We have always said that the success of the Salvation
Army organisation, so far as it has been a success, was due to the implicit obedience which "General " Booth demands from all his followers. Discipline is always effective, and there are many men and more women who find in obedience a genuine relief from the trouble both of thought and of decision- " General " Booth, however, has of late stretched his autho- rity rather far, having promulgated regulations as to marriage more severe than those of the Prussian Army. No male lieutenant is allowed to "court " or to form any engagement, aright conceded only to captains. No captain, again, must marry without a previous engagement of a year, which must be sanctioned by his divisional officer and reported to head-quarters, whence only final permission to marry can be obtained. The Prussian rules do not, we believe, forbid courting, though an officer cannot marry without consent, or without obtaining a dower, an im- provement which we recommend to " General " Booth. If the English Church attempted to enforce similar rules, they would be considered monstrous infractions of freedom; but the moment a Church calls itself voluntary, it may establish despotism with- out comment. " General" Booth, with his military formulae, hardly goes beyond the theory of the Presbyterian churches as regards their ministers,—though, of course, in practice, the right of objecting to an engagement, always claimed by the Presbytery, is rarely exercised.
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