Evolution and Ethics, and Other Essays Part 20

"As to the properties (if any) vested in trustees appointed by Booth, it appears to me that the only person who has a locus standi to enforce these trusts is Booth himself, and that he would have absolute power over the trusts and the property, and might deal with the property as he pleased, and that, as in the former case, nothing could be done in the way of enforcing any trusts against him.

"As to the moneys contributed or raised by mortgage for the general purposes of the mission, it appears to me that Booth may expend them as he pleases, without being subject to any legal control, and that he cannot even be compelled to publish any balance-sheets.

"Whether there are any provisions in the Charitable Trusts Acts which could be made available for enforcing some scheme for the application of the property or funds is a question to which I should require to give a closer consideration should it become necessary to go into it; but at present, after perusing these Acts, and especially 16 and 17 Vict. c. 137 and 18 and 19 Vict. c. 124, I cannot see how they could be made applicable to the trusts as declared in this deed.

[304] "As to the Mortmain Acts, the matter is clearly charitable, and unless in the conveyances and leases to Booth, or to the trustees (if any) named by him, all the provisions of the Acts have been complied with, and the deeds have been enrolled under the Acts, they would be void. It is probable, however, that every conveyance and lease has been taken without disclosing any charitable trust, for the purpose of preventing it from being void on the face of it. It is to be noted that the deed is a mere deed poll by Booth himself, without any other party to it, who, as a contracting party, would have a right to enforce it.

"Whether there are any objects of the trust I cannot say. If there is, as the recital indicates, a society of enrolled members called 'The Christian Mission,' those members would be objects of the trust, but then, it appears to me, Booth has entire control and determination of the application. And, as to the trusts enuring for the benefit of the 'Salvation Army,' I am not aware what is the const.i.tution of the 'Salvation Army,' but there is no reference whatever to any such body in the deed. I have understood the army as being merely the missionaries, and not the society of wors.h.i.+ppers.

"If there is no Christian Mission Society of enrolled members, then there are no objects of the trust. The trusts are purely religious, and trading is entirely beyond its purposes. Booth can [305] 'give away' the property, simply because there is no one who has any right to prevent his doing so.

"Ernest Hatton."

It is probably my want of legal knowledge which prevents me from appreciating the value of the professed corrections of Mr. Hatton's opinion contained in the letters of Messrs. Ranger, Burton, and Matthews, "Times," January 28th and 29th, 1891.

The note on page 301 refers to a correspondence, incomplete at the time fixed for the publication of my pamphlet, the nature of which is sufficiently indicated by the subjoined extracts from Mr. Stead's letter in the "Times" of January 20th, and from my reply in the "Times" of January 24th. Referring to the paragraphs numbered 1, 2, at the end of my letter XI., Mr. Stead says:--

"On reading this, I at once wrote to Professor Huxley, stating that, as he had mentioned my name, I was justified in intervening to explain that, so far as the second count in his indictment went--for the Eagle dispute is no concern of mine--he had been misled by an error in the reports of the case which appeared in the daily papers [306] of November 4, 1885. I have his reply to-day, saying that I had better write to you direct. May I ask you, then, seeing that my name has been brought into the affair, to state that, as I was in the dock when Mr.

Bramwell Booth was in the witness-box, I am in a position to give the most unqualified denial to the statement as to the alleged admission on his part of falsehood? Nothing was heard in Court of any such admission. Neither the prosecuting counsel nor the Judge who tried the case ever referred to it, although it would obviously have had a direct bearing on the credit of the witness; and the jury, by acquitting Mr. Bramwell Booth, showed that they believed him to be a witness of truth. But fortunately the facts can be verified beyond all gainsaying by a reference to the official shorthand-writer's report of the evidence. During the hearing of the case for the prosecution, Inspector Borner was interrupted by the Judge, who said:--

"'I want to ask you a question. During the whole of that conversation, did Booth in any way suggest that that child had been sold?' Borner replied:--

"'Not at that interview, my Lord.'

"It was to this that Mr. Bramwell Booth referred when, after examination, cross-examination, [307] and re-examination, during which no suggestion had been made that he had ever made the untrue statement now alleged against him, he asked and received leave from the Judge to make the following explanation, which I quote from the official report:--

"'Will you allow me to explain a matter mentioned yesterday in reference to a question asked by your Lords.h.i.+p some days ago with respect to one matter connected with my conduct? Your Lords.h.i.+p asked, I think it was Inspector Borner, whether I had said to him at either of our interviews that the child was sold by her parents, and he replied "No." That is quite correct; I did not say so to him, and what I wish to say now is that I had been specially requested by Mr. Stead, and had given him a promise, that I would not under any circ.u.mstances divulge the fact of that sale to any person which would ma ke it at all probable that any trouble would be brought upon the persons who had taken part in this investigation.' (Central Criminal Court Reports, Vol. CII., part 612, pp. 1,035-6.)

"In the daily papers of the following day this statement was misreported as follows:--

"'I wish to explain, in regard to your Lords.h.i.+p's condemnation of my having said "No" to [308] Inspector Borner when he asked me whether the child had been sold by her parents--the reason why I stated what was not correct was that I had promised Mr. Stead not to divulge the fact of the sale to any person which would make it probable that any trouble should be brought on persons taking part in this proceeding.'

"Hence the mistake into which Professor Huxley has unwittingly fallen.

"I may add that, so far from the statement never having been challenged for five years, it was denounced as 'a remarkably striking lie' in the 'War Cry' of November 14th, and again the same official organ of the Salvation Army of November 18th specifically adduced this misreport as an instance of 'the most disgraceful way' in which the reports of the trial were garbled by some of the papers. What, then, becomes of one of the two main pillars of Professor Huxley's argument?"

In my reply, I point out that, on the 10th of January, Mr. Stead addressed to me a letter, which commences thus: "I see in the 'Times'

of this morning that you are about to republish your letters on Booth's book."

I replied to this letter on the 12th of January:--

[309] "Dear Mr. Stead,--I charge Mr. Bramwell Booth with nothing. I simply quote the 'Times' report, the accuracy of which, so far as I know, has never been challenged by Mr. Booth. I say I quote the 'Times' and not Mr. Hodges,* because I took some pains about the verification of Mr. Hodges's citation.

* This is a slip of the pen. Mr. Hodges had nothing to do with the citation of which I made use.

"I should have thought it rather appertained to Mr. Bramwell Booth to contradict a statement which refers, not to what you heard, but to what he said. However, I am the last person to wish to give circulation to a story which may not be quite correct; and I will take care, if you have no objection (your letter is marked 'private'), to make public as much of your letter as relates to the point to which you have called my attention.

"I am, yours very faithfully, T. H. Huxley."

To this Mr. Stead answered, under date of January 13th, 1891:--

"Dear Professor Huxley,--I thank you for your letter of the 12th inst.

I am quite sure you would not wish to do any injustice in this matter.

But, instead of publis.h.i.+ng any extract from my letter, might I ask you to read the pa.s.sage as it [310] appears in the verbatim report of the trial which was printed day by day, and used by counsel on both sides, and by the Judge during the case? I had hoped to have got you a copy to-day, but find that I was too late. I shall have it first thing to-morrow morning. You will find that it is quite clear, and conclusively disposes of the alleged admission of untruthfulness.

Again thanking you for your courtesy,

"I am, yours faithfully, W. T. Stead."

Thus it appears that the letter which Mr. Stead wrote to me on the 13th of January does not contain one word of that which he ways it contains, in the statement which appears in the "Times" to-day.

Moreover, the letter of mine to which Mr. Stead refers in his first communication to me is not the letter which appeared on the 13th, as he states, but that which you published on December 27th, 1890.

Therefore, it is not true that Mr. Stead wrote "at once." On the contrary, he allowed nearly a fortnight to elapse before he addressed me on the 10th of January 1891. Furthermore, Mr. Stead suppresses the fact that, since the 13th of January, he has had in his possession my offer to publish his version of the story; and he leads the reader to suppose that my only answer was that he "had better write to [311] you direct. All the while, Mr. Stead knows perfectly well that I was withheld from making public use of his letter of the 10th by nothing but my scruples about using a doc.u.ment which was marked "private"; and that he did not give me leave to quote his letter of the 10th of January until after he had written that which appeared yesterday.

And I add:--

As to the subject-matter of Mr. Stead's letter, the point which he wishes to prove appears to be this--that Mr. Bramwell Booth did not make a false statement, but that he withheld from the officers of justice, pursuing a most serious criminal inquiry, a fact of grave importance, which lay within his own knowledge. And this because he had promised Mr. Stead to keep the fact secret. In short, Mr. Bramwell Booth did not say what was wrong; but he did what was wrong.

I will take care to give every weight to the correction. Most people, I think, will consider that one of the "main pillars of my argument,"

as Mr. Stead is pleased to call them, has become very much strengthened.

[312]

LEGAL OPINIONS RESPECTING "GENERAL" BOOTH'S ACTS.

In referring to the course of action adopted by "General" Booth and Mr. Bramwell Booth in respect of their legal obligations to other persons, or to the criminal and civil law, I have been as careful as I was bound to be, to put any difficulties suggested by mere lay commonsense in an interrogative or merely doubtful form; and to confine myself, for any positive expressions, to citations from published declarations of the judges before whom the acts of "General"

Booth came; from reports of the Law Courts; and from the deliberate opinions of legal experts. I have now some further remarks to make on these topics.

I. The observations at p. 305 express, with due reserve, the impression which the counsel's opinions, quoted by "General" Booth's solicitors, made on my mind. They were written and sent to the printer before I saw the letter from a "Barrister NOT Practising on the Common Law Side," and those from Messrs. Clarke and Calkin and Mr. George Kebbell, which appeared in the "Times" of February 3rd and 4th.

These letters fully bear out the conclusion which I had formed, but which it would have [313] been presumptuous on my part to express, that the opinions cited by "General" Booth's solicitors were like the famous broken tea-cups "wisely ranged for show"; and that, as Messrs.

Clarke and Calkin say, they "do not at all meet the main points on which Mr. Hatton advised." I do not think that any one who reads attentively the able letter of "A Barrister NOT Practicing on the Common Law Side" will arrive at any other conclusion; or who will not share the very natural desire of Mr. Kebbell to be provided with clear and intelligible answers to the following inquiries:--

(1) Does the trust deed by its operation empower any one legally to call upon Mr. Booth to account for the application of the funds?

(2) In the event of the funds not being properly accounted for, is any one, and, if so, who, in a position to inst.i.tute civil or criminal proceedings against any one, and whom, in respect of such refusal or neglect to account?

(3) In the event of the proceedings, civil or criminal, failing to obtain rest.i.tution of misapplied funds, is or are any other person or persons liable to make good the loss?

On December 24th, 1890, a letter of mine appeared in the "Times" (No.

V. above) in which I put questions of the same import, and asked Mr.

Booth if he would not be so good as to take counsel's opinion on the "trusts" of which so [314] much has been heard and so little seen, not as they stood in 1878, or in 1888, but as they stand now? Six weeks have elapsed, and I wait for a reply.

It is true that Dr. Greenwood has been authorized by Mr. Booth to publish what he calls a "Rough outline of the intended Trust Deed"

("General Booth and His Critics," p. 120), but unfortunately we are especially told that it "does not profess to be an absolutely accurate a.n.a.lysis." Under these circ.u.mstances I am afraid that neither lawyers nor laymen of moderate intelligence will pay much attention to the a.s.sertion, that "it gives a fair idea of the general effect of the draft," even although "the words in quotation marks are taken from it verbatim."

These words, which I give in italics, (1) define the purposes of the scheme to be "for the social and moral regeneration and improvement of persons needy, dest.i.tute, degraded, or criminal, in some manner indicated, implied, or suggested in the book called 'In Darkest England.'" Whence I apprehend that, if the whole funds collected are applied to "mothering society" by the help of speculative attorney "tribunes of the people," the purposes of the trust will be una.s.sailably fulfilled. (2) The name is to be "Darkest England Scheme," (3) the General of the Salvation Army is to be "Director of the Scheme." Truly valuable information all this! But taking it for what it is worth, the [315] public must not be misled into supposing that it has the least bearing upon the questions to which neither I, nor anybody else, has yet been able to obtain an intelligible answer, and that is, where are the vast funds which have been obtained, in one way or another, during the last dozen years in the name of the Salvation Army? Where is the presumably amended Trust Deed of 1888? I ask once more: Will Mr. Booth submit to competent and impartial legal scrutiny the arrangements by which he and his successors are prevented from dealing with the funds of the so-called "army chest" exactly as he or they may please?

II. With respect to the "Eagle" case, I am advised that Dr. Greenwood, whose good faith I do not question, has been misled into misrepresenting it in the appendix to his pamphlet. And certainly, the evidence of authoritative records which I have had the opportunity of perusing, appears to my non-legal mind to be utterly at variance with the statement to which Dr. Greenwood stands committed. I may observe, further, that the excuse alleged on behalf of Mr. Booth, that he signed the affidavit set before him by his solicitors without duly considering its contents, is one which I should not like to have put forward were the case my own. It may be, and often is, necessary for a person to sign an affidavit without [316] being able fully to appreciate the technical language in which it is couched. But his solicitor will always instruct him as to the effect of these terms.

And, in this particular case where the whole matter turns on Mr.