The son of " General" Booth, of the Salvation Army,
who is called Chief of the Staff, and is to succeed his father as auto- crat of the new sect, was married on Thursday, with rather too much beating of cymbals. .The Standard, therefore, calls upon " General " Booth to give up his absolute control of the finance of the Army, and place its property in the hands of trustees. That sounds wise advice, in English ears,
but is it not of a little small P The central idea of the
organisation of the new sect is to terminate the irresolu- tion and want of purpose inherent in committee management, by referring everything to individual will. It is an experiment which has succeeded in the Jesuit Order, and is worth trying in Protestantism ; and it is a pity to give it up, from a feeble fear that somebody will some day rob. The Catholic Bishops in Ireland are compelled by the law of mortmain to hold all Church property in their own names, but they do not steal. The notion of the hereditary transmission of the Generalship is, no doubt, bold; but we presume the theory is not descent, but the selection of a successor by the General. Democracy has yet to learn, particularly when founding Colonies, what a wonderful reduction of its difficulties might be gained from a little military discipline.
Previous page
