given. He was rewarded with great and well-merited applause. M. Alvarez sang very finely indeed. His rich powerful tenor voice and his excellent artistic skill made a deep impression upon his hearers, who recalled him in all some five or six times. Among the songs that he sang was one of his own - "La Partida" - in which he was heard to much advantage. The last item of the programme was an Air and Duet from Saint-Saens' "Samson et Dalila," in which M. Alvarez joined Miss Jerome. The accompanist was Mr. Charlton Keith, who was excellent throughout. The hall was full, and the audience rightly showed great and at times enthusiastic appreciation of the admirable concert. - - - The great reputation of Mr. Lionel Tertis as a player of the viola, and of Mr. York Bowen as a pianist and composer, drew a large audience to the AEolian Hall on Monday evening. The programme contained three new compositions by Mr. Bowen - a sonata in F for viola and piano - with a lovely slow movement and a brilliant presto - a charming caprice for the piano - most delightfully given by the composer - and a beautiful duet for viola and organ. Not only is the technique of both Mr. Tertis and Mr. Bowen exceptionally good, but they are beyond question musicians of the highest order. Mr. Tertis' viola playing is further marked by great richness of tone, while Mr. Bowen's soft and delicate touch as a pianist is especially noteworthy in view of the fact that he also plays the organ. Beethoven's posthumous quartet in C sharp minor was well rendered by "the Kruse quartet." The recitation by Mr. F. Corder of the Witches' Song - to which he had written an accompaniment for organ, viola, and quartet - was somewhat long and tedious.Its place might well have been taken by something more in keeping with the rest of the concert. Both Mr. Tertis and Mr. Bowen are to be warmly congratulated on the success of their recital. - - - A good rendering of "The Redemption" was given by the Royal Choral Society on Ash Wednesday evening. The merits and demerits of the oratorio are so well known that it is quite unnecessary to say anything with regard to them. The continued capacity of Gounod's music to attract was demonstrated by the large audience which assembled, and by the quiet and appreciative attention with which the music MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 541 LIFE IN THE SLUMS. TWO INCIDENTS IN PAROCHIAL VISITING. [A well-known Vicar in the West of England has sent the Church Pastoral-Aid Society some account of how the people live in his parish, which is almost all slums. He gives details of two incidents drawn from recent visitation experiences, and these we reproduce, believing that they will be read with pathetic interest by all who are concerned in the welfare of the poor. The article appears in an illustrated form in the March number of the Society's magazine, "Church and People."] The short and simple annals of the poor! Who will dare to unearth them, to attempt to express the crushed hopes, the hard struggles, the fairness and purity blasted, the bitter tears, the cruel selfishness, the noble self-sacrifices, the unfailing constancy, the terrible crimes that go to make up so large a part of life in a slum. Look at the place. On one side of the long, narrow street a manure factory; on the other, a tannery of fearful savours, whilst the long rows of dreariest houses are varied by low public-houses, a slaughter-house or two, and the entrances into alleys which branch off life ribs from the backbone. Black mud and offal compensate for the unevenness of the road paving, whilst so narrow is the street that you are compelled to walk in the middle of it, no space having been left, for the greater part, for side paths. Now let us enter this - the first house we come to. Be careful to knock, and knock at least twice, for a first knock is generally credited to the whim of some passing boy or girl, and therefore seldom meets with any response. You are stared at and welcomed, unless it should happen that a jug of beer is in use, when, upon some excuse, time must be gained and the jug put out of sight. Should you have the impertinence to betray the fact that the beer has announced itself to your nostrils, you will be most strongly assured that no such thing has passed the door for many a month; but, unless you are wanting in tact, you will ignore the evidence of your senses. You will notice probably the furniture of this home and its occupants. There is a deal table, greasy and unwashed for many a day, with a lamp upon it, which has lost its pedestal, and therefore rests in a salmon tin. The room is insufferably hot, for this family is a favoured one, and can afford a fire, and the usual precautions against the entrance, not of fresh air, for that it never is, but of outside air, have been duly taken. The windows were made with a view to this, for they are unopenable. Moreover, no blinds are needed, for what panes of glass remain in the window are coated with dirt - both outside and in - so as to secure the family from any curios gazer. You have been asked to sit down, the good wife having wiped off with her apron the drippings of beer or the remains of broken fish that were on the chair. A pile of moleskin "cuttings out" occupy one corner of the room, and the woman has a pair of moleskin trousers in her hand. These she has to line, button, cut out, button- times a man and his wife can earn 12s. a week if they have luck at this work. By this time the baby has crawled on to your shoes and would like to suck your shoe-string, and you feel that something else is crawling down your neck. With shuddering fortitude you open a cheerful conversation. If you are heroic, you deliberately lift up the awful smelling, squalid baby, with a horrid sore on its mouth, and put it on your knee and give it a kiss. Now, indeed, the mother's tongue is unloosed, and, assured of your sympathy, she commences to relate with bewildering detail all the family ailments, wrongs, wants, and sorrows. She will tell you how she had, let us say, eight children, three of which she has buried. You sympathize. "Ah, but that's nowt like the lady upstairs," she replies; "why, she's had eleven, and buried seven, bless you!" "But I see you have two babies?" you observe. "That ain't mine; its my darter's....!" At this point a boy of stunted growth and with mischievous eyes desires possession of your gloves; whereupon his father, with a high sense of the painful duty incumbent upon him, boxes his ears for his rudeness to the visitor, but in your compassion you draw the little weeper to you and assuage his agonized grief. You remark upon the spotted appearance of his cheek. "Yes; we were just thinkin' he's gotten measles or summut loike it, and in the mornin' I'll tak' 'im to the doctor." Upon this you relax your attentions. You rise just as the women is coming to the most telling part of her woes, and at any price you must open that door, or you will faint, and so you pass out into the street. What good have you done? None to them probably; but a lot to yourself. You have just seen for ten minutes the inside of what is "home" to some millions of your fellow countrymen and women. And remember that is not one of the worst, and moreover it was on the ground floor. If you had dared to crawl up the rickety staircase, in total darkness and with bowed head, for the black ceiling will not permit you to raise your head, you would have found another "home," perhaps fireless, with no furniture but a couple of boxes, and no bed but dirty sacks. Well, let us pass on to another house. Here the mother is ill, and the eldest girl will show you upstairs to see her, and you are ushered into her bedroom. In width the room is just twice the width of the bed on which the woman lies, and three feet longer, so that you can just pass the end of the bed and get round to the bedside of the sufferer. She is in rapid consumption - a common complaint in the slums - and her replies are broken by paroxysms of coughing. She does not complain nor beg of you. She will be grateful if you will read a chapter to her out of the dear old Book. To her the Name of Jesus is sweet indeed. Her husband is a docker, and what he earns goes for the most part into the publican's till. Many542 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. How eagerly did she drink in the short homely addresses given on some passage of the Gospel! Left alone there, amid her squalling, hungry, unwashed children, unable to do anything, but leaving to a girl of tender years the duties of a mother, how welcome is the visit of the deaconess or curate, bearing with them messages of peace and hope. Yes; in many a home like this is there seen the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Again you come out into the street. What good have you done? Well, you have given a draught from the wells of salvation to a thirsty soul; but more than that. What good have you gained? How real to that dying woman is Jesus. What a comfort is her faith! What else but the Old, Old Story could do the like, or meet her case, and you have felt yourself blessed, inasmuch as you have been allowed to sit by her side and read and pray with her. Yes; there are times and places when heaven seems to be so near even in a dreary, smelling slum. THE BISHOP OF LIVERPOOL ON EDUCATION THE Liverpool Diocesan Gazette for March contains the following paragraphs from the pen of the Bishop of Liverpool: "Upon the Education question there is nothing new to be said. The air is full of rumours, and men's minds of surmises. The newspapers and magazines teem with letters and articles advocating every conceivable plan for meeting the so-called religious difficulty. The policy of the Church is neither to suggest a compromise, nor to offer terms of any kind, but to demand the maintenance of the denominational system, and that children shall be instructed in religious knowledge in accordance with the faith of their parents by teachers who believe what they teach and have been trained to teach it, and that this instruction be given within school hours. "1. It is a just demand. The State in the past has allowed the Church to spend her millions of pounds upon the fabrics and the maintenance of her schools on the assurance that within their walls her children shall be trained in the distinctive doctrines of the Church of England. In this assurance our School of Trust Deeds have been drawn up. The stipulate not only that the building shall be used for education, but for education based on religion, and that a religion in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer. To claim such schools as built for educational purposes, and to ignore the character of the education so explicitly described would be an act of faithlessness and injustice. "2. It is a wise demand. If religion be the basis and the atmosphere of all true education, religion to be effectual must be definite, dogmatic, and credal. The most enlightened and progressive nations of the Continent have deliberately adopted the denominational system. Germany and Denmark (not to mention others), whose educational system is far ahead of ours, have given us this significant lead. "3. It is a reasonable demand. It is the province not of the State but of the Church to decree what kind of religious teaching shall be given in the schools of the Church which are supported by the rates and taxes, of which the greater part are paid by Churchmen. The attempt by our Local Education Authority to decide what are the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, and how these fundamental doctrines are to be taught, must end in confusion, heartburning, and perpetual friction. Let the great principle be adopted - that the children of the Church be trained to be Churchmen, and the children of the Nonconformist to be Nonconformists, and of the Roman Catholic to be Roman Catholics, and of the Jew to be Jews, and the difficulty is solved. In the one-school area it is surely not impossible for the wit of man to devise some plan by which the children of the minority, whether Protestant or Roman, Church or Non- conformist, can be trained in the principles of their own religious body . . . ." In connection with what the Bishop of Liverpool here lays down as "the great principle" for which Churchmen should contend, we may remind our readers that a similar principle was advocated by Lord Hugh Cecil in a letter to the Times, and drew from the Bishop of Carlisle a noble rejoinder. "Lord Hugh Cecil says his ideal of religious education is that 'the child of Church parents should be made a good Churchman, the child of Congregationalists a good Congregationalist, &c.' I confess my ideal rather is primarily that the children of all parents should be good Christians, and secondarily good denominationalists. Of this I am sure, that, although it is part of the supreme business of the State, because of the resulting citizenship, to make good Christians, it is no part of its business to develop denominationalism. Indeed, it is one of the strongest of all arguments in favour of an Established Church that it makes primary the inclusive and secondary the exclusive elements of religion; if Lord Hugh Cecil and his comrades in their denominational enthusiasm succeed in reversing this order, the days of the Establishment will be easily numbered" (Times, February 12). THIS MORNING'S NEWS. Layman Office, Friday Morning. Commercial Morality. In the House of Lords yesterday Lord Halsbury moved the second reading of the Prevention of Corruption Bill. Lord Avebury, on behalf of the English bankers and the chambers of commerce, thanked the noble Lord for introducing the Bill. The Archbishop of Canterbury said he had had many communications showing that there was a strong feeling in its favour. Underlying the Bill were large questions of principle and morality, and he hoped it would soon be on the Statute-book. The Lord Chancellor promised the support of the Government for the measure, which was then read a second time. Oxford Undergraduates and the Bishop of London. The Times states that a deputation of twenty undergraduates waited upon the Bishop of London, at London House, St. James's Square, yesterday, and presented him with a pastoral staff on behalf of the undergraduates of Oxford University. Accompanying the gift was a book containing 400 signatures of the subscribers. The Bishop, in reply, said there had been few things which had given him such unalloyed pleasure as the gift which they had brought him from Oxford that day. It had been a complete surprise, and apparently a spontaneous outcome of their trust and affection. He was glad to learn that the idea originated some time before the little breeze which followed his last sermon at Oxford, not as a counterblast to anything which had then occurred. On the other hand, it was a comfort to know that that sermon, so far from checking the movement, only stimulated it. His pleasure was enhanced by the nature of the gift. The fact that subscriptions were confined to 5s., but that that beautiful staff should yet be the outcome, showed how many must have joined in the present. Degrees at Cambridge. At a Congregation held at Cambridge yesterday afternoon the following degrees were conferred: M.D. - C. F. Hadfield, Trinity. M.A. - H. T. Ellis, W. H. Orton, Trinity; H. A. Browning, St. John's; S. D. Hinde, E. E. Lavy, J. B. Mennell, Pembroke; T. W. Thompson, Gonville and Caius; H. C. Eddowes, Corpus Christi; C. B. Nicholl, Queens'; A. W. Lister, W. T. Hindley, F. Mellows, Christ's; H. C. A. S. Muller, Emmanuel; J. N. de Burgh, J. H. Staines, Sidney Sussex. M. B. and B. C. - W. H. Orton, Trinity. M. B. - A. D. Brunwin, R. C. Mott, Trinity; W. H. Thresher, Gonville and Caius. B. C. - E. D. Anderson, Pembroke. MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 543 "UNTO ALL THE NATIONS." NEWS FROM THE FOREIGN MISSION FIELD. Jubilee of C.M.S. Mission in British Columbia. This year is the jubilee of the Church Missionary Society's Mission in British Columbia. It was in 1857 that the first missionary landed at Fort Simpson, and now after half a century a complete change has been wrought. Fifty years ago there was not a Christian Mission on the North Pacific coast. Cannibalism, sorcery, slavery, cruelty, and bloodshed were the leading characteristics of Indian life. Cannibalism was usually practised on slaves who had been captured in raids on other tribes. The first missionary shortly after his arrival "saw a party of hideously painted and bedecked cannibals tearing limb from limb the body of a woman who had just been foully murdered by a chief." "Now," Archdeacon Collison writes, "the Indian may be seen decently and becomingly attired, and as cleanly in their persons and habits as the whites. They are intelligent and industrious, and many of the men are most skilful in house and boat building . . . . Christianity has broken down the barriers of strife and hatred which separated the tribes. . . . At the forthcoming Diocesan Synod in the Diocese of Caledonia we shall have Indian delegates from the Haidas of Queen Charlotte's Islands, the Tsimshians of the mainland, the Nishkas of the Naas River, and the Kitikshians of the Skeena." A Livingstone Story. Incited by a remark of Dr. Pierson's in his New Acts of the Apostles, respecting Livingstone's body-guard, to the effect that the true story of that nine months' march could never be written, Mrs. J. A. Bailey, of Mombasa (the C.M. Intelligencer says), had a conversation with one of Livingstone's Nasik "boys," who had lived at Mombasa or Frere Town ever since his return to the coast with his master's body, and got from him some details of that wonderful journey. In a letter to Dr. Pierson, Mrs. Bailey writes :- Matthew Wellington was one of the six "boys" from Nasik, who came over from India to help to find David Livingstone in Africa. He is still alive, a hale and hearty man, probably between fifty and sixty years old. He is an overseer in the Government Public Works Department. I have known him many years, and his daughter Florence is a teacher in one of our C.M.S. schools. One Sunday morning, after service, Matthew came and told me about the starting, and the journey, the meeting, and the serving his master, Livingston; his wonderful knowledge of the country, and people, and languages; his weariness of body sometimes, and trouble to get food for the porters of his camp; his upright, pure, clean life; his keeping the Sabbath with prayer, and reading with his men; his feast at Christmas for them; his weakness and death, journeying up to the very last, so long as he could ride a donkey or walk. Matthew described in a graphic manner the embalming, and adding that for fourteen days the body lay in the sun, and then it was turned over for another fourteen days. Also (and this I had never heard before), the legs were doubled up from the knee to the body, to make the burden less like a corpse to carry across the country. This shows the ingenuity of the native mind in an emergency. The heart and viscera were all buried. The chief thoughts in the boys' minds were, according to their orders at Nasik from the Royal Geographical Society's letter - "Find him and bring him, alive or dead, to the coast." This was their duty, and they stuck to the plain fact. Matthew described the first coffin being made at Bagamoyo, on the coast at the French Mission, and then (so natural to a native mind) the glory of a coffin of lead or tin; and the outer wooden one with brass handles, at the Consulate of Zanzibar. Matthew said Jacob was a clever, intelligent "boy," more so than any of the others, and no one grudged him the honour of the journey to England. He was afterwards a teacher for the C.M.S. for a time, and is now dead. Matthew told me all these details in Swahili. I felt I should get the facts more fully in a native language than in English. It was a great privilege to hear thus of the life of the great missionary. Chinese in British Guiana. The Rev. F. G. Josa contributes to the March number of the Mission Field a most interesting account of work amongst Chinese in British Guiana. He says:- In 1876 I was sent by Bishop Austin to start a Mission on the East Coast of Demerara among the East Indians and Chinese. For every ten Chinese in my district I had ninety East Indians, and therefore I had to devote most of my time to the people of India. I did, however, all I could for the Chinese also. Very soon I secured the services of one of our converts, James Yang-A-Pat, as good and earnest a Christian as it has been my fortune to find. He travelled in my waggon with me wherever I went, and we seldom held less than seven services on Sunday, covering a distance of at least twenty miles. Our work during the week was incessant; schools were opened everywhere, and religious instruction was given to all and sundry. Unfortunately, I have very few figures by me to show the progress of the work, but I find that at the first confirmation I presented to the Bishop twenty-five Chinese. I also find that after working amongst the Chinese for less than four years 200 Chinese had been won over to the Faith. Since then hundreds of them have been converted all over the country, and I venture to state that ninety out of every hundred of our Chinese in British Guiana are now Christians. Many of these people, whilst under instruction either as hearers or as catechumens, smoked opium in excess, and I would not baptise many of them until they gave up the noxious drug; and many of them told me that whenever they tried to give it up their bodily sufferings were unbearable, so I consulted a medical man, and we gave a mixture to counteract the evil effects of opium- smoking, and I remember many of them walking long distances to my house to obtain this relief. The Buddha had taught that "One may conquer a thousand men in battle, but he who conquers himself alone is the greatest victor." And yet these poor people were abject slaves to opium, and they needed the Story of the Cross to make them understand that there is a God, and that a God of love. "If I be lifted up I will draw all men to me." There is nothing like the Story of the Cross in Buddhism. We can reply to the query, "What kind of Christians do they make?" They are not rice-Christians. They support their own churches and catechists, and give abundantly of their wealth. Very few of them are now field labourers; some of them are "sugar curers," others are charcoal burners; many of them are shopkeepers and owners of their shops, whilst others are now the wealthiest and most respected merchants in the colony. They are upright in their dealings, and a Chinese man's word is his bond; and also whereas at one time they were the most troublesome colonists in British Guiana, now they are some of the best of all our colonists. I only wish we had a few more thousands of these good fellows. But when they return to China do they remain faithful? I think that the blood of those Chinese martyrs who died in defence of their European missionaries - who suffered unspeakable tortures rather than deny Christ - should for ever silence such queries as this; but we have very direct evidence that they carry their faith with them wherever they go. We in Guiana have received letters from missionaries in China thanking us for the Christians we have sent them, who, we were informed, were preaching "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" among their own countrymen.544 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. THE CHURCH AND ITS WORK. NEWS FROM MANY QUARTERS. The Observance of Lent. The Bishop of Newcastle, in a Diocesan letter on the Season of Lent, says: "The Season of Lent comes with its yearly message of the love of God and the forgiveness of sins, with its yearly call to confess the sin and to enter into the great love. It arrests us and claims our attention. It comes to us in the midst of all the rush and speaks to our better selves. 'Now, make an effort and be yourself once more. Say to your business, your pleasure, your luxurious habits, stand back: get away outside to your proper places. I was the master once, and I mean to be again - so help me God.' And once more through the cleared avenue shall the Voice of God be heard and the Spirit of God shall enter, and we shall be our true selves again. And faith and duty and work and pleasure shall all take proper places: and our life once more shall be lived as God would have it." A Plea for Simplicity. The Bishop of Ely, who hopes soon to take up his residence in the Cathedral City, has written a letter to his clergy which appears in the Diocesan Remembrancer: - "I am anxious," he says, "that the service of Confirmation should be as simple as possible, in order that the candidates may be able to concentrate their attention on the essential acts and thoughts of this holy rite. I therefore ask the Vicar of any church in which a Confirmation is to take place to arrange that the clergy and choir go straight from the vestry to their places in the chancel. If in any place which I am visiting to hold a Confirmation or otherwise there is any sick or infirm person desirous of being confirmed and duly prepared, it will be a peculiar pleasure to me to confirm such a person privately. In such a case notice should be given to me beforehand. Bishop Chase and Sunday Services. The Bishop continues:- "Whenever I am to spend a Sunday in a parish, I should be glad to know beforehand what services it is proposed that I should attend. Whenever I am present at the service of Holy Communion in a parish church, I desire to take the part of celebrant. This seems natural and is, I believe, in accordance with ancient usage. I do not attach any doctrinal significance to the position of the celebrant. Personally, for devotional reasons, I prefer the eastward position. But I desire in this matter to follow the custom of the particular Church. Where the 'mixed chalice' is used in accordance with what I believe to be absolutely primitive custom, a little water should be poured into the chalice in the vestry before it is placed on the credence table. This is the direction of the Lincoln judgment (p. 13). There was an ancient custom, dating at least as far back as the days of St. John Chrysostom, that a Bishop should preface his sermon with the words 'Peace be to you all,' and that the people should answer 'And with thy spirit.' This mutual greeting seems to me full of meaning. I propose to adopt this custom generally as I did at my installation in the Cathedral on the eve of All Saints' Day. I should be glad if the choir of any church where I am preaching may be instructed to make the response. The Church and the Working Classes. The Bishop of Birmingham, in a letter to his diocese on the return of the Labour party, says that this is leading Churchmen to reflect (much too late) how lamentably small is the proportion of the wage-earners in town and country which is really, in heart and mind, at home in the Church and belonging to the Church. "The proportion of regular workmen communicants is very small. In Birmingham we may contrast them with the number of the members of the Sunday morning schools. In many poor parishes (I thank God not by any means all) the attendants at church come mostly from outside. The seating arrangements in our churches, even in working-class parishes, often favour this tendency. Our services at Matins and Evensong are not so easily intelligible to the poor as the services of many of the Nonconformist bodies or of the Roman Catholics. Our diocesan and very often our parochial councils are representative of the rich rather than of the poor, of capital rather than of labour." Welsh Service at St. Paul's Cathedral. The annual National Welsh Festival Service was held on Tuesday night in St. Paul's Cathedral, and there was present a large congregation, which almost filled the building. The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs attended in State. The service was entirely in Welsh, and the singing was led by a choir drawn from the Welsh churches in London, and reinforced by about fifty female voices. It was accompanied by the band of the Grenadier Guards. The hymns were all sung to characteristically Welsh tunes. The Rev. Principal Thomas, of the Home and Colonial Training College, Wood Green, read the prayers, and Sir John Puleston read the first and the Rev. J. Rees the second Lesson. The sermon was preached in Welsh by the Bishop of Llandaff, and the Benediction was pronounced in Welsh by the Archdeacon of London. Duties of Citizenship. Archdeacon Sinclair preached at All Saints', Derby, on Sunday morning on behalf of the local Y.M.C.A., and in the afternoon addressed a great Meeting in the Drill Hall on the duties of citizenship. Speaking of the duties of the good citizen towards his own town, he pointed out how there were two forces which ruled every town; one was visible, material force of the Corporation and those who composed it, and the other was the invisible, impalpable influence of public opinion. For the first it was their duty always to vote only for the honest, true, loyal men, who were free from all partiality, suspicion, jobbery, and corruption, and who would administer the affairs of the town with the strictest justice. With regard to the other force, the speaker showed how public opinion was the aggregate of the opinions expressed by individuals, and it therefore behoved everyone to exercise care when giving an opinion to his neighbour. Let public opinion be always on the side of temperance, decency, public morality, justice, steady progress in the conditions of the people, and of the observance of the laws, because after all on that the peace of the whole community depended. Public-houses were all the better for being watched and fortified by public opinion. By public opinion overcrowding could be stopped, the use of foul language in the streets and in the workshops could be checked. Miscellaneous. At a Meeting of the Committee of the Poor Clergy Relief Corporation, held at their offices, 38 Tavistock Place, Tavistock Square, London, W.C., on February 27, the sum of 395l. was distributed amongst ten clergymen, eleven widows, and six orphan daughters. Holiday grants amounting to 30l. were also made, in addition to gifts of clothing in seventeen cases. The total amount distributed was 425l. The following Resolution has been adopted by the Chapter of the Rural Deanery of Ely: "That the welfare of the Church would be greatly promoted by such reforms in the laws and customs regulating the fixity of official tenure as would provide for the compulsory retirement of clergy of all ranks who are permanently inefficient for the discharge of their duties from whatever cause; and that any such reform should be accompanied by the establishment of an adequate pension fund for all who retire from causes other than their own misconduct." Archdeacon Sandford has been presented by the clergy of his archdeaconry with a silver tray and an illuminated address signed by the subscribers, in recognition of his labours in connection with the recently published Life of Archbishop Temple, and in appreciation of his work as Archdeacon for sixteen years, especially in educational and Temperance affairs. MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 545 Correspondence. [NOTE. - Letters to the Editor are carefully scrutinized, and preference is given to those which are signed. Correspondents are asked to write on one side of the paper only, and to forward their manuscript as early in the week as possible. No notice whatever is taken of anonymous communications, nor can rejected letters be returned to the writers.} A LAYMAN'S CRITICISMS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE "LAYMAN." Sir, - In my previous letter on "The Tyranny of the Choir," I dealt more particularly with the persistent exclusion of the congregation from those portions of the service in the "Forms for Morning and Evening Prayer" in which they have a right to claim participation. I now propose to call attention to the manner in which the priest performs the sacred duties entrusted to him alone. That is, the way in which he delivers the various acts of prayer and thanksgiving for the edification of his flock. I submit that this side of the subject is quite as worthy of careful consideration as the other. I imagine that only use and custom can possibly account for the deplorable way in which the Scriptures are generally gabbled or droned by the officiating priest. This, I freely admit, is a grievance which only affects an inconsiderable number of the congregation. Most people are so accustomed to faulty enunciation and wretched reading that, not knowing anything better, they are unable to comprehend what they miss when the hackneyed clerical sing-song plays havoc with the greatest masterpiece of literature the world has ever produced. If ever a book lent itself to good elocution and careful reading, that book is the Bible. By elocution, I do not mean the horrible specimens with which the popular Reciter has made us miserably familiar, but plain, distinct enunciation, critical emphasis, and reverent intonation, all of which is sadly lacking in the clerical or lay readers, wherever found. How seldom one hears the Scriptures read well, and how still more seldom does one hear the gift united with a rich, flexible, and cultivated voice. I remember some years ago a man telling me (I met him in the train by chance) that he never understood, or remotely grasped, the marvellous beauty and spiritual completeness of the Lord's Prayer until one day he heard it read by a young clergyman in a village church. "It was a revelation to me," he said, "and now whenever I say the prayer, I think it in the way in which he spoke the words." To hear that splendid piece of glorious poetry contained in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, beginning "Vanity of vanities," said the preacher, "all is vanity," read by the average clergyman, or lay reader, is simply torture to anyone who understands the witchery and music which dwells in the just expression and emphasis of those exquisite words. Why cannot clergymen - not the old, perhaps, but the younger priests of the present generation - learn to read God's Book in such a way as to bring its truths home as a living force to the idle ear? It is wrong to bring the best of which the science of elocution is capable to bear up on the interpretation of the Great Book? If, on the other hand, as frequently happens, a layman is selected to read the Lessons, the change, if anything, is generally for the worse. Clergymen, from long practice, are, to give them their due, at least audible to their congregations. But the layman, if past middle age, speaks in a snuffling tone extremely hard to follow, or murmurs the sacred words in strict confidence to himself, while his pronunciation of some of the Biblical names of places and people is, to say the least of it, often quaint and original. If a younger man reads the Lessons, we have to endure the same monotonous sing-song chant of words and the same hopeless inability to differentiate in emphasis and expression between such passages as "Bless me also, even me also, O my Father!" and "So-and-So begat So-and-So," which seems to be the peculiar failing of most of the official and lay readers of the Bible. There is a story told of Garrick which illustrates my point of view. He was once asked by a clergyman to give him a few hints to enable him to improve his reading of the Bible. Accordingly the great actor and the priest repaired together to the church, and while the former went to the lectern, the latter seated himself in a pew to listen and criticize. The tale continues that, as the clergyman opened the Sacred Book, Garrick admonished him at once: "Open the Bible as if it were God's Holy Word," he said, "and not a ledger!" Then think how the words of some of our grand prayers are gabbled and mangled almost out of recognition in the reading, so that a prayer, perfect in form, beautiful in conception, becomes a dull formless formula, conveying no message of significance to the listening ear. Read the beautiful prayer of General Thanksgiving (a prayer which, personally, I consider the whole congregation should join in with the priest) beginning: "Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we Thine unworthy servants do give Thee most humble and hearty thanks for all Thy goodness and loving kindness to us and to all men"; and then, when you next attend Divine service, listen to the slovenly way in which it is rendered by the officiating priest, and ask yourself the question whether such an interpretation is little short of a disgrace to an educated man, or an insult to Almighty God. I often wonder whether clergymen ever think of the meaning of the words they read. Do they? One hesitates to answer the question in the affirmative after listening to the average priest. One despairs of much improvement when one is told that: "Emphasis of any sort is 'bad form' and vulgarizes the Bible." The Sermon. I have left the sermon till the last. It is a difficult question to touch on, to generalize on. For here the personality of the preacher counts for a great deal. It is quite impossible to suggest any arbitrary rule to regulate the length of a sermon. I believe no man or woman ever objects to the length of a sermon so long as it interests them. There are many short sermons preached that congregations have found too long, and vice versa. I think the qualities of all others that win a congregation are earnestness and sincerity. I do not believe any sermon entirely fails in which these virtues are present. But the methods of the pulpit are often slipshod and desultory, the scheme of the sermon ill-considered, the line of argument weak, the conclusions illogical; and this, combined with a wretched delivery, scarcely makes for spiritual enlivenment. The preacher loses his grip of the attention of his congregation and drones out dreary platitudes, while his flock, it is to be feared, suffer their thoughts to stray in contemplation of purely mundane matters until the conclusion of the rambling discourse of their spiritual pastor and master recalls them once more to a sense of their surroundings. If clergymen would only sum up and epitomize the gist of the lessons they have deduced in their sermons at the end of each address in a few pithy sentences, they would, I am sure, immensely add both546 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. to their value and to their effect. If instead of being content to leave a general effect more or less vague in character, and fleeting in impression, upon the minds of the congregation, they sent them away with one clearly-defined rule, deduction, lesson (call it what you will) to guide them through the week, much practical religious good would certainly ensue. If, for instance, they said to them in effect: "Now the lesson I wish you to learn to-night, and to think over in the week, so that it may influence and guide your life, is - so-and-so," whatever it may be. In such case even the most stupid person present would carry away some definite and complete idea to help him or her through the troubles, trials, and temptations of this workaday world. Why not precipitate, as it were, the constituent atoms of the lesson held in suspension through twenty or thirty pages of manuscript into a concrete crystal, easily seen and realized? Your obedient servant, EDGAR H. S. BARNES-AUSTIN. East Twickenham, Middlesex, February 26. —— THE EDUCATION QUESTION. TO THE EDITOR OF THE "LAYMAN." Sir,—"In quietness and confidence shall be thy strength" has for long been the Church's motto, supplemented by that adopted by the Church Committee of "defence not defiance"; but there are notable exceptions to all rules, and I know well that the lay mind stands aghast at the masterly inactivity that prevailed at headquarters during the recent election, and the fatal waiting policy that still prevails. I can claim to know more of what passes in lay Churchmen's minds than many of my clerical brethren can, for I was over forty years of age before I was ordained by the late Archbishop Benson, and I therefore make no apologies for putting forward what I believe should be the Church's constructive Educational scheme, without waiting for the issue of one that we are perfectly sure we shall be unable to subscribe to. We must remember, what even our heads seem too often to overlook, that the Church of England is a mighty power in the land, and that if all are staunch and true there is no mere political power on earth that can override our rights and just intentions. What has caused Churchmen and Churchwomen most surprise and despair is that the Church has made no effort by special legislation to prevent Infidels, Freethinkers, Agnostics, &c., from being freely admitted into the Council provided schools as teachers and trainers of the children, over whose souls the clergy are the divinely appointed guardians. The following, which is vouched for by an inspector, is only one of many deplorable instances of the religious demoralization that is permitted a free hand in the Council provided schools:- "A free-thinking teacher in one of these schools, who treated the Bible as a myth, said to his class: 'You can believe these stories to be true if you like; I don't.' " "Did Jesus really live?" said a little London Council Provided School-boy, "teacher told us that the Life of Jesus was a fairy-tale!" Does it not make one's blood boil with indignation to realize that all the good influence and devout teaching of Church and Sunday-school can be overturned by one of these "devil's volunteers," during the week-day school? Well may we ask, can Church people dare any longer to support schools for the furtherance of poisonous false teaching, and the inculcating of blasphemy against the Holy Trinity in the minds of our innocent children? What, are we to suppose there is such a dearth of Christian teachers in the land that the present educational authorities are obliged to appoint mockers of Christianity to the delicate task of forming the children's minds and characters; or is it part of a deeply-rooted conspiracy to bring all religion into contempt? 1. In the Church's constructive educational policy she must insist on all elementary schools (excepting Jewish) being served by Christian teachers only, who can conscientiously subscribe to a belief in Christianity in its broadest sense; so that no longer may atheists agnostics, free-thinkers, or other anti-Christian teachers be allowed to poison the minds of the children attending these schools. 2. That all elementary schools in the land, whether provided or non-provided (excepting Jewish) be open for daily Christian instruction, if so demanded by the clergy and ministers of all Christian denominations whose children attend these schools; such instruction to commence at 9.15 a.m. and conclude at 9.45 a.m.; and that all so-called "Council religious instruction" be immediately stamped out, as being an insidious device for procuring State recognition and endowment of a specious form of ethical religion hateful to Christian people, or at the most favoured by one exclusive school of thought. 3. The State Imperial taxation be the sole means of support to all elementary schools alike, so that local rates may be entirely freed from all educational charges. 4. That in consideration of the rights of the clergy and other ministers to impart religious knowledge during school hours, alike in provided and non-provided elementary schools, the foundation managers, as trustees of all non-provided school property, do lease to the State their school buildings from Mondays to Fridays inclusive, and that the use of the same during the said evenings be a matter of arrangement between the local educational authority of the district and the foundation managers. 5. That the foundation managers reserve the school premises on Saturdays and Sundays exclusively to the use they should be put to under their trust deeds. 6. That in lieu of rent for five days' use of the schools the State undertakes to keep the premises in proper structural repair. 7. That the education authority for the district have sole control of the work of the school during the five days specified above, on condition that clause 2 of this policy be strictly observed. With regard to the education authority, I am personally in favour of returning to popularly elected representatives— men and women who are educationalists at heart, and who are not, as at present, members of half-a-dozen other Committees. You get at the wishes of the parents whose children are attending your elementary schools if you give them a distinctive vote in local educational matters, and I am therefore—provided the interests of the trustees of the non-provided schools are safely guaranteed, as proposed above—in favour of a return to School Boards, who should control all the elementary schools in their neighbourhood, under the conditions previously set forward. There is no doubt that much more could be made of Saturday as well as Sunday schools than the Church has yet realized. What I have set down here seems to me to constitute a fair and reasonable basis to work upon, and should School MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 547 Boards be again constituted the local education authority Church people must in the future look to it that their representation on all such is duly proportionate to the Church's strength in the country at large. We must remember that only one policy, and that favoured by the extreme section of secular Nonconformity is at present before the country, and that the country is now looking anxiously for the Church's lead; let it be given without fear, and with a conscience void of offence, and depend upon it that the country will ultimately adopt it. There are times for masterly inactivity, but not at the present crisis, lest we be accused, and with some reason, of not knowing our own minds; whereas the voice of the Church should be heard, before the Government Bill is introduced, clear and unmistakable in its pronouncement. Yours truly, OWEN BULKELEY. St. Agnes, Southampton, February 27. [In accordance with our determination to allow all sides to be heard in the Layman we give insertion to Mr. Bulkeley's letter. We should like to have more authority than Mr. Bulkeley gives us for the shocking incidents he mentions in the fifth paragraph of his letter, and we may add that, as has been pointed out before in our columns, no test could keep out of the schools a teacher capable of such dishonour. The Spectator has very justly observed that when these isolated cases arise the Local Education Authority and the managers should be strong enough to deal with them. —ED.] ——— THE KING AND THE CONVOCATIONS. PRIOR to the Levée on Monday, the King received on the Throne deputations with addresses from the Convocation of both Houses of the Provinces of Canterbury and York. The Archbishop of Canterbury read the address to the King from the Convocation of Canterbury, to which His Majesty was graciously pleased to reply as follows:— "I receive with much gratification your loyal and dutiful address, and I thank you heartily for your renewed assurance of devotion and attachment to my Throne and Person, as well as for your condolence and sympathy in the great sorrow which has befallen the Queen and myself and my family through the lamented death of my beloved father-in-law, the King of Denmark. "I recall with deep thankfulness to Almighty God my merciful restoration to health from the illness which delayed my Coronation. The anxiety of all classes of my subjects for my recovery, and their touching tributes of affection, deeply moved me, and will remain an undying memory and a ceaseless source of gratification to me. "It is ever, as you know, my earnest desire to do all in my power to contribute towards the maintenance of peace and tranquility throughout the world, and to foster that spirit of goodwill and charity which is characteristic of our holy religion. I share your thankfulness for the peace which has prevailed in Europe throughout my reign, and I rely upon the Christian sentiment of my people for supporting the pacific policy which has consistently guided my counsels. I trust that the visits of the Prince and Princess of Wales to the Colonies and to India will contribute to the maintenance of the concord that reigns throughout my dominions, and will, as you hope, strengthen the bonds of loyalty and affection which unite the people of my Empire. "I learn with satisfaction of the measures of reform which have been introduced and are contemplated for extending the usefulness of the Church. You may be assured that it will ever be my wish to promote all measures which may tend to encourage the spread of religion and to render the Church an increasingly efficient instrument for promoting the spiritual welfare of my people. I hope that these objects may be furthered by the constitution of the new body and by any proposals for the reform of the ancient Houses of Convocation which gain your approval, and that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon your labours. "I rejoice with you in observing the increasing zeal, faithfulness, and devotion manifested by the clergy and the laity in ministering to the needs of the poor, and I trust that the Commission which I have appointed to inquire into the problems of the relief of the poor and the distress arising from want of employment may be able to find some means of ameliorating the conditions resulting in the distress which weighs so heavily on many of my poorer subjects. "I much regret that many of the clergy are suffering from the effects of the agricultural depression which has been prevalent for so many years. On all matters that concern the welfare of the Church of England you may rest assured of my continued sympathy and interest. "I am well aware of the great work which has been accomplished by the Church in the advancement and improvement of education, and I feel assured that your efforts for the continuance of this work, which have in the past borne such good fruit, will not be relaxed. "I thank you for your prayers on my behalf, and I earnestly hope that by the Divine blessing prosperity may be abundantly bestowed on the Church of Christ and its labours not only within the kingdom, but also in my dominions beyond the seas, and that your zealous endeavors in the cause of true religion may tend to establish our national welfare on the surest foundations, and to promote the permanent happiness and highest interests of all classes of my people." The Archbishop of York then read the address from the Convocation of York and His Majesty was graciously pleased to read the following reply :— "I thank you very heartily for your loyal and dutiful address, and for your sympathy in the bereavement which has fallen upon the Queen, myself, and my family through the lamented death of my father-in-law, the King of Denmark. "I share your feeling of thankfulness to God for His mercy in restoring me to health from the grave illness which delayed my Coronation, and I thank you for the kind expression of your affectionate interest in my welfare. My strength and my constant attention shall ever be devoted to the great causes of my subjects' well-being and of international peace. "It is a source of the greatest happiness to me to witness the efforts now being made by the clergy, both at home and abroad, to further our holy religion and to spread the Church of Christ, and I feel assured that the Divine blessing will rest on your earnest endeavors to minister to the necessitous, to reclaim and reform those who have fallen into vice, and to instruct the ignorant. "In these efforts, as well as in the reforms which are being made, and are in contemplation, for the increased efficiency of the Church and its representative bodies, I feel sure that you will be upheld and assisted by the co-operation and sympathy of a faithful laity. "You may be well assured that in al that concerns the welfare of our National Church you will have my earnest sympathy and my constant prayers, and I trust that the burden caused by the present agricultural depression which weighs so heavily upon many of the clergy in my kingdom may be lightened. "I thank you for your prayers on my behalf, and I trust that the Almighty will abundantly bless your continued efforts to promote true Christianity and morality."548 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2,1906. ———————————————————————————— BACK TO THE LAND. SIR,—We of the Salvation Army sent 4,000 people to Canada last year, and are hoping to send 10,000 this, if the necessary funds are forthcoming. Thousands of applications received from distressed people for loans to meet balance of passage. Please help us to help them. We send out only reliable people; we find work for all; our 400 centres in Canada furnish help if required, and all loans, as repaid, are used again to assist other deserving candidates. $10 will repay entire cost of passage. Particulars of cases assisted gladly furnished. Cheques should be made payable to General Booth, 101 Queen Victoria Street, E.C., and be crossed "Bank of England, Law Courts Branch." W. BRAMWELL BOOTH. ———————————————————————————— CANADIAN EMIGRATION. CLERGYMAN WANTED to act as Chaplains on ships carrying emigrants to Canada during the months of March and April, specially before Easter. Free return passage (2nd Class) offered for particulars apply at once to the Rev. H.E. ELWELL, St. Nicholas Vestry, Liverpool. ———————————————————————————— Rev. ALAN BRODRICK, Broughton Gifford Rectory, writes: "The Bibles are perfect Books of Art and cheapness." A 1/- ILLUSTRATED BIBLE. This Bible is printed in clear Pear type, and contains 16 Photographic Views, 16 beautiful Figure Pictures after Collier, Delaroche, Hoffman, Reynolds, Titian, &c.; 2 beautiful Illuminated Title-pages and Maps. Tastefully bound in imitation leather, gilt edges, and round corners, 1/3 post free, or 6 copies for 6/6 post free. A 1/6 Reference Edition of the above, with Scripture Index, Atlas, &c., post free for 1/9, or 6 for 9/9. A SPECIMEN PAGE of above, and larger sizes, sent post free on application. THE LONDON BIBLE WAREHOUSE, 53 Paternoster Row, E.C. ———————————————————————————— C. THE CHURCH PASTORAL-AID SOCIETY P. is AIDING the CHURCH in her PASTORAL work in the most difficult parishes of the factory towns, the colliery distracts, and the slums, with A. 999 ADDITIONAL WORKERS. from every side the call for more help comes. Would you not like to help? S. Offices- FALCON COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C. ———————————————————————————— "The Layman". ———————————————————————————— FRIDAY AFTERNOON, March 2, 1906. ——— THE DEBATE IN THE NORTHERN CONVOCATION. THE discussions on the Education Question which took place in the Northern Convocation last week form marked contrast to those which took place almost simultaneously at Westminster. We are far from saying that we agree with the Resolutions ultimately arrived at by a majority of the Northern Bishops; but they were at least clear and explicit. What distinguished York from Canterbury was determination to look facts in the face and to grasp the real points at issue. We search in vain the Reports of the proceedings of the Southern Bishop of Carlisle and the Bishop of Sodor and Man. These two able prelates put before the Upper House some of he weightiest of reasons why Churchmen should at the present juncture unite in seeking to secure statutory provision fro Christian teaching, upon an undenominational basis, in all elementary schools, and thus defeat the efforts of those who, seeing that Christian people will not, or cannot, compose their differences over the religious education of children, desire to see the secular system established amongst us. Unfortunately, they did not succeed in defeating the mischievous proposals of the Bishop of Manchester; but their protests will not be without effect, and we are thankful that they were made. We are free to confess that we are surprised at the attitude adopted by the Bishop of Manchester towards undenominationalism. He does not seem to go so far as his former chief, Bishop Gore, although in argument he states his position with an extravagance of language which can only be profoundly regretted. "That the State should endow Romanism, or Congregationalism, or Presbyterianism," so the Report of his speech in the Yorkshire Post runs, "and make it the only form of teaching supported by the State, would be no loss of principle. But to endow that which, after all, was a State-framed religion, to endow the mutilation of the Bible in the name of simple Bible teaching- this was a step which went far beyond secularism- it was a step which logically might end in the endowment of Atheism". We venture to say that such language is altogether unfitting in the month of a Christian Bishop. We accept without reserve the Bishops's declaration that he has a strong and even passionate yearning for peace and reunion; but how is it that he does not see that by his absolutely unrestrained language he is making peace impossible. According to him the "essential feature" of undenominationalism is "indifference to any definite form of religious belief." It "planed away all doctrines that were likely to offend"; it is "direct denial of the faith." But in saying in all this the Bishop must have forgotten that the work of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Religious Tract Society, the London City Mission, and some other Evangelical organizations, with the distinctive features of which the Bishop may be supposed to be familiar, is undenominational in its character. He must have forgotten, also, that the undenominational teaching which is given in Provided Schools in London, Surrey, Birkshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Derbyshire, and other counties is, as we have shown from the syllabuses printed in our columns, essentially Christian. Moreover, we venture to affirm that the Gospel itself is undenominational in its character. It is the exclusive property of no one Church; it is the heritage of all, and the elementary truths of Gospel- those that a child ought to know for its soul's health- are unreservedly accepted in their primary and natural meaning by Christian people of every denomination. The Bishop of Manchester's views were strongly combated by the Bishop of Carlisle and the Bishop of Sodor and Man. Bishop Diggle quickly disposed of the suggestion taht it was possible that religious instruction might be given by persons who did not believe in it. Brushing aside all verbal quibbles, he said plainly that he did not believe it was an actual condition of things; nor did he believe it was a possible condition of things. "My trust", he said, "is based on the honour of the teachers." If there had been more confidence and less suspicion shown by the Church towards teachers in the past it is probable that we should not now be in our present position. The outcry in favor of " religious tests" for teachers is shallow and unreal, for no test is of any value in the case of a hypocrite, and if there should be amongst the teachers of Provided Schools- most of whom have been trained in Church Colleges- any Large number sufficiently dishonorable to undertake religious teaching which they do not believe in, it may be safely assumed that they would readily find a way of satisfying any "test". that was imposed upon them. The Bishop of Carlisle's plan of trusting the honour of the teachers is the better way, and where a teacher could not conscientiously give religious instruction other arrangements could be made. The Bishop of Sodor and Man pressed the Bishop of Manchester so closely on the question of undenominational education as disclosed by the syllabuses [page break] MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 549 that Dr. Knox had at length to admit that he "was not attacking the syllabuses." But he did not seem to realize that by that admission he vitiated the whole of his argument. The present controversy is not over some imaginary bogey which the Bishop of Manchester or anybody else may choose to conjure up and call it undenominationalism, but over a system which is, in its essence, distinctly and definitely Christian, a system of which the country has had a long experience, and which satisfies the preponderating mass of Church of England people Nonconformists. The Bishop of Sodor and Man very rightly protested against the offensive expression "mutilated Bible" which the Bishop of Manchester hurled at the heads of Undenominationalists, yet it was neither withdrawn nor explained. But the inherent weakness of the Bishop of Manchester's proposals was chiefly apparent when he came to deal with the claim for "impartial treatment by the State of all forms of religion". Such a claim has no substance in it, and if it be persisted in will inevitably lead to the adoption of the secular system. This may seem to some an issue not more disastrous than undenominational teaching, but to the great body of English people the banishment of religion from the schools will be a matter of the profoundest regret, and will sooner or later recoil upon the heads of those, whether in Church or State, who may have been instrumental in bringing it about. The Bishop of Manchester seemed concerned about the the Romanist and High Churchman, but the Bishop of Sodor and Man characterized the threats in which High Churchmen have been heard to indulge as "loose talk." we venture, indeed, to urge that a great deal of what is said about "impartial treatment" for "all forms of religion" may be so described. The Bishop of Manchester is jealous for the conscience of the High Churchmen, but he is silent in regard to the position of Protestant Churchmen. Yet he must know that the gulf which separates these two classes is in some cases wide and deep; and when the claim is advanced on behalf of Church teaching we are entitled to ask what is meant by it? But we need not pursue the point further. It is enough to say that, whatever may be the view taken of the Resolutions arrived at, the discussion in the York Convocation has shown us where we stand, and has revealed the fact that there are at least two Bishops in the North who can read the sign of the times. Unfortunately, either of them is in the House of Lords, but we yet hope that the clear and statesmanlike views held by the Bishops of Carlisle and Sofor and Man may in some way or other be brought to bear upon the legislature. It is, of course, to Parliament that our eyes must now turn. Mr. Birrell's difficult task has not been made easier by the unreasoning and unreasonable attitude taken up by those who are championing the Church position. We have said before, and we repeat it here, that if the religious welfare of the children is alone considered, and not the interests of any particular denomination, it ought not to be difficult to solve the religious difficulty in a way that would be generally acceptable to all except the extremists. The line of policy advocated in the Layman is, we are glad to know, not without adherents. Already the Record, which lately received the commendation of Lord Halifax for its stand on behalf of the Church position, is coming round to see the importance of maintaining Bible education in the schools, and there are other indications that it is becoming more generally recognized that a statutory system of Christian undenominational education, with outside facilities for denominational teaching, is the only possible solution of our present difficulties. Of course, compensation must be paid for the leasing of Church Schools to the Education Authority, and every possible safeguard taken to ensure the use of the buildings for Church purposes on Sundays and on every other occasion when they are not required for educational purposes under the Act. The change will not be such a revolution as many people expect, for in spite of the protests of apologists of the sectarian system there is a wonderful amount of agreement between Churchmen and Nonconformists on the fundamental truths of the Gospel, and it should not be difficult to find a common basis from which we may all teach little children the elementary principles of the Christian religion. ——— PARLIAMENTARY NOTES. Mr. Samuel Evans, K. C., M. P., has given notice that on Tuesday next he will introduce a "Bill to prevent for a limited time the creation of new interests in Church of England bishoprics, dignities, and benefices in Wales and Monmouthshire." He will on that same evening introduce a "Bill to provide for the Enfranchisement of leasehold Places of Worship." As both these Bills are non-official, it is not likely that they will reach a second reading; and there is no chance—except the Government give facilities—that they will pass even the House of Commons this session. On Wednesday Mr. H. J. Tennant introduced a Bill "to amend the law to the Trial and Detention of Children." THE following is the text of the Bill on the question of providing meals for school children referred to in our Notes on Current Topics, and "circulated" yesterday morning:— A Bill to amend the Education Acts, 1902 and 1903. Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in the present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:— 1. This Act may be cited as the Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906, and shall be construed as one with the Education Act, 1902, in this Act referred to as the principal Act, as extended by the Education (London) Act, 1903. 2. When the local education authority, for the purposes of Part III. of the principal Act, resolve that any of the children in attendance at any public elementary school within their area are unable by reason of lock of food to take full advantage of the education provided for them, the local education authority shall take such steps as they think fit to provide food for such children (and, if the local education authority think fit, for any other children in their schools) under such regulations and conditions as the local education authority may prescribe, including, if they so resolve, the making of a charge to recover the cost from the parent or guardian, provided that no provision of food under this Act shall be deemed to be parochial relief. ——— THE KING OF SPAIN'S ENGAGEMENT. THE following Resolution has been passed by the Committee of the National Protestant Church Union :— "The National Protestant Church Union desire to record their deep concern at the announcement of the approaching marraige of Her Serene Highness the Princess Ena of Battenberg with His Majesty the King of Spain, such marriage necessitating on the part of our English Princess not only the renunciation, but the explicit repudiation of that Protestant Faith, in which she has been nurtured, which is the faith of her parents, and which has for 350 years been the faith of the land of her birth."THE LAYMAN. 550 March 2, 1906 THE RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AS VIEWED FROM A SECONDARY STANDPOINT. BY A PUBLIC SCHOOL MASTER. "Protestantism reckons upon the Gospel being something so simple, so divine, and therefore so truly human, as to be most certain of being understood when it is left entirely free, and also to produce essentially the same experiences and convictions in individual souls" (Adolf Harnack, "What is Christianity?") Why is the religious difficulty confined to primary schools? This is a question which it is natural to ask at the present time; and from the answer to it we may reasonably expect to derive some aid towards the solution of the difficulty. Let us glance at the religious position of the "Public Schools," those Olympian institutions at the very Antipodes to the scene of the present contest, but none the less able to provide a lesson and example which the defenders of denominationalism might take to heart. In theory these might for the most part be considered to be the very seed-beds of the Established Church. They were many of them founded, if not by the Church, at least in the interests of the established religion. In the scheme of many a pious founder, piety no less than scholarship was the object of the foundation. The services in the school chapels are conducted in accordance with the prescribed order of the Prayer-book. Confirmations are held there, and the flower of the clergy and laity of the Established Church owed their education to some such institution or ancient or modern date. What better apparatus, it might be said, could possibly be contrived for creating a "denominational atmosphere" than this of the public schools? Yet it is a remarkable fact that thought the great majority of the boys who are educated at Eton, harrow, Winchester, Westminster, and the like, come of families which profess a traditional allegiance to the Church of England, it is by no means uncommon to find parents not only professing Protestant dissent, but even Roman Catholics or Jews by belief, sending their children to be educated side by side with the sons of Anglicans. What is the cause of this prevailing liberalism? It might be supposed with likelihood that it was due to laxness of conviction on the part of the parents; a deliberate subordination of religious interests to the social and educational advantages of a public school career. But, on the one hand, this is hardly borne out by the facts, so far as they can be ascertained; and secondly, there are other causes to account for the phenomena. One is the fact that the religious teaching given in school is purely Bible teaching; and, perhaps more important still, the fact that so far as an "atmosphere" is created or designed it is not form too large an element in their composition. But there are always many, laymen no less than clergymen, who take advantage of their great opportunity, and make the deepening of spiritual insight, the apprehension of moral principle, the main object of their labours. And in any case the remarkable fact remains that almost the whole of the religions instruction in the public school lies in the hands of men who have submitted to no test beyond that of willingness to include the Bible among the other books taught, and as a rule to appear at the ordinary chapel services. Otherwise they are quite free. Rarely does any difficulty arise in respect of religion. The sectarian and proselytizing spirit give way to the larger and more liberal spirit of learning. And though instances of a voluntary change of faith are sometimes found among the boys, this is never due to direct influence exercised through the channels of instruction. With religious instruction thus conducted it is hardly necessary to say that the "atmosphere" is not denominational. There is nevertheless a decided atmosphere of religion about a Public School. It is the religion which Arnold preached; which seems to associate itself naturally with the free life and the healthy ideals of honour and manliness, so that together they form the one undeniable merit of the education given there. It is the thing sometimes named (or should we say nicknamed?) "muscular Christianity." And surely this can be the property of no sect, of no one type of religion; for it is the common product of all healthy and sane Christian teaching; it is the kernel which is laid bare when the husks of sectarian difference are stripped off; it is the spirit of citizenship, beginning with the small letters, with the lesson of daily life in a corporate fellowship, and naturally expand-ing into the larger conception of the common citizenship of all Christian people. To an atmosphere such as this who could take exception? For, indeed, in no other air can the flower of Duty, of Loyalty, of Patriotism and Self-denial grow and thrive. One of the more important objections which are raised by the clamourers for "definiteness" in religious teaching must now be met. It is said that, however closely we may adhere to the text of the Bible in our scheme of instruction, certain questions of interpretation must soon or later be raised, which cannot be burked or avoided. First and foremost among these would come the question of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. The reality of such problems cannot be denied. Those who pursue the deeper study of theology are aware what different philosophical meanings can be given to the phrase "The Word was made flesh" without inconsistency with the spirit of the original utterance. The immature mind can only be familiarized with such phrases pending the time when it can put its own construction upon them. And it is sometimes forgotten by those who speak of the necessity THE LAYMAN. March 2, 1906. 551 therefore, less harm is done by using the same words, though attaching to them a somewhat different meaning to what is usually conveyed by them, than by giving the impression that to him they have no meaning at all. An honest and conscientious man will know how far he can go consistently with veracity. And, as a matter of fact, the better educated he is, the more he will realize that much latitude of interpretation can be combined with a perfect sympathy as to underlying principle. For, after all, the Bible is truth "revealed unto babes." What a charge it is against the greatest of books- that in which Protestants and Englishmen above all have always prided themselves that the plain man may find therein his guide to the upright life- to assert that without the aid of catechisms and creeds it is a dead letter and worthless, or worse than worthless, as being a possible instrument of error! The fallacy here implied is one which it does not require a theologian but merely a sound educationalist to correct. For one does not need to be a profound psychologist to know that to a child abstractions, alike in the domain of religion as elsewhere, are barren and meaningless. Perhaps among those who read these lines there may be not a few who have early recollections of hard lessons taught by a well-intentioned but mistaken parent, concerned largely with grace, the Tri-Unity of God, Inspiration, Original Sin. Often they consisted of questions read from a printed book, the answers to which, though they had never been learnt by the bewildered catechumen, were, by some strange perversion of the Socratic system, supposed to be somewhere latent in the infant mind! What strange impressions of religion---and these among our earliest! The present writer once heard a well-known Headmaster discussing with some other ecclesiastics the crisis which had recently been precipitated by the action of Mr. Athelstan Riley and others. "What," asked he, "can you teach a child about Jesus Christ, except that He is the Son of God?" That is precisely the situation which we also find the boys, the younger boys at any rate, in our better-class schools. How futile to ask them to follow us through the maze of Arian or Nestorian controversy! If the greatest of all Catechists was satisfied with the avowal of the child-like Apostle, "Though art the Christ, the Son of the Living God," why not be content with the same conviction in our own children? When the later, the inquiring stage, arrives it will be time to send them to the persons competent to deal with the deeper and more difficult questions. Till then let the plain words of the Bible, "Son of Man," "Son of God," sink into the minds of the young reader. Impress on him the attitude of Jesus to His disciples and to His Father in Heaven. Let the whole story be the commentary on the meaning of the words which He applies to Himself, safeguarded only by such necessary ex- would be the doctrine of the Apostolical succession. It is strange indeed that some clergymen should be teaching in elementary schools that bishops, priests, and deacons have existed from Apostolic times, and that to maintain any other system is wrong and heretical, while recognized and orthodox professors at the University are asserting that originally bishops and priests were one and the same without distinction. It will be well if we can learn before long to discard that unattractive term, "religious instruction." It savours too strongly of the manual of question and answer. It suggests that religion consists of hard and fast propositions, to which an intellectual assent is as rigidly demanded as though they came out of Euclid's geometry. Such a system invites, no less than did that of the Sophists, the question, "Can Virtue be taught?" taught from a manual-no. But imparted by example, by sympathy, by the holding up of ideals which the teacher reverences and inspires his pupils to reverence- a thousand times yes! The Rugby boy who wrote home to a disquieted parent at the time of the publication of "Essays and Reviews," referring to Dr. Temple's share in them, "If he turned Mahometan, all the school will turn Mahometan too," was not carried away by an exaggerated spirit of patriotism. he knew that the truth spoke to him through the man, and felt indifferent as to the outward formalities of his belief and the colour of his Churchmanship. "Whoever is Chaplain," says Dr. Temple,1 "I must feel myself the real and proper religious instructor of the boys. No one else can feel the same interest in them and no one else can speak to them with so much influence." This is the real reason why the religious teaching in Public Schools is played without tests in the hands of the ordinary masters.2 And for the same reasons it is all important that the ordinary secular teacher and no special set imported in denominational interests should be entrusted with the same task in elementary education. The ancient philosopher's argument why we should not employ special teachers of virtue, restated in modern terms, may equally well apply to religious teaching. It is because, if we hold that a specialist is needed in this subject, it becomes merely one "subject" among other subjects, which we may "take up" or not at will. Whereas religion and virtue are things with which no man can dispense, and therefore we hold that all mankind who aspire after God and goodness are equally qualified as teachers of the same. Every teacher has a pastoral charge. To deny his competence to teach religion is to deny him the highest and most important of all his duties. One possible objection to the analogy that has here been attempted still remains to be met. In the Public Schools we deal with boys whose parents have had the ability and the leisure to give them a careful grounding in religious know-552 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. possible. When we are asked for "definite teaching," it must be remembered that the only way in which can be attained is by confining ourselves to the definite side of religion, that is to day to the Bible story, and, in the early stages, only the easier parts of that; with which, of course, may be included such easy prayers, hymns, &c., as have already been included in the syllabuses of our Councils. As to the limit of what a child is capable of comprehending, why should the experts of the Board of Education be less capable of judging than the Diocesan authorities? It is difficult to see how many defilement results from the contact of the State with this matter of religion. The State is at least one; the sects are many. It is the boast of Learning that it is the one cosmopolitan force in the world. It should be the boast of Christianity. But seeing that that ideal is alas! as yet un-fulfilled, it is yet possible for religion, wherever it comes in contact with learning and education, to assert itself as on and undivided. If the combined forces of Christianity and knowledge cannot do something to heal our unfortunate religious divisions, we must then despair of unity. At least, those who place obstacles in the way of our presenting Christianity undivided before the young, can hardly be furthering the cause of a united Christendom. Perhaps in this matter also "a little child shall lead them" ; and we ourselves in order to realize the unity of Christendom must "become as little children." ---- ROYAL SOCIETY OF PAINTER-ETCHERS AND ENGRAVERS. (Special to the Layman.) There is lacking at this year's Exhibition, which opened last Monday, what has so often been interesting feature-- namely, a collection of the works of one of the older masters of the art; and we may hope that though for this year the custom has been interrupted, it is not intended permanently to abandon it. it is most useful and instructive both to etchers and the public to have before them in the same exhibition the work of one of the past masters together with that of the workers of to-day. Taking it all round, the present Exhibition shows a high level of attainment and is interesting as illustrating the enormous variety of handling and the wide divergence of results from the use of the same materials. It is interesting, for instance, to compare the bold and deeply-bitten work of Frank Brangwyn in the "Breaking up the Hannibal" (134), with its superb sense of decorative effect, with the work of C. J. Watson in the "Portail de Notre Dame, Neufchatel en Bray" (160), with its charming simplicity and delicacy of line--a delicacy that is a real refinement and not the mere use of fine lines, the latter a perfectly simple matter in etching. It is worth noting too how much in the former (134) depends on fine printing. In wiping the ink off the plate, the printer leaves in some parts a thicker film of ink than in other parts; this is all right when a master knows just what he wants in effect, but on the whole, a snare to those who would have the printer's skill atone for a deficient interest in the lines themselves. After all, for those who work in line, the line is the thing and etchings always seem to us more interesting, when this is frankly acknowledged, than when an effect is aimed at that might have been produced with greater ease and certainty with a brush. Going round the Exhibition in the order of the catalogue we note J. R. G. Exley's studies of "Wild Drakes" (7) and "Houdan Fowls" (8), which are good in colour. The cloud studies of Oliver Hall are, as always, interesting, with great refinement of line, though we seem to have seen the same motive from the same hand before. Miss Pott is to be congratulated on the success of her soft ground etching, "Mill-Flanders" (39), and David Waterson's original mixture of line and mezzotint is noteworthy. G. W. Rhead shows fine drawing and composition in his "Cymon and Iphigenia" (51), one of the most successful figure etchings in the Exhibition. There is an excellent set of Venetian etchings by Sir Charles Holroyd, all marked by a sense of style. They are true etcher's work, "The Salute Steps" (75) being perhaps the most interesting. P. Helleu shows his usual bevy of fair damsels, drawn with the thorough understanding of the possibilities of the dry point line. "The Rabbit Hutch" (82) and "Dans la Cour" (84) are charming examples of the fine sense of restraint and delicate handling of Miss Minna Bolingbroke. There is a group of the serious work of Professor Legros-- "La Petite Mare" (164) is a small study by him, typical of a series of his plates that always attracts us, expressing perfectly adequately the effect of sunlight on trees with the utmost economy of line. R. Spence shows important and interesting compositions, the two that please us most being perhaps "Vanderdecken" (174) and "A Legend of Arthur at Savingshields" (175). W. Monk is well represented by a series of plates--mostly architectural subjects--which show a clear understanding of the etched line and a sense of the picturesque in what we are too often inclined to pass by as mean streets. The most important is perhaps "The Well House" (195), an interior, in which the work has been duly stopped before the artist had done too much. A word of praise should be given to the "Book-plate" (203), by B. Gorst, and the portrait of "Giovanni Segantini" (205), by Hermann Stock, shows us a fine head efficiently drawn with simple lines. Sydney Lee has an interesting group of work, showing good feeling in the disposition of masses. "Rue de l'Ane Aveugle--Bruges" (212) shows some fine qualities, and the suggestion of the buildings seen through dark shadow is good, as is also the balance of the whole plate. The word of Alfred East has, as always, a true sense of dignified composition, but we think he is capable of finer work than he shows this year. "The Hill Top" (223) seems to us the most satisfactory of his group. The Exhibition, however, loses by the absence of any work from some of the most prominent members. There is nothing from F. Short and nothing from F. V. Burridge, nor are there any specimens of the work of C. W. Sherborn or of E. Chahine. The influence of F. Short is apparent in the work of many of the exhibitors, an influence entirely for good and for high technical efficiency. There is a comparatively little mezzotint work, which is a loss, while the few aquatints are not of the first importance. But the Exhibition shows etching is a vital art, and though in other countries there are a few etchers of brilliant and exceptional talent we doubt if anywhere else can be seen an Exhibition of etching showing such a high level of achievement. --- PROTESTANT IN IRELAND. Among the questions addressed to Ministers in the House of Commons, to which answers were printed and circulated this morning, was one addressed by Mr. Lonsdale to the Irish Secretary. Mr. Lonsdale asked whether Mr. Bryce's attention had been called to the fact that in December last the Swinford Board of Guardians, in choosing a medical officer of Kiltimagh dispensary district, rejected a fully-qualified candidate solely upon the ground that he had been educated in Queen's College, Galway; whether his attention had been called to the pastoral letter issued by the Roman Catholic Bishops in 1900, in which they urged boards of guardians and other representatives bodies needing medical officers to elect only those who have been educated at the Roman Catholic School of Medicine in Dublin; and whether the Local Government Board would make representations with a view of preventing such preference being given in the selection of medical officers of Ireland." Mr. Bryce writes in reply: "The minutes of the proceedings of the board of guardians on November 28 last show that the guardians rejected a candidate upon the ground stated in the Question. I have not seen the pastoral letter referred to; but, in any event, the matter is not one in which the Local Government Board can intervene, having regard to the fact that the selection of a medical officer rests with the guardians, and that the functions of the Local Government Board are limited to seeing that the person selected is duly qualified for the post." March 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN 553 NEXT SUNDAY'S SERMON. The First Sunday in Lent. THE TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS. "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."-- St. Matthew iv. 1. What is the history of the Self-recognition by Jesus Christ as the appointed Messiah? It is a question which admits of no complete answer. We can indeed say that such a Self-consciousness was present and operative throughout His public ministry, and that it is not to be dated from some late stage in it or counted as some after-thought. But directly we endeavor to go behind the commencement of the public ministry, we find ourselves without a clue. We have, it is true, the charming narrative of His visit to Jerusalem when twelve years old, and of the words to His mother which bear witness to His sense of Divine Sonship; but there is in them no necessary suggestion of His Self-realization as the Messiah. Those almost completely hidden years were the early stages in a life which was throughout "a development from original innocence to completed holiness"; and their importance, as times when the idea of His calling to be He "of Whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write" began to take hold of Him, cannot be denied; but the steps in the formation of that supreme conviction are beyond definition or even conjecture. It would seem, however, that the perfection of this Self-appreciation was not reached till He submitted Himself to baptism at the hands of John, as a sign--so perhaps we may interpret the act--of the fullness of His Self-surrender to the Divine will. At the moment the wondrous and awful truth was finally grasped. The Holy Spirit descended as a dove upon Him, and a Voice was heard from heaven testifying to His sublime mission. A new epoch then opened for Him, differing from that which had preceded it, not in the sense that He turned away from previous sin or adhered more closely to the way of righteousness, but in the sense that from this hour the Messianic role was clearly seen by Him to be His by the Divine decree and was definitely accepted by Him with all its momentous issues. It is a strong confirmation of this view that the temptation followed the Baptism and did not fall within the earlier period of His preparatory Self-discipline. The account in the Synoptic Gospels represents Him as forthwith taken from the river-side--"straightway the Spirit driveth Him" is the forcible and dramatic expression of the second Evangelist--to the wilderness, there to undergo the temptations incident to His calling. For each of the recorded temptations is connected with the Self-knowledge to which he had at length wholly attained. They all appeal to His belief in Himself, to His belief in His Divine Sonship, to His belief in the work which He had been commissioned to do. They are not the temptations of any ordinary man with no more than an ordinary destiny, but they are the temptations of the Messiah, aware of His Messiahship, as He stands on the threshold of His public Messianic ministry. "Behold the Man." The temptation in the wilderness! There have been those who have seen in the narrative no more than a striking legend without any real historical basis, the production of an age when the soil was suitable to the growth of mythical traditions. The suggestion has a prima facie likelihood, which disappears on further investigation. In the first place we can hardly doubt that temptations to misuse His powers, to be false to principles, to win popular homage by mere wonder-working must have come to our Lord; and they are surely not misplaced at the commencement of His public ministry. In the second place, although the subject-matter was one round which legendary creations would be likely to gather, yet they would be wanting in that depth and dignity which characterize the Gospel record. The author of Ecce Homo has put the point in a clear and forcible passage. "The popular imagination" --he write--"is fertile and tenacious, but not very powerful or profound. Christ in the wilderness was a subject upon which the imagination would very readily work; but at the same time far too great a subject for it to work upon successfully. We should expect strange stories to be told of His adventures in such a solitude, but we should also expect the stories to be very childish. Now the story of Christ's temptation is as unique as Christ's character. It is such a temptation as Christ, and Christ in those peculiar circumstances, might be expected to experience." At the same time, it is surely impossible to suppose that what we are told is to be interpreted throughout with strict fidelity to the letter. "We have every reason" --as another writer has said-- "to regard this narrative even in its significant figurative dress, as having been communicated at a later period by Jesus to His disciples" ; 1 but the dress is figurative, and is not designed to correspond with literal exactness to the external circumstances. It was in symbolical form that the history of so profound a conflict "fought out in the deepest recesses of the soul" was best and most adequately told. It was thus that the struggle with Satanic suggestions was most vividly, and at the same time most truly, portrayed. It is enough for us to know that these temptations were terribly real; that the contest was no fictitious one; that "the Son of man" was veritably tried and tested; that during test and trial He found guidance in the Old Testament Scriptures without other special enlightenment; 2 that the victory in its fullness was His; that He was strengthened and refreshed by ministrations "not of this world." Let us glance--no more--at each of the three temptations, taking them in St. Matthew's order. The first was a suggestion to misuse His miraculous endowments --endowments of which He was aware-for the purpose of satisfying His own bodily needs. In other words, He was tempted to a violation of trust. His peculiar powers were not assigned to Him that He might make His own path easy, that He might spare Himself the completeness of Self-denial, that He might avert from Himself some physical suffering. And never, from first to last, were His powers used by Him for His own advantage. Whatever others gained from them He Himself gained nothing. Never does He take the edge from any of His own trials or blunt the sharpness of any Personal anguish. "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." The same rule finds a tragic illustration in the culminating moments of the Passion. "His are the thousand sparkling rills, That from a thousand fountains burst, And fill with music all the hills, And yet He saith, 'I thirst.'" He faced life as it came to Him, without an endeavor to soften its cruel severity. His whole ministry was in the strictest keeping with His resistance to this initial temptation. Always does He show the strict Self-control, the rigid Self-limitation which underlay His first reply to the Tempter, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 1 Wendt, i. 103 2 Cf. Weiss, i. 342.554 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. The second temptation was somewhat similar in character. Like the first, it was a temptation to abuse the consciousness of privilege. But it was directed not so much to bring about a misuse of power, as to inflate the assurance of special protection into overweening presumption. Our Redeemer realized that He was entrusted by His Father with a task of peculiar solemnity and greatness; but He knew that the grace of His Father was with Him to aid Him in accomplishing it. Then came the temptation to rely on that infinite love and care for the purpose of an illicit and unhallowed miracle. Christ stood in imagination on one of the pinnacles of the Temple - perhaps on the point from which the priests used to watch for the first rays of the dawn that they might signal to those below to commence the morning sacrifice. He pictured the sacred courts filled with worshippers. Did He cast Himself headlong down and descend unhurt into the midst of the throng, it would be a proof of His supernatural mission which none would gainsay. He would then be the accepted and trusted leader of His people. What had He to fear from such an enterprize? Was not angelic protection promised to Him? Would not angelic hands bear Him up and keep Him from destruction or injury? Here again His refusal to countenance any such scheme finds its counterpart in the closing hours of His earthly labours. "Or thinkest thou that I cannot beseech My Father, and He shall even now send Me more than twelve legions of angels? How then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" Not by any such means as those suggested to Him was His victory over the hearts and consciences of men to be won. Nay, may we not say that by such means no spiritual victory which was worth the winning could have been won? He could indeed command the obedience of an innumerable multitude of angels; but the proposal made to Him was outside the bounds set by true religious sentiment and was therefore an incentive to provoke the Divine anger. "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." The third temptation was perhaps less subtle in its nature; but it was one of immense force. There spread itself before the mind of the Lord a vision of the kingdoms of this world. His thoughts went out, not merely to Israel with the formalism, the hollowness, the gigantic hypocrisies of the Pharisees on the one hand, and the unbelief and unspirituality and worldiness of the Sadducees on the other, but to the nations which lay beyond them. There was Rome with its vast power, but vast infamy. There was Greece with its noble political and philosophical traditions. "Clime of the unforgotten brave! Whose land from plain to mountain-cave Was Freedom's home, or Glory's grave!" 3 There were the realms of the great Parthian monarch—the Roman emperor's only serious or dangerous rival. There were the inhabitants of the Arabian and Scythian deserts. All these—and more than these—formed themselves into a vast vista which stretched before His eyes. We can understand how attractive must have been the thought "of embracing all the secular kingdoms and the glory of them, of enfolding them in a system more powerful and more magnificent than theirs, brought about by supernatural means, with no local limitations like even the greatest of past empires, but wide as the universe itself and indestructible." 4 There suggested itself to Him the possibility of an easy victory, of a 3 Byron. 4 Sandan, Dr. Hastings' Dict. Bible: Art. "Jesus Christ." rapid attainment to widespread dominion, at the price of moral and spiritual apostacy. "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me." But our Lord meets the pressure of the temptation, as He had met that of the others, with a few words of Scripture. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve." Thus the victory was won. Thus He proved Himself "without sin." Thus was He led through temptation to the peace of a complete triumph. "Then"—we read— "the Devil leaveth Him; and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him." The temptation of Christ! It was at an end for the moment, but only for the moment. In these three trials He was, we feel, separate from us; but we know that in other hours He was joined to us. "Tempted in all points like as we are" is the inspired commentary upon His earthly life. "O Saviour Christ, Thou too art Man; Thou hast been troubled, tempted, tried." Yes, He walked in our path and not in some wholly isolated one. He realized our pitfalls, and was not guided by by-paths which spared Him the ordinary perils of mankind. His reliance upon His Father was perfect, yet He was not spared. So is He able to help us in our hours of grievous trial. So can He uplift and uphold us. So can He sympathize with each and all. So can He ever be the perfect human Friend, to Whom none upon earth can possibly compare. So is He the continuous sustenance of our souls in their many and severe struggles. "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Truly a tremendous contest. We are familiar with the vigorous setting which is given to the Apostle's words in the English version of the old hymn of the Greek Church :— "Christian, dost thou see them On the holy ground, How the troops of Midian Prowl and prowl around? . . . . . Christian, dost thou feel them, How they work within, Striving, tempting, luring, Goading into sin?" Yes, we have seen and felt them. Time after time we have fallen through these devilish agencies. We are never free for long from the bitter and humiliating consciousness of their presence and their work. Let us find help and strength in the memory of, and in communion with, the tempted but victorious Redeemer. If we are to be led up into some wilderness we need not be overwhelmed by the perils contained in it. But O Thou Shepherd of us all, guide us safely through the desert. Let Thy rod and staff be our stay and comfort. Feed us with Thy Body and Blood. Leave us not to perish as fallen sinners. Restore us once again to the land of religious joy and peace. Across the ages come His words of reassurance. "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." "Because I live, ye shall live also." The victory of victories may be ours at last. We need not fail in the end. We need not be finally outmatched by the dread diabolical forces which are arrayed against us. There is, it is true, the curse of our own past. There is the horror of those fresh assaults with which the armies of Satan seek to capture and desecrate the citadel of the soul. But there is MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 555 also the might of the risen and ascended Saviour to be our hope, our aid, our consolation, our mainstay. "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." "Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." "Praise to the Holiest in the height And in the depth be praise; In all His words most wonderful; Most sure in all His ways! O loving wisdom of our God! When all was sin and shame, A second Adam to the fight And to the rescue came. O wisest love! that flesh and blood Which did in Adam fail, Should strive afresh against their foe, Should strive and should prevail; And that a higher gift than grace Should flesh and blood refine, God's Presence and His very Self, And Essence all-divine." 5 "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and glory, for ever and ever. Amend." 5 Newman. ——— NORTHERN BISHOPS ON EDUCATION AND THE REPRESENTATIVE CHURCH COUNCIL. REFERENCE was made in the last number of the Layman to the decision arrived at by the Upper House of the Convocation of York upon the Education Problem. The discussion which preceded the decision was of a most interesting character, and from the reports which appear in various Northern newspapers we compile the following account of the proceedings. The Resolutions. The text of the Resolutions brought before the House by the Bishop of Manchester was as follows:— That in view of further educational legislation, the principles which Churchmen ought to maintain are: (1) Religious education as well as religious instruction; (2) liberty for parents to secure religious education for their children without being penalized on account of their religious convictions; (3) impartial treatment by the State of all forms of religious belief, whether denominational or undenominational; (4) maintenance by the State, and on the part of trustees of school buildings determination to hold their trusts sacred and inviolable. That this House advises all Churchmen to petition both Houses of Parliament in favour of these principles, and further recommends to all Church parents of children in Church schools the following form of petition:—"Inasmuch as it is a vital principle of the Church of England that her children shall be educated in the faith of the Church, as set forth in the Catechism, we, being parents or guardians of children in —— school, desire that our children shall continue to receive their education in Church schools as heretofore, and demand such education in the name of religious freedom." It also recommends all trustees of Church schools to organize, without loss of time, in defence of their trust deeds. "A New Form of Religion." The Bishop of MANCHESTER, in introducing the Resolutions, said (we quote from the Yorkshire Post report) that in making any new educational proposals the State should treat impartially all forms of religious belief whether denominational or undenominational. He had been warned that if they asserted this principle they prepared the way for Disestablishment. That their declaration might be so used was quite possible, for they must expect misrepresentation when dealing with the Education Question. But such use of the statement would be a misrepresentation. They were not dealing with the relations between the Church and State, which had their roots in the first beginnings of our national life. When the question of Disestablishment arose they would be able to deal with it on its own merits. What they had to consider was whether they were to give their consent to what was virtually the establishment of a new form of religion, and the endowment of it with public money. They would be told that undenominationalism was not a separate form of religious belief, but the aggregate of those simple religious truths common to all denominations which were suitable for the instruction of a child. But he made bold to say that apart from theism on the one hand and ethics on the other hand, there were no religious truths common to all denominations. They could only obtain this residuum of common belief by ruling out several denominations—Jews, Unitarians, Roman Catholics, Christian Scientists, and several others. On what principle were they going to draw the line, and above all who was to draw it? He had no doubt that it might be possible in the present House of Commons to draw the line so that teaching might be given which would not offend many Churchmen and those who were called members of the Free Churches. The Catechism of the Free Churches would be adduced as evidence of the possibility of giving this teaching, and, on the assumption that this was the kind of teaching which was given in Council schools, it would be asked in all seriousness whether they could not accept this sort of instruction and base thereupon the distinctive tenets of the Church either in Sunday catechising, or in the Sunday school, or possibly by facilities to use the day-school in school hours or out of school hours. To all such questions his reply would be, that if he did not accept this solution it was not for want of strong, he might say passionate, yearning for such prospects of peace and reunion as they held out, not for want of deep respect for the piety of Nonconformists, and of the good work they had accomplished, not through any desire to turn little children into precocious theologians. He would even say that he believed the sincere desire of all devout Churchmen and Nonconformists to be at root one--the desire to bring little children to the living Christ that He might help them. If he turned away from these proposals it was not in any spirit of dogmatic scorn nor with aught but a most sorrowful heart. Yet he was compelled to turn away. The great fact to which he could not close his eyes was that within the last thirty years a new form of religious belief had come into existence, and that it called itself undenominationalism. It was active in many good works, but its essential feature was indifference to any definite form of religious belief. Its essence was love without knowledge. It planed away all doctrines that were likely to offend, all sacramental life, all tenets that might be regarded as disputable. It concentrated in one focus that which had been the root of every heresy, the attempt to simplify the faith by omitting some portion of the truth. He could not hide from himself that this was the form of undenominationalism which would, in fact, be taught in the schools. For it saved all trouble of serious religious thinking; it appealed directly to the emotions, and children were very emotional; and, above all, it raised no such awkward questions about over-stepping the boundary as the other form which he mentioned before was sure to raise. In this undenominationalism there was room for the Unitarians, the Christadelphians, the Swedenborgians, and almost every form in modern sectarianism. But, for his own556 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. part, he held it to be a direct denial of the faith. Its essence, as he said, was love without knowledge, and its method of procedure to omit from the Bible whatever was hard to understand. It sent the teacher to his desk with a mutilated Bible, from which truths that our Lord declared to be fundamental were deliberately rescinded. And by what authority were they rescinded? There could be only one answer to this question. They were rescinded by the authority of the State. With all the earnestness of which he was capable, he ventured to plead with their Lordships solemnly to consider what it was that they would be doing if they consented to such a surrender of the faith as this. That the State should endow Romanism, or Congregationalism, or Presbyterianism, and make it the only form of teaching supported by the State, would be no loss of principle. But to endow that which, after all, was a State-framed religion, to endow the mutilation of the Bible in the name of simple Bible teaching- this was a step from which went far beyond secularism- it was a step which logically might end in the endowment of Atheism. Earnestly, therefore, he pleaded with them to declare for the equal treatment of religious belief. This need not mean, and should not mean, secularism. It should only mean that for the time spent in religious instruction the teachers should be paid by the denomination to which they belonged, and should teach the children of that denomination. The crisis was very grave. The noblest work that the Church of England had done for the nation was being threatened. A torrent of calumniation and misrepresentation had blackened their fame, distorted their motives, and made it almost impossible for bystanders to discern the truth. But their cause was so just that only their weakness and want of faith could fail in the long run to commend it to the national conscience. The Resolutions were taken seriatim, the first being seconded by the Bishop of Wakefield. The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN said it would be difficult for him to vote for the Resolution in those particular words. It was not fair to say the Government would do away with religious tests, but with denominational religious tests. The Bishop of MANCHESTER thought it unwise to enter into details. The Bishop of DURHAM pointed out that the National Union of Teachers had distinctly ranged itself against the imposition of any kind of religious tests. He presumed the intention of the Bishop of Manchester was that in the interests of the nation the principle that no question should be asked about religion on the appointment of a teacher would be fatal to the future character of the nation. The Bishop of LIVERPOOL said it was not for them to dictate to the Government the terms of the new Education Bill. When it was before them they could criticize it. Vigorous Opposition. The Bishop of CARLISLE said that although he gave his allegiance to the first principle of the Resolution he entirely and absolutely differed from the grounds on which it had been laid before the House. It had been asserted that the need for the enunciation of this principle lay in the danger in which they stood from the unbelief and immorality of the teachers themselves. The Bishop of MANCHESTER: I never used either of those expressions. The Bishop of CARLISLE: It was said that religious instruction might be given by those who did not believe in religion or by persons of immoral life. The Bishop of MANCHESTER: I say that it is a possible thing, but I did not say it was being done or imply that it was being done. I was drawing a distinction between religious education and religious instruction. I saw religious instruction might be given by person who did not believe in it, but I did not say it was done. The Bishop of CARLISLE: I do not believe it is an actual condition of things, and I do not believe it is a possible condition of things. My trust is based on the honour of the teachers. I should be sorry to root my educational legislation upon any possibility of the dishonour of a great body of intelligent and earnest persons. I want the religious instruction to be part of the school curriculum, and given by the teacher who in the view of the children was the man in authority. In the present condition of the public mind it seems to me impossible for us to have it as the Bishop of Manchester suggests. If this is to be the policy of the Church- that we are to claim the right to give denominational teaching and apply denominational tests to the teachers as part of the public scheme of education, I believe we are unwittingly becoming co-partners in the secularization of education. I wholly agree with the principle, but wholly disagree as regards the grounds on which the principle has been advanced. The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN said they were face to face with a grievous difficulty. The State was practically saying to them: "Will you accept as sufficient to be taught in the elementary schools fundamental Christianity as held by all Protestant Christians, or secular instruction?" and, therefore, he wished that a Resolution which they could all have supported had been submitted. Some of the things which the Bishop of Manchester had said were calculated to give great pain to people who only went so far as he, and, he thought, the Bishop of Carlisle, did. He believed in the common sense of England; he did not believe the British Parliament would pass a Bill which would enable a teacher of immoral character, or with views diametrically opposed to those set forth in the syllabus, to teach the children. If so there would be a great cry throughout the country. He greatly objected to the expression "mutilated Bible," and to the way in which the syllabuses had been referred to. The Bishop of MANCHESTER: I never mentioned the word syllabus from first to last. The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN: My right rev. brother was attacking the system. The Bishop of MANCHESTER: I was not attacking the syllabuses. The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN: Attacking the system of undenominational teaching in schools. The Bishop of MANCHESTER: I was not attacking (?un-) denominational teaching in the schools as set forth in the syllabus. The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN concluded his speech with an Amendment: -"This House most solemnly affirms that in the forthcoming Education Bill provision should be made for the religious education and instruction by all teacher qualified by character and belief to give it." The Bishop of DURHAM thought the form in which the first principle was set out was a little too epigrammatic for popular use. The wording of the Amendment put the point in a way better understood by the people, and on that ground he seconded it. The Bishop of MANCHESTER could not accept it. The Amendment was lost and the Resolution carried. The Bishop of MANCHESTER proceded to deal with the second clause in the Resolution, and said that it would be a great mistake for the Church of England, because of the way a certain election had gone, to recede from the position she had all along maintained. if the State did take upon itself the work of education it should so take it up as not to interfere with the conscientious convictions of parents or penalize the parent on account of those conscientious convictions. The Bishop of CARLISLE asked- and here we take up the report which appears in the Yorkshire Herald- whether this opportunity was to be given in school hours or out of them? Was the State to pay for it or the Christian community? He agreed with the principle, which marked a great advance in the Church of England's policy. If this principle had not been infringed by the Church of England on a large scale in single school areas, he did not think the present crisis would ever have come upon us. Because Nonconformists had not been allowed by them the liberty which, now that things had MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 557 changed, they claimed for themselves the present crisis had come upon them. The PRESIDENT asked the Bishop of Manchester if he suggested that there was no religious education in other schools? The Bishop of MANCHESTER said he certainly did not suggest this. But the religious education in many provided schools was not according to the conscientious convictions of the parents. The Bishop of CARLISLE asked if it were wise to pass Resolutions to which no definite meaning could be attached. The public would want to know what they meant by it. The Bishop of Manchester of course saw that he was going to put the boot on the other leg so soon as he got an answer to the question he had put, and say that if, as Church people, they demanded this right in provided schools, then, as Church people, they must be prepared to grant the same right in their own schools to Nonconformists. The Bishop of MANCHESTER: Undoubtedly. The Bishop of CARLISLE: I am glad to have got that, which I believe to be the only true solution- that, whatever privileges or rights are conferred upon the Church people in provided schools should be conferred upon Nonconformists in Church schools. The Bishop of MANCHESTER: Hear, hear. The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN suggested that the House should say beyond all doubt what they meant and insisted upon. The Bishop of WAKEFIELD suggested an Amendment, which was afterwards accepted by the Bishop of Manchester and adopted by the majority of the House. It read as follows:- "Liberty for parents to secure, wherever possible, religious education for their children in accordance with their religious convictions, without being penalized for such convictions." The Bishop of MANCHESTER next proposed the third Resolution dealing with impartial treatment by the State of all forms of religion. The Bishop of LIVERPOOL seconded the Resolution. The Bishop of CARLISLE said this Resolution struck at the heart of the whole business, and it was here that he joined issue absolutely. he wanted to know what was new in the undenominational religion. It was all taken from the old Bible. The Bishop of MANCHESTER reminded the Bishop of Carlisle that he had drawn a distinction. There was not only the undenominational teaching of the School Board syllabus, but also the undenominational religion of parts of many of our large towns to-day. The Bishop of CARLISLE said that if it had any meaning in relation to the schools it must mean undenominational instruction in the schools. As it was not a new religion, so it was not a State-framed religion. To him undenominational teaching was fundamentally Christian teaching. The Sacraments, the Creeds, the Bible, were not denominational. It was said to his amazement from the pulpit of St. Paul's the other day, that there was no such thing as a common Christianity. It would break one's heart to have to think that there was no Christianity common to him and to his earnest, single-hearted Nonconformist friends. When they told him he could have no Christianity in common-- The Bishop of MANCHESTER: Do not say that. No one has said that. The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN: The Bishop of Manchester has not said it, but it is said. The Bishop of CARLISLE said the question was one of immeasurable importance. He meant by undenominational that Christianity which was common to all Trinitarian communities; the common base they had before coming to the points of divergence which separated them in organization and administration. The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN said undenominational or inter-denominational education would have a great softening effect in the relations between different bodies. He did not like the House of Bishops suggesting that they wanted all forms of religion treating impartially, including Christadelphians, Christian Scientists, and others. The Bishop of MANCHESTER said that to the ordinary man in the street undenominationalism meant the planing away of certain doctrines. Was it contended that they were really agreed on the great doctrine of Baptism and the laying on of hands? The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN: That is not teaching for children under thirteen. The Bishop of MANCHESTER: Excuse me. Those are the elements of the Faith. I take my foundation from the Bible. I do not pick and choose. The whole essence of undenominationalism appears to me to be that you pick and choose, whereas the Catholic Church has avoided heresy and kept itself catholic. Had the Bishop of Sodor and Man reflected on the attitude of the Romanist and the High Churchman when called upon to pay rates for this form of teaching which they strongly disapproved? The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN: I know they say they do. It is loose talking. They cannot disapprove of what is held by all. The Bishop of MANCHESTER: Excuse me. They do disapprove of it. You might say the Nonconformist had no right to disapprove of paying rates, but he did. If that was the settlement arrived at it would not soften the asperities, but it would be the beginning of asperities such as England had not yet witnessed. The Resolution was adopted. The Bishop of MANCHESTER then moved the fourth Resolution dealing with the keeping of trusts inviolable, and said the principle of continuity should be respected by the State at the present time. The Bishop of WAKEFIELD seconded the Resolution. The Bishop of CARLISLE doubted the wisdom of such a Resolution. It practically suggested that the Houses of Parliament would not regard the trust deeds as sacred. ("No.") He proposed an Amendment to insert the words "Recognizing the desire of the Government to act justly and fairly," which was not seconded, and the Bishop of MANCHESTER said he could not accept it. The Resolution was adopted, all except the Bishops of Sodor and Man and Carlisle voting for it. The Bishop of MANCHESTER then moved "that this House advises all Churchmen to petition both Houses of Parliament." The Bishop of NEWCASTLE seconded. The Bishop of CARLISLE wished to put in the words, "desire that our children shall receive facilities for this education in Church schools and demand such facilities in the name of religious freedom," but this suggestion was not adopted. It was agreed that the words "as set forth in the Church Catechism" should be inserted after the words "in the faith of the Church," and another slight alteration was accepted, making the phrase read "in Church schools as heretofore." The Resolution was then adopted as varied. The remaining clause was also adopted. ——— In the LOWER HOUSE of the York Convocation the Dean of CHESTER moved the following Resolution:—"Inasmuch as it is essential to religious liberty as a vital principle of the Church of England, that children shall be educated in the faith of their parents, this House if of opinion that as a matter of justice Church children shall continue to receive this education as heretofore in Church schools; and also that Church instruction shall be given to Church children in provided schools during school hours." The Archdeacon of MACCLESFIELD seconded. The Dean of CARLISLE moved the previous question. He was anxious that they should not take a false step, and he thought that it would be better to hold their tongues. They were not a sect but the Church of the nation, but in carrying that Resolution they would be really making themselves558 THE LAYMAN March 2, 1906. a sect. It would be a fatal mistake for that body to put forward a statement such as that in a question which touched the children of the whole nation. If they have proposing to alter the Bill of 1902-and the sooner it was swept off the face of the earth the better for Church schools and all other schools-they must go a great deal further. He believed that the Church has been fatally slow, for hundreds and hundreds of children belonging to the nation who were brought up in provided schools were kept out of religious instruction because it was forbidden by the authority. That was the first thing that they as Christians should deal with, and say that no Bill would satisfy them that would leave such a blot on the Legislature. The Rev. Canon ARGLES seconded the Dean of Carlisle's proposal, but it was defeated by a large majority. The motion was carried with one dissentient and the following rider moved by Canon FOXLEY NORRIS was carried by 29 to 28:-"That no settlement of the Education Question will be satisfactory or is likely to be permanent which does not put within the reach of all parents religious education such as they approve for their children." --- THE LAW FRANCHISE FOR THE REPRESENTATIVE CHURCH COUNCIL. On the second day, in the Upper House of Convocation, The Bishop of CARLISLE moved: "That in the scheme for the representation of the laity, instead of the words adopted in November 1905 regarding the qualification of voters for parochial lay representatives, the following words shall be substituted: 'Qualified person' means a lay member [?] ings of the Prayer-book and Bible, and were certainly showing themselves adverse to the whole genius of the Church of England, and he seriously dreaded the mischiefs which were practically certain to result. It would be a retrograde step to substitute any test but that of baptism. Substitute any other test and they fell below the grand ideals of the Church of England, and unintentionally began to shrivel into a sect or denomination. The enlightened comprehensiveness, the Scriptural catholicity of the Church of England had hitherto been one of its strongest bulwarks against Romanism on the one hand, and infidelity on the other. In the conintuance of this catholicity lay their future strength and hope. The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN seconded the Resolution. The Bishop of WAKEFIELD moved "That this House accepts and approves the constitution, standing orders, and scheme for the representation of the laity agreed upon by the representative Church Council at its session in November 1905." The Bishop of DURHAM seconded, and said that all possible semblance of sectarianizing the Church should be avoided, and they should make it manifest that it approached in deed and in theory to the national ideal. He had never pressed the need for confirmation in the case of those who joined them from Nonconformist bodies. He had found it absolutely necessary to modify the wording of the service, and that was so abnormal as to confirm his view that the rule was meant for domestic cases only. He felt that it was most important that further delay should at almost any cost be prevented. The Bishop of SODOR AND MAN expressed the opinion that if they passed the Bishop of Wakefield's Resolution it would MARCH 2, 1906. THE LAYMAN. 559 constitution, standing orders, and scheme for the representation of the laity passed by the Representative Church Council in November 1905." It was also agreed unanimously, on the motion of the Bishop of CARLISLE, seconded by the Bishop of SODOR AND MAN, "The House regrets that the representation of the laity has not been placed upon a wider basis, and earnestly hopes that at the earliest opportunity this basis will be enlarged." The House shortly afterwards arose. "OUR DUTY TO ISRAEL" (Special to the LAYMAN) "It is our duty to teach Israel the Truth." The speaker was the Rev. Prebendary Webb-Peploe, and the occasion on which the words were uttered was a service at St. Paul's, Onslow Square, South Kensington, on Wednesday evening, February 14, at which he baptised two young Jewish converts. In the sermon which Prebendary Webb-Peploe preached at the close of the service he dealt with the past and present condition of the Jewish nation, and, alluding to the efforts which are made to evangelize Israel, he said that the two young men baptised by him that night brought the number of converts whom he had been privileged to baptise during the time he had been President of the Barbican Mission to the Jews, up to sixty. It will not be without interest to those who hold the view so strikingly set forth by Prebendary Webb-Peploe-"It is our duty to teach Israel the truth"-to have some account of the Barbican Mission and its work. The distinctive characteristic of the Mission is that it is 13,000l and 14,000l. The Committee have the satisfaction of knowing that not a penny of debt remains on the premises, a happy position which has left them more free to develop the spiritual side of the work. It has been necessary to tell the story in detail, but now we may usefully consider some of the agencies which centre round the Mission premises. The House occupies a commanding position in the Whitechapel Road and is well known to the thousands of Jews who live in and around the neighbourhood. One of its chief attractions to Jews is the large reading-room on the first floor, which is plentifully stocked with the newspapers of various countries. This room is opened daily at 4p.m., and large numbers of Jews flock to it every day. The writer has visited the room on various occasions and each time has seen it practically filled with Jews. They are of various nationalities, but here they are able to read the newspaper or magazine in their mother tongue, whatever it may be. The room is open to all; the most bitter enemy of Christianity is as welcome as the :inquirer"; no questions are asked and no undue pressure or influence is brought to bear upon those who use the reading-room to attend any of the religious meetings or services of the Mission; they are free to come and to go as they would be in a Public Library. A striking testimony to the influence of this effort is to be found in the fact that the Jewish authorities in December last opened a Reading Room of their own in order to counteract the efforts of the Barbican Mission, yet it is worth stating as a matter of fact that the attendance at the Mission Reading Room has been even larger since December than it was before. But to resume our story. At seven o'clock, or thereabouts, the reading-room, as such, is closed. The Jews who may be560 THE LAYMAN. MARCH 2, 1906. who have had to suffer the loss of all things that make life dear, and, cast off by friends and kinsfolk, they have had to begin life afresh. Very nobly have some of them behaved in these new conditions, showing themselves willing to do menial work in order to gain a livelihood. It may be added also that amongst the sixty, two are now working in the foreign Mission field, one as a missionary of the C.M.S. in Uganda and the other in South India in connection with the hospital and Mission work of the Salvation Army. The Bible Class is held every evening throughout the year, yet it is only one of the many agencies connected with the Mission. Of equal importance is the Evangelistic service held in the Mission Chapel every Saturday afternoon, preceded as it is by an open-air Meeting on the preaching-ground. Here again the attendance is very large and encouraging, the congregations numbering on occasion as many as 200 or more. The chapel, it may be said, has an extremely beautiful interior, the handsome panels containing the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and a variety of appropriate texts, being very effective. But the service is strikingly simple, attention being principally centred upon the sermon. The Jews are good listeners; an English congregation will often become restive if the preacher exceeds twenty-five minutes; but the Jews will readily suffer a discourse of twice that length and will not resent it if a shorter one follow, provided, of course, that the sermons have substance in them. We have been present at some of these services in the Barbican Mission Chapel and have watched with the greatest interest the keen, intelligent, inquiring look upon the face of the Jewish congregation while the missionary was endeavouring "to teach Israel the Truth." The preaching convinces some, and many others are led to inquire further concerning the matter. Of other agencies at the Mission House mention may be made of the Meetings for Jewish Women and Children which are under the more immediate direction of Mrs. [Lip?] Miss [?], the lady missionary. A great deal of house-to-house visitation is carried on; missionary literature is distributed and relief (after due inquiry) is administered where it is really needed. But the sum spent on what is technically "relief" is not large except at special seasons of distress—e.g. at the time of the arrival of Jewish refugees fleeing for safety from the persecution in Russia. A more substantial sum is spent in providing outfits, tools, &c., for those converts whose change of faith has cost them, as so often happens, the means of livelihood; and the Committee believe this to be both wise and reasonable. The work at the Inquirers' and Converts' Home is in many ways most interesting. The six months' training and instruction, during which the men are also given lessons in English, afford an excellent opportunity of proving the men, whilst a further test is applied in the amount of garden work, &c. which the men have to do. Some go away when they find there is nothing to be "got out of" the Mission, but the larger portion remain and satisfactorily complete their course. The Mission has a share in the station at Alsace-Lorraine, and every year the Director makes a Mission tour through different parts of Europe. But these efforts do not come within the scope of this article, which is designed rather to emphasize what is being done by the Barbican Mission here in England "to teach Israel the Truth." The expense of all this work is considerable in spite of the fact that the greatest care is exercised by the Committee. An income of about 2,500l. is needed to maintain the work in its efficiency. A sum of about 1,300l. is needed by March 31 if the financial year is to be brought to a successful termination. The Mission has at present no Reserve Fund and a failure of income would be serious. It would inevitably result in the curtailment of the work. But such a contingency need not be thought of if those who feel that it is "our duty to teach Israel the Truth" rally to the support of the Mission at a time of emergency like the present. Prebendary Webb-Peploe is taking the deepest interest in the work and is now issuing an appeal for much-needed help. Everyone who knows what the work of the Mission has been and is will join in the earnest hope that the President's letter may produce an adequate response. The appeal is put forth on the highest ground:— "It is our duty to teach Israel the Truth." It may well be asked how far is that personal obligation being fulfilled? FOR SICK AND SUFFERING CLERGY. ANNUAL MEETING OF THE HOSTEL OF ST. LUKE. THE Annual Meeting of the Hostel of St. Luke (the Clergy Nursing Home) was held on Friday afternoon, February 23, at the Church House, Westminster, the Bishop of Gloucester presiding. Letters of regret at inability to attend were received from the Marquis of Northampton, the Bishop of Crediton, the Bishop of Guildford, Bishop Thicknesse, D.D., the Dean of Canterbury, Sir Thomas Smith, Bart., F.R.C.S., the Hon. R. Strutt, the Rev. Dr. Belcher, and the Rev. Dr. Ashwin. The Annual Report, which was taken as read, stated that the year 1905 would be memorable for the fact that the purchase of the freehold of No. 14 Fitzroy Square as a site for a new Hostel was completed. An appeal had been made for 10,000l. to build a Hostel, designed and fitted up in the most complete and effective way, according to the requirements of a thoroughly well-arranged hospital. This appeal had been so well responded to, nearly half the sum having been received in the course of the year, that the Council hoped they would be able to begin to build as soon as their plans had been approved. The Nursing Home Report showed that during the year 1905 157 patients were treated at the Hostel, of whom 94 were in-patients and 63 out-patients, an increase of seven in each department over the number treated in 1904. Of the total the greater number— viz. 120, were received entirely free of charge. The CHAIRMAN, in his opening address, said he was very glad to be able to take the chair and to testify to his interest The Shield THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE BRITISH COMMITTEE OF The Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of Mice. OFFICE: - 17, TOTHILL STREET, WESTMISTER, S.W. New Series. Vol. I No.6. OCTOBER, 1897 Price 1d., or 1/6 per ann. post free. ANNOUNCEMENTS. Letters for the Editor will be received and forwarded by F. Burfoot, 55, Ellerdale Street, Lewisham, S.E. SUBSCRIPTIONS, 1/6 A YEAR POST FREE, should be sent to F. Burfoot, 55, Ellerdale Street, Lewisham, S.E., who will also quote for advertising space, transact all the business of the paper, and supply single copies 1 1/2 d. post free. Correspondents in Europe, America, and British Colonies are invited to write in confidence, or to send information cognate to our subject. ON THE SITUATION While the news conveyed in THE SHIELD teems with practical suggestions for the voluntary treatment of disease on the one hand and for the diminution of the vice which is its cause on the other, it is lamentable to see how the current, flowing in the right direction, is impeded by the action of the India Office and the Indian Government. Lord George Hamilton no doubt conveyed to the Indian Government in his original despatch advice not to enter upon certain reprehensible lines. He seemed ignorant while giving that advice that the very actions he deprecated were all already rendered illegal by the Cantonment Act of 1895. But that Act has now been repealed, and it has been repealed with Lord George Hamilton's consent. There, therefore, stands now between us and all the condemned practices nothing but the advice contained in Lord George's despatch - a very flimsy protection of no real value whatever, and of less than any value when we take into consideration along with it the repeal of the Act of 1895. The words of that Act, which refers to the rules made for Cantonments, were as follows: - "Provided that no such rule shall contain any regulation enjoining or permitting any compulsory or periodical examination of any woman by medical officers or others for the purpose of ascertaining whether she is or is not suffering from any venereal disease or is or is not fit for prostitution, or any regulation for the licensing or special registration of prostitutes, or giving legal sanction to the practice of prostitution in any cantonment." By the repeal of this Act, all these practices are now once more perfectly legal. And it is idle to suppose they will not be carried out when we consider the sentiments prevalent among those who are called on to administer the law. It is quite impossible to attack the vice in question on the one hand when we are making provision for its practice on the other hand. The India Office and the Government of India are, therefore, standing in the way of the only possible means for securing a permanent diminution of disease. Until it is perfectly clearly understood that there is to be no more of the Regulation system, that it is absolutely and finally at an end, there is no hope of a real and permanent effort being made by the Indian authorities in the direction of the diminution of vice ; and, what is more, there is no hope of such an effort succeeding even if it be consistently made. It is bound to wither as it has everywhere been found to wither before the baleful effects of the teaching of the Regulation system. By the passing of the Act of 1895 a definite pronouncement against Regulation was solemnly made by an Act of the Indian Legislature. And if that had been accepted and adhered to all might have been well. But it was no sooner passed than the Government at home which had insisted on its adoption went out of power, and the local authorities in India turned their whole attention not to carrying out the law, but to inducing the new Government to grant its abrogation. Here, then, was Lord George Hamilton's opportunity. If he had replied to the pressure brought upon him by saying, "I shall listen to any proposal, but it must be consistent with and subject to the Act of 1895. That Act has been the deliberate outcome of a policy laid down, in the first place, by the House of Commons, and I shall not change that," then the same results might have been anticipated in India which have followed a similar firm policy in England; and above all, those interested in the diminution of disease would have either been free on the on hand or compelled on the other to turn their attention to the only real means of securing that diminution. But Lord George Hamilton did no such thing. While he repeated as pious opinions and advice sentiments which had been already embodied in law, he has allowed the law which embodied them to be repealed, and that at a time when many of his colleagues and those who are to carry out the administration of India are entirely opposed to the sentiments he expressed, and while documents and statements are issued of a partial and misleading character calculated to stimulate the cry of the unthinking for a return to a system whose abject failure in the past is either ignored or concealed. THE HEALTH OF THE ARMY A general order has been issued by the Commander- in Chief in India. Sir George While says: "The extent of venereal diseases in the British Army in India has become a consideration of such extreme gravity that very special means must be adopted to decrease its prevalence and to abate its virulence. In the official report of Lord Onslow's committee, a report of what members of the committee themselves saw, the state of the cases invalided home from India and under treatment at Netley Hospital is described with a convincing realism, when, if wider known, could not but act as a deterrent from the causes which lead up to such terrible results." After giving an extract from the report, Sir George White continues as follows:- "Efforts are now being made by Her Majesty's Government and by the Government of India to enforce by legislation such restrictions on the trade of prostitution and such regulations against soliciting and importuning on the part of loose women in and about cantonments as these Governments think right and fitting to prevent the spread of disease. But there are manifest limitations to the good that can thus be accomplished. The Secretary of State for India has impressed upon the Government of India the duty of appealing to the higher instincts of our soldiers to avoid vicious connections, and of warning them against the deplorable consequences likely to result from this terrible contagion. A most marked feature in the history of venereal diseases in India is the increased and still increasing virulence of the type. The proportion of syphilis has42 THE SHIELD. [OCTOBER, 1897. increased by leaps and bounds. The number of cases in 1895 was 22,702, and in most instances the general health of those who contracted the disease was markedly impaired. But the real fruits of the seeds thus sown can only be ascertained when some universal demand is made upon the physical power and endurance of our soldiers, such as the exigencies of active service call out. The subject of venereal disease in the Army, notwithstanding its sinister military significance, has hitherto been treated too much as an abstraction, that is, as a regrettable cause of great military inefficiency for which in the opinion of some the only cure is the State regulation of prostitution. Officers of the Army who confine their efforts to theoretical discussion on these points are not likely to do much practical good. Regimental officers must not stand aloof as mere spectators, allowing the evil to take its course. The Government of India has been very liberal in affording European soldiers in this country the means of healthy exercise and physical recreation. It is known that these are encouraged, but every possible effort should be made to extend their practice to the greatest numbers so as to draw the men from the bazaars and other neighborhoods frequented by loose women. Men who take a pleasure in games and are proud of excelling in them will be less liable to risk themselves with prostitutes where disease is known to be so rife. Opportunities have also been afforded for social recreation, interesting mental occupation, and reading in every British barrack. In the matter of drunkenness many men have been weaned from excess, and are grateful for the advice they have received. The scourge of venereal disease is a greater evil to combat and further reaching in its effects, and greater efforts should be made to induce our soldiers to practice self-control from this form of indulgence. It is not suggested that the present evil can be combated with the same measure of success which has been attained in the case of Army temperance, but the Commander-in-Chief in India has known several cases in which commanding and company officers have used their influence amongst men with the happiest results. Soldiers listen with attention to the teaching of those they respect and who can speak to them from the standpoint of higher education, of a blameless life, or of technical knowledge. Selected combatant and medical officers who are known to have the best interest of the Army at heart and who have an aptitude for its exposition should be invited to deliver lectures to the men on the moral and physical degradation which is the almost certain result of consorting with loose women in India. If senior officers give the countenance of their presence on such occasion it will add to the good effect. "Where local circumstances render it desirable, disciplinary restrictions should be put in force to prevent soldiers frequenting areas where venereal disease is known to be rife. The Commander-in-Chief has reason to believe that the records of many station hospitals show that a majority of the venereal cases are confined within a narrow circle of men who are admitted again and again, and thus swell the number of admissions. Such men are fitting subjects for all the restrictions of discipline that can be imposed upon them, as they habitually render themselves unfit to fulfil the engagement they have entered into with the State, and throw upon their more self-respecting comrades the burden of their duty. The Commander-in-Chief cannot too strongly urge the paramount importance of using every means of decreasing this cause of inefficiency in the Army, and he invites the co-operation of all officers and men, from the highest to the lowest, to use their best personal efforts in their several spheres of duty to lessen the evil. The cause must appeal to all who would remove a reproach from our honorable profession, or who have sympathy with human suffering of the very worst type- suffering which is not confined to the guilty, but falls as a heritage of woe upon the innocent." The following is a comment of the Army and Navy Gazette of August 14th upon the circular:- "Sir George White's general order calling the attention of regimental officers to the best means of checking contagious disease must commend itself to every true friend of the Army. The time has happily gone by when the soldier was treated as a being governed chiefly by animal passions. The Army Temperance Association has shown that a large proportion of the rank and file is capable of self-restraint and obedient to the dictates of high principle. There is no reason, medical or otherwise, why a soldier should not maintain a perfectly strict morality, and if the co-operation of all grades of regimental officers, as requested by Sir George White, be secured, the happiest results will follow. It is, of course, impossible to dictate to the solider as to the license which he may allow himself in private, but the encouragement which will now be given to well-doing, and the diminution of idle hours, will doubtless be of the greatest benefit to the army in India. A higher tone and a greater degree of moral and physical health will certainly be the result of the Commander-in-Chief's order. It is unfair to the Army and the taxpayer, as well as to the moral soldier, that licentious and self-indulgent men should be so much considered as they have been. They are a source of weakness and expense with which, we believe, Sir George White may be trusted to deal well and wisely, for the general order .... is marked by admirable goo sense, and cannot fail to produce a lastingly beneficial result if officers and non-commissioned officers play their part as we feel quite sure they will, now that matters are represented to them with so much force and good judgement." MR. A. S. DYER ON BRITISH SOLDIERS IN INDIA. Messrs. Dyer Brothers, of 31, Paternoster Square, have published a pamphlet by Mr. A. S. Dyer, Editor of the Bombay Guardian, and together with it a remarkable Appendix containing opinions of the non-official Press of India. The pamphlet has a policy, and follows up some severe strictures upon the past and present military system by suggesting radical reforms. The chief of these is a re-organization leading the way to a married army. It is a bold proposal, involving, as it does, an attack upon the whole current theory of army construction, but Mr. Dyer advances it openly, as compatible with a considerable pecuniary saving as well as with purer morality, better health, and more effectiveness. We quote enough to make the scope of his design quite clear. Whatever may be thought of the extent of the efficacy of the means he proposes, the vigor of his advocacy and the remarkable unanimity of the 24 non-official Indian journals cited in the Appendix, suffice to show that it represents an idea which has found a voice, and will claim a hearing. In our "Notes" for this month it will be seen that attention is drawn to some very clear manifestations of the same idea in this country, and to the certainty that it will be influentially urged in Parliament in the next Session, with what numerical support remains to be seen. The pamphlet begins thus: "There is much in the condition of British soldiers in India to excite sympathy. Here is a picture which is replete with suggestiveness and pathos to the thoughtful. The Pastor of Union Church, in Darjeeling, in referring to a social gathering for soldiers held every Sunday evening at his house, writes: 'One of our aims is to give the soldiers a taste of home life. For half an hour or so before tea, those who come early have an opportunity of meeting the children, who are very fond of their soldier friends. Observing two or three strangers one evening nursing the children and enjoying their prattle, we said, "We suppose you don't see much of home life in India. "They each said that they had never been inside a home in Indian before." Poor fellows! they are the representatives of thousands in a similar case. "There are over seventy thousand unmarried British soldiers in India out of a total of 73,000! An official Report printed last year (1896) at the Government Press at Calcutta, reveals the small number who are permitted the joys of home life. In a table therein, showing the annual number of soldiers and their families who arrive in Indian, we find that in 1894-95 43 THE SHIELD. OCTOBER, 1897.] (the last year reported upon) the arrivals were 15,957 men and 517 women! And it is noteworthy that while the number of British soldiers brought to India is yearly on the increase, the proportion of those who are married is on the decrease. For instance, while the number of men brought here has risen from 9,461 in 1867-68 to 15,957 in 1894-95, in the former year 939 women accompanied the troops, against only 517 in the latter year. "Miss Ashe, a Christian gentlewoman who has greatly interested herself in the welfare of British soldiers in India, writing of Rawal Pindi, North India, declares her belief that 'it is the monotony and intense loneliness of the soldier's life out here that leads him into sine.' That there is much of fact in this view is beyond question. The British Government has grievously sinned against the British soldier in two respects: (I) in minimizing the possibility of marriage; and (2) by making elaborate and costly arrangements to substitute a harlot for a wife. I have repeatedly seen cases in which the quarters of the harlots (constructed by Government) were set of purpose placed in close proximity to the barracks, and in the pathway of the men." Mr. Dyer then traces the deterioration in the health of the army to the arrival of young, unmarried troops in India after the mutiny and subsequently to the full development of the short-service system, and quotes the opinion of the Sanitary Commissioners with the Government of India that a "great reduction (in disease) could be effected by a return to the conditions which existed in the army prior to 1858 and which appear to have been, as touching this question, long service and greater facilities for marriage." "As before stated, the present number of British troops in India is about 73,000. The yearly arrivals from England nearly doubled between 1872-73 and 1894-95, being 8,271 in the former year and 15,957 in the latter and the annual departures in proportion. "The regime of legalized vice, practical prohibition of marriage, and short service, having brought increasing disaster to the moral, health, and effectiveness of British army in India, it is not an unreasonable suggestion that there would be purer morality, better health, and more effectiveness if the army of occupation were reduced by 20,000 men, with the term in India lengthened, the saving in money thus effected being devoted to the encouragement of marriage and to inducements to settle here on the expiration of service." "The heads under which there would be a considerable pecuniary saving by the adoption of such reforms as are referred to above, would include ocean transport, hospital service, &c., as well as the ordinary cost of maintenance of 20,000 men, so that the sum to be released for the encouragement of marriage would be considerable. "Remunerative mechanical occupation for spare hours, as well as more facilities for innocent recreation, have been wisely advocated. The former might be made to conduce to manly virtue, by producing a wage that would be one qualification for marriage. It appears to be generally conceded that the best-conducted troops are the Engineers, who work at their different trades. "Inducements to soldiers, at the end of long service, to permanently settle in India (as many Englishmen do voluntarily on retiring from commercial pursuits) would add to government stability in contrast to the dislike and irritation produced by the disgraceful treatment of Indian women under legalized vice. There are parts of India that, for healthiness and general attractiveness as places of permanent resident, are not exceeded by any portion of the British Empire." The whole pamphlet shows that, like others familiar with the history of the past, Mr. Dyer has no doubt whatever that there is nothing in the new regulations to prevent the gradual re-introduction of the whole Contagious Diseases Acts system, and that he clearly perceived that the repeal of the Act of 1895 is a direct encouragement to its re-introduction by medical and commanding officers "with a free hand," who have never dissembled their opinions that the only efficient way of working the Regulations is the old way. We add a few extracts from local Indian newspapers quoted in the Appendix:- The Advocate (Lucknow):- "If the race of British civilians is generally characterised as heathen, as far as church-going and leading Christian life are concerned, the medical, and most pronouncedly the military, service have a spirit of rank materialism running rampant among the members. Surgeons, in their examination of the human body, discover no seat for the soul, and .... military discipline .... helps in the formation of the habit of dealing with men as mere chattels .... Nothing less than affording facilities for marriage and abolition of the short service system will remedy the defect." Behar Guardian (Bankipore):- "The character of the European soldiers redounds to the discredit of our Government that does not hesitate to encourage them in all their misdeeds. A sin, though it be stamped with the express sanction of a powerful Government, is still a sin. An evil cannot be wholly purged of its evil consequences. With impunity the British soldiers shoot the poor 'niggers' dead. They escape without difficulty the clutches of law. They believe, with no little reason, they are beyond the reach of the common law of the land. But the sufferings which they sometimes inflict upon those wretches whose star is in the descendant re-act at last upon themselves. Their character is demoralised and their human instincts are brutalized. They themselves are affected by the after-roll of the tyranny which they set in motion against the helpless natives. Tyranny is twice cursed; it curseth him that inflicts it, and him on whom it is inflicted. Uncontrolled license is a principle that runs counter, not only to morality, but also to prudence itself." Dnyan Prakash (Poona):- "Mr. Alfred S. Dyer, Editor of the Bombay Guardian, has issued a small pamphlet on the above-mentioned subject, which we are sorry we could not take up earlier for review. The burden of the whole argument of the little pamphlet is that soldiers must be allowed longer service, greater facilities for marriage, healthy recreation, remunerative occupation, and inducement to permanently settle in India; this would add to Government stability, in contrast to the dislike and irritation produced by the disgraceful treatment of Indian women under legalised vice. Of course this would mean an additional expense, but Mr. Dyer solves the difficulty by pointing out that a much smaller army of occupation in India, if more moral, would be stronger in effective members than at present, rotting through and through as it is by lust, if official statistics are reliable .... We certainly think that he has made out his case from an economic point of view." Eastern Star (Madras):- "The true remedy for the British soldier's evils and for the corruption of morals seems to be marriage and longer residence here. .... Perhaps it may be said that marriage may impair the military efficiency of the soldier and detract from his valour. Assuredly not. We have simply to return to the Sepoy in Indian history, and where can we find a more loyal, more brave and more enduring individual than he? So it is all working against nature; and no amount of discussion, and speech, and regulation of vice can do any good for the soldier. He must have a home of his own, and the sooner he has it the quicker shall we hear the last of venereal disease in the Army in India." Champion (Bombay):- "There is one large hopeful proposal which has long been slowly growing which may, incidentally, derive new impetus from this heated controversy; that is the possible institution of long-service regiments for India, or, better still, a return to the separate European Army for India." Dnyanodaya (Bombay):- "If the British Government really wished to keep their soldiers away from temptation, there is surely strength enough in the arm of Government to do so. We fear that the cause of the conditions being as they are is due to the fact that there is no strong purpose to deal with the question in the manly way it needs. Immorality instead of being treated as a foe to be vanquished, is treated as a friend to be harbored, and no wonder there is to be seen to-day such terrible and shameful results."Page 44 THE SHIELD. [OCTOBER, 1897. THE ARMY SANITARY COMMISSION AND VOLUNTARY HOSPITALS. ------ THE notice of the Bristol Voluntary Lock Hospital on page 46, and the assurance it contains of the almost invariable success experienced in retaining the patients until a thorough cure has been effected, are of special interest at the present time. It may be remembered that the British Committee in their memorandum of March 30th demanded that adequate means for the voluntary treatment of disease should be supplied, and that there should be, among other things, enquiry as to why and to what extend the 70 "Cantonment" and "Cantonment General" Hospitals at one time in existence succeeded or failed, and why there are now only 13 of these hospitals and 13 outdoor dispensaries in existence for the 108 military stations in India, and whether any means could be taken to make hospitals of this class more useful. This enquiry was refused, and the Committee's questions remain unanswered, except in the indirect manner presently to be noticed. It is time that official action, or apathy, with regard to the crucial policy of combating disease on voluntary lines should be understood. In the grave state of things then existing the Army Sanitary Commission in January, 1894, had a report to make on the statistics of venereal disease among the troops in India, which it would have been unparalleled levity to issue without having exhausted the means of information at their disposal, and maturely weighed the recommendations put forward. Accordingly, on January 25th, the Commission, as then constituted, reported, as regards compulsory hospitals, that "not only did these hospitals fail to effect a reduction in the ratio of venereal cases among European troops, but, as it happens, these diseases increased during the term of years in which they were in full operation." And as regards voluntary hospitals, they said: "We believe that the best practicable means of diminishing the prevalence of these diseases is to be found in establishing a system of voluntary lock hospitals and in providing the soldier, as far as possible, with healthy occupation and recreation." On March 9th, 1897, the Commission (whose personnel had, in the meantime, undergone substantial changes), reported that "to sensibly check the spread of venereal disease amongst our troops in India by opening voluntary hospitals .... as has been proposed is, we fear, in face of recent experience in that country, hopeless." What was the recent experience bearing upon the utility or inefficiency of voluntary hospitals which occasioned this startling reversal of a solemn recommendation made in a serious crisis only three years before? In reason and logic it could be nothing less specific than the trial and the failure of the recommended remedy. The Report of Lord Onslow's Committee, issued February 20th, 1897 (or less than three weeks before that of the Commission), proves distinctly (see pp. 28-30) that so far from there having been any trial and failure of voluntary hospitals, the only action taken in connection with them was a course of instant and progressive closure, so that actually 58 were closed within a year of the Commission having advisedly reported that the voluntary system, however ineffective, was "the best practicable means of diminishing the prevalence of these diseases." The "recent experience" was, in fact, apocryphal. An absolute myth has been relied on by those to whom the nation looks for scientific guidance as a reason for wholly setting aside, without a ray of new experience or a moment's trial, a scheme which a numerical majority of these very men only three years before had solemnly selected out of all others as the best practicable means of doing what everybody wishes. It was surely scandal sufficient that the urgent recommendation of 1894 should have been so cynically ignored. It is something quite unique that eminent men, after making a responsible suggestion, should in the first place placidly acquiesce in its remaining a dead letter, and subsequently join with others in declaring it "hopeless" in the absence of a single effort to test its value. NOTES. --- WE print in another column a general order recently issued by Sir George White, Commander-in-Chief in India, with a comment upon it from the Army and Navy Gazette. The tone of both is a testimony to the progress of our views. The circular, after dwelling at some length upon the grave consequences of vicious self-indulgence reported by Lord Onslow's Committee, and after representing the ostensible "restrictions" and objectionable regulation in terms which we must frankly declare to be no better than complimentary caricature, comes at last to the roof of the matter in a spirit at which we heartily rejoice. The duty of appealing to higher instincts; the error of treating disease merely as a regrettable cause of great military inefficiency rather than as itself the consequence of unmanly, unsoldierly, and disloyal misconduct; the guilt, clearly pointed to as having existed in the past, of regimental officers standing aloof as mere spectators, are all given a foremost place in this review of the situation. The value and efficacy among soldiers of moral teaching from those whom they respect, and who are themselves of a blameless life are recognised in a manner which has not been usual in orders of this kind, but which we welcome all the more on that account. When we read the Commander-in-Chief's anticipation of good effects from the countenance of senior officers towards the new departure we are, however, bound, with the utmost gentleness, to recall that in the columns of the military press for some months past senior officers have systematically and in violent terms treated the condition of the Army in India as an intolerable scandal, the responsibility for which must be entirely dissociated from the sinner and his official abettors, and charged solely upon the noble women and men who for many years set their faces against State complicity with animal lust. If the effect of Sir George White's appeal is to put an end to this daring distortion of facts and reason one useful end will be attained. The attribution by the Commander-in-Chief of many of the bad records of station hospitals to the vice of "a narrow circle of men" is especially noteworthy. --- PARTS of the comment in the Army and Navy Gazette are even more remarkable. "There is no reason, medical or otherwise, why a soldier should not maintain a perfectly strict morality." "The general order cannot fail to produce a lasting beneficial result if officers and non-commissioned officers play their part, as we feel quite sure they will, now that matters are represented to them with so much force and good judgment." We wish to be especially conciliatory at a moment when we see our own principles of many years past thus given back to us. But it is really vital to point out that matters were not represented in Sir George White's general order for the first time; that the possibility of a perfectly strict morality has been the unbroken contention of abolitionists for 30 years; and that for persisting in it they have been continuously reprobated up to the present moment by high medical and military authorities and the larger portion of the press in terms more offensive than we care to quote. We may fairly congratulate ourselves on these admissions of our principles. The watchman has not waked in vain. We take courage and feel a calm conviction of certain and complete triumph. The whole basis of the objectionable system hitherto has been the presupposition that strict moral conduct is inherently impossible or so remote as to demand a "change in human nature," and yet its supporters now confess that there is no reason, medical or otherwise, against strict moral conduct. The system henceforth exists upon a foundation which is obviously crumbling away, but which, while it exists, cripples and precludes the operation of that moral sense which seems now to be almost universally appealed to as the only genuine source of reform. The total abandonment of a system so based cannot be delayed. OCTOBER 1897.] THE SHIELD. Page 45 WE publish this month extracts from a pamphlet by the editor of the Bombay Guardian and from the non-official press of India pointing to a growing feeling in that country in favour of a long-service married army. This view with all that it implies of army re-organisation has been imputed as reckless folly to opponents of regulation although we are not aware that it is a part of their programme. It is however clearly gathering strength in this country, especially in military circles. A long-service army is ex hypothesi an army with increased facilities for marriage. The memorial of the Army Service Committee of the House of Commons to Lord Salisbury, given in the Army and Navy Gazette of June 5th, plainly hints at the need of along service army, and also attributes to the immaturity of the soldiers those break-downs on foreign service which, when regulation was the objective, were attributed exclusively to venereal disease. Sir Henry Havelock-Allan has given notice of his intention to move the House of Commons in this sense next session. We find in an article in the Army and Navy Gazette for August 21st, a remarkable reproach directed against the "so-called purity party" for not having urged the same view. "The remedy lies in having men and not boys in India, and if the so-called purity party will assist in procuring such a reform they will in some small measure compensate for the evil they have brought about. There cannot be a doubt in the minds of anyone who has had experience of this question that a battalion of 1,000 soldiers, averaging 30 years of age, with free permission to marry would be free from contagious disease. Here then is a practical object for Mr. Wilson and his friends to strive after. ... they will have the support of every officer." Discussing Indian financial burdens the article says, "India receives in return an army of youths who can only be maintained in efficiency at an expenditure sufficient to pay for the most efficient army in the world." --- WE wish to draw special attention to the reprint, in the form of a pamphlet, from The Northern Churchman, of an interview on the New Health Rules for the Army in India with Archdeacon Wilson. It is a very forcible and comprehensive review of the regulation system, the illusions and oversights of its advocates, the reasons of its failure everywhere, and the religious and moral objections to it. In a postscript, the Archdeacon considers the procedure by which the present situation has been attained, and severely censures it as neither straightforward nor truthful. --- THE Memorial, signed by upwards of 61,000 women of the United Kingdom, and recently presented to the Secretary of State for India and other members of the Government, has been printed as a parliamentary paper [415-1897] and the same paper contains the Memorial sent at the same time by the British Committee. --- --- REPLY TO LADY HENRY SOMERSET BY DR. KATHARINE BUSHNELL AND MRS. ELIZABETH ANDREW. --- DR. KATHARINE BUSHNELL and Mrs. Elizabeth Andrew have written a reply to Lady Henry Somerset's Letter to a Correspondent. It would command attention by reason of the writers' first-hand acquaintance with the conditions in question, the alleged lack of which among abolitionists generally was made by Lady Henry the ground of rather pointed disparagement. But it contains some very effective criticisms, which show clearly that the writers do not at all confirm Lady Henry's rather singular and certainly unexpected claim to be regarded as an expert on this subject of vice-regulation in India. They consider, first, her Ladyship's view of her scheme that it equalizes the ban, and secures an equal punishment falling upon men. Upon this they observe that her utterances would lead one to suppose that her scheme would surely contain a clause to the effect that "British soldiers who wish to enter upon a life of debauchery should be 'compelled to remain in rooms specifically reserved to each by a registered number, etc." But she in fact has elected that the women shall be the prisoner while the man goes free. Dealing with the charge of ignorance brought against objectors to her scheme, they inquire how Lady Henry herself discovered and verified the facts, and remind us that even Lord Roberts had to admit before the Departmental Committee of 1893 that he did not know the conditions. "No one," they say, "can deny that enough of ignorance, contradiction and mis-statement of facts from Anglo-Indian sources was produced before that Committee to shatter the faith of the British public in statements emanating from those sources, unless accompanied by absolute proof." They say, further, that Lady Henry's picture of the cantonments, drawn by one who has never been there, is "not consonant with the one we have in memory of the utmost modesty, with rare exceptions, of even the chakla women who were (as women certified as medically 'fit' for prostitution) allowed considerably latitude to solicit custom. ... We never saw one cantonment prostitute soliciting custom, although we were constantly among them for four months. But we have heard them beg the soldiers to go away." After quoting the words of a well-known civil surgeon of high position and 19 years' experience concerning native morality, the writers add, "We could, if space permitted, adduce further proofs that there is no such absence of public opinion against indecency among the native people, as Lady Henry's description would lead one to infer." And with regard to the statement that these women "have no sense of the moral obliquity of their calling," they declare that "speaking from the standpoint of witnesses who have closely questioned more than 500 cantonment prostitutes of India, we can say we never interviewed a single cantonment prostitute who had not a keen appreciation of the moral degradation of her calling. These poor creatures have sobbed as though their hearts would break because of the realization of their shame; many of them pleaded for us to secure their escape." In another part of the reply the writers speak of the cruelty of proposing a return at this time, when advantage can be taken of starving women and girls, to the discarded system of State purveying of vice, in that stricken country. Dealing with the proposal that "those native women who wish to purse the unhappy life of prostitution should be confined to one guarded quarter of the cantonment," they ask who shall be allowed to decide what women wish this. "In cases of the most horrible oppression and compulsion which we found in India, we were informed over and over again by native physicians, and even by military officers, that 'it is all voluntary.' Even the poor slaves themselves repeated parrot-like what they had been taught to say in English- 'It is all voluntary.'" At this time applications were being made to the cantonment magistrate by military surgeons that he would compel the women to attend the examinations. The reply then deals in a spirit of rather grim humour with Lady Henry's strange hyperbole that "the soldiers are literally forced into the wildest forms of debauchery." "But," it proceeds, "with all earnestness, we must call attention to the fact that herein lies the very heart of the claim that men cannot be held to the same standard of morality as women, namely, the assumption that men are 'literally forced' to sin if temptation be sufficiently strong. The difference between those who believe in one standard of morality for both sexes, and those who believe in two standards is precisely this: the former believe that no male can be regarded as 'forced,' or in other words, as irresponsible, in a crime which he cannot commit without a certain degree of volition; while the latter regard the man in the false light of an involuntary agent, after temptation has reached a certain degree of intensity." 46 THE SHIELD. [OCTOBER, 1897. THE CALCUTTA SOCIAL PURITY COMMITTEE AND THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT. The following letter has been addressed by the Social Purity Committee at Calcutta to the Government of India. No. 219. 23, Chowringhee Road, Calcutta, August 6th, 1897. From Rev. J. M. BROWN, Secretary of the Social Purity Committee, Calcutta. To The SECRETARY TO THE COUNCIL, of the Governor-General of India for making Laws, [&c.] Sir, - I am instructed by the Committee on Social Purity in connection with the Calcutta Missionary Conference, to submit for the consideration of His Excellency the Governor-General in Council the following representation with reference to certain Rules which it is proposed to make for all Cantonments in British India. 1. The Committee fully appreciate Rules 12, 13, and 14 of the Draft Rules, which provide for the removal of brothels or prostitutes, the exclusion of public prostitutes from Regimental Bazars, and the prohibition of loitering or importuning for sexual immorality. 2. The Committee venture to believe that in view of "the grand appeal of HIs Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief, to the soldier himself" referred to in Council by His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor of the Panjab, and of the moral effect that may confidently be predicted of it, the enforcement of Rules 12, 13 and 14 may be expected to prove sufficiently effectual without the operation of Rules 10 and 11, in the present context. 3. The Committee beg to urge, moreover, that the operation of Rules 10 and 11, in the present context, will have the effect of certifying to those concerned, that all women suffering from the particular disease have been excluded from the Cantonment, and of thus conveying to them an assurance of impunity in the indulgence of vice, which is precisely the encouragement against which there is a virtual pledge on the part of Government to safeguard. 4. The Committee need hardly point out that there is a fundamental distinction between the particular disease and other infectious or contagious disorders, which should be recognised in the enactment of measures to safeguard against them. Safeguarding in the present context, involves a guarantee for safe indulgence in vice which is "opposed to the interests of morality." 5. The Committee apprehend that grave abuses will follow the working of Rules 10 and 11 in the direction of virtual compulsion. The initiation, though resting nominally with the medical officer in charge, will in practice be under the control of less reliable persons, and the proviso as to his having "prima facie grounds for believing" may not have much significance. 6. The Committee humbly suggest that if Rules 12, 13 and 14 are not after all sufficient, Rules may be framed making the communication of the particular disease penal, as regards both the offender and the abettor. Such a penal provision would throw the responsibility entirely on the parties concerned, and might operate as a deterrent notwithstanding probable difficulties in the way of proof. 7. In conclusion, the Committee desire to express their strong conviction that any Rules such as Rules 10 and 11, are sure to increase the evil they are intended to prevent by the protection they afford to indulgence in vice. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient servant. We observe that in dealing with Rules 12, 13 and 14, the Committee do not seem to fully appreciate that the provision for the removal of brothels and prostitutes is only permissive, and that, as was pointed out in the August number of THE SHIELD, such a permissive provision is equivalent to a power of licensing both brothels and resident prostitutes at discretion. There is no intention of removing them altogether. On the contrary, it is, of course, intended that brothels shall be recognised and allowed in special parts of the cantonments. BRISTOL OLD PARK LOCK HOSPITAL. AT a time when the regulation of vice is being somewhat perfunctorily extolled as a means of reclamation and when the Army Sanitary Commission has depreciated the voluntary system avowedly without a trial and in the teeth of a recent recommendation from their own body when differently constituted, we note with interest the almost complete success of the voluntary system in the Bristol Lock Hospital. It appears from the statement made at the recent opening of the new hospital premises, that the good work both of physical and moral rescue during the past year was marred by only 10 per cent. of failures (none of them physical), while 75 per cent. of the patients on leaving the Institution appear, on a review of results, to have either gone into service, entered homes, or been restored to their friends. The difficulty of retaining patients until cured without compulsion is commonly urged as an objection to voluntary treatment. The spirit of the treatment is more probably the cause of success or failure in this respect. A lady, an active worker and a member of the Committee, writes on July 25th, "I have looked through most of the reports of the little hospital since it was begun in 1870 and find scarcely any allusion to the difficulty of keeping the patients. Of course they are perfectly free to leave if they like before dismissal by the doctor, but this they very rarely do. In some years' reports I see set down, '2 (or 3) left of their own accord." but this is not common." WHY THE ACTS HAVE FAILED AND WILL FAIL. IN the Medical Times and Hospital Gazette for July 31st, Dr. Charles Bell Taylor gives twelve reasons why Contagious Diseases Acts "always have failed and always will fail": - 1. Because of two propagators of disease, the Acts only deal with one. 2. Because only about one in ten or one in seven of women, presumably prostitutes, can be brought under control. 3. Because those who escape control become infinitely more dangerous than anything we have in this country. 4. Because those who are brought under regulation do not attend regularly and cannot be made to do so. 5. Certain physiological causes. 6. Because of the inadequacy of fortnightly examination, which can neither be increased in number nor enforced. 7. Because of the impossibility in certain instances of distinguishing venereal from non-venereal malady. 8. Because, in the most serious form of disease, the initial lesion is so minute as to be often overlooked and often undiscoverable even in examination made expressly for its discovery. 9. Because disease is transmissible where there are no traces of it in the transmitter. 10. Because of mediate contagion or transmission from one infected man to another through a woman herself unaffected and immune against infection. 11. Because of the spread of disease through contact in hospital and by instrument used in periodical examinations. 12. Because men are deluded by the false security offered by these regulations. We may illustrate the absolute falseness of this security from an official report of the working of the Lock Hospitals of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh for 1886. It is known that at Lucknow, with a total of 117 registered prostitutes, there were 178 admissions of such prostitutes into hospital for venereal OCTOBER, 1897.] THE SHIELD. 47 disease, although examinations were daily, although attendance at the inspections was "very good," and although the officiating Sanitary Commissioner reported "having personally witnessed one of these inspections, I can testify to their being thorough." FROM A SPEECH BY THE REV. DR. MARTINEAU. (DATE PROBABLY ABOUT 1877.) I BELIEVE that the great difficulty we have to contend with, after all, is a difficulty which will be overcome very soon by our own faith and our own persistency. It is the difficulty of cowardice, or ought I to say of despair? I have met numbers of persons who wish well to us, and praise all the objects we have in view, but whose hearts are so appalled at the magnitude of the evil that they shrink from attacking it in despair; but it will be overcome by the absolute faith, the entire sincerity of those who have undertaken to grapple with it. For my own part, this despair seems to be little else than a participation in the sin. No one can doubt of the obligation of Christian purity and simplicity, but to declare at the same moment that the thing is a virtue, and also that it is impossible, is blasphemy against the Creator. MRS. F.A. STEEL ON THE CONDITION OF THE TROOPS IN INDIA. IN the course of an interview, reported in the Humanitarian for July, Mrs. Steel, authoress of "On the Face of the Waters," dealt with the condition of our soldiers in India. Commenting upon the petition of the pro-regulationist women she noticed the stress laid on preventive measures constituting "a valuable safeguard of women's virtue" and "affording a great opportunity of escape from a life of vice," and described it as a "striking example of the sheer nonsense which comes from the fatal habit of judging the unknown by the known." In India seduction of girls is practically non-existent. All is bald, brutal, degrading utterly. And the danger is great, not because of the number of prostitutes, but because they are so few. The suggestion that preventive measures will directly benefit women in general is absurd. Vice does not touch them as it is. Being asked if she was in favour of preventive measures, she replied that "if, as the petitioners put it - I do not, mind you, give any opinion as to whether they are right or wrong - these evils are unavoidable, I fear no legislation will be able in India to provide against their consequences." Being asked, "Is there no remedy?" Mrs. Steel replied, "I think there is. So far as India is concerned, the question is purely a military one. I can see no reason why existing machinery should not be sufficient to meet the evil, if it be put in force. To be quite frank, my experience is that it is not. The cantonment magistrate can, already, treat these women as infectious centres. He can turn them out, as he could turn me out if I made myself obnoxious to the authorities. For the rest, everything which makes a soldier unfit for duty should be a military offence. We punish drunkenness, not because we hold it to be a crime, but because it injures the fighting material for which the nation pays.... In addition, the fact must be faced, that unless we stimulate by legislation the supply of new blood (to the prostitute class) we cannot protect men in India.... As for the increase in disease, are we sure that the removal of preventive measures is responsible for this? How comes it, then, that this increase is so capricious; clinging to some stations, unknown at others, while some show a large decrease?" Mrs. Steel, it will be seen, negatives, on purely matter of fact grounds, the expectation of the pro-regulationist ladies that so far as India is concerned at all events, any Government measures will either safeguard the virtuous or rescue the frail. There remains the paramount moral and religious objection to constituting the immoral woman the "priestess of humanity." Mrs. Steel's brief sketch of the machinery existing before the recent measures of the Government were adopted is a further proof, if such were needed, that those measures were not legitimately required to strengthen defective authority, but simply in order to discipline brothel-keepers and prostitutes and to sanitate vice. This power existed before. What is really granted is a power to retain and to subject to periodical examination under pressure. OBITUARY. MRS. ALDIS. THE friends of our cause have lately had to mourn the death of one of our earliest and ablest champions, Mrs. Aldis, wife of Mr. W. Steadman Aldis, himself one of our first and most faithful supporters. Mrs. Aldis was born at Kettering, in November, 1837, her father, the Rev. W. Robinson, having been a distinguished Baptist minister in that town and afterwards at Cambridge. Mr. and Mrs. Aldis were married in 1863, and, after seven years' residence at the University, removed to Newcastle-on-Tyne, and thence, in 1883, to Auckland, New Zealand. In each of these places Mrs. Aldis, aided by her husband, was a constant and untiring opponent of the State regulation of vice, and a supporter of everything calculated to raise the standard of morality generally, and of movements for civil and religious liberty and for equalizing the status of men and women. Mrs. Aldis, besides remaining in constant correspondence with English friends on questions connected with our cause in new Zealand, was a recognised leader of the social purity party in that country, and twice fought a hotly contested but happily successful battle against the actual enforcement of the Contagious Diseases Acts in Auckland. Her untiring exertions contributed to the injury of her health, already weakened; and, after having suffered for three years from a painful disease, she sought medical advice in this country, only to find that, humanly speaking, her life could not continue for many months. After much suffering she passed away peacefully on June 25th, at a quiet farmhouse in Kent, where a lodging had been secured for her, and where she was attended to the last by her husband and daughter. Her loss will be mourned by many persons in many lands. SYNOPSIS OF THE HISTORY OF REGULATION OF VICE AND OF OPPOSITION TO IT. (Continued from page 40.) 3rd September, 1870. - THE SHIELD first published in London. October, 1870. - A vacancy having occurred in the Parliamentary representation of Colchester, the Government of the day was anxious for the election of Sir Henry Storks in order that, as Under-Secretary for War, he might assist Lord Cardwell in changes then being made in Army organisation. He had been the Governor of Malta, was an enthusiast for Regulation, and had declared in favour of prostitution being "recognised as a necessity." The National Association for Repeal induced Dr. Baxter Langley to become a third candidate for the purpose of opposing Sir Henry Storks. Mrs. Butler, Professor Stuart, and others went to Colchester to assist his candidature. Great excitement prevailed, and Repealers were attacked by riotous mobs. After a most exciting period, Sir Henry Storks was defeated, and the Conservative candidate (Colonel Learmonth) elected by a very large majority to what had previously been a Liberal seat. A full account of the proceedings was published in THE SHIELD of the 12th November, 1870. 23rd November, 1870. - A Royal Commission was appointed "to enquire into and report upon the48 THE SHIELD October 1897. administration and operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts (1866-1869) with power to suggest whether the same should be amended, maintained, extended, or repealed." The Commission consisted of 23 members, with Mr. W. N. Massey as chairman. It was denounced by the Repeal Associations as a mere excuse for delay. 4th December, 1870.-Another repeal periodical, The Torch, was first published at South Shields. 1870.-During this year a number of meetings were held in various parts of the country, notably one in the Free Trade Hall at Manchester. The Rescue Society, in its 18th Annual Report, carefully examined the subject and made a strong protest against Regulation. 19th January, 1871.-Mr. (now Sir James) Stansfeld, addressed his constituents at Halifax. He was then a member of the Liberal Government. He declined to pledge himself to oppose the Contagious Diseases Acts until he had read the report of the Royal Commission, then sitting, whereupon the meeting expressed its general confidence "except as regards the Contagious Diseases Acts, on which question, the meeting regrets that it must reserve its confidence." February, 1871.-A vacancy having occurred at Ripon, Sir Henry Storks, who had been defeated a few months previously at Colchester, became a candidate, and was strongly opposed by the Repealers, but was elected. 30th March, 1871.-Mr. Duncan McLaren, M.P., presented a petition to the House of Commons for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, signed by 250,283 women in 134 boroughs. April, 1871.-A large body of medical men protested on religious, moral, social and sanitary grounds against the Contagious Diseases Acts. The names occupy several columns in THE SHIELD of the 15th and 22nd April, 1871. 13th May, 1871.-The Royal Commission ceased taking evidence. 28th May, 1871.-The General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church adopted petition for repeal. 19th July, 1871.-The Report of the Royal Commission appointed in the previous November was issued, accompanied by numerous "Dissents" from various members. Beyond saying that a majority of the Commissioners reported against "periodical examinations", and that a differently constituted majority approved the continuance of a modification of the Contagious Diseases Acts, it is impossible in a brief space to give any account of this extraordinary, unscientific and confusing report. 20th July ,1871.-A deputation of nearly 300 Repealers presented to Mr. Bruce, then Home Secretary, a memorial adopted on the previous day at an important Conference at the Westminster Palace Hotel. July, 1871.-The Wesleyan Conference at Manchester had an important debate and adopted a memorial in favour of Repeal. 31st July, 1st August, 3rd August.-Mr. Mundella was three times obstructed and defeated in his attempts to introduce a Repeal Bill into the House of Commons. 14th August, 1871.-Debate in the House of Commons on motion of Mr. Wm. Fowler to reduce the estimates. Mr. Mundella made an important speech. Motion defeated by 56 votes to 44. 30th September, 1871.-Mr. Bruce, the Home Secretary, in addressing his constituents at Glasgow advocated Regulation, alleging that the Contagious Diseases Act had greatly improved the condition of Devonport, and making a startling statement as to the condition of the town prior to their introduction. This statement caused the greatest excitement in Devonport, and it was immediately denounced from the Magisterial Bench as "a gross and monstrous falsehood." The Town Commissioners took it up warmly, declaring that the Home Secretary had "pledged his word to an absolute untruth;" and the Town Council, at a special meeting on the 9th October, gave "its unqualified denial of the truth of his statements." After correspondence with Mr. Bruce the Town Council appointed a Committee to enquire further into the matter. It turned out that the statement had been based on evidence given before the Royal Commission by Inspector Annis of the Contagious Diseases Acts police. This man had been regarded by the pro-Acts party as one of their most important witnesses. The Committee declared his evidence to have been "highly coloured, greatly exaggerated, and in many instances not to be depended upon." This Annis was subsequently deliberately denounced by one of the Royal Commissioners (Mr. Mundella) in the House of Commons as a liar. 1871.-During this year, a large number of petitions were presented to Parliament, and a greatly increased number of public meetings were held in different parts of the country. (To be continued.) The following publications may be obtained from the Secretary, British Committee of the Federation, 17, Tothill Street, Westminster, S.W.:- 1. Limits of Legitimate Legislation. The Late WM. Shaen (1877) Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 2. Is Chastity Beneficial? etc. Dr. J. B. Nevins Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 3. Present Aspect of the Abolitionist Cause (1893). Mrs. Josephine E. Butler Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 4. Facts Recorded by Eye-Witnesses (1893) Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 5. Report of the Departmental Committee on Indian Cantonments (1893) Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 6. Indian Canonment Scandals. Rev. J. P. Gledstone (1893) Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 7. St. Agnes. Mrs Josephine E. Butler Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 8. Prof. Stuart's Reply to Sir Wm. Moore (1895) Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 9. Letter of Appeal and Warning (1895) Mrs Josephine E. Butler Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 10. A Constitutional Iniquity (1895) Mrs Josephine E. Butler per doz. 3d. Per 100 1/6. 11. Cape of Good Hope re Venereal Disease. Dr. J. B. Nevins (1895) Each 2d. Per 100 10/s-. 12. Report of the Army Sanitary Commission 1892 (Reprinted 1895) Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 13. A Doomed Iniquity (1896) Mrs. Josephine E. Butler Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 14. Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade. Mrs Josephine E. Butler. Price 7/6. Postage 6d. 15. Has "Réglementation" proved a Sanitary Benefit? Dr. J. B. Nevins (1896) Each 6d. 16. The History of a Sanitary Failure. (Complied by) H. J. Wilson, M.P. (1896) Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 17. Understood but not Expressed. A General View of the Regulation System. By Jos. Edmonson Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 18. An Enquiry into the Causes of the Great Sanitary Failure, etc. (1897). By Jos. Edmonson Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 19. State Sanction of Vice per doz. 3d. Per 100 1/6. 20. Memorandum by the British Committee of the Federation (30th March, 1897) per doz. 3d. Per 100 1/6. 21. Notes on Lord George Hamilton's Despatch per doz. 3d. Per 100 1/6. 22. Memorial addressed to Lord George Hamilton (15th April, 1897) per doz. 3d. Per 100 1/6. 23. Reprint of Major Mayne's Letter to the "Times" per doz. 3d. Per 100 1/6. 24. Letter to a Friend (17th April, 1897). By Mrs Josephine E. Butler per doz. 3d. Per 100 1/6. 25. Ladies' Protest against the Cantonment Act Regulations per doz. 3d. Per 100 1/6. 26. The Soldier and his Masters (Reprinted from Contemporary Review) Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 27. Reply to Lady Henry Somerset's Scheme Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. 28. Speech by J Stuart, M.P., at Meeting of Federation, 21st May, 1897 Each 1d. Per 100 3/6s. 29. Speech by Sir J. Stansfeld at Annual Meeting of L.N.A., 9th July, 1897 Each 1d. Per 100 6/s-. Printed by PEWTRESS & Co., 28, Little Queen Street, W.C., and published by FREDERICK BURFOOT, 55, Ellerdale Street, Lewisham, London, for the BRITISH COMMITTEE OF THE FEDERATION OF ABOLITION OF STATE REGULATIONS OF VICE, 17, Tothill Street, Westminster, London.-October, 1897. The Shield THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE BRITISH COMMITTEE OF The Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice. OFFICE:-17, TOTHILL STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. New Series. Vol. 1. No. 11. March, 1898. Price 1d, or 1/6 per ann. post free. ANNOUNCEMENTS. Letters for the Editor will be received and forwarded by F. Burfoot, 55, Ellerdale Street, Lewisham, S.E. SUBSCRIPTIONS, 1/6 A YEAR POST FREE, should be sent to F. Burfoot, 55, Ellerdale Street, Lewisham, S.E., who will also quote advertising space, transact all the business of the paper, and supply single copies 1 1/2 d. post free. Correspondents in Europe, America, and the British Colonies are invited to write in confidence, or to send information cognate to our subject. SIR JAMES STANSFELD. IT is impossible to overstate the feelings which animate all those who belong to the Repeal Cause, in connection with the death of Sir James Stansfeld. It has been known for some time that he was unwell, but his death came as a sudden blow to most of us. We must postpone till next issue of THE SHIELD what we wish to say with respect to this great and good man. There were many touching sights, and few dry eyes at his funeral, which was attended by a huge concourse of persons, at Rotherfield, on the 22nd of last month. Amongst the many wreaths from many lands which were laid on the grave, was one which took the form of an Anchor, composed of white lilies and maidenhair with the following inscription attached:- "From the British Committee of the Federation for the Abolition of the State Regulation of Vice, this slight token from the hearts of all in memory of their most revered and beloved leader the Right Honourable Sir James Stansfeld whose work they will continue through evil report and through good, even as he worked and taught by his example. Life should be a battle and a march." MEETINGS AND PETITIONS WIGAN W.L.A., JANUARY 24th.-Speakers: Mrs. Solly, of South Africa, and Mrs H. J. Wilson. Resolution carried unanimously, "That this meeting declares its profound conviction that all systems of regulating vice are immoral, unjust, and useless, specially protests against the re-introduction of such a system in India, and calls upon all men and women to oppose it in every possible way." THE AMERICAN PURITY ALLIANCE-TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING.-The twenty-second annual meeting of the American Purity Alliance was held on Tuesday, January 25th, 1898, an afternoon and an evening session, at the "Isaac T. Hopper Home," No. 110, Second Avenue, New York. The President, Aaron M. Powell, presided. The Annual Report chronicles a large number of meetings and conferences, including addresses by the President before the students of Johns Hopkins University, Medical Department, Baltimore, and of the State University of Tennessee, at Knoxville; gives, with an official acknowledgement from her Secretary of State for India, the "Appeal to Queen Victoria", forwarded by the Alliance, with a large number of signatures of well-known influential Americans, Bishops, Clergymen, Presidents of Women's Organizations and other representative American women, college presidents, and others, against the reintroduction of State Regulation of Vice in India; mentions a message of fraternal greeting forwarded and presented by a deputation to the International Federation Conference for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice, held in Brussels, Belgium, in July last; and another to the National Christian Endeavour Convention held in San Francisco; and notes a large amount of literature for the promotion of the Purity movement, in its various aspects, disseminated throughout the country. The following resolutions were unanimously adopted: 1. Resolved.-That we reaffirm the equal obligation of a chaste, pure life alike for men and women. 2. Resolved.-That we are unqualifiedly opposed to the legalization of regulation of vice by the State, in any form, as tending inevitably to foster immorality, as unjust and degrading to both women and men, as a peril to the home, society and the nation. 3. Resolved.-That we have noted with much regret and apprehension the reintroduction during the past year of State regulation of vice in connection with the British Army in India by authority of the British Government. 4. Resolved.-That we especially deplore the recent advocacy by sundry English women, mainly titled women, of State Regulation of Vice; and that the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union, including also American women, at its late International Convention at Toronto, as represented by its Executive Committee, elected as its Vice-President a distinguished advocate of State Regulation of Vice in connection with the British Army in India. 5. Resolved.-That we hereby extend to Mrs. Josephine E. Butler, founder and Honorary President of the International Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice, our hearty sympathy in the increased burden of care and responsibility devolved upon herself and her associates in the new abolition contest; and we rejoice in the many and emphatic protests on the part of English women and men,-one memorial of 61,437 women alone,-against the revival of regulation in India and in England. 6. Resolved.-That we urge all members and friends of the American Purity Alliance, and all good citizens everywhere, to maintain a continued vigilance, to oppose and thwart the schemes of American regulation propagandists, who seek to introduce in this country, as by the Municipal Council of Omaha, Nebraska, at the present time, a system of localization and legalization of vice, with the compulsory registration, and police and medical surveillance of women. The following were re-elected officers for the ensuing year: President, Aaron M. Powell; Vice-Presidents, Rev. W. N. McVikar, D.D.,Pa; Rev. W. T. Sabine,86 THE SHEILD [MARCH, 1898. D.D., N.Y.; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mass.; O. Edward Janney, M.D., Baltimore, Md.; Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, Providence, R.I.; Rev. A. H. Lewis, D.D., N.J.; Jonathan W. Plummer, Chicago, Ill., and others; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Anna Rice Powell, Plainfield, N.; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Naomi Lawton Davis, Philadelphia, Pa.; Treasurer, Mrs. Elizabeth Gay, West New Brighton, N.Y. Addresses were given at the evening session, successively, by the President, Aaron M. Powell, Rev. Anna Garlin Specer, subject: "The Relation of Lady Henry Somerset and other titled English Women to State Regulation of Vice in India; "Rev. W. T. Sabine, D.D., Emily Blackwell, M.D., Rev. S. S. Seward, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, and Samuel C. Blackwell. There was a good attendance, including many well-known philanthropic men and women. SUSSEX AND THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACTS. -- The women members of the Society of Friends in Sussex have passed a resolution condemning "The re-introduction into India, or elsewhere, of the oppressive and immoral system embodied in the Contagious Diseases Acts, or of any measures for the regulation of vice in the supposed interests of men," and entreating member of Parliament to protest against such "infamous legislation." A MEETING was held in the Temperance Hall, Whitby, of February 1st, under the auspices of the Whitby branch of the British Women's Temperance Association, to consider the question of the Indian Cantonment Regulations. The room was full. The chair was taken by Rev. G. M. Storrar, B.A., who remarked that the doubts he at one time had as to the position he should take up on the question had entirely passed away as he obtained fuller knowledge. The meeting was then addressed by the Rev. J. Kirk Maconachie, honorary secretary to the Manchester Abolition Committee, who began by expressing sympathy with those unable to see their way on this difficult and distressing subject, full information upon which was very desirable, but not easily obtained, owing to the one-sidedness of a large section of the Press. The question, he maintained, was not so much a medical as a moral one; it was a matter to be referred to the decision of the Christian conscience, not deferred to military experts. Dealing with the statistics of disease he showed that these were often gravely exaggerated. The number of admissions to hospital was usually mistaken for the number of men admitted, whereas the same man frequently appeared on the sheets several times in one year, and even might be entered three or four times for the same bout of sickness, on the medical description of his disease being changed. Still, the case was bad and disgraceful enough, and ought by every right means to be improved without delay. Such means, however, were not to be found in attempted provision for the safe indulgence of vicious habits. Safety could not be guaranteed, as was noted in the reports in which the Army Sanitary Commission had for many years condemned the Acts as ineffective and delusive. If the amount of disease depended upon the operation of these Acts it was strange that it had decreased in the Home Army every since their repeal in 1886 at almost the same rate at which it had been increasing for the thirteen years previous to that time. The true remedy lay not in a despairing resort to measures obnoxious in themselves and discredited as a sanitary expedient, but in a reversal of the policy hitherto pursed of making wrong easy and right difficult for the boy soldiers we sent out to India. This view of the case was shared by many experienced officers, though it was too much the fashion in military circles to expect the soldier to go wrong, and to provide facilities for his doing so. -- Miss A. B. Smith, of Southport, followed with an appeal on behalf of native women, dwelling upon the oppression and the further degradation which the Acts forced upon them. They were mere girls, of average age from ten or twelve to sixteen, in very many cases entrapped and sold into an evil life which was aggravated to the last point of hopelessness by the working of the system imposed in the name of this Christian country. -- The Rev. J. Bennett moved that the Chairman be authorised to sign on behalf of the meeting a petition of Parliament on the subject. This was carried with one dissentient. AT the annual meeting of the Oxford and District Free Church Council, held on February 1st, at the close of the business, Mr. W. Steadman Aldis received permission to address the Council, on behalf of the British Committee, on the present state of the question of legalised provision for vice in India. At the close of the address, it was moved by the Rev. C. Duxbury, of Woodstock, seconded by the Rev. Jas. Dann, of Oxford, and carried unanimously, that the Council should send a memorial to Lord Salisbury on the subject : the Chairman was authorised to sign the memorial which has been put out by the Manchester Committee. Mr. Duxbury spoke of his residence in Paris, and of the horrible effects of such legislation there which had come under his notice, and added that if we suffered it to pass in India without protest, it would presently be reintroduced in England. Some of the literature published by the British Committee was distributed after the meeting, and there is hope of other meetings to grow out of this introduction of the subject. THREE very successful W.L.A. meetings were help in Lincolnshire, at Gainsborough (February 1st), Scunthorpe (February 2nd), and Brigg (February 3rd). Mrs. E. O. Fordham, of Ashwell, Herts., distributed leaflets and gave addresses upon the subject of regulated prostitution. THERE have been two successful meetings in Edinburgh, one in the new hall, Greenside, February 1st, a women's meeting largely attended, and which testified much interest against the wrong of providing arrangements for the vices of our Indian soldiers. A petition was signed by the presiding lady, and many names were added to the general petition. The next meeting in the Bible Society Rooms on the 15th, in the afternoon, was presided over by Mrs. Nairn, and attended by a crowded audience of ladies of education and position. The interest was very great. Dr. Agnes McLaren was present and gave much information; Dr. Grace Caddell, Dr. Catherine Urquhart, Miss Lloyd (of the Soldier's Home), Mrs. Archibald Campbell, Mrs. Col. Macdougall, and other representative ladies were also present. Many papers explanatory of the present position of the question were distributed and a petition was agreed to and sign by the lady presiding, and was sent for presentation to Sir Lewis McIver, M.P. for North Edinburgh. A LARGE and representative gathering of ladies assembled in the Drawing Room of the Young Men's Christian Association, Manchester, on February 2nd, when addresses were given by Mrs. Coller and Miss H. B. Thomson on Recent Proposals re Indian Cantonment Acts. Mrs. Coller dealt chiefly on the need for Christian women and Christian workers completely disassociating themselves for Lady Henry Somerset's scheme. Miss Thomson gave a short sketch of the scope and working of the Contagious Diseases and Indian Cantonment Acts, of their repeal and re-enactment in India last August, and made an earnest appeal to those present on behalf of the poor women of India, "governed by an alien race, who enforce this degradation on them." Several ladies took part in the discussion which followed, and one speaking from the audience alluded to the shameful curtness with which Mrs. Butler's resignation had been accepted by the President of the World Women's Christian Temperance Union. A resolution was then adopted, and then president signed a memorial in the name of the meeting to the Prime Minister and Indian Secretary. ON the night of February 4th there was a largely-attended meeting at the Small Hall of the Victoria Rooms, Clifton, to hear an address on "The Re-enactment MARCH, 1898.] THE SHIELD. 87 of State Regulation of Vice in India." Mr. W. Howell Davies, J.P., presided, and there were several local clergy and ministers of religion on the platform and in the hall. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Fairfax Goodall. THE CHAIRMAN said he thought that only those who had studied the subject in all its bearing ought to speak upon it. Fortunately they had upon the platform a number of ladies and gentlemen who had thought a great deal about it. He could only say that no re-enactment of laws which had been repealed by any side wind, can be satisfactory to the English people; if their responsible legislators desired a change, or re-enactment of laws which once stood upon the Statute Book of the country, it would be much more satisfactory if they came forward in a straightforward way in the House of Commons to re-establish laws which, in the House of Commons, had been abolished. There was a danger that laws that were in force might be reinforced without the consent of Parliament and without the will of the people, and the object of that meeting was to call their attention to the matter and express an opinion whether such laws having been repealed ought to be re-established or re-enacted without the decision of the House of Commons. The Rev. Dr. GLOVER next moved a resolution opposing the re-enactment of State regulation of vice in India, and speaking with reference to the army in India condemned the action of the officers, and expressed it as his opinion that the soldiers were more sinned against than sinning. He quoted statistics showing what had happened during the period the soldiers were "protected" by these Acts as against the time when they were not. The woman of India wanted England's hand to help her up, and not her heel to crush her down. The question of women in India was one that had been described as an open sore, and England would be criminal exceedingly if she did anything to add to the contempt in which women were held there. The Rev. J. DAVIDSON seconded the resolution, and welcomed the ladies and gentlemen present who had made the subject a practically life-long study. He regretted that the legislators at home merely played with the subject, and that the statistics manufactured abroad would bear out the statements from any aspect that they cared to make them. The more they studied the subject the more they deplored it, but they had got voices, most of them, and they must make them heard; they must not sit down with folded arms, and viewing the iniquity, make no protest. He believed that pertinacity was the only weapon to use to effect changes in the laws affecting morality; and laws that were enacted and not in conformity with righteousness ought not to be put on the Statute Book. (Applause.) Mr. H. J. WILSON, M.P., in supporting the resolution, spoke of the historical growth of the subject, and commenced with 1864, when the first Act of the kind was passed in England. He believed that first public demonstration in opposition to the Acts was held in Bristol, and in those rooms, in 1869, but it was not until 1886 that these Acts were repealed. he then went on to give extensive details of evidence that had been given before a departmental committee, of which he was a member, with reference to the State regulation of vice in India, and in particular referred to the action of Lord Roberts in relation thereto. He strongly deprecated the way in which the statistics that were sent home had been manufactured in order to get up a panic on the question; and also went on to speak of Lady Henry Somerset's action in relation to the question, referring to it as a very great blow to the Association. Mrs. WHEELER ANDREW next addressed the meeting, and gave her experience amongst the women in India, also of the way in which her evidence was taken before the departmental committee referred to by the previous speaker. She gave her evidence then not as an advocate or a pleader but as a witness, and through that experience she had felt the power of the truth. Dr. KATHERINE BUSHNELL also addressed the meeting, after which The Rev. A. C. TAYLOR moved, and Mr. W. H. BUDGETT seconded, that a petition signed by the chairman on behalf of the meeting should be sent to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach for presentation to Parliament, and that copies of the resolution already adopted should be forwarded to the local members of Parliament, to Lord Salisbury, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Lord George Hamilton, and Lord Lansdowne. This was carried, and the meeting closed with votes of thanks. AT the ladies' sewing meeting of Hallford Congregational Chapel on February 8th, the following resolution was passed unanimously :-- "This meeting of women hears with surprise and indignation of the attempt to regulate prostitution in India in the supposed interest of our soldiers. They resent all such regulations as unjust, cruel, and degrading to those immediately concerned, and as a stinging insult to all women who have no votes to protect themselves against the making of such immoral laws." It was also decided that the resolution should be signed on behalf of the meeting by Mrs. Berry, president, and that it be forwarded to Alderman Duckworth, M.P. THERE was a very large gathering on the afternoon of Sunday, February 6th, in connection with the Sunday afternoon addresses to men at St. Thomas's Church, when Dr. Spence Watson spoke on the new health rules for the army in India. Dr. Watson began by referring to the passing of the Contagious Diseases Acts in 1866 and the ultimate repeal of that enactment, which was only brought about after a terrible struggle which those who were engaged in looking back upon as one of the most fearful ordeals they had every gone through. But the iniquitous principles contained in these Acts had, however, since been brought into even more vigorous operation by means of the Indian Cantonments Act and the rules promulgated in connection therewith. He appealed to his hearers to do their utmost to bring the authorities to a sense of their responsibility in this matter; to a sense of the necessity for uplifting the soldier instead of helping to send him on a downward course. S.W. MACHESTER W.L.A., FEBRUARY 9TH. -- Two meeting were addressed by Mrs. H. J. Wilson, the afternoon one being held under the auspices of the Radnor Street Branch of the Manchester Women's Christian Temperance Association, and the evening one under the auspices of the Women's Liberal Association. Strong resolutions condemning the principles of the Contagious Diseases Acts were passed. WHITEFIELD W.L.A., FEBRUARY 10TH. -- A meeting, very encouraging as regards number, and for women only, was addressed by Mrs. H. J. Wilson. A resolution protesting against official regulation of vice in India was adopted on the motion of Miss Wise (Hon. Secretary), seconded by Mrs. Jackson, and a memorial, as usual, most eagerly signed at the close of the meeting. STOKE-ON-TRENT P.S.A. -- There was a large attendance of this Society on the afternoon of Sunday, February 13th, when an address was delivered by Mr. Cope, upon the subject of the State Regulation of Prostitution generally, with especial reference to actual measures in India and renewed efforts for the indefinite extension of the system in the British Empire. A strong resolution condemnatory of all such measures and efforts was unanimously adopted, and a petition protesting against the reintroduction of the system was authorised to be signed by the Chairman, and forwarded to the House of Commons through the sitting member. ON the afternoon of February 15th, the Women's Liberal Association of Stoke, met at the residence of Mrs. Broadhurst, Claremont House, Regent Street, and after hearing an address from Mr. Cope, unanimously adopted a petition to Parliament protesting against regulation in any form, and demanding the repeal of the recent measures in that direction in India. The88 THE SHIELD. [MARCH, 1898. ——————————————————————————————————— petition was signed on behalf of the meeting by Mrs. L. Grimwade, of Fjaerland, Trent Vale, who presided. ——— ROCHDALE W.L.A., FEBRUARY 15th.—A crowded meeting of women representing various political and religious opinions was held in the Assembly Rooms Reform Club, Rochdale to hear addresses from Dr. Kate Bushnell and Mrs. Andrew. Their graphic descriptions of life in the Indian cantonments and the scathing terms in which the whole system of State Regulation of Vice was denounced by these ladies were listened to with the deepest interest and most appreciative sympathy. The following resolution was carried unanimously:-"That this meeting deplores the reintroduction of the system known as the 'C.D. Acts' in India, and strongly condemns the system of State Regulation of Vice as being degrading, unnecessary, and inoperative in diminishing disease caused by vice, and it calls upon the Government to uphold those laws of righteousness and morality by which another nation can be made great." ——— BLACKBURN WOMEN'S LIBERAL ASSOCIATION.—A meeting of this Association was held in the Reform Club on February 15th to consider the subject of "State Regulation of Vice," Mrs. H. J. Wilson, of Sheffield, being the speaker. There was a very good and attentive audience, and at the close of the meeting many of the members requested to be allowed to sign a memorial objecting to the re-enactment of the Contagious Diseases Acts. ——— NORTHAMPTON.—At a meeting of the Free Church Council for Northamptonshire in this town on Wednesday, February 16th, an address was delivered by Mr. Cope, and a discussion took place with reference to the renewal of Regulations in India and to the ill-disguised desire for the further extension of the system. A resolution strongly protesting against the system in any form, whether in India or elsewhere, was unanimously adopted and ordered to be embodied in the form of a petition, to be signed by the President of the Council, Mr. Alderman Wetherall, on behalf of the Council, and forwarded to Parliament through a Member of the Division. ——— FAILSWORTH W.L.A., FEBRUARY 16TH.—A numerously attended meeting for men and women, presided over by Councillor G. Bailey, was held in the Liberal Club, and an addres on the "Social Purity Question and the Contagious Diseases Acts" was delivered by Mrs. H. J. Wilson. A strong resolution was passed, and a memorial embodying the principles of the resolution was ordered to be sent to Lord George Hamilton, Secretary of State for India, and also to Mr. F. Cawley, M.P. ——— MRS. ANDREW and Dr. K. Bushnell had good meetings in Dublin on Tuesday afternoon (February 22nd) for women only, and on Wednesday evening at George's Hall, for men only. Mr. Alf. Webb in the chair. Resolutions of protest against State Regulation were passed by both meetings and ordered to be sent to all members for the City and County of Dublin. A petition also for presentation to Parliament by the district member was signed and forwarded to the House of Commons. ——— THE following meetings to protest against the reenactment of the Contagious Diseases Acts in India have been held under the auspices of the Lancashire and Cheshire Union of Women's Liberal Associations. The attendance in each case was most encouraging, both as regards enthusiasm and numbers, and at every meeting a strong resolution condemning the principles of State Regulation of Vice and the re-introduction of this system in India was unanimously carried. At the close of each meeting memorials and petitions were signed by members of the audience, which, together with copies of the resolutions, have been already, or are being forwarded, to the respective Members of Parliament, and to the Secretary of State for India. The women of Lancashire, when appealed to, intelligently grasp at once the scope and meaning of these Acts, and these signed memorials are a genuine and spontaneous expression of opinion on their part with regard to this pressing moral question. ——————— FURTHER PETITIONS. ———— THE following Petition to the House of Commons, forwarded by Mrs. Helen S. Dyer, Bombay, has been presented. "The Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled. "We, the undersigned officers, members, and friends of the India Woman's Christian Temperance Union, regard with deep sorrow and grave apprehension the proposed re-introduction of any system of State regulated vice into this country. We believe that this system involves the gravest injustice to defenceless women and leads to the increase of vice by inducing men to cease to regard the practice of immorality as a sin. "We therefore beg your Honourable House to reject all proposals of this character, and instead to promote the welfare of the soldier by all moral means which shall discourage vice and encourage virtue, especially by allowing a much larger proportion of men in the British Army to marry. "We believe that the ties of home life from which the British soldier in India is now almost entirely shut out would prove a great incentive to purity of life; and a restraint that would do more to close the floodgates of immorality than any other measure." The petition bears the signatures of 800 persons, chiefly Missionaries and Zenana workers, including several native women workers. ——— PETITIONS to the House of Commons have been forwarded from the Blaydon B.W.T.A.; Leeds women inhabitants, two per Mr. T. R. Sentry, M.P., and two more per Mr. Gerald Balfour, M.P. East Leeds men and women two petitions per Mr. T. R. Sentry; Tailoresses Union in Leeds, and Leeds women. ——— MR. F. W. LOWE, in the House of Commons, on February 24th, presented a petition from inhabitants of the Edgbaston Division of Birmingham against the re-establishment of the Contagious Diseases Act in India. [No official return of petitions presented to Parliament has, as yet, been compiled this Session. We shall announce the numbers of the first return appearing in so far as they relate to our subject.] ——————— A WARNING. ———— CERTAIN PAPERS, to which we briefly referred in the last issue of THE SHIELD, have been recently circulated which endeavor to put in a most alarming way the condition of our general population in this country in respect of venereal disease. In these papers it is stated that "ample evidence can be had to show that the disease is eating into the people; that men, women and children in the lower working ranks are suffering not only by direct contagion, but also by hereditary transmission." The authors of the papers in question point out that "the only possible ground of legislative action among the civil population is that the disease has become a national danger through hereditary taint or through an immense increase of the disease in its primary form." Their [page break] MARCH, 1898.] THE SHIELD. 89 ——————————————————————————————————— whole action is clearly based on their belief that there are some primá facie reasons for holding that such ground exists, and they proceed to give a number of sensational statements about the "frightful number of babies born afflicted with this disease," and they give some individual cases of facts brought to the notice of one of the writers, of persons who may cause the transmission of disease. We propose in this number of THE SHIELD to enquire whether there is any ground for this alarm, and in the next number of THE SHIELD we shall enquire into and comment on the character of the scheme which it is proposed to adopt. In the first place, it is remarkable how similar is the present document in character to one which was issued thirty years ago. The authors of the present papers say that they "have had most forcibly brought before their notice the terrible way in which venereal diseases are undermining the constitution and physical strength of numbers in this country," and they go on to speak of their belief that "thousands of innocent persons, men, women, and especially children . . . . are suffering and dying from the results of venereal diseases." The "Association for Promoting the Extension of the Contagious Diseases Act of 1866 to the Civil Population" used, thirty years ago, not only general language of the above alarming type, but went into much more detailed statements on points of fact. The statements of that Association were dealt with by Mr. John Simon, Medical Officer of the Privy Council, in his Report for 1868, published in the "Eleventh Annual Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council." In the course of that Report, Mr. Simon says:— "The Report for the 'Association for Promoting the Extension of the Contagious Diseases Act to the Civil Population,' gives some statistics which might lead to an impression that in London from one-fifth to one-third of the sick poor are suffering from 'a contagious disease of the gravest character which is constantly transmitted from parent to offspring,' but the contents of Mr. Wagstaffe's report (given in the appendix to the Blue Book) satisfy me that no sufficient grounds for any such impression exist: rendering it, I think, highly probable that, of the sick poor who at any given moment are receiving medical relief under the poor law, and at dispensaries and general hospitals, in London, only about 7 per cent. have venereal disease of one kind or another, and that only in about half the proportion the form of disease is true syphilis. Again, a piece of the experience of the Children's Hospital in Great Ormond Street as quoted in the report of the Association, may seem to suggest that 'about one-fifth' of the sick children of the poor are sick with immediate consequences of inherited syphilis; but on inquiry I find that, of 118,590 children of the poor treated during the last ten years for all sorts of diseases at the Ormond Street Hospital, the proportion recorded to be syphilitic has been only 1 1/2 per 100. Thus in both cases the quantity of evil appears to be many times less than advocates of legislative interference may imagine; and it must be remembered that London probably illustrates that utmost dimensions which the evil can attain in this country." The reply thus given by Mr. Simon to the exaggerated statements current in his day is of great historical value in this respect that it was the principal means of preventing the Government of the time from extending the operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts to the population at large, a course the gradual adoption of which had been recommended by a Committee of the House of Lords which reported in 1868. It is obvious if, as has been the case, venereal disease has been decreasing since the date of Mr. Simon's report, that his conclusions have additional force at the present time. With respect to this we have already reprinted in THE SHIELD the important letter of Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, published in the Times of April 5th, 1897. Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson is the greatest living authority on syphilis, and in that letter he says: "I am one of those who both hope and believe that the malady in question is declining both in prevalence and severity. . . . . So far from there having been any real increase in the registered mortality, there has been a slight reduction of it." We propose to give three extremely important statistical facts bearing on this subject. (1.) In the first place, as we have frequently shown, disease in the British home army is steadily decreasing. The numbers of admissions to hospitals for all venereal diseases in the home army, which at the date when Mr. Simon wrote (1868) were 254 per 1,000 men have for the last ten years been as follows :— Year. No. of admissions per 1000. 1887 . . . 253 1888 . . . 224 1889 . . . 212 1890 . . . 212 1891 . . . 197 1892 . . . 201 1893 . . . 195 1894 . . . 182 1895 . . . 174 1896 . . . 158 So far as the home army, therefore, is concerned, disease has diminished and is diminishing. (2.) Turning now to the general population. The army medical reports each year gives the number of recruits presenting themselves, and the total number of those who are rejected each year for venereal diseases as well as for all other causes. We give the following résumé of these figures :— Period. Number per 1,000 of recruits rejected. For all causes. For Syphilis. 1871-75 . . . 299'42 15'47 1881-85 . . . 412'55 10'55 1891-95 . . . 397'31 4'62 It will be seen from this that the numbers rejected for syphilis have steadily fallen from 15'47 per 1,000 men to 4'62 per 1,000. It is further important to observe the fact that this decrease has been accompanied by an increase of those rejected for all causes. This shows that the reductio of rejections for syphilis is not in consequence of any laxity in rejection. The above figures affect an average number of about 50,000 recruits each year. They afford a sample of persons coming from all parts of the kingdom, and include classes of society and persons of an age little inclined to self-restraint, and often with unfavourable surroundings which render them peculiarly liable to the diseases under consideration. (3.) Among children. Dr. Nevins, to whom the elucidation of the statistics of the diseases in question owes so much, twenty years ago laid before the Select Committee of the House of Commons the results of an enquiry into a large number of children's hospitals, giving returns embracing 166,000 cases of children treated in these hospitals. He has again, a few months ago, with that unconquerable devotion to our cause which characterises him, made a similar enquiry, and has received returns embracing 197,000 cases of children treated. He finds that the average number of children treated in these hospitals recorded as suffering from some hereditary form of syphilitic disease in 1875 was one in 71, and in 1895 was one in 124, a little more than half as many. The area covered by these facts and the character of the population to which they refer form a complete answer to the alarmist statements to which we have referred. ——————— HEALTH OF THE ARMY IN INDIA, AND LADY HENRY SOMERSET. ———— THE subjoined letter from Lady Henry Somerset to Lord George Hamilton appeared in some of the daily papers of February 8th:— Dear Lord George Hamilton,—Your lordship invited me ten months ago to give you my view of the dispatch that had been addressed to the Government of India on the health of the Army, and in a letter in which I did so I ventured to suggest some methods moral and disciplinary which seemed to me the only ones likely to succeed, because they had at least the merit of being logical. I was led to do so by two considerations; first the dispatch in question seemed to imply that the Government would give every encouragement to every 90 THE SHIELD. [MARCH, 1989. form of elevating agency, and so emphasise the altered spirit in which the subject was approached, and that such suggested supervision would only affect an incorrigible minimum -- and second that the system I had in mind would be so drastic and penal in its nature as to make State interference odious, and finally impossible. That was ten months ago, and in that time nothing has been done of which the public had heard, to strengthen the forces that make for moral improvement. What has been done -- viz., the repeal of the Indian Acts of 1895, which prohibited inspection, has been in a direction exactly opposite. It seems to have been the object of the Government to obtain the maximum of impunity, with the minimum of protest from those who desire to see the State shape its actions according to Christian views of ethics. I need not tell your lordship I am not writing to say how strongly I am still opposed to the course which the Government has taken; but I find that my letter to your lordship of last year has been taken by many to mean that I am on the side of the accepted view of State regulation, and I am from time to time quoted as a sympathiser with such views. I am, therefore, writing to withdraw any proposals made in that letter for this reason: that the events of the past year have convinced me of the inadvisability and extreme danger of the system that in April last I thought might be instituted. The absence of any serious effort by the Government to bring about a higher standard in the Army is a final proof to me that as long as regulation of any kind can be resorted to as a remedy, it will always be regarded as the one and only panacea. My view was that it would be instituted as an odious but possibly effective auxiliary to moral efforts. I find it will always be accepted as a convenient substitute. I take the liberty of addressing this explicit withdrawal of an endorsement in whatever form of the principle of regulation, because it as in a letter to your lordship that I originally incurred the responsibility. I trust, therefore, to your lordship's indulgence to forgive me for troubling you further in the matter. I remain, my lord, yours very truly, (Signed) ISABEL SOMERSET. Eastnor Castle, Ledbury, January 27th. The Christian for February 17th contains the following comment upon the above letter. REGULATION, NO REMEDY! LADY HENRY SOMERSET'S RETRACTATION. In our last issue we inserted in full the letter of Lady Henry Somerset, in which she withdrew from her unfortunate position in relation to the State regulation of vice in India. We refrained, for the time being, from comment, that her retraction might speak for itself. We feel, therefore, the more free to remark upon it now. We rejoice, in the first place, that it has come at all, for it justifies the principles for which we and other repealers have contended all these years. Lady Henry is convinced of "the inadvisability and extreme danger" of her former proposals, and recognises now that -- as long as regulation of any kind can be resorted to as a remedy, it will always be regarded as the one and only panacea. . . . . [and] will always be accepted as a convenient substitute [for moral reform]. It is therefore with thankfulness that we note her ladyship's explicit withdrawal of an indorsement in whatever form of the principle of regulation. This is all good so far as it goes, but it does not go far enough; and, alas! it somes too late to undo the fearful harm caused by her action last year. A public retractation is a hard and painful process, and we sympathise with Lady Henry in the mental strain which it must have cost her. But she has not been the only sufferer. It were no small thing to sow division and discord in so gigantic an organisation as that over which she presided, so that at the present time the movement is crippled and its machinery out of gear. This might well have elicited an expression of regret, which we hope may yet be forthcoming in some communication to the Association she has so grievously injured. But more than this. Encouraged by her act, the Government claimed the women of England as its supporters, defied moral sentiment, and, on the crest of the wave of this unhappy dissension, carried the re-enactment of the infamous Contagious Diseases Acts among our sisters in India. It will take long and weary years of uphill work to undo the mischief that her ill-advised and hasty action wrought. Meantime, how many Indian women will have succumbed to a shameful life, and gone down to a dishonoured grave? it would not be unreasonable, therefore, to expect her now to demonstrate her sincerity by using her great gifts and influence in every kind of endeavour to secure the repeal of this obnoxious legislation. The weakest point of Lady Henry's letter is the erroneous assumption on which it is based: that her proposals themselves were moral, and that if the Government had instituted reforms they might have successfully co-existed with regulation. But how can regulation under any circumstances be a remedy? the very terms are self-contradictory. What is morally wrong can never be experimentally right, and this proposition neither casuistry nor expediency can set aside. The only remedy is obedience to the law of God; and if external aids be needed, let them be found in some active measures for the mental, moral, and spiritual improvement of our soldiers in their leisure hours. This is where reform is needed. NOTE BY THE EDITOR. -- We are glad to see that Lady Henry Somerset has now withdrawn from the proposals for the Regulation of Vice with which her name has become connected. At the same time we regret that she still appears to think that her scheme could possibly have done good if side by side with it had been some moralizing agency. Our position is and has uniformly been that Regulation is essentially under all circumstances a demoralizing agency, and must be so from the very nature of the case; and that the provision of women certified fit for immoral purposes is necessarily disastrous whatever be the concomitants of such a proposition. THREATENED RENEWAL OF REGULATION IN THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. In the House of Commons of February 22nd Mr. Brodrick, replying to Major Rasch, said that when the 1st Battalion of the Irish Fusiliers arrived in Egypt from India, and were inspected at Alexandria, ninety-two were found unfit for active service. The question of reviving at the Straits Settlements and other Colonial stations certain regulations which were abolished seven years ago had been referred to the Military Authorities by the Secretary of State, and the matter was under consideration. LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICE. LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICE, brother of Lord Lansdowne, Secretary of State for War, has written the following letter in answer to questions put to him, as Parliamentary Candidate for the Cricklade Division of Wiltshire, for which he was recently returned, with reference to his views on the Regulation of Prostitution, and the action of the Government :-- Swindon, February 12th, 1898. Dear Mr. Ainsworth, I am much obliged for the documents you have kindly sent me. I would like to get a copy of the full text MARCH, 1989.] THE SHEILD. 91 of the despatch of Lord George Hamilton which is referred to. I observe that at the end of the "interview with Archdeacon Wilson" it is stated that quite recently (May 18th, 1897), the terms of that despatch have been gone back upon. This is a very important point, as I confess that yesterday during our conversation I was under the impression that the despatch of March 26th, 1897, was the document governing the situation. I am opposed to the re-enactment of the Contagious Diseases Acts either in England or in India. I do not think that anything should be done to permit the practices, which in the despatch of March 26th it is expressly stated by Lord George shall not be permitted. This I think covers your question. I need not say that all efforts to improve the position of the soldier have my support and sympathy. I have always regarded the whole system of the Contagious Diseases Acts with suspicion because they always had the support, I observed, of the same school of military martinets who supported flogging in the army; and generally seem to have the idea that the army should be a body of ruffians kept in order by a mixed system of terror and moral laxity. This particular question is probably also closely connected with the larger question of a long service army for India, in which the soldiers would be older and steadier men as a general rule. But I am not able to express an opinion worth giving on this subject. Believe me, Yours very truly, EDMOND FITZMAURICE. DECREASE OF DISEASE IN THE HOME ARMY. THE Army Medical Report for 1896 has just been issued. It again shows a decrease in every class of venereal disease in the British home army. The admissions per 1,000 for all forms of these diseases have fallen from 174 to 158, and there is a corresponding decrease in the number of constantly sick, which has fallen from 1528 to 1394 per 1,000 men. In other words, instead of half the army being in hospital from these diseases, as we are frequently told, the number at any moment so placed amounts only to a fraction under 14 in every 1,000 of our home army of 100,000 men. It is worth observing that in 1882, the year before the suspension of the Contagious Diseases Acts, this figure stood at 1686, and it was rising each year at that time, instead of, as now, falling. The admissions have decreased for both the severer and the less severe forms of disease. DECREASE OF DISEASE IN THE ARMY IN INDIA UNDER THE REPEALED ACT OF 1895. IN India there has also been for the year 1896 a decrease in disease. The admissions for primary syphilis have decreased by 1450 per 1,000, those for simple ulcer by 191 per 1,000, and for gonorrhoea by 172 per 1,000. The only increase being in secondary syphilis of 100 per 1,000. The net result is a decrease, on the total admissions, of 253 per 1,000, and a decrease of 144 per 1,000 in those constantly sick, giving a total disabled in any one day from these diseases of 4 1/2 per cent., and not 50 per cent. as sometimes stated. It is an interesting fact, which our readers must bear in mind, that the decrease above referred to took place during the only year when the Act of 1895 was in force for the whole year, the Act, namely, which prohibited compulsory examination. That Act was repealed by the Indian Government, and its repeal was sanctioned by Lord George Hamilton, on the basis of the increase of disease in the years which preceded its enactment. And now that we have the results of the one full year when it was in force we find that disease has been reduced in that year below what it was either in the year 1895, when the Act was in force for part of the year, or in the year 1894, when it had not been yet enacted. These are the figures of admissions for these three years :-- 1894 ... ... 5114 per 1,000 1895 ... ... 5223 " 1896 ... ... 4970 " There has not been much logic in Lord George Hamilton's proceedings. MEMORIAL FROM WOMEN DOCTORS. A REMARKABLE memorial from a large number of women doctors to Lord George Hamilton condemning the Regulation system has been published in the British Medical Journal of February 26th. We regret that our space in the present SHIELD does not permit u to quote it at length. We shall return to it in next month's issue. LETTER TO MRS. BUTLER FROM THE W.C.T.U. OF AUSTRALASIA. "For God, and Home, and Humanity." September, 1897. Dear Mrs. Butler, On behalf of the W.C.T.U. of Australasia, numbering about 7,000 members, we, its Executive, and Superintendents of Departments, and Delegates attending Colonial Conventions or Executive meetings during the month of September, desire to express our deep sympathy with you and all other Aboligionist leaders in the retrograde step lately taken by the reintroduction into India of a modified form of the State regulation of vice. We deeply lament that this Jubilee year of the reign of our gracious Queen should be defiled by legislation in favour of a system so dishonouring to womanhood and degrading to both sexes, and we solemnly pledge ourselves by the help of God to be loyal to the principle of abolition, and to work for the repeal of these shameful Acts in those Australian Colonies where tey now exist, and to resist their enactment in others. We realise that ceaseless vigilance is needed lest supporters of regulation, emboldened by the action of the British Government, endeavour to follow the precedent, and bring these scandalous laws into operation all over the Colonies, and we earnestly entreat your prayers on our behalf. We are, dear Mrs. Butler, Yours in White Ribbon Bonds. [The follow signatures of 170 Officers and Superintendents of Departments of the above Union.] LETTERS FROM COPENHAGEN. The following letters from Copenhagen have been received by Mrs. Butler :-- "February 9th, 1898. "Dear Mrs. Butler, "We have seen it published that some ladies of the English aristocracy and two ladies of the Royal Family signed a petition for the re-establishement in India of the Contagious Diseases Act. "I am grieved to hear that any English ladies ask for the further degradation, by such legislation, of their wretched fallen sisters, -- ladies of the country to which we are constantly looking up as the home of Individual92 THE SHIELD. [MARCH, 1898. Liberty. I wrote concerning this matter to a friend of mine, a member of our Supreme Court of Judicature, who has a high reputation on account of his learning and general legal knowledge. I enclose his reply; he consents to its publication in England. It may perhaps help to avert a horrible injustice. "We, in Denmark, cannot rest as silent onlookers of what happens in England. 'Sincerely yours, "COUNT A. MOLTKE, "King's Chamberlain, "Copenhagen. "Publish also my letter if it can be of use." - The following is the letter enclosed by Count Moltke:- "I observe with the greatest astonishment that a petition for the establishment, in India, of the Regulation of Vice has been signed by two illustrious ladies of the Royal Family of England. "It is monstrous that measures should be taken for the protection of the social evil instead of making war against it; and, that ladies of the highest rank should appear as champions of such a cause is almost incredible. I can only hope that, in signing this petition, they were not fully aware of the position they were taking up, and that they do not know what depths of degradation and moral filth are concealed under that apparently innocent expression, 'Official control of fallen women.' "No doubt, these women can be so controlled ; but what of the human lives (for they are human beings as ourselves) which are thus enslaved and sacrificed? Have the Government and the law-makers no responsibility, no accountability for what occurs in the dark abysses of indescribable degradation and unheard of cruelty practised under the regime of these Regulations? "(Signed) MOURIER, "Member of the High Court of Justice. "Copenhagen, 1898." NOTE.-The Regulations above mentioned were abolished throughout Denmark three years ago. THE "STORM-BELL." - THE February number of the Storm-Bell asserts, in contradiction of untrue statements to the contrary, that the new Regulations in India are essentially identical with the old Contagious Diseases Acts, and shows how French regulationists not only gladly recognised such identity as between the British system when first established and their own, but perceived that we had in some respect bettered their instruction. It is shown also that while English officials were paying official visits to procure such instruction from Parisian experts, they were all the time denying, just as now with respect to the new Indian Rules and the Contagious Diseases Acts, that there was any parallel between British and Continental methods. The reader is elsewhere cautioned against the barely concealed design to subject our home civil population to the system, and citations are given in evidence of that design from the press and from the significant debate in the House of Lords on May 14th and 17th, 1897. Under the title of "Deceptions" follows a special warning to men and women of the lower middle and lower classes against the favourite pretext of including men in the next great effort for Regulation. Attempts in this way to subject "agglomerations" of men to the necessary compulsion, as in the case of factories, workshops, &c., have always failed. There is resistance, and when the working men cry "hands off" it is the women only upon whom the medical regulationists fall back. But before it comes to this what mischief has been done! What a lowering of respect for the human person and for individual liberty and responsibility! What spying, suspicion, mistaken or spiteful accusations, bitterness, destruction of family peace, and lowering of the sense of personal and national honour! - MISS WILLARD - We regret to have to record the death of Miss Willard, which has come as a severe blow on every good cause with which she was connected. Miss Willard was a strong supporter of the Federation, as well as an The Shield THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE BRITISH COMMITTEE OF The Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice OFFICE:-17, TOTHILL STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. New Series. Vol. 1. No. 12. April, 1898. Price 1.d., or 1/6 per ann. post free. ANNOUNCEMENTS Letters for the Editor will be received and forwarded by F. Burfoot, 55, Ellerdale Street, Lewisham, S.E. SUBSCRIPTIONS, 1/6 A YEAR POST FREE, should be sent to F. Burfoot, 55, Ellerdale Street, Lewisham, S.E., who will also quote advertising space, transact all the business of the paper, and supply single copies 1 1/2 d. post free. Correspondents in Europe, America, and British Colonies are invited to write in confidence, or to send information cognate to our subject. SIR JAMES STANSFELD - It would be quite impossible to give anything like an adequate account of the life of the late Sir James Stansfeld within the limits of THE SHIELD. It would be equally impossible to draw anything like a sufficient picture of his character. His life was full and varied, touching in its innumerable interests on most of the great questions and movements of the last half century. To some extent it has received worthy notice from the various articles with which the whole newspaper press of this country teemed when his death became known. We shall not attempt therefore here to reproduce these. His life we trust will be written by some suitable hand. It will show him the most disinterested of men and at the same time one of the ablest and most keen-visioned Continental and General Federation, and was president of its first and great Congress at Geneva, in the autumn of 1877. It was Mr. Stansfeld, as he was then, who bore the labour and toil, on our behalf, during the several successive years in which the Parliamentary Committee sat which reported in 1882. He was our chosen representative on that Committee, and it is not too much to say that during these years he mastered every detail of the question in a way in which probably no other signle man has ever mastered it. It was he who, following on the report of that Committee, secured the suspension of the Acts in 1883; and who again secured their final repeal in 1886, a measure on which he insisted before entering Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet in that year. Sir James never ceased to take an active part in our cause, and was fully acquainted with all its phases at home and abroad up to the early part of the present year, when his failing health cut him off for the first time from its most intimate counsels. - In the course of a touching notice of Sir James Stansfeld, in the Storm-Bell for March, Mrs. Butler communicates some personal impressions of his character which we cannot forbear quoting. Speaking of his entry into this controversy, she writes:- "He had nothing to gain, and much to lose by separating himself in a measure from his colleagues in office, and setting aside chances of brilliant promotion94 THE SHIELD [APRIL, 1898. understood and unpopular cause or ever so humble a Forlorn Hope, who has not attained to so much of self- control as to be able to close his lips if he has reason to fear any utterance may be coming forth from them which is not a note of victory. And after all, what is this kind of courage except moral faith? It is that faith in God, and in His Eternal Promise, which removes mountains, and which sees Hope in the darkest hour, and more than Hope- Certainty of Victory. The love of Justice and of Liberty was born in him; they were in his bones, so to speak." - A WARNING. - (Continued.) IN THE SHIELD for February and March we warned our readers against statements which were being circulated, and which alleged that the condition of our general population was most alarming in respect of venereal disease We gave facts from which the area which they cover and the character of the population to which they refer form a complete answer to those statements. We now turn to the proposals to diminish venereal disease. They are as follows :- "SUGGESTIONS. "Demand that the disease be placed on the same category as infectious diseases, as regards both sexes. "1. Notification of disease to some health authority by patients and doctors. "(Record of notification to be kept private and confidential, and only accessible to certain definite people.) "2. Doctors to report cases ceasing to be treated by them though uncured, whether under private practitioners or in hospital, or if they hand over a case to report name of medical man taking charge. "Penalties for omission to report by doctors, and at option of two magistrates, by patient. "On doctors :-As in Notification Act. "On patients :-For omission to report or for ceasing to be treated before fairly cured. "Health authority to have the power to communicate with the patient, and to demand name of medical man in charge of the case, and by communication with him to insure that treatment of some sort is maintained. "Further power to be given to the public health authority if the patient refuses to give up name of medical man treating him, or to be treated, to apply either to magistrates in Petty Sessions or to two magistrates sitting separately or together (?), who, on statement on oath, shall have the power to summon the case before Petty Sessions, and then if the case is proved and refusal to be treated adhered to, to sentence to compulsory detention in a lock ward or in private hospital till cured." - "Differences between the Contagious Diseases Acts and the present scheme. "1. Inclusion of men and of children as well as women in the present scheme makes it just, and gives hope of its being efficacious. "2. There is no suggestion of registration or of anything like the licensing of vice. "3. The aim is different. The aim of the old Acts was to put women in such a state of health that they should be authorised to return to an evil life. "The aim of the present scheme is to protect the innocent from contagion and to check the spread of this awful disease. "4. Under the existing law of libel, doctors dare not now give any warning against a person as a source of danger to others. This would be altered. "5. Under the old Contagious Diseases Acts power was in the hands of the police. Under this scheme no one would come under the police unless he or she refused to be treated." It is clear that even in the minds of those making them, such suggestions can only be justified by urgent national danger, which in no sense exists. The proposals involve enormous changes in the law. They place doctors in an extraordinarily difficult position, and they place patients greatly at the mercy of their doctors, for it must be remembered that in a large number of cases the diseases in question last over a very lengthened time, so that the sentence by two magistrates in Petty Sessions to compulsory detention in a lock ward or in a private hospital till cured, might amount to a sentence of imprisonment for a period of years. We ask those who make such sweeping proposals, have they considered what one effect of them is likely to be? In the army from 1873-1879 an order already referred to, commonly called "Lord Cardwell's order," was in force; it amounted to this, that when a soldier was in hospital from venereal disease his pay was stopped. The result was that the soldiers went to quacks and ceased to attend either at hospital or the regular military doctors to such an extent that the order had to be revoked. If this was the result of the comparatively mild terms of Lord Cardwell's order, the result of the drastic measures proposed in the document we are criticising would tend clearly to the concealment and consequent increase of disease. Of course at first sight it seems very taking to recommend that venereal diseases should be placed in the same category as infectious diseases. But while this is the first sentence of the demand, it is at once succeeded by other proposals, which show how far the practical method of dealing with venereal disease would under such a system depart from the methods adopted for other diseases. In proof that venereal diseases cannot be treated in the same way as infectious diseases, we quote the weighty words of Lord Lister, who, speaking in the House of Lords, on May 17th, 1897, said : "Such a "disease [small-pox] and others enumerated carry "upon their face the evidence of their existence by "symptoms that any medical man can at once discern. "But with venereal disease the case is totally different. "In the early stages of the complaint, in which it is of "the most essential consequence that it should be "recognised-for efficient treatment depends upon early "recognition-there is no general effect produced upon "the system whatsoever. The person appears to all "ordinary examination perfectly healthy, and it is only "by special examination, which it is enacted shall not "be compulsory, that evidence of the disease shall be "obtained. How can any notice be given to the "medical man that a person has such a disease? Who "is to give the notice? I do not understand it. In "truth it is the fact of prostitution, not evidence of the presence of venereal disease on which the authorities "must proceed."-Times, May 18th, 1897. We would also refer to the memorial addressed to Lord George Hamilton by the British Committee on April 15th, 1897, in relation to his despatch to the Indian Government. "With regard to the placing of venereal diseases on the same footing as other contagious disorders in the manner proposed in your despatch, we respectfully submit that this is, in the nature of the case, impossible. In this relation we would direct your attention to the following considerations :-(1.) It casts no stigma on the name or character of a person to assert that he, or she, is affected with 'cholera, small-pox, diphtheria or typhoid fever,' and it can be ascertained whether such statement is true without shock to the feelings of the most refined. The opposite is the case with venereal disease, in regard to which a mis-statement is a virtual libel, and a compulsory examination is an indecent outrage. (2.) As regards the former classes of disease, no conceivable measures can have any moral bearing; whereas in the latter class compulsory (and in some of its relations, even voluntary) submission to examination or treatment has the gravest moral consequences both to the individual and to the community. (3.) The procedure under the Rules you propose is as follows:- The Medical Officer is informed by a soldier that a certain woman is diseased. Believing that, he orders her for examination at the hospital. She may be perfectly honourable or perfectly healthy. In either case, if she refuses to attend, she is held to be diseased and is 95 THE SHIELD APRIL, 1989.] expelled from the cantonment. We submit that the whole of this procedure, though it may be in words the same as in a case of cholera, is in fact utterly different in the means by which information is secured, in the nature of the evidence as to fact, and in the consequences of the woman who disputes the fact. The operation of the Rules, so far as venereal disease is concerned, is not general. In the report of the Special Indian Commission, appointed in 1893 by the Government of India to enquire into the working of the regulations, it is stated that, so far as venereal disease is concerned, the operation of the Rules is 'practically confined by 'sheer force of circumstances to women who are 'frequented by British soldiers. Even with regard to 'them information is difficult to obtain, for a man 'often does not know, and still oftener will not tell, 'which woman has diseased him.' And the same Report farther says: 'Except in the not infrequent 'cases where a woman herself applies for medical aid, 'this (i.e., information necessary to proceed upon) can 'only be obtained from men who have been diseased 'by them.' It is clear then that a man, as the result of an admittedly immoral act, becomes an informer, and in many cases a false informer, upon whose testimony the State has to rely for submitting the woman to the most degrading process. We submit that there is no parallel between venereal disease and cholera, either in the procedure here indicated, or in the effect of that procedure on moral conduct, or in the position in which it places the State." It will be seen that the above quotation refers to the procedure under the Cantonments Act in India. But it will be observed that the same sort of difficulty must arise under the proposed scheme. For instance, take the clause in that scheme, "Health authority to have the power to communicate with the patient. . . . ." We ask who is the patient? It is clearly here a person suffering from venereal disease who refuses to report the fact. How is the fact of his or her suffering from it to be ascertained? It can only be by the information supplied by the person who has been infected, or by the assumption that prostitution is itself an adequate evidence of disease. In the former case we have the evils described in the above quotation, in the latter case we have practically the re-establishment of the Contagious Diseases Acts in the periodical examination of prostitutes, whether diseased or not, in the determination of whether a woman is a prostitute or not, and in the segregation of a class of women subject to compulsory examination. The inclusion of men in such a scheme does not get rid of or in any way mitigate any of the above objections. Nor, indeed, is the inclusion of men practically possible. Lord Lister, in his speech in the House of Lords above quoted, said : "To deal with the men in the civil population on the same lines is an absolute impossibility." The authors of the new scheme say that it differs from the Contagious Diseases Acts because there is no suggestion of registration or of anything like the licensing of vice. But we submit the question, How is the proposed system to be carried out without encouraging informants or registering women? Both of these plans are specifically characteristic of the Contagious Diseases Acts. The authors of the new scheme say that "under the "old Contagious Diseases Acts power was in the hands "of the police. Under this scheme no one would come "under the police unless he or she refused to be treated." But we would point out that under the Contagious Diseases Acts that was the precise time when the woman did come under the police. We are prepared quite to believe that what the authors of the proposed scheme say is true, that their aim is to cure disease not to license prostitution. The point we wish to lay before them is that they have not sufficiently thought the subject out. That their proposal practically works out into the Contagious Diseases Acts which they agree with us in condemning. We are entirely at one with them in desiring to mitigate the evils of venereal disease. But after many years' close attention to this question we are profoundly convinced that there are only two ways of dealing with these diseases; by moral means tending to diminish the vice which is the cause of the disease; and by medical treatment, the acceptance of which must be voluntary on the part of the patient. The conclusion of the whole matter is, I., there is no case for exception measures, and II., the exceptional measures suggested are not admissible. NOTE.-The substance of the above article in THE SHIELD for March and the present moth, is embodied in a pamphlet by James Stuart, M.P., and Henry J. Wilson, M.P., entitled "Facts versus Panic," and published by the British Committee, 17, Tothill Street, S.W. Price One Penny. - MEMORIAL OF MEDICAL WOMEN TO LORD GEORGE HAMILTON - THE following Memorial has been addressed by the seventy-nine medical women to the Secretary of State for India:- My Lord,-We, the undersigned registered medical women, practising in the United Kingdom and in India, desire respectfully to protest against the measures recently enacted for dealing with venereal disease in the Indian Army (East India Contagious Diseases No. 6. 1897, C 8,538), and request permission to place before you the grounds on which we make this protest. 1. The Cantonment Rules of 1897 cannot, in our opinion, be applied to venereal disease without restoring to methods degrading to both men and women, and which may in their execution lead to abuse and blackmail of the worst kind, and which are inconsistent with the restrictions so admirably laid down by your Lordship in Paragraph 11 of your Despatch of March 26th, 1897. (a) In support of this point, we note that in the Cantonment Rules there is no definition of the "prima facie grounds" on which medical officers may entertain the suspicion that any given person is diseased. Our conviction, supported by experience, is that any accusation of venereal disease, privately made by one person against another, can be so little depended upon that such testimony ought never to be permitted to form the basis of an enquiry possibly involving serious personal, social or legal consequences. In this connection we quote the statement of Lord Roberts to the Departmental Committee of 1893, that "soldiers seldom or never point out the woman who may have diseased them." We note that there is no legal means of confronting accuser and accused, and that the punishment which the rules provide for wilful false witness, is only a nominal fine. (b) Again your Lordship laid down that no compulsory or periodical examination of women should be permitted. We admit that such compulsion may be considered relative rather than absolute, in that it allows the persons denounced the option of leaving the Cantonment. This alternative, however, places those falsely accused on the horns of a cruel dilemma. If they remain, they must submit to examination, though possibly innocent even of immoral conduct; if they go, they must leave their homes, any means of honest employment they may have, and in the end fail to clear their characters. (c) With regard to the frequency of medical examinations, we submit that the variations in the length of the incubation period in venereal disease, and of the latent periods following the primary manifestations in Syphilis, render96 THE SHIELD. [APRIL, 1898. any isolated examination insufficient to prove that a patient is not diseased. It is clear that a single examination would therefore in many cases have an entirely negative value, and that to detect disease with certainty, such an examination would have to be repeated at definite intervals. Thus, a woman who at the first examination might appear healthy would, in order to satisfy the medical officer that she was free from disease, have to be subjected to repeated examinations. That this is, indeed, the logical outcome of the recent legislation would appear to be shown by the fact that it has been considered necessary for the "protection of the medical and other officers in the discharge of duties which the Rules impose upon them," to repeal the Cantonments Acts Amendment Act of 1895. Since this repeal, it is no longer illegal to enforce periodical and compulsory examinations, the very course which your Lordship, in the despatch referred to above, forbade. It is to be feared that the removal of so fundamental a restriction may lead to the renewal of many of those irregular practices which followed the introduction of the Cantonment Rules of 1889. 2. We urge that from the nature of venereal disease the legislation embodied in the Cantonment Rules cannot materially reduce its amount, and that the objections proved against previous methods apply equally to them. We would indicate the following practical points, which appear to render it impossible to class venereal diseases with other infectious and contagious diseases, for purposes either of prophylaxis, segregation or treatment. (a) With respect to venereal disease, it lies to a large extent within the power of the individual to avoid infection. With other contagious diseases there is not the same power of voluntary escape. (b) Whereas the spread of other contagious diseases only short, well-defined periods of isolation are necessary, the stamping out of venereal disease would demand a long and uncertain isolation, extending always over months, and often over years. Thus, in the case of the latter disease, an adequate detention would be impossible both on the score of expense and of accommodation to say nothing of justice to the person detained. Again, other contagious diseases are as a rule easily recognised, rarely or with difficulty concealed, treatment is voluntarily sought, and no question of conduct or character is involved. These things are not true in the same degree of venereal disease. Other diseases can be cured and certified as cured within a comparatively short time, but in the case of venereal disease, in spite of all appearances of health, an individual may preserve the power of infecting others for months or years. (c) With regard to the supposed benefit derived from the temporary removal to hospital of a proportion of those suffering from venereal disease, we ask leave to quote the remarks of the Army Sanitary Commission, 1893:- "It may be argued that the detention of a certain number of diseased women in hospitals must pro tanto reduce the number of men affected, and so have a certain salutary influence, but on the other hand, a large reduction in the number of prostitutes might make the few remaining outside greater sources of danger than they otherwise would have been. This, however, is not a matter to be decided by mere theoretical considerations. We can only deal with the facts, and there was ample evidence in the course of the Indian Lock Hospital experience to show that a woman's passing a periodical examination was no guarantee that she might not communicate disease." (d) As regards the possibility of ascertaining by the most careful and exhaustive examination whether any given person is or is not the subject of venereal disease (with the exception of those cases in which the typical manifestations place doubt out of the question) our opinion entirely coincides with that of the Army Sanitary Commission mentioned above, and we believe an assertion either one way or the other is to be extremely difficult. It is the result of the experience of many of us, after exceptional opportunities of examining women of all classes and conditions, that it is practically impossible to say when any woman, who has once been affected with venereal disease, is free from all likelihood of infecting others either directly or indirectly. Under no circumstances would we permit ourselves to give certificates of health, such as Her Majesty's Government have in time past accepted, and which in other countries are still accepted, as satisfactory evidence of freedom from disease. Neither, for the same reasons, would we allow it to be understood that the fact of our ceasing to treat any patient, or of our discharging any patient from hospital, was equivalent on our part to a declaration that we considered such patient to be safe from the possibility of spreading disease by sexual intercourse. 3. In comment on the arguments which have been brought forward in support of the legislation embodied in the new Cantonment Rules, we offer the following considerations:- (a) Much stress has been laid on the occurrence among our soldiers returning from India of Syphilis in its most severe forms.* It is recognized in civil practice that after the symptoms have disappeared and the patient is able to return to his ordinary occupation, anti-syphilitic treatment must be persisted in for at least some months in order to prevent the further development of the disease. We are informed that a soldier suffering from Syphilis is treated in hospital until the symptoms disappear. He is then returned to duty without treatment until fresh symptoms occur, when he is re-admitted to hospital; and this may be repeated again and again, the interruptions of treatment extending over many consecutive months. If our information is correct, the absence of continued treatment would appear to account in some degree for the severity of many cases of the disease, and for the fact that so many men are liable to break down on active service. We would therefore suggest that one of the first steps in checking both the severity and the spread of the disease should be a systematic and prolonged treatment of the soldier. If such treatment were carried out with due regard to privacy and with some attempt to impress upon the men the importance of their co-operation, we cannot believe that it would be impossible to secure the necessary attendance *We note that in the list of serious cases of venereal disease furnished from Netley quoted in Appendix III. of Lord Onslow's Committee, 10 out of 40 were cases of Gonorrhoea. We are aware that by the non-medical public Syphilis is regarded as the graver venereal disease, and indeed in its worst forms its gravity and its serious consequences to the next generation can hardly be exaggerated. At the same time Gonorrhoea is profoundly deleterious to the health of the nation at large. It is responsible for much permanent ill-health in both sexes, for many cases of sterility in married women, and it is the cause of much disease in women which is dangerous to life and necessitates the performance of major operations. We would therefore urge that this disease should receive no less careful and prolonged treatment than Syphilis. APRIL., 1898.] THE SHIELD. 97 without in the majority of cases admitting them again and again to hospital. (b) With regard to the prophylaxis of disease in the civil population, we believe that the practice of inducing parents to come voluntarily for treatment for a long period would be much more advantageous to themselves, to those with whom they may consort, and to future generations, than their compulsory detention for a few weeks in hospital without subsequent treatment. To this end out-door dispensaries should be numerous and well staffed. (c) In view of the lack of uniformity and method in the statistics at present available, we suggest that it would be advantageous to initiate a system of detailed and uniform investigation concerning the variations in prevalence and malignity of disease in English regiments quartered abroad. We believe that some such system, widely carried out, would yield in a few years data of great value. We further suggest that such returns should refer to regiments as well as stations. 4. We are in favour of such legislation as would materially diminish the amount and severity of venereal disease, founded on the principle of making vice difficult, and in a practical way, dishonourable to the troops. (a) We suggest that there should be an organised and determined effort on the part of the Authorities to suppress the trade of prostitution in Cantonments. With this view, we suggest that Rule 12 of the Cantonment Act of 1889 should be altered to:- "The Cantonment Authority shall prohibit (a) the keeping of a brothel, (b) the residence of a public prostitute," instead of "may prohibit" as it now stands, and that Paragraph 13 be erased. In this connection, and in view of the fact that clandestine or non-professional prostitution continues to be a prominent cause of the spread of disease, we are entirely in agreement with the suggestions of the Army Sanitary Commission referred to in the latter part of Paragraph 10 of the Despatch of March 26th, 1897, to the Government of India, viz.:- "We would also strongly advocate that the power of Commanding Officers should be as much enlarged as practicable in the direction of diminishing the temptation to young soldiers, by preventing women, for example, from coming about the lines after dusk, and also putting places out of bounds where soldiers are believed to have contracted disease." (b) We suggest that moral character should be made an important element in the promotion of the individual, and in the bestowal of appointments; and that as regards a regiment or other military unit, a bad record in respect of venereal disease should diminish the chance of selection for honourable and honour- bringing service. (c) As regards the physical care of the soldier, we suggest that every many on joining the Army should have made it clear to him that immorality will neither be countenanced nor excused, and that he is expected to live chastely. In this connection we desire to express our grateful recognition of the principles laid down in the recent General Order to the Army of the late Commander-in-Chief in India, General Sir George White. In presenting this Memorial we are animated by a desire to diminish sexual immorality, as well as to prevent and cure the resulting disease. We wish to emphasise that we can give no approval to any measures containing features of the old Contagious Diseases Acts, which were equally repugnant to our moral sense and to our scientific convictions. NOTES. - IN this number we finish our reply to the exaggerated alarm which hasty and thoughtless persons have conceived as to the alleged growing mischief to the general health from venereal disease. We base that reply on the best evidence and the best opinions, and we venture to say that it is conclusive. And we would now recall to our readers the language of Lord Onslow in the House of Lords on May 14th, 1897: "Lord Dunraven," he said, "desired that an enquiry should be held into the effect of disease upon the civil population. In the course of the inquiry to which allusion has already been made he endeavoured to obtain from the principle hospitals in London and the large towns of England some information as to . . . . the increase of hereditary disease, but he found that statistics were not kept on these heads, and in many cases venereal disease was not admitted, but if the noble Earl desired to find out what was the effect of the disease on the civil population he had only to ask the superintendents of workhouses or the matrons of the women's hospitals, or of the sick children's hospitals, or visit, he was sorry to say, the graves in our country churchyards, to be at once informed that the evil was rapidly increasing throughout the country." The Committee, of which Lord Onslow was Chairman, in the course of its 13 weeks' investigation had, we should suppose, ample opportunity, seeing they meant to pronounce upon the health of the population at home (see par. 15 of their Report) to collect and present the evidence of the superintendents, matrons, grave-diggers, etc., who could speak to those points. Was their evidence taken? If so, it is unaccountably absent from the Report. We now know that the evidence is the other way. We also know that Lord Onslow who, from his official position on the Departmental Committee, was perhaps most hearkened to by the public, is convicted of inexcusable ignorance and illusion, and his Report must share in his discredit. - IT is pointed out also in our reply mentioned above, as well as in the Memorial of Medical Women, on p.96, that the period of contagion in the diseases in question may last for years. And when it is remembered that, as a general rule, during the whole of the protracted detention which the proposals under consideration must contemplate, the detained person is as well able to earn his living and discharge his ordinary obligations as at any other time of his existence, we may almost say that, irrespective of other objections, the enforcement of such detention becomes unthinkable. - THERE is plenty of vigour in the denunciations of the Contagious Diseases Acts system by Mr. Herbert Spencer, which we print elsewhere in this number. Mr. Spencer was not engaged in combating the system, in the passages quoted, so much as in illustrating a special sociological weakness by reference to the form and manner of the system's appearance here. But we wish to point out how in the course of doing this he incidentally reveals to what an audacious degree this bizarre and bastard development of legislation is differentiated from the practice and spirit of the venerable laws of England, and in respect of what essential principles this differentiation exists. It must be evident that the innovation of convicting, on suspicion, of an undeclared crime, and without any one of the series of safeguards scrupulously provided for the most abominable delinquents, is not only a suspension but a positive reversal of the centuries-old principle that it is better a hundred guilty persons should be acquitted than a single innocent person be found guilty. The theory of this system is that the risks to profligate men from their own acts are grave enough to warrant as wide and as irresponsible an inculpation as possible of merely suspected persons. Again, on behalf of such deliberate profligates alone the well-settled legal maxim, Volenti non fit injuria, is impudently set aside; that is the maxim that no one is entitled to redress for an injury to the risk of which he has in any manner consented; and this maxim, it should be remembered, is pressed with98. The Shield. [April, 1898. such extreme rigor that in the worst cases of seduction, not matter how great the cunning, cruelty, and treachery of the seducer, or the innocence, helplessness and good faith of the victim, the latter, on the ground of her being a willing party to the initial false step, has no legal remedy whatever. ------------------------------- In connection with this branch of the subject we would here notice another and a worse feature of this legislation which, indeed, is tantamount to crime by statute. By the Common Law of England the keeping of a brothel is an indictable offense. The hypothesis of these Acts is that a prostitute shall be equipped with a residence known to the police and readily accessible to them for the enforcement of the Ac s requirements. In practice the police always had he logic and common sense to act on this hypothesis and to co-operate with brothel keeps (see Sheldon Amos' "Laws for the Regulation of Vice," pp. 131-2_. But the Acts go far beyond an implied acknowledgment of existing brothels. Sect. 36 of the Act 1866 specifically instigated the police to compound and indictable offence. For, whereas the Common Law (as well as many local statutes) forbids and punishes as an indictable offence, the keeping of brothels at all, this section whittles down the Common Law and makes amenable only those brothel keepers who, besides keeping a brothel, harbour there a prostitute whom they have reasonable cause to believe is diseases, thus exonerating and authorizing the harbouring of healthy prostitutes. for twenty years, therefore, while these Acts subsided, the Legislature seems to have forgotten that a police man has no more right to know of am indictable offence without summarily proceeding against it than he has to walk along the street with a known murderer without taking him into custody. ------- In the Army and Navy Gazette for February 5th and 26th, General Dashwood contentedly repeats the fallacy advanced by him in his letter of January 3rd to the Globe, and which we exposed in the Shield for February, viz., that the experience of the United Kingdom shows that since the abolition of the Contagious Diseases Acts at home the worst form of disease was nearly doubled in the stations which were formerly protected. We really must henceforth look upon General Dashwood's arithmetic and logic as equally negligible. We notice the repetition of this fallacy only to mark the grave responsibility of suppressing, as has been done in this case as well as in countless others, a short, simple, and conclusive exposure of incompetent reasoning. If General Dashwood was, as we suspect, in the first place, conscious of a little finesse in his presentation of the results yielded by the return (No. 217 of 1817) it is no wonder that such consciousness should have hardened into a settles conviction of its truth since the Globe newspaper has allowed both him and the public to suppose that contradiction of it is unattempted and impossible. ---------------- In the meantime the country is being by degrees informed of the real state of the question from end to end. We are able to say that it is our consistent experience, and is the tenour of evidence reaching us from all sides, that as the gagging and misrepresenting policy of the pro-Acts party and press are being piecemeal exposed, the re-action in the minds of very many who have been hoodwinked or confused by it is proportionately complete. There is growing up a feeling of indignant resentment of the underhand and partisan tactics resorted to, and for the future there will be a deep and well-deserved distrust of every unsifted allegation proceeding from the Regulationist side. ------------- We have received a report of the results. up to March 19th of the letter, notice in The Shield for March, from Mrs. Cliff Scatcherd and Mrs. Jacob Bright, to Nonconformist women on the subject of State regulation. More than 100 replies are reported. Of these only two are in any sense unsympathetic, while the remainder indicate that action has been taken in upwards of 90 instances by the adoption of one or both of the excellent resolutions appended to the letter, and in some cases by letter to a member of Parliament. We note with pleasure that the aggregate contributions towards expenses forwarded with the replies yield on the average rather more than the moderate sum named as sufficient. ----------------- The Labour Leader for March 12th contains a sympathetic notice by "Lily Bell," of The Shield and the Storm-bell, which we much value. The same number has a special article on "One Organic Vie," in which the vital national importance of our question is well stated as follows : "Right sex-relation is the concrete foundation of social solidarity : wrong sex-relation is the quagmire in which healthy and enduring national life sinks and is suffocated . . . . . Not only are we as a people sanctioning the destruction of our hold upon India by degrading her women-kind, but we are ourselves allowing our government to poison our own national life. Let all men and women who believe in the possibility of a pure and noble life work in their respective spheres without ceasing for the enfranchisement of women, first at home and then abroad, from the thraldom of sexual custom, both on the mental as well as the physical plane. In doing so they will become one with the 'Good of all the ages.'" Working Of The New Cantonment rules. The following is a copy of a letter from Dr. William Huntly, Medical Missionary, to Mr H. J. Wilson, M.P. : United Presbyterian Mission (Scotland_, Nusseerabad, Rajputana, 16-2-98. My dear Sir, Seeing you are making enquiries concerning the soldier and the Contagious Diseases Acts, it occurred to me that any knowledge of the Government's movements under the new rules would be welcome. I am posted here at Nusseerabad temporarily in place of Dr. Wm. Clark at present on furlough. I was also here for about two years when the old regulations were in force. There were plenty of facilities for observing what was going on, as the Lock Hospital is across the road from the Mission Hospital. Since the new regulations have come out, the following practical action has been taken. A copy of them was forwarded for perusal and later on Dr. Charlesworth (Government) Came and asked if the Mission would carry them out. I asked how they were to be construed, and received, to me no satisfactory reply; I also pointed out that, since the Lock Hospital had been closed the Mission Hospital had been treating any poor woman with the disease who came, and would continue to treat them, but that any examination of a woman became she was a prostitute with a view to discovering disease was out of the question. A short time after this a notice was served on the Mission that the government would take over the building in which was our Mission Hospital after sic months. I should explain here that the Mission has had the use of this building for 25 years at a nominal rent and it has served the purposes of a bazar hospital, there being no other so-called cantonment hospital; the criminal cases are looked after by the staff-surgeon, who receive of course an allowance for it. A grant of R50 per month was also granted to the Mission Hospital, chiefly for the purpose of helping with the food of poorer in-patients, and, generally speaking, as a recognition of bazar work done by us. It is needful to tell you all this as showing you that all through these yeas, it served all the purposes of the bazar people, and the Cantonment Committee. Now the building is to be taken over to be used by the Cantonment Committee as a Cantonment Hospital, together with the building on the other side of the road, which was known as a Lock Hospital, and which will now be April, 1898.] The Shield. 99 included under the term Cantonment General Hospital. There will be thus no longer any Hospital known as a Lock Hospital. The old Lock Hospital has been cleaned up, servants, &c., put in, and a British Surgeon attached to the army draws his R100 monthly allowance for looking it up. I have no doubt the Cantonment Committee could give many solid reasons for now wishing to have a Cantonment General Hospital. But the relation to the new rules is obvious, and all, as a medical man, I would say is, that it casts suspicions on the manner in which, in the near future, they may interpret their own rules. It is not likely that action tending to regulation of prostitutes will be attempted for some time to come, but the act is one of worldly wisdom which leaved the field clear and promotes secrecy of working. I think this is news you should have as furnishing those of us opposed to the old ways, with some idea of their intended method. For a long time I have held that with a view to preventing any secret action in the future, no military doctor should while in military service receive any allowance (monetary) for Cantonment Bazar Hospitals. Before this R50 to R100 per month were dawn for Lock Hospital supervision. They found abundance of time to do it when paid; would they find the time if it were made part of their regular duty? And where men are deriving no personal gain it is more likely that they will look at the question with clearer eyes. If the New Cantonment Rules are intended to be carried out in accordance with the principles in harmony with Christian Morals, there were was no occasion for asking to take over the Hospital Buildings. Owing to the presence of. Mission Hospital and a mission doctor being here our mission has developed its organized work for the training of Christian boys and girls in this station, and Dr. Clark will on his return in all likelihood continue medical mission work in the bazar, seeing that our work here calls for two missionaries. this being known to the Committee (Cantonment) here it beings us I think downs to the conclusion that the Cantonment Rules and not the needs of the natives of the bazar, who have to pay afresh for this new move, has brought about this action. They are doing an unnecessary thing, and while it is outside the sphere of the Government to foster Christian mission, it is surely unjust to adopt measure or enter on ways which are obstructive to it. I hope I have not gone into too many details, but I think it right to put this before you in all its bearings lest any doubt should remain as to the meaning of the Cantonment Committee's action. You can use any or all of this letter as you think fit. With all regards, yours very sincerely, Wm. Huntly. We add the comment of two of our best informed friends on the above. "It seems to reveal the following astute line of proceeding as being adopted, viz : To take over the Mission Hospitals in Cantonments (it is presumed that they are on Government land), to trade on their reputation as Christian institutions, and to graft the abdominal regulations upon them, disusing the term ' Lock Hospital. ' We shall then have fine pictures portraying the Christlike beneficence of the system of ' similar treatment ' as established under the new rules." Sanitary Failure At Malta In the Army Medical Report in the Lancet, of March 26th, it was stated that at Malta during the past year there was of veneral disease a total ratio of 173.7 per 1000 against 134.5 per 1000 in 1896. Last year's ratio was also 48.5 above the deccinial average. So much for the Contagious Diseases ACt out there, which has never been repealed. Meetings Women's Meetings in Cardiff. During the past few weeks, nine meetings in connection with the W.L.A. and the B.W.T.A have been held in Cardiff, at all of which addresses have been given, and literature has been distributed relating to the re-enacment of these vile laws. At each of these meeting resolutions have been unanimously passed, and petitions have been largely signed, earnestly protesting against and strongly condemning the re-enforcemnt of this grossly immoral legislation, either in our own country or in India. ------------- Further meetings are reported to us in connection with the visit, last month, of Mrs. Andrew and Dr. Bushnell to Ireland. On February 24th, a meeting for women of various Protestant Denominations was held in the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, Dr. Winifred Dickson, M.D., F.R.C.S.I, in the chair. A petition, moved by Mrs. Coade, was adopted and signed. A very successful meeting was held on the night of February 26th, in the Gymnasium Curragh Camp, organised by the rev. E.G.F. MacPherson, Senior Church of England Chaplain, who presided. There were 500 men, chiefly soldiers, present. Mrs. Andrew and Dr. Bushnell were listened to with earnest attention, and afterwards short adresses were given by the Chairman, the Rev. John Bird, Prebysterian, and the Rev. W. L. Coade, Wesleyan. An eager interet was awakened. On March 3rd, The Curragh Camp Y.W.C.A met and signed a petition against regulation. A large number of signatures are being procured by mrs. Coade to a petition of wived and female relatives of soldiers at the Curragh Camp, in which the petitioners protest against laws which deprive women of their liberty and subject them to irremediable degradation, and express their belief that such laws are calculated to deaden the moral sense of our men. Signatures are also being procured from officers' wives to a petition of a like nature. Mts. Coade writes: "It is just splendid how consideration is being given to the subject among all classes and sexes in the Camp since Mrs. Andrew's an Dr. Bushnell visit was announced." ---------- Manchester On February 3rd, a resolution condemning Regulation was passed on the motion of the Re. J. Maconachie, at a meeting of the Manchester, Salford and District Council of Evangelical free Churches ; Dr. Marshall Randles in the chair. ---------- At Doncaster on February 7th, the Mother's Meeting of Priory Place Wesleyan Church passed a resolution against the regulation system, and a similar resolution was passed by the Ladies' Sewing Meeting Both were forwarded to Mr. F. Fison, M. P. ---------- Nelson At the Ladies' Meeting of the Wesleyan Chapel, on February 8th, a resolution was unanimously passed against all attempts to regulate prostitution. A memorial has also been adopted by the Nelson Branch of B.W.T.A. Both were sent to Sir U. KayShuttleworth, M.P, for the Clitheroe Division of Lancashire, who, in acknowledging the resolution, wrote: "The soundness of the principle that the State ought not to regard vice as a necessary institution to recognised and provided, it to my mind clear." ----- Blyth. Resolution against regulation have been passed at the following meetings at Blyth, Northumberland, viz : a meeting of women in the vestry of the Wesleyan Church on February 10th ; and a sewing meeting held in the vestry of the Primitive Methodist Church on February 14th. Such resolution have been sent to the county and borough representatives, among others. -------- Memorials and Petitions from Saffron Walden to Lord George Hamilton, from members of Society of100 THE SHIELD. [April,1898. Friends, assembled in Meeting House, February 20th; Committee of Saffron Walden Branch of N.B.W.T.A., February 22nd; General Memorial from inhabitants, February 24th; Parliamentary Petitions forwarded to C. Gold, M.P., from : I. Members of Society of Friends, assembled in Meeting House, February 20th; 2. Sunday School Class, assembled in Meeting House, February 20th; 3. Sunday school Class, assembled in Meeting House, February 20th; 4. Drawing Room Meeting at Corrie Brow, February 22nd; 5. Committee of S.W. Branch of B.W. Temperance Association, February 21st; 6. Young Women's Christian Association , February 24th; 7. Mother's Meeting (Friends' Schoolroom), February 23rd; 8. Mothers' Meeting, Castle Street, February 25th; 9. General Petition from inhabitants of Saffron Walden, February 28th. EDINBURGH.--There was a very good meeting on February 25th, in the Hall of St. Bernard's Church. A resolution was passed and much literature distributed. BIRMINGHAM.--At a meeting at the Temperance Institute, on March 4th, the Rev. J. Jenkyn-Brown in the chair, a strong memorial was proposed by Mr. H. J. Wilson, M.P., seconded by Mrs. Fox, and supported by Mrs. Andrew and Dr. Bushnell. The memorial was adopted and ordered to be sent to various members of the Government and to all the members of Parliament for the City. STRETFORD W.L.A., March 4th.-- A meeting of the Stretford Women's Liberal Association was held on Friday, March 4th, in the small room of the Town Hall to hear an address by Mrs. H. J. Wilson, of Sheffield, on the State Regulation of Vice. The meeting was for women only, and was well attended. The following resolution was carried unanimously: "That this meeting of the Stratford W. L. A. condemns the re-introduction into India, or elsewhere, of the oppressive and immoral system embodied in the Contagious Diseases Acts (or of any measure for the Regulation of Vice in the supposed interests of men), and further is of opinion that votes for members of Parliament should be conferred on all duly qualified women, so that they may more effectively protest against all such infamous legislation." A copy of the resolution signed by the Chairman, was ordered to be forwarded to the member for the division, Sir J. W. Maclure, Bart., M.P. SHEFFIELD.-- On March 7th, in the Montgomery Hall, there was a large meeting to protest against the action recently taken by the Indian Government and approved by the Government in England. Mr. Ald. Clegg presided. The meeting was addressed by the Chairman, the Rev. J. P. Gledstone, Mrs. Andrew, Dr. Bushnell, Mr. H. J. Wilson, M. P., who moved a resolution condemnatory of the action of the Government and demanding its reversal, and Mrs. Daniel Doncaster. The resolution was unanimously adopted. On March 11th at Sheffield the Sheffield Trades' Council, after giving a full consideration to the subject, adopted a resolution similar to that adopted bu the meeting last reported, and forwarded copies to the five members of Parliament for the city. LEIGH (LANCS.) W. L. A., March 9th.--A well-attended meeting of the Women's Liberal Association was held on Wednesday, March 9th, and was addressed by Mrs. H. J. Wilson, of Sheffield, on the Indian Cantonments Acts and State Regulation of Vice. The meeting was for women only, and was presided over by Mrs. Caleb Wright, the President of the Association.. A resolution against Regulation was unanimously adopted. In addition to the resolution, a Memorial was adopted, and a petition numerously signed. Copies of the Memorial, signed by the Chairman, were sent to Mr. C. P. Scott, M.P. for the Leigh Division, to the Lord George Hamilton, and to the Marquis of Lansdowne. BOLTON.-- A largely attended Conference of the Women's National Liberal Association was held at Bolton on Wednesday, March 9th. Various subjects were under discussion; one of these was "The State Regulation of Vice." Mrs. Henry J. Wilson, of Sheffield, had been invited to give an address on this subject, and was listened to with the most earnest attention and sympathy. Mrs. J. P. Thomasson, of Bolton, who, with her husband, are very practical sympathizers with the work of the British Committee, presided on the occasion. YORK.-- On the 10th March, the Rev. J. Kirk Maconachie, Mrs. Andrew, and Dr. Bushnell addressed a meeting. Soldiers were present, who followed the speeches with hearty approval. STOCKPORT.-- At a very good meeting on March 24th the same speakers gave addresses, Mr. Maconachie presiding. MALVERN.-- A petition has been presented to Parliament through Mr. Baldwinn M.P., by the Malvern Branch of the B.W.T.A., with the signatures of 318 very representative women of all denomination, chiefly of the well-to-do middle classes. A memorial from a Mother's Meeting, belonging to "Above Bar" Congregational church, also petitions from women members of the same, from the "Society of Friends," from women of Southampton, and a memorial from the Women's Total Abstinence Union, have been forwarded to Sir Francis Evans, M. P., by Mrs. Westlake, of Grosvenor House, Southampton. PRESTON.-- On March 10th at St. Paul's Church, Archdeacon Wilson gave an address to men on the subject of the State Regulation of Vice. It was an elaborate and closely reasoned review of the history of the system and of its infallible and predestined as well as of its actual failure. At its conclusion the congregation adjourned to the school adjoining the church, and, after discussion, passed a strong resolution against the system, which was proposed by the Rev. H. Henn and seconded by the Vicar of the Preston. BATLEY.-- On March 10th in the Town Hall a large meeting to protest against Regulation was held under the auspices of the B.W.T.A Mr. T. C. Taylor. J.P., presided. Addresses were given by the Chairman; by Mr. Joseph Edmondson, of Halifax, in a exhaustive speech tracing the history of the question; by Dr. Bushnell, who spoke of the evidence corroborating Mr. Edmondson's statement collected by herself and Mrs. Andrew in India; by Mrs. Andrew; by Mr. H. J. Wilson, M. P., and others. A strong resolution was moved by Mrs. Child, seconded by the Rev. O. K. Hobbs, and carried unanimously. DEWSBURY.-- On March11th a largely attended meeting for women only was held in the Trinity Congregational Schoolroon. Speeches were made by Mrs. Wilson and Dr. Bushnell, and a resolution was carried unanimously. NORTH KENSIGTON W. L. A., March 11th.-- A meeting for women only was held in the evening at the Liberal Club, 81, Lancaster Road, when Mrs. Percy Bunting gave an excellent address on State Regulation of Vice. At the close of the meeting, a petition to Parliament, protesting against the re-introduction of the system, was readily signed by all present. BANBURY.-- This Branch of the B.W.T.A. have sent a Memorial, unanimously adopted, to Mr. Albert Brassey, member for their division of Oxfordishire; Mr. Douglas Pennant, M.P. of the division for Northampton in which the Grimsbury part of Banbury is included; Lord George Hamilton; Mr. Chamberlain; and Mr. A. J. Balfour. April, 1898 THE SHIELD. 101 HALIFAX.-- On March 14th, a very good meeting of women was addressed in the Town Hall, Halifax, by Mrs. Andrew and Dr. Bushnell.-- On March 15th a very large public meeting was held in the Public Hall, Halifax. The speakers were the Chairman, Mr. W. C. Barber, who, though not a political supporter of Sir James Stansfeld, referred to him in terms of the deepest admiration, Archdeacon Wilson, Mrs. Andrew, and Dr. Bushnell. These speakers were most effective, and are said to have enchained the audience. Mr. Joseph Edmondson moved and Concillor J. H. Whitley seconded a resolution, which was adopted; and a petition embodying its terms was ordered to be forwarded to Mr. Arnold, M.P., for presentation to Parliament. Mr. Billson, M.P., and Mr. T. Wayman, M.P., were asked to support it. OLDHAM W.L.A. -- On March 14th this association met to hear an address from Mrs. H. J. Wilson. Resolutions against Regulation were passed and a Memorial to Parliament was approved. GLASGOW.-- On March 21st a meeting, in the Christian Institute, was addressed by Lord Overtourn who presided, Mrs. Andrew and Dr. Bushnell, and a resolution, moved by Dr. Yellowlees and seconded by Dr. Maynard, of Victoria Infirmary, was adopted. MANCHESTER.-- Archdeacon Wilson presided at a public meeting on March 25thm in the Central Hall. Addresses were delivered by the Chairman, Dr. Kate Bushnell and Mrs. Andrew, on the Indian Cantonment question. A motion expressing deep resentment and alarm at the action of Government was submitted by Canon hick, and unanimously adopted. PETITIONS First Report to The House of Commons. The first report for this Session of The Select Committee on Public Petitions has appeared. It deals with the period 9th February-7th March, and shows that in that time 79 petitions against State Regulation have been presented. IMPORTANT STATEMENT OF AN ARMY CHAPLAIN. The following is part of a recent letter from an Army Chaplain:-- " . . . . I thank you for the leaflet re State "Sanction of Vice. The latter is a subject I hear of "occasionally both from men and officers among whom "I am. And it is significant that while the latter "almost to a man would revive all hideous licensing "and inspection practices, the men (whom one may "suppose they speak for) are all loud in condemning "the sanction of prostitution by the Army Authorities." BRISTOL VOLUNTARY LOCK HOSPITAL. Our readers may remember our notice in The Shield for October last of the gratifying moral and sanitary success of the Hospital in the past. We have received its Report for 1987, which shows that the success is fully maintained. of 39 inmates during the year, no single sanitary failure is recorded; and as to the often-alleged insuperable difficulty of retaining patients until cure, we observe that two only are said to have left of their own accord. THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS. We trust our friends will bear in mind the Congress of the Federation to be held in London on July 12th and the following days, which promises to be of great interest. We hear of eminent medical men from the Continent who are likey to take part in it, and our devoted American friends Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Powell have been appointed by the American Purity Alliance, and are expecting to attend. MR. HERBERT SPENCER ON THE NATURE AND INTRODUCTION OF THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASE ACTS. As many people are advocating the re-introduction of the Contagious Diseases Acts into this country, we think it well to give the opinions with regard to those Acts of an eminent thinker and social philosopher. In Chapter XI. of his "Study of Sociology," first published in 1873, Mr. Herbert Spencer devotes himself to proving, among other things, how, "under institutions that normally secure men from oppression, they may be intolerably oppressed-- unable to utter their opinions and to conduct their private lives as they please." The "worship of the appliances to liberty in place of liberty itself needs continually exposing." "A citizen nominally having complete means and but partially securing the end, is less free than another who uses incomplete means to more purpose," Mr. Spencer cites examples of the malversation of the forms of free government from authentic episodes in the history of both of peoples and corporations, and after referring for such examples to the histories of Greece, South America, Mexico, France, and the United States, selects for his crowning and typical illustration the essentially unconstitutional procedure by means of which, under constitutional forms, the iniquitous Contagious Diseases Acts were introduced into his kingdom. "But why go abroad for proof of the truth that political forms are of worth only in proportion as they are vitalized by national character? We have proofs at home. I do not mean those furnished by past constituional history -- I do not merely refer to those many facts showing us that the nominal power of our representative body became an actual power only by degrees; and that the theoretically independent House of Commons took centuries to escape from regal and aristocratic sway and establish a practical independence. I refer to the present time and to action of our representative body in the plenitude of its power. This assembly of deputies chosen by large constituencies, and heretofore so well fitted, as it would seem, for guarding the individual of whatever grade against trespasses upon his individuality. A popular government has established , without the slightest hindrance, an official organization that treats with contempt the essential principles of constitutional rule; and since it has been made still more popular, has deliberately approved and maintained this organization. Here is a brief account of the streps leading to those results. "On the 20th June, 1867, just before two o' clock in the morning, there was a read a first time an Act giving, in some localities, certain new powers to the police. On the 27th of that month, it was read a second time, entirely without comment-- at what hour Hansard does not show. Just before two o' clock in the morning on June 30th, there was appointed, without remark, a select Committee to consider the proposed Act. On the 15th July the Report of this Committee was received. On the 19th the Bill was re-committed, and the Report on it received-- all in silence. On the 20tu July it was considered--still in silence-- as amended. And on the 21st July it was read a third time and passed --equally in silence. Taken newt day to the House of Lords, it there, in the silence no less profound, passed through all its stages in four days (?three). This Act not proving strong enough to meet the views of naval and military. 102 THE SHIELD officers (who, according to the testimony of one of the Select Committee, were the promoters of it), was, in 1866, amended. At one o'clock in the morning on March 16th of that year, the Act amending it was read a first time; and it was read a second time on the 22nd, when the Secretary of the Admiralty, describing it as an Act to secure the better health of soldiers and sailors, said: It was intended to renew an Act passed in 1864, with additional powers.' And now, for the first time, there came brief adverse remarks from two members. On April 9th there was appointed a select Committee, consisting mainly of the same members as the previous one—predominantly State officers of one class or another. On the 20th the Report of the Committee was received. On the 26th the Bill was re-committed just before two o'clock in the morning; and on the Report there came some short comments which were, however, protested against on the ground that the Bill was not to be publicly discussed. And here observe the reception given to the only direct opposition raised. When, to qualify a clause defining the powers of the police, it was proposed to add, • That the justices before whom such information shall be made, shall in all cases require corroborative testimony and support thereof other than that of the members of the police force,' this qualification was negatived without a word. Finally, this Act was approved and made more stringent by the present House of Commons in 1869. " And now what was this Act, passed we absolutely without comment, and passed in its so-called amended form, with but the briefest comments, made under protest that comments were interdicted? What was this measure, so conspicuously right that discussion of it was thought superfluous? It was a measure by which, in certain localities, one-half of the people were brought under the summary jurisdiction of magistrates, in respect of certain acts charged against them. Further, those by whom they were to be charged, and by whose unsupported testimony charges were to be proved, were agents of the law, looking for promotion as the reward of vigilance—agents placed under a permanent temptation to make and substantiate charges. And yet more, the substantiation of charges was made comparatively easy, by requiring only a single magistrate to be convinced, by the testimony on oath of one of these agents of the law that a person charged was guilty of the alleged acts—acts which, held to be thus proved, were punished by periodic examinations of a repulsive kind and forced inclusion in a degraded class. A House of Commons elected by large constituencies, many of them chiefly composed of working men, showed the greatest alacrity in making a law under which, in sundry districts, the liberty of a working man's wife or daughter remains intact, only so long as a detective does not give evidence which leads a magistrate to believe her a prostitute And this Bill which, even had there been some urgent need (which we have seen there were not*) for dispensing with precautions against injustice, should, at any rate, have been passed only after full debate and anxious criticism, was passed with every effort to maintain secrecy, on the pretext that decency forbade discussion of it; while Mordaunt cases, and the like, were being reported with a fulness proportionate to the amount of objectionable details they brought out! Nor is this all. Not only do the provisions of the Act make easy the establishment of charges by men who are placed under temptation to make them; but these men are guarded against penalties apt to be brought on them by abusing their power. A poor woman who proceeds against one of them for making a groundless accusation ruinous to her character, does so with this risk before her, that if she fails to get a verdict she has to pay the defendant's costs; whereas a verdict in her favor does not give her costs, only by a special order j of the judge does she get costs 1 And this is the 'even-handed justice' provided by a Government freer in form than any we have ever had !" We would only add to what we have quoted (from pp. 278-80 of the 16th edition of Mr. Spencer's Study of Sociology) that the writer a little under-rates the unconstitutional nature of the legislation criticised, in speaking of " alleged acts" as the grounds for conviction of infamy and subjection to imprisonment and outrage thereunder. These cruel consequences Followed merely upon the suspicion of the police; the statutes did not require proof of any " act " whatever. THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS AND REGULATION ------- IN a letter to the Straits Association of 19th February, Mr. Chamberlain stated that he was not prepared to sanction a return to the Contagious Diseases Ordinances, and intimated that he would confer with the Governor of the Straits Settlements as to whether other measures can be taken to check the spread of these diseases. The London and China Telegraph, of March 21st, expresses the " feelings of irritation and dismay " among the inhabitants of the Colony, to which it says the letter will give rise. It adds, " Perhaps, however, behind the present statement lurks something. It may be that local measures will be permitted similar to those India has been compelled to adopt, and without the exact Contagious Diseases Ordinance going on the Statute Book again, sanitary regulations as stringent as can be devised." We think that opinion in the East as to the true nature of the Indian Regulations is here pretty clearly indicated. ANTI-REGULATION MOVEMENT AMONG GERMAN WOMEN ------ THE Storm-Bell for March contains an account of a very striking movement among women in Germany. On the 26th of January a meeting was held by the ladies of the Hansfrauen-Verein, when Madame Lina Morgenstern, the president, made a powerful speech on the State Regulation of vice, in which she declared that on the equal observance of the moral law by men and women depends the welfare of the whole of society, and even the stability or decay of nations. " Un-happily," she said, " our laws are not just, in this matter, and nowhere is the degradation of woman, as a mere chattel and a victim, so conspicuous as it is under this system of the State organisation of prostitution which exists in almost all our civilized countries." Madame Morgenstern then fully explained the origin and aim of the Abolitionist Federation, beginning with the first appeal to the people of England in 1869, followed by the formation of many branches of it in different countries. She gave an account of the shocking effects of this system of 'regulation in Berlin, where children of II years of age are written down on the registers of the special police as " traders in prostitution "! which means that they are submitted (Madame Morgenstern continued) to the periodical State assault, and all its degrading consequences. This fact was published in the papers, in order to excite public indignation and action, and no contradiction whatever was given to the statement! Madame Morgenstern herself enquired into the matter, and found that the young girls of fourteen or fifteen, who sell flowers or matches in the streets, are almost all inscribed on the infamous register. A resolution demanding the repeal of all Regulation Laws was carried. The Press of Berlin of the 1st and 2nd February was occupied with a case of police outrage, which seems to have been as gross an instance of calumny and indecent assault as it is possible to conceive. A young girl, Klippen, was walking in a street in the north of Berlin, about 9 o'clock in the evening; a drunken man approached her and accosted her in coarse language; she shook him off in disgust and 104 THE SHIELD. [APRIL, 1898. ——————————————————————————————————— Repeal, Mr. Waddy, Q.C., M.P., also spoke at this meeting, The effect of Mr. Stansfield's adhesion to the movement was very marked. The subject was discussed by nearly the whole of the press of the country, including those leading Metropolitan journals by which the question had been so long and persistently ignored. 11th November, 1874.—A conference and public meeting under the auspices of the Northern Counties League was held at Bradford, addressed by the Right Hon. James Stansfeld, M.P., Sir Harcourt Johnstone, Bart., M.P., Mr. Mundella, M.P., and others. 1874.—Numerous meetings (probably about 200) were held during this year in various parts of the country ; and a Wesleyan Society for Repeal was established. ——— 3rd and 4th March, 1875.—Important meetings and conferences were held in London. 19th March, 1875.—The first meeting of the British, Continental, and General Federation was held at Liverpool, the Right Hon. James Stansfeld, M.P., being elected President, Mrs. Butler, Hon. Secretary, and Mr. H. J Wilson, Corresponding Secretary pro tem. March, 1875.—Mrs. Percy, a professional singer, committed suicide at Aldershot in consequence of the persecutions of the Contagious Diseases Acts' police, and rather that submit to their requirements. The Medical Inquirer, a monthly paper, in favour of Repeal, was first issued at Liverpool. 5th April, 1875.—Mr. Gourley moved in the House of Commons to reduce the Army Estimates by the amount of the expenses of the police under the Contagious Diseases Acts. He was defeated. April, 1875.— The Mercantile Marine Hospital Service Bull, introduced by Captain Bedford Pim, M.P., was so loosely and vaguely worded, that it was impossible to determine what its operation would really be. But in the view of the bold avowals then recently made by Mr. Thomas Gray, Secretary of the Board of Trade—as to venereal disease—the inspection of seamen—and contemplated extension of the Contagious Diseases Acts to all seaports—it was impossible to regard this proposal, for compulsory medical examination of sailors, otherwise than as a step in the direction indicated by Mr. Gray, though its true tendency may have been very plausibly disguised. Attention was drawn to the obnoxious character of this Bill by some of the Repeal Associations. The Bill did not reach a Second Reading. 4th May, 1875.—Conference at Cannon Street Hotel in reference to Mrs. Percy's suicide. It was attended by Sir Harcourt Johnstone, M.P., the Rt. Hon. James Stansfeld, M.P., Edward Jenkins, MP., F. Pennington, M.P., C. H. Hopwood, Q.C., M.P., and many others. 14th May, 1875.— The Congregational Committee for Repeal was formed. 23rd June, 1875.—Sir Harcourt Johnstone's Bill for Repeal was defeated by 308 votes against 126, after a long and important debate. The improved tone and temper of the discussion gave some proof of the advance which the question had made. The coarseness and abuse which disgraced former debates were absent. On the contrary, Col. Alexander and Mr. Stephen Cave, though defending the Acts, spoke with respect of the character an intentions of Mrs. Butler and the ladies who had led the movement. Mr. Stansfeld speech was short, but effective. Supporters of the Acts did not attempt to dispute his figures. Mr. Henley, Conservative member of Oxfordshire, renewed his opposition to the Acts "upon the simple "ground that it was no business of the State to "provide clean sin for the people." Mr. Childers devoted his speech to making suggestions as to various substitutes for the Acts [The whole of the Repeal Associations subsequently joined in a united exposure of the dangerous tendencies of this proposed compromise, in which they said, "While their attack is " directed against the Contagious Diseases Acts, as the " form in which the State Regulation of Vice is " embodied in this county, their controversy is with " every vice-protecting system. Neither has it ever " been with the, a question of degree only, though " they have energetically condemned the register of " prostitutes and the legalised compulsory examination, " they have always distinctly affirmed, that, even if " these were replaced by other methods of attaining " similar ends, their objection to the system would still " remain. From this position they will not depart."] 1875.—During the whole of this year, and especially during the autumn, a very large number of meetings were held in different parts of the country ; and the question of repeal was brought forward at bye-elections at West Hartlepool in July and at Blackpool in September. A large number of petitions were presented to Parliament. (To Be Continued) ——————— RESOLUTION OF THE BRITISH COMMITTEE ON THE DEATH OF SIR JAMES STANSFELD. ———— March 29th 1898. THAT the British Committee desires to record the great sorrow which it feels at the death of the Right Hon. Sir James Stansfeld, for so many years the Leader in Parliament of those who worked for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice. In him the workers for Repeal had a Leader whom they could loyally trust, a friend whom they could love, and a counsellor on whose wisdom they could rely. He set an example to all of self sacrifice and devotion to duty which will never be forgotten, and which should inspire both those who are working in the same cause an all who enter upon public life ; for he gave up the certainty of high position in the Government of his country in order that he might champion the cause of morality and justice and defend the civil rights even of the poorest outcasts among women. The Committee further expresses its deep sympathy with Lady Stansfeld in her bereavement, and assures her of its deep sense of the loss which the whole country has sustained. ————————————————————— The following publications may be obtained from the Secretary, British Committee of the Federation, 17, Tothill Street, Westminster, S.W. :— Each. Per 100. 17. The History of a Sanitary Failure. (Compiled by) H. J Wilson, M.P. (1896) .. 1d. 6/-. 18. Understood but not Expressed. A General View of the Regulation System. By JOS. EDMONSON .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1d. 6/-. 19. An Enquiry into the Causes of the Great Sanitary Failure, etc. (1897). by JOS. EDMONSON .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1d. 6/-. 20. State Sanction of Vice. .. .. .. per doz. 3d. 1/6. 21. Memorandum by the British Committee of the Federation (30th March, 1897) per doz. 3d. 1/6. 23. Memorial addressed to Lord George Hamilton (15th April, 1897) .. .. per doz. 3d. 1/6. 25. Letter to a Friend (17th April, 1897). By Mrs. JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER .. per doz. 3d. 1/6. 26. Ladies' Protest against the Cantonment Act Regulations .. .. .. .. .. per doz. 3d. 1/6. 27. The Soldier and his Masters (Reprinted from Contemporary Review) .. .. .. .. .. 1d. 3/6. 28. Speech by J. Stuart, M.P., at Meeting of Federation, 21st May, 1897 .. .. .. .. .. 1d. 3/6. 29. Unavoidable Evils. .. .. .. .. .. per doz. 3d. 1/6. 30. Truth before Everything. By Mrs. JOS. E. BUTLER. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1d. 4/-. 31. Speech by Sir J. Stansfeld at Annual Meeting of L.N.A., 9th July, 1897. .. .. 1d. 6/-. 32. Reply to Lady Henry Somerset's Scheme 1d. 6/- 33. New Cantonment Regulations (Leaflet) per doz. 3d. 1/6. 34. Interview on the New Health Rules for the Army in India with Archdeacon Wilson .. 1d. 5/-. 35. Memorandum by Archdeacon Wilson. per doz. 3d. 1/6. 36. The Church and the Indian Army. By PHILALETHES .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1d. 6/-. 37. Medical Reponsibility in Relation to the Contagious Diseases Act. Dr. ELIZABETH BLACKWELL .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3d. 38. Facts versus Panic by J. STUART, M.P., and H. J. WILSON, M.P. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1d. 6/- ——————————————————————————————————— Printed by PEWTRESS & CO., 28 Little Queen Street, W.C., and published by FREDERICK BURFOOT, 55, Ellerdale Street, Lewisham, London, for the BRITISH COMMITTEE OF THE FEDERATION FOR ABOLITION OF STATE REGULATION OF VICE, 17, Tothill Street, Westminster, London.—APRIL, 1898. [page break] The Shield THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE BRITISH COMMITTEE OF The Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice. OFFICE:—17, TOTHILL STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. —————————————————————————————————————————— New Series. Vol. II. No. 25. JULY, 1899. Pride 1d., or 1/6 per ann. post free. —————————————————————————————————————————— ANNOUNCEMENTS. Letters for the Editor will be received and forwarded by F. Burfoot, 55, Ellerdale Street, Lewisham, S.E. SUBSCRIPTIONS, 1/6 A YEAR POST FREE, should be sent to F. Butfoot, 55, Ellderdale Street, Lewisham, S.E., who will also quote for advertising space, transact all the business of the paper, and supply single copies 1 1/2d. post free. Correspondents in Europe, America, and British Colonies are invited to write in confidence, or to send information cognate to our subject. ———————————————————————————— THE PROPOSAL TO EXTEND THE OPERATION OF THE NOTIFICATION ACT. ——— WE have several times called our readers' attention to certain illusory and mischievous proposals for including venereal diseases in the Notification Act, and so in effect (possibly by a clause of a few words), restoring some of the worst features of the Contagious Diseases Act in this country. We have pointed out that the panic which prompts these proposals is one of constant recurrence; that in former times it armed itself with an amount of detail far beyond that which its present victims and exponents can adduce; and that these details were uniformly convicted of gross exaggeration as soon as they were properly sifted, as for example by Mr. John Simon in the "Eleventh Annual Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council." Information has reached us that these proposals are now being actively urged forward with as much secrecy as possible. The following is an extract from apparently a circular letter which is being employed with the utmost caution and privacy in order to influence the public press to side with the alarmists. It is dated June 19th, 1899. "Our Memorial has been presented to Lord Salisbury who was most kind and sympathetic, and we have received the official answer which points out that there is to be an International Conference on the subject of venereal diseases summoned to meet at Brussels in September, which will be attended by representatives of Her Majesty's Government and of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons and of Physicians, and that it is desirable to see the Report of that Congress before deciding what to do. It will, of course, be very important that good men should be sent and that the proceedings should be watched and reported in England . . . . Anything that you can do either before or at the time of these Conferences to draw attention to the grave importance of the question and to the possibility of dealing with it from the point of view of the national health not on the lines of the old Acts but on the lines of some modification of our system of dealing with other dangerous diseases will be of the greatest value, the great point being to avoid creating excitement but to draw the attention of thinking men and women to the seriousness of the question." It will be the urgent duty of Abolitionists to continue exposing the sinister import of these proposals and to create as much as possible of that "excitement" which the alarmists are naturally so anxious to avoid. An excellent leaflet has recently been issued by the Ladies' National Association (London Branch), which condenses some of the best arguments against these proposals very forcibly. It is entitled "An Old Foe in a New Dress," by an English M.D. Copies may be obtained by the Secretary, 17, Tothill Street, Westminster. Price 2d. per doz., 18 1d. per 100, post free. We hope our readers will procure copies and give the pamphlet the fullest publicity. ——— CIRCULAR LETTER TO THE MEMORIALISTS. Pursuant to a resolution of the British Committee, passed on July 3rd, we are sending the following circular letter to most of the signatories of the above-mentioned Memorial, together with copies of "Facts v. Panic," and "An Old Foe in a New Dress." July, 1899. Dear (Sir or Madam),—My Committee have noticed your name as signatory to a Memorial to Lord Salisbury, begging "that Her Majesty's Government will take steps to institute a full enquiry into the subject of venereal disease." The demand for this enquiry is stated in the Memorial to be based on the belief of the memorialists in the "terrible way in which venereal diseases are undermining the constitutions and physical strength of numbers in this country." We are aware that an active propaganda is on foot in this country to impress people with the idea that there is an increase of venereal disease, and to secure on that basis either a renewal of the system of State Regulation of Prostitution embodied in the Contagious Diseases Act which were repealed in 1886, or the establishment of the leading features of that system in some other form. We are thoroughly convinced that the whole basis of this propaganda is unfounded. For the purpose of showing this we send you herewith a pamphlet, entitled "Facts v. Panic," which we earnestly beg you to read, part of the facts of which to the letter addressed by Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson to the Times, on April 5th, 1897, in which the eminent specialist says:— " . . . . I am one of those who both hope and believe that the malady in question is declining both in prevalence and severity . . . . . So far from there having been any real increase in the registered mortality there has been a slight reduction of it." And he has further emphasised this in the British Medical Journal, of October 15th, 1898, where he says :— He wished strongly to insist on the fact that there was very little bad health in the general population which could be attributed to hereditary syphilis . . . . He wished to take this opportunity of expressing his emphatic opinion that the popular fear of the hereditary disease was very much exaggerated. Owing to the social considerations depending on the view taken in this matter, it would be extremely unfortunate if the medical profession and others should take up an alarmist position which was not based on the true state of the case. We should be very glad if you could let us know— (1) Whether the facts in the accompanying pamphlet were before you when you signed the Memorial referred to above; and (2) Whether you agree with us in condemning the principles embodied in the Contagious Diseases Acts. Yours truly, EDITOR OF THE SHIELD. 42 THE SHIELD. JULY, 1899. THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC. THE Conference was opened with a reception given by the National Vigilance Association on the evening of June 20th, to delegates and friends, at the rooms of the Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, S.W. Another reception was given at Grosvenor House, by the Duke of Westminster, on the 22nd, and a third, by Mr. Percy Bunting, at 11, Endsleigh Gardens, W.C., on the evening of the 23rd. We would, at the outset, once more remind our readers that the formulated objects of the Conference were:-- (I.) "To make known the nature of the White Slave Traffic, by which is meant the purchase and transfer from place to place of women and girls for immoral purposes, who are, in the first place, inveigled into a vile life by the promise of employment in a foreign country, and, thereafter, are practically prisoners, and who, if they really desire to escape from a life of shame, cannot do so." (2.) "To make known the laws of each country with regard to this traffic, showing how it is dealt with in each country represented, and how an international agreement is necessary, that the law may no longer be made to fail through the transference of the women from one country to another, the crime being frequently planned and commenced in one country and continued in another." (3.) "By the selection of a committee of experts to formulate international legal provisions calculated to put an end to this traffic, which will be laid before the various Governments." Short addresses of welcome were arranged to be delivered at the meeting of the Conference at the Westminster Palace Hotel, on each day, by selected speakers. Those who spoke on June 21st were His Grace the Duke of Westminster, the Bishop of London, and the Rev. Prebendary H. W. Webb-Peploe. On the 22nd the selected speakers were the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, the Countess of Aberdeen, Mr. Henry J. Wilson, M.P., and Canon Scott-Holland; and on the 23rd the Earl of Aberdeen, Lady Battersea, the Chief Rabbi (Dr. Adler,) and the Lord Kinnaird. Throughout the Congress Delegates were present from Russia, France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Denmark, the United States of America, Austria, and the Netherlands. At the opening meeting letters were read from the Emperor of Russia, the German Empress, the Queen of Sweden, and others, offering congratulations and wishes for success. Among these was a letter from Sir T. H. Sanderson, on behalf of the Marquess of Salisbury, to the Duke of Westminster, which was as follows:-- "My Lord Duke,--I am directed by the Marquess of Salisbury to inform you that his Lordship has given his best consideration to the memorial signed by your Grace, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and others interested in the National Vigilance Association, requesting that her Majesty's Government may be represented at the Conference which has been convened by the Association to meet in London on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd of June for the purpose of considering the best means of putting an end to the practice of procuring young women for immoral purposes. Lord Salisbury has already assured the Association that the object of the Conference has the entire sympathy of her Majesty's Government. He does not, however, think that that object will be best promoted by the appointment of Delegates from her Majesty's Government or the Governments of other countries to take part in the proceedings of the Conference. It will, in his Lordship's opinion, be preferable that the discussion should take place independently of any official participation, and that the evidence collected and any conclusions arrived at should subsequently be brought to the knowledge of the Governments interested. So far as her Majesty's Government are concerned, Lord Salisbury can promise that they shall have most careful attention." THE CHAIRMAN (The Duke of Westminster) offered his congratulations to those present upon their assembling together to deal with a flagrant evil, which existed not only in England but in the principal States of Europe. They would take counsel together and report facts with a view of endeavouring to devise some means of coping with the magnitude of the evil, which unfortunately obtained in some of the European States. (Applause.) The Bishop of LONDON expressed his deep satisfaction at the growth of International unity upon moral questions. Up to the present the actions of the good followed at too great a distance the actions of the evil. (Applause.) He hoped the Conference would have successful issues. (Hear, hear.) The Rev. Prebendary WEBB-PEPLOE also offered congratulations and a welcome to the delegates. The Duke then left the Chair, and his place was taken for the remainder of the day by Mr. Percy W. Bunting. Prince SERGE VOLKONSKY read the first paper, which dealt with the agencies employed in Russia in moral work. After referring to the labours of the Society for Working Homes, which had 133 establishments, and to 365 orphanages, containing 15,000 children, he said purity was taught by the Church and by the medical profession, but society in large towns excited to dissoluteness. There was no law governing the action or the rights of women; the rules in existence were framed solely to protect public health. Very few homes existed for women who desired to reform. In Russia the age of consent was 14; in the Caucasus 13. The second paper read by the Prince was contributed by M. A. Sabourow. This dealt with the provisions of the Russian criminal law on behalf of minors. Russia had no special agreements with foreign States with regard to this traffic. The exportation of women and girls had been mainly carried on from Odessa, but the future embarkation of women, except with their voluntary consent, had been now made impossible. He suggested an international law with regard to enslavement in disorderly houses, the detention of women to be made a criminal act, and prosecution apart from the complaint of the sufferers. A paper by M. G. DE LEVAL, of Brussels, was next read. The age of consent was 14, and the Belgian code regulated morals under these heads--Outrages on decency; violation or breach of morals; and seduction under age. The next paper was read by Madame BONMARIAGE and was written by Madame Kufferath. This dealt with the agencies employed in Belgium for the care and protection of girls and young women. There were notices placed in the third-class carriages on the Belgian lines, warning young women against strangers who might attempt to decoy them. The mother of an illegitimate child could not enforce a claim on the father for maintenance, nor could a married woman protect her earnings or savings from a drunken or dissolute husband. A Bill on the subject was now before the Chamber. M. BÉRENGER dealt with the French laws applying to the various phases of the grave offence which they were considering. Penal laws were inadequate, and detection difficult. In the case of women of full age in France their legislation had no penalties for incitement to vice. Minors under the age of 21 were protected. There was a Bill before one of the Chambers now to punish public establishments for entertainments which favoured vice. The police at the ports exercised an active surveillance over the recruiting for disorderly houses. Diversity of penal laws rendered a basis for international law difficult. In making preventive measures much could be done by Governments. A second paper, by M. HENRI JOLI, dealt with the number and variety of the institutions in France having for their object the raising of the moral standard of young people. There were 1,300 orphanages for girls alone, and a great many societies for young working women. In seaports, especially those by which it was sought to remove young women abroad, there was a "surprisingly large number of institutions of all kinds for help, relief, and rescue for girls and women." The wages of females were rarely sufficient to provide them with the necessaries of life. A discussion took place upon the questions raised by the papers. Pastor BURCKHARDT (Germany) suggested that there should be formed a permanent Union to put down the JULY, 1899.] THE SHIELD. 43 traffic in women; and, in doing so, he considered that they should begin by establishing a Central Council, formed of two representatives of each nation, with an Executive Committee sitting in London. The Rev. E. G. F. OLBERS, Chaplain to the King of Sweden, seconded the proposal for a Central Council. M. BELLEROCHE (Brussels) spoke of the warning notices in all the carriages on the Belgian railways, and mentioned that girls who did not know what to do were directed to take a carriage and go to a place of refuge provided. Madame LA DOUAIRIÈRE KLERCK (Holland) stated that a similar notice was posted on Dutch railways and steamboats. Miss BLANCHE LEPPINGTON said the nation was in a bad way which did not concern itself with the protection of women. While they would try to raise the standard of purity amongst girls and women, she suggested that they should also try to raise the standard of purity amongst men. M. LOUIS COMTE (France) supported the proposal. Count BERNSTORFF (Germany) strongly supported the suggestions made as to the formation of an International Council. All countries, all creeds, and all political parties should unite in carrying out the proposition. Mr. COOTE spoke of the general feeling in all countries to support such a proposition as that made by Pastor Burckhardt. There were strong National Vigilance Associations in existence already; and they were all desirous of working together on a common plan. Mrs. SHELDON AMOS said another reason for appointing such a Council as that suggested was that at present--although shocked with what they knew--they were exceedingly imperfectly informed. All over the world there was more of this white traffic going on than they knew of now. In Egypt it was said there was no traffic: but that meant that nothing had been done as yet to save women from going into the country. They could not obtain the information they wanted until each country had its permanent committee at work gathering statistics and publishing them. They must also rouse themselves in order to raise the tone of morals amongst men. Mr. SCHROEDER (Bremen) warmly supported the proposition to establish an International Council. Mr. TAMM (Stockholm) also approved of the idea. Mr. H. J. WILSON, M.P., entirely agreed that the work they had in hand must not be allowed to stop, but thought it would be a mistake to anticipate that there must be a protracted struggle. They must press the question home on all countries as something that should be done at once. The CHAIRMAN said that Mr. Coote, in his journey through Europe, which laid the foundation for that Conference, found that four or five of the principal countries were willing to send to the Conference official delegates, but the English Government did not think it desirable that this should be done on that occasion. Dr. BONMARIAGE (Brussels) said that the traffic rested mainly upon the licensed houses, which were positively harmful, and they ought to be closed. The traffic, in fact, existed for the sake of the houses. Speaking from 30 years' experience as a doctor in Brussels, he averred that these houses were an absolute failure "un non-possumus absolu" for the purpose for which they were maintained, that of protecting the public health. The vice was not a necessity. (Applause.) For the present, the houses, he considered, should be refused a licence for the sale of drink. Poverty, he thought, was the main cause of women going into such places to live. The proposal for a Central International Council was carried. Senator A. SABOUROW (Russia) moved: "That the Congress approve the principle of forming a permanent International organisation for perfecting and bringing into effect the work of the Conference. That the Committee of Experts consider this Resolution, and bring before the Congress a definite proposal." Count BERNSTORFF seconded the motion. Professor H. JOLI (Paris) urged that better wages should be paid to women; that the age of consent should be raised; and declared that there did not exist any imputation of exportation from France, but his country was simply a place through which women passed to other countries. The motion was passed, and the Congress then adjourned until the following day. THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 22ND. The Conference was resumed on Thursday morning, June 22nd, under the presidency of Cardinal Vaughan. The CHAIRMAN welcomed the delegates, and expressed his great satisfaction with the work accomplished on the previous day. He felt it an honour to take any part in promoting the immense work of charity and justice which they were engaged to carry out. Years ago statements and examples of it were brought to his knowledge as between England and Brussels. They were glad that now the moral sense and the honour of Europe had been awakened to this most iniquitous traffic in young girls, and the awakening had been the means of bringing together a number of ladies and gentlemen from all the leading countries of Europe. That meeting together must be of benefit to International moral rectitude. They required full knowledge and much greater knowledge than they possessed at the present moment. They would try to discover, by the views and opinions expressed, how this iniquitous traffic might be stamped out. He hoped that the public mind would be enlightened and the public conscience of the nations of Europe be aroused to protect young girls in their virtue and their life. The Countess of ABERDEEN, on behalf of the International Council of Women, also gave a welcome to the Delegates. She expressed a sincere hope that they would by their deliberations be able to pursue and hunt down the terrible evil of white slavery, and stamp it out of existence. Mr. HENRY J. WILSON, M.P., who was one of the introductory speakers of the day, said he was glad to be able to welcome the visitors. He begged to be allowed to make what he hoped would be considered practical suggestions. First, What is the prime difficulty we have to face? The prime difficulty is the doctrine held by a great many people, and he was sorry to say practised by not a few, that the moral law is not equal for man and for woman, and that what is allowable to men is forbidden to women, and vice versâ. As long as this doctrine of the necessity of vice exists, we shall find the utmost difficulty in giving practical effect to what we desire to accomplish in this Congress. Many people believe this doctrine and some avow it openly. They were there, he trusted, unanimously to deny it and say that it is false, and that we must regard the moral law as equal for all, and pains and penalities must, as far as equal for all, and pains and penalties must, as far as possible, fall on all alike, so far as human law can touch them. We hope and intend to get some international arrangement. When we have got it, who is to carry it out? Speaking broadly, police of the different countries must carry it out. He did not want to speak of the police of other countries more than the police of his own, but when public sentiment is not sound on such questions as this, the police will seldom be found to do their duty. And we have to watch them; to take care that they do it. The Chairman referred to Brussels. He was afraid that his many arduous avocations had prevented him, perhaps, from studying Blue Books very much, or he would have found much information as to what takes place in regard to those horrible scandals--the taking of English girls abroad and the manner of treating them there. We know that the same thing is going on elsewhere. A member of the London police force was sent to investigate it in 1880, and whether he allied himself with this trade, or allowed himself to be misled, he (Mr. Wilson) did not know, but it is evident that he brought back a most misleading report, and grossly inaccurate. How were those matters discovered in Brussels? Not by the police, but by brave citizens of Brussels and of London. We want to destroy this traffic. Well, a traffic consists of three parts; first, there is the supply; second,44 THE SHIELD. [July, 1899. there are the traffickers; and third, there must be a demand. Reference was made yesterday to the economic position of women, and he agreed with all that can be done to improve that economic position, which is one cause of trouble. Everything, that can be done of which we have heard, and shall hear, to improve women's position, socially, morally, and religiously, we approve of, and that will do something to cut off the supply. Therefore, strike at the supply. Then we come to the traffickers. That is the more immediate and definite object of the Congress. To strike at these men by some International law which shall enable them to be prosecuted in one country for what they have done in another. Lastly, there is the demand. He was one who believed that the most effective and important way to put down this terrible traffic is to do what we can to strike at the demand for the wretched victims of this traffic. He was told by a gentleman the day before that the streets of London are worse than the streets on the Continent of Europe; that may or may not be so, but what you see in England is done against the law, and in some countries a great deal of it is done in accordance with the law—that is the difference. Therefore, in connection with this matter strike at the supply, strike at the traffickers, but strike also at the demand for the victims of tolerated houses, which does more than anything else to create the supply, and to provide the means and the money for the traffic. Count BERNSTORFF (Chamberlain to the German Emperor) mentioned that he had a message for the Congress from the German Empress. (Applause.) Her Majesty told him to say that she should follow with great interest all the debates of the Congress. (Loud applause.) On his own behalf and that of the other Delegates from Germany, he desired to express their gratitude for the very hearty welcome accorded them, and for the warm reception they had received in London. (Applause.) The Count then proceed to narrate the various agencies at work in Germany for the aiding and elevating of girls and young women. Mr. PERCY BUNTING read a paper on the “Trade from an English point of view.” He suggested that it should be universally penal to facilitate in any way the immorality of a girl under 21; to use any intimidation, false statement, fraudulent promise, or other fraud to induce a woman or girl to commit herself; to induce any woman or girl to quit one country for another for an immoral purpose; and to have intercourse under the age of 16. Reforms were also necessary as to the enforcement of the law. Mrs. HENRY FAWCETT, read the next paper, on the English view of the question. She said the evil partook of the character of murder, theft, and fraud. No concerted International effort had been made to grapple with the evil, but the Conference was called together to consider what special machinery was required for the purpose. Count BERNSTORFF took the chair at the opening of the Conference in the afternoon when Miss SANNON (Denmark) read a paper by Count von Moltke on “Moral Work in Denmark.” This comprised a rescue society, a preparatory training home, a servants’ home, a sewing school, a shelter for fallen women, and a working home. There were also institutions for saving thoughtless and giddy girls, and a midnight mission for men. Mr. H. CHASE (Boston, U.S.A.) read a paper upon the agencies employed in America moral work. He said the New England Watch and Ward Society was organised in 1878, and was incorporated under the Laws of Massachusetts, and had for its object the removal by moral and legal means of those agencies which corrupted the morals of youth, and its efforts extended over the six New England States. Gambling was also attacked and hindered, and there were no gambling-houses now to be found in Boston. The protection of young women was also looked after, and no other department demanded such constant vigilance as the effort to thwart the devices for entrapping young women. Every foreign steamer and every train from the British Provinces was met by women to give advice and help to young women. Mr. HOWARD JENKINS (U.S.A.) and Professor HULL (Baltimore, U.S.A.) also addressed the Congress. The CHAIRMAN then read the resolution which the committee of experts had arrived at with reference to the drawing up of a scheme to make a permanent committee of organisation. Prof. STUART, M.P., addressed the Conference as follows: — I would support the proposals of M. Berenger because I feel that the main object of this Congress is to deal with the question of how to prevent the infamous traffic we have to consider. The general idea of the Committee, as laid down before us, is thoroughly sound; it is a Committee sitting in permanence, aided by members of all nationalities, with the object of preventing as far as possible, and for devising means for stopping the infamous traffic we all agree in condemning. Let us, therefore, gain this good result and gain it now. This traffic is one of the blots on modern civilisation; there is nothing conceivably worse in the whole range of international relations than the fact that these international relations and commerce include within their borders, a commerce in human beings, a commerce in the most unprotected portion of human beings—in our young women and girls. It was high time that this Congress should have met together to devise, if it is possible—and it certainly must be possible—some means of combating this traffic. It is a good outcome of the international relations when every person in this room desires to facilitate and increase the international relations for the common good. And while there are so many wars and rumours of wars between one nation and another, what could tend to bring us into happy harmony more than uniting to protect the most unprotected of all mankind. We have all hoped to see such a Congress as this for years. We have been working in our separate countries for these ends; the presence of our friend Mr. Coote, shows that this is not a new movement, but rather an attempt to correlate and gather together movements that exist, and to create a new one. We had a great deal of stir on this traffic question twenty years ago, and having then gained something as between the governments to stop the traffic, we had perhaps rested to much on our oars in this international question. I do not say one word to depreciate the noble efforts of friends on the platform, but they, no less than I, must welcome such a noble meeting as this, attended by so many prominent citizens. Twenty years ago we had terrible disclosures before a committee of the House of Lords as to consignments of women and girls which were made from one country to another, such as through India and America, and other places, which consignments of human beings were known as "packages." There are two classes of steps which may be taken: One class is in connection with the Government, and the other class is in connection with individual action. There has been a great deal of individual action taken, such as that taken by the Union Internationale des Amies de la Jeune Fille, of Switzerland, and ladies have volunteered to meet trains and attend at ports on the arrival of young girls who were believed to be in suspicious circumstances. More development of that class of work could be undertaken perhaps, because we know that at stations and ports of arrival procuresses await the trains and boats and offer situations to young girls, and they are often induced into certain circumstances from which they cannot escape; and moreover, it is becoming more and more easy by means of the cabarets to offer to engage young girls as servants, but really to entrap them into prostitution. Perhaps more could be done to organise assistance of this kind for rescuing and warning young women, and homes or cheap lodgings under good influences might be provided. These are two or three hints which I throw out, and no doubt other speakers will suggest other practical ideas. I throw them out, not with the endeavour to cover all that is needed, but to suggest some portion of the supply of remedial agencies which is needed. I see an infinite area of good and effective work for such Committees in connection with private organisation and enterprise. But when I come to the other side of the Committee’s work, in connection with appeals to Governments, I July, 1899.] THE SHIELD. 45 find a question which is far more complicated. And for two or three reasons. One reason is that the attitude of Governments towards the police, and the attitude of the police towards the people and the attitude of the people towards the police, and the Governments, varies so much in different countries, and therefore our appeals in the different countries, cannot I believe, bring about any uniform action in those countries. Do not let this Committee split its efforts on an endeavour to obtain too great uniformity of Government action; it will be difficult to get some Governments to listen to us at all, and it will be easy to get other Governments to listen to us, but difficult to put them into action, but in this matter we must go on what physicists call “the line of least resistance,” and make what running we can in connection with the Governments which we can influence. There may be individuals in some Governments and in some houses of representatives, and in some municipal Governments who are so devoted to our cause that we may win their assistance. Therefore while making suggestions for individual effort, which I consider to be unbounded, so in connection with our efforts to influence Governments, do not let us aim at too great uniformity in our appeals to Governments. Let us all in our various nations do the best we can with our local central Governments. And, secondly, though I have the most unbounded hopes in this matter, let us remember that Governments can only deal with the outside of questions. It is the human heart that has to be reached and influenced among the men and women who create those Governments. Governments can only deal with the fringes, and deal with a very hard hand and in a procrustean manner, but what we have to do is to influence the minds of men and women in Europe. And we do that by private action more than by appeals to Governments. We want to make them feel that it is a crime and sin and shame for which we individual people are responsible, that there should exist this inhuman traffic in our midst. If we go out convinced that this is the greatest iniquity, and that we are sharers in that iniquity now, because we are the creators of Governments and of public opinion, then one convinced man can make a dozen other convinced men, and each dozen can convince others in like proportion. One other point. The hands of Governments are very deeply dyed with the crime against which we are contending now. Governments are themselves in almost every country in Europe (aye, and in every country in Europe if we count their foreign dependencies) responsible for this system of regulation and tolerated houses, which itself is a stimulus to the very evil which we are met here to-day to condemn. (Applause.) If their hands are red with this abomination, our hands are deeply dyed in it too, because every man and woman here is responsible for the actions of the Governments of their own country, and so far as Governments’ actions are concerned, we have all got our hands besmirched with the blood of the evil which we are here to condemn, because there is no doubt whatever that if any nation or any Government sees that it is a right thing to provide sanitated prostitution, that Government is so far lending its sanction to the idea that vice is something that should be supplied. And in every direction we have found—at home and abroad, in England, in India, and every country in Europe—we have found that the hands of the authorities themselves are tinged with the crime of having to take part in the provision of this vice. Then how can we appeal to such Governments with success? Governments cannot blow hot and cold; they cannot do evil with half of their brains, and do good with the other half; they are too deeply implicated in the crime which we condemn for us to expect much from their hands. And therefore I cannot but feel that every man and woman here who joins in this noble work must, if they are influenced by any feeble words of mine, feel that part of their individual exertions must be to stimulate and extend the revolt against legalised prostitution and tolerated houses of debauchery. (Loud applause.) M. A. FÆRDEN (Norway) read a paper upon the agencies employed in moral work throughout the country. Mrs. HAMBRO (Bergen) read a paper on the work carried on in Norway to aid girls and young women, to effect rescue, and train those who are untrained in a manner to enable them to earn their own living. The Baroness Von LANGENAU (Austria) read the next paper in English upon the agencies employed in Austria and Hungary in moral work. The whole of the countries of Austria were, she said, in favour— theoretically—of the suppression of the traffic in girls and women. The Conference adjourned until next morning. FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 23RD. The Conference was resumed under the presidency of the Earl of Aberdeen. Lord ABERDEEN expressed his gratification that the national consciences of all civilised people were being aroused to the importance of the work which the Congress was considering. It was a monstrous and intolerable wrong which they were combating, represented by a system which destroyed the moral life and welfare of those who had a claim to protection and guardianship. (Applause.) Everyone who had a spark of humanity, everyone who possessed a tittle of chivalry, ought to be engaged in this work, and they must all determine that nothing should be left undone to root up and destroy the wrong which existed. (Applause.) They were all delighted at the expressed determination of all the foreign Governments to put a stop to such an infamous traffic. (Applause.) He offered his hearty congratulations to Mr. Coote for the success which had attended his efforts in the good work in hand. (Applause.) Lady BATTERSEA congratulated the Congress upon meeting together to consider so important a subject as the traffic in girls and women. She had been associated with a kindred association between twelve and fifteen years. But one society was unable to stem the tide of wrong done—the work required combined effort— though it was heart-breaking and perplexing work. Lord KINNAIRD was glad to utter a word of welcome to the delegates, and he referred to the preventive work carried on by the Young Women’s Christian Associations. Girls were met, for the first time, at points which they were obliged to pass in going abroad or coming into this country, so as to rescue them before they got into the terrible snare. Railway stations and landing-places were also visited for the same purpose. This was first begun in 1885 by the Young Women’s Association. This work went on singlehanded until it was found alltogether too great for one organisation, and then 14 associations in London united their forces to combat the traffic, and the Travellers’ Aid Society was formed. To show what the nature of the work was which this Society carried on he mentioned that last year 1,677 cases were dealt with, and the Society was growing all over the Colonies. The Committee of Experts appointed to draw up resolutions for a permanent organisation presented their report in the following form:— “1. In each country there shall be a National Committee to combat the White Slave Trade. All the National Committees together constitute the Congress. The existing Committee represented at this Congress are the Committees in their own countries—they have power to alter their own constitution if they think fit. In other countries Committees shall be formed, and the Bureau is charged with initiating this task. The Congress constitutes an International Committee consisting of two representatives of each National Committee. The Bureau of the Congress shall consist of two English representatives on the International Committee, and of three other persons to be chosen by the National Vigilance Association. But each National Committee may, if it think fit, nominate a delegate resident in London to attend meetings of the Bureau. Each meeting of the Congress will decide at what time and place the next meeting shall be held, but the International Committee may alter the time and place if circumstances make it desirable to do so. The46 THE SHIELD. [July, 1899. International Committee will meet when summoned by the Bureau; or may act by correspondence. Quarterly correspondence giving information from time to time, shall be kept up between the Bureau and the National Committees. Each National Committee shall name a correspondent. “The Congress expresses the desire:—A. That an agreement should be come to among the Governments— 1. To punish, and as far as possible by penalties of equal degree, the procuring of women or girls by violence, fraud, abuse of authority, or any other method of constraint, to give themselves to debauchery; and in cases where persons are accused of this crime. 2. To undertake simultaneous investigations into the crime when the facts which constitute it occur in different countries. 3. To prevent any conflict of jurisdiction by determining the proper place of trial. 4. To provide by International Treaties for the extradition of the accused. B. That a close and permanent agreement should be come to among the philanthropic and charitable societies of different countries to communicate to each other information as to the emigration of women under suspicious circumstances, and to undertake to protect the emigrants on their arrival. C. That an exact and complete list shall be prepared of all societies in different countries competent and willing to fulfil this duty. D. That this list be sent to all the Governments and Societies.” Among the speakers was. Mr. Arthur Moro, Hon. Sec. of the London Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women. The adoption of this report was proposed by Count BERNSTORFF and seconded by Senator BERANGER, but was only carried after a sharp discussion begun by Mr. Henry J. Wilson, M.P., who feared that the English standard on this question was being considerably lowered to suit the standard in other countries. Mr. Wilson pointed out that in England procuration was absolutely penal and criminal without any qualification whatever, and he only finally consented to abstain from dividing, the Congress by the passing of one additional resolution declaring that the platform taken was the minimum which would be accepted, but did not represent the whole of their wishes. M. BERENGER (France) tendered the thanks of the French Delegates, not only the National Vigilance Association for their services in organising the Congress, but to England for the warm reception which they had received. He rejoiced in the cordiality which had marked the business of the Congress in the animation with which the proceedings had been conducted, and the emotion which had marked their discussions. England had done what no other nation had attempted, and in a manner which was characteristic of no other nation—with most generous and most prodigal hospitality. Mme. LA DOUAIRIÈRE KLERCK spoke in a similar strain for Holland, and M. METZOLD on behalf of Germany. Prince SERGE VOLKONSKY, on behalf of Russia, after tendering thanks, said England was the proper place for such a Congress. Madame VINCENT, as the Delegate from the Municipality of Paris, united with the other speakers in her cordial thanks for the attention they had received. Pastor NINCH (Switzerland) gave the delegates an invitation to Berne for the next Congress, and this was accepted on a vote. They could not offer much hospitality, he said, but they could show some beautiful mountains. Professor HULL, of Baltimore, tendered thanks on behalf of the American delegates, and promised to take steps to stop the foreign traffic in women to the East. NEW MEMORANDUM ISSUED BY THE BRITISH COMMITTEE. On the occasion of the White Slave Conference the Committee drew up and presented to all Delegates and Members, a Memorandum to express their objections to Regulation and to explain its intimate connection with the subject of the Conference. Copies of the Memorandum (45 pp.) may be obtained from the Secretary, at the office, 17. Tothill Street, price 1d. THE LANCET AND THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC. The Lancet of July 1st contains a bitter and extravagant attack upon the International Conference and upon the National Vigilance Association. We shall probably have a more favourable opportunity of dealing with this attack in our next number. The article declares, “advisedly,” that the White Slave Traffic was only the “pretext” for the Conference. The real object, it says, was “to extort from the Congress a vote in favour of abolishing all sanitary regulations tending to prevent the spread of venereal desease.” We will, for a moment, overlook the demonstrated certainty that the “sanitary regulations” referred to never had the preventive tendency assumed on their behalf. But we have to say, and in so doing we speak as advisedly as the Lancet, that if the object of the promoters were as stated, the extortion aimed at was of a kind to which the immense majority of the Delegates would have been prepared very cheerfully to submit. We do not believe that anything but a desire of absolute unanimity in their conclusions would have restrained the immense majority from voting anything less. We take the article to be simply a token of the keen vexation and resentment with which the writer has discerned in the Conference, an influence powerful to menace those claims for arbitrary interference with public morality and constitutional liberty which are put forward by a section of the medical profession. The whole basis of the Conference, viz., the existence* of a White Slave Traffic, is declared by the Lancet to be hypothetical, and indeed, wholly absurd. If, it says, there were such a thing Governments and medical men would know of it, and would soon put it down. Here, where there are no licensed brothels, or registered women, it might be so, but on the Continent it is impossible. The worst thing on the Continent is the employment of unregistered women as waitresses and singers in cafès chantants and brasseries. “And here,” continues the Lancet, warm with moral enthusiasm, “the Congress might have suggested a very practical and effective measure—namely, that all agencies which engage women to serve in such cafès chantants and brasseries should be obliged by law to notify such engagement and to enter into the contract that the women accepting such positions should have to undergo weekly medical examinations.” We can tell the writer, who does not seem conscious of personal deficiency in any branch of knowledge or ethics, that before attempting to apply his practical and effective measure to his own country he will need to obtain a more serious mitigation of the criminal law than he has any idea of. “Even M. Berenger” whom the Lancet triumphantly quotes as an extreme Abolitionist, was obliged, we are told, to make statements discrediting the connection between the Traffic and Regulation. “Even M. Beranger!” who is noted for having passed fulsome encomiums upon Regulation which might well be incredible to anyone with even a smattering of the Abolitionist case. We do not dissent from the Lancet when it approves the statement of Dr. Bonmariage that poverty is the main cause of prostitution. But how the Lancet has persuaded itself that this is a disproof of the existence of the Traffic is more than we can divine. And here we would especially ask our readers to turn at once to our report (far too much condensed as it is) of the speech of Dr. Bonmariage at the Congress.† Let them from their own opinion of the candour with which the Lancet, by dint of totally suppressing essential parts of that eminent man’s address—viz., his corroboration of the fact of the Traffic and his deliberate ascription of it to the licensed houses—suggests to the public that he upholds its own views, that the Traffic is apocryphal, and licensed prostitution a public blessing. *See the well-known Report of House of Lords Committee, 1881-2 since when scepticism of the subject-matter of this Conference has only been possible to the grossly and culpably misinformed.—ED. † See page of 43 of this number. July, 1899.] THE SHIELD. 47 From first to last the method of controversy from which the writer seldom deviates, is that of describing the Delegates’ views as “preposterous” and his own as “notorious facts.” It is quite clear to us that much of the animus of this article is due to mistaken identity. In dealing with the National Vigilance Association the writer has all along imagined himself to be dealing with the Abolitionist Federation. It matters very little. With respect to its attitude towards Regulation we cheerfully acknowledge that the Association is probably as fully entitled as ourselves to the only tribute of value, in our opinion, that this writer has to bestow, the tribute of his abuse. THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. On Friday morning, June 30th, the members of the International Congress of Women (whose programme, aims and objects were described at some length in THE SHIELD for May last, on p. 29) were invited to consider the “Social necessity for an equal moral standard for men and women.” The meeting was held in the large room of the Church House, Westminster, and was very largely attended. Mrs. Creighton, wife of the Bishop of London, presided. It had been arranged that Mrs. Josephine Butler would read the firs paper, but her state of health prevented her being able to do this, and Mrs. Henry J. Wilson was invited to take her place. The following letter from Mrs. Butler was read to the members of the Congress:— To the Members of the Congress, met together on the subject of the necessity of an equal moral standard. DEAR LADIES,—I deeply regret that I am unable to stand before you to-day to plead for the necessity of an equal moral standard. The non-recognition of an equal moral standard in our country and elsewhere has worked much woe for women in a special manner during the last half century. It has brought upon us the most terrible legislative injustice, against which we continue without easing to strive. This injustice, falling heavily upon the weakest and most defenceless, has had also a corrupting influence on the whole of society, so far as it has been allowed to prevail. Thirty years ago certain women among us here in England felt impelled to arise and protest publicly against this wrong. We felt that we had indeed a divine call to proclaim aloud a long forgotten truth,—namely, that of the unity of the Moral Law. God is one. His law is one, and is equally binding on all, men and women, rich and poor. This proclamation, this teaching must be carried on; it must be impressed on the young, and must be urged upon our legislators and rulers, if we are ever to hope to lessen the sum of suffering and wrong doing in the world. The great concourse of women from all countries assembled in London at this time with a common purpose for the elevation of woman and the good of humanity is an event full of promise. Under the guidance of the Divine Spirit the present movement will become a powerful means for the bringing in of the Reign of Justice, the kingdom of God on earth. My friend Mrs. Wilson, will convey to you my affectionate greeting and the expression of my hope to find in you strong support for the sacred principle for which we plead. (Signed) JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER. Mrs. Wilson’s paper dealt entirely with the subject of State Regulation of Vice, showing how that system was based on an unequal moral standard—on the belief that vice is necessary for some men—that in its conception and operation it is a terrible degradation of women, and not less a systematic and organised degradation of men. It was also pointed out that the recognition of an equal moral standard would secure a very different state of things in our streets. Mrs. Wilson quoted largely from the writings and speeches of Mrs. Butler, pointing out that years ago she had urged the responsibility of women in this matter, that they had thought too lightly of impurity in men, had thought more of outward advantages than of purity of mind and life, and that this had let to much evil and had operated directly to the injury of both sexes; adding that men must learn to live virtuously as the only possible remedy for the physical plague, and concluding with the following quotation from Mrs. Butler:—“I believe that the time is coming when it will be apparent that the principle for which we are contending, the unity of the moral law and the equality of all human souls before God, is the most fruitful and powerful revolutionising principle which the world has ever known, and that we shall achieve a victory in the course of years, and through much tribulation, which will make our present efforts seem trivial for the attainment of so great an end.” The next paper was read by Frau Bieber Boehm, from Germany. She paid a grateful tribute to Mrs. Butler, from whom she said she had first learned what a frightful evil prostitution is. She emphatically denied that it was a necessary evil, demanded the help of legislation in suppressing it, and claimed that there should be the same laws for women and for men. A paper by Mrs. George Drummond, of Canada, was read by Mrs. Rawlinson. Mdlle. de Sainte Croix, from Paris, and Fröken Ida Welhaven, from Norway, also contributed papers, both showing the incompatibility of State Regulation of Vice with an equal moral standard. Subsequently, discussion took place in which the following ladies took part:—Miss Susan B. Anthony, U.S.A.; Mrs. Creighton; Miss Ellice Hopkins, who protested against the past indifference of women to the question of morality; Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell; Mrs. Susa Young Gates; Mrs. Sheldon Amos; Mrs. Stopes; Madame Camille Bloch, from Paris; Rev. Anna Shaw, U.S.A.; Mrs. McClaverty; Miss Müller, and Fräulein Burchard. ANNUAL MEETING OF THE FRIENDS REPEAL ASSOCIATION WILLIAM S. CLARK, the president of the Friends’ Association for Abolishing State Regulation of Vice, took the chair at its 26th Annual Meeting, held at Devonshire House on the 25th ult. The attendance was larger than on any other former occasion when Mrs. Butler was not present. Addresses, setting forth the present position of affairs and encouraging Friends to go forward were given by the Chairman; Margaret Tanner, Treasurer of the Ladies’ National Association; and (Rev.) J.P. Gledstone, a director of the London Missionary Society and leader of the Repeal movement in the Congregational body. Helen S. Dyer gave some account of the work in India. The following resolution was adopted unanimously:— This Meeting deplores the calling of an International Congress at Brussels by our opponents in the autumn of this year, with a view to the re-institution of the evil system of State Regulated Vice in those countries of Europe where it has been abolished, and hears with a deep concern the statement that our own Government are appointing two delegates to represent them at this Congress, one from the War Office, and the other from the India Office. And this Meeting, remembering the fact that the Society of Friends was the first Christian denomination in the field against State Regulated Vice,* and in view of our past attitude and present responsibilities, calls upon Friends generally to combat the possible return of the evil system to our own country in any form, and to renewed effort for its repeal in India where it has been already re-established. MEMORIAL OF OFFICERS OF THE WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION, OF BOMBAY, INDIA. (PRESENTED TO THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC.) We, the undersigned Office Bearers of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Bombay, India, acting in our individual capacity only, as time does not permit *The Yearly Meeting of 1870, the first after the complete institution of the system in this country, sent down a minute to all its subordinate Meetings calling upon them to do all in their power to secure the total and immediate abolition of State Regulated Vice.48 The Shield [July, 1899. of a meeting of the members being summoned, send greeting. A notice of a conference to be held in London in the month of June for the purpose of discussing the traffic in young girls has claimed our attention. We desire respectfully to call your notice to the fact that a large number of young European girls, mostly domestic servants, are brought to Bombay from Europe for evil purposes and, we understand, to many other Asiatic seaports. The experience of lady workers in Bombay has been that when any of these women have been on the point of leaving their life for Rescue Homes, they have been drafted on to a place where they would be again strangers. Owing to the fact that these young women are generally ignorant of the language of the city to which they are taken, they are in a hopeless and almost helpless conditions. They include Russian, Austrian, German, and Italian nationalities. We would entreat you to consider whether the matter could not be represented to Governments that they would be induced to take the initiative in watching the movements of the men who ensnare these women, and eventually frustrate their designs; or, failing this, that voluntary efforts with the same intention should receive a more hearty and effectual support from their respective Governments. (Signed) ANNA SLOANE, (Superintendent of the Purity Department of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, Bombay). J. BRIGGS (Evangelistic Superintendent Women's Christian Temperance Union, Bombay) KATE CHRISTIE (Medical Practitioner, Corresponding Secretary Women's Christian Temperance Union, Bombay) ALICE D. HORNE (Vice-President Grant Road Branch Women's Christian Temperance Union, Bombay) KATE LAXTON, (Second Vice-President Grant Road Branch Women's Christian Temperance Union, Bombay) LYDIA MULLINS, (Treasurer Grant Road Branch Women's Christian Temperance Union, Bombay) THE EXCLUSION OF WOMEN FROM THE NEW LONDON COUNCIL ---- WHOLLY disconnected though we are from politics, in the usual sense of that word, we cannot refrain from expressing our indignation at the wanton and mischievous amendment by means of which a majority of the House of Lords on June 26th withdrew from women the right, given by the people's representatives, to serve upon the New London Councils. It was much more than a paltry and foolish blow at women. It was an arbitrary outrage upon the public. The immense majority of really representative and serious men who have served with women upon municipal bodies have, as well known, come to regard the collaboration of women with themselves upon those bodies as so valuable as to be in truth indispensable. The whole municipal electorate, so far as involved, is now by one act of irresponsible levity to be deprived of the right not of being governed by a female vestry, but of the right, which they at present possess, to their great advantage, of electing able and trusted women, if they choose, to assist in managing their local affairs. When we see a highly prized privilege of hundreds of thousands airily done to death in the hour before dinner-time by 182 men of a class not especially fitted to appreciate the more truly important and menacing aspects of modern life, but merely possessing (or supposed to possess) pedigrees, enviable (or otherwise); and when we see the action of these men justified by arguments for which any ordinary degree of contempt would be a kind of flattery, we cannot help reflecting that some serious organic changes cannot long be delayed. ---------- SOCIAL PURITY ALLIANCE ANNUAL MEETING --------- ON Thursday, June 22nd, 1899, the Annual Meeting of the Social Purity Alliance was held at Westminster Town Hall. Lady Isabel Margesson was in the cair, and addresses were delivered by the Rev. R. R. Dolling (St. Saviour's, Poplar), Mrs. Dawson, L.R.C.O., S.I., Mrs. Atkey, Miss Goff, and Miss Whitehead. The speakers urged the necessity of an equal moral standard for men and women, and further, insisted strongly, that every young woman who is willing to work should have the chance to earn her living without recourse, partially or wholly, to immoral practices, into which the existing system of scanty and precarious wages practically forces her. The value of parents teaching their children self-control and training them in daily discipline was also enforced. In responding to a vote of thanks, Lady Isabel Margesson earnestly pleaded that children should be properly and carefully initiated, step by step, as they become able to grasp the importance of them, into the physical facts of life. The Report of the Social Purity Alliance for 1898-99, shows that 155 new members have been added to the list, and new branches have been formed at Trowbridge and Summer's Town, near Tooting, and that there is a prospect of others at Mold Green, Huddersfeld and Sudbury. Particulars are also furnished of very useful work in distributing and publishing literature and directing public attention to needed reforms in a variety of matters. REGULATION IN INDIA QUESTION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS FRIDAY, 30.6.99. On Friday, June 30th, the following question to the Chief Secretary for India, in the House of Commons, was down on the paper : Mr. H. J. Wilson for Mr. James Stuart "To ask the secretary of State for India if he will lay upon the table a copy of the Circular issued from Simla, on the 18th June, 1898, for the purpose of ascertaining from the various medical school whether female hospital assistants could be obtained to engage in the examination of prostitutes in India: "And, if he will state the result of the inquiry, how many of such hospital assistants have consented to perform these examinations, and on what terms they have been engaged." The Chief Secretary replied that he had not seen te Circular, but would enquire. IMPORTANT STATEMENT IN THE "LANCET." The Special Indian correspondent of the Lancet (July 1st), writes: "The Secretary of State has approved of the re-establishment of Cantonment hospitals at 70 stations in India to carry out the Cantonment rules of 1897; 27 of these will be first class at stations having more than 1000 troops, and the remaining 43 will be second class hospitals." We apprehend it will be the care of our parliamentary leaders to ascertain exactly what this means. Printed by Pewtress & Co., 28, Little Queen Street, W.C., and published by Frederick Burfoot, 55, Ellerdale Street, Lewisham, London, for the British Committee of the Federation for Abolition of State Regulation of Vice, 17, Tothill Street, Westminister, London. July, 1899