The debate now turned upon the story of the Gadarene swine. The question at issue was not, at first sight, one of vital importance, and one critic at least remarked that at their age Mr. Gladstone and Professor Huxley might be better occupied than in fighting over the Gadarene pigs:--] If these too famous swine were the only parties to the suit, I for my part (writes Huxley, "Collected Essays" 5 414) should fully admit the justice of the rebuke. But the real issue (he contends) is whether the men of the nineteenth century are to adopt the demonology of the men of the first century, as divinely revealed truth, or to reject it as degrading falsity. [A lively encounter followed:--] The G.O.M. is not murdered [he writes on November 20], only "fillipped with a three-man beetle," as the fat knight has it. [This refers to the forthcoming article in the December "Nineteenth Century", "The Keepers of the Herd of Swine," which was followed in March 1891 by "Mr. Gladstone's Controversial Methods" (see "Collected Essays" 5 366 sqq.), the rejoinder to Mr. Gladstone's reply in February. The scope of this controversy was enlarged by the intervention in the January "Nineteenth Century" of the Duke of Argyll, to whom he devoted the concluding paragraphs of his March article. But it was scarcely well under way when another, accompanied by much greater effusion of ink and passion, sprang up in the columns of the "Times". His share in it, published in 1891 as a pamphlet under the title of "Social Diseases and Worse Remedies," is to be found in "Collected Essays" 9 237.] I have a new row on hand in re Salvation Army! [he writes on December 2]. It's all Mrs. --'s fault; she offered the money. [In fact, a lady who was preparing to subscribe 1000 pounds to "General" Booth's "Darkest England" scheme, begged Huxley first to give her his opinion of the scheme and the likelihood of its being properly carried out. A careful examination of "Darkest England" and other authorities on the subject, convinced him that it was most unwise to create an organisation whose absolute obedience to an irresponsible leader might some day become a serious danger to the State; that the reforms proposed were already being undertaken by other bodies, which would be crippled if this scheme were floated; and that the financial arrangements of the Army were not such as provide guarantees for the proper administration of the funds subscribed:--] And if the thing goes on much longer, if Booth establishes his Bank, you will have a crash some of these fine days, comparable only to Law's Mississippi business, but unfortunately ruining only the poor. [On the same day he writes to his eldest son:--] Hodeslea, Eastbourne, December 8, 1890.