aised in England for the rescue of a far smaller number of the
submerged. And yet there may be those who will think that we are asking
for too much. But when I see far larger sums expended on the erection,
or support of a single Hospital, or Dharamsala, and when I remember that
Indian philanthropy has covered the country with such, I am tempted to
exclaim "What is this among so many?"

Surely it would be a libel upon Indian philanthropy and generosity to
ask for less, in launching a scheme, which has received the hearty
support of multitudes of persons so well able to form a judgment as to
its feasibility and soundness, and this too after having been submitted
to the most searching criticisms that human ingenuity could suggest! At
any rate this we can promise, that whatever may be given will be laid
out carefully to the best possible advantage. A special annual balance
sheet will show how the money entrusted to our care has been expended,
and if the success of the work be not sufficient to justify its
existence, it will always be easy for the public to withhold those
supplies on which we must continue to depend for the prosecution of our
enterprise.

Looking at the future however in the light of the past history of the
Salvation Army, both in India, and especially in those other parts of
the world, where its organization has had more time to develop and fewer
obstacles to contend with, we are confident that the results will be
such as to repay a hundred fold every effort made and every rupee laid
out in promoting the welfare of India. And even supposing that
comparative failure should result, we should have the satisfaction of
knowing that

"'Tis better to have tried and failed,
Than never to have tried at all!"

The anathemas of posterity will alight upon the heads, not of those who
have made a brave effort to better the evils that surround them, but of
those who by their supineness helped to ensure such failure, or by their
active opposition paralysed the efforts and discouraged the hearts of
those who, but for them, might either have wholely succeeded in
accomplishing what all admit to be so desirable, or might at least have
been far nearer reaching their goal than was possible owing to the
dog-in-the-manger obstructions of those who had neither the heart to
help, nor the brains to devise, nor the courage to execute, what others
might have dared and done!

CHAPTER XXI.

A PRACTICAL CONCLUSION.