WILLIAM Q. JUDGE'S STATEMENT AT THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION

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Since March last charges have been going round the world against me to which the name of Annie Besant has been attached, without her consent as she now says, that I have been guilty of forging the names and handwritings of the Mahatmas and of misusing the said names and handwritings. The charge has also arisen that I suppressed the name of Annie Besant as mover in the matter from fear of the same. All this has been causing great trouble and working injury to all concerned, that is, to all our members. It is now time that this should be put an end to once for all, if possible.

I now state as follows:

1. I left the name of Annie Besant out of my published circular by request of my friends in the T.S. then near me, so as to save her and leave it to others to put her name to the charge. It now appears that if I had so put her name it would have run counter to her present statement.

2. I repeat my denial of the said rumored charges of forging the said names and handwritings of the Mahatmas or of misusing the same.

3. I admit that I have received and delivered messages from the Mahatmas and assert their genuineness.

4. I say that I have heard and do hear from the Mahatmas, and that I am an agent of the Mahatmas; but I deny that I have ever sought to induce that belief in others, and this is the first time to my knowledge that I have ever made the

5. claim now made. I am pressed into the place where I must make it. My desire and effort have been to distract attention from such an idea as related to me. But I have no desire to make the claim, which I repudiate, that I am the only channel for communication with Masters; and it is my opinion that such communication is open to any human being who by endeavoring to serve mankind affords the necessary conditions.

6. Whatever messages from the Mahatmas have been delivered by me as such―and they are extremely few―I now declare were and are genuine messages from the Mahatmas so far as my knowledge extends; they were obtained through me, but as to how they were obtained or produced I cannot state. But I can now again say, as I have said publicly before, and as was said by H. P. Blavatsky so often that I have always thought it common knowledge among studious Theosophists, that precipitation of words or messages is of no consequence and constitutes no proof of connection with Mahatmas; it is only phenomenal and not of the slightest value.

7. So far as methods are concerned for the reception and delivery of messages from the Masters, they are many. My own methods may disagree from the views of others, and I acknowledge their right to criticise them if they choose; but I deny the right of any one to say that they know or can prove the ungenuineness of such messages to or through me unless they are able to see on that plane. I can only say that I have done my best to report―in the few instances when I have done it at all―correctly and truthfully such messages as I think I have received for transmission, and never to my knowledge have I tried therewith to deceive any person or persons whatsoever.

8. And I say that in 1893 the Master sent me a message in which he thanked me for all my work and exertions in the Theosophical field and expressed satisfaction therewith, ending with sage advice to guard me against the failings and follies of my lower nature; that message Mrs. Besant unreservedly admits.

9. Lastly, and only because of absurd statements made and circulated, I willingly say that which I never denied, that I am a human being full of error, liable to mistake, not infallible, but just the same as any other human being like to myself or of the class of human beings to which I belong. And I freely, fully, and sincerely forgive any one who may be thought to have injured or tried to injure me. To which I sign my name.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

RESOLUTIONS

Mr. B. Keightley then arose and offered the following resolutions:

Resolved: That this meeting accepts with pleasure the adjustment arrived at by Annie Besant and William Q. Judge as a final settlement of matters pending hitherto between them as prosecutor and defendant with the hope that it may be thus buried and forgotten and:

Resolved: That we will join hands with them to further the Cause of genuine Brotherhood in which we all believe.

These were seconded by J. D. Buck.

Col. H. S. Olcott, acting as chairman, then put the Resolutions to the meeting, which crowded the hall, and they were carried unanimously with loud applause.

Path, August, 1894