man as they enter the shelter,
and prevent it from becoming a means of dissemination of crime, of
filth, of disease. They stand by the new-fledged proselyte to work, to
encourage perseverance. They follow him to the country colony, the
abomination of desolation to one who has walked the London pavements and
found his heaven in the gin-palace and the music-hall, to stimulate
effort. They accompany him to the colony to remind him that true freedom
is not licence, that the conditions of success are a change of mind and
not of climate. But for them, one might doubt whether the hope General
Booth conceives for the "submerged tenth" would be hope at all in their
eyes. Nothing so difficult as to persuade the Londoner to go into the
country, and the emigrant to keep to work away from the congenial
interludes of town pleasure. But once create this hope (and persistent
reiteration can do much when the agent is a kindly man or woman) and you
have introduced a new element into the life of the wastrel. Our prison
system, growing in harshness, failed utterly to deter; with the
reformatory system, based on the principle of making it to a man's
interest to behave well within the walls, a new era dawned on criminal
legislation. It is for these reasons that I look with deep interest on
General Booth's experiment. Do not let us say, "The experiment has been
tried before; it is useless to attempt it again." I believe there is
enough of novelty in General Booth's scheme to justify a hope of
success. But for past failures I can but say that people do not regard
failure as a ground for inaction when their interest is deeply involved.
When I was a boy, some 45 years ago, I saw at the old Polytechnic
experiments in electricity: the electric light, the electric cautery,
&c. For years I expected to see them introduced into the work-day world.
Now, at last, they are coming into use, but I do not think the shares
stand at a very high premium. None the less electricity will one day be
of universal use. That is what experiment in spite of failure has done;
that is what we ought to do in social matters. When all is done, the
result will be comparatively small when compared with our aspirations,
but it will create, as all good work does, new outlets for effort, new
objects for hope.

BROOKE LAMBERT.

_The Vicarage, Greenwich, Nov. 19._

_Dr. Parker approves the General's Scheme._

A report in the _Star_ says:--"Dr. Parker, preaching his one-minut