11 OCTOBER 1890, Page 3

The Salvation Army has sustained a great loss in the

death of Mrs. Booth, wife of the General, and his principal assistant in founding his new sect. She is described to us as a woman of perfect sincerity and clear sense, with a certain sweetness of character, and an innate ability for organisation. She had, -too, in a most unusual degree the faculty of persuasive speech in public. We regret to see that the leaders of the Army have, as usual, utilised their great misfortune ; that the body has lain for days "in state," watched by twenty statuesque and silent " soldiers " of "the Army ; "that the memorial services will be on a gigantic scale ; and that the funeral will be the occasion of a procession so large as to demand extra care from the police. Mrs. Booth's family will probably say that the same thing occurs when any other notable person dies ; but that is not true of religious teachers. Cardinal Newman's body lay in state because he was by European etiquette a " Prince " of the Church, not because he was an eminent leader in it.