One-half of the proceeds Spurgeon was to take with him to London to build his tabernacle, the other half was to be left in the hands of the gentleman who brought him over and engineered him through. The contract, coming to light, produced a great commotion, and Mr. Spurgeon declined to fulfil it. The war breaking out, this clerical gentleman tried his hand at a horse contract. He approached a general of high position, and said he was a poor minister, times were hard, and he wanted to make a little money; would the general give him a contract? One was placed in his hands for the purchase of a number of horses. The minister sold the contract, and made a handsome thing of it; the government was cheated. A committee of Congress, in looking up frauds in the city, turned up this contract. In a report to Congress, the general and the minister were mentioned in no complimentary terms. While these transactions were going on in New York, the general was in the field where the battle was the thickest, maintaining the honour of the flag. The report in which his name was dishonourably mentioned reached him. His indignation was aroused. He sent a letter to the speculating preacher, sharp as the point of his sword. He told him if he did not clear him in every way from all dishonourable connection in the transaction complained of, he would shoot him in the street as soon as he returned to New York. The frightened minister made haste to make the demanded reparation.” Happily for the credit of America, the author already referred to says, “Such men are held in as light esteem by the respectable clergy of the city, and by the honourable men of their own denomination, as they are by the speculators whom they attempt to imitate.”