"Exactly. That is all I need to start with. Now, to-day I began: 'Mr.
Hamlyn, a prominent resident in Hornham and a staunch supporter of the
Henglish Protestant Church, has at last felt it his duty to protest
against the illegal practices at St. Elwyn's in as public a manner as
possible.' I've struck a new note, see? What I've done to-day has hardly
ever been done before. Now, why shouldn't this inaugurate a big public
movement all over the country? Why shouldn't offices be taken in the
Strand and a new League started, 'Hamlyn's Protestant Crusade' or
something of that sort? To begin with, subscriptions are invited for
the circulation of real fighting Protestant literature, hot stuff,
giving accounts of the illegal and Romish doings all over the country. I
know where to get the pamphlets written for a mere song, and startlers,
too. Of course, we have all the printing done at the works here in
Hornham,--that'll be worth something considerable. Meanwhile, mark what
happens. The 'silly season' comes on and the newspapers haven't got much
to write about. Our little London concern is established and then we
begin touring round to all the Ritualistic churches and protesting
against their aims. If I know what I'm talking about, in a fortnight or
three weeks one of the biggest booms of the century will begin!
Everything we do will be in the papers, rows in the churches,
police-court proceedings--everything. Whenever I write a letter of
protest to the Bishop of London or the Archbishop of Canterbury it will
appear in all the papers. It don't matter what they say as long as they
mention the Crusade! Then'll come the moment when we really launch out
and become a national Institution. We'll get half a dozen parsons and
fifth-rate M.P.'s to form a committee, and some one to be a treasurer:
he's easy found. Then I become secretary and you assistant-secretary:
we are _salaried_ officials, of course, and we start a little magazine
as the Society's official organ--to be printed at the works. I've many
more ideas for the extension of the plan,--brilliant ideas some of them,
too. But I won't go into them now. I've only given you the roughest
outline of the scheme as yet. Meanwhile, as a preliminary, I'm going to
flimsy out a dozen short reports of to-day's proceedings at St. Elwyn's,
and I want you to run up to Fleet Street with them, about five this
evening. All the dailies will print it."
He chuckled. "That's the chief beauty of the scheme," he continued; "you
get the majority of your advertisements free, and in the best papers,
too! It's about the only scheme I ever heard of that could."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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