[Transcriber's note: The spelling irregularities of the original havebeen preserved in this etext. ]

DARKEST INDIA

BY COMMISSIONER BOOTH-TUCKER

A SUPPLEMENT TO GENERAL BOOTH'S

"IN DARKEST ENGLAND, AND THE WAY OUT. "

1891

PREFACE. 

The remarkable reception accorded to General Booth's "In Darkest Englandand the Way Out, " makes it hardly necessary for me to apologise for thepublication of the following pages, which are intended solely as anintroduction to that fascinating book, and in order to point out toIndian readers that if a "cabhorse charter" is both desirable andpracticable for England (see page 19, Darkest England) a "bullockcharter" is no less urgently needed for India. 

In doing this it is true that certain modifications and adaptations indetail will require to be made. But the more carefully I consider thematter, the more convinced do I become, that these will be of anunimportant character and that the gospel of social salvation, which hasso electrified all classes in England, can be adopted in this countryalmost as it stands. 

After all, this is no new gospel, but simply a resurrection, orresuscitation, of a too much neglected aspect of the original messageof "peace on earth, good will towards men, " proclaimed at Bethlehem. Ithas been the glory of Christianity, that it has in all ages and climesacknowledged the universal brotherhood of man, and sought to relieve thetemporal as well as the spiritual needs of the masses. Of late yearsthat glory has in some degree departed, or at least been tarnished, notbecause the efforts put forth are less than those in any previousgeneration, but because the need is so far greater, that what would havebeen amply sufficient a few centuries ago, is altogether inadequate whencompared to the present great necessity. 

The very magnitude of the problem has struck despair into the hearts ofwould-be reformers, many of whom have leapt to the conclusion, thatnothing but an entire reconstruction of society could cope with so vastan evil, whilst others have been satisfied with simply putting off thereckoning day and suppressing the simmering volcano on the edge ofwhich, they dwelt with paper edicts which its first fierce eruption isdestined to consume. 

Surely the present plan if at all feasible, is God-inspired, and ifGod-inspired, it will be certainly feasible. And surely of all countriesunder the face of the sun there is none which more urgently needs theproclamation of some such Gospel of Hope than does India. That it isboth needed and feasible I trust that in the following pages I shall beable to abundantly prove. 

General Booth has uttered a trumpet-call, the echoes of which will bereverberated through the entire world. The destitute masses, whom he hasin his book so vividly pourtrayed, are everywhere to be found. And Ibelieve I speak truly when I say that in no country is their existencemore palpable, their number more numerous, their misery more aggravated, their situation more critical, desperate and devoid of any gleam of hopeto relieve their darkness of despair, than in India. 

And yet perhaps in no country is there so promising a sphere for theinauguration of General Booth's plan of campaign. Religious by instinct, obedient to discipline, skilled in handicrafts, inured to hardship, andaccustomed to support life on the scantiest conceivable pittance, wecannot imagine a more fitting object for our pity, nor a moreencouraging one for our effort, than the members of India's "submergedtenth. "

Leaving to the care of existing agencies those whose bodies arediseased, General Booth's scheme seeks to fling the mantle ofbrotherhood around the morally sick, the destitute and the despairing. It seeks to throw the bridge of love and hope across the growingbottomless abyss in which are struggling twenty-six millions of ourfellow men, whose sin is their misfortune and whose poverty is theircrime, who are graphically said to have been "damned into the world, rather than born into it. "

The question is a national one. This is no time therefore for party orsectarian feeling to be allowed to influence our minds. True forourselves we still believe as fully as ever that the salvation of JesusChrist is the one great panacea for all the sins and miseries ofmankind. True we are still convinced that to merely improve a man'scircumstances without changing the man himself will be largely laborspent in vain. True we believe in a hell and in a Heaven, and that it isour ultimate object to save each individual whom we can influence out ofthe one into the other. True that among the readers of the followingpages will be those whose religious creed differs from our's as widelyas does the North Pole from the South. 

But about these matters let us agree for the present to differ. Let usunite with hand and heart to launch forthwith the social life boat, andlet us commit it to the waves, which are every moment engulfing thehuman wrecks with which our shores are lined. When the tempest hasceased to rage, and when the last dripping mariner has been safelylanded we can, if we wish, with a peaceful conscience dissolve ourpartnership and renew the discussion of the minor differences, whichdivide, distract and weaken the human race, but _not till then. _

CONTENTS. 

PART I. 

IN DARKEST INDIA. 

 I. Why "Darkest India?"

 II. Who are not the Submerged Tenth?

 III. The minimum standard of existence

 IV. Who are the Submerged Tenth?

 V. The Beggars

 VI. "The Out of Works"

 VII. The Homeless Poor

VIII. The Land of Debt

 IX. The Land of Famine

 X. The Land of Pestilence

 XI. The White Ants of Indian Society

 (a) The Drunkard

 (b) The Opium Slave

 (c) The Prostitute

 XII. The Criminals

XIII. On the Border Land

 XIV. Elements of Hope

PART II. 

THE WAY OUT. 

 I. The Essentials to success

 II. What is General Booth's scheme?

 III. The City Colony

 IV. The Labour Bureau

 V. Food for all--the Food Depōts

 VI. Work for all, or the Labour Yard

 VII. Shelter for all, or the Housing of the Destitute

 VIII. The Beggars Brigade

 IX. The Prison Gate Brigade

 X. The Drunkards Brigade

 XI. The Rescue Homes for the Fallen

 XII. "The Country Colony"--"Wasteward ho!"

 XIII. The Suburban Farm

 The Dairy

 The Market Garden

 XIV. The Industrial Village

 XV. The Social Territory, or Poor Man's Paradise

 XVI. The Social City of Refuge

 XVII. Supplementary Branches of the Country Colony

 Public Works

 Off to the Tea Gardens

 Land along the Railways

 Improved methods of Agriculture

XVIII. The Over-sea Colony

 XIX. Miscellaneous Agencies

 The Intelligence Department

 The Poor Man's Lawyer

 The Inquiry Office for missing Friends

 The Matrimonial Bureau

 The Emigration Bureau

 Periodical Melas

 XX. How much will it Cost?

 XXI. A Practical conclusion

PART I. --IN DARKEST INDIA. 

CHAPTER I. 

WHY "DARKEST INDIA?"

It is unnecessary for me to recapitulate the parallel drawn by GeneralBooth between the sombre, impenetrable and never-ending forest, discovered by Stanley in the heart of Africa, and the more fearfullytangled mass of human corruption to be found in England. Neither theexistence, nor the extent, of the latter have been called in question, and in reckoning the submerged at one tenth of the entire population itis generally admitted that their numbers have been understated ratherthan otherwise. 

Supposing that a similar percentage be allowed for India, we are face toface with the awful fact that the "submerged tenth" consists of no lessthan _twenty-six millions of human beings_, who are in a state ofdestitution bordering upon absolute starvation! No less an authoritythan Sir William Hunter has estimated their numbers at fifty millions, and practically his testimony remains unimpeached. 

Indeed I have heard it confidently stated by those who are in a goodposition to form a judgement, that at least one hundred millions of thepopulation of India scarcely ever know from year's end to year's endwhat it is to have a satisfying meal, and that it is the rule and notthe exception for them to retire to rest night after night hungry andfaint for want of sufficient and suitable food. 

I am not going, however to argue in favor of so enormous a percentageof destitution. I would rather believe, at any rate for the time being, that such an estimate is considerably exaggerated. Yet do what we will, it is impossible for any one who has lived in such close and constantcontact with the poor, as we have been doing for the last eight or nineyears, to blink the fact, that destitution of a most painful characterexists, to a very serious extent, even when harvests are favorable andthe country is not desolated by the scourge of famine. 

Nor do I think that there would be much difficulty in proving that thissubmerged mass constitutes at least one-tenth of the entire population. No effort has hitherto been made to gauge their numbers, so that it isimpossible to speak with accuracy, and the best that we can do is, toform the nearest feasible estimate from the various facts which lie tohand and which are universally admitted. 

Let any one who is tempted to doubt the literal truth of what I say, orto think that the picture is overdrawn, but place himself at ourdisposal for a few days, or weeks, and we will undertake to show him, and that in districts which are as the very Paradise of India, thousandsof cases of chronic destitution (especially at certain seasons in theyear) such as ought to be sufficient to melt even a heart of stone!

CHAPTER II. 

WHO ARE NOT THE SUBMERGED TENTH?

Before passing on to consider of whom the destitute classes actuallyconsist, it will be well in a country like India to make a fewpreliminary remarks regarding the numbers and position of their morefortunate countrymen who have employment of some sort, and are thereforeexcluded from the category. 

The entire population of British India, including Ceylon, Burmah, andthe Native States amounts according to the Census of 1881 to about twohundred and sixty-four millions. 

These I would divide into five classes--

 1st--The wealth and aristocracy of the country consisting of those who enjoy a monthly income of one hundred rupees and upwards per family. According to the most sanguine estimate we can hardly suppose that these would number more than forty millions of the population. 

 2nd. --The well-to-do middle classes, earning twenty rupees and upwards, numbering say seventy millions. 

 3rd. --The fairly well off laboring classes, whose wages are from five rupees and upwards, numbering say at the most one hundred millions. 

 4th--The poverty stricken laboring classes, earning less than five rupees a month for the support of their families. These cannot at the lowest estimate be less than twenty-five millions. 

 5th. --The destitute and unemployed poor, who earn nothing at all, and who are dependent for their livelihood on the charity of others. These can hardly be less than twenty-five millions, or a little less than one-tenth of the entire population. 

The two hundred and ten millions who are supposed to be earningregularly from five rupees and upwards per family, we may dismissforthwith from consideration. For the time being they are beyond thereach of want, and they are not therefore the objects of our solicitude. At some future date it may be possible to consider schemes for theiramelioration. 

Indirectly, no doubt, they will benefit immensely by any plans that willrelieve them of the dead weight of twenty-five million paupers, hanginground their necks and crippling their resources. But for the present wemay say in regard to them, happy is the man who can reckon upon aregular income of five rupees a month for the support of himself and hisfamily, albeit he may have two or three relations dependent on him, anda capricious money lender ever on his track, ready to extort a lion'sshare of his scanty earnings. And thrice happy is the man who can boastan income of ten, fifteen, or twenty rupees a month, though the poorestand least skilled laborers in England would reckon themselves badly paidon as much per week. 

We turn from these to the workless tenth and to the other tenth who ekeout a scanty hand-to-mouth existence on the borders of that great andterrible wilderness. But before enumerating and classifying them, thereis one other important question which calls for our consideration. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE MINIMUM STANDARD OF EXISTENCE. 

What may reasonably be said to be the minimum scale of existence, belowwhich no Indian should be suffered to descend? Fix it as low as youlike, and you will unfortunately find that there are literally_millions_ who do not come up to your standard. 

Pick out your coarsest, cheapest grains, and weigh them to the lastfraction of an ounce. Rigidly exclude from the poor man's bill of fareany of the relishes which he so much esteems, and the cost of which isso insignificant as to be hardly worth mentioning, and yet you will findlegions of gaunt, hungry men, women and children, who would greedilyaccept your offered regimen to-morrow, if you could only discover thewherewithal for obtaining the same, and who would gladly _pay for itwith the hardest and most disagreeable description of labour. _

Take for instance the prison diet, where the food is given by weight, and where it is purposely of the coarsest description consistent withhealth. That the quantity is insufficient to satisfy the cravings ofhunger I can myself testify, having spent a month inside one of HerMajesty's best appointed Bombay prisons, and having noted with painfulsurprise the eagerness with which every scrap of my own coarse brownbread, that I might leave over, was claimed and eaten by some of myhungry, low-caste fellow prisoners!

The clothing and the blankets are also of the very cheapest description. Of course it must be remembered too, that the food and materials beingbought in large quantities, are obtained at contract prices which areconsiderably less than the usual retail rates in the bazaar. And yetnotwithstanding these facts it costs the Bombay Government on an averageRs. 2/4 per month for each prisoner's food, and close upon Rs. 2 a yearfor clothing, besides the cost of establishment, police guard, hospitalexpenses and contingencies. Altogether according to the figures given inthe Jail Report of 1887 for the Bombay Presidency, including all theabove mentioned items, I find that the average monthly cost toGovernment for each prisoner is a little over Rs. 6 a head. 

Now it is a notorious, though almost incredible, fact, that in manyparts of India, men will commit petty thefts and offences on purpose tobe sent to jail, and will candidly state this to be their reason fordoing so. Many Government Officials will, I am sure, bear me out inthis. Here we have men who are positively so destitute that they are notonly prepared to accept with thankfulness the scanty rations of a jail, but are willing to sacrifice their characters and endure the ignominy ofimprisonment and the consequent loss of liberty and separation from homeand family, because there is absolutely no other way of escape! InCeylon the jail is familiarly known among this class as their "_Lokuamma_", or "_Grandmother_"!

India has no poor law. There is not even the inhospitable shelter of aworkhouse, to which the honest pauper may have recourse. Hence with tensof thousands it is literally a case of "steal or starve. " I suppose thatnine-tenths of the thefts and robberies, besides a large proposition ofthe other crimes committed in India, are prompted by sheer starvation, and until the cause be removed, it will be in vain to look for adiminution of the evil, multiply our police and soldiery as we will. 

But I am digressing. My special object in this chapter is to show theminimum amount which is necessary for the subsistence of our destituteclasses. 

Another very interesting indication of the minimum cost of living in thecheapest native style, consistent with health, and a very moderatedegree of comfort, is furnished by the experience of our villageofficers to whom we make a subsistence allowance of from eight to twelveannas per week. This with the local gifts of food which they collect inthe village enables them to live in the simplest way, and ensures themat least one good meal of curry and rice daily, the rest being locallysupplied. 

Here is the account of one of our Native Captains as to how he used tomanage with his allowance of eight annas a week. I have taken it downmyself from his own lips. 

 "When in charge of a village corps, I received with others my weekly allowance. When I was alone I used to get 10 annas, and when there were two of us together we got eight annas each. This was sufficient to give us one good meal of kheechhree (rice and dal) every day, with a little over for extras, such as firewood, vegetables, oil and ghee. 

 "We had two regular cooked meals daily, one about noon and the other in the evening. Besides this we also had a piece of bajari bread left over from the previous day, when we got up in the morning. 

 "For the morning meal we used to beg once a week uncooked food from the villagers. They gave us about eight or nine seers, enough to last us for the week. 

 "It was a mixture of grains, consisting ordinarily of bajari, bhavtu, kodri, jawar and mat. These we got ground up into flour. It made a sort of bread which is known as Sāngru and which we liked very much. With it we would take some sāg (vegetables) or dāl. This was our regular midday meal. 

 "Including the value of the food we begged, the cost of living was just about two annas a day for each of us. We could live comfortably upon this. 

 "The poorer Dhers in the villages seldom or never get kheechhree (rice and dal). They could not afford it. Most of them live on "ghens" (a mixture of buttermilk and coarse flour cooked into a sort of skilly, or gruel) and bhavtu or bajari bread, or "Sāngru. " The buttermilk is given to them by the village landowners, in return for their labour. They are expected for instance to do odd jobs, cut grass, carry wood, &c. The grain they commonly get either in harvest time in return for labour, or buy it as they require it several maunds at a time. Occasionally they get it in exchange for cloth. Living in the cheapest possible way, and eating the coarsest food, I don't think they could manage on less than one annas' worth of food a day. "

One of our European Officers, Staff Captain Hunter, who has lived in thesame style for about four years among the villagers of Goojarat, and whohas been in charge of some 30 or 40 of our Officers, confirms the aboveparticulars. He says that on two annas a day it is possible to livecomfortably, but that one anna is the minimum below which it isimpossible to go in order to support life even on the coarsest sorts offood. 

He tells me that the weavers have assured him that when husband andwife are working hard from early to late, they cannot make more thanfour annas profit a day by their weaving, since the mills have come intothe country and then they have to pay a commission to some one to selltheir cloth for them, or spend a considerable time travelling about thecountry finding a market for it themselves. A piece of cloth which wouldfetch nine rupees a few years ago, is now only worth three and a half orfour rupees. 

Bearing in mind, therefore, the above facts, I should consider that ifIndia's submerged tenth are to be granted, even nothing better than a"bullock charter, " the lowest fraction which could be named for theminimum claimable by all would be one anna a day, or two rupees a monthfor each adult. As a matter of fact, I have no hesitation in saying, that there are many millions in India who do not get even half thispittance from year's end to year's end, and yet toil on with scarcely amurmur, sharing their scanty morsel with those even poorer thanthemselves, until disease finds their weakened bodies an easy prey, anddeath gives them their release from a poverty-stricken existence; whichscarcely deserves the name of "life. "

CHAPTER IV. 

WHO ARE THE SUBMERGED TENTH?

By classifying and grading the various orders that constitute IndianSociety according to their average earnings, and by considering theirminimum, standard of existence, I have sought to prepare the way for amore careful investigation of those who actually constitute the DarkestIndia, which we are seeking to describe. I have narrowed down ourinquiry to the fifty millions, or whatever may be their number, who areeither absolutely destitute, or so closely on the border-land ofstarvation as to need our immediate sympathy and assistance. 

Strictly speaking it is with the former alone, the absolutely destitute, numbering as I have supposed some twenty-five millions, that we are atpresent concerned. I have, however, found it impossible to exclude somereference to the poverty-stricken laboring classes, earning less thanfive rupees a month for the support of each family, inasmuch as they areprobably far more numerous than I have supposed, and their miseries arebut one degree removed from those of the utterly destitute. Indeed wescarcely know which is the most to be pitied, the beggar who, if he hasnothing, has perhaps at least the comfort that nobody is dependent onhim, or the poor coolie who with his three or four rupees a month hasfrom five to eight, or more, mouths to fill! _Fill_ did I say? They are_never_ filled! The most that can be done in such cases is to prolonglife and to keep actual starvation at bay, and that only it may be for atime!

Nevertheless, I have restricted the term "Submerged Tenth" to theabsolutely destitute, whom I now proceed to still further analyse. 

In doing so I have been obliged to include several important classeswho happily do not exist in England, or who are at any rate so few innumber, or so well provided for, as not to merit special attention. Imean the beggars, the destitute debtors, and the victims of opium, famine, and pestilence, without whom our catalogue would certainly beincomplete. 

Including the above we may say that the Indian Submerged Tenth consistof the following classes:--

 I. The Beggars, excluding religious mendicants. 

 II. The out-of-works, --the destitute, but honest, poor, who are willing and anxious for employment, but unable to obtain it. 

 III. The Houseless Poor. 

 IV. The Destitute Debtors. 

 V. The Victims of Famine and Scarcity. 

 VI. The Victims of Pestilence. 

 VII. The Vicious, including

 (a) Drunkards. 

 (b) Opium eaters. 

 (c) Prostitutes. 

 VIII. The Criminals, or those who support themselves by crime. 

They are alike in one respect, that if they were compelled to be solelydependent upon the proceeds of their labor, it would be impossible forthem to exist for a single month. 

It is these who constitute the problem which we are endeavouring tosolve. Here is the leprous spot of society on which we desire to placeour finger. If any think, that it is not so big as we imagine, we willnot quarrel with them about its size. Let them cut down our figures tohalf the amount we have supposed. It will still be large enough toanswer the purpose of this inquiry, and should surely serve to arrestthe attention of the most callous and indifferent! About its existenceno one can have the smallest doubt, nor as to the serious nature of theplague which afflicts our society. As to the character of the remedy, there may be a thousand different opinions but that a remedy is calledfor, who can question?

CHAPTER V. 

THE BEGGARS. 

One of the chief problems of Indian Society is that of beggary. India isperhaps the most beggar-beridden country to be found. Nor would it bepossible under present circumstances to pass any law forbidding beggary. In the absence of a poor-law, it is the last resource of the destitute. 

True it is a plague spot in society and a serious reflection both on ourhumanity and civilisation, to say nothing of our religious professions, to tolerate the continued existence of the present state of things. 

And yet I see no reason why the problem should not be firmly andsuccessfully handled in the interests alike of the beggars themselvesand those who supply the alms. 

A short time ago I was visiting a Mahommedan gentleman in the Nativequarter of Bombay. It was in the morning before he went to business, andI happened to hit upon the very time when the beggars made their usualrounds. I should think upwards of fifty men and women must have calledduring the few minutes that I was there. In fact it seemed like onenever-ending string of them reaching down both sides of the street. Somesang, or shouted, to attract notice; others stood mutely with appealingeyes, wherever they thought there was a chance of getting anything. Manyreceived a dole, while others were told to call again. I could not butbe struck by the courteous manner of my host to them, even when askingthem to pass along. 

On the opposite side of the road some food, or money, I forget which, was being distributed to a hungry crowd by another hospitable merchant. Evidently the supply was limited, and it was a case of first come firstserved. The desperate struggle that was going on amongst that littlecrowd of some fifty or sixty people was pitiful to behold. 

Now the present system, while better than nothing, is fraught with manyserious objections, with which I am sure my Indian readers will agree. 

 1. The weakest must inevitably go to the wall. It is the strong able-bodied lusty beggar who is bound to get the best of it in struggles such as I have above described, although he is just the one who could and ought to work and who least needs the charity. He is able also to cover more ground than the weak and sickly. To the latter the struggle for existence is necessarily very severe, and while needing and deserving help the most they get the least. 

 2. This unsystematic haphazard mode of helping the poor is bound to be attended with serious inequalities; while some get more than is either good, or necessary, others get too little, and for the majority even supposing that on two or three days of the week they succeeded in getting a sufficiency, the chances are that on four or five they would not get nearly enough. It would be interesting to know the total amount of food thus distributed and the number of mouths that claim a share. 

 3. Of course in the case of any rise in the price of grains, the position of the beggar is specially painful, as it is upon him that the weight of the scarcity first falls. 

 4. Again the present system is a distinct encouragement to fraud. It is impossible for the givers of charity to know anything about the characters of those to whom they give. Thus much of their generosity is misapplied, and the most pitiable cases escape notice, either because they have not so plausible a tale, or because they have not the requisite "_cheek_" for pushing their claims. 

 5. While the generous are severely taxed, the less liberal get off scot free. They cannot give to all and therefore they will give to nobody. Some beggars are frauds, therefore they will help none. They have been taken in once, therefore they do not mean to be taken in again. 

 6. Finally the Indian army of beggars is continually increasing, and will sooner or later have to be dealt with. Private charity will soon be unable to cope with its demands, and humanity forbids that we should leave them to starve. 

I return therefore to the question, can we not seize this opportunity, in the common interests of both beggars and be-begged, for dealingvigorously with the difficulty, and for mitigating it, if we cannot atone stroke entirely remove it?

I am very hopeful that this can be done, and that now certain classesof beggars. But in any case I think we may fairly view the problem in aspirit of hopefulness. 

Roughly speaking the beggars may be divided into four classes:--

 (a) The blind and the infirm. 

 (b) Those who take them about and share the proceeds of their begging. 

 (c) The able bodied out-of-works, and

 (d) The religious mendicants. 

Passing over the last of these for obvious reasons, I would confinemyself to the first three classes. But I must not anticipate. The schemefor their deliverance is fully described in a later portion of thisbook, and for the present I would only say that they constitute a veryimportant section of India's submerged tenth and no plan would beperfect that did not take them fully into account. 

It is true that this does not form a part of General Booth's originalscheme. But the reason for this is patent. In England vagrancy isforbidden. There is a poor law in operation and there are work-housesprovided by the State. In India there is nothing of the kind, save a lawfor the _compulsory emigration_ of European vagrants, who are deportedby Government and not allowed to return. For Natives there is no choicesave the grim one between _beggary, starvation, _ and _the jail. _ Toobtain the shelter of the last of these they must leave their family, sacrifice their liberty, and commit some offence. Therefore the honestout-of-works are driven by tens of thousands to lives of beggary, whichtoo often pave the way for lives of imposture and crime. 

That the problem is capable of being successfully solved, if wiselyhandled, has been proved by the Bavarian experiment of Count Rumfordquoted by General Booth in an appendix to his book. True that in thatcase the Government lent their authority, their influence and the publicpurse to the carrying out of the Count's plan of campaign. 

This we do not think that public opinion would permit of in India, evenif Government should be willing to undertake so onerous aresponsibility. Nor do I believe that there is any necessity for it. Thecircumstances are a good deal different to those in Bavaria, and will bebetter met by the proposals which I have elsewhere drawn up. 

Anyhow it is high time that something should be done, and that on anextensive scale and of such a drastic nature as to deal effectually withthe question. 

I can easily imagine that some may fear lest in dealing with the systemwe should wound the religious susceptibilities of the people. Begginghas come to be such a national institution and is so much a part andparcel of the Indian's life and religion, that any proposal toextinguish the fraternity may cause in some minds positive regret. Tosuch I would say that we do not propose to _extinguish_ but to _reform_, and with this one hint I must beg them, before making up their minds, tostudy carefully the proposals detailed in Chapter VII of Part II. 

CHAPTER VI. 

"THE OUT-OF-WORKS. "

I should question whether there is a single town or country district inIndia which does not present the sad spectacle of a large number of men, willing and anxious to work, but unable to find employment. Moreover, asis well known, they have almost without exception families dependentupon them for their support, who are necessarily the sharers of theirmisfortunes and sufferings. There is one district in Ceylon, wheredeaths from starvation have been personally known to our Officers, andyet the country appears to be a very garden of Eden for beauty andfertility. 

In the early years of our work I remember begging food from a house, andlearning afterwards that what they had given us was positively the lastthey had for their own use. Needless to say that it was hastilyreturned. During the same visit a cry of "Thief, thief!" was raised inthe night. We learnt next morning that the robbery had been committed bya man whose wife and child were starving. It consisted of rice, and thethief was discovered partly by the disappearance of the suspectedperson, and partly by the fact that in his house was found the exactquantity which had been stolen, whereas it was known that on theprevious day he had absolutely nothing whatever in his house! He hadleft it all for his starving wife and child, and had himself fled toanother part of the country, probably going to swell the number ofcriminals or mendicants in some adjoining city. 

I quote these instances as serving to show the impossibility of judgingmerely from outside appearances in regard to the existence ornon-existence of destitution of the most painful character, which it isoften to the interest of the local landlords to whitewash and conceal. It is only on looking under the surface that such can in many cases bediscovered. It has been the actual living among the people that has madeit possible for us to obtain glimpses of their home life, such as couldnot otherwise have been the case. 

But let me enumerate a few of the classes among whom the Indian"Out-of-works" are to be found. I do not mean of course to imply thatthe entire castes, or tribes, or professions, referred to, constitutethem. Far from it. A large proportion are comparatively well off, andthough entangled almost universally in debt, are included among the 210millions with whom we are not now concerned. None the less it will beadmitted, I believe, that it is from these that the ranks of destitutionare chiefly recruited. I call attention to this fact, because it helpsin a large measure to remove the religious difficulty which might atfirst sight appear likely to stand in the way of our being commissionedby the Indian public to undertake these much-needed reforms. They arealmost without exception of either no caste, or of such low caste, thatreligiously speaking they may justly be regarded as "no man's land. " Thehigher castes and the respectable classes are mostly able to look afterthemselves, and will not therefore come within the scope of our scheme. 

And yet on the threshold of our inquiry we are confronted with animportant and increasing class, of "out-of-works" who are being turnedout of our educational establishments, unfitted for a life of hardlabour, trained for desk service, but without any prospect of suitableemployment in the case of a great and continually increasing majority. Ido not see how it will be possible for us to exclude or ignore thisclass in our regimentation of the unemployed. Certainly our sympathiesgo out very greatly after them. But beyond registering them in ourlabour bureau, and acting as go-betweens in finding employment for asmall fraction of them, I do not see what more can be done. However, themajority of them have well-to-do relations and friends to whom they canturn, and except in cases of absolute destitution will not fall withinthe scope of the present effort. 

Passing over these we come to the poorest classes of peasant proprietorswho, having mortgaged their tiny allotments to the hilt, have finallybeen sold up by the money-lender. Add to these again the morerespectable sections of day-laborers. Then there are the destitute amongthe weavers, tanners, sweepers and other portions of what constitute thelow-caste community. Out of these take now the case of the weaver caste, with whom we happen to be particularly familiar, as our work in Gujaratis largely carried on among them. Since the introduction of machinery, their lot has come to be particularly pitiable. In one district it isreckoned that there are 400, 000 of them. Previous to the mills beingstarted, they could get a comfortable competence, but year by year themargin of profit has been narrowed down, till at length absolutestarvation is beginning to stare them in the face, and that withinmeasurable distance. 

To the above we may add again the various gipsy tribes, who have nosettled homes or regular means of livelihood. Finally, there are thenon-religious mendicants, the religious ones being considered as notcoming within the scope of our present effort, being provided for incharitable institutions of their own. 

Representatives of nearly all the above abound in our cities, and whenboth town and village destitutes come to be reckoned together, I do notthink it will be too serious a view to take of their numbers, to reckonthe absolutely workless as numbering at least 25 or 26 millions. 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE HOMELESS POOR. 

On this question I do not propose to say much, not because there is notmuch that could be said, but because in a climate like India it is amatter of secondary importance as compared with food. The peoplethemselves are comparatively speaking indifferent to it. The "bittercry" of India if put into words would consist simply of "Give us food tofill our stomachs. This is all we ask. As for shelter, we are contentwith any hovel, or willing to betake ourselves to the open air. But foodwe cannot do without. "

And yet, looked at from the point of view either of a moralist, asanitarian, or a humanitarian, the question is one which calls forprompt consideration and remedial action. For instance, according to thelast Government census, the average number of persons inhabiting eachhouse in the city of Bombay is no less than 28. The average for theentire Presidency is six. But then it must be remembered that the greatmajority of the houses of the poor in the agricultural district consistof one-roomed huts, in which the whole family sleep together. 

In the cities the overcrowding has become so excessive, and theaccomodation available for the poor is so inadequate, costly andsqualid, as to almost beggar description. Considerations of decency, comfort and health are largely thrown to the winds. A single unfurnishedroom, merely divided from the next one by a thin boarding, through whicheverything can be heard, will command from five to thirty rupees amonth, and even more, according to its position, in Bombay. 

The typical poor man's home in India consists as a rule of asingle-storeyed hut with walls of mud or wattle, and roof of grass, palm-leaf, tiles, mud, or stones, according to the nature of thecountry. One or two rooms, and a small verandah, are all that herequires for himself and his family. 

In the cities the high price of the land makes even this littleimpossible. Take for instance Bombay. Here the representative of theLondon lodging-house is to be found in the form of what are called"chawls, " large buildings, several storeys high, divided up into smallrooms, which are let off to families, at a rental of from three rupees amonth and upwards. Very commonly the same room serves for living, sleeping, cooking, and eating. There being as a rule no cooking place, the cheap earthen "choola" serves as a sufficient make-shift, and thesmoke finds its exit through the door or window best it can. 

For hundreds, probably thousands, in every large city, even this poorsemblance of a home does not exist. Those who manage somehow or other tolive on nothing a month, cannot certainly afford to pay three rupees, oreven less, for a lodging. Whilst, no doubt, many of the submerged, tenthare not absolutely houseless, inasmuch as they are often able to sharethe shelter of some relation or friend, it cannot be doubted that a verylarge percentage of them might say, "Foxes have holes, and the birds ofthe air have nests, " but we "have not where to lay our heads. "

Of the homeless poor there are two classes. The more fortunate findshelter in those of the Dharamsalas, Temples and Mosques which containprovision for such purposes. It must be remembered, however, that alarge number of such institutions are reserved for certain favoredcastes, and are not therefore available for the out-caste poor. For therest, the uncertain shelter of verandahs, porticoes, market-places, open sheds, and, in fine weather, the road-way, esplanade, or some shadytree, have to suffice. 

As already said, I am quite willing to admit that this question ofshelter for the poor is of secondary importance as compared with that oftheir food-supply. And yet is it nothing to us that millions of theIndian poor have no place that they can call "home, " not even the meagreshelter of the one-roomed hut with which they would gladly be content?Is it nothing to us that superadded to the sufferings of hunger, theyhave to face the sharp and sometimes frosty air of the cold weather withscarcely a rag to their backs, and no doors, windows, or even walls tokeep off the chilly wind? Is it nothing to us that in the rainy seasonthey have to make their bed on the damp floor or ground, though to do someans a certain attack of fever? Is it nothing to us that under suchcircumstances the houseless poor should be converted into a dismalquagmire in which moral leprosy, more terrible than its bodilyrepresentative, should thrive and propagate itself? Certainly if theIndian destitute are to have a "bullock charter" granted to them, itwill be necessary that it should sooner or later include suitable anddecent shelter as well as food. 

True, the problem is a vast one but this is no reason why it should belooked upon as insoluble, or left to grow year by year still vaster andmore uncontrollable. 

What we propose ourselves to undertake in this will be found elsewhere(see Part II Chapter VI). It must be remembered, moreover, that if ourefforts to deal with the workless masses in finding them employmentshould prove successful this will in itself help to remove much of theexisting evil. And by directing labor into channels where it can be themost profitably employed, we shall help to disembarrass those channelswhich have at present got choked up with an excess of it. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE LAND OF DEBT. 

One of the darkest shadows on the Indian horizon is that of debt. Adrowning man will snatch at a straw, and it would surely be inhuman forus to find much fault with the unhappy creatures who constitute thesubmerged tenth for borrowing their pittance at even the most exorbitantrates of interest in the effort to keep their heads above water. 

I have no desire here to draw a gloomy picture of the Indian Shylock. Insome respects I believe him to be a decided improvement on his Europeanand Jewish representative. It was only a short time ago that I read ablood-curdling description of the London money-lender, which put anyIndian I have ever come across altogether into the shade. 

Nevertheless, Shylock flourishes in India as perhaps in no other countryunder the sun. His name is Legion. He is ubiquitous. He has the usualabnormal appetite of his fraternity for rupees. But strange to say hefattens upon poverty and grows rich upon the destitute. Whereas in otherregions he usually concentrates his attention upon the rich andwell-to-do classes, here he specially marks out for his prey those whoif not absolutely destitute live upon the border-land of that desolatedesert, and makes up by their numbers for what they may lack in quality. He gives loans for the smallest amount from a rupee and upwards, charging at the rate of half an anna per month interest for each rupee, which amounts to nearly 38 per cent. Per annum. As for payment, he iswilling to wait. Every three years, a fresh bond is drawn up includingprincipal and interest. Finally, when the amount has been sufficientlyrun up, whatever land, house, buffalo, or other petty possessions maybelong to the debtor are sold up, usually far below their real value. 

I remember one case, which came before me when I was in Governmentservice, where the facts were practically undisputed, in which acultivator was sued for 900 rupees, principal and interest, the originaldebt being only ten rupees worth of grain borrowed a few yearspreviously. Ultimately it was compromised for about 100 rupees. This isby no means an exceptional case. 

Of course it may be said in favour of the money-lender that he isobliged to charge these high rates, to cover the extra risk, and that asa rule, he is generally prepared to forego half his legal claim whenthe time for payment comes. I am aware also that the subject has longoccupied the earnest attention of Government, and that in some parts ofthe country enactments have been introduced for the relief of poordebtors. But these are only local and the evil is universal. A judicialSolon is sadly needed who shall rise up and boldly face the evil. Theextortions of usurers have led to revolutions before now, and it seemshigh time for an enlightened Government to do something on a large scalefor the abatement of the evil, if only by an absolute refusal to enforceany such usurious contracts. 

But I have only mentioned the subject, because it plays a speciallyimportant part in the present depressed condition of the submergedmasses. In the following pages I hope among other things to be able tocast some rays of light into this valley of the shadow of debt, if notof death. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE LAND OF FAMINE. 

Any review of Darkest India would be incomplete without some mention ofthe widespread and calamitous famines which periodically devastate thecountry and which reappear from time to time with terrible certainty. 

In a country where so large a proportion of the population isagricultural, and where the poor are almost entirely paid in kind, thefailure of a single crop means the most terrible scarcity and privationfor those who even in time of plenty live at best but a hand-to-mouthexistence. And when the failure is repeated famine faces thepoverty-stricken masses, and they are frequently swept off by thousands. 

In the terrible Madras famine of 1877 to 1878, several millionsperished, in spite of the relief works and charitable agencies whichhastened to their assistance. When the census of 1881 came to be taken, it was found that in this part of India, instead of the populationhaving largely increased, as was everywhere else the case, there hadbeen a diminution of two per cent as compared with the census of 1871. 

It may be said that such famines are not frequent and we are thankful toadmit that this is so. Yet scarcely a year passes without some part ofIndia suffering severely from partial droughts. Only last year hundredsof poor starving wretches, crowded into Bombay from Kattiyawar, and werefor weeks encamped on the Esplanade, an abject multitude, dependent onthe charity of the rich. And yet it was "no famine" that had driven themhundreds of miles from their homes, but "_only_ a scarcity. "

At the same time famine prevailed in the Ganjam District to an extentwhich would probably have been utterly discredited, had not the Governorof Madras proceeded personally to the spot, and reported on the terriblestate of affairs. No less than 30, 000 persons were thrown uponGovernment for their support. In the same year through a fortnight'sdelay in the break of the monsoon, there were grain riots atTrichinopoly and Tanjore, several merchants stores being broken into, through a rise in the price of food. Happily a subsequent fall of rainaverted the impending calamity, prices fell and order was restored. 

Now to deal radically with famines it is necessary to meet them halfway, and not to wait till they are upon us in all their stupendousimmensity. It must be remembered that, as in the above instances, thepresent condition of things is such, that the mere threatening of famineis sufficient to send up the prices of food at a bound, to famine rates. 

The chief victims of famine are the very classes who have been heredescribed as constituting the "submerged tenth. " In ordinary times "thewolf" is always "at the door" but at these calamitous periods there isno door to keep him out, and he is master of the situation. Now GeneralBooth's scheme proposes to deal with him promptly and remove him to sucha safe distance, as shall make his inroads almost impossible. 

By leaving these destitute classes in their present miserable condition, we prepare for ourselves a gigantic and impossible task when the evilday of famine at last overtakes us. By facing the difficulty at theoutset, and meeting it midway, we make our task much easier. Time is inour favour. True, the people are hungry, but they are not dying. We canafford to let them drift a few weeks, months, or even years longer, while we are putting our heads and hearts together to devise for themsome way of deliverance commensurate with the immensity of their needs. But to resign oneself to the present condition of things as inevitableseems to me almost as heartless as to fold our hands helplessly at atime of absolute famine. To deafen our ears to the immediate distressesof the submerged tenth may be less criminal in degree but not in kind. 

To those who feel paralysed by the vastness of the problem I would say"Study General Booth's Way Out and the adaptation of it to India which Ihave endeavoured to sketch in the following pages. "

Here at least is a plan, perhaps not a perfect one, but still definite, tangible and immediately possible. Improve upon it as much as you like. Help us to remedy its defects by all means. But whatever you do, don'tstand by as an indifferent spectator. Put your own individual shoulderto the wheel. Help us with your sympathy, prayers and substance to makethe effort, and should failure ensue, you will at least have thesatisfaction of realising that you have helped others to make an honestdetermined effort for dealing with a gigantic evil that involves thewelfare, if not the existence of millions. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE LAND OF PESTILENCES. 

Happily a description of English destitution does not call for anyreference to plagues, such as those which annually or at leastperiodically, devastate India, and that with such certainty that theirpresence has come to be regarded, almost with indifference, as a matterof course, or at least of necessity. Indeed we suppose that some wouldeven look upon it as a Divinely ordained method for reducing thepopulation. True, that in Europe the matter is regarded in a verydifferent light. Public opinion has made its voice heard. Medicalscience has exerted itself, and not in vain. The laws of sanitation arebetter known, and are enforced upon the entire community by severe legalenactments. And above all, Christianity has taught the rich to say ofthe poor "He is my brother, " and to provide for him the medical care andattention that would otherwise not be within his reach. 

What is possible in Europe is no doubt possible in India. Much hasalready been done, and our Government is fully awake to the importanceof the subject, and will be able, year by year, to institute furtherimprovements in this respect. 

With this, however, we are not directly concerned. My object inreferring to the subject is to point out--

1. That it is almost invariably from among the submerged tenth, withwhom we propose to deal that these fearful plagues usually have theirorigin. Pestilence may indeed be said to take up its abode among them. Destitution is as it were the egg from which pestilence is hatched. There are brooding seasons when it may for a time disappear from sight. But it is there all the same and we know it. If we are to eradicate theevil, we must deal effectually with its cause. And this is the specialobject of General Booth's scheme. 

True, it may be possible to keep this deadly enemy at bay by multiplyingour hospital fortresses and putting into the field medical legions armedwith the latest discoveries of science. But the requisite paraphernaliais too expensive for a country like India; and who does not know thatwell-fed bodies, and healthy homes are better safeguards against diseasethan all the most costly medicines that could be provided by the Britishpharmacopoeia? If therefore we are able to deal radically withdestitution we shall at the same time strike an effective blow at thepestilences which are at present such a scourge to India. 

2. Again I would like to remind my readers of another fact, and in thisaspect of the question, all classes of the community are bound to beinterested. If pestilence begins its deadly work among the destitute, itcan never be reckoned on to stop there. Indeed pestilence may beregarded as _Nature's revenge_ on society for the neglect of the poor. Once the cholera fiend has broken loose, it is impossible to tell whomhe is going to select for his victims. The rich, the fair, the learned, the young, the strong, are often the first objects of his attention. Hemanifests a reckless disregard of social position. The distinctions ofcaste and rank, of beauty or learning, are not for him. And even as Iwrite he may be preparing his invisible hordes of bacilli for freshinvasions, more terrible than those that have ever swept down from themountains of Afghanistan. While we are spending millions uponstrengthening our North-Western Frontiers against a foe who may neverexist, save in our imagination, can we dare to neglect the more terribleenemy who defies all Boundary Commissions, who overleaps the strongestfortresses, and who laughs to scorn the largest cannon that ever cappedour walls?

3. Finally there is one very sad shade in this part of our picture ofdarkest India. If on the one hand pestilence may be said to somewhatthin the ranks of the destitute by decreasing the number of mouthsrequiring to be fed, it must be remembered on the other hand that itcontinually recruits them both by sweeping away so many of thebreadwinners, and by frequently paralysing many of those who are left, and preventing them from earning what they otherwise might. How often dowe hear of even public institutions having to be closed, and ofthousands being thrown out of work by the panic which ensues at suchtimes. 

I have sought to confine myself to a matter-of-fact description of thisgloomy subject, and to avoid anything that could be construed into meresensationalism. And yet deaf must be the ears, and hard must be thehearts, that can be insensible to the cries of agony that yearly ascendfrom thousands and tens of thousands of homes. In a recent Governmentreport, I find that from cholera alone in one year there were reportedno less than 300, 000 deaths; and yet the year was not remarkable for anyexceptional outbreak. Still more terrible and regular are the ravages ofthe various malarial fevers, that sweep away millions yearly to apremature grave, often just in the prime of life, when they are mostneeded by the country. That a very large percentage of these deaths aredirectly connected with destitution, and that pestilence frequently butfinishes the work commenced by months and years of starvation, is toonotorious to require proof. It is a melancholy picture, and yet withoutit our review of Darkest India would be necessarily incomplete. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE WHITE ANTS OF INDIAN SOCIETY. 

Hitherto our description of the Submerged Tenth has concerned those whomay be styled principally the children of misfortune, and who in theirstruggle for existence have resort to means which are indeed desperatein their nature, but against which no moral objection can be raised. 

General Booth next calls attention to another great section of theSubmerged Tenth who have found a temporary shelter or asylum in thetemple of Vice, --those who either trade upon the sins of society, or arethe miserable victims of those sins. The unlawful gratification of thenatural appetites has ever been the snare by which millions have beendeluded to damnation. If it were possible to combat this tendency inhuman nature by mere legal enactments, it would have been done long ago. But though much has been done in this way to hold vice in check, and toprevent it from openly parading itself in public as it otherwise would, yet it has chiefly been by the chains of religion that the monster hasbeen bound, and even his legal shackles have mostly been manufactured atthe anvils of the religious public. Take for instance the wholesaleprohibition of intoxicating liquor by the Mahommedan religion, or againthe strong Temperance movement that has more lately been establishedamong Christians. The former has no doubt accomplished what would neverhave been done by means of legal enactments, while the latter has firsteducated the public on the Temperance question and has thus prepared theway for prohibitory legislation of a more stringent character. 

In dealing with this portion of the Submerged Tenth there can be nodoubt that the religious and moral appeals of the Salvation ArmyOfficers will serve to stimulate and enforce wholesale reformation. Bysubstituting the attractions of our public meetings, we shall do much tocounteract those of the liquor den and other factories of pollution anddestitution, --for it is as such that we may regard the places wheredrunkards, opium-eaters, prostitutes, fornicators, and the other hideoussatellites of Vice are manufactured wholesale, whether with or withoutthe shelter of a license. A large proportion of those who are engaged invice as a trade openly profess to do so as a means of subsistence, andbecause it enables them to eke out what is in nine cases out of ten buta scanty subsistence, and what is almost invariably accompanied by themost terrible penalties Nature can inflict on those who outrage herordinances. Many are heartily sick of the trade, but can see no way ofescape. In dealing with destitution we shall open for these a door ofhope. The deserters from the ranks of those who trade in vice will helpus to deal more effectively with those who still cling to the professionon account of its profits. 

In dealing with the panderers to the vices of society we shall largelydiminish the numbers of its victims. It has been said that sinning isvery much a matter of temptation, and in reducing those temptations, aswe believe General Booth's scheme will largely tend to do, we shall beable to reduce in quantity, if we cannot hope to cause altogether tocease, the frightful holocaust of human victims that is annually offeredup at this dark shrine. 

_(a) The Drunkards. _

I will take the question of the Drunkard first, for it is itself aprolific root of all kinds of evil. The gradual breaking up of religiousrestraints, the increasing facilities for obtaining at smallest costthe most fiery and dangerous liquors, the added suffering entailed onany drinking habits that may be formed by the tropical heat of India, all serve to accentuate the gravity of the evil in this country. Add tothis a consideration of the distressing poverty, the chronic hunger, thedull monotony, unrelieved by hope of amendment, in which myriads of thepeople of India fight out the battle of life; reflect how these mustcrave for the boon of forgetfulness and eagerly grasp at the wretchedrelief which drunkenness may bring. Nor can we throw the responsibilityaltogether upon the individual, if it be true that prior to contact withWestern nations, the Hindoos were largely a temperate and even anabstinent people. We are in an especial manner bound to consider whetherthere can be found any alleviation or remedy for a disaster which, if wehave not actually created, we have at least suffered to spring upunheeded and unchecked in our very midst. 

It is notorious that the large cities of India are crowded with shops ofthe kind thus described by Mr. Caine, late M. P. , in his "PicturesqueIndia":

 "The wide and spacious shops in front of which are strewn broken potsherds, and whose contents are two or three kegs and a pile of little pots; are the liquor-dealer's establishments. The groups of noisy men seated on the floor are drinking ardent spirits of the worst description absolutely forbidden to the British soldiers, but sold retail to natives at three farthings a gill. "

Mr. Caine goes on to say that in the city of Lucknow, with a populationof some 300, 000 inhabitants, there were in 1889 thirty distilleries ofnative spirits and 200 liquor-shops. The Government exchequer receiptsfrom spirits in the North-West Provinces amount to nearly £600, 000, having doubled themselves during the last seven years. This means thatin round numbers £1, 000, 000 worth of native spirits is sold in theseprovinces per annum. 

Now consider first that as a rule with rare exceptions a native ofIndia who uses the fiery country liquors drinks for no other purposethan to become intoxicated. They are manufactured with a view to this, and not as in Europe to provide a thirst-quenching potation. Mr. Cainesays: "The people of India, unlike other people, only drink for thepurpose of getting drunk, and if we make them drunken we destroy themmore rapidly than by war, pestilence and famine. "

Nothing is clearer than that a rapidly increasing multitude in thiscountry, once remarkable for its sobriety and thrift, are rushingheadlong into the disastrous vice of intemperance and its attendanthorrors, almost without check. Something must be done. We cannotcold-bloodedly abandon them to a gospel of despair. 

_(b) The Opium Slaves. _

Darker still perhaps is the dreadful night, and more sickening themiasma, which lies around the opium creeks, multiplying and increasingand slowly sucking down into their slimy depths thousands upon thousandsof those who dare to seek momentary relief from sorrow in its lethalstream. Mr. Caine thus describes an opium den in Lucknow:--

 "Enter one of the side rooms. It has no windows and is very dark, but in the centre is a small charcoal fire whose lurid glow lights up the faces of nine or ten human beings, men and women, lying on the floor. A young girl some fifteen years of age has charge of each room, fans the fire, lights the opium pipe, and holds it in the mouth of the last comer, till the head falls heavily on the body of his or her predecessor. In no East-end gin palace, in no lunatic or idiot asylum, will you see such horrible destruction of God's image in the face of man, as appears in the countenances of those in the preliminary stage of opium drunkenness! Here you, may see some handsome young married woman, nineteen or twenty years of age, sprawling, on the ground, her fine brown eyes flattened and dull with coming, stupor; and her lips drawn convulsively back from her glittering white teeth. Here is a young girl sitting among a group of newly arrived customers singing some romance. As they hand round the pipes there is a bonny little lad of six or seven watching his father's changing face with a dreadful indifference. 

 "At night these dens are crowded to excess, and it is estimated that there are upwards of twelve thousand persons in Lucknow enslaved by this hideous vice. An opium sot is the most hopeless of all drunkards. Once in the clutches of the fiend, everything gives way to his fierce promptings. His victims only work to get more money for opium. Wife, children, home, health, and life itself are sacrificed to this degrading passion. "

If twelve thousand for Lucknow be a fair estimate, can we put thefigures for the whole country at less than 100, 000?

Still there is a deeper depth. In the same city, says Mr. Caine, thereare ninety shops for the sale of Bhang and Churras. "Bhang, " says thesame writer, "is the most horrible intoxicant the world has everproduced. In Egypt its importation and sale is absolutely forbidden, anda costly preventive service is maintained to suppress the smuggling ofit by Greek adventurers. When an Indian wants to commit some horriblecrime such as murder, he prepares himself for it with two annas' worthof Bhang. "

_(c) Prostitution. _

In the all but impenetrable shades and death-breathing swamps of thissocial forest, lie and suffer and rot probably not less than one hundredthousand prostitutes. Multitudes of these are dedicated to such a lifein childhood, given over to it, in some cases by their parents and notunfrequently kept in connection with the temples. Thousands are searchedfor and persuaded and entrapped by old women, whose main business it isto supply the market. We know of at least one village where beautifulchildren, who have been decoyed or purchased from their parents bythese prostitute-hunters, are taken to be reared and trained for theprofession. In Bombay there is actually a caste in which the girls arein early childhood "married to the dagger, " or, in other words, dedicated to a life of prostitution. In some of the cities old men areemployed as touts to secure customers for the women, who remain in theirhaunts, thus seducing and leading into vice crowds of lads and young menwho might otherwise have escaped. 

Such suffering, shame, cruelty, and wreckage belong to this crime thatone's heart bleeds to think of the tens of thousands doomed, not bytheir own choice, but by the wicked greed of unnatural parents or thecrafty cunning of wicked decoys to such a gehenna, without the leastpower to extricate themselves from its torment and its shame. 

With so much pity left upon the earth to weep over human woes, with somuch courage still to hack and hew a path through grim forests andmorasses of suffering, there must, and shall, be found "a way out. "

CHAPTER XII. 

THE CRIMINALS. 

The most recent report of the Indian Government informs us that thereare now no less that 737 Jails in British India (exclusive of NativeTerritory), with an average population of 75, 922 prisoners. In thecourse of last year in the Bombay Presidency alone no less than 76, 000criminals were convicted, while 152, 879 were placed on trial before thevarious courts. In the whole of India the number of annual convictionsamount to upwards of one million, while the number who appear before theCourt are at least twice as numerous. Again, there are also immensenumbers of offences committed yearly, in which the Police are unable toget any clue, the offenders having succeeded in eluding altogether thevigilance of the Law. For instance a celebrated outlaw has only recentlybeen apprehended in Central India after several years of successful anddaring robbery, arson, mutilation and murder. Indeed in many parts ofIndia there are predatory tribes and communities of thieves who have tobe perpetually under Police surveillance, and who are brought up fromtheir infancy to thieving as a profession. 

We desire to plead the cause of the voiceless multitude who occupy ourIndian Jails. The fact that they are voiceless, --that they have no meansof voicing their claims, their wrongs and their rights (for they, too, _have_ rights), only adds to their danger. How can a criminal hope forredress? What chance has he of being heard? Who will listen? Whatadvocate will plead his cause? Ah, if he happen to be rich, it is true, he will have many friends! But as a rule the criminal is poor. Often hehas to choose between crime and starvation. For himself he might preferto starve, but the sight of his emaciated wife and aged parents, --withwhom, criminal though he be, he is as a rule ready to share his lastcrust, --the clamour of his hungry children, all this drives him todesperation and to a life of crime. He can only give voice to hissorrows and his needs by some fresh act of lawlessness. Hence theoccasional outbursts of mutiny, and the murders of jail warders, whichfrom time to time reach the newspapers and shock the public ear. 

And here I would desire to call attention to the fact that though crimemust be vigorously dealt with and punished, at the same time thetendency of punishment is not to _reform_, but to _harden. _ Who does notknow that the _worst criminals_ are those who have been _longest inJail_? Instead of _getting better_ they _grow daily worse_, --more adeptin committing crime and eluding detection, --more careless as to itsconsequences. 

Equally futile would be the offer of a wholesale pardon. A singularillustration of this occurred in 1887, when in honour of Her Majesty'sJubilee in the Bombay Presidency alone, no less than 2, 465 prisonerswere released out of a total of 6, 087. Yet the Government report goes onto show that within a few months of their release the Jails were fullerthan ever!

What, then, is to be done? Punishment hardens the criminal, pardonencourages crime, while the hearts of the offenders remain the same!

Here steps in the Salvation Army. Its methods and meetings, howeverdistasteful to the educated and refined, have a special attraction forthese dangerous classes. Its Officers are accustomed to handle them withsuperhuman love and patience, as well as with a tact and adroitnesssuch as has often elicited the admiration and praise of those who haveno sympathy with our creed or ways of work. 

We have all over the world fearlessly invaded these criminals in theirlowest haunts and dens, in the teeth of the warnings of the Police; wehave braved their fiercest fury when, urged on by publicans, maddenedwith drink, misled by all sorts of infamous lies, and winked at orpatronised by the Police and Magistrates, they have wreaked on us theutmost cruelties. We have invariably weathered the storm, though oftenat the cost of health and even life itself. And in the end as a rule theRoughs, Criminals and Dangerous Classes have become our warmest friendsand vigorous supporters. From amidst them we have rescued and reformedsome of the noblest trophies of Divine grace. This has been done allover the world. It has been done in India and Ceylon. In a later part ofthis book we have given a glimpse of this most interesting and importantportion of our work. Independent witnesses testify to its reality. Government officials assure us of their warmest sympathy, and in not afew cases aid us with their influence and subscriptions. In Ceylon theGovernment has treated us most handsomely, throwing open their prisonsfor our Officers to visit and hold meetings among the prisoners, assisting us in the expenses of our Home with a monthly grant of Rs. 100, and encouraging the criminal classes to take advantage of theopportunity thus afforded them for reforming their lives. 

The common reason given for refusing such assistance elsewhere is thatGovernment cannot interfere with the religion of the prisoners. But inCeylon the majority of the prisoners are Buddhists, Hindoos andMahommedans, and what has been found to work so well there can surely betried with equal success elsewhere! Government does not hesitate allover India to assist religious bodies in their endeavours to _educate_the people, and they may therefore well countenance and help forward, asthey might so easily do, our efforts to reach and reform the criminalclasses on precisely the same grounds, offering similar advantages toany Hindoo or Mahommedan Associations that might afterwards be formedfor the same purpose. At present the Indian criminal has no friend tolend him a helping hand. Prison officials in various places havepersonally informed me that they are distressed at being able to donothing for criminals, who, having lost their character and beingabandoned by their friends, have no alternative but to return to theirold associates. If our example causes others to rise up and make effortsfor reaching and reforming these classes, who would not rejoice? Atpresent it is a sad fact that throughout India the native criminals aredebarred from all opportunities of being reached by the softeninginfluences of religion. The Europeans have their Chaplains, --theNatives are allowed to have no one to minister to their souls' needs, orto bring to bear upon them those moral influences which might, and weknow often would, lead to their reform. There seems no reason whateverwhy the following rules, which have been drawn up by the CeylonGovernment, should not be adopted likewise in India:--

 General Rules made by His Excellency the Governor, acting under the advice of the Executive Council for the Government of Prisons, for the guidance of the prison officers, _under and by authority of Section_ 26 _of the Prisons Ordinance_, 1887. 

 226. Ministers of religion and religions instructors shall be entitled to visit prisoners under commitment for trial and prisoners undergoing sentence after trial, and to give religious and moral instructions to those who are willing to receive the same on Sundays and other days in which prisoners are usually allowed freedom from work, between the hours of eight in the morning and four in the afternoon. 

 227. Such ministers or other persons shall be allowed access at all times (but between the hours specified) to all prisoners who shall be certified by the medical officers of the prison to be seriously ill. 

 228. In prisons where such an arrangement can conveniently be made, a suitable room shall be set apart where religious instruction can be afforded to prisoners and the rites of religion administered. 

 229. If, under the directions of Government, Christian services be held in any Jail, on Sundays and on other days when such services are performed, all Christian criminal prisoners shall attend the same unless prevented by sickness or other reasonable cause--to be allowed by the Jailor--or unless their service is dispensed with by the Superintendent. No prisoner, however, shall be compelled to attend any religious instruction given by the ministers or religious instructor of a church or persuasion to which the prisoner does not belong. 

 230. It shall be lawful for the Superintendent in charge of any prison to prohibit any particular minister or instructor visiting any prisoner in such prison, if it shall appear to him that such minister or instructor is an improper or indiscreet person, or likely to have improper communication with the prisoner, provided that such Superintendent shall without delay communicate his reason for doing so, to the Inspector General for report to Government. 

 231. No books or printed papers shall be admitted into any prison for the use of the prisoners, except by permission of the Superintendent, and the jailor shall keep a catalogue of all books and printed papers admitted into the prison. 

 232. It shall be the duty of the minister or instructor admitted to visit any prison, to communicate to the jailor any abuse or impropriety in the prison which may come to his knowledge, on pain of being prohibited from visiting the prison. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

ON THE BORDER LAND. 

Besides the 25, 000, 000 who constitute the actual destitute and criminalpopulation, we estimate that at a very low computation there are25, 000, 000 who are on the border-land, who are scarcely ever in aposition to properly obtain for themselves and for their families thebarest necessities of existence. I do not say that they are whollysubmerged, but they pass a sort of amphibious existence, being part ofthe time under water and part of the time on land, --some part of theirlife being spent in the most abject poverty, and some part of it inabsolute starvation--positively for the time submerged, and liable atany moment to be lastingly engulfed. These are the classes whose incomenever rises above five rupees a month, while more frequently it is underfour rupees. 

On one farm, concerning which we have detailed information, where therent of the land is unusually low, the soil good and well irrigated, where loans can be got at a merely nominal interest, the cultivators, with the additional help of occasional cooly work, did not average intheir earnings four rupees a month, some having to keep a family onthree and a half, while if a bullock died, or a plough had to beprocured, it meant positive hunger and increased indebtedness to supplythose needs. 

The fact is that in many districts there is not only an increase ofpopulation to be sustained by a constantly narrowing area of cultivatedland, but the land itself is deteriorating through the unendurablepressure put upon it. As the forests grow more distant through beingused up for timber and fuel, wood becomes dearer. The manure which oughtto go upon the land is therefore by necessity consumed for fuel. Theground in consequence becomes impoverished. As the struggle forexistence becomes fiercer, the people are unable to let their landperiodically lie fallow, so the crops grow lighter. Again, the ryot isnot only unable properly to feed himself, but his bullocks share asimilar fate. The feeble animals can only draw a plough which merelyscratches the surface of the ground. Furthermore, as the populationincreases the land is divided into smaller and smaller holdings. Thestruggle against the advancing tide of adversity cannot be maintained. Inch by inch the tide rolls up, pushing the border-landers closer andcloser upon the black rocks of famine, to escape which they at lengthplunge into the sea amongst the submerged millions, who, weary andbitter and despairing, or with blind submission to the iron hand offate, have grown hopelessly and miserably indifferent. 

Now, it is notorious that millions live thus on the border-land. Grantedthat after the harvest border-landers may for a time get two good mealsa day. Yet as the reserve store dwindles down and long beforeharvest-time comes round, again, they get but one, and that frequently ascanty one. They do live, multitudes of them, it is true, amidstconditions that seem to us impossible. But how many of them die on thisone meal a day, there is nobody to chronicle. But if we do nothingbeyond rescuing a considerable mass of the totally submerged, we shallconsiderably ameliorate the condition of these border-landers. 

By rendering independent of charity thousands who now depend upon thegifts of the more fortunate, by making large tracts of land productivewhich at present lie waste, by enlarging the stream of emigration, andpartially draining the morass of crime, it is absolutely certain thatthe conditions of life will become more favourable for theborder-landers. New markets will be created both for produce and labour, which will tend to relieve the congested condition of the land now undercultivation. 

The land at present is like a good, but overworked and under-fed horse, which, under this double adversity of overwork and under-feeding, diesand leaves his poor owner, who was entirely dependent upon his earnings, a pauper. It is a condition of things which is bad, and bound ofnecessity to grow only worse and worse, till the willing horse dropsunder his load, and his master falls from poverty to destitution. Onceenable the man to temporarily decrease his horse's labour andpermanently increase its food supply, that horse will regain itsstrength, and by its increased strength become able to do double theamount of work, increase its master's earnings, and so in time enablehim not only to properly feed his horse, but also to properly feedhimself. 

Now close to hand there is an unemployed horse available which willafford the relief, for want of which the overworked horse is dying. Theunoccupied and waste lands, waste labour, and waste produce, constitutethe ideal unemployed horse, on whose back we would put part of theburden of maintaining the life and feeding the mouths of the Nation. This idle and hitherto useless horse will immediately become useful andproductive, and will enable its under-fed companion, not only to berelieved of part of its burden, but also to get sufficient food, andgrow once more plump and strong. Thus the man, or nation, that lived, however miserably, yet still lived, on the labour of the one famishedover-worked horse, will then be able to get a decent living, since therewill be two strong well-fed horses to work for them, instead of a singlebroken-down one. 

It is simply impossible within the limits of this chapter to trace outthe whole process. Enough to say that as a rule, to which of coursethere are exceptions, one man's prosperity means some one else'sprosperity. Suppose I am a beggar. I wear practically no clothing. Thelittle I have is what somebody else has cast off. I have no home. Isleep in the street. I get very little food, and that I do not pay for. I produce nothing. My children, if I have any, are wastrels like myself. But I am lifted out of this beggary, I become a productive worker. I geta home, wear clothes, buy food, educate my children. Not only have Iimproved my own circumstances, but I have helped to improve thecircumstances of others. Builders, shopkeepers, food-producers, allprofit by my redemption. 

Now, if not one wastrel only, but 1, 000, 000 such are raised, a mightyimpetus is given to industry of every kind, and the border-landers, instead of being driven on the black rocks by the tide of adversesurroundings, begin to drive back the tide, and conquer the earth, andsubdue it, till the border-landers will be border-landers no longer, andthe dreadful days of hunger will live only in the stories of famine andwant, which the grey old man will tell to his happy and prosperousgrandchildren, and ten thousand links of love between emigrant sons andhome-staying fathers will bind the fertile plains of Ceylon, Burmah, Africa, and other countries to the populous shores of India. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

ELEMENTS OF HOPE. 

The picture which I have endeavoured to paint in the foregoing pages isdark enough to strike despair into the hearts of the most sanguine. Andif there were indeed no way of escape for these victims of sin andmisfortune, we might well prefer to draw a veil over the sad scene, andto bury in the ocean of forgetfulness, the very recollection of thisearthly purgatory. 

But there are elements of hope in the consideration of this problem, which should prevent us from regarding it despair. 

1. In the first place, supposing that we are correct in computing thishuman wastage at from twenty-five to twenty-six million souls, thiswould represent only some five million families. It is true that lookedat even in this light the number is vast. But surely it is notimpossible for India to make sufficient and suitable provision for themwithin her own borders, to say nothing of the "regions beyond" ifreasonable thought and effort were put forth in dealing with theproblem. 

2. Again, as regards the _numbers_, it will be found _easier_ to dealwith these great national problems in bulk than piecemeal, and theirvery size will give them an impetus when once they are fairly set inmotion. It will be found as easy to dispose of 1, 000 people as of ahundred, and of 50, 000 as of a thousand, if they be properly organised. Indeed, for many reasons it is easier. The larger the community, themore work they at once provide for each other. Once let this social ballbe set rolling on a large scale, and we may believe that it will soonget to move of its own weight. 

3. Again, it is not an indiscriminate system of largely extended charitythat we propose to provide. Our object is to find work for theseworkless multitudes, and such work as shall more than pay for the veryhumble pittance the Indian destitute requires. He must be a poorspecimen of a human being who cannot fairly earn his anna or two annas aday, and our brains must be poor addled affairs, if in this great vastworld of ours we cannot find that amount of work for him to do. It isall nonsense to talk about over-population, when the world is threeparts empty and waiting to be occupied. 

4. While we are piercing the bowels of the earth in search of gold, minerals and coal, there lies at our very door a mine of wealth which itis simple folly for us to ignore. True, the shaft has become choked withthe rubbish of despair, vice and crime, which will take time, troubleand untiring patience to dig through. But it needs no prophet to foreseethat beneath this rubbish are veins of golden ore which will amply repayour utmost efforts to open up. The old adage that "labour is wealth, "and that a nation's riches consist in its hardy sons and daughters oftoil, will yet be proved true. Treat this human muck-heap even as youwould ordinary sewage or manure, and who does not know that the verysame putrefying mass of corruption which if allowed to remain near ourdoors would breed nothing but fever, cholera, and the worst forms ofdisease and death, when removed to a little distance, will double andtreble the ordinary fertility of the soil and produce crops that willincrease the wealth of the entire nation?

And knowing this can we be so blind, even to our selfish interests, asto treat this human waste in a manner that we should deem the veryheight of imprudence and folly in dealing with the other sort? Can weshut our eyes to the fact that there are moral diseases, more terriblein their nature, and more fatal to a nation's life, than the bodilyones, against which we are so anxious to guard, even at the most lavishexpenditure of the public purse? And shall we, in dealing with thismoral sewage, neglect even the most ordinary precautions that weconsider necessary in dealing with the conservancy of our cities?

If on the other hand the problem be boldly and wisely faced, I amconvinced that in India, as in England, General Booth's most sanguineprophecies will be realised, our most pestilential marshes shall bedrained, our moral atmosphere purified, prosperity take the place ofdestitution, and hope that of despair. The millstone that hangs aroundour national neck, so that we can barely keep our heads above water, even when there is not a ripple upon its surface, and that alwaysthreatens to engulf us in perdition at the first symptoms of astorm, --this millstone shall be converted into an unsinkable life-buoy, that shall not only support itself upon the crest of the highest waves, but shall help to keep afloat the entire national body. What is now aneyesore shall become an adornment, and what is now a cause of weaknessshall be a source of strength, bulwark of protection and mine of wealthto all India. How this can be done we have sought in the following pagesto unfold, adhering carefully to the programme marked out by GeneralBooth, and suggesting only such additions and alterations as thecircumstances of the case appear to necessitate. 

PART II. --THE WAY OUT. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE ESSENTIALS TO SUCCESS. 

General Booth prefaces his scheme for the deliverance of the submergedby laying down briefly the essentials to success. I cannot do betterthan quote from his own words. 

(1) "You must _change the man_, when it is his character and conductwhich constitute the reasons for his failure in the battle of life. Nochange in circumstances, no revolution in social conditions, canpossibly transform the nature of man. Some of the worst men and women inthe world, whose names are chronicled by history with a shudder ofhorror, were whose who had all the advantages that wealth, education andstation could confer, or ambition could obtain. 

"The supreme test of any scheme for benefiting humanity lies in theanswer to the question; what does it make of the individual? Does itquicken his conscience, does it soften his heart, does it enlighten hismind? Does it, in short, make a true man of him? Because only by suchinfluences can he be enabled to lead a human life. You may clothe thedrunkard, fill his purse with gold, establish him in a well furnishedhouse, and in three, six, or twelve months, he will once more be on the"Embankment, " haunted by delirium tremens, dirty, squalid and ragged. 

(2) "The remedy, to be effectual, must _change the circumstances_, whenthey are the cause of his wretched condition, and lie beyond hiscontrol. 

(3) "Any remedy worthy of consideration must be on _a scale commensuratewith the evil_, which it proposes to deal with. It is no use trying tobale out the ocean with a pint pot. There must be no more philanthropictinkering, as if this vast sea of human misery were contained in thelimits of a garden pond. 

(4) "Not only must the scheme be large enough, but it _must bepermanent. _ That is to say, it must not be merely spasmodic coping withthe misery of to-day, but must go on dealing with the misery ofto-morrow and the day after, so long as there is misery left in theworld with which to grapple. 

(5) "But while it must be permanent, it must also be _immediatelypracticable_, and capable of being brought into instant operation withbeneficial results. 

(6) "The indirect features of the scheme must not be such as to produceinjury to the persons whom we seek to benefit. Mere charity forinstance, while relieving the pinch of hunger, demoralises therecipient. It is no use conferring sixpenny worth of benefit on a man, if at the same time we do him a shillings worth of harm. 

(7) "While assisting one class of the community, it must not seriouslyinterfere with the interest of another. 

"These are the conditions by which I ask you to test the scheme I amabout to unfold. They are not of my making. They are the laws whichgovern the work of the philanthropic reformer just as the laws ofgravitation, of wind and of weather govern the operation of theengineer. It is no use saying we could build a bridge across the Tay, ifthe wind did not blow. The engineer has to take into account thedifficulties, and make them his starting point. The wind will blow, therefore the bridge must be made strong enough to resist it. So it iswith the social difficulties, which confront us. If we act in harmonywith these laws we shall triumph. But if we ignore them, they willoverwhelm us with destruction, and cover us with disgrace. "

CHAPTER II. 

WHAT IS GENERAL BOOTH'S SCHEME?

His object is to supply the destitute with food, shelter and clothing, to provide them with work and to set them on their feet for making afresh start in life. 

With a view to this he proposes to call into existence, a threefoldorganisation, consisting of self-helping and self-sustainingcommunities, governed and disciplined on the principles of the SalvationArmy. These he calls "Colonies", and divides into

 (1) The City Colony, (2) The Country Colony, and

 (3) The Over-sea Colony. 

All these are to be linked together and to be interwoven with anddependent on each other. In the City Colony a series of agencies will beestablished for gathering up and sifting the destitute. Thence they willbe passed on to the Country Colony and subsequently many of them will besent to Colonies across the sea. 

Now this triple organisation can be brought into existence, on thelargest possible scale in India under circumstances peculiarly favorableto the success of the scheme. 

Our country is not of limited extent like England. It covers an immensearea and includes a conglomeration of nationalities, such as we find inEurope, with the special advantage of being united under a single, andthat a friendly Government. 

Then again there is the fact that, though the influx from the countryto the cities has commenced, yet it has not at present got beyondmanageable proportions, so that it is possible for us, if awake to theemergency, to rise up and divert the stream into more desirablechannels. 

If instead of waiting for a further irruption of village Goths andVandals, (which is only a matter of time, and which will soon overwhelmour City labour market and compel the attention of our civilauthorities, ) we anticipate the event and meet them half way by openingup fresh channels for them, more in harmony with their own taste andpreference, we shall not only confer an inestimable boon upon them, butshall turn them into a source of strength and revenue for the country, and shall with them people tracts which are at present barren andfruitless, but which are only waiting to be occupied and which in manycases have only to be restored to the prosperity that they formerlyenjoyed. 

Finally we have the great advantage of a people already trained tohusbandry from their youth, and accustomed to the very co-operativesystem of farming which General Booth advocates, where payments aremostly to be made in kind rather than in cash, and where the exchange ofgoods will largely supersede transactions in money, a strong butpaternal government regulating all for the general good. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE CITY COLONY. 

The first portion of General Booth's threefold scheme consists of theCity Colony. 

This may aptly be compared to a dredger, which, gathers up all the siltof a harbour, and carries it out to sea, leaves it there and thenreturns to repeat the operation. If such an operation is necessary in aharbour, and if without it the best anchorages in the world would oftenget choked with rubbish and become useless, how doubly important must itbe in the case of the human wastage that abounds in every large IndianCity. 

Should a single ship strike on an unknown rock, we hasten to mark itdown in our charts, or erect over the spot a lighthouse as a warning toothers. Should it sink where it is likely to hinder the traffic, we setour engineers to work to remove it, even though it may be necessary toblow it to atoms. 

And yet it is a notorious fact that our cities abound with rocks overwhich there is no lighthouse, --that every channel is obstructed withsunken vessels, and that there are not a few tribes of pirates whofatten on the human wreckage. But we fold our hands in despair, andallow bad to grow worse, till the problem daily becomes more enormous, desperate and difficult to deal with. 

Now General Booth's scheme proposes to establish a dredger for everyharbour, a lighthouse for every rock, an engineer for keeping clearevery channel. It may be too much to expect that there will be nowrecks, but they will be fewer, and that surely is something! We do notsay that there will be no accidents, but there will be willing handsheld out to deliver. We cannot hope to abolish failures, mistakes, shortcomings and weaknesses of various sorts, but we shall do our bestto anticipate and provide for them? We are sure there will bedifficulties and disappointments to encounter, but we shall meet them inthe confidence that God is on our side, that He is intensely interestedin the efforts which He Himself has inspired us to undertake and thatultimate victory is bound to crown our efforts. 

And now I would give a brief description of this great City Dredger, explaining its component parts in the chapters that are to follow. Wecannot promise that the entire machine will get into working order atonce. We are anxious to start it immediately and to complete it as soonas possible. But on the public will largely depend the question as tohow long it will take us to get it afloat and finished. Its simplicity, practicability, and universality are to me at the same time its chiefcharms, and its credentials to success. It is only part of a largerscheme with which it is entwined. But it is an important, perhaps themost important part and will continue to exercise over the entire effortthe controlling head and the inspiring heart without which the wholeapparatus will be as motionless as a machine without steam, or a bodywithout life. 

The following are the various branches of the City Colony--

 (1) The Regimentation of Labor. 

 (2) Food for all--Food Depōts. 

 (3) Work for all--Labor yards. 

 (4) Shelter for all. 

 (5) The household Salvage Corps. 

 (6) The Prison Gate Brigade. 

 (7) The Drunkard's Home. 

 (8) The Rescue Home for fallen women. 

 (9) The poor man's Metropole. 

 (10) The Emigration Bureau. 

To these no doubt will in course of time be added many other branches. In the meantime this is in itself a sufficiently extensive programme forsome years to come. How we propose to elaborate each of the above, willbe found in the following pages. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE LABOR BUREAU. 

One of the most painful sights with which modern civilisation presentsus is the enormous and increasing wastage of valuable human labor. Thefirst step towards remedying this gigantic and alarming evil will be toascertain its extent. This we propose to do by means of our LaborBureau. Here all classes of out-of-works will be welcomed, from therespectable well educated intelligent youths, who are being poured outof our colleges by thousands, to the most squalid specimen of a Lazarusthat lies at our gates desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fall fromour tables. All will be sorted out, sifted and regimented, or organised, into distinct corps, which will in time no doubt develope into legions. 

The Bureau will not, however, stop short with simply ascertaining theextent of the evil which exists. It will at the same time turn itsattention to the examination and regimentation of the channels whichalready exist for the absorption of that labor. For while it is truethat there are vast quantities of unutilised labor, and that the presentsupply of labor greatly exceeds the demand, it is also true that forwant of suitable arrangements for bringing together capital and labor, the capitalist also frequently loses time and money, either in searchingfor labor which he cannot get, or in resorting to labor of an inferiorquality, where labor of a superior quality would bring in much largerreturns. 

Into the pre-existing channels it would be the first aim of our LaborBureau to pour the labor supply of the country. And experience wouldprobably enable us to widen, deepen and lengthen these channels in sucha manner as would prove profitable to both employers and employed, aswell as to the nation at large. 

When, however, this had been done, it is alas! only too certain that weshould still have left upon our hands a vast amount of surplus labor, for which we should next proceed to dig out new and profitable channels. The problem no doubt bristles with difficulties, but that is no reasonwhy we should sit down before it and fold our hands in despair. 

Once upon a time, aye for hundreds of years, the waters of the Cauverywere poured in one useless torrent into the sea, sweeping past greattracts of thirsty land, which craved its waters, but could not reachthem. At the present moment scarcely a drop of that river reaches theocean. Its course has been diverted into a thousand channels, and sofertilising are its waters that the rich alluvial deposits which theybear render the use of manure unnecessary. And yet for centuries thesepossibilities were unrecognised and suffered to go to waste. 

Is not this a fitting picture of the huge river of labor that winds itscourse through arid plains of want and poverty and starvation, which itis capable of fertilising and converting into a modern Paradise? Truethat on its banks and in its immediate neighbourhood are strips ofluxuriant vegetation. But those only show up in painful relief the utterbarrenness of the "region beyond. " Why should the dwellers upon thebanks be allowed to monopolise and appropriate that which they cannoteven utilise, and that which is often a source of positive danger, annoyance and loss to them? Why should not channels be devised for thesehuman waters, by means of which they should be distributed, so as to beput to the utmost possible use?

This social problem is no doubt the "white elephant" of society. Cannotwe devise a "kheddah" for capturing the entire herd wholesale? Perhapsafter all we shall find it easier and quicker to catch and tame theherd, than to set snares and pitfalls for individual ones and twos. Ah, you say, many have tried and failed. That is because they have notstudied the habits of the animal. Besides it is by means of failure thatthe grandest successes have ultimately been achieved. See how skilfullythat "mahaut" manages his huge yet obedient servant. And cannot we pointalready in our own ranks to elephants more wonderful that have beentamed and mastered by the goad of love?

It is the successes of the past that encourage General Booth to face theproblem in the spirit of hopefulness that breathes through every page of"Darkest England. " And if the genius of man has been able to tame thestrongest of animals, such as elephants, --the fiercest, such aslions, --the swiftest, such as horses, and the dullest, such as theass, --why should we despair of reducing to order this chaotic mass oflabor, and of turning that which at present constitutes a danger thatthreatens the very existence of society into a source of safety, ofwealth and power? At any rate this is the object that will be keptsteadily in view by our Labor Bureau. 

All persons will be able to register names at our Bureau. If they aredestitute and willing to go to our yards, they will be sent there andgiven work suitable to their caste, or profession. If on the other handthey are not in need of such assistance, being supported by theirfriends, we shall simply register their names and do our best to findsuitable work for them, though it would of course be distinctlyunderstood by them that we undertook no responsibility in regard tothis. A small fee will be charged, in proportion to the nature of thecase. This would serve to cover the expenses of the Bureau, which wouldI am sure meet a long felt want. 

Employers of labour would benefit almost more even than the menemployed, as we should always be able to supply them at a short noticewith any description and number of "hands" that they might require, andthey would be saved the expense, delay, and uncertainty of having toadvertise. 

For instance I know of millowners who complain that they cannot getlabourers who will stay, and that their work suffers from the flotsam, jetsam character of those whom they employ working for a few weeks andthen leaving. This we should be able to remedy. 

Indeed after a short time we might reasonably expect that in recognisingthe great convenience thus afforded them, millowners and other greatemployers of labour, including very possibly the Government and theRailway Companies would refuse to employ any who had not registeredthemselves at our Bureau. 

Again it would doubtless be a great satisfaction to employers in caseswhere a reduction of establishment became necessary, to feel that theycould hand over to us those with whose services they were dispensing, knowing that every effort would be made to make suitable provision forthem. 

The labour register would contain columns in which would be entered thevarious kinds of employment for which the applicant was willing orsuited, and the minimum pay which he was prepared to accept, so that weshould be able to ascertain exactly how many out-of-works there were ofeach particular class. We should also enter in a separate register thosewho had accepted an inferior position, in the hopes of being able tobetter themselves subsequently. 

In connection with our registers we should keep a character roll. Copiesof certificates would be filed, and notes made in regard tounsatisfactory characters, so that in course of time we should be ableto give some sort of a guarantee in regard to those whom we sent out. Inthe case of any one being reported to us as unsatisfactory, we shouldstill, however, give him another chance by redrafting him into ourLabour Yards, or by giving him some sort of inferior employment, moreimmediately under our own surveillance, till he had regained hischaracter. 

Among other things we might undertake to supply servants to Europeanfamilies. A register of such would be very useful both to masters andservants. For instance in the case of lost "chits" we could supplycertified copies of the original. 

There is another class to whom I should think the establishment of suchan agency will be particularly welcome. Our cities swarm with educatedyoung men unable to find employment. Although we cannot include themamong our destitute classes, we believe that without turning aside fromour main object, we could do a great deal to help them. 

If our scheme grows to the proportions and with the rapidity which weanticipate, this would in itself absorb large numbers of them. And wherewe could do no more we could obtain a moral influence over them and theywould come within the scope of the Advice and Intelligence Bureaux whichare described elsewhere. Constituting as they do the cream of the youthof India, full of ardent, though often misdirected, enthusiasm, weshould be able to help mould them into happy, independent, prosperousand loyal citizens, who would be a bulwark to the State, instead ofleaving them to simmer in their present unfortunate circumstances. "Todig" they don't know, and "to beg" they are ashamed. 

They would in their turn I believe give an important impetus to ourscheme and might constitute themselves its fervent apostles helping itto sweep from end to end of India in less time than it is possible forus to conceive. 

CHAPTER V. 

FOOD FOR ALL--THE FOOD DEPŌTS. 

In England, owing to the severity and uncertainty of the weather, thefood and shelter questions go hand in hand. This is not the case inIndia, where the shelter is not so important as the food, and there isno such urgency in dealing with the former as with the latter. Forinstance during nine months out of twelve it is not such a very greathardship to sleep in the open air in most parts of India. I have myselfdone it frequently and so have many of our Officers. It is true that weshould not like it as a regular thing, and still less perhaps, if drivento it by absolute want. Still I am perfectly prepared to admit that thecircumstances are totally different to that of England, and that thequestion of shelter is of secondary importance as compared with food. 

The time will come when we shall be obliged to face and deal with it. Ifour scheme meets with the success that we anticipate, having firstsatisfied the gnawings of these hunger-bitten stomachs, we shallcertainly turn round and think next what we can do to provide them withdecent homes for themselves and their families. 

But we can safely afford to defer the consideration of this question forthe present, in order to throw all our time and energy into the solutionof the infinitely more urgent and important problem of a regular andsufficient food supply for these destitutes. 

At present as I have already pointed out, they are dependent solely onthe help of relations and friends and on the doles of the charitable;or on the proceeds of vice and crime. The insufficiency of these to meetthe needs of the case I have also, I believe, proved to demonstration. 

Therefore one of the first parts of our City programme will be theestablishment of cheap food depōts, at which food of various kinds willbe supplied at the lowest possible cost price. These depōts will bedovetailed in with other parts of our scheme, which have yet to bedescribed, and the one will help to support the other. 

It may be objected that if we undertake to sell food at lower than theordinary market rates, we shall interfere with the legitimate operationsof trade. But to this we would answer that the same objection would bestill more true in regard to charitable doles, which are given fornothing. And further, we shall fix our prices with a view to coveringthe actual cost of the food, so that there will not be any probabilityof our interfering with ordinary market rates. Besides, should there beany very serious difficulty of the kind, we could always make a rulelimiting the food sold at these depōts to those who came under theoperation of the other branches of our social reform. 

At the outset it would probably be wisest to avoid all castecomplications by confining ourselves entirely to uncooked food, leavingthe people to do their own cooking, but it is very probable that beforelong we should be forced to undertake the preparation of cooked food. Weshould of course pay due regard in this respect to the customs of thevarious castes, religions and nationalities concerned. To a Hindoo forinstance it would be extremely disagreeable to eat out Of the same dishas others, while Mahommedans, as one said to me the other day, onlyenjoy the meal the more, when others are sitting round the platter. These, however, are subordinate details which would largely settlethemselves as we went along. Food in some shape or form, the destitutemust have, good in quality and sufficient in quantity, and if theyprefer it uncooked this will save us trouble, whereas if cooking becomesnecessary we shall have another industry for the employment of manyhands. Meanwhile the fact that nearly every native of the poorer castes, be it man, woman, or even child, knows how to cook their own food, islikely to be of no little help in settling the question of the foodsupply. 

CHAPTER VI. 

WORK FOR ALL, OR THE LABOUR YARD. 

But it may next be asked, what we shall do in the case of those who haveno money with which to buy their food, even at the reduced rates wewould propose? To this we would reply that such will be expected toperform a reasonable amount of work, in return for which they will begiven tickets entitling them to obtain food from the depōts justreferred to. 

In order to do this we shall establish labour yards, where we shallprovide work of a suitable character for the destitute. This willinvolve very little expense, as sheds of a cheap description will answerour purpose, there being no necessity for providing against theinclement weather which adds so greatly to the expense and difficulty ofcarrying on such operations in England. 

Whatever may be the produce of this cheap labour, we shall be careful tosell it rather above than below the ordinary market rates, so as toavoid competing with other labour. Moreover, we shall direct ourattention from the first to manufacturing chiefly those articles whichare likely to be of service to us in other branches of our scheme, sothat the labour of the destitute will go chiefly towards supplying theirown wants and those of the persons who are engaged in prosecuting thework. 

For instance, supposing that a number of the destitute were employed inmaking coarse cloth, baskets, mats, or cow-dung fuel, these could beretailed at a nominal figure to those who presented our labour ticketsat our food depōts. 

The most encouraging feature in the establishment of labour yards isthat nearly every Indian has been brought up from childhood to sometrade. You can rarely meet the most ignorant and uneducated Nativewithout finding that he is thoroughly expert at some kind of handicraft. In brigading the poor we should be careful to make the best use of thisknowledge by putting each as much as possible to the trade with which hewas most familiar. 

The following industries, the majority of them directly connected withvarious branches of our work, could be started at once and would needscarcely any outlay to begin with. 

 1. _The Potters Brigade_--Would furnish us with the earthenware, for which we should from the first have a very large demand. The Household Salvage Brigade would require some thousands of pots to start with and in connection with our food depōts we should be able to dispose of thousands more. 

 2. _The Weavers Brigade_--This would give employment for a large number of skilled hands. Their first object would be to supply the kinds of clothes, blankets, &c. , which would be most suitable for the use of the submerged tenth. In catering for their wants we should avoid, however, anything _prisony_, or _workhousey_, or charity-institutiony in appearance. As our numbers increased we should find plenty of work for our weavers, at any rate for many years to come without entering into any sort of competition either with the market or the mills. 

 3. _The Basket Brigade_--Would supply us with all sorts of cheap baskets, for which we should have a constant demand. 

 4. _The Mat Making Brigade_--Would find employment for many more hands in supplying us with mats for sleeping and household purposes. 

 5. _The Fuel Brigade_--Here we have an industry which requires no skill. There would be two branches of it--the woodchoppers and the Oopala makers. For the latter women and children could be largely employed both in the collection of the cow-dung and in the preparation of it for use as fuel. 

 6. _The Tinners Brigade_--Will be kept busy making receptables and badges for the Salvage Brigade, and also probably emblems for the Labor Bureau. 

 7. _The Ropemakers Brigade_--Will furnish employment to a number more and the results of their labour will find an ample market in our various colonies. 

 8. _The Tanners Brigade_--Will supply all our departments with such leather as may be required for various purposes, and among other things will be attached to. 

 9. _The Shoemakers Brigade_--Who will be employed in patching up the old shoes collected by our Household Salvage Brigade and in making new ones for our consumption. 

 10. _The Tailors Brigade_--Will supply uniform and clothing of all kinds. For these we have already a very considerable demand, which would increase year by year. 

 11. _The Carpenters Brigade_--Would have plenty to do in providing seats for our Barracks, office essentials, boxes, and household furniture for our colonies. They would be linked with

 12. _The Building Brigade_--For whom we shall find ample employment in the erection of our Labour Sheds, Shelters and Farms. 

 13. _The Masons Brigade_--Would also be attached to the previous one, and would become an important feature in our Labour Department. 

 14. _The Brick Makers Brigade_--Would supply us with all the bricks and tiles that we might require. Here again it is easy to see that, without trenching in the least on the outside public, we should create and support an important industry which would soon absorb hundreds if not thousands of hands. 

 15. _The Painters Brigade_--Would undertake the painting and whitewashing of our buildings, carts, tinware, &c. 

 16. _The Dyers Brigade_--Would find employment in dyeing our cloth, or the various sorts of thread we might require for the use of our weavers. 

 17. _The Dhobees Brigade_--Although among our community we should encourage every one to be his own dhobee, yet from the first we should have plenty of washing to employ a considerable number of hands. 

 18. _The Umbrella Makers Brigade_--Would find considerable scope in repairing the old frames collected by our Household Salvage Brigade; while the Sewing Brigade would work the covers. 

 19. _The Paper-makers Brigade_--Would also be supplied with plenty of material by the Household Salvage Brigade, and would keep our printing establishment supplied with whatever paper they might require. Already we consume a considerable quantity, and this would be enormously increased by the development of our scheme. 

 20. _The Book-binders Brigade_--Would furnish us with our registers for the Regimentation Bureau, besides doing our other miscellaneous work of a similar description. 

 21. _The Brass Brigade_--Would supply Our colonies with the various kinds of brazen vessels we should be likely to require. For these in process of time there would be a large demand. 

 22. _The Net-making Brigade_--Would make nets for fishing purposes. 

 33. _The Hawkers Brigade_--There could be no possible objection to our disposing of our goods in this way at the ordinary market rates supposing that we were in a position to manufacture more than we required for our own consumption. 

 24. _The Barbers Brigade_--Would also be a necessary addition to our forces, and would find plenty of scope for their skill among the unwashed multitudes who would compose our labour legions. 

Such are some of the occupations which might at once be set on foot. Tothese would no doubt be added many other sorts of handicraft, as ournumbers and experience increased, and fresh opportunities opened uparound us. 

CHAPTER VII. 

SHELTER FOR ALL, OR THE HOUSING OF THE DESTITUTE. 

A considerable portion of General Booth's book is devoted to thedescription of shelters, improved lodgings and suburban villages for thepoor. As elsewhere remarked this question is not of such vitalimportance for India as for England, though the dealing with it issimply a question of time. 

We would therefore simply refer our readers to the admirable proposalsembodied in General Booth's book. It is possible that there may be somewho will desire that immediate steps should be taken for the preparationof similar quarters for the poor in our terribly over-crowded Indiancities. It is in any case extremely likely that the question will beforced upon us at an early date by the people themselves. 

But I have thought it best to narrow down the scheme as much as possibleto those things which seem of the most absolute and immediate urgency, and I have therefore divested it as much as possible of all that couldreasonably be dispensed with. 

Still I see no reason why each city should not have its "Poor Man'sMetropole, " as well as its model dwellings and suburban villages, forthe working classes. I would have these, moreover, as purely oriental aspossible with a careful avoidance of anything that might be European intheir appearance and arrangements. There should be tanks for bathing, and washing purposes, gardens, recreation grounds for the children, proper conveniences for cooking, and quarters in which they would not beherded together like cattle, but given the decencies of life, sonecessary and helpful to the encouragement of cleanliness and morality. 

Another point would be the absolute absence of anything in the shape ofmere "charity" about any of the buildings. Everybody would be made tofeel happy and at home, and their self-respect would be cultivated byarranging for suitable charges to be made, payment being taken either incash or labour. 

However, these are only hints that are thrown out, to show that we arefully awake to the importance of this subject, and in order that friendswho are interested in the question may feel free to communicate theirwishes and give us their advice. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BEGGARS BRIGADE. 

I now come to a special element of both hope and difficulty in thesolution of our Indian Social problem, --The Beggars. Here we have thelowest stratum of the submerged tenth, excluding from them the religiousmendicants with whom we are not now concerned. I have classified them asfollows:--

 1. The blind and infirm. 

 2. Those who help them and share the proceeds of their begging. 

 3. Able-bodied out of works. 

Now I propose to deal with them in a way which will not call forLegislation. In the first place it is most improbable that Governmentwould interfere with beggary, even if asked to do so. Certainly no suchinterference would be possible without assuming the responsibility ofthe entire pauper population, involving an expenditure of many millionpounds. In the second place any such interference would in alllikelihood be extremely distasteful to the native public. In the thirdplace I believe the question can be better dealt with in another way. 

I propose to cut diamond with diamond, to set a thief to catch a thief, to make a beggar mend a beggar. In other words my plan is to _reform_the system rather than _abolish_ it. To the radical reformer who wouldsweep out the whole "nuisance" at one stroke, this may be adisappointment. But I believe that this feeling will be diminished, ifnot entirely removed, when he has made himself familiar with thefollowing scheme. 

Of course if the Upas tree could be uprooted and banished from ourmidst, --if with a wave of his magic wand some sorcerer could make itdisappear, so much the better. But this is impossible. We should requirean axe of gold to cut down the tree; and this we do not possess. If arich and powerful Government shrinks from the expense of such anundertaking, we may well be excused for doing the same. 

But after all supposing that you can transform your Upas tree into afruit-bearing one, will not this be even better than to cut it down?Such things are done every day before our very eyes in nature. The stockof the crab-apple can be made to bear quinces, and a mango tree that isscarcely worth the ground it occupies, can be made to yield fruit whichwill fetch four annas a piece!

What is done in the garden is possible in human nature. And God will yetenable us to graft into this wretched and apparently worthless Upasstock, a bud which in coming years shall be loaded with fruit that shallbe the marvel of the world. This human desert shall yet blossom as therose, this wilderness shall become a fruitful garden, and the wasteplaces be inhabited. 

Surely then, better even than the _annihilation_ of beggary will be its_reformation_, should this be possible. At least the suggestion is wellworthy of consideration, and in examining, the matter, there will beseveral important advantages to which I shall afterwards refer. 

(1. ) The first step that we would take in reforming the-beggars would beto _regiment them. _ The task would be undertaken by our Labor Bureau. Inthis I do not think there would be serious difficulty encountered, ifthe scheme commended itself to the native public. They would only haveto stop their supplies and send the beggars to us. 

(2. ) Our next step would be to _sort out_ the beggars. They would bedivided into three classes:--

 (a) _The physically unfit_, who could be furnished with light work at our labor yards, or otherwise cared for. At present there are hundreds of beggars who are physically unfit for the exertion that begging involves, and who are driven to it by the desperate pangs of hunger. 

 (b) _Those who like_ it, and are physically well fitted for it, besides being accustomed to the life, and not being fitted much for anything else. 

 (c) Those who dislike the life, and would prefer, or are suited for other occupations. Some of these we would draft off to other departments of our labour yards, while some would for the present be kept on as beggars, with the hope of early promotion to other employment. 

(3. ) We should _brigade the beggars_ under the name of the HouseholdSalvage Brigade, or some similar title, dividing them into smallcompanies and appointing over them Sergeants from among themselves, andproviding each with a badge or number. 

(4. ) We should with the advice and consent of the leading members of thenative community, _map out the city into wards_, and assign each companytheir respective streets, allotting as far as possible the Mahommedanbeggars to the Mahommedan quarters, and the Hindoos to the Hindoo. Inthis we should also take the advice of experienced beggars, from whom weshould expect to learn many useful hints. 

(5, ) Each house that was willing to receive them would _be supplied withthree receptacles_, one for waste cooked food, another for gifts ofuncooked food, and a third for old clothes, waste paper, shoes, tins, bottles, and other similar articles. 

(6. ) At an appointed hour the Brigade would proceed to their posts, would patrol their wards, and bring or send the various articlescollected to the labor yards, where all would be sorted and dealt withas necessary the cooked food being distributed among those who werewilling to eat it, or sent to the surburban farm for our buffaloes. Theraw grain would be handed over to our food depōts, and credited by themto the Beggars Fund for the special benefit of the destitute. 

(7. ) At the end of each day every member of the Brigade would receive afood ticket in payment of his services. The amount could be regulatedhereafter. This ticket he would present at our food depōt, where hewould be supplied with whatever articles he might require. There wouldbe a regular system of rewards and encouragements for good conduct. Butall such details will be settled hereafter. 

(8. ) A special feature in the system would be the introduction of theancient _Buddhist_ custom of "_meetihal_, " or "the consecrated handfulof rice. " This is as follows. A pot is kept in each home and a handfulof grain is put into it every time the family meal is cooked. We thinkthat there would be no difficulty in getting this custom universallyadopted, when it was understood that the proceeds would be devotedentirely to feeding the destitute. I believe that the income derivedfrom this alone would in course of time be sufficient to meet the needsof the destitute in any city in India, at the same time that it wouldserve to equalise and therefore minimise the burden which now restschiefly on a comparative few. 

(9. ) In case the food supply thus obtained should be insufficient, wehave little doubt that we could persuade leading merchants in the cityto club together and make up the difference, when they saw the good workthat was going on. 

Such in brief is a skeleton of the scheme for elevating and renovatingthe Beggar population of India. It is no doubt open to criticism on somepoints, but it has special advantages which I will proceed to point out, apologising for the extra space I am obliged to occupy, in dealing withthis subject, on account of its novelty and importance, and in orderthat I may be thoroughly understood. 

1. _It is conservative. _ Here you have a reformation without arevolution, or rather a revolution by means of a reformation. And yetthere is no attempted upheaval of society. 

2. It is thoroughly _Indian_, and suited to the national taste. 

3. It _costs nothing_ and may even prove in time a source of income tothe Social Scheme. 

4. It is _doubly economical_ since it uses the human waste in collectingwhat would be the natural wastage of the city, and devotes each to theservice of the other. 

5. It is _systematic_ and therefore bound to be as immensely superior tothe present haphazard mode, as a regular Army is to an undisciplinedmob. 

6. It unites the advantages of _moral suasion_, with those of the mostperfect _religious equality_ and _toleration. _

7. _It saves the State an enormous expenditure_ and avoids the necessityfor harsh, repressive, unpopular legislation, and increased taxation. 

8. _It benefits the public. _

 (a) It removes a public nuisance. 

 (b) And yet it satisfies the public conscience. 

 (c) It stimulates private charity, and directs its generosity into wise and beneficial channels. 

9. _It benefits the beggars. _

 (a) It protects the weak from the painful and often unsuccessful struggle for existence. 

 (b) It ensures everybody their daily food and a sufficiency of it. 

 (c) It restores their self respect. 

 (d) It teaches them habits of honesty, industry and thrift. 

 (e) It opens up to them a pathway of promotion. 

10. Finally it will furnish honest and honorable employment right awayfor hundreds of thousands all over the land, and create an entirely_novel_ industry out of what is at present an absolute _wreckage. _

But I am well aware that certain objections are likely to be raised. These I would seek to remove, though if we are to wait for a plan whichis free from all liability to criticism, we may wait for ever, and waitin vain. There is a famous answer given by John Wesley to a lady who wasobjecting to something about his work, --"Madam, if there were a perfectorganization in the world, it would cease to be so the day that you andI entered into it. " Hence it is not simply a question as to whetherthere are difficulties in the present proposals, but can anything betterbe suggested. However, I am anxious to meet in the fairest possiblemanner all conceivable objections, and am perfectly prepared to make anysuch modifications as may appear advisable. 

(1. ) Some will perhaps say that the beggars are already too well off todesire to come, --that they are making a good thing of it and will preferto prosecute their calling under the present arrangements. Of course ifit be true that they are able to do better for themselves than we areproposing to do for them, then they have no right to be included in thesubmerged tenth. I would congratulate them on their success and turn myattention to those who are more in need of our services. But could anyone seriously defend such a supposition? And if they are likely to bebettered by the new arrangements, why should we suppose that they shouldbe so blind to their own interests as to refuse to profit by the newchance? Besides, this is contradicted by all experience. Let there be aprospect of a feast, or a supply of rice or food, and who does not knowthat beggars will flock eagerly to the point, though it be only for asingle meal, and we propose to provide a _permanent livelihood. _

(2. ) But says some one else _they are bone-idle and will not work_, andyou propose to give them no food save in exchange for their work. Thisis a real and serious difficulty. We fully recognise it. Yet we do notthink it is un-get-over-able, for the following reasons:--

 (a) We do not intend to be hard-taskmasters. The work given will be of a light character, and suited to the strength of each. We are not going in for oakum picking and stone breaking. We shall do our utmost to make everything bright, cheerful and easy. We have no idea of treating them as criminals. 

 (b) It ought not to be difficult to get each one to do two annas worth of work, and this will be more than sufficient to cover their expenses. We have no desire to become _sweaters. _

 (c) _Begging is hard work. _ If you don't believe it, come and try it! I and many of my officers have begged our food as religious mendicants, so that we, are able to speak from _experience_! It is at best a life of sacrifice, hardship and suffering. And yet we have practised it under _specially favorable circumstances_, particularly those of us who are Europeans. But that there can be any sort of rest, or ease, or enjoyment in it to those who are driven to it by the pangs of hunger, unsupported by any spiritual consolations, I cannot conceive. On the contrary I should say that the task of the beggar is so hard, and disagreeable not to say _shameful_, that the majority of them would leap to do the most menial tasks that would deliver them from a bondage so painful. 

 Have you ever solicited help and been refused? Have you known what it is to feel the awful sickenings of heart at hope deferred? Have you known what it is to be regarded with suspicion, with contempt, with dislike, with scorn, or even with _pity_ by your fellow men? If so, you may be able to realise the experiences that every beggar has to go through a hundred times a day, many of them with feelings every bit as sensitive as your own. Will he demean himself and work hard at so miserable a calling and yet be unwilling to do some light work, with which he can earn an honest living? I for one cannot believe it, till I see it. 

 (d) Our experience further contradicts it in dealing with the more depraved, hardened and supposed-to-be-idle criminals and prostitutes, whom we receive into our Prison Gate and Rescue Homes. When Sir E. Noel Walker was visiting our Prisoners' Home in Colombo he was astonished at the _alacrity_ with which the men obeyed orders, and the _eagerness_ with which they worked at their allotted tasks. He asked the Officer in Charge whether he ever _"hammered"_ them, and was surprised at finding that the only hammer he ever required was the _allsufficient_ hammer of _love. _ And yet the gates were always open and they were free to walk out whenever they liked. Moreover, beyond getting their food and a very humble sort of shelter, their labour was entirely unpaid. 

 (e) Finally by means of a judicious system of rewards and promotions we should educate and encourage them into working, besides teaching them industries which would be useful after they had left us. 

(3. ) But some one else will say "They are thievish and will rob you. They are roguish and will decieve you. You don't know whom you have todeal with. " Well, if we don't know them, we should think nobody does! Iwould answer, (a) Granted that some of them cheat us. All will not. And why should the honest suffer with the rogues?

 (b) What if we do lose something in this way? It would be little in comparison with the enormous gain. I feel sure it would in no case exceed ten or twenty per cent, on the collections made, and that would be a mere trifle. 

 (c) Our system of regimentation would largely guard against any such danger and would be an encouragement to honesty. 

 (d) It is notorious that there is "honour among thieves. " They would watch over one another. Among them "_nimak-harami_" or "faithlessness to their salt" would soon come to be regarded as a crime of the first water. 

 (e) The inducement for thieving would be largely gone. Very few steal _for the sake of stealing. _ A man usually steals to fill his own stomach, or some one else's, whom he loves. But here all would be provided for. 

 (f) Besides he would feel that all he could earn was for the _common good_ and was not going to make any individual rich at his expense. 

 (g) Our experience in the Prison Gate Homes contradicts it. True, we have had some thefts especially at the beginning, but when I was last visiting our Colombo Home, the Officers in charge assured me that they were now of the rarest occurrence, while the gentleman who owned the tempting cocoanuts that were hanging overhead told me that he had never had such good crops from his trees, as since our colony of thieves and criminals had been settled there!

(4. ) Some one else may perhaps object that we shall have thrown upon ourhands a swarm of helpless, useless, cripples and infirm. Well, and whatif we do? Are they not our fellow human beings, and ought not some oneto care for them? We shall look upon it as a precious responsibility, and I speak fearlessly on behalf of our devoted officers when I say, that they would rather spend and be spent for such than for the richestin the land. If, as I have already shown, the effort can be made_self-supporting_ and _self-propagating_, the mere fact of their miseryor poverty only impels us to love them the more and to strive the moreearnestly for their emancipation. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE PRISON GATE BRIGADE. 

This has already been in operation for two years in the cities of Bombayand Colombo and a branch has been recently established in Madras. Nowthat it will be connected with other branches of our Social Reform, wemay look for a rapid increase of this useful though difficult work. 

The establishment of our Labor Yards will greatly help us in findingwork for this class, without branding them with the perpetual stigma oftheir crime. The chief difficulty in the working of these Homes consistsin the almost insuperable objection of the men to be _known ascriminals_ after their release from jail. This is of course perfectlynatural. Besides, it is important that we should hold out before themhopes of bettering themselves by their good conduct, and earning anindependent and honest livelihood at no distant date. When once ourLabor Yards and Farm Colonies are in active operation, we shall be ableto do this for our rescued criminals, continuing at the same time thefatherly supervision and help which they so very much need. 

The following quotations from our last annual report will serve toexplain this branch of our work, and to give a glimpse of theencouraging success with which we have already met in our efforts toreach and reform the criminal classes. 

COLOMBO PRISON GATE HOME. 

Picturesquely situated among palm trees in one of the most beautifulsuburbs of Colombo, within easy reach of the principal city jail, is ourSinhalese Prisoners' Home. Cinnamon Gardens, as the district is called, forms one of the attractions of Colombo, which every passing visitor isbound to go and see. The beauty of the surroundings must be a pleasantcontrast to those dull prison walls from which the inmates have justescaped. Still more blessed and cheering must be the change from theWarder's stern commands to the affectionate welcome and kindlyattentions of the red-jacketed Salvationists, who have the management ofthe Home. 

A bright lad who is on duty in the guard-room opens the gates andintroduces you to the grounds in which the quarters are situated. Thereare groups of huts with mud walls and palm-leaf thatching, which have athoroughly Indian and yet home like appearance. The first few of theseare occupied as workshops or carpentry for the manufacture of tea boxes, and here from early to late the men may be seen busily employed, sawing, planing, measuring, bevelling, hammering and working with such a willthat you might imagine their very lives depended on it, or at least thatthey must be making their fortunes out of it, whereas they are not beingpaid at all, and all the profits of the manufactory go towards thesupport of the Home!

"What I admire about your work, " observed Sir Athur Gordon, the lateGovernor of Ceylon, "is the way in which your Officers identifythemselves with these convicts, and live among them on terms of perfectequality. "

But I was describing the little colony. On the left of this group ofworkshops is a neat little hut where Captain Dev Kumar and his youngbride, Captain Deva Priti, reside. What a change for them form theEnglish Homes to which they have been accustomed, to this little junglehut, surrounded as they are continually by a band of ex-convicts, andcriminals. Yet it would be hard to find a happier couple in theisland, --in fact, quite impossible outside the Salvation Army. 

"It is all our own work, " explains the Captain. "Our men built the hut, and the materials only cost about Rs. 25!" Certainly this is theperfection of cheapness in the way of house building! A little furtherinside the enclosure you come to more huts, in some of which the menlive, while others serve for quarters for the native officers who assistin the superintendence of the Home, and to whose noble efforts so muchof its success is due. Then there is the kitchen, and a dining-room, anda stable for the bullock trap, in which the released prisoners arebrought to the Home, to avoid the risk of a foot journey when their oldassociates might hinder them on the way. 

The spare bits of ground are all laid out in little plots of garden, where plantains and vegetables are grown, and in front of the Captain'squarters is a dainty little scrap of a flower garden. The entireenclosure forms really a portion of the garden of a neighbouring house, the property of the late Mr. Ginger, who took a warm interest in ourwork, and leased the grounds to us at a nominal rent. 

The following are the statistics of the work during the past year:--

 Total number of admissions, . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . 230 Found Situations, . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 115 Left, the Home and lost sight, of, . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . 103 Total number of sentences of imprisonment, . .. .. .. .. .. . 459 Number of juvenile convicts under 16 years of age, . .. 40 Number of meals given, . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . 15, 774 Number of tea-boxes made, . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . 2, 880 Profits on same, . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Rs. 350

The accompanying is the official report form sent in by us toGovernment every month showing the results of the work--

JAIL GATE BRIGADE--COLOMBO--ITS RESULTS. 

Prisons. 

A. --This Return for the preceding month shall be forwarded on 1st or 2ndof each month, by the Officer Commanding Salvation Army, through theSuperintendent of the Convict Establishment to the Inspector General ofPrisons, with columns 1, 6, 7, and 8, duly filled in. 

B. --The Superintendent Convict Establishment shall fill in columns 2, 3, 4, and 5, and send on the Return to the Inspector General. 

1. Name and age of Prisoner. 

2. Nationality and religion. 

3. Name of Offence. 

4. Length of imprisonment in months. 

5. General character in Jail. 

6. Number of days maintained by the Salvation Army

7. How employed now, or going to be employed. 

8. Result of action of salvation Army on prisoner, roughly estimated. 

_Superintendent Convict Establishment. _

_Commdt. Salvation Army, Colombo. _

That the work of the Colombo Prisoners' Home is highly appreciated inColombo is further proved by the fact that most of the leadingGovernment officials subscribe to its funds, including the ColonialSecretary, Sir E. Noel Walker, the Chief Justice Sir Bruce Burnside, and many others. Again, it is not an uncommon thing for us to receivesuch letters as the following from the Magistrate:--

 From the POLICE MAGISTRATE, Colombo, To the CAPTAIN OF THE PRISON GATE BRIGADE. _Dated, Colombo, October 30th, 1889. _

 _Subject--Habitual Offender, Dana. _

 Sir, I have the honour to inform you that a man named Dana, produced before me this day, charged with being a habitual thief, has expressed a wish to be admitted into the Prison Brigade Home. 

 I shall be glad if you afford him an opportunity to redeem his character. 

 I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, E. W. M. , _Police Magistrate. _

The past year was suitably finished up by providing a special feast towhich only ex-convicts were admitted. No less than 150 accepted theinvitation. 

About this branch of our work a leading daily paper, the Ceylon_Independent_, writes as follows. --

 Most of our readers have read in our columns of the good work the Army is doing at the Prison Gate, in reclaiming from criminal courses the discharged prisoners who have served their time of confinement. In that critical moment, when the wide world is once more before the newly discharged culprit, when he emerges from confinement to overwhelming temptation, big it may be with fresh schemes of crime, armed with enlarged experiences to aid in its accomplishment, to be met, taken kindly by the hand, and led gently to the pleasanter and more peaceful path of honesty, industry, and virtue, is a surprise that is calculated to disarm temptation at least for a moment, and thus virtue gains time for thought. 

The success of the Prison Gate Brigade has hitherto been surprising, andquite beyond its founders' anticipation. It has been especially usefulin reclaiming juvenile offenders, of whom a large number have beeninduced to take to the honest means of livelihood, chiefly carpentry, which the Home provides. 

OUR BOMBAY PRISON GATE BRIGADE. 

This work in Bombay was commenced some two years ago at the instance ofa leading Parsee gentleman, with a generous subscription of Rs. 1, 200. Owing partly to the fact that we have been hitherto unable to securesuitable premises and partly to the entire absence of any assistance onthe part of Government, the work in Bombay has been much more uphill anddiscouraging than in Ceylon. Nevertheless we have persevered in theteeth of all sorts of difficulties, and the results have been veryencouraging. Recently in one week no less than three of the inmates ofour Bombay Home were accepted as cadets, to be trained up as futureofficers. Previously to this nine others had been similarly accepted. One of these, Lieut. Hira Singh, is now himself taking an active part inthe rescue of other convicts, while another is sucessfully working inGujarat. Accounts of their lives are given further on. 

Indeed Bombay has proved itself to be an even richer field than Colomboitself; and now that some of the peculiar difficulties that havehitherto hindered the work, are one by one being removed, there is everyreason to believe that this work will soon make rapid progress. 

The returns for the past year show that the prison gates have beenvisited 235 times, for the purpose of meeting the convicts on theirrelease. Since the commencement of the Home about 134 men have beenadmitted. Of these 74 have professed conversion, about 12 having beenaccepted as officers by ourselves and the remainder having mostly foundemployment elsewhere. The number of meals given during the past year hasbeen about 7, 800. 

One of the special features of the work here consists in the constantvisitation of the liquor dens, with a view to persuading those who werefrequenting them to give up their evil ways. No less than 430 such werein this way visited and a large number of papers distributed. While theopposition was in some instances severe, as a rule our officers werewell treated even by the grogshop-keepers, who while admitting thattheir trade was evil, pleaded that they had the Government's approval, and that they must somehow support themselves and their families. 

Besides the regular inmates, a large number of casuals have beenrelieved and assisted, but of these we have no exact figures. 

The following are some specimens of the work done by us among thecriminal classes in Bombay and Ceylon:--

LIEUTENANT HIRA SINGH

Is a Hindu of the Kshatraya caste. He comes of a soldier race andfamily, his father having served in the East India Company's army beforehim, and he having from his youth followed the same profession for thepast eighteen years, serving successively as Private, Lance-Corporal, Corporal, and Sergeant in a native Regiment. He went through the lastAfghan campaign, having been to Cabul, Quetta, and other places. 

For many years his conduct was excellent, but latterly he took todrinking, got into serious trouble with the police, and was sent toprison for forty days, thus losing his post as well as his claim topension. He was met by our officers on his release, accompanied them tothe Home, gave his heart to God, and has now been an officer in ourranks for more than a year. During most of this time he has beenconnected with our Bombay Prison Gate work, and has in turn helped torescue many others. But for the help he then received, a life ofdrunkenness and crime would probably have been, almost forced upon him. He is a good specimen of numbers who would _like_ to reform, but withruined reputation have no choice, save between starvation and crime. 

HARMANIS. 

"I am a native (Singhalese) of Kalutara in Ceylon. My father was atoddy-drawer. We were very poor. Sometimes my uncles would give me acent or two for mounting guard to give them warning about anybody'sapproach while they were slaughtering stolen cattle in the jungles. Once, being very hungry, I climbed up a palm tree to steal cocoanuts, but was caught by the owner and handed over to the police. Themagistrate sent me to jail for three weeks. After my release I came toColombo, and falling in with the Salvation Army, I went to their Homefor prisoners, and now thank God I am saved. "

PODI SINGHA

This is only one of the many aliases by which he is known. He has beenone of the worst thieves and bad characters to be met with even inColombo, where there is a pretty good assortment of the scum of slumdom. Adopted as an infant by a pious Mahomedan, he was trained up in thatreligion. But in spite of every effort that was made for hisreformation, he rapidly went from bad to worse, till at length he foundhimself in the hands of the police. 

His first sentence was twelve months for throwing sand in a Singhaleseman's eyes and then robbing him of his comb. When released he fell inwith other criminals, from whom he learnt many new tricks of the trade. Once he was stealing some clothes from a line when the lady of the housesaw him. A hue and cry was raised, and he soon found himself surroundedwith coolies and dogs. Seeing that there was no chance of escape, hebegan to jump and scream and go through all sorts of antics. The lady, thinking he was mad, and having pity on him, let him go. 

He has seen the inside of nearly all the Colombo jails, but withoutbeing made any better. Finally, he was received into our Home. At firsthe was rather troublesome, but after a short time he gave his heart toGod, and has been doing well. "He cannot read or write, " says theCaptain in charge, "but he prays like a divine, and I am believing tosee him become an Officer some day. "

JANIS

Was brought from his village by a Singhalese gentleman when quite alittle boy, but, leaving his master, thought he would start life on hisown account. He soon became a practised thief. "I always managed toescape, " he says, "till one day with some of my companions I robbed aBuddhist temple. I managed to get a silver 'patara' (plate), which wesold for Rs. 24, but was caught and sent to jail. " "But you wereyourself a Buddhist, " said the Captain. "How came you to rob your owntemple?" "What of that? I thought nothing of sin in those days. But itis all so different now. I am saved, and mean to spend all my life insaving others. I am just now practising a song to sing in the meetingto-night. "

The Captain asked him whether he did not think it a great disgrace to goto jail. "Oh, no! I thought everybody in Colombo had been there sometime or other. All the people with whom I mixed had been. " "Well, howdid you like it?" "Oh, it was not such a bad place! The food was fairlygood, and I had not to work very hard but I wish I had known aboutsalvation sooner. Even then I used to wish that I could find somethingwhich would _make_ me good, but all my efforts were in vain till I cameto the Home, and got saved. "

In conclusion, I feel sure that a few brief particulars regarding thisbranch of our work in Australia will be read with interest, and willserve to prove the usefulness of this portion of our social reformscheme:

Some six or seven, Prisoners' Homes have been established inAustralasia. The Victorian Government give an annual grant of £1, 000, toassist us in this branch of our work. Special facilities are afforded toour Officers in visiting the prisoners, and in some of the jails printednotices are posted up by the authorities to the effect that anyprisoner, previous to discharge, may communicate with the officers incharge of our Home, with a view to making a fresh start in life. 

The testimony of Sir Graham Berry, Agent General, the Chief Secretary, the Inspector General of Penal Establishments, and the ChiefCommissioner of Police, proves conclusively how much good has thus beendone. The following extracts from their letters are copied from ourAustralasian Prison Gate report:--

H. E. SIR H. B. LOCH, K. C. B. , G. C. M. G. , writes through his PrivateSecretary to express "his approval and appreciation of the work done bythe Salvation Army in connection with the Prison Gate Brigades andRescued Sisters' Homes, and has great pleasure in expressing his beliefin the good which has resulted from the philanthrophic endeavours of theSalvation Army to rescue and afford material assistance to those inwhose interests these organisations have been formed. "

SIR GRAHAM BERRY, Agent General for Victoria, writes:--"I haveconfidence in the permanent results of your labours, because you, treatthese unfortunates as if they were human beings and capable of betterthings. I believe your organisation is a very powerful agency for goodamong that class which is practically neglected by others. "

CHIEF JUSTICE HIGGINBOTHAM says that "it is only proper to mention thatthere is no better nor more useful work done in rescuing dischargedprisoners from relapsing into crime, than that effected by the PrisonGate Brigade of the Salvation Army. "

Similar letters have also been received from the following gentlemen:--

 The Hon. ALFRED DEAKIN, M. L. A. , Chief Secretary. 

 The Hon. JAMES BALFOUR, M. L. C. 

 The Hon. M. H. DAVIES, M. L. A. (Speaker of the Legislative Assembly). 

 The Hon. F. F. DERHAM, M. L. A. , Postmaster General. 

 The Hon. H. T. WRIXON, M. L. A. , Attorney General. 

 The Hon. W. F. WALKER, M. L. A. , Commissioner of Customs. 

 Mr. JUSTICE KERFERD. 

 The Bishop of MELBOURNE. 

 W. G. BRETT, Esq. , Inspector General, Penal Department. 

 H. M. CHOMLEY, Esq. , Chief Commissioner of Police. 

 A. SHIELDS, Esq. , M. P. , Medical Officer, Melbourne Jail. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE DRUNKARD'S BRIGADE. 

Hundreds of habitual drunkards have been soundly converted and reformedin connection with our ordinary spiritual work in India. Probably thereare not less than 500 such enrolled in our ranks in this country, andturned into staunch and perpetual abstainers. 

The terrible nature of the drinks and drugs consumed by the Natives, Ihave already had occasion to describe, as also the increasingly largenumber of those who are becoming enchained by the habit. 

In connection with our present Social Reform, special efforts will bemade to reach this class. They will be personally dealt with, and placedas far as possible in circumstances that shall put them beyond the reachof their besetting temptation. 

For some time past our Officers, more especially those in charge of thePrison Gate work, have visited liquor-shops and opium and ganja dens, speaking personally to the frequenters, and in some cases distributingamong them suitable appeals and warnings in regard to the fatalconsequences of the habit. 

Untimately it is intended to establish homes for the most hopeless classof inebriates, both for those habituated to liquor and for those who arethe slaves of the still more fatal drugs, such as opium and bhang. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE RESCUE HOMES FOR THE FALLEN. 

Here again we have made a beginning. It is now a year since the openingof our Home in Colombo, and during that time 52 girls have been receivedinto our Home. Of these

 2 have been restored to their friends, 4 are with others--doing well, 23 have turned out unsatisfactory, and

 23 are with us in the Home, almost without exception giving evidence of being truly reformed. 

Heart-rending are the tales which have reached our ears as to the way inwhich many of them have been decoyed from their homes, and as to themiserable existence which they have since been dragging out. 

Every Indian city teems with a too fast increasing number of similarunfortunates, for whom at present nothing has been attempted. Wepropose, therefore, very largely to extend our Homes at all the largecentres of population. 

Connected as will be this department with the network of other agenciesthat we have already established, and increased as will be ourfacilities for reaching this class, we are confident that we shall beable to carry out this much-needed reform on a scale commensurate withthe evil, besides warning the youths of our cities against the terriblecontamination to which they are at present exposed. All the weight ofour increasing influence will be thrown into the scale for cutting offboth the supply and demand of this infamous traffic in human souls. 

CHAPTER XII. 

"THE COUNTRY COLONY"--"WASTEWARD HO!"

As has been already explained in the first part of this book, thecongested state of the labor market in the agricultural districts isleading to an enormous and increasing immigration of the countrypopulation towards the towns, not as a matter of preference, or ofchoice, but of dire necessity. The object of the Country Colony, asapplied to India, will be twofold:

1. It will seek to divert into more profitable channels the steadilyincreasing torrent of immigration from the villages to the towns. 

2. It will re-direct and re-distribute the masses of the Submerged Tenthwho already exist in every large city. 

Like his English representative, the Indian village bumpkin has anatural aversion to town life. Peculiarities in his dialect, dress, andmanners make him the laughing-stock of the clever Cockney townsman. Hissimplicity and ignorance of the world cause him to be easily victimisedby the city sharper, for whom he is no match in the struggle of life. Hesighs for his green fields, and longs to get away from the bustle thateverywhere surrounds and bewilders him. He surrenders these preferencesonly, because starvation is staring him in the face, and he has betterchances of working, begging, or stealing in the city than in hisvillage. 

And yet within a few miles of his birthplace there are frequently tractsof waste land amply sufficient to support him and thousands more. Hecould reduce it to cultivation if he had the chance. He would infinitelyprefer eking out the scantiest existence in this manner to flinginghimself into the turbulent whirlpool of town life. Strangely enough the"Sirkar" (Government), to whom these tracts belong, is equally anxiousthat the land in question should be cultivated. It would yield in thecourse of a few years as rich a revenue as the acres of exactly similarsoil that have been brought under cultivation in the neighbourhood. Butthe difficulties in the way are well nigh insuperable:

1. The congested labor consists almost entirely of those castes whichare looked upon as inferior. The very idea of their emancipation isdistasteful to the higher castes, who enjoy in most parts of India analmost exclusive monopoly of the land. Hence any effort to obtain agrant of waste land is met with strong and often bitter opposition, andit is next door to impossible for any one in the position of theSubmerged Tenth to fight the battle through. 

2. Of course, under the British Government these caste distinctions arenot officially recognised. But as a matter of fact they still carrygreat weight. Anybody can, it is true, petition the Government for agrant of this land, but to secure favourable consideration is almostimpossible. During the last four or five years I have personallyinterested myself in several petitions, with a view to assisting thepetitioners, whom I knew to be thoroughly deserving of success. And yetafter going through a weary tissue of formalities, seldom lasting lessthan a year, I have not known of a single favourable answer, nor havethese advances met with the least sort of encouragement. The Governmentofficials to whom these vast estates are entrusted are mostly sopreoccupied with other work that it is impossible for them to give tothe subject the personal attention that it requires, and they are guidedby the reports of interested and sometimes bribed subordinates. The veryfact that they are entitled to draw exactly the same salary whether thepublic estate improves or not, removes the incentive that wouldotherwise exist, even if they were the absentee landlords of theproperty, while the constant liability to be transferred from onedistrict to another aggravates the difficulty of the situation. 

3. Again, there is a lack of the capital necessary for the initialexpenses of the cultivator in sinking wells, building houses, supplyingcattle and obtaining both seed and food till the harvest has beengathered in. 

4. The lack of combination among the congested mass of labourers isanother serious evil. They are as sheep without a shepherd. Individuallythey have no influence. Collectively they are capable of becoming amighty power. What is needed at the present moment is a directing headand an enfolding organisation that shall gather them together, bind themin one harmonious whole, and with the help of a friendly Government leadthem on to occupy and cultivate these waste lands, converting them intodistricts inhabited by a sober, thrifty and enterprising population. Without such a combination the efforts that are made by privateenterprise will continue to be carried out on such a petty scale as willutterly fail to cope with or remove the existing evil, and will merelyserve to give relief in a few isolated cases. For instance I have inmind one district where to my personal knowledge the amount of congestedlabor cannot amount on the most moderate calculation to less than half amillion people. There is in their immediate neighbourhood abundance ofwaste land capable of supporting them. The Government is anxious forthat land to be occupied. The people are eager to obtain and capable ofcultivating every piece of waste that can be placed at their disposal. If, instead of leaving it to individual caprice and effort to carry onin the present haphazard and redtape fashion, we are able on the onehand to combine this mass of labor, and to obtain on the other hand fromGovernment the particulars of the land they are desirous of havingcultivated, and the most favorable terms on which it can be granted tous, we shall be in a position with, but a very moderate amount ofcapital at our command, to solve the double problem of the waste landand waste labor, and that within a very short period. 

5. The religious influences which we should bring to bear on thecolonists would be invaluable, especially in the early days of thesecolonies. The example of our Officers, their self-sacrificing devotionto the interests of the people, the knowledge that they would gainnothing by the success of the enterprise and that they were actuatedsolely by the highest motives, the facts that they were sharing thehomes of the people, enduring the same hardships and eating the samefood, all this would act as an inspiration to the colonists when theearly days of trial and difficulty came upon them. No less an authoritythan Mr. John Morley, M. P. , remarked when he first heard of GeneralBooth's scheme, that he considered that its combination of religion withthe other details of the plan of campaign was its most hopeful feature, and would be most likely to ensure its success. This seems to applyespecially to that portion of the scheme now under consideration. Indeed, were such an enterprise directed solely by an agency destituteof this powerful lever, we should anticipate failure in nine cases outof ten, no matter how great the ability that directed and how abundantthe capital that could be commanded. Individual rapacity and selfishnesswould spoil everything, and instead of a beautiful spirit of harmony andself-sacrifice, we should find a lucky few gaining the prizes and themasses left no better, perhaps worse, off than before. 

With these preliminary remarks I would introduce the Country Colony, assuggested by General Booth. It will consist of the following branches, to which no doubt others will be added as we advance:--

 1. The Suburban Farm in the vicinity of large cities, including

 (a) A dairy for the supply of milk, ghee, cream and butter. 

 (b) A market garden for fruit and vegetables. 

 2. The Industrial Village. 

 3. The Social Territory or Poor Man's Paradise. 

 4. The City of Refuge. 

 5. Miscellaneous:

 (a) Gangs for public works, such as tanks, railways, roads, &c. 

 (b) Gangs for tea gardens. 

 (c) Land along the railways. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SUBURBAN FARM. 

The connecting link between the City Colony and the Country Colony willbe the Suburban Farm. Situated conveniently near to the largest cities, it will serve many important purposes. 

1. It will form the channel, or outlet, by which the agriculturalportion of the labor overflow in the cities will make its way back tothe country. In fact, it will constitute a sort of sluice which will intime act with the same regularity and ease as those which are attachedto any reservoir of water, directing to the most needy places, anddistributing without waste, those very waters which if uncontrolledwould sweep everything before them as a devastating flood. 

2. It will at the same time find a ready market in the city, not onlyfor its own produce, but for that of the other branches of the countrycolony, with which it would be in constant and close communication. 

3. It will supply the city with wholesome and unadulterated dairyproduce, together with the best fruits and vegetables, at the ordinarymarket rates. These could be disposed of either wholesale to citymerchants, or by moans of stalls in the various markets, or we couldundertake to retail them in connection with our Household SalvageBrigade. The Suburban Farm would consist of, say, from fifty to fivehundred acres of land in the immediate neighbourhood of a city. It wouldcombine three or more separate departments. 

1. _The Dairy. _ Buffaloes and cows would be given us by friends, besides being purchased and reared by us, in large numbers. To tendthem, milk them, prepare the ghee, cream and butter, and to convey itall to town, would find employment for a large number of the SubmergedTenth. 

2. The _Market Garden_ would employ a still larger number. Bananas growquickly in all parts of India, and with them we could make an immediatebeginning, introducing from different districts the best species. Sugar-cane and other popular native products would receive specialattention, and where the European population in the neighbourhood wassufficiently numerous we could include the cultivation of such fruitsand vegetables as would be liked by them. In the case of seaport townswe should no doubt do a large business with the steamers in the harbour, as for instance, in Bombay, Colombo, or Calcutta. 

3. We should probably at an early period transfer some of the industrialbrigades enumerated in Chapter VI to our Suburban Farm. In doing thisthere would be several obvious advantages:

 (a) We should have more elbow room for them on the Farm, than in the Labor Yards, where land would be so expensive that we should be obliged to crowd everything into the smallest possible compass, both in regard to work sheds and sleeping accommodation. 

 (b) In removing them from the contaminating influences of city life, we should be able to exercise a more personal and powerful influence upon these members of the Submerged Tenth and should stand a far better chance of effectively carrying out that spiritual and moral regeneration, without which we reckon that any mere temporal reformation would be ineffective and evanescent. 

 (c) We should prevent our labor yards from getting gorged, and would keep them within manageable dimensions. At the same time that we should cope more effectively with all existing distress. 

 (d) The Suburban Farm being closely connected with other portions of our Country Colony, we should be able to use the latter to relieve it in case of its becoming in turn overcrowded by the influx from the City. 

 (e) It would thus form a natural stepping-stone to the Industrial Village, which we have next to describe. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE INDUSTRIAL VILLAGE. 

For the Industrial Village we have already before our very eyes anadmirable object lesson in the existing organisation and subdivision ofan ordinary Indian village. Indeed it is singular how precisely Indiahas anticipated just what General Booth now proposes to introduce incivilized Europe. 

The village community so familiar to all who have resided in Indiaconsists of an independent or rather interdependent, co-operativeassociation which constitutes a miniature world of its own, producingits own food and manufacturing its own clothes, shoes, earthenware, pots, &c, with its own petty government to decide all matters affectingthe general welfare of the little commonwealth. Very wisely the Britishrulers of India have left this interesting relic of ancient timesuntouched, so that the institution can be seen in complete working orderat the present day all over India. The onward march of civilisation hassomewhat shaken the fabric and has threatened the existence of severalof the village industries. But at present there has not been any radicalalteration. The village may still be seen divided up into its variousquarters. 

Take for instance a village in Gujarat. Those substantial houses in thecentre belong to the well-to-do landowners. The cultivators or tenantshave their quarters close alongside. The group of huts belonging to theweavers is easily distinguishable by the rude looms and apparatus forthe manufacture of the common country cloth. The tanners' quarter isequally well marked, and yonder the groups at work with mud and wheeland surrounded with earthenware vessels of various shapes and sizes, remind you that you are among the Potters. 

On inquiring into the interior economy of the village a system ofpayment in kind and exchange of goods for labour and grain is found toprevail exactly similar to that suggested by General Booth. Only here wehave the immense advantage that instead of having to explain andinstitute a radical reform in the existing system, we have to deal withmillions of people who are thoroughly imbued with these principles fromtheir infancy. 

For instance one of the staple articles of food in the village consistsof buttermilk, which is distributed by the high caste among the lowcaste from year's end to year's end in return for petty services. One ofthe usual ways in which the high caste will punish the low, for anycourse of conduct to which they object is by the terrible threat ofstopping their supply of "chas, " which means usually nothing short ofstarvation. 

Here then is our model in good working order and in exact accordancewith the ideal sketched out by General Booth. We cannot do better thanadhere to it as closely as possible. 

Probably the first industrial settlement which we shall establish, inaddition to the labor yards and suburban farms already referred to, willconsist of a colony of Weavers in Gujarat. 

For this we shall have special facilities, as we have now 150 Officersat work in that part of the country, as well as more than 2, 000 enrolledadults, a large proportion of whom have been in our ranks for severalyears. From amongst these we shall be able to select thoroughly reliablesuperintendents (both European and Native), and shall be able to takefull advantage of their local experience. 

But how far we shall consider it wise to confine our first settlementto one particular caste or to include within it from the outset someother useful village industries such as have been above referred to, Iam not as yet prepared to say. Much will necessarily depend on thecourse that events may hereafter take. For the present I can only saythat we will adhere as closely as possible to our Indian model. 

The one weak point about the Indian system, as it at present exists, is, that there is no means of regulating the proportion of labour in eachsection of the community. The rules of caste prevent any transfer fromone trade to another, while there is no system of intercommunicationbetween the villages to enable them to readily transfer their surpluspopulation to the places where they would be most needed. In a casewhere some village industry is threatened with annihilation, as forinstance the weavers, there is absolutely no provision for the transferof the unfortunate victims of civilisation either to some more favoredlocality or to some other sphere of labour. 

Now this is just where our combined plan of campaign with its union ofCity, Country, and Over-sea Colonies would step in and supply themissing link. We should be able to direct the glut of labor into justthose channels where it would be the most useful. 

And why should this be thought impracticable? Everybody is acquaintedwith the power of wind, water and steam, where properly directed, tomove the most gigantic machinery and yet for centuries those powers weresuffered to go to waste. It is only of late that we have learnt forinstance to put chains upon the genii of the tea-kettle, to put them asit were into harness, to bridle them and to compel them to drag our hugeleviathans across thousands of miles of ocean. May not the enormousmass of waste labor that has accumulated in our cities and ruraldistricts be fitly compared to the former waste of steam. The best thatwe have been able to do for it so far has been to provide for it thesafety valves of beggary, destitution, famine, pestilence, crime, imprisonment and the gallows. 

Is it too much to suppose that this enormous waste of human steam, themost valuable sort of steam that the world contains, can be properlycontrolled and guided so that it will make for itself railways andsteamers that shall carry its human cargoes by millions across landsthat are at present mere wastes, and to populate countries which are asyet wildernesses? In doing so, we shall but fulfil the words of prophecyuttered 26, 000 years ago. "The wilderness and the solitary place shallbe glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. * *For in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springsof water. * * * And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall becalled the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it, but itshall be for those. The way-faring men, though fools shall not errtherein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go upthereon; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion with songsand everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy andgladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. "

CHAPTER XV. 

THE SOCIAL TERRITORY, OR, POOR MAN'S PARADISE. 

Probably the biggest wholesale emigration scheme ever undertaken wasthat of Israel out of Egypt into Canaan, under the leadership of Moses. The circumstances were so very similar to those with which we aredealing, that I may be excused for referring to them, as they have adirect bearing on the present problem, and may help largely towards itssolution. It is said that "History repeats itself" and certainly this istrue in regard to the evils that then existed, and we do not see why theremedy should not in some respect correspond. 

Looking back then, we find that there was in Egypt in the year 1, 500B. C. A submerged tenth, consisting of 600, 000 able-bodied men with theirwives and families and numbering therefore at least two and a halfmillion souls. They constituted a distinct caste, or nation, which hadbeen grafted into the original Egyptian stock 430 years previously. Owing to hereditary customs, race distinctions and religious differencesthey had preserved their identity and had never become assimulated withthe Egyptians. It was a famine that had driven them to take refuge inEgypt at a time when their numbers were so few that their presencecaused no particular inconvenience to the original inhabitants, whilethe services of the King's Vazir, to whose caste they belonged securedthem a suitable reception. 

At the time however when we take up their history a change had takenplace. Their numbers had immensely increased. The labor market wasdeluged with them. The rulers, capitalists and landowners began totremble for their very existence. Enormous public works were planned andthe enslaved caste were compelled to carry out their allotted labourunder rigorous taskmasters, who made their lives a burden to them. Stilltheir numbers continued to increase. Alarmed at the prospect of animpending revolution, the King gave orders that every male child of theHebrews should be drowned, thinking thus to stamp out the nation. It iseasy to imagine therefore that affairs must have come to a desperatepass, when from the palace of Pharaoh and yet from among their own castea deliverer was raised up to organise and carry out the wholesaleemigration of the entire nation. 

Looked at in this light it was certainly the boldest venture andgreatest scheme of the kind that had ever been conceived, and withoutthe aid of remarkable miraculous displays of Divine power Moses couldnever have carried out so magnificent a project. 

Everything appeared to be against him. The people whom he had come todeliver were an undisciplined mob of cowardly slaves, whose spirit hadbeen crushed by years of cruel tyranny. They were unarmed andunaccustomed to war. They were the subjects of the most powerfulmilitary monarchy of those times. For them to dream of emigrating musthave seemed the wildest folly. On the one hand the Egyptians would nothear of it, and their way would be barred by legions of the bestsoldiers the world could produce. On the other hand the country to whichthey were to emigrate was already occupied by numerous and warliketribes, who would contest every inch of territory. Added to this therewas a "great and howling wilderness" which separated the one countryfrom the other. 

Hence it will be seen that this vast national emigration scheme wascarried out by Moses under circumstances of peculiar difficulty which donot exist in the problem at present under consideration. 

There are the same destitute hunger-bitten multitudes, it is true, andthe same difficulty arises before us as to what to do with thesesteadily increasing hordes. The same Egyptian remedy, the constructionof vast public works, has been resorted to over and over again, with theeffect of giving temporary, but not permanent relief. In some respectsthe position of the Hebrews in Egypt was preferable to that of thedestitute masses in India. They seem at least to have had no lack offood and shelter, and if they had to work hard, and were cruelly treatedby their taskmasters, we have become familiar in the Indian villageswith many instances of cruelty in the treatment of the low caste by thehigh such as could not well have been surpassed in Egypt itself, to saynothing of the extortions of the money-lender and the ravages of famineand pestilence referred to elsewhere. 

But in many respects the situation is far more hopeful. Our Pharaoh is aChristian Queen, under whom we have, not one, but many Josephs, who arereally anxious for the highest welfare of the submerged masses, and whoare likely to hail with gladness (as has been already the case inEngland) any project which bids fair to alleviate permanently theexisting misery. The wealth and power of the British Government andNation, instead of being used to hinder such a scheme, is likely to bethrown bodily into the scale in favour of all reasonable reform thatwill help congested labour to redistribute itself and recover its normalbalances. 

Again the progress of science and civilization has removed immensebarriers that previously existed, and railways, steamers, post andtelegraph have rendered possible for us, if not comparatively easy, whatwas before only within the reach of miraculous manifestations of DivinePower. 

Furthermore, _the land is there, plenty of it, for centuries to come_, some of it across the seas, within easy reach of our steamers, but agreat deal of it quite close at hand. Nor will it be necessary todispossess others to occupy it. The only enemies that will have to befaced are the wild beasts, always ready to beat a retreat when manappears. It does not even belong to some different nationality orGovernment, jealous of our encroachments, but is the property of thesame Power to whom these destitute multitudes are looking for theirdaily bread. 

Hence it is impossible to imagine circumstances more favorable thanthose which already exist in India at the moment that General Booth'sscheme is placed before the public, towards the carrying out on anenormous scale, hitherto never dreamt of, the portion of his projectsreferred to in the present chapter. 

What I would propose is that a considerable section of waste Territoryshould be assigned to us and placed at our disposal in some suitablepart of India, upon which we could plant colonies of the destitute, similar in many respects to those already described, save that we shouldhere carry out on a wholesale scale what elsewhere we should be doing byretail. Into this central lake or reservoir all our scattered streamswould empty themselves, till it was so far full that we should requireto repeat the process elsewhere. Beginning with a single socialreservation in some specially selected district, we should easily beable to repeat the experiment elsewhere on an even larger scaleprofiting as we went along by our accumulated experience. 

From the first, however, I should suppose that it would be preferable tocarry out the manoeuvre on as large a scale as possible, for the reasonthat this is just one of those things which will be found easier to dowholesale than retail. 

We have many illustrations of this in business. The merchant who amassesa colossal fortune will perhaps scarcely spend an hour a day insuperintending the working of an establishment that covers half an acre, while the poor retail shopkeeper over the way toils from early morningto late at night and is scarcely able then to earn a bare subsistencefor the support of his family. 

Compare again the labour and profits of a boatman in Bombay Harbour, with those of the owner of an ocean going steamer. The former toils dayand night at the peril of his life and earns but little, while thelatter rests comfortably at home and enjoys a handsome income. 

Or again let the village hand-loom weaver be pitted against the BombayMill-owner, and we see at a glance that under certain circumstances it_pays_ infinitely better to do things on a large than on a small scale, and that in so doing the amount of labour and risk are also economised. 

Now this applies to the proposal contained in this chapter. Given apeople who are well acquainted with Indian agriculture and who arewilling to be moved;--given a leader and an organisation in which theyhave confidence;--given those religious and moral influences which willso help them in overcoming the initial difficulties of the enterprise;and given a suitable tract of country which (without displacing existingpopulation) they can occupy, and I would say with confidence that itwill be found easier to accomplish the transfer on a large than on asmall scale, by wholesale rather than by retail. 

In the present case all the above conditions are satisfied. The entirecongested labor of the rural districts is thoroughly versed fromchildhood in the arts of Indian agriculture. They are willing in manyparts of the country to emigrate by thousands even across the "kalapani, " to which they have such an intense and religious aversion, or toenlist by thousands in our merchant marine and military forces. Muchmore then will they be willing to emigrate in far larger numbers todistricts close at hand. A leader to inspire, an organisation to enfold, and a plan of campaign to guide, have in the most marvellous manneralmost dropped from the skies since the publication of General Booth'sbook. The religious and moral restraints and incentives, so importantfor guarding against the abuses of selfishness and for inspiring with aspirit of cheerful self-sacrifice, are provided, and that in a purely_Native garb_, and yet with all the advantages of European leadershipand enthusiasm. And finally there is land in abundance which Governmentdesires to see colonised, and which is being slowly retailed out bit bybit in a manner altogether unworthy of the urgent necessities of theoccasion. 

What then is there to hinder a big bold experiment? General Booth willhave in England largely to _make_ his agriculturists before he can putthem upon the land. Here in India we have _millions_ of skilleddestitutes ready to hand, and it will be possible within a very shortperiod with a few bold strokes to relieve the congested labor marketfrom one end of India to the other in a manner that can hardly now beconceived. 

Is not this plan infinitely superior to the spasmodic Egyptianexpedient of occasional public works, which cost the State enormous sumsand only increase the local difficulty as soon as they are completed?Should we not here be erecting a satisfactory and permanent bulwarkagainst the future inroads of famine? Shall we not rather be increasingthe public revenue for future years by millions of pounds and thatwithout adding a single new tax, or relying upon sources so uncertainand detrimental to the public welfare as those founded upon theconsumption of drugs and liquors that destroy the health of the people?Shall we not again be increasing the stability and glory of the Empirein caring for its destitute masses and in turning what is now a dangerto the State into a peaceful, prosperous and contented community? Andfinally will not our Poor Man's Paradise be infinitely superior fromevery point of view to the miserable regulation _workhouse_, that is inother countries offered by the State, or again to the system ofcharitable doles and wholesale beggary that at present exists? To me itseems that there is indeed no comparison between the two, and GeneralBooth's book has opened out a vista of happiness to the poor, such as weshould hardly have conceived possible save in connection with aChristian millennium or a Hindoo "_Kal Yug. _"

But it may be objected by some that in providing those outlets for thedestitute, we should in the end only aggravate the difficulty byenormously increasing the population. This reminds one of the giganticfolly of the miser with his hoards of gold. An amusing eastern anecdoteis told of one who having gone two or three miles to say his prayers toa mosque suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to put out an oillamp before leaving home. He at once retraced his steps and on reachinghis house called out to the servant girl to be sure and put out thelight. She replied that she had already done so, and that it was a pityhe had wasted his shoe leather in walking back so far to remind her. Tothis he answered that he had already thought of this and had thereforetaken off his shoes and carried them under his arm so as not to wearthem out!

And here you have a wretched class of miserly so-called "_economists_"who are afraid to light their lamp, lest they should burn the oil, andwho would rather sleep in the darkness, doing nothing, or break theirnecks fumbling about in their vain efforts to do little, when for afarthing dip they may put in hours of profitable toil! And when a shoeis provided for the swollen foot of a nation they are so afraid ofwasting their shoe leather, that they would rather hobble about belamedwith thorns, stones, heat, or cold, than lay out the little that isnecessary to bring them so ample a return!

Each labourer represents to the state what the piece of gold is to themiser. He is the human capital of the nation and is capable of producingannual interest at the rate of at least a hundred per cent, if placed insufficiently favourable circumstances. What folly is it then, nay whatculpable negligence, nay what nothing short of criminality to sink thishuman gold in the bogs of beggary and destitution! Man is the mostwonderful piece of machinery that exists in the world! The cleverestinventions of human science sink into insignificance in comparison withhim! The whole universe is so planned that his services _cannot_ bedispensed with and indeed he is at the same time the most beautifulornament and the essential keystone of the entire fabric! The utmostthat science itself can do is to increase his productive powers. 

But the idea of dispensing with the service of a single human being, orof consigning him hopelessly to the perdition of beggary, destitution, famine and pestilence is the most stupendous act of folly conceivable. What should we think of a railway company that would shunt half itsengines on to a siding and leave them to the destructive influence ofrain and dust? And how shall we characterise the stupidity that shallshunt millions of serviceable human beings into circumstances of miseryso appalling as well as of uselessness so entire, as those which we haveendeavoured to picture? Why, here we have not even the decency of asiding! These wonderfully made semi-Divine human engines are suffered toobstruct the very main lines on which our expresses run, not onlywrecked themselves, but the fruitful cause of wreckage to millions more!

But I have said enough I trust to show that the problem is not ahopeless one, and that the portion of General Booth's scheme to whichthis chapter refers is particularly applicable to India and capable ofbeing successfully put into operation on a scale commensurate with thenecessities of the hour. 

Having obtained our territory we should proceed to mark it out, and todirect into the most advantageous channels, the inflowing tide ofimmigration. There would be a threefold division into agriculturaldistricts which would furnish food for the incoming population, apastoral district for the cattle, and a central market, which wouldfurnish the pivot on which all the rest would work. Our agricultural anddairy farm proposal I have already fully discussed and will now proceedto describe the social City of Refuge which will act as a sort of solarsystem round which all the minor constellations would revolve. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE SOCIAL CITY OF REFUGE. 

I am tempted again to turn to Hebrew history to find a parallel for whatwould I believe be easily accomplished at an early period in connectionwith our "Poor Man's Paradise. " I refer to what was styled the "City ofRefuge. " The object of this institution was to provide a temporaryshelter for those who had unintentionally killed any one, so that theymight escape from "the avenger of blood. " If on inquiry it could beproved that the death was purely accidental, the fugitive was entitledto claim protection until by the death of the high priest, the bloodshould have been expiated when he would be free to return to his homeand people. If, on the other hand, it were a case of premeditatedmurder, the city authorities were bound to hand over the fugitive tojustice. 

The careful provision made by the Hebrew law for the occasionalmanslayer surely casts a severe reflection on the millions who, many ofthem through no fault of their own, represent the submerged tenth! Letus leave for the time being the wilful criminals who are the openenemies of society to be dealt with as severely as you like by the armof the law. Turn for a moment a pitying gaze towards those hungrydestitute multitudes, who cannot it may be, plead their own cause, butwhose woes surely speak with an eloquence that no mere words could evermatch! Why should we not provide them with a City of Refuge, where theywill have a chance of regaining their feet? If it be urged that theirnumbers preclude such a possibility, we would reply that it has alreadybeen proved in the previous chapter, that this will in really makeour task the more easy. The impetus and enthusiasm created by a movementin mass tends largely to ensure its success. 

If on the other hand it be urged that our object is to divert the flowof population from cities to villages, it must be remembered that thisdoes not preclude the creation of new towns and cities, which shallfurnish convenient centres and markets for the surrounding villages. Itis not a part of General Booth's scheme to abolish cities, but rather todispose suitably of their superfluous population. And no doubt in courseof time the world will be covered not only with suburban farms andindustrial villages, but with cities which for commercial importance andin other respects will rival any that now exist. 

I am the more encouraged to believe that this will be particularlypracticable in India for the following reasons. 

1. We have an enormous population close at hand. If at a distance of12, 000 to 14, 000 miles, England can build its Melbournes, Sydneys andAdelaides, surely it does not require a very great stretch ofimagination to suppose that here in our very midst with millions uponmillions of people at disposal we shall be able to repeat what hasalready been elsewhere accomplished under circumstances so speciallydisadvantageous. 

2. Again let it be remembered that in this case we should have thespecial advantage of carrying out the work on a carefully organised planand in connection with a scheme possessing immense ramifications allover India and the world. 

3. Once more, India supplies labor at the cheapest conceivable rate, sothat the cost would be infinitesimal as compared with the othercountries just mentioned. 

4. Another important fact is that the laborers are accustomed to bepaid in kind, and to carry on a system of exchange of goods which willfurther minimise the cost of the undertaking. 

5. A still more encouraging element in the solving of our Indian problemis the fact that nearly every native is a skilled artizan and you canhardly meet with one who has not from childhood been taught somehandicrafts. Indeed the majority both of men and women are acquaintedwith two or three different trades, besides being accustomed fromchildhood to draw their own water, wash their clothes and do theircooking. Hence it is impossible to find a more self-helpful race in theworld. 

6. Again this very thing has been already done in India itself, especially by its great Mahommedan rulers, hundreds of years ago, andthat under circumstances, which made the undertaking infinitely moredifficult than would now be the case. What was possible to them then, isequally possible to us now. 

7. Finally in the midst of some of the very waste tracts of which wehave spoken may be found cities which were once the flourishing centresof as large and enterprising a population as can anywhere be seen. Whyshould not such places be restored to their former prosperity instead ofbeing handed over to become "the habitation of owls and dragons. "

The selection of the site of the future city would of course be madewith due reference to advantages of climate, water, and communicationand it would be planned out previous to occupation with everyconsideration of convenience, health, and economy. Gangs of workmenwould precede the arrival of the regular inhabitants, though we shouldlargely rely upon the latter to build for themselves such simple yetsufficiently substantial dwellings as would meet the necessities of thecase. We might reasonably anticipate, moreover, that the influx ofpopulation would attract of its own accord a certain proportion ofwell-to-do capitalists, for whom a special quarter of the town could bereserved and to whom special facilities could be granted for theirencouragement, consistent with the general well-being of the community. 

It would be easy to fill many pages with a description of the internalcolony, the business routine, the simple recreations, the practicalsystem of education for the children and the lively religious servicesthat would constitute the daily life of the City of Refuge. Suffice itto say that we should spare no pains to promote in every way thetemporal and spiritual welfare of its inhabitants, to banish drunkennessand immorality, to guard against destitution and to establish a happyholy Godfearing community, that would constitute a beacon of light andhope not only for its own immediate surroundings but far and wide forall India and the East. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

SUPPLEMENTARY BRANCHES OF THE COUNTRY COLONY. 

(1. ) _Public Works_--

While the central idea of the entire system will be that of providingpermanent, as contrasted with temporary work for the destitute, there isno reason why the former should not be supplemented by the latter. Thegreat public works which at present afford occasional relief forthousands would still be possible, only provision would be made for theredistribution of the masses of labour thus withdrawn from the ordinarychannels as soon as the public work in question was completed. 

For this again we possess a scriptural parallel in the "levy out of allIsrael" raised by King Solomon, consisting of thirty thousand men whowere sent "to Lebanon ten thousand a month by courses; a month they werein Lebanon and two months at home. " In addition to the above we findthat he employed seventy thousand "that bare burdens" and eightythousand "hewers in the mountains, beside the officers which were overthe work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the peoplethat wrought in the work. " It was the elaborate organisation of theselaborers, and the provision for their spending a certain proportion oftheir time at home, which enabled Solomon to carry out his great publicworks without seriously deranging the labor market, or hindering theprosperity of the nation. I have selected this instance because it isfrom well authenticated sources, goes fully into details and refers to anation and country very much resembling India. Indeed it is almostidentical with the familiar Indian institution known as "begar" orforced labour. 

The weak point of such special efforts is that they tend to leavethings in a worse position than ever when they are concluded. Nobodysits down to calculate what is to become of the thousands who have beendrawn together, often hundreds of miles from their homes, when the timecomes for them to be paid off. They are thrown bodily upon the labormarket and left to shift for themselves as best they can, without anymeans of informing themselves where they ought to go, or into what otherchannels they can most profitably direct their labor. 

This evil we hope to obviate by means of our Labor Bureaux, which willbe planted in every city and district, and will keep such elaboratereturns as will enable to watch all the fluctuations of the labormarket. 

For instance let us be informed of the fact that a railway is to beopened, a canal dug, or some other public work constructed in aparticular district, we should be able to calculate from our returns theamount of labor that could conveniently be withdrawn from existingchannels, and the amount that would have to be imported. 

We should be able to constitute a Solomon's levy (voluntary of course), and the laborers would have the assurance that when the work on whichthey were engaged was concluded, sufficient provision would be made fortheir reemployment elsewhere, or for their restoration to their ordinaryoccupation. Our Labor Bureau would thus do for the laborer what is atpresent impossible for him to do for himself, and would economise histime to the utmost. 

(2. ) _Off to the Tea Gardens_--

We should be able again to supply the Tea and Coffee Districts withgangs of laborers, and should guard the interests of both employer andemployed. The former would be supplied with picked laborers at theordinary market rate, without the worry, delay and expense of having toprocure them for themselves. The latter would be kept in communicationwith their families, and could be worked in "courses" on Solomon's plan. 

(3. ) _Land along the Railways_--

Among other proposals General Booth suggests that the land along theRailway lines might well be utilised for the purpose of spade husbandry. There seems no reason why these extensive strips of often fertile soilshould be left to go to waste, conveniently situated as they are onborders of the main arteries of commerce and in close vicinity tostations. 

(4. ) _Improved methods of Agriculture_--

This is a subject which deserves a chapter to itself in a country likeIndia. If it be true that there are millions of acres of waste land thatare only waiting to be cultivated to yield a rich return, it is equallynotorious that by improved methods of agriculture the present produce ofthe soil may be doubled and trebled. To this subject we intend to paythe full attention that it deserves, making the best possible use ofNative experience and European science. We shall be in a peculiarlyfavorable situation for experiments on a large scale. But this is asubject on which we cannot at present do more than touch, reserving fora future period the elaboration of schemes which will doubtless have anenormous reflexive effect upon the whole of India, and thus materiallyincrease the wealth of the entire country and the revenue of theGovernment. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE OVER-SEA COLONY. 

As in England, so in India, the establishment of a colony over the seawill in the end prove the necessary completion of our scheme forsupplying work to the workless. There are sure to be found eventually inovercrowded centres many for whom work at home cannot be found, and forwhom vast reaches of unoccupied territories in other lands wait toafford a home. 

Happily this will not be an immediate necessity in India. Over theextended area occupied by the various races which comprise the IndianEmpire, large tracts of land still wait to be conquered by well-directedindustry, and the numerous settlements which it will be possible to formin different parts of the country may for some time to come absorb thesurplus labour, add to the wealth of the country, the stability of theEmpire and the more rapid advancement of the Kingdom of Christ. Since, however, we must look forward to emigration as the ultimate solution ofthe problem which confronts us, we shall briefly indicate the lines uponwhich we propose to carry it out. 

In the establishment of Over-sea Colonies we shall follow very closelythe lines laid down in "Darkest England. "

At present the continuous stream of emigrant labour flowing intoexisting colonies already overstocked with labor, is creating seriousdifficulties, and we have no idea of relieving a congested labour marketin one country by overstocking another: this would be, not to heal thedisorder, but only to shift the locality. 

It may not be generally known how extensively emigration is alreadyresorted to by the people of India. We know that the impression isabroad that Indians will not leave their country, that they fear thesea, are too much attached to their home and their customs, and are fartoo much filled with the dread of losing caste to yield to any pressurethat may be brought to bear upon them to quit the shores of their ownland for foreign fields of labour. As a matter of fact, however, emigration to a considerable extent already exists. 

In Ceylon alone there are nearly 300, 000 Tamil coolies employed on theTea Estates, besides hundreds of thousands more who have permanentlysettled in various parts of the Island. Vast tracts in the Island arestill waiting to be occupied. The former population of Ceylon isvariously estimated as having been from twelve to thirty millions, --nowit is only three! Is it impossible for us to suppose that it can berestored to its former prosperity? Immense tanks and irrigation workscover the entire country in tracts which are now unoccupied and desolate. Many of these have been restored by Government, and there are now100, 000 acres of irrigable land in that country, only waiting to beoccupied and cultivated. Government is ready to give it on easy terms. Here, then, alone is a wide and hopeful field for Indian emigration, only requiring to be skilfully directed in order to find a home andliving for millions of India's destitute. 

Now what we propose to do is not to check the stream of emigration, noryet to help it to flow on in its present channel until it overflows itsbanks and engulfs in ruin the colonies it might have enriched, butrather to dig out new channels, founding entirely new colonies indistricts yet unoccupied, on the plan laid down in "Darkest England. "

The stream which, diverted into 20 or 30 channels, would enrich andfertilize a whole continent, would if confined to one or two channelsburst its banks and become a desolating flood. 

We shall ourselves become the leaders of the coolies, and dig outchannels in Ceylon, in Africa, in South America, and other countries, building up from entirely new centres new colonies and territories andkingdoms where the Indian colonist would find himself not a stranger ina strange land, unwelcome, neglected, or illtreated, but at home in anew India, more prosperous and happy than the one he had left behind, --acolony peopled and possessed and managed by those of his own race andlanguage. 

Emigration carried on simply in the interests of those who promote itand derive a profit out of it, without regard to the needs of thedistricts to which they are exported, and with absolute disregard to thecomfort and convenience of the emigrant, and often attended withheartless cruelties, must necessarily be fraught with grave evils. Thesewe believe we should largely be able to obviate. In vessels chartered byourselves or in some way under our direction, and with every comfort andconvenience which can be secured for the limited sum available for costof transit, for men, women, and children, under the directsuperintendence of our own trained officers, what a curtailment of humansuffering and shame there will be in the transit of the Colonist alone!On his arrival he will be met by those who, if strangers, are hisfriends, and who will secure for him comfortable quarters, communicate, or enable the emigrant to communicate, with his friends at home, introduce him to the particular industry to which he is assigned, andwho will not cease their personal care of him until he is happilysettled in his new home, and who will afterwards be available foradvice and counsel. He will find himself, not amongst people who areeager to secure their own profit at his expense, but a part of acommonwealth where each is taught to seek the good of his neighbour, andwhere the laws are framed to secure and perpetuate this desirablecondition of things. A community where the blessings of home andeducation and sanitary laws and religion are valued and made availablefor all, and where liberty, which nowhere shines so sweetly as amongst afrugal, industrious, intelligent, simple and godly people, reigns intruth. 

Moreover, our widely extended operations, our connection and onenesswith the great social movement of the Army in various lands, and theregulations which will control the movement, will enable us invariablyto convey our colonists to fields where their labours will be of thegreatest value, and instantly to check any tendency to excess of labourat any given centre, and even at times to greatly relieve temporarygluts in the labor market arising from unforeseen circumstances. 

In short, it is scarcely possible to overrate the blessings likely toflow from Colonies where drink and opium will be unprocurable, wherevice will be repressed, where greed will receive little encouragementand have few opportunities to grow, and where the comparative absence ofpoverty on the one hand, and of extreme wealth on the other and thegeneral contentment of the people, will make life on earth a joy tothose who were once nearly starved out of it. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

MISCELLANEOUS AGENCIES. 

(1) THE INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT. 

In connection with our Labor Bureau we shall establish an intelligencedepartment, the duty of which will be to collect all kinds ofinformation likely to be of use in prosecuting our Social Reform. 

For instance, it would watch the state of the labor market, wouldascertain where there was a lack of labor and where a glut, would informthe public of the progress of the movement, would bring to our noticeany newspaper criticisms or suggestions, and would generally make itselfuseful in a thousand ways. 

(2) THE POOR MAN'S LAWYER. 

This would meet a long-felt want, and could also be worked in connectionwith the Labor Bureau. 

The poor would be able to get sound legal advice in regard to theirdifficulties, and we should be able to help them in their defence wherewe believed them to be wronged. 

(3) THE INQUIRY OFFICE FOR MISSING FRIENDS. 

This has been established for some time in England with admirablesuccess, our worldwide organization enabling us to trace people underthe most unfavorable circumstances. No doubt there would be much scopefor such a department in India. At the outset it would form part of theduties of the Labor Bureau, and would not therefore entail any extraexpense. 

(4) THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU. 

A thoroughly confidential matrimonial bureau which would wisely advisepeople desirous of getting married, would certainly be of great servicein India. Its operations would no doubt be small in the beginning, butas it got to be known and trusted it would be more and more resorted to. 

Even supposing that outsiders should hold aloof from it, we should havea large inside constituency to whom its operations would be veryvaluable, and it would be thoroughly in accordance with native notionsfor the mutual negotiations to be carried on in such a way. 

Missionaries are everywhere largely resorted to in regard to questionsof this kind; and we have every reason to believe that it would be sowith ourselves, and we should thus be able largely to guard our peopleagainst ill-assorted matches, and to furnish them with wise counsel onthe subject. 

(5) THE EMIGRATION BUREAU. 

The subject of emigration has been already referred to elsewhere. Nodoubt we shall ultimately require a separate and special office for thispurpose in all the chief cities but at the outset its duties would fallupon the Labor Bureau and Intelligence Departments who would collect allthe information they could preparatory to the launching of this part ofthe scheme. 

(6) PERIODICAL MELAS. 

In place of the "Whitechapel by the sea" proposed by General Booth, asuitable Indian substitute would I think consist of periodical "melas"similar to those already prevalent in various parts of the country. 

These might be arranged with the treble object of religiousinstruction, bodily recreation, and in order to find an occasionalspecial market for the surplus goods that we produce. 

Everything would be managed with military precision. The place would bepreviously prepared for the reception of the people. An attractiveprogramme would be arranged. Everybody would be made to feel comfortableand at home. And no effort would be spared to make the occasion morallyand spiritually profitable, as well as valuable for the relaxation itafforded to the bodies of those who attended, and financially profitablefor the purpose of our Social Reform work. 

CHAPTER XX. 

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

In order to put the whole of the foregoing machinery into motion on anextensive scale, there can be no doubt that economise as we may, aconsiderable outlay will be unavoidable. True we are able to supplyskilled leadership under devoted and self-sacrificing men and women fora merely nominal cost. True we have Europeans willing to live on thecheap native diet, and to assimilate themselves in dress, houses andother manners to the people amongst whom they live. True that we haveraised up around us an equally devoted band of Natives, in whoseintegrity we have the fullest confidence and whose ability and knowledgeof the country will prove of valuable service to us in the carrying outof our scheme. True that around our 450 European and Native officers, wehave enlisted and drilled a force of several thousands of earnestsoldiers of the Cross, who are pledged abstainers from all intoxicatingliquors and drugs, who have renounced all forms of impurity andsin, --who have promised to devote their lives to the social, moral andspiritual regeneration of their fellow countrymen, --who are accustomedto pray and preach in their leisure hours, without being paid a cowriefor doing so, and who not only support themselves and their families bytheir labor, but contribute for the support of their officers. 

Nevertheless, while it is a fact that this cheap and efficient agencyexists for the carrying out of the reforms that have been sketched inthe foregoing pages, --it cannot be denied that a considerable sum ofmoney will be needed for the successful launching of the scheme. 

Once fairly started, we have every reason to believe that the planshere laid down will not only prove strictly self-supporting, but willyield such a margin of profit as will ultimately enable us to set onfoot wholesale extensions of the scheme. No doubt there will be localdisappointments and individual failures. We are dealing with humannature, and must anticipate that this will be the case. But theproportion of success will far outweigh the fraction of failure, andwhen the profits and losses of the scheme came to be balanced year byyear we have no doubt that socially, physically, morally and financiallywe shall be able to show so enormous a gain that the most unreasonableof our critics will be silenced. 

And yet when we come face to face with the details of the scheme, wefind that the scale of our operations must necessarily depend on theamount of capital with which we are able to start. The City Colony, withits Labor Bureau, Labor Yards, Food Depōts, Prison and Rescue Homes, andSalvage Brigade, will involve a considerable initial expense. Althoughwe are able to supply an efficient supervising staff for a mere fractionof the ordinary cost, --rents of land and buildings will have to paid. And although work will be exacted from those who resort to our Yards andHomes, yet the supply of food to the large numbers who are likely toneed our help will at the outset probably cost us more than we are ableto recover from the sale of the goods produced. 

The Country Colony, with its Industrial Villages, Suburban Farms, andWaste Settlements, will involve a still heavier outlay of capital. Thereis every reason to believe that we may look for an ample return. Indeedthe financial prospects of this branch of the scheme are more hopefulthan these of the City Colony. But to commence on a large scale willinvolve no doubt a proportionate expenditure. We may hope indeed thatGovernment, Native States and private landowners will generously assistus to overcome these difficulties by grants of land, and advances ofmoney and other concessions. Still we must anticipate that aconsiderable portion of the financial burden and responsibility incommencing such an enterprise must of necessity fall upon us. 

The Over-Sea Colony may for the present be postponed, and hence we havenot now to consider what would be the probable expenses. But omittingthis, and having regard only to the City and Country Colonies, I believethat to make a commencement on a fairly extensive scale we shall requirea sum of one lakh of rupees. We do not pretend that with this sum at ourcommand we can do more than make a beginning. It would be idle tosuppose that the miseries of twenty-five millions of people could beannihilated at a stroke for such a sum. 

We do believe however that by sinking such a sum we should be able tomanufacture a road over which a continuous and increasing mass of theSubmerged would be able to liberate themselves from their presentmiserable surroundings and rise to a position of comparative comfort. 

We are confident moreover that the profits, or shall we call them thetolls paid by those who passed over this highway, would enable usspeedily to construct a second, which would be broader and better thanthe first. The first two would multiply themselves to four, the four toeight, the eight to sixteen, till the number and breadth of these socialhighways would be such as to place deliverance within easy reach of allwho desired it. 

The sum we ask for is less than a tithe of what has been so speedilyraised in England for the rescue of a far smaller number of thesubmerged. And yet there may be those who will think that we are askingfor too much. But when I see far larger sums expended on the erection, or support of a single Hospital, or Dharamsala, and when I remember thatIndian philanthropy has covered the country with such, I am tempted toexclaim "What is this among so many?"

Surely it would be a libel upon Indian philanthropy and generosity toask for less, in launching a scheme, which has received the heartysupport of multitudes of persons so well able to form a judgment as toits feasibility and soundness, and this too after having been submittedto the most searching criticisms that human ingenuity could suggest! Atany rate this we can promise, that whatever may be given will be laidout carefully to the best possible advantage. A special annual balancesheet will show how the money entrusted to our care has been expended, and if the success of the work be not sufficient to justify itsexistence, it will always be easy for the public to withhold thosesupplies on which we must continue to depend for the prosecution of ourenterprise. 

Looking at the future however in the light of the past history of theSalvation Army, both in India, and especially in those other parts ofthe world, where its organization has had more time to develop and fewerobstacles to contend with, we are confident that the results will besuch as to repay a hundred fold every effort made and every rupee laidout in promoting the welfare of India. And even supposing thatcomparative failure should result, we should have the satisfaction ofknowing that

 "'Tis better to have tried and failed, Than never to have tried at all!"

The anathemas of posterity will alight upon the heads, not of those whohave made a brave effort to better the evils that surround them, but ofthose who by their supineness helped to ensure such failure, or by theiractive opposition paralysed the efforts and discouraged the hearts ofthose who, but for them, might either have wholely succeeded inaccomplishing what all admit to be so desirable, or might at least havebeen far nearer reaching their goal than was possible owing to thedog-in-the-manger obstructions of those who had neither the heart tohelp, nor the brains to devise, nor the courage to execute, what othersmight have dared and done!

CHAPTER XXI. 

A PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. 

In proposing at once to deal with the problem of lifting out of the jawsof starvation India's poorest and darkest however impossible it may lookto some, we have the immense advantage and encouragement which arisesfrom the fact that General Booth's scheme (which I have followed asclosely as the widely differing conditions of Indian society wouldadmit) has already received the all but universal approval of the bestand ablest in Europe from the Queen downwards. It has in fact socommended itself to the general public that men of all shades ofreligious belief, men of no belief at all, men of every political party, and from every rank of society have not only heartily approved butcontributed already £100, 000 for the carrying out of the project. Moreover, some of its most important details have already had applied tothem both in England and Australia the valuable test of experience. 

There is one question which may start up in the mind of the reader andthat is, granted that the scheme is sure to prove successful in England, is it not still probable that, owing to the complex arrangements ofcaste and religion in India any such scheme would meet with failure. Tothis I answer in the first place, that all will be helped, irrespectiveof their creed, and any change of opinions on their part will be purelyvoluntary, since no compulsion, beyond that of love and moral suasion, is intended to be used. Moreover, drowning men are not too particular asto the means available for their rescue. They would rather be draggedout of the water by the hair of their heads than left to drown, or wouldrather be lifted out feet foremost than left to be devoured byalligators. If it be true that starving men are driven by hunger tocommit theft solely that they may be sent to jail where at least theywill get food and be saved for a time from the hunger-wolf, how can wedoubt but that thousands will hail with gladness a deliverance which isnot only a deliverance from want and starvation, but the opening out ofa brighter path for their whole future. 

The blessed example set by hundreds of men and women in our ranks whohave given up friends, parents, home, prospects and everything theypossess to walk barefooted beneath India's burning sun in order to seekthe weal of its people cannot fail I believe to stir up the rich andwell-to-do, nay _all_ but those too poor to help, --to make somesacrifice to heal the unutterable woes, and to sweeten the hard andbitter lot of those who, often through no fault of their own, havefallen in the battle of life, and who have been all but crushed andcursed out of existence by misfortunes which are to some extent at leastwithin our power to remedy. 

True lovers of India (and nothing is more encouraging than the splendidmanner in which the intelligence of this country is arousing itself tothoughtful active effort for the weal of the nation, putting aside alldifferences of race and religion, that it may unite to seek the commongood, ) true lovers of India, we say, will never allow differences inrace and religion to hinder them in a question affecting the well-beingof some 26, 000, 000 of people who are already a drag and a hindrance tothe rising prosperity of the nation, and who are sure if neglected tobecome a danger. No one asks about the religion of Stanley. His heroicmarch through the terrible forest, his rescue of Emin Pasha, hissuccessful achievement of that which to most men would have beenimpossible, have made him to be admired and praised in every land. 

Here we are proposing to rescue, not one Pasha and a handful of hisfollowers, but almost as many people as the entire population of GreatBritain. We stand at the edge of this forest. We know something of itbefore we enter. We are not dismayed. We only ask you to meet the costof the expedition. Great armies of beggars and workless, and drunkardsand opium-eaters and harlots and criminals are going to be dragged outof these morasses, to bless the land which gave them birth with thewealth of their labor and to build new Indian Empires across the sea. 

A bold and daring expedition has been planned into this dark socialforest, with its dismal swamps, its pestilential vapours, its seeminglyendless night, to rescue and bring to the light of hope, to greenindustrial pastures and healthy heavenly breezes, its imprisonedvictims. May we not then, since men can be found to do and dare in sucha godlike enterprise, confidently claim the enthusiastic interest andthe practical help of all good men, no matter when or how they worshipthe great Eternal Father of the human race!

If any one should object that is an impossible enterprise, we answer, who can tell? Why indeed impossible, seeing that millions of acres waitto be tilled and to yield their treasures to the unfed mouths ofworkless labourers? Why impossible, since hundreds of thousands aresaying, it is not charity, we crave, but the privilege to work and earnour bread? Why impossible, when willing hearts and hands are ready tospring forward and at any cost dive into this dark forest and bring thehungry mouths into the fostering care of the fruitful earth? Whyimpossible, when a mass of unproductive wealth waits to serve someuseful purpose and bless its holder, bringing back to him a hundred percent, if he will but lend it to his God by giving it to the poor?

We have portrayed with studied moderation the dark regions of woe. Wehave laid before you with careful explicitness the scheme or remedy. Wehave endeavoured to anticipate and answer all objections. And now it isfor you to make this great enterprise possible by uniting to subscribethe sum we ask for, as necessary to float the scheme. 

We have built our deliverance ship in the dockyard of loving design, wehave wrought her plates, riveted her bolts, fixed her masts, put in herboilers and engines, fitted her and supplied her with gear. It is yourprivilege to launch her--to draw the silver bolt and permit her to leavethe stocks and glide down into the dark deep sea of misery and land onheavenly shores the drowning submerged millions. 

We believe that your response will be worthy of you. Coming generationswill thank you, and the blessings of them that were ready to perish willrest upon you, and the God of the fatherless and the widow will rememberyou for good. 

APPENDIX. 

_The Poor Whites and Eurasians. _

It will doubtless be noticed that I have excluded the consideration ofthis question from the foregoing pages. This has been decided on, thoughwith considerable hesitation, for the following reasons:--

1. Numerically they are much fewer than the submerged India of which wehave been speaking. 

2. Influential charitable agencies already exist, whose special duty itis to care for them; any effort on our part to apply General Booth'sscheme to them would probably be regarded by those societies as a workof supererogation, and would be likely to be received by them with aconsiderable measure of opposition. 

3. The circumstances and surroundings of the European and Eurasiancommunity are so different that the scheme will require considerablereadaptation. Indeed the subject will need a pamphlet to itself, and Ihave found it impossible to work it harmoniously into the presentscheme. 

4. I am convinced moreover that this is a _subsidiary_ question, andthat our main efforts _must_ be directed towards reaching and upliftingthe purely Indian submerged. 

5. Should however the question be pressed upon us hereafter, we shall bequite prepared to take it up and deal with it systematically andradically on the lines laid down by General Booth. I have studied withconsiderable care and interest the writings of the late Mr. White onthis important matter, and believe that if the necessary funds wereforthcoming, it would be comparatively easy for us to adapt the DarkestEngland Scheme to the necessities of this important class. 

PUBLIC OPINION ON GENERAL BOOTH'S SOCIAL SCHEME. 

_Her Majesty the Queen-Empress cordially sympathises. _

Her Majesty says "The Queen cannot of course express any opinion on thedetails of the scheme, but understanding that your object is toalleviate misery and suffering, her Majesty cordially wishes you successin the undertaking you have originated. "

_His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, _

Writes to express his hearty interest in the scheme and is seenearnestly studying the book and making notes upon it. 

_The Empress Frederick reads the book with interest. _

THE EMPRESS FREDERICK'S PALACE, BERLIN, _November_ 1, 1890. 

Count Seckendorff begs leave to acknowledge by command of her Majestythe Empress Frederick the receipt of General Booth's book in "DarkestEngland and the way out. " Count Seckendorff is commanded to say that herMajesty will read the book with special interest. 

_The Earl of Aberdeen expresses his sympathy. _

In common with thousands of others I have been studying your "plan ofcampaign. " Last night I saw Mr. Bancroft's letter. I think he hasperformed a public service in coming forward in this spirited manner atthe present time. Those who have been in any way associated with past orexisting efforts on behalf of the classes which you aim at reachingshould reasonably be amongst the first to welcome a scheme so practical, so comprehensive, and so carefully devised as that which you have placedbefore the country. I shall be happy to become one of the hundredcontributors who according to Mr. Bancroft's proposal shall each beresponsible for £1, 000 on the condition specified. With the offer ofsympathy, and the assurance of hearty good wishes, I remain, yours very faithfully, ABERDEEN. 

_The Earl of Airlie Subscribes. _

"The Earl of Airlie has forwarded towards General Booth's fund a chequefor £1, 000. "

_The Marquis of Queensberry offers his services. _

GLENLEE, NEW GALLOWAY, N. B. , _November_ 21. 

My Dear General Booth--I have read your book "In Darkest England" withthe greatest interest, also with thrills of horror that things should beas bad as they are. 

I send you a cheque for £100, and shall feel compelled if your scheme iscarried out to give you a yearly subscription. You say you wantrecruits. When I come to town I should very much like to see you to talkthis matter over, for I see no cause which a man could more put hisheart and soul into than this one of endeavouring to alleviate thisfearful misery of our fellow-creatures. I see you quote Carlyle in yourbook, but is it possible for any one like myself, who is even morebitterly opposed than he was against what to me is the Christianfalsehood, to work with you! We have two things to do as things are atpresent--first to endeavour to alleviate the present awful sufferingthat exists to the best of our abilities, and surely this ought to be astate affair; and secondly to get at the roots of the evils and bychanging public opinion gradually develop a different state of thingsfor future generations, when this help will not be so necessary. I donot wish to get into a religious controversy with you on how this is tobe brought about, but I tell you I am no Christian and am bitterlyopposed to it. A tree, I believe, is to be judged by its fruits. Christianity has been with us many hundreds of years. 

What can we think of it when its results are as they are at present withthe poor whom Christ, I believe, you say informed us we should alwayshave with us. I know nothing about other worlds, beyond that I seethousand around me whom I presume look after their own affairs. Itappears to me our common and plainest duty to help and to try and changethe lot of our suffering fellow creatures here on this earth. You canpublish this if you please, but without suppressing any of it. If notand any notice is given of subscriptions as I see you are doing, I begit may be notified that I send this mite as a reverent agnostic to ourcommon cause of humanity. 

Yours faithfully, QUEENSBERRY. 

_Lord Scarborough is amongst its supporters. _

"Lord Scarborough, writing from Lumley Castle Chester-le-street, hassubscribed £50. "

_Mr. And Mrs. Gladstone lend to it the weight of their influence. _

"Mr. Gladstone has already expressed has interest in the scheme and nowMr. And Mrs. Gladstone with a like kindly expression forward £50 towardsit. "

_Mr. Pickersgill, M. P. , looks upon it with increasing favour. _

At the New Debating Society, Haverstook Hill, Mr. Pickersgill, M. P. , said when he first began to read the book he did not approach it withany particularly favourable feelings towards the Salvation Army. Hethought that the scheme was the most plausible ever devised. There wasin it a happy blending of the ideal with the practical, and a nicebalancing of its various parts in the attempt to solve the probleminvolved in the question "Can we get back to the ordinary conditions oflife as they exist in a small healthy community. "

_The Bishop of Durham reviews the Scheme. _

Speaking on Thursday night at the closing meeting of the General ChurchMission at Sunderland, the Bishop of Durham said that just now men weretalking on all sides of a great scheme which had been set forth fordealing with some of the social sorrows of our age. The remarkable bookin which it was sketched was well calculated to present, in a most vividcombination, the various forms of work to which Christian men must bringthe power of their faith. It brought together with remarkable skill thedifferent problems which were pressed upon them; it allowed them to gaina view of the whole field and something of the relation of the differentparts one to another. For his own part he trusted that many might bestirred to some unwonted exertion. 

_The Bishop of Lincoln thanks the General. _

"I thank you heartily for the book you have sent me. The name of it isalready well known to English Churchmen, and its object is one in which, we all agree. 

"The Cross of Christ is the only effectual remedy for the great mass ofvice and wretchedness in our large towns, to which you are endeavouringto call public attention; and we must not be content with presentingthat Cross in words alone, but must endeavour to show, by our personalefforts and example, how it may practically be applied so as to purifythe lives and quicken the hopes of those amongst our countrymen who arenow as much strangers to its power as the inhabitants of darkestAfrica. "

_The Bishop of Bath and Wells values the book. _

"I beg to acknowledge, with very many thanks, the receipt of your letterand the volume of your work, 'In Darkest England, ' which you have beenso good as to send me. I shall read it with much interest, both from thedeep importance of the subject, whether viewed in its social, political, or Christian aspect, and also from its containing the opinion of one whohas had such universal opportunities as you have had of becomingacquainted with the wants of the lowest and most unhappy section of ourgreat population. "

_The Bishop of Rochester is glad to possess the book. _

The Bishop of Rochester writes that he hastens to thank Mr. Booth forsending him his book, and he is glad to possess it, and hopes it may beproductive of much good. He takes the opportunity of expressing hisprofound sympathy with him in Mrs. Booth's death. 

_The Bishop of Wakefield (Dr. Walsham How) studies the scheme withdeepest interest. _

I have just received your book, which you have so kindly sent me. I havealready bought a copy, which I shall give away. I am studying yourscheme with the deepest interest, and I trust and pray it may bringblessing and hope to many. May I venture to express my sympathy with youin your recent heavy bereavement? You do not sorrow as those that haveno hope. 

_Canon Farrar preaching at Westminster Abbey, says we are bound to helpthe scheme or find a better one. _

It was not difficult to see, as early as half past one on Sundayafternoon last, that something was about to take place in WestministerAbbey. A friendly policeman informed me that the service in the fine oldpile of buildings did not commence till three o'clock, but that as CanonFarrar was announced to preach, and upon such an all-absorbing topic asGeneral Booth's new book, people were bent upon securing a good positionby being in time. 

Some three-quarters of an hour before the service commenced the giganticbuilding was crowded, and the trooping multitudes only arrived at thedoors to find a crowd waiting for the least opportunity of getting in. It was reported that thousands were turned away. 

Canon Farrar had announced his subject as "Social Amelioration, " and atthe outset stated that he alone was responsible for the opinions heproposed to express in connection with General Booth's scheme. In a verymasterly and eloquent way he pictured the social evils which disgraceour civilisation, the small and ineffectual efforts being put forth fortheir removal, and the terrible responsibility resting upon us as anation to do our utmost to forward any scheme which appeared likely toeffect an amelioration. He proceeded:--

Well, here was General Booth's scheme, which he had examined, and withwhich he had been deeply struck. He pitied the cold heart which couldread and not be stirred by "Darkest England. " In his best judgment hebelieved the scheme to be full of promise if the necessary funds wereprovided, and he merely regarded it as his humble duty to render theundertaking such aid as he could. 

Had any such scheme been proposed by a member of the Church of England, he should have given it every support. He regarded the scheme assupplementing, not interfering with, the work of the Church, aspreparing for, not hindering, the Church's work. The scheme, although noChristian scheme could be wholly dislinked from religion, was yet mostprominently a social scheme; its origin was The Salvation Army, but itwas intended to promote the work of the common Church. 

Was the scheme to be thrown aside contemptuously at once on account ofprejudice, because it emanated from The Salvation Army? If any thoughtso, he blamed them not, but he for one declared he could not share theirviews. He was, perhaps, more widely separated from some of the methodsof the Salvation Army than many of his brethren, but the work of theArmy had not been unblessed, and there was much that might be learnedfrom an organisation which in so short a time had accomplished so greata work. He dwelt upon the nature of The Salvation Army's work, theofficers who were exerting themselves in connection with it, the numberof countries to which the organisation had spread. The Salvation Army inits work and extent had credentials which could not be denied. Were theyto stand coldly, finically aside because they were too refined and nice, and full of culture to touch this work of The Salvation Army with thepoint of the finger? He took it that he should fail grievously in hisduty if insult or self-interest caused him to hold aloof from anymovement which Christ, if He had been on earth, would have approved. 

Then Dr. Farrar quoted the late Bishop Lightfoot and the late CanonLiddon in favor of The Salvation Army as an organisation which hadaccomplished a deal of good work. 

Next he asked, "How shall we receive General Booth's scheme now that itis here to our hands?" With some people the simplest way of treating anyscheme for good was to leave it alone. To those who took that positionwith reference to General Booth's scheme he had nothing whatever to say. There was no need for saying anything either to the other class ofpeople who would talk about a scheme, and having talked about it dropthe matter and think no more about it. 

Another way in which General Booth's scheme might be received was thatof examining it, and if convinced against it of rejecting it. That, atall events, was a perfectly manly course; a clear and decided method ofreception which there can be no mistaking. To those included in thisclass, those who would regard the scheme as migratory or pernicious, there was nothing to be said. But what about those who did not mean tohelp in this or any other scheme, those who left others the burden ofthe work, the opportunists who would want to step in when the breach hadbeen made? Here, no doubt, there would be such a class, but the last wayof receiving General Booth's scheme, and the way in which as he trustedit would be received, was to support it by their influence, and to giveto it of their means. It was an immense and far-reaching scheme, which, might bring help and hope to thousands of the helpless and hopeless, made helpless and hopeless by the terrible conditions of society, butfor every one of whom Christ died. 

To begin the scheme in earnest would require a sum of £100, 000, but heasked, "What was that to the wealth of England--to the wealth ofLondon?" It was a mere drop in the ocean compared to what was every yearspent on drink and wasted in extravagance. There were a hundred men inEngland who might immortalise themselves by giving this sum, and yet nothave a luxury the less. He left the response to General Booth's appealwith the public, but would it not, he asked, be a desperate shame forEngland if any scheme giving so hopeful a promise of social ameliorationshould fail without a trial, and like a broken promise, be lost in air?

But to this observation somebody might reply in the form of a queriedobjection, "The scheme might fail. " _Yes, it might fail; anything mightfail. But if to die amid disloyalty and hatred meant failure, then St. Paul failed. If to die in the storm meant failure, then Luther andWesley and Whitfield failed; if to die at the stake by the flames meantfailure, did not martyrs fail; Finally, if to die on the cross, with thepriests and the soldiers spitting out hatred, meant failure, then JesusChrist failed. _ Yes, the scheme might fail; but was all this failure?Were there none among them bold enough to look beyond the possibility offailure? Could they not somehow get round the word? Fear and jealousyand suspicion and intolerance and despair were counsellors findingmultitudes to listen, but he for one would listen to the noblercounsellor "Hope. " Were none of them bold enough at the last moment toprefer even failure in a matter like this to the most brilliant successin pleasing the world and making truce with the devil? He would try tohope that the scheme might not fail, but what each one had to considerwas the question, "Shall it fail through my cowardice, my greed, mysupineness, my prudential cautiousness, my petty prejudices, my selfishconventionality?"

"If, on examining this plan in the light of conscience, we see in it anaugury for the removal of the deadly evils which lie at the heart of ourcivilisation, it seems to me we are bound to do our utmost to help itforward. 'But, ' you say, 'if we conscientiously disapprove of it?' Thenwe are in duty bound to propose or to forward

SOMETHING BETTER. 

"One way only is contemptible and accursed--that is, to make it a mereexcuse for envy, malice and depreciation. 

"He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear;but God shall be the judge between us, and His voice says in Scripture:'If thou forbear to deliver them that are bound unto death, and thosewho are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, "Behold, " we knew it not, doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it, and he that keepeththy soul, doth not He know it, and shall not He render to every manaccording to his work?'"

_Archdeacon Sinclair wishes the scheme success. _

Speaking at Bromley, Kent, on Friday night, in connection with theCanterbury diocese, of the Church of England Temperance Society, Archdeacon Sinclair referred to General Booth's scheme. He wished verygreat success to that courageous and large scheme. 

_The Rev. Brooke Lambert defends the scheme in the "Times. "_

There is much that is not new in the scheme. General Booth allows thatmuch. But there are two factors in his scheme which, if not new, atleast acquire a new prominence. These two factors are help and hope. Society drops these two h's. For help it substitutes money-giving, andas for hope for the disreputable, it has none. The personal contact ofGeneral Booth's workers, of his 10, 000 officers, is an essential featureof the scheme. They take the man or the woman as they enter the shelter, and prevent it from becoming a means of dissemination of crime, offilth, of disease. They stand by the new-fledged proselyte to work, toencourage perseverance. They follow him to the country colony, theabomination of desolation to one who has walked the London pavements andfound his heaven in the gin-palace and the music-hall, to stimulateeffort. They accompany him to the colony to remind him that true freedomis not licence, that the conditions of success are a change of mind andnot of climate. But for them, one might doubt whether the hope GeneralBooth conceives for the "submerged tenth" would be hope at all in theireyes. Nothing so difficult as to persuade the Londoner to go into thecountry, and the emigrant to keep to work away from the congenialinterludes of town pleasure. But once create this hope (and persistentreiteration can do much when the agent is a kindly man or woman) and youhave introduced a new element into the life of the wastrel. Our prisonsystem, growing in harshness, failed utterly to deter; with thereformatory system, based on the principle of making it to a man'sinterest to behave well within the walls, a new era dawned on criminallegislation. It is for these reasons that I look with deep interest onGeneral Booth's experiment. Do not let us say, "The experiment has beentried before; it is useless to attempt it again. " I believe there isenough of novelty in General Booth's scheme to justify a hope ofsuccess. But for past failures I can but say that people do not regardfailure as a ground for inaction when their interest is deeply involved. When I was a boy, some 45 years ago, I saw at the old Polytechnicexperiments in electricity: the electric light, the electric cautery, &c. For years I expected to see them introduced into the work-day world. Now, at last, they are coming into use, but I do not think the sharesstand at a very high premium. None the less electricity will one day beof universal use. That is what experiment in spite of failure has done;that is what we ought to do in social matters. When all is done, theresult will be comparatively small when compared with our aspirations, but it will create, as all good work does, new outlets for effort, newobjects for hope. 

BROOKE LAMBERT. 

_The Vicarage, Greenwich, Nov. 19. _

_Dr. Parker approves the General's Scheme. _

A report in the _Star_ says:--"Dr. Parker, preaching his one-minutesermon at the City Temple yesterday (Sunday) morning, said, 'I hopeGeneral Booth will get every penny he asked for. No man can make betteruse of money. I wish be would include other Englands in his scheme. There is another England, darker than the darkest he has in view. I meanthe England of genteel poverty and genteel misery. .. . These people arenot in the slums, but they are fast being driven in that direction. .. . From my point of view, one of the best features in General Booth'sscheme is that nobody is to receive anything for nothing. It is easy tothrow money away. Money we work for goes farthest. There is

NO STAIN OF PAUPERISM

upon it. 

DR. PARKER SAYS "NO BOARDS. "--Dr. Parker, addressing his congregation onThursday morning, said:--"General Booth spoke to me the other day at myhouse, amongst others, about boards of trustees and referees, and allthe rest of it, in reference to his scheme. I said that would spoil thewhole thing. I do not want any boards of reference. We have boardsenough and referees enough--(laughter)--and we do not want little men toassume an awful responsibility which Providence never meant them tohandle. They had better let a great governing spirit like General Boothmanage the whole thing in his own way. I am afraid I was even more of ademocrat than even General Booth suspected. (Laughter. ) I am anautocrat--I believe in one man doing a thing. Some persons imagine ifthey have got six little men together that they will total up into aBooth. The Lord makes His own Booths, and Moodys, and Spurgeons, andsends them out to do His work, and we shall do well to get out of theirway, except when we have anything to give of sympathy, money, prayer andassistance. Presently, some Thursday morning, I am going to give you achance of giving--which you will--to this great scheme. " (Applause. )

_Dr. Moulton, President of the Wesleyan Conference, is grateful for thelabour which the General has expended upon this problem. _

"No one can read your book without recognising the claim which you haveestablished on the sympathetic help of all Christian churches. Formyself, I am deeply grateful to you for the enormous labor which youhave expended on the great problem, and for your able treatment of itsdifficulties. "

_Revd. Alfred Rowland says he believes the working of the Scheme will befor the good of the people. _

Yesterday morning the Rev. Alfred Rowland preached at Park Chapel, Crouch End, the first portion of a sermon on General Booth's book. Thepreacher said the scheme was a noble, bold, and generous effort to reachthe masses. He believed the result of the working of the scheme would befor the good of the people at large. He asked them to give liberally tothe project, even if it was only an experiment, because he believed itwould succeed, and all he could do, financially and otherwise, he shouldbe pleased to do in support of the scheme. 

_A Collection for the Scheme is raised at City Church, Oxford. _

At the City Church, Oxford, on Sunday, the rector, the Rev. CarterelJ. H. Fletcher, preached at both morning and evening services in aid ofGeneral Booth's Social Salvation Fund, and the collections were devotedto the object. 

_Revd. H. Arnold Thomas makes a successful appeal on behalf of theScheme. _

A HANDSOME OFFERING. 

The sum of £650 was collected at Highbury Congregational Chapel, Bristol, on Sunday, as a contribution to General Booth's fund, for hisscheme unfolded in his book, "In Darkest England. " This was in responseto an appeal from the pastor, the Rev. H. Arnold Thomas. 

_Revd. Champness looks upon it as a forlorn hope. _

A letter dated from Rochdale, and bearing the well-known name "ThomasChampness, " has reached General Booth, with a contribution of £50. "Iwish, " writes Mr. Champness in his letter, "I could make you know howmuch my heart is with you in your great scheme. I am not as sanguine assome of your admirers are as to the success you are sure to win; but Ilook upon it as a forlorn hope, in which a man had better lose his lifethan save it by ignoble do-nothingness. "

_Mrs. Fawcett points out the great value of the Scheme. _

MRS. FAWCETT'S VIEWS. 

Mrs. Henry Fawcett, lecturing last night on "Private Remedies forPoverty, " before the Marylebone Centre of the university ExtensionLectures Society, at Welbeck Hall, Welbeck-street, W. , said thataccording to classified directories of London charities, these charitieshad a yearly income of £4, 000, 000, but she did not think full returnswere made in all instances, and that the total sum was nearer£7, 000, 000 than £4, 000000, while the entire cost of poor-law relief inthe United Kingdom was only £8, 000, 000. Having dwelt upon the evils ofmisdirected charity, she said the keynote of General Booth's scheme, andwhat, as it seemed to her, gave her great hope of its being to someextent a success, was the amount of personal devotion and energy whichit called for and which she believed the Salvation Army was prepared togive to its development. Its keynote was the possibility of bringingabout a change in the individual by personal effort and influence. AsGeneral Booth pointed out, the problem was unsolvable unless new soulcould be infused in the poor and outcast class whom it was designed tohelp: and to this end it was not money that was wanted so much as thepersonal service of men and women. One great feature of the scheme wasthat no relief was to be given without work, except in very exceptionalcases. She had personally visited the workshops and shelters of theSalvation Army in Whitechapel, and she found a number of peopleapparently of the very lowest moral and physical type, and yet they werede-brutalised and had a happy human look as they went on with theirwork, which in some cases was the same as they had performed in gaol. Notemptation was afforded by the workshops or shelters to induce people tostay away from ordinary industrial life longer than they could possiblyhelp. The men had to sleep in a kind of orange-box without bottom, onthe floor, upon an American oilcloth mattress; and with a piece ofleather for a coverlet. Most previous schemes for employing theunemployed upon colonies and waste land had failed because of the menput upon them, who were drunken, lazy, and half-witted. By GeneralBooth's scheme there was process of selection which would weed out thoseindividuals: and she thought photography might be employed in getting toknow bad and unsatisfactory characters. 

_Mrs. Howard M'Lean hopes the Scheme may have an immediate trial. _

Mrs. Howard M'Lean "presents her compliments to General Booth, and begsto send him her promise of £100, in the earnest hope that the scheme setforth in 'In Darkest England' may at least have a fair trial, and thatimmediately. "

_The "Times of India" points out the advantages of the Scheme. _

If we apprehend the scheme aright, it will be carried out independentlyof existing charities, and indeed not under the guise of a charity atall. The bread of poverty is bitter enough, but that of pauperism isbitterer still, and General Booth, it would seem, intends to fosterrather than discourage such spirit of independence as he may find amongthe lost souls for whom he works. But it seems to us that where such ascheme as his chiefly gains its power, is in its total dissociation fromchurch or sect. However good the work which is done by the Church and bythe more widely ramified agency of the Non-conformist sects--and no onewill be found to deny that this work is of the greatest possible valuein relieving the destitute and reclaiming the criminal classes--there islittle or no unity about it. It is under no individual control, it isnot carried out on any uniform system, and one agency has no means ofknowing what another agency is doing. The result is that relief getsvery unevenly distributed, and the lazy and dissolute profit at theexpense of the deserving poor. Nor do any of these agencies, as ageneral rule, aim at any systematic crusade against other destitutionthan that of the moment. When they touch the lowest of low-life deeps;it is for the most part in the way of temporary relief only, without theeffort (because they have not power) to set these people on their feetagain and give them the means of earning a living. It is here thatGeneral Booth steps in, and by an elaborate but perfectly feasiblesystem, proposes without any attempt at proselytization to drag the poorfrom their poverty, put them in the way of doing work of any kind theymay be fitted for, and eventually establish them in an over-sea colony. 

Looking now to the objections which may be urged against General Booth'sscheme, we are at once confronted by two important considerations. Thefirst concerns the "General" himself. He asks for a million poundssterling to enable him to carry out his project, and the question seemsto have already been asked, Is he the person to whom a million poundsmay be entrusted? Will it be so safeguarded that those who subscribe mayfeel assured that the money will be properly applied and an honestattempt made to do the work here planned out? To all these questions weare disposed to reply in the affirmative. General Booth and hisSalvation Army have by this time pretty well weathered the storm ofabuse and scorn with which their methods were at first received, andhowever much we may be disposed even now to question the taste orpropriety of those methods, there can be no amount of doubt in the mindof any reasonable man that the Salvation Army has been the means ofachieving enormous good the whole world over. In his administration ofthis huge organization of which himself was the founder, Mr. Booth hasproved himself a man of probity and of the strictest possible integrity. We do not hesitate to say that all the money he requires for this greatscheme may be safely placed in his hands, and that he will render astrict account of its disbursement. Then comes the question, how far isit possible for him to succeed in the work he proposes to undertake? Hehas already in the field a vast organization doing good work among thedregs of the population, and the extension of this organization to carryout the main points of his project is not a matter of difficulty. Theill is a terrible one, the evil gigantic, and the means to grapple withit must be gigantic also. But given the means, will they be effective?We frankly confess that we do not believe they will be so effective asGeneral Booth hopes, but we believe at the same time that if he canachieve only one-tenth of what he hopes to achieve, ten millions ofpounds would be worthily laid out upon it. The hungry, the dirty, theragged, the hopeless and outcast, the criminal and the drunkard, theidle and the vicious--can he gather all these in with any hope ofstarting them afresh on the journey of life? So much work of this kindhas already been done without any special system, that there can belittle doubt that to a large extent he can. With the honestly poor it isnot a difficult matter, but with the vicious and criminal classes, whohave no inclination to work so long as they can steal, it will be a longtime before the Salvation Army or any other agency can effect anysweeping reform. The work will be slow, but we believe it will be done. It has been objected against General Booth's scheme that it is not new, except in the fact that General Booth proposes that it shall be himselfwho carries it out. It seems to us, on the contrary, that it is new inone most vital aspect, and that is, that its details are to be workedout by an enormous united body on a definite plan, instead of bynumberless charitable agencies all working independently of each other. We believe, in short, that General Booth will meet with a very largemeasure of success, and we believe also that when the details of hisscheme come to be read and discussed, he will have no difficulty ingetting all the money he asks for, and more besides. Looking at theenormous wealth of England, a million pounds is as nothing. It is theDuke of Westminister's income for three months, and it would open up themeans of finding hope and work and refuge, and a new life beyond theseas, for a million or more of the helpless poor. We wish Mr. BoothGod-speed in his great undertaking. 

_The "Bombay Gazette" of November 15th, 1890, gives an exhaustivereview, from which we cull the following extracts:_--

There is little of the form, though there may be much of the spirit, ofthe Salvation Army in General Booth's "Darkest England and the Way Out. "It is on the whole a sober, and in some respects well-reasoned, attemptto solve the most urgent problem of the day. Whosesoever the actualworkmanship of the book may be, the personality of General Boothpervades every page--nowhere obtrusively it is true, but sufficiently toimpart life and warmth to the discussion of a problem whose solution, though it must be sought for only within the limits marked out byeconomic principles, will never be found, unless it is sought for with acertain passionate sympathy for the outcast. The dramatic parallel whichthe writer establishes between the savagery of Darkest Africa and thesuffering and sin of Darkest England, will arrest attention, and will ofitself make the book popular. Here, however, we are concerned with themore matter-of-fact elements in the problem, and with the practicalremedies which are proposed for it. The heading of "the Submerged Tenth"which is given to one of the chapters, roughly indicates the dimensionsof the task that has to be performed. General Booth takes three millionsto be the strength of the army of the destitute in England. The totalcomprises the representatives of every phase of want--criminals anddrunkards and idlers and their dependants, as well as the class who aredestitute through misfortune, who are honest in their poverty, and whomno man can blame for it. For these last-named, society does next tonothing. There is the workhouse for people who have spent their lastpenny; for so long as it remains unspent, it is a legal disqualificationfor the help of the State. Or there is the casual ward, where a hardtask is exacted in payment for hard fare, but where absolutely nothingis done to help the wayfarer to gain or regain a place and a living insociety. Out-relief has been reduced to the minimum. A few weeks ago thewhole parish of St. Jude, Whitechapel, with a population of sixtythousand, provided only four applicants to the Board of Guardians forout-relief. Thus far the organized official agency has done littleenough for the raising of the "submerged tenth. " If _laissez faire_ werea cure for all the ills of society, they would have been cured long ago, for the remedy has been applied with a persistency that has failed not. General Booth thinks that he has discovered a more excellent way, and isentitled to a hearing for his plan, for part of it is already inoperation. In the "shelters" established by the Salvation Army in theeast of London, casual relief is given on almost as large a scale as inthe casual wards of the London Workhouses; but he claims for it that itis a less degrading form of help, that sympathy goes with it; and withhim of course the emotional accompaniments which the Salvation Army iscareful to provide, count for much. 

_The "Christian" prognosticates a good future for the Scheme. _

Up to this stage the great social scheme of General Booth for upliftingthe "sunken tenth, " has been, so to speak, "in the air. " Monday night'smeeting at Exeter Hall may be said to have set it on the solid groundand given good hope that it will run as fast and as far as the suppliedresources will allow. The great audience to which the General had toaddress himself, was not mainly of the usual enthusiastic Army type; butit cannot be said that it was not ready to approve and applaud when anygood and telling point was made. The brief religious service at thebeginning gave the proceedings the spiritual stamp of Army gatherings, but the larger part of the time was taken up with the statement of theGeneral. For more than two and a half hours he was on his feet so thathe did not, at any rate, spare himself in his effort to interest thepublic in his gigantic plan of campaign. At the outset, he expresseddiffidence in entering on the exposition of somewhat new lines of work, but he soon showed himself at home, and in much that he advanced therewas a happy audacity and a confidence that boded well for the futuredevelopments of his scheme. 

_The "Bombay Guardian" defends the Scheme. _

General Booth's aim is to give every one who is "down in the world" achance to rise. No one, however poor or however degraded, is to be leftout. By means of shelters and training factories in the towns, he wouldgive every one a chance who wishes to work, however "lost" theircharacter may have become. There is to be absolutely no charity. Allwill work for their food and lodging, until they have gained sufficientcharacter and experience to take a situation as a respectable workingman or woman. There are thousands of "out-of-works, " "ne'er-do-wells, "&c. , in every large town in England, who are naturally fitted foragricultural work, although they have lived all their lives, perhaps, far away from the green fields. For the training of these General Boothhas a scheme of a large "Farm Colony" which will be nearly or entirelyself-supporting. When trained sufficiently in agricultural work, theywill be drafted off by emigration to a great "over-sea" colony in SouthAfrica. The whole movement will be permeated by earnest Christianteaching. The man who is in trouble and professes to be converted, willbe welcomed on that account, and the man who is in trouble but does notprofess to be saved, will be equally welcome in the hope that he maygive himself to Christ. 

It is computed that there are three million people in England whom thisscheme will eventually hope to help. A first instalment of £100, 000towards an eventual million, is asked for as a starting-point for thescheme. 

This seems a large undertaking and a large sum, but compared to theneeds of the world, it is very small. 

There is a still darker France than the darkest England, a darker Italythan the darkest France, and deeper depths of darkness still in India. 

We think that those who know the "slums" of London and large Englishtowns the best, will be the heartiest in wishing God-speed to GeneralBooth's latest movement, which also includes every possible form ofChristian benevolent activity. 

When Christ reigns as Viceroy for Jehovah for a thousand years, as theWord of God so distinctly intimates, it may be that some such plan asthis, far more perfect and world-wide in its aim, will form part of theinaugurative forces of that happy lot. 

Speaking broadly, General Booth's great scheme is in harmony with viewsthat are accepted by all Christians. His design is to elevate thewretched to more favourable conditions of life, on the principle of theTemperance reformer who seeks to remove temptations to drunkenness; orof the opponent of the iniquitous opium traffic, who insists upon theprohibition of the drug which is the curse of millions; or of theantagonist of licensed impurity, who demands that the tendency of lawshall be to make it easy to do right, and not afford facilities to dowrong. Some passages of "In Darkest England and the Way Out" arecertainly capable of being misconstrued. But on looking at the book andits scheme as a whole, the Christian heart is drawn into lively sympathywith it, without being committed to every detail. If all that isanticipated be not realized by this gigantic scheme, the attempt tocarry it out cannot do otherwise than prove a source of great andeternal good to multitudes, as the labourers carry on their work independance upon God. 

_The London "Speaker" testifies to the capacity of Gen. Booth forwinning the masses. _

Seeing from what the Salvation Army has grown, and to what it has grown, we are extremely reluctant to denounce any scheme seriously andcarefully elaborated by its leader, as being "too big to bepracticable. " We must remember who will be the "one head and centre" ofthe scheme. There are many weak points in General Booth: he is onlyhuman. But he is an earnest man; he has proved his talent fororganisation; he has proved his capacity for winning the sympathies ofthe masses. We would say nothing against gentleness, and quiet, andculture. We hope to attain them in the end. It is a pretty work to prunethe vine, a beautiful thing to let in the sunlight on the fruit, and towatch the perfection of bloom, and shape, and color; but first of allsomething has to be done at the roots, something at which we may holdour noses, but which is for all that requisite. 

It remains to be seen, first, whether the people concerned would acceptthe scheme; secondly, whether discipline could be maintained; thirdly, whether money can be raised. As to the first two questions, experiencein some degree answers. The people _do_ come to the Salvation Army'sestablishments, and they do behave well in the Shelters and theWorkshops. Those who best know the poorer working classes of thecountry, will be the least likely to despair on these points. A group ofpoorer English men and women are easily led by a leader who instilsregularity and order, and of whose hearty goodwill to them, they areassured. Organisation is in the English blood; and the rougher East Endcrowd has orderly elements ready to respond at once to the word ofcommand from men and women whom they know and trust. Only the crowd mustbe sober; and that which its leader preaches must be hope. As to themoney, some portion has come in already; and if this is used, as it willbe, in making a visible beginning, there will be plenty of peopletroubled in their consciences who will be ready to give more. Let usgive General Booth money, and five years for his experiment. At the endof that time it will be clear enough whether or no the best thing whichwe can provide for the unemployed is a lethal chamber. 

_The Book has an unprecedented sale. _

Up to the middle of January the book had reached a total circulation of200, 000 copies, beside running through two separate editions in America. It is now being translated into Japanese, French, Swedish and otherlanguages. 

_The Book of the year. _

I do not think I say too much when I say it will not be the attitude tenper cent. After they have read from cover to cover the most remarkablevolume that has been issued from the press this year. 

A UNIQUE BOOK. 

It is a book that stands by itself. In one sense it may be said thatthere is nothing new in it. That many men are miserable, that it is theduty of all calling themselves by the name of Christian, to do theirutmost to save their perishing brethren, and that if they set about thetask in earnest, certain well-known methods will have to be resorted to;all this is familiar enough. Neither can it be said that the spirit ofexalted enthusiasm which breathes in every page of the book is oneappears for the first time in the writings of General Booth. It is onthe contrary the abiding evidence of the presence of the Divine Spiritin men, which has never failed in this world since "the first man stoodGod conquered, with his face to heaven upturned. " But the uniquecharacter of the book arises from the combination of all these elements, with others which have never hitherto been united even within the coversof a single volume. There is a buoyant enthusiasm in every page, asanguine optimism at which the youngest among us might marvel, combinedwith a familiar acquaintance with the saddest and darkest phenomena ofexistence. The book deals with problems which of all others are mostcalculated to appal, and overwhelm the minds with the sense ofdesolation and despair, yet it is instinct throughout with a joyous hopeand glowing confidence. General Booth, face to face with the devil, still believes in God. 

A MIRACLE OF THE BURNING BUSH. 

Another distinctive feature of the book is the extent to which itcombines the shrewdest and most practical business capacity with themost exalted religious enthusiasm. The fanatic is usually regarded assomewhat of a fool; no one can read this book through and think thatGeneral Booth has the least deficiency in practical capacity, in shrewdcommon sense and enormous knowledge of men. From one point of view it iseasy to be a saint, and it is easy to be a man of the world; thedifficulty is to combine the two qualities, the cunning of the serpentwith the innocence of the dove. There is nothing of the naive andguileless innocence of a cloistered virtue in the book, but though theserpent is very cunning his wiliness and craftiness coexist with asimple enthusiasm of humanity which is very marvellous to behold. Whenwe read General Booth's expressions of confidence in the salvability ofmankind and note the intrepid audacity with which he sallies forth likeanother David to attack the huge Goliath who threatens the hosts of ourmodern Israel, and remember that he is no mere shepherd boy fresh fromthe fold, but one who for forty years of his life has lived and labouredin an atmosphere saturated with emanations from every form of human viceand wretchedness, then we feel somewhat as did Moses when he stoodbefore the burning bush, "and he looked, and behold the bush burned withfire and the bush was not consumed. "

THOMAS CARLYLE REDIVIVUS. 

It is impossible not to be impressed by the parallel and at the sametime by the contrast between General Booth's book and the latter dayprophecies of Mr. Carlyle. For forty years and more Mr. Carlyleprophesied unto the men of his generation, proclaiming in accents ofdeep earnestness, tinged, however, by a bitter despair, what should bedone if we were not utterly to perish. I remember the bitterness withwhich he told me, while the shadows of the dark valley were gatheringround him, that when he wrote his whole soul out in "Latter DayPamphlets, " and delivered to the public that which he believed to bethe very truth and inner secret of all things, his message was flouted, and "it was currently reported, " said he, with grim resentfulness "itwas currently reported that I had written them under the influence oftoo much whiskey. " Now, however, another prophet has arisen withpractically the same gospel, but with oh, how different a setting! InMr. Carlyle's books, his prophetic message shines out lurid as from thebackground of thunder-cloud amid the gloom as of an eclipse heralded byportents of ruin and decay. Here "In Darkest England and the Way Out"there is a brightness and a gladness as of a May day sunrise. Infinitehope bubbles up in every page, and in every chapter there is a calmconfidence which comes from the experience of one who in sixty years oftroubled life can say with full assurance "I know in whom I havebelieved. " That is not the only contrast between the two. Mr. Carlyle asbefitted the philosopher in his study, contented himself with writing inlarge characters of livid fire, "This is the way, walk ye in it;" butthe generation scoffed and walked otherwhere. General Booth, equallywith Mr. Carlyle writes up in characters so plain that the way-faring man, though a fool, cannot help reading it, "This is the way, walk ye init. " But he does more. He himself offers to lead the van, "This is theway, " he declares, "I will lead you along it, follow me!"

CATHOLICITY--SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS. 

Another distinctive characteristic of this book is its extraordinarycatholicity. In this respect I know no book like it that has appeared inour time. While declaring with passionate conviction the truth andnecessity of the gospel which the Salvation Army preaches, there is notone word of intolerance from the first page to the last. It is easy tobe broad when there is no intensity of conviction. The liberality ofindifference is one of the most familiar phenomena of the day. ButGeneral Booth is broad without being shallow, and his liberalismcertainly cannot be attributed to indifference! He is as earnest as Johnthe Baptist, for now and then the aboriginal preacher reappears cryingaloud, Jonah-like, messages calling men to flee from the wrath to come. But no broad churchman of our time, from Dean Stanley downwards, coulddisplay a more catholic spirit to all fellow workers in the greatharvest field, which is white unto the harvest, but where the labourersare so few. This spirit he displays not only in the religious field, butwhat is still more remarkable, he carries it into the domain of socialexperiment. The old intolerance and fierce hatred which raged in thechurches at many great crises in the history of the world is with usstill, but it is no longer in religious dress. The rival sects ofsocialists hate each other and contend with each other with a savagerywhich recalls the worst days of the early church. Every man has got hisown favourite short cut to Utopia and he damns all those who do not worktherein with the unhesitating assurance of an Athanasius. Hencecatholicity is much more needed and much more rarely found in the domainof social economics than in that of religious polemices. General Boothas befits a practical man is supremely indifferent to any particularfad, and constructs his scheme on the principle of selecting everyproposal which seems to have stuff in it, or is calculated to do anygood to suffering humanity. The socialist, the individualist, thepolitical economist, the advocate of emigration, and all socialreformers will find what is best in their own particular schemesincorporated in General Booth's schemes. He claims no originality, hedisclaims all prejudice even in favour of his own scheme. Hissuggestions, he says, seem for the moment the most practicable, but heis ready, he tells us with uncompromising frankness, to abandon themto-morrow if any one can show him a better way. 

A TEACHABLE PROPHET. 

Another extraordinary characteristic of the book is its combination ofsupreme humility with what the enemy might describe as overweeningarrogance. The General's confidence in himself and his men is superb. Not Hildebrand in the height of his power, or Mahommed, at the momentwhen he was launching the armies which offered to the world Islam or thesword, showed himself more supremely possessed with the confidence ofhis providential mission than does General Booth in his book. "For thisend was I created, to this work was I called, all my life has been apreparation to fit me for its accomplishment. " While thus speaking withthe confidence of a man who feels himself charged with a divine mission, General Booth displays a humility and a teachableness that is asbeautiful as it is rare. Over and over again he deplores his lack ofknowledge and the insufficiency of his experience, and admits that hismost elaborate proposals may be vitiated by some flaw or some defectwhich will make itself only too apparent when they get into action. Sofar from being determined to thrust his scheme as a panacea down thethroats of reluctant humanity he appeals to all those who may differfrom him not to stand idly cavilling at his proposals, but to producesomething better of their own, assuring them that he will be only toogood to carry out the best of his ability any scheme which will do morefor the benefit of the lapsed classes than his own. 

A SHIFTY AND RESOURCEFUL MARINER. 

General Booth shows himself in the capacity of a bold and shifty marinerwho has been ordered to take a ship filled with precious cargo across astormy and rock-strewn ocean to a distant port. Quicksands abound, crosscurrents continually threaten to carry the ship from her course, thewind shifts from point to point, now rising to a hurricane and thendying away to a dead calm. But alike by night and day, whether the skybe black with clouds, or bright with radiant sunshine, in the teeth ofthe wind or in a favourable gale, he presses forward to his distanthaven. He will tack to the right or to the left, availing himself to theutmost of every favourable current and every passing breeze, supremelyindifferent to all accusations of inconsistency, or of deviating fromthe straight line from the port which he left to the port for which heis bound, if so he can get the quicker and the more safely to his goal. Hitherto General Booth had practically been in the condition of aCaptain who relied solely on his boilers to make his voyage. "Get upsteam, make the heart right, keep the furnace fires going, and driveahead through the darkness regardless of a lowering tempest or of theswift rushing current which sweeps you from your course. " This bookproclaims his decision in favour of adopting a less reckless and morepractical mode of navigation. While his reliance is still placed on theinner central fire he will not disdain to utilise the currents, thetides, and the winds which will make it easier for his straining boilersand untiring screw to forge its way across the sea. 

The book is interesting in itself as a book, but of the bookmaking partof it, it is absurd to speak. You might as well speak of the rivets andthe paint, in describing the performance of a Cunarder; as to speak ofthe literary merits or demerits of this book. As a piece of actuality, full of life and force, it comes to us in paper and ink and between twocovers; but the vehicle of its presentation is as indifferent as thequality of the boards in which it is bound. The supreme thing is not theform but the substance. --_The Review of Reviews. _