THE LAW AND THE SALVATION ARMY.
THE judgment given in the Queen's Bench Division on Tuesday will set at rest a question which has for some time past been wrongly treated as open. It will no longer be
in the power of Magistrates to distribute the blame at their pleasure between the Salvation Army and the mobs which
interrupt and assault them. Until now, the Magistrates have in some cases acted as though, when the fact of a riot has been brought to their notice, they are not obliged to inquire into its origin. When two men are seen struggling in the street, it is not usual to condemn both or either, without regard to the circumstances in which the conflict has had its origin. Some pains are taken to ascertain which of the two first put himself in the wrong. Still less is it customary, upon finding that one is the assailant and the other the assailed, to order the latter to find sureties to keep the peace, on the ground that but for him the other would not desire to break it. This, however, is precisely what the Magistrates at Weston- super-Mare and some other places have done with reference to the Salvation Arm-y. The case stated by the Weston-super-Mare Magistrates on Tuesday brings out this view with great plain- ness. After describing the Salvation Army and its pro-
ceedings, the case goes on in this way There is another organised band of persons at Weston-super-Mare called the Skeleton Army,' which also parades the streets, and is antagonistic to the Salvation Army and its proces- sions." This " Skeleton Army," together with numbers of other persons, " assemble to dispute the passage of the Salvation Army through the streets to the great terror, disturbance, annoyance, and inconvenience of the peace- able inhabitants of the town, and to the endangering of the public peace." After one of these eontests between the Salva- tion Army and their critics, the Magistrates issued a notice that, as a riotous and tumultuous assembly had taken place on a night named, and as there were "reasonable grounds for apprehending a repetition of such riotous and tumultuous assembly," they ordered all persons whatsover to " abstain from assembling to the disturbance of the public peace in the public streets." On the following Sunday the Salvation Army formed a procession of a hundred or more persons, and marched through the town, " surrounded by a tumultuous and shouting mob." The police met the procession, and ordered it to disperse, in obedience to the Magistrates' notice ; and upon their refusing to do so, the leaders were taken into custody, and ordered to find sureties to keep the peace.
Against this order they have appealed, with entire success. Mr. Justice Field and Mr. Justice Cave did not require to hear Mr. Clarke's reply on behalf of the Salvation Army, but gave judgment for the appellants as soon as the Magistrates' Counsel had finished his argument. The Magistrates were quite right in forbidding riotous and tumultuous assemblies in the public streets. Their error was in assuming that every assambly in the streets is a riotous and unlawful assembly. To make a procession riotous and unlawful, something more must be proved against it than an intention to march through the streets, singing hymns or playing on instruments. This, how- ever, is all that was alleged against the Salvation Army by the Weston-super-Mare Magistrates. They assembled at their hall and marched, in procession. "That," says Mr. Justice Field, " is certainly not unlawful. Many public bodies are in the habit of assembling in much larger numbers, with bands of music and banners, and there can be no doubt that it is perfectly legal." The Magistrates had found the Salvation Army guilty of " unlawfully and tumultuously assembling, with others, to the disturbance of the public peace." But it was the "others,"not the Salvation Army, who had assembled " tumul- tdously, and to the disturbance of the public peace." All that the Salvation Army did was to walk through the streets, and it was not contended that if they had been left alone, there would have been any tumult or any disturbance of the peace. These consequences were due to the action of the " Skeleton Army" and others, who placed themselves in the way of the Salvation Army and tried to bar their passage by force. The Salvation Army, therefore, were within their rights. They were doing nothing unlawful, and what they did could not become unlawful by the mere fact that they were molested in doing it. No one had any right to interfere with them, if they were committing no offence ; and if they were committing an offence, it was for the Magistrates and the police, not for the " Skeleton Army," to interpose to prevent them. The Magistrates had pleaded that the assembling of the Salvation
Army caused riot and tumult and disturbance. " But," asked the Judge, "is there any evidence that the assem- bling of the Salvation Army caused these results ? On the contrary, it rather appears that these consequences followed from the opposition to them." The unlawful con- duct of other persons does not make the conduct of the Salvation Army unlawful, nor is it " unlawful to do a lawful act, merely because others make it the pretence of raising a riot." The " Skeleton Army " and similar mobs have no right whatever to interfere with the processions of the Salvation Army, and if they do interfere, the Magistrates and the police must deal with the disturbers as in this case they dealt with the members of the Salvation Army.
It is exceedingly satisfactory to have the law declared in this unmistakable manner, because there has of late been far too general a disposition to keep the peace, not by restraining unruly mobs from breaking it, but by depriving these unruly mobs of all temptation to break it. Whatever may be the faults of the Salvation Army, it is not for their faults that they have been molested. The " Skeleton Army " did not attack them in the streets of Weston-super-Mare to evince its dislike of Antinomianism, or to protest against emotion being placed above conduct in a religious system. What has made the Salvation Army unpopular has been their virtues. They have tried, according to their lights, to commend religion to the irreligious, and sobriety to the drunkard ; and for this crime, the irreligious and the drunkards have striven their hardest to put them down. So far, there is nothing strange in the business. What is strange is the timidity which some Magistrates have shown in dealing with the dis- turbances which this natural antagonism has brought about. The one thing that seems to have impressed them is their in- ability to restore the public peace, if it were once broken, and as a result of this conviction, they have thought of nothing but how they could prevent it from being broken. There are only two ways in which this end can be attained. One is by the pre- sence of a force sufficient to overawe rioters ; the other is by the concession beforehand of everything that the rioters ask. The former method was not to be thought of. It would have implied the strengthening of the police, or the swearing-in of special constables. The latter method seemed by comparison well within reach. The rioters only asked one thing,—that the Salvation Army should be forbidden to march through the streets. If this prohibition were issued and enforced, the temp- tation to disturbance would be removed, and the tranquillity of the town would be undisturbed. It does not seem to have occurred to the Weston-super-Mare Magistrates that to take this course was simply to traffic with disorder. They did not see that a bargain was as much struck with the rioters as though the leaders of the " Skeleton Army " had been invited into the Magistrates' room, and asked for what sum they would consent to go home quietly. The Magistrates paid black-mail, only they paid it in a paper prohibition, and not in coin of the realm. The judgment in the Queen's Bench Division will teach them that in a Magistrate discretion is most precious when it is tempered with a little courage.
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