CHURCH ARMY, THE. The Church Army was founded in 1882 by W. Carlile, Rector of S. Mary-at-Hill, and now Prebendary also of S. Paul's Cathedral. It is a Church of England Institution modelled in some re spects on the Salvation Army (q.v.). As the designa tion Army implies, it enlists officers and soldiers, and does not disdain the use of brass bands. It has a Train ing Home in which working men and women are trained as " Church of England Evangelists " for mission work amongst their own people. The women act as Mission Nurses; the men as Reformatory Missiouers, Mission Van Captains, Colporteurs, etc. Before they are com missioned they must now pass an examination. On doing so, the men are admitted by the Bishop of London as Lay Evangelists in the Church. In 1SSS Mr. Carlile started Labour Homes in London and elsewhere to give a " fresh start in life to the outcast and destitute." In connection with the Church Army there are also such philanthropic agencies as cheap lodging-houses, an employment bureau, a cheap food depot, an old clothes department, and a dispensary. A few years ago the Army was presented with the Hempstead Hall Estate, near Haverhill, in Essex, comprising about 740 acres of mixed arable, pasture, and wood land, in order that it might be converted into a training test colony. There
were included some farmhouses, and an old mansion which was converted Into a labour home. " It is intended that the estate shall afford employment, at once healthy and instructive, for about fifty men at a time. These will be selected from the Army's London and pro vincial labour homes, and they will be kept at work hedging, ditching, digging, tending livestock, ploughing, and all the manifold occupations attendant upon a large mixed farm; and, provided they go through the period of training and testing satisfactorily, they will from time to time be drafted out to Canada, well equipped with a practical knowledge of the work which will probably form their lot in future years " (" The Daily Tele graph "). The men work in return for board. If they earn anything beyond this, it is placed to their credit and paid to them or used for them when they leave.