Sir Robert Anderson and Lady Agnes Anderson
by Arthur Posonby Moore-Anderson, 1947.
Full text below.
CHAPTER V
CRIMINALS AND CRIME. A PIONEER
Sir Robert Anderson has had a remarkable and rare opportunity for studying and becoming acquainted with most existing forms of crime, and also with the manner and working of our criminal punishment system. His views therefore are worthy of the utmost respect and consideration. The Liverpool Post.
WE justly deplore the barbarity with which past generations
treated their criminals. The elaborate folly of our present methods will excite the wonder of generations to come." These are the opening words of the book Criminals and Crime published in 1907 and based upon a series of articles in various journals from 1891 onwards, notably The Nineteenth Century, the editor of which, Sir James Knowles, was a strong supporter of the campaign for reform. " But he is a pioneer," said Lord Guthrie the Scottish judge when I was introduced to him in South Africa as the son of Sir Robert Anderson. The following pages will in some measure show the truth of the remark.
One plea which met with a good deal of misunderstanding and misrepresentation, not to say hostility in some quarters, was for a new approach to the problem of " professional crime." Habitual criminals belonged to two classes. One consisted of those who were so utterly weak or so hopelessly wicked that they could not abstain from crime. Some of these were hereditary criminals who were allowed to beget children to follow in their steps. Such children were brought up in surroundings which would be fatal to the offspring of the best of men ; and then we were proud of having efficient police to capture them and well-ordered gaols in which to cage them !
But the other class were those who were criminals by deliberate choice, pursuing a career of crime with full appreciation of its risks. A certain man of good education and address was visited in prison by a minister of religion. When the latter voiced his distress at finding him in such a position, the man asked whether one who was keen on fox-hunting gave it up when he had a fall. " I have had a bad fall and no mistake," he said, " but I count on better luck another time." This case was thoroughly typical, said my father. For such a man a criminal career was a life of adventure such as would compare favourably with most kinds
of sport. He was not a weak creature who yielded to uncontrollable impulse.
Stories of Benson and Raymond, two men of this class, have been given in the chapter on Scotland Yard. Such men, the elite of the profession, lived well ; they could name their favourite wine and knew a good cigar. A trip to Brighton was an ordinary incident in their easy lives, and a winter visit to Monte Carlo nothing out of the way. They were responsible for the elaborate frauds, the great forgeries, jewel larcenies and bank robberies, which now and then startled the public.
They were few in number and as well known to the police as were the members of the Cabinet. The men who were competent to finance as well as to organise great crimes were so few, said my father once, that the room in which he was then writing would suffice to seat them comfortably. But there were many others who might fairly be called criminals by profession ; they too were well known to the police, and a single wing of any large prison would hold them all.
Referring especially to those who were trained and accomplished burglars, he described the routine at Scotland Yard when a skilled burglary was being investigated, or such a theft as that of an oil-painting from a public gallery. The problem could not be solved by sitting down in the Sherlock Holmes style with a wet towel round one's head. The men competent to plan and execute the crime were limited in number and were definitely known. Some would be " doing time " at the moment others would be known to be out of London ; yet others could be proved to have been at their registered addresses on the night in question. The list thus became reduced to working dimensions ; and it was not difficult to go on eliminating one name after another until the thief was discovered.
If evidence was forthcoming (and there was the difficulty), he would be arrested and sentenced to perhaps five years' penal servitude. In less than four he would be back at the practice of his profession. After another good run during which he might commit ten, twenty, fifty crimes, enjoying a " high old time," he would be caught again ; and the same farce would be reenacted.
This routine my father described as the " shot drill " of the C.I.D., referring to the obsolete punishment of having to carry cannon-balls from one spot to another in a prison yard and then carry them back again. The energies of the most highly trained
police in Europe were expended in ways bearing a striking resemblance to this. The case of a ladder larceny in which " Quiet Joe " was implicated was mentioned in the previous chapter. If the men had been asked what they would do on the termination of their sentence they would have replied : " Why, go back to business of course ; what else ? " And so he records that the year after he left office he recognised his old friends in the newspaper accounts of a similar case at Bristol.
The C.I.D. noticed that the men were meeting at a free library and studying provincial directories ; they were tracked to a bookshop where they bought a map of Bristol, and to other shops at which they got the plant for a ladder larceny. They then went to Bristol where they took observations of the house they had fixed upon. At that stage the local police, warned by the Yard, seized the criminals, who were given a nine months' sentence on a minor issue. The burglars openly expressed their gratification at the police not having waited to " catch them fair on the job," as they were both over sixty and another penal servitude sentence would have about finished their career. As it was they would live without expense for a short time, and a paternal Government would see that the money found on them would be given back on their release to enable them to buy more emmies and wire and screws, so that no time would be lost in getting to work again. Such was our punishment-of-crime system !
" Quiet Joe " made a good income at his " profession," wrote my father ; but he was a thriftless fellow who spent his earnings freely and never paid income tax. " Old Carr " was of a different type. Never having done an honest day's work in his life, he was a thief, a financer and trainer of thieves and a
notorious receiver of stolen property. " Upon his conviction,"
runs the story, " I was appointed statutory administrator of his
estate. I soon discovered that he owned a good deal of valuable
house property ; but this I declined to deal with, taking charge
only of his portable securities for money. The value of this part
of his estate may be estimated by the fact that he brought an
action against me for maladministration of it, claiming £5000
damages ! . . . The man lived in crime and by crime ; and old
though he was, and rolling in wealth, he once more resumed the
practice of his profession. He was arrested abroad during a trip .taken to dispose of some stolen notes, the proceeds of a Liverpool
crime, and his evil life came to an end in a foreign prison."
No words surely, argued the C.I.D. Chief, could be needed to point the moral of such cases. The criminals who kept society in a state of siege were as strong as they were clever. If the risk of a few years' penal servitude gave place to the certainty of final loss of liberty on conviction, these professionals would put up with the tedium of an honest life.
What, then, was the suggested new method for dealing with these professional criminals ? The proposal was that any convict who had been registered or licensed under certain Acts, when again convicted, should be further charged with being a professional criminal, and the judge might then proceed to an after-verdict inquiry upon that issue. This should be an open inquiry and the accused should be given adequate opportunity for meeting the charge. Then, if as the result of such judicial investigation a man was adjudged a professional criminal, he should be registered as such, and solemnly warned that if by his own wilful act he was convicted of further crime, he would for an indefinite period be deprived of a liberty which he used only to prey upon society. If at any time new circumstances or proof of genuine moral reformation seemed to warrant it, he could be restored to liberty.
In a lecture he said : " I do not mean that these men [the professional criminals] are to be numbered by tens, but they are to be numbered only `by hundreds. We have in London five hundred burglaries a year ; . . . they would be the work of probably not more than fifty men. What an outrage that these fifty professional burglars, who are perfectly well known .to Scotland Yard, should be permitted to be at large, a terror to the community."
With regard to armed burglars, he considered that when a burglar was found with a revolver in addition to the legitimate " instruments of his profession " he ought to be given a life sentence.
In an interview my father said : " During my time at Scotland Yard I acted as administrator to almost every high-class professional criminal, and I know who and what they are and how comparatively few they are. You ask : Would shutting up a few dozen criminals really make any sensible difference in the crime of the country ? And I reply that is precisely what I mean. My opinion is based on definite facts and a knowledge of the personnel of the criminal fraternity."
" One of the best and boldest utterances in the January
magazines is Dr. Anderson's article in the Contemporary on the means for the abolition of organised crime " was the opinion of a reviewer as far back as 1891. Ten years later an article in the Nineteenth Century evoked a great deal of comment mainly favourable ; an exception being The Times which, after saying that few persons had larger experience with reference to the criminal classes, proceeded to accuse him of wanting to put down crime by terror and harshness. However my father was able to turn the tables rather neatly when in Criminals and Crime he quoted a Times leader of 1891 strongly supporting his views. The Spectator received the proposals with favour, saying that the suggestions seemed simply a precept of common sense. Many other papers, London and provincial, drew attention to the articles and the book. The view of a Church journal was that, while on the surface the scheme seemed almost terrifying, beneath the surface it might be found as merciful as it would prove to be effective.
Whilst the proposals regarding professional crime attracted most attention many other matters were brought forward. The whole "punishment-of-crime " theory was attacked as in the following words : " In any sensible and civilised community the aim ought to be to deal with the criminal and never mind the crime. If the crime is a chance offence our main effort ought to be to save the offender ; if a deliberate crime the main thought should be the protection of the community."
Sir John Bridge, one of the most experienced London magistrates, had said : " I have nothing to do with punishing crime. That rests with a Higher Power. My business is to protect the community." Major Arthur Griffiths, one of H.M. Inspectors of Prisons, had declared that the prison population might be classed in two main divisions, those offenders who ought never to have been sent to prison at all and those who ought never to be released. " I maintain " said my father, " that no one should ever be sent to prison in the aimless and unintelligent way in which so many offenders are committed. Every committal ought to be with some definite object, whether it be the prisoner's punishment, or his reformation or merely his detention, or some combination of these aims."
" Let us judge of our present methods by results," he wrote. " Are the sentences of imprisonment imposed by our courts in fact deterrent ? And does the imprisonment prisonment as now administered reform those who are subjected to it ? . . . As regards the first question, do the sentences now imposed create a dread of the gaol
in the minds of the class from which the prison population is recruited ? Here two facts claim notice. First, a considerable proportion of commitments are due merely to default in paying money penalties. Secondly, the majority of direct commitments are for terms almost as brief as the above. The opinion of those in a position to judge is that so far from having a deterrent effect, the result is that persons who specially need such an influence come to regard imprisonment as a commonplace incident in their lives. . . .
" As regards reformation ; human nature being what it is, a
few weeks in gaol may do much to demoralise, even to degrade,
but practically nothing to elevate or reform. But do not the
severe sentences imposed by the superior courts avail to make
the law a terror to evil-doers ? The answer may be gleaned from the notorious fact that criminals return again and again to penal servitude. For even the discipline of a convict prison has no terrors for men who have become gradually accustomed to a life in gaol by a preliminary course of short sentences.
" If it be reasonable to expect that no one shall be imprisoned without a definite and intelligent purpose, is it not equally reasonable to insist that, when that purpose is the reformation of the offender, the discipline and treatment shall be adapted to bring about that result ? " Reform in the character of prison buildings was strongly urged, especially in the matter of windows designed to shut out all view of external nature such as might soothe and possibly elevate the mind. Asylum prisons were advocated for those who gave proof that they could not be trusted with liberty ; for there were the utterly weak as well as the utterly wicked. Discipline and industry must be enforced, such a prison being made self-supporting. But there should be as much liberty and opportunity for mental and moral improvement as compatible with discipline ; and prisons should be open to all the influences of Christianity, not only to official religious services.
" It is nothing short of a scandal," he wrote, " that in a Christian and Protestant country the inmates of our gaols should know nothing of religion save what comes to them officially like the water and the gas. To turn from the soul to the intellect ; what means are now available to develop or excite a prisoner's mental powers ? Short-sentence prisoners have practically nothing. And the only provision for those who are committed for longer terms is that the use of library books is allowed as a
reward for good conduct. But what use would it be to Bill Sykes or to Hodge if you gave him all the thirty-five volumes of Wisdom while you wait ! " Why should not prisoners on one night a week have a religious meeting of a kind fitted to win them, and on another night a popular lecture calculated to interest and instruct them ? By all means make them work hard ; and punish severely for idleness or misconduct ; but don't starve either their souls or their brains."
Apart from the indefinitely prolonged seclusion of those who deliberately outlaw themselves by making crime the business of their lives, there should be an " habitual offender division," in which the convict will obtain even more generous treatment than is now either politic or justifiable. There are two ways of preventing a dog from biting one's neighbours. One is by the fear of the lash, the other by chaining him up. If the criminal is to be restrained by the fear of a measured sentence, the discipline ought to be severe ; if by his being kept in seclusion then severity is unnecessary.
Our methods of dealing with unpremeditated " chance crimes " due to moral weakness, sudden temptation, or the pressure of want, he considered to be " deplorable both in their severity and in their effects."
The restitution of stolen property ought to be insisted on. A burglar should not be set at liberty until he had disclosed what he had done with his booty. This would go far to abolish the market for stolen property and even put an end to stealing. If necessary the thief should compensate the individual he had robbed by work done and paid for in prison.
Very strong support came from Mr. Justice (Sir Alfred) Wills, of whom it was said that in all the great qualities that go to the making of a just and merciful judge he was pre-eminent. After its criticisms of the 1901 Nineteenth Century article Sir Alfred wrote a long letter to The Times emphatically agreeing with my father's main contentions and proposals, and pleading for a prompt and effective inquiry into them. The following year Mr. Justice Phillimore in the charge to a Grand jury drew attention to the articles and said that the matter had been brought before the King's Bench by one of the oldest, most experienced and most humane of their number, with the result that communications had passed between the Home Office and the judges with regard to devising some new form of detention, more or less permanent, for old offenders.
When Criminals and Crime appeared in 1907 Sir Alfred Wills wrote to my father:
" I should like to find some opportunity for saying in public how
thoroughly I agree with almost-I think I might even say with quite all that you say. . . . I like particularly your objection to
the ` punishment of crime ' theory. . . . I can only now thank you heartily for your manly and courageous support of true principles,
and your plain speaking upon matters with respect to which hesitation, cowardice and mealy-mouthedness have already done such infinite
harm."
In 1908 Mr. Herbert (later Viscount) Gladstone introduced a Bill " to make better provision for the prevention of crime," which adopted some of the proposals which had for so long been advocated by my father, although in 1901 the then Home Secretary had stated that there was nothing in them which could be made the basis of legislation ! The measure, however, suffered severely in its passage through the House. " I found," wrote Sir Alfred Wills, " that as you say everything of value in Part II was gone." And again : " The `humanitarians,' as they audaciously call themselves, have scored this time, and I suppose they will until a set of statesmen arise, if they ever do, who have views of their own and will stick to them regardless of consequences when a great principle is at stake."
Sir Robert himself said:
" The chief merit of this Bill is in the recognition of the principle
that the protection of the public is a justification for prolonged sentences. But this recognition is made in a halting and incidental
way. The Bill fails to provide for the numerous class of cases in which, though the actual crime charged is not in itself a grave one,
inquiry would satisfy the court that the offender is a professional criminal who ought to be detained indefinitely."
"If the sick were treated with the folly which marks our dealing with criminals, a man with a violent cough would be sent to hospital
though possibly suffering from nothing worse than a fly in his throat or a common cold, whilst a slight cough would be neglected although
it might be a symptom of some fatal disease."
Regarding the relationship of drink and crime, Sir Robert remarked that judge after judge had said drink was at the root of the bulk of the crime of the country. That, he said, must be taken with a certain reservation. Crimes of violence and brutality were nearly always the result of drink. But gambling and betting also led to crime and misery ; so did overcrowding and dirt and everything that tended to immorality and the lowering of the
standard of life. I remember his saying that he had asked one of the most experienced of the London magistrates what proportion of the ordinary cases of crime coming before him he considered to be wholly or in part the result of drink. The reply, which he confessed was a surprise to him, was that drink was an element in nine out of every ten cases.
So great an advance has been made in respect of the treatment of first offenders, especially of juveniles, that I deal only very briefly with this aspect of Sir Robert's penology. " The aim," he argued, " should be by all possible means to reform a young offender and give him a new start in life." To this end he advocated corporal punishment in suitable cases-anything in fact rather than gaol.
In reply to those who objected to punishments which they classified as degrading, although affording an alternative to imprisonment in the case of youthful offenders, it was urged that no punishment degrades an offender so thoroughly as one that allows him to make his crime a subject of boasting. The Irish story related in the first chapter of this book was given as an example of the opposite effect being produced. " I will not," he said, " insult the intelligence of the reader by explaining the moral of my story. And I will only add that if offenders of this class were punished in the manner that public schoolboys are punished, and then turned out at once to rejoin their companions, an appearance in a police court would cease to be a matter for boasting ! "
The right of boys to go wrong was challenged : " I advocate reforms that will reduce the ranks of the army of crime ; I plead also for measures that will stop the recruiting." Before the unemployment problem had become acute, and before two wars had accustomed the British people to conscription, it was pointed out that the sort of boys who become " street arabs " and hooligans often made splendid soldiers and sailors. And the suggestion was that magistrates should be empowered to deal with any lad between the ages of, say, sixteen and twenty-one who habitually made the streets his home and had no visible means of subsistence.
The Earl of Meath, founder of the Empire Day Movement, having seen an article by my father in 1910 on the best way of
dealing with young offenders, drew his attention to the Duty and Discipline series of leaflets, and asked him to write one dealing
specially with the subject of corporal punishment for children not
amenable to milder influences. Lord Meath said : " There is so
much humanitarian sentiment to be met with in the present day
that there appears to be a real danger lest all control over the
rising generation should be thrown to the winds."
The Aliens Act required strengthening and honest administration. No other country in Europe tolerated the presence of alien
criminals. Why then should such men as anarchist conspirators
be allowed to live in Britain ? The ne'er-do-wells and known
criminals of other countries should be excluded. " Why should a professional criminal be admitted because he happens to have a first-class ticket on the Channel boat ? He would not be fit for his ` profession ' if he could not dress like a ` toff' and pay for a high-class revolver of the newest pattern."
Accusations of hardness, lack of sympathy and the like were not wanting. In his letter to The Times, already quoted, Sir Alfred Wills had said : " Dr. Anderson is undoubtedly fearless, and pace his critic in your columns, in my opinion a merciful and fair-minded man." Another kind of light was shed on the question by a writer in the Daily News : " I believe Sir Robert Anderson to be one of the best friends of those who can be reclaimed, whether young or of mature age. He is in full sympathy with the boys (an average of 500 annually) whom Mr. William Wheatley has in hand, and the Superintendent certainly looks upon him as a very steadfast friend. I happened to be in the chapel in Little Wild Street when Sir Robert gave an address to nearly 500 children belonging to the schools of the St. Giles Christian Mission, and Lady Agnes Anderson distributed some hundreds of prizes. It strikes me that this is service worthy even of the Humanitarian League." Mr. Wheatley, on hearing of my father's death, wrote : " I am more than grieved to read this morning of the passing Home of my very dear old friend, Sir Robert. Words fail me to express the deep feeling of my heart."
A fact which is probably not generally known was mentioned in Criminals and Crime. Speaking of one of the organisations which had attacked him as being too hard on their proteges the " professionals," the author said : " I must add that never a day passes in which the much-maligned police do not give more help to weak and deserving criminals than this sort of society has rendered during all its history."
I close this chapter with a few South African opinions and suggestions in the years 1945 and 1946. Their similarity to what Sir Robert Anderson was saying fifty years ago is too obvious to
need pointing out. Dr. F. E. T. Krause, late judge-President in the Orange Free State, was quoted recently as having said:
" The doctrine of retribution and revenge was and is still now the' underlying principle of our penal laws. . . . It was not and is not now the prescribed function or duty of the prison staff to do anything towards the actual reform of the prisoner. . . . All prisoners are dealt with as if they conform to a single pattern or type. . . . What is needed is not a reasonable interpretation and a liberal application of the regulations, but an entire change and abandonment of a barbarous, wrong and purposeless system. . . . Reformatories have now been placed under the jurisdiction of the Education Department. This has been the first tangible proof of a change in the policy which regarded the' crime' and not the criminal as the principal factor in awarding punishment. . . . Most of our country prisons still follow the dungeon pattern thick iron bars, slits of windows, no sun, faulty ventilation and semi-darkness in the cells."
At a conference in Johannesburg on penal reform, Mr. W. G. Hoal, Secretary for Justice and Director of Prisons, said that the gaols were overcrowded with persons many of whom should never be there. The short sentence for a trivial offence, followed by committals for longer periods according to a carefully graded scale, defeated the whole object of imprisonment. The head of a reformatory stated that it was nonsense to say that the punishment must fit the crime ; it should fit the criminal.
The Cape Times in a leading article on the above conference
said:
" Time after time it has been emphasised by the highest authorities that thousands of prisoners are housed in our gaols who should never be there. Modern observation has proved beyond doubt that prisons
create more criminals than they frighten or cure. Only with a drastic overhaul of the present methods of conviction and detention is there
hope of our prisons fulfilling their rightful function of reformatories."
And Mr. Justice Twentyman Jones is reported in the Cape Times of 23rd August 1945 as saying with reference to lawlessness among coloured youths, that it was time some institution was established with full powers to round up these youths and put them where they would have no opportunity to commit crimes. The Government should take the matter up and not wait for the courts to commit the youths to gaol, because when they came out they only resumed their criminal activities.
A commission on penal reform was appointed by the South
African Government in November 1945. The terms of reference include inquiry into the general objects of punishment ; the desirability or otherwise of short terms of imprisonment and the means by which, if undesirable, they may be avoided ; the classification and proper control of penal institutions and of the
inmates ; also the development of suitable forms of education for all prisoners.
In a leading article on the commission under the heading " Prisons on Trial," the Cape Times says:
" The need for a radical examination of the prison and punishment system of the Union is obvious. All civilised countries have at last made up their minds that the true object of imprisonment ought to be not so much the desire to exact revenge as the desire to reform the criminal. The long history of the penal system . . . gives fairly clear evidence that the deterrent effect of punishment has been grossly overrated. . . . It is plain that our present penal system is a hopeless
failure and needs complete renovation."
CHAPTER VI FRIENDSHIPS
In one aspect Sir Robert Anderson's theological writings reflect the man-his sturdy Ulster inheritance and training, his clear-cut, logical habit of thought his impatience with any form of " mediating " theology, his capacity for dealing hard straight blows, and his unsparing condemnation of anything he judged a departure from the truth.
What they do not reflect in adequate measure is his fundamental geniality, beautiful simplicity of spirit, and abundant kindness of heart. These are enshrined not in books but in the hearts of all his friends.
E. H., in The Christian, 28th November 1918
SOME who only knew Sir Robert from his writings and public utterances may have missed any clue to the traits which endeared him to his more intimate friends. He had a rare genius for friendship." So wrote one of the oldest of these, Mr. J. W. C. Fegan. The expression a genius for friendship " may sound almost trite ; but I know not how else to account for that which won the warm affection of a host of men and women of high and low estate and widely differing character and interests.
One can think of few temperaments in some respects more dissimilar than those of Dr. Handley Moule, sometime Bishop of Durham, and my father. Yet there was between them a close bond of understanding and Christian affection. When this memoir was first being prepared Dr. Moule said:
" It will be a personal happiness to me that anything affecting
me should be included in your memoir of your father, that friend whose never-failing friendship was for long years one of the treasured
possessions of my life."
" Anything to make those who had not the privilege of his friendship
know something of his rare character, its gifts and the many-sided power behind them, must be of value for both minds and hearts."
Dr. Stuart Holden, who contributed the Foreword to the first edition, in thanking me for letting him see an intimate letter, wrote : " It gives me no surprise, as I have had the privilege in recent years of getting many such a glimpse into the heart of love and tenderness sometimes disguised by an austere manner." The letter was one asking forgiveness for some expressions misunderstood by a great friend. " I now recognise," it said, " that my words are open to the construction you have placed upon them,
and I wish frankly to withdraw them, and to express unreservedly my deep and sincere regret for the pain they have given you. Forgive me this wrong. And may I venture to hope that it will be ` as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you,' reaching on to and including the 'no more remembrance'? "
Reference has already been made to the life-long friendships formed at " T.C.D." and in the south and west of Ireland. Some of them, notably with the Blands, Trenches and Talbot-Crosbies, and the family of the Rev. J. Denham-Smith, have been continued to the third and fourth generation. But all along the way his devotion to the life of Christian service and witness was repaid by the love and affection bestowed upon him ; whilst many whose acquaintance was made in the course of official or public duty became warm friends.
But it was only to those who got beneath the surface that his real character was revealed. After his death Mr. Fegan wrote in the Christian : "When I was on my first evangelistic visit in Kerry, Mr. F. C. Bland, who was-to use a word of his own coining-a very judgmatical man, said to me in his characteristic vein of affectionate raillery, `Bob Anderson is a daring impostor. He assumes an air of stoical reserve ; but the truth is that his heart is as tender as a woman's.' In all the varying experiences of a friendship of forty-five years I have found it so. I have often said to those who took exception to some harsh phrase of his in controversy that if I was in deep sorrow or trouble I knew no friend to whom I could turn with greater assurance for heartfelt and comforting sympathy. . . . I must say no more. I could not withhold this much in tribute to one of the staunchest, tenderest friends that ever man had."
Association with Lord Aberdeen in the work of Royal Commissions led to a sincere personal friendship, invitations to Haddo House following the official intercourse. Letters to my mother tell of one of these visits, apparently in 1876. (The letters are undated.)
On the evening of his arrival he said : " I had a first seance with Lord A. over business ; then a walk by the lakes ; after lunch a drive with Lady Aberdeen and Lady Harriet Lindsay ; a game of tennis with Lady Katherine afterwards. Since then I've been romping with the children (Lady Harriet's). I so wish you and Artie were here. Now on coming to my room I find the fire lighted and everything most snug.
" Lord A. assured me he liked his friends to act as if they were
really at home, and if I wanted a fire early in the day, or tea at any hour, I was to ring and order it. As for the tea, it is to be had in the hall at 4.30 and goes on till 6, so that I am in clover. Indeed I never was in a pleasanter house (except Ardfert !) or with kinder people. Lord A. interrupted me by coming in to explain that ladies were scarce and that he couldn't find one for me, but asked me to sit next his sister's' young man,' Lord Balfour of Burleigh, whom I know in official circles, a very nice fellow indeed. We sat down 16 to dinner, a very swell affair ; the first time I ever dined off silver plate, save at a city dinner ! After dinner we had some music, Mr. Turle playing much-for 50 years the organist of Westminster Abbey, a very nice old gentleman. At 10.30 we all tooled off to a little chapel or meeting-room, and Lord A. conducted family prayers. I counted 12 servant women and 5 men. Afterwards I had some talk with Lady A. whom I found to be a true Christian. I am now gone to bed." The following day : " I have just had my romp with the children. I couldn't have believed I should be so thoroughly at home. I have only wanted you to share it all to make me supremely happy." Next evening, Sunday : " I feel I have really made friends here. I went to the Parish Church in the morning. Two omnibuses started, one with the servants, women inside, men out ; the other with the ladies and those who preferred driving to walking. . . . At 6.30 p.m. Lord A. read the evening service, Mr. Turle at the harmonium, a new one presented to Lady K. by the servants. Dinner at 8 and sacred music all the evening."
A visit in 1884 was on the occasion of a reception to Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Gladstone ; he was at that time the famous Victorian Premier, the opponent of Disraeli and Salisbury. Monday, 15th September was the great day. About midnight a description was written to my mother:
" The people had collected in hundreds in front of the house, awaiting the G.O.M., [the Grand Old Man,] as Mr. Gladstone was popularly called. At 6.3o Lord Aberdeen who had gone to old
Meldrum to meet them rode up amid cheers. A few minutes afterwards arrived the Gladstones in a carriage-and-four escorted by about
300 of the tenantry on horseback. The Gladstones came up to the house where all the party had gathered round Lady Aberdeen, the
cheering being worthy of some 1200 Scottish throats. After the G.O,M. had shaken hands with the Haddo guests, one of the oldest
tenants addressed a few words of welcome. Meanwhile the' cavalry' had formed up under the balcony, the people on foot on the grass
beyond, and Mr. Gladstone made a speech in reply. All this you can read in the papers. The dinner was a big one, as a number of
local celebrities were invited. The biggest swells among the new arrivals were Lord and Lady Elgin. . . . P.S. (Tuesday). I am at
the library table, and the G.O.M. has just sat down beside me at the next blotter and might look over my shoulder ! "
Again, late that night : " After I wrote to-day we had the photo of the house-party. Then I got Mr. Glyn, Lord Elgin and Mr. Henry Gladstone, and we had two good hours tennis. . . . We had a big dinner again ; 34 sat down." I still have the photo of this group, which included, in addition to the Gladstones and Aberdeens and the present Marquess as a small boy, the Rev. the Hon. E. Carr Glyn, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, and Lady Mary Glyn, the Earl and Countess of Elgin (he was Viceroy of India, 1894-99), Mr. Henry Gladstone, and various Scottish notables.
The last letter from Haddo has a postscript : " I think my fate is sealed and I suppose I'll stay another day. We have had a particularly pleasant party this vening ; the Glyns, Lady Tavistock, Mrs. and Miss Hogg, Dr. Donaldson and Mr. Henry Gladstone. We had great fun all round, and very definite appeals to me to stay another day. Mr. Sholto Douglas comes to-morrow.
. I had a long quiet chat with Lady Aberdeen this evening. She and A. were kinder and more cordial than ever in the leave-taking." His hostess wrote in reply to a thanks-letter : " I hope there may be many repetitions of your visit. It is a great comfort to me to think that you are to be the one with whom Aberdeen is to work for the next year or two." And his host : " Yes, I think Miss Hogg's ideas, for instance, underwent a revolution or got a revelation as to the formidably staid and respected Mr. Anderson ! "
Mention of Mr. Sholto Douglas recalls another incident. Writing the same year from Douglas Support, Coatbridge, my father said : " This morning I drove with Lady de Crespigny to see Bosworth Castle ; we are sworn friends. I find Mr. Douglas had been warning the ladies that all levity was to cease when -I came, and nothing to be spoken about except evangelical and prophetic topics. Lady de C. confessed they had looked forward to my advent with anything but pleasure ! "
When at Haddo again the following year, he wrote describing a Sunday : " Professor Henry Drummond and I absconded after breakfast and made for the Free Kirk, where I occupied the pulpit. . . . Tea at 5.30 and Chapel at 6.30. It was full and
many were shut out. Lord A. read the service and Professor D. gave the sermon. Dinner at 8.45, and after a spell of talk and .Some sacred music, I was very glad to see A. bring out a heap of hymn-books, and we all had some hymns before separating. It is very happy to see this element in the midst of such princely and luxurious living."
There is a beautiful photograph of the Haddo Chapel in We Twa, the memoirs of Lord and Lady Aberdeen. Lady Aberdeen tells there that Archbishop Tait advised against a formal consecration, as this would involve its belonging to and being under the authority of one particular Church. He thought, and the Aberdeens agreed, that it would be much better for it to be nominally just a room in the house, built in the form of a chapel, and dedicated to the special service of God. Accordingly it was opened on I1th December 1881 by a service conducted by Mr. Carr Glyn, then Vicar of Kensington.
My father seems to have lost touch somewhat for a time with the Aberdeens, possibly on account of their very divergent views on the Irish Home Rule controversy. When Governor-General of Canada, however, Lord Aberdeen wrote thanking him for the gift of a book, and kindly added : " If ever I can be of any use, e.g. in showing attention to any friends to whom you might wish to give letters of introduction, pray let me know." And a diary entry during a visit to Dublin at a later date reads : " To Viceregal Lodge to tea. Aberdeen as friendly as of old." The last letter I have come across was one thanking my father for an " expression, most warm and true, of deep sympathy " on the death as the result of an accident on 16th December 1909, of the Hon. Archie Gordon at the early age of twenty-five. A photograph in the uniform of A.D.C. to his father, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, accompanied the letter, and a booklet giving the story of his short life. Under the photo are the words
" Thanks be to God Who giveth us the victory."
Ties of warm friendship and fellowship in the Gospel and Bible study were formed with the Rev. Sholto D. C. Douglas,
mentioned above, Rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place,
and afterwards of St. Silas, Glasgow. After his marriage to Miss
Violet Paget visits to their summer home at Balmacara on Loch
Alsh became a delight. " Such a view ! " runs a letter to my
mother. " The hills looked as they do in Herbert's frescoes of
the East, save that the colouring far surpasses the East. Not a
cloud from horizon to horizon, and a panorama of lake and
sea and mountain like Rigi and Derryquin in one. . . . Evening service (Church of Scotland) at 6, which I took ; the little place packed, the majority men, not a few of them kilted."
In the summer of 1893 my brother Alan and I were there with my father on a never-forgotten visit. Others in the houseparty were Dr. E. W. Bullinger, the Rev. H. L. C. and Mrs. de Candole, Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Davidson, Count Moltke of Copenhagen, Mr. Alister and the Hon. Mrs. Fraser, and Mr. Thomas Stockdale. Our hostess divided us into major and minor prophets for the daily Bible Readings which made the Balmacara visits so much more than the sheer enjoyment they were in any case.
As ever my father wrote home about it all. One letter tells of a visit to Skye : " We weighed anchor in the Skeandhu for Portree at 11.30. The occasion was to see Lord and Lady Macdonald (Mr. D.'s cousins), and he came on board as soon as we arrived. We had a very enjoyable run back, reaching home at 8, and dinner was late. Now all the party are gone to bed, and I'll follow. . . . P.S. I didn't. I took up the Graphic and became so interested in the sinking of the Victoria that before going up I read the report of the court-martial. Then I saw a steamer with brilliant lights coming as it seemed ashore. This morning I found she was the Iolanthe, Sir Donald Currie's yacht. The day broke exquisitely, and throughout it was one of Mrs. D.'s `blue days' in which everything looks unnaturally beautiful. . . . The evening meeting was crammed ; Sir D. Currie, Sir J. Pease, Mr. Shaw Stewart and others (three M.P.s) ; also a number of the crews of the Iolanthe and Fire Fay (R.Y.S.) . Very solemn. Mr. Stewart and I went back with Sir Donald and dined on board."
His diary for 1892 records : " In the yacht to Glenelg. Tea at the Master of Blantyre's ; then up the Glen to see the famous Pictish tower, a wonderful ruin said to be 2000 years old." Warmhearted invitations to Balmacara came year after year ; and Mrs. Douglas in her inimitable way describes the attractions of that lovely spot. To my mother she wrote : " We are in a spell of Divine loveliness which no words out of the Bible can describe. Even Balmacara is more like the New Earth than it has ever been ; and I have grudged every hour of it, feeling all through how your dear man would revel in it all, how he would roast himself in the hot sun and grow speechless in the beauty. I cannot tell how I long for you both to come and enjoy it
with us. Do pack up and come to-morrow, dear, dear people."
One summer our own family and our friends the Cootes went to Ramsgate, taking two adjoining school buildings, complete with swimming-bath, playing-fields, and other attractions for boys and girls. A letter from Mrs. Douglas containing some choice sarcasm came to " My very dear friends " : " We wonder," she wrote, " at the vulgarity of your preference for Ramsgate over Balmacara. . . . Ramsgate ! ! ! Well, it is nice to see the 'arrys enjoying themselves and to listen to the band and watch the niggers. And the wild shrieks of the Pipes welcoming us at night, as we come home in the sunset from the rugged Coolins or the lonely Lochs, of course cannot compete with the music of the Spa ! But still we wonder at you ! " Then follow more raptures about the beauties of the Highland home : " I feel I could open my arms and take into them the scenes, the peat smells, the weird lights, the lovely bare rocky heathery stretches, the Highland cattle and shaven sheep, as if they were human things to hug and love. Don't you feel just that same sort of drawing towards the nigger minstrels and the donkeys on the sands, and the elephantine hotels on the parade ? I am sure you do!"
Another letter in July 1896, to my father, speaks of all the hills being lit up with lights such as are only to be seen at " Bal." or in Heaven ; " and we groaned that you were not with us ; we are having a proper honeymoon this time, expecting no one except you or Bully, or such like odds and ends "-Bully being Dr. Bullinger. A few days later : " We are delighted to think that you will be an ` odds and ends ' with us. We will let you do exactly what you feel inclined for from morning to night ; unlimited tea, fresh made ! What other inducements can we offer ? Absolute rest of mind and body. If you care to join us in Biblical researches you shall ; but we promise not to be scandalised if you snooze on the beach instead, for we have great sympathy
with what must be your longing to think of nothing but food and
air."
A note thanking my parents for going to call on Mr. and Mrs.
Douglas when on a short visit to London says : " Yes, it was
nice of you to toil up to us so often, real friendly ; but indeed I
could as little doubt your true and lasting friendship as I could
Sholto's love to me ! "
Visits were often paid to Rossie Priory, Perthshire, the home
of Lord and Lady Kinnaird. Writing after my mother's death, the Hon. Emily Kinnaird said : " Your father and mother have
been associated with our whole life, and we have such happy recollections of his visits and her devotion to you all." My father's diary for I908 records : " Chapel at 6. Full. Spoke on Luke iv. I4-3o. Bishop Taylor Smith took the opening prayer. I spoke for near 50 minutes : very attentive : ended with the story of my conversion . . . ." (Later) " Fourth day of rain ! I perambulated the corridors ; from the end of mine to the end of the picture room is 16o yards ; the hall is 50 yards."
Yachting on the Clyde used to be enjoyed with special friends Mr. and Mrs. William Sloan of Dunara, Helensburgh, whose eldest daughter was one day to be my wife. The diary mentions my father's preaching in the two parish kirks (Church of Scotland) at Helensburgh and in the Congregational and United Free churches. The Duncan Davidsons of Inchmarlo, Captain and Mrs. Bisset at Lessendrum, and the Blackwoods at Gogar Mount near Edinburgh, were other folk in Scotland who welcomed my parents. The "Reminiscences" in Blackwood's Magazine were the basis of the book The Lighter Side of my Official Life.
Besides frequent visits to the Dublin relations, Irish hospitality was extended by the Barcrofts at Newry, the Boyds of Ballymacool, Lord Langford at Kilcock, and Sir Algernon and Lady Coote of Ballyfin. A diary entry refers to a visit to the latter : " At evening prayers I had all the household and a number of the outside staff (3I in all) and gave them a talk on Acts xvii and God's gifts to us, forgiveness, life, sonship." Ballyfin, like Moore Abbey, not far away, has since then passed into other hands.
One of the chief pleasures of my father's later years came as a result of his official duties. During the dynamite campaigns Scotland Yard officers were stationed at various home and foreign ports : and at places such as Dover, Folkestone, Calais and Boulogne their presence had proved of such value that it was decided to continue their services. A gang of criminals had for years lived in luxury on the contents of purses and pocketbooks stolen on the Channel steamers. But some had far bigger game in the shape of valuable securities in the ships' treasure chests, keys for which they were able to secure.
The C.I.D. men were of great assistance to the French police in keeping watch on these gentry, but there was always some danger of friction, and it was thought advisable for the Chief to
pay occasional unexpected visits. The railway company who were also the owners of the steamers gave him a free pass between London and Calais, very kindly making it available for himself and another. Not only so, but they continued issuing the pass after his retirement from Scotland Yard. This meant that my mother or one of us could accompany him on cross-Channel trips, having lunch or tea on the French side. Often my people stayed at Dover, crossing on fine days, and enjoying not only the trip but meeting friends and acquaintances on board. In this way they got to know the Marine Superintendent, Captain Dixon ; the Harbour-Master, Captain Iron ; as well as the Commanders of the ships, amongst whom were Captains Bennett, Dane, Paine, Hancock, King and Belchamber, some of whom became warm friends. A genuine welcome always came from the railway officials as well as from the detective officers and others. My mother and sister too became familiar figures on the Admiralty Pier at Dover, receiving friendly greetings on every hand. Amongst the fellow-passengers most frequently met was Mr. Alfred Harmsworth, afterwards Lord Northcliffe, whom they often saw in London also. In view of the supposed influence of newspaper magnates in the making and unmaking of politicians and governments the following note is of interest. (Mr. Asquith had resigned the Premiership in December 1916 and been succeeded by Mr. Lloyd George)
"PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE, "LONDON, E.C. 14th Jan. 1917
DEAR SIR ROBERT ,-I would have replied before, but I have been out to the war.
" Miss Asquith is rather sanguine if she thinks we shall hear any more of Papa. I understand that he has no desire for further work.
" Yours sincerely,
" NORTHCLIFFE."
When not crossing themselves my people used to find constant interest in watching the sailing and arrival of the Channel steamers. Many diary entries refer to this, such as- " Madame Sarah Bernhardt and Company on board." Amongst the crowned heads and others mentioned are the Kings of Spain and Portugal, the Shah of Persia, the Khedive of Egypt, the Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden, the Maharajah of Jeypur. Other items in the diaries are : " Passed Holbein on his swim about 1 + miles out. . . . Saw Lord Roberts receive the Freedom
of Dover." (Both on 28th August 1902). A few days earlier " Banquet to Officers of German Warship Stein " ; and the same year : Procession of the Court of Guestling ; Mayors of the Cinque Ports, etc."
In those days a trip from London to Calais and back in a day was not quite such a trifle as it is now ; and many people had unpleasant memories of the crossing. When discussing the Channel Tunnel scheme during the visit to Walmer Castle, mentioned in Chapter IV my father spoke of going over for pleasure ; Lord Salisbury's response was-" For pleasure ? " However, when occasionally at breakfast he decided to " go to France," everything possible used to be done by the officials to make the journey by train and boat comfortable and pleasant, and of course he chose his day. From the diaries I find that thirty-seven visits to Calais were made in 1898 and thirty-eight in 1902, and many almost every year, most of them just from Dover.
The view of the White Cliffs from the Channel suggested thoughts to him besides the customary ones. When pleading for prison reform in his book Criminals and Crime he wrote:
" Some who read these pages will know nothing of the structure of a gaol. When next they find themselves upon a Calais steamer let
them glance up at the prison on Dover Cliffs, and realise that all those rows of cells are so designed as to prevent the inmates from
seeing the English Channel. . . . There may be gaols where no outlook could be given that might not be deemed unsuitable. But here,
if the cells on the southern side were fitted with windows extending from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling, the prisoner could look
on nothing but sea and sky, and in Nature's brighter moods the far-off coast of France. And the prospect might well make him pine
for liberty with moistened eyes instead of with clenched teeth and knitted brow."
Apart from the enjoyment of the sea trips, one of the great attractions of Dover was visiting the Worsfold Mowlls, the Martin Mowlls and their families. Years afterwards Mr. Rutley Mowll recalled " with happy memories those visits to Whitfield ; days of sparkling wit, delightful anecdotes, and spiritual joy." One of the family, Dr. Howard Mowll, Archbishop of Sydney, wrote recently to my sister:
" It was such a pleasure to hear from you. It brought back so many memories. I always remember several of Sir Robert's Bible
Readings in our Hall in Dover, especially his saying on one occasion, `What is your conception of God? How few have the Psalmist's
majestic conception of God ! ' . . . His books are still a great help
to our theological students. Then I think of dear Lady Agnes and her many kindnesses, and her pleasure when she saw me carrying a large Bible ! "
Recalling those Dover days Colonel C. M. Davidson of His Majesty's Bodyguard wrote : " I look back with pleasure to the bright talks I enjoyed with Sir Robert on Dover Pier-so full of interest and always impressing one with his Christian faith. He was so consistent, and one always felt the better." My father's 1912 diary records " a long talk with P., who declared himself an infidel and seemed very hard, but softened somewhat at last." That talk was on Dover Pier.
Amongst the friends with whom my parents used to stay in England were the Barrow Cadburys of Birmingham, Sir Victor and Lady Buxton in the Epping Forest, the Herbert Apperleys and D. C. Apperleys, the T. A. Dennys, the Boakes and the Brandreths. There were, too, the Edward Trotters, Herbert Trittons, and Hanburys, as well as the Fegans, Macalisters, and others mentioned elsewhere. Referring to one of his visits to the Whitwells at Oxford, my father's diary records : " Dined at All Souls. I sat at head of table with Prof. Dicey on left and Prof. Edgeworth on right. . . . Very pleasant evening ; told a series of Irish and other stories." The Rev. W. Mitchell-Carruthers wrote after my mother's death : " How greatly I valued the friendship of your parents, and what a delight your father's annual visits to me in the days when I was at Holbrook." (Mr. Carruthers was the rector.)
Some of the friends from across the Atlantic who visited our home were the Revs. Dr. Harris Gregg, Dr. James Gray, Dr. Robert Cameron, Dr. A. C. Dixon, Dr. C. I. Scofield, editor of the Scofield Bible, and Mr. Charles Alexander of the Torrey-Alexander and Chapman-Alexander Missions. Dr. Cameron wrote : " I want you to know that I count it one of the highest joys of my life to have enjoyed your fellowship." And Dr. Gray spoke of the possibility of meeting my father as one of the great attractions of a visit to England. The recent war gives added interest to this extract from a long letter in 1916 from General Ralph Prime of Yonkers:
" These two years of awful history have been full of intense concern
for you with all of us. I need not tell you that England and the English have the deepest sympathy of all our people. I do not know
of an American but thinks and feels for your people. If we were all
fellow-citizens of Great Britain we could not feel more deeply for
you. . . . We send you our best wishes and prayers for God's protecting care and grace. May the Good Lord have you and yours in his keeping."
Other welcome visitors from overseas included the Hon. W. H. Edgar of Australia, the Revs. Alexander Reese and Eldred Hercus of New Zealand, and the New Hebrides missionaries Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Frater and the Rev. Fred. Paton. On hearing of Sir Robert's death, Dr. John Hoskin, K.C., of Toronto, wrote " It is with much deep sorrow of heart I learn that my very dear friend has been summoned Home. My friendship for him was deep, and so long as I live I shall remember him." And Miss
Carpmael, Dr. Hoskin's niece, has sent this kind appreciation of my father:
" He was so utterly sincere, so devoted to his Lord and so genuinely
kind to all, high or low, rich or poor, that he was greatly beloved wherever he went. . . . My uncle when dying asked me to read a passage from The Gospel and its Ministry. "
My father was fortunate in the medical men whom he numbered amongst his friends., Dr. T. Gilbart-Smith, one of the oldest of these, wrote once : " Robert, my old friend, your friendship is one of the brightest spots in this dark London." And years later Mrs. Gilbart-Smith said : " Oh, how Gilbart loved him, I think more than any other man outside our own family." Another friend of early Irish days was Dr. Hamilton Bland ; right to the close of my father's life he had unbounded confidence in this beloved physician. Others who attended him from time to time were drawn to him in a special degree ; Mr. Mark Hovell said : " I always thought of him more as a friend than a patient." At a time of distressing heart weakness, Dr. Bezley Thorne wrote, " I am so thankful to learn that you have had a restful night. Thank God for it." Although not treating him professionally, Dr. Frederick Price became a warm family friend in later years. " Your father," he wrote, " was a great man and his life had far-reaching influence. He had a really great intellect ; besides which he had a child-like faith in Christ-not a frequent combination. I got to love him."
" Why, oh why did we not know each other in bygone years ? " said the Rev. J. H. Townsend ; and a letter from the Rev. Dr. C. H. Waller ended, " Yours ever (but I do love a scrimmage with you !)." Two letters began thus : " My dear old over-worked
Detective," and " My dear Darius, the friend of Daniel," the latter a reference to Daniel in the Critics' Den. Remembrance of the early Irish days is in these other brief extracts. Mrs. Pery Knox Gore wrote : " Many and many a time you and the dear old days are in my mind. God bless you, dear old friend. May He in His own good time send you to be among us here again." Another letter, referring to those times, begins " Very dear old Andern, It is good to find you are just the same affectionate old friend as of old." In lighter vein, thanking him for a new book, Miss Bland of the Kerry family says : " You blessed man, not only will I forgive you anything you have done (and that is saying a good deal), but I will forgive you anything you may do ! "
I can think of only one occasion when my father committed a real faux pas. Shortly after I went to the Leys School he came to see me, and in the course of conversation with the famous Head, Dr. W. F. Moulton, he introduced some of his favourite criticisms of the Revised Version of the Bible. He told me afterwards how it suddenly dawned on him that " the Doctor " in defending the Revisers was using the word " we." He had had no idea that he was speaking to the Dr. Moulton, as he put it. The latter, however, far from being offended, became a warm friend and admirer, writing to him two years later:
" No book of yours that I have seen has failed to interest me
greatly, and certainly this is no exception. I sympathise deeply with your object."
He was referring to For His Name's Sake, incorporated later in The Honour of His Name (" A Plea for Reverence "). Dr. Moulton went on, however, to deprecate an expression " strange pedantry " used in connection with two Revised renderings, pleading that the words implied not merely inconsistency but falseness of motive. He then kindly explained at some length the reasons which had decided the choice of the English renderings, referring to the fact that a two-thirds majority was required for alterations to the Authorised reading. The question was the translation " King Eternal " in I Tim. i. 17, and " King of the Ages " in Rev. xv. 3.
Reference has been made in Chapter III to the attacks upon my father in Parliament. One happy result was the way friends rallied to him. One of them wrote in 1910:
" MY DEAR ROBERT, I always say that if there is one man who
is able to take care of himself it is you ! At the same time, when offensive things are being said, it may be some little satisfaction to
you to know that old friends are as they were with unshaken confidence. The sickening personalities of public life at the present time must disgust all reasonable men.
Always yours affectionately,
LINDSAY TALBOT-CROSBIE.
And this came from Lady Tritton:
" I have been thinking much of you during the storm that has been raging around you. I have often prayed for you in my hours of quiet and leisure. I have a conviction that God has a very special purpose of blessing in all this. I know you will forgive me for saying so much, and accept the word of comfort I have been wishing to send to one whose words have been a help and inspiration for many years."
The last letter recalls one from Lady Kinnaird at another time : " I think you said yesterday on the doorstep that you had prayed for me lately by name ; I want to thank you particularly. I wish we had more of that personal ministry." And this brings to remembrance an unusual appeal from Mrs. Sholto Douglas for
prayer-help:
" MY DEAR FRIENDS BOTH,-We are coming to London to preach in Portman Chapel for four Sundays, and I long with a great and growing longing that our month may be a real mission among the rich. Old friends are coming to hear Sholto, and may God fill him. I want your earnest prayers, I don't often ask praying people for their prayers, because I know what a serious thing it is to pray in earnest. And yet, as one sees miners converted every week, as we have done all winter, thank God . . . and as one hears of work in Uganda, China, amongst Esquimaux-everyone seems to be reached except the poor rich people. Do, do pray, dear kind people, as you
love souls ; here are real heathen to be reached."
