WAR WITH THE SALVATION ARMY.

The magistrates of Arbroath seem to have entered upon a war against the members of the Salvation Army, and on Sunday several officers of that body were taken into custody on a charge of collecting a crowd in the streets, creating a disturbance, and obstructing the thoroughfare.

It is, of course, quite possible that the proceedings of the revivalists were of such a nature as to justify the action of the magistrates. They may, for example, have selected as the scene for their operations some street which could not be obstructed without causing very serious inconvenience to the public. But if, as is probably the case, these men have been arrested merely because by preaching or singing in the streets they were likely to excite ruffians to commit an assault upon them, the authorities seem to have been guilty of a very reprehensible act.

In their tenderness for the feelings of the blackguardism of Arbroath they have interfered with the liberties of peaceable and worthy men engaged in laudable work. No doubt the question of Salvation Army services and processions is a very difficult one, and it is quite possible that the difficulties are aggravated by the eccentricities and follies of the Salvationists themselves; but, after all, the public are not likely to look on with equanimity with in deference to the brutal instincts of the criminal classes.

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