Is the Council of State of Geneva qualified to appreciate officially the degree of responsibility of such and such members of the Salvation Army resulting from the internal organization of that Society?

No.

Because, First: The Council of State evidently possesses no documents sufficient to enable it to establish the degrees of subordination, to which members of the Salvation Army may be required to submit, and the amount of responsibility which the leaders of that Army are charged with in regard to those under them.

Secondly: Does the Council of State possess such documents? If it does it is at least doubtful whether it would be justified in giving them an official sanction, and attributing to them legal consequences. It would be thus giving to them an importance which no Government has ever yet attributed to them.