“If you are writing to Miss Hopkins, please remember me most kindly to her, and tell her I congratulate her on Miss Robinson’s success: no doubt she has largely contributed to it. “I see Miss Robinson has gained her point, and there is really a Soldier’s Institute at Portsmouth. The military element is strong at Hythe, in the School of Musketry, and we can see how it is that the scarlet uniform and gold trimmings are so popular. To poor people the fine clothes and certain pay must be very attractive. Contrast the dress and appearance of an agricultural labourer with that of the labourer who has enlisted! And then think of the easy life of the latter. Do not fancy _my_ estimate of soldiers is altered. I am looking at them from the point of view of the very poor, to whom to have a soldier son or brother must be a grand promotion. “Mr. Knox came here on Thursday. I like him still very much, and he likes you and me. He asked most kindly after you. He also sent a copy of ‘A Night and Day on board the _Mars_’ to be forwarded to you, which I duly sent off. You know he is a staunch teetotaller, and is working desperately in the cause. He said he had known seventy-five men, of his _own_ position, ruined by drink, and Dr. Hodgson told me afterwards that this was no exaggeration. The vice of drunkenness seems to prevail here more than in London, at least one hears more of it. “Mr. Knox has nothing now to do with the Company’s schools, but has given himself up to rescuing _boys_ (I asked him where were the _girls_?), and has been violently attacked for _kidnapping_ them. An absurd charge, of course. I fear he is not cold and hardheaded, like the typical Scotchman. But, all the same, I like him whenever I see him. “How true is what you say about the money matters of women! But we are breaking through many of these things, and a later generation of women will know what independence means. I hope they will use it properly, for, after all, we cannot be independent of each other. We have to live in a community.” “Bonaly, Sept. 8, 1874. “Your long and interesting letter has just come, dear Annie, after one from me to you is written, sealed up, and put in the post-bag. “I will read the letter in the _Spectator_. It seems to me that Tyndall only says what you say, namely, that science, so far as he knows, cannot _prove_ God and immortality. But I do not see why he need have said as much as he did, except that he is essentially _aggressive_. “That people are unjust to him, I admit, and that this ignorance of his subject and injustice drive him to attack.” “Bonaly, Sept. 14, 1874.