Books of the Month. 



5" 



I saw the fact mentioned in the Times, and at once 

 d'C'ded, if possible, to interview Gordon on the sub- 

 ject of the future of the Soudan. On January i the 

 Tt'nes had published a letter from Sir Samuel Baker 

 protesting against the abandonment of the Soudan, 

 wl.ch concluded with the question, Why should 

 noi General Gordon Pasha be invited to assist 

 the Government. I had in an occasional note, written 

 a d-ty or two later, expressed a regret that Chinese 

 Gordon should go to the Congo while so much other 

 work needed urgently to be done in Egypt. 



BEFORE THE SOUTHAMPTON INTERVIEW. 



But at the time when I telegraphed to Southampton 

 asking General Gordon to see me, I had not the 

 faintest notion that the Government had ever suggested 

 his employment in Egypt, and certainly had no idea 

 in my own mind of sending him to the Soudan. I 

 assumed that the Soudan was to be abandoned. I 

 had no thought of reversing that policy. Certainly 

 I had received no hint from any ministerial circles 

 that the Government wished to employ Gordon in 

 any capacity or even to ask his advice. I thought he 

 mi;;ht be useful in organising the Egyptian army, and 

 I felt it my duty as an editor to obtain his views on 

 the above question. 



HOW THE INTERVIEW CAME ABOUT. 



When I telegraphed to Gordon, asking for an 

 interview, he replied by wire, " I have nothing to 

 say." I wired back, "I am coming to Southampton 

 by the last train." General Gordon had with him at 

 Southampton his great friend General Brocklehurst, 

 with whom he debated all the afternoon whether or 

 not he should receive me. Gordon, as Mr. Blunt 

 reminds us, had a very tender conscience on tlie 

 subject of appearing to seek newspaf)er publicity ; — 



" New-papers," he once wrote in answer to his sister, "feed 

 « passion I have for giving my opinion . . . Vnu drew at a 

 Teiiivire with your full strength and you have done for your 

 bro'her ; the arrow Ii.i5 gone in up to its feathers! He that 

 ip-^keth of himself secketh his own glory I Why, you have 

 kn'..ked down the work of years; what have I ever been 

 is l.nj of bat self? I have a sort of wish that I could get 

 x\\ of Colonel Gordon." He called this craving for puMiciiy 

 " •'•»■»€ ; * catering for notice and praise ; hailing the tram." 



It is easy to see what difficulty General Brockle- 

 hurst h.nd in persuading him to be interviewed. 

 G' iicral I'r c'dehurst succeeded at last in overcoming 

 1 I scruples by representing quite mistakenly, but quite 

 !.'n.ercly on his part, that I must be coming down, 

 because tl e Government wanted to know his views 

 without dir Ttly asking for them. Alas ! the Govern- 

 m'-nt at that time, preoccupied about other matters, 

 liad not even the faintest curiosity to ascertain what 

 the ablest and mo'^t experienced of all living English- 

 m-n had to say ab nit the Soudan. I went down "all 

 out of my own head." I knew nothing of the argu- 

 mmts that induced General Gordon to receive me. 

 General Gordon opened the door when I arrived at 



Rockstone Place. He was helping me off with my 

 overcoat when I, mistaking him for a servant, asked 

 " if I could see General Gordon ? " "I am General 

 Gordon," he replied. So the interview began which 

 sent Gordon to Khartoum and incidentally added the 

 Soudan to the British Empire. 



MV REASON FOR SENDING GORDON TO KHARTOUM. 



General Gordon's emphatic statement as to the 

 impossibility of allowing the Soudan to be evacuated 

 by adopting the formula " let the garrisons be 

 speared ! " led me to the conclusion that he ought 

 to be sent out to secure their extrication from the 

 wreck of the Soudan. It was solely for that purpose 

 that I insisted upon his despatch to Khartoum. I 

 not only said so, but I was obeyed. My article with 

 the interview appeared in the Pa/l Mall Gazelle of 

 January 9. The very ne\t day Lord Hartington 

 consulted with Lord Wolseley, who approved of my 

 suggestion. He then wrote to Lord Granville, saying 

 that as Nubar Pasha, the new Prime Minister, was a 

 friend of Gordon's, whereas Cherif Pasha had been 

 so great an enemy as to have issued orders against 

 his setting foot on Egyptian soil, it might be worth 

 asking Baring again as to his employment on the 

 Nile. He wrote : — " I understand that Gordon 

 would probably postpone his Congo employment if 

 asked to go to the Soudan. I believe that some 

 people think highly of the value he would be there," 

 wliich is a mild Hartingtonian refle.x of the Pall Mall 

 Gazette article. But even in this letter it is evident 

 that the one paramount thought in Hartington's mind 

 was not Egypt at all, but his desire to avert the 

 painful necessity of accepting Gordon's resignation. 

 It is difficult to imagine a more conclusive demon- 

 stration from contemporary documents of the absolute 

 baselessness of Mi. Blunt's theory. 



LORD GRANVILLE'S SECOND PROPOSAL AGAIN REJECTED. 



Lord Granville telegraphed on the same day to 

 Baring, asking whether under the altered circum- 

 stances he thought General Gordon or Sir Charles 

 Wilson would be of any assistance. Baring also had 

 clianged his mind, since on December 22 he had 

 demanded that an English officer should be sent to 

 Khartoum, and telegraphed on January 1 1 that he did 

 not think that the services of either ran be utilised 

 at present. 



WHY BARING GAVE WAV. 



Meanwhile I kept up the pressure on the Govern- 

 ment at home. The whole press followed mv lead. 

 Lord Granville, on January 14, wrote to Mr. Gl.adstonc 

 suggesting a liltl-j pressure should be applied to B.iriiig. 

 Mr. Gladstone agreed, and on January 15 Lord 

 Granville apjilicd tlie necessary pressure, and B.iring 

 reluctantly gave way on condition that Gordon was to 

 he under his orders. On January 16 Lord Granville 

 announced that Gordon was to Start, and added "the 

 a[)i)ointmcnt will be popular with many classes in 

 this country." 'i'hat is the plain unvarnislicd truth. 

 There is not a syllable in the correspondence or in 



