rbers of the peace," who ought by all possible means to be
suppressed.

Those who fattened on the vices of the poor and the opponents of
religion generally were undoubtedly the leaders of opposition to his
work. There were only too many ignorant ruffians ready to delight in any
excuse for disturbance, and very many truly religious people who put
down every disturbance so created to The Army's account, and who,
without taking the trouble to make any inquiry, denounced it
mercilessly.

Condemned almost whenever mentioned, either by press or pulpit, The
General and The Army were naturally treated by many authorities and
largely by respectable citizens, not only as unworthy of any defence,
but as deserving of punishment and imprisonment. In one year alone,
1882, no fewer than 699 of our Officers and Soldiers, 251 of them women
and 23 children under fifteen, were brutally assaulted generally whilst
marching through the streets singing hymns, though often when attending
Meetings in our own hired buildings, and 86, of whom 15 were women,
were imprisoned. True, these persecutions almost always gained for us
sympathy and friends, as many as 30,000 people coming out in one case to
the railway station to welcome an Officer upon his release from prison.
Yet, year after year, such attacks were repeated, and, even during the
last year, imprisonment was suffered by several Officers for leading
Meetings where they had regularly been tolerated for some thirty years;
but where some newly-appointed dignitary would rather not see them.

When we ask in wonder how so bitter an opposition to such a leader, or
his work, could arise, we always find the sort of explanation which that
famous man John Bright once wrote to Mrs. Booth:--

"The people who mob you would doubtless have mobbed the Apostles.
Your faith and patience will prevail. The 'craftsmen' who find
'their craft in danger,' 'the high priests and elders of the
people,' whose old-fashioned counsels are disregarded by
newly-arrived stirrers-up of men, always complain, and then the
governors and magistrates, who may 'care for none of these things,'
but who always act 'in the interests of the public peace,' think it
best to 'straightly charge these men to speak no more' of Christ."

The General's attitude in face of all these storms was ever the same;
"Go straight on" was the pith of all his replies to inquiries, and his
own conduct and bearing