INTRODUCTION.

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.

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Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
They that have done this deed are honourable;
What private griefs they had, alas! I know not,
That made them do it; they are wise and honourable,
And will no doubt, with reasons answer you.

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But were I Brutus,

And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Cæsar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.”

These grand lines force themselves upon me, though maybe their analogy is incomplete. Mark Antony was a casuist, and pleaded the cause of revenge; I am only earnest in the cause of justice. Yet I trust in my pleading to enable Englishmen to realise how great and how sad is the loss of Charles Gordon, not only to those who loved him, but to the cause of suffering humanity. Gordon is dead. We cannot bring him back to life. Yet from his death we may learn at least how fit he was to teach us while he lived, how fit to hold his country’s honour in his hand, how fit to judge of what was right and what was wrong. His journals are his last words to the world as much as they are instruction and information to his Government, and Englishmen who value England’s honour may well read them with a heavy heart—with eyes dimmed by tears. I say Gordon is dead, and we cannot bring him back to life, but we can do much he would have done for us had he been allowed to live. His journals tell us how we can best repair mischief already done (and I understand his words to apply rather to the English people than to the Government which represents them), and they tell us what is best for the Soudan. In the interest of this unhappy land he devoted much of his life; in its interest he died. Let us then compare the opposite conditions under which the people existed during Gordon’s presence and absence, and in doing this let us mark well what Gordon said during his life, and what his journals say for him now that he is dead.

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Gordon used to tell the story of how, when Said Pasha, Viceroy of Egypt before Ismail, went up to the Soudan, so discouraged and horrified was he at the misery of the people, that at Berber he threw his guns into the river, declaring he would be no party to such oppression. In this spirit Gordon went there as Governor of the Equator in 1874, and in this spirit he expressed his views on the duties of foreigners in the service of Oriental States. His ardent and unstudied words are worthy of the deepest study. They breathe the kindliest wisdom, the most prudent philanthropy; and it would be well if those whose lot is thrown in barbarous lands would take them for a constant guide. To accept government, only if by so doing you benefit the race you rule; to lead, not drive the people to a higher civilisation; to establish only such reforms as represent the spontaneous desire of the mass; to abandon relations with your native land; to resist other governments, and keep intact the sovereignty of the State whose bread you eat; to represent the native when advising Ameer, Sultan or Khedive, on any question which your own or any foreign government may wish solved; and in this to have for prop and guide that which is universally right throughout the world, that which is best for the people of the State you serve.

Such were Gordon’s sentiments when he first entered upon his task; well would it have been for Egypt, England, and the world, had his successors taken them to heart and made them their ideal. In such a case the peace, the happiness he brought to the Soudan might still have been preserved.

Never perhaps in the histories of barbarous rule were the ideals of justice and truth more needed than at this date (1874). Seven-eighths of the population were slaves; the country swarmed with slave-hunters and slave-dealers; and district governors, greedy for pelf, aided and abetted them in their raids. So crushed were the remaining population that they regarded all comers as their foes; so destitute that they were ready and willing to exchange their own kin for cattle or for grain. Their flocks and herds, like their kindred, had been robbed. To sow they were afraid, for governors and slave-hunters never let them reap; and if perchance they cultivated ground, it was a mere patch hidden in some distant nook out of the enemy’s way. The maxims of their rulers, prior to Gordon’s advent, had been that if the natives—poor unenlightened blacks—did not act in the most civilised fashion, then must they be punished; and when these rulers for their own acts were brought to book, they cited the native custom of “plunder no offence” in their own excuse. How the governors, in league with dealers and hunters, had acted up to these precepts, was apparent enough in the desolation which reigned around, for amid the jungle of stunted trees and tall grasses not a soul was to be seen—all driven away by the slavers in past years. With the Egyptian Government such was the estimate of this waste, that it did service as a colony for misdemeanants among Arab troops; and hundreds of these died from the damp and the dulness of the scene. In other parts less than 100 men dared not move from one station to another, in fear of the retaliating tribes, and so far were these stations apart that it took six weeks to communicate one with the other. In addition to this certain chieftains who inhabited the borders of the great lakes were engaged in wars in which the capture of slaves was the main motive.

Such, in brief, was the state of affairs between Kartoum and the Lakes when Gordon made his journey thither; yet it afforded in no way the only instance of oppression, anarchy or misrule in these lands. In Kordofan and Darfour the slave-traffic was even more formidable than here. In the latter province a war between the slave-dealers and the Sultan’s troops was just concluded, and the two vast lands, with Darfertit, had been made into a Homkumdircat, or Governor-General’s district responsible to Cairo, and separated from the Soudan. But Gordon’s work was for the present confined to laying down a chain of posts between Gondokoro and the Lakes, and by this and other means contributing to the welfare of the tribes and the confusion of the slavers. To gain the confidence of the natives was his first care; and to this end he ventured alone and unarmed into those isolated spots, whither not less than a hundred men had dared to go. Then he showed the people how they might sow their grain without fear, supplying them with enough to live on until their wants were met; he also taught them the use of money, and gave them task-work. It was infinitely little, he said, among such a mass, but it was at any rate something, and might perhaps enable him to solve the question whether the negroes would work sufficiently to keep themselves if life and property were secured. To give them this protection, he seized all convoys of slaves, and ivory and cattle coming from the south, punished the slave-dealers, or converted them into troops, for they were hard, active fellows, the remnant of an ancient race; and designing and despotic governors he despatched to Cairo or Kartoum. The slaves themselves, until he could deliver them over to their kinsfolk, he kept, the cattle and the ivory he confiscated, and with the proceeds swelled the Government treasury.

It would seem the fate of those who devote their lives to the cause of humanity to be foiled instead of aided in their aim. In all his efforts for the good of these blacks Gordon met with every form of interference whence he might at least expect support. Ismail Pasha Yacoub, the Governor-General of the Soudan, jealous of the new Governor of the Equator and fearful of exposure from so conscientious a servant of the State, put every obstacle in Gordon’s way; and the Khedive himself was not always mindful of the many difficulties to be encountered. But Gordon said, to blame the Khedive for his actions you must blame his people, and blame their Creator; they act after their kind, and in the fashion they were made. So that he took little heed of all this. He was content to let it be widely known that the motto of his province would henceforth be Hurryat (liberty); and this meant that no man should interfere with another, that there should be an end to kidnapping and all plunder, an end to despotic Pashas; and those who objected were told that the motto included their liberty to quit. Moreover, he was of opinion that those who annexed the province needed as much civilisation as those they attempted to civilise; and, whenever it was necessary, in the interests of his people, he never hesitated to show them that this was his view.

Still, though he succeeded in giving peace and happiness to the people, in reforming the cruelties of Mudirs and Pashas, in settling the disputes of warring chiefs, and in laying down the chain of posts between Gondokoro and the Lakes: in making all these beneficent reforms, his heart was ever burdened with the thought of how this new and unaccustomed good would affect the people and their lands when, as time went on, himself and his influence were removed, and his successors, who understood his high intent as little as they understood the people themselves, ruled in his stead. “I think, what right have I to coax the natives to be quiet for them to fall into the hands of rapacious Pashas? I think sometimes that through my influence I am seducing the natives into a position where they will be a prey to my Arab successor. They would never do for an Arab what they do for me. I make friends with the tribes right and left.”

But, apart from these feelings, he was not satisfied; his success in his own province had been complete, but, instead of meeting with co-operation from the adjoining Soudan, he had encountered nothing but interference from its then Governor-General, Ismail Pasha Yacoub, to whose interests it was to let slavery go on. For this reason, therefore, Gordon, after three years’ labour, resigned his post as Governor of the Equator. But the step was taken in a wavering spirit; and these are among his last words ere he left: “By retiring I do not aid anything; by staying I keep my province safe from injustice and cruelty in some degree. Why should I fear? Is man stronger than God? Things have come to such a pass in these Mussulman countries that a crisis must come about soon.”

These significant words, so terribly confirmed less then ten years later, were uttered in September of 1876.

Gordon’s resignation soon led to his reinstatement on terms more fitted to his views. In the new position he felt strongly that, great as was the trust and the almost superhuman work expected of him, if he did not entirely succeed at least he would not be hampered. He was not only appointed Governor-General of the Soudan in Ismail Pasha Yacoub’s stead; he was given authority such as none had previously enjoyed—complete power, civil and military, with the life or death of his subjects in his hand; and no man dare enter his dominions without special leave. He had stipulated that this supreme command should be independent of Cairo, for he knew the Egyptian authorities to be in favour of the slave-trade. The undefined territory now his had hitherto been subject to several governments—Arab, Egyptian, Turkish. Henceforth Soudan was to mean the vast territory limited on the north by Upper Egypt, on the south by the Lakes, on the east by Abyssinia and the Red Sea, and on the west extending beyond Kordofan and the newly acquired sultanate of Darfour—the whole roughly estimated at more than 1600 miles in length, and 700 miles in width. There were to be three Vakeels or Sub-Governors: one for the original Soudan, another for Darfour, and a third for the Red Sea, or Eastern Soudan.

The suppression of slavery, in which he had been so far successful in his own province, and the improvement of communications, which he had long declared to be the one means by which that traffic could be effectually checked, were the two objects to which Gordon was to specially direct his aim.

Remembering his recent experiences, he was fully prepared for the condition of his new subjects. In his predecessor, Ismail Pasha Yacoub, he had already recognised the quintessence of Egyptian cupidity and Turkish misrule—the main cause of the people’s ruin. The experiences of the first months of his administration only served to confirm his worst fears; whithersoever he looked he saw an enlarged picture of native misery and destitution, of alien cruelty and oppression he had before witnessed. He saw that the Circassian Pashas, the Bashi-Bazouks, the Arab soldiery, the slave-hunters, were by their acts fast goading the people to revolt; that tribes which without their interference would have been at peace were now at war; that towns which under proper rule would have flourished were starving or besieged; and that the land, otherwise fertile, was a waste. On every hand he found caravans of packed slaves hungering and parching in the sun, far from their homes and far from their goal, unless that goal were death; deserts strewn with innumerable bones; armed bands of slave-hunters, dogged by the vulture-like dealers, waiting and watching for further prey; and over all these reigned the miscreant spirit of Zubair, the slave-king, now ostensibly a prisoner at Cairo for past deeds, but actually aiding and abetting this cruel war against man through his son Suleiman, the chief of his deserted band. To remove Zubair’s influence was as impossible of achievement as to cut off the demand for slaves at Cairo, Constantinople, or Stamboul; but to break up Suleiman and his band lay within Gordon’s grasp, and, as one of the main causes of trouble, he made it his foremost aim. How he did this by the simple power of his presence, and how Suleiman and his six thousand, after signal submission, again broke out into open revolt so soon as Gordon’s presence was required elsewhere, affords one of the most striking examples of the personal influence he had acquired. Alone and himself unarmed he had temporarily succeeded in disarming these rebels; but, this failing in permanent use, he effectually quelled them in battle; then, to show his people, his Government, and the world how great a wrong this slavery was, he ordered the summary execution of the ringleaders. “With the death of Zubair’s son,” he said, “there is an end of the slave-trade.” Never had the Government such a chance of preventing its renewal. He had disbanded the Bashi-Bazouks, he had dismissed the peculating Mudirs and Pashas; and when he left the country, after a three years’ reign, the people blessed him, and begged him to return.

Had he been allowed to act according to the letter and the spirit of the Firman he received, it is most probable that he would never this second time have resigned; but the overthrow of Ismail at Cairo and the dissolution of the Dual Control had with other changes brought new law-makers for the Soudan. Ismail, though in many respects an imprudent ruler, had at least the merit of believing in his English Governor-General, and of supporting him whenever it lay in his power. Gordon’s lonely ride into the slavers’ camp at Shaka had fired the ex-Khedive’s imagination, and it was observed that, whenever the Court Pashas attempted to criticise Gordon’s methods of rule, the Khedive referred them to this deed. Moreover, he openly acknowledged him as his superior, and fought his battles as those of one who was above the murmur of men. Gordon has, indeed, himself recorded how the Khedive sent him a congratulatory letter on the suppression of Suleiman, adding that during the time of his rule the ex-Khedive supported him through thick and thin against his own Pashas and his own people; and certain it is that to the files of petitions sent to him against Gordon he would never listen. But when Towfik was set up it was a different affair. Never was he heard to mention Zubair’s name. As for the slave-trade, it was equally ignored. Nay, worse than this, the Cairo Pashas, powerless in Ismail’s time, had now full sway, and it being in their interests that the slave-trade should revive, the choice of Gordon’s successor was settled among themselves. It fell to Réouf Pasha, a man whom Sir Samuel Baker had already exposed as a murderer, and whom Gordon had in 1877 turned out of Harrat for acts of oppression. The appointment, therefore, meant nothing more nor less than a declaration in favour of the slavers; and it was because Gordon feared this result that he had said six months before, viz., in April 1879, that “If the liberation of slaves takes place in 1884, and if the present system of government goes on, there cannot fail to be a revolt of the whole country.” And again he says in 1878, “There is no doubt that if the Government of France and England pay more attention to the Soudan and see that justice is done, the disruption of the Soudan from Cairo is only a matter of time. This disruption, moreover, will not end the troubles for the Soudanese, though their allies in Lower Egypt will carry on their efforts in Cairo itself.”[1]

How prophetic these words have since proved to be it is needless to say. In April 1880, just a year later, Gordon wrote, as he left for India:—

The events which followed on these first examples of a wholesale perversion of Gordon’s methods have proved over and over again the value of his warning words; it is worthy of special remark that among the causes of the great rebellion which ensued, as interpreted by the English Government in their history and the insurrection of the False Prophet,[2] not the religious fanaticism of the native tribes has a foremost place, but the venality and oppression of by Egyptian officials, the unjust manner of collecting the taxes, and, above all, the suppression of the slave-trade, which Gordon had repeatedly said must lead to future troubles, unless accompanied by a proper system of government.

Thus the condition into which the Soudan drifted during Gordon’s absence was due to deliberate neglect of the precautions he had urged. Had the Egyptian Government watched and warded off the regeneration of the slavers after Gordon dealt his final blow in Suleiman’s death; had they set their face against the oppression and cupidity of their own officials, the Soudan might still have been at peace, as Gordon left it in 1879. But the new rulers were in favour of slavery, in favour of oppression, in favour of backsheesh; and “a revolt of the whole country” was their reward.

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It is needless to do more than briefly recall the events preceding those related by Gordon himself in these Journals. Every one remembers his going, and the triumph of his journey and reception in the Soudan; the wide welcome which his first Proclamation received, and the fortunes of the peace policy he at first endeavoured to pursue. Every one remembers how, before he had been in Kartoum a week, he issued a further Proclamation, warning the rebellious against forcing him to severe measures. The Sheikhs and people were anxious to be loyal; without Government protection they would be forced, in self-defence, to join the Mahdi. This Colonel Stewart had discovered in his journey up the White Nile. For this reason Zubair was asked for, the only man of enough prestige to hold the country together. A Pasha among the Shaggyeh irregulars, a tribe wavering between loyalty and revolt, and blockaded at Halfyeh, outside the city,—to him were open sources of information closed to the English Governor-General. Zubair would prove stronger than the Mahdi, and the Mahdi must be “smashed up;” otherwise, not only would peace and the evacuation of Kartoum be impossible, but Egypt itself would be in danger. This state of affairs and the measures necessary for a new departure being alike unacceptable to Her Majesty’s Government, Gordon thereupon used, as he had every right to do, the resources to his hand. His predictions as to what would result if Zubair were not sent up were soon realised. The rebels gradually gathered round the city, besieged its outlying suburbs, and cut the communications. His suffering subjects, unable to hold out, were either killed or, escaping, went over to the enemy. In some cases he managed to drive the rebels from the trenches of Kartoum, and even to relieve the beleagured villages, and return loaded with ammunition and stores; in others, his army of defence, composed largely of Egyptians and Bashi-Bazouks, encountered miserable defeat. These expeditions were made in small steamers, armoured with boiler plates and carrying mountain guns, with wooden mantlets of his own contriving. On one occasion the rebels so harassed the city that Gordon resolved on a sortie; but no sooner had the rebels retired to a place of safety than five of his own commanders charged back on their men and aided the rebels, who suddenly leaped from their hiding-place, driving the affrighted army back to Kartoum. In this treacherous and cowardly affair the loss on both sides was great; but the disgrace was the besiegers’, and of it they showed their sense by crying out for justice on the traitors. Two of them were tried and found guilty, and were shot by the men they had outraged. Henceforth the city was exposed to the attacks of the Mahdi’s troops; the streets, the Mission House, the Palace were hourly shelled; citizens died as they passed from end to end; but the Governor-General, always exposed as in old days, though daily inspecting the lines or pacing the Palace roof, escaped unhurt.

Meantime the strength of the rebellion grew with every day; the Mahdi, still at El Obeyed, had despatched his emissaries in all directions; around Suakin, Berber, Shendy, Kassala, the rebels rapidly recruited their ranks. The would-be loyal fell from sheer collapse; they were unable to help themselves. All chance of relief was gone, and the rebel leaders re-echoed in jeering tones the Governor-General’s reiterated words, “The English are coming.” Then Berber, the main link between Kartoum and Cairo, cried out for help, but like those at Tokar and those at Sinkat, it cried out in vain. To do as he pleased was the answer sent to its hitherto loyal Governor; and, to save his people and himself, he joined the Mahdi’s hordes. In his triumph, the False Prophet despatched two dervishes to Kartoum, to ask if Gordon would himself become a follower of the Imam, the Expected One; but they were told that no terms could be made while Kartoum held its ground.

All hope of a peace, all hope of aid from his own Government or country, being at an end, Gordon forthwith began to provision the town, and to take such steps as would ensure a safe means of defence and attack. Money was scarce, so a paper currency was established, and three of the wealthier citizens were called upon to advance sums on the Governor-General’s security. Their arrears were paid, the poor were succoured, and rations issued. All possible precautions were taken for the safety of the people. Mines were contrived, torpedoes laid, and broken glass and wire entanglements arranged, and watchers posted everywhere. The blacks quartered in the poorer district of the town were made to serve, and all men ordered to bear arms; the staple food of officers was biscuit, and dhoora was given the men. Having made all his arrangements on land, he now turned his attention to the Nile; and, as in the campaign against the Taipings, so in this desperate struggle with the Arabs, he organized out of the wretched materials at hand a fleet such as the rebels could not withstand. Thus he avenged defeat, drew in stores and guns, and held the enemy at bay. So that for eleven long months, spite of mutiny, cowardice and treachery within, and the constant attacks from the enemy without, he held his own; and to spare, out of the little navy he had built, a steamer for the conveyance of his comrades, Stewart, Power, Herbin, and the Greeks. Moreover, when at last the news of the English Expedition arrived, he was further able to send down three other boats to Metemma for their use. It is at this point, when vainly watching day and night for English help, that the Journals begin. How his time was passed till we should come, how he viewed our chances of success, and how he proposed to act if we at last did arrive—this is a story which the Journals tell themselves.

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I have endeavoured to show the conditions under which the people of the Soudan existed during Gordon’s absence and during his presence. The contrast is sufficient to enable the world to believe that if any man were capable of restoring order to the country, that man was Gordon. But when he left England for the Soudan as the Envoy of Her Majesty’s Government, he had no authority to act, for his mission was only to advise. He was to report to Her Majesty’s Government on the military situation in the Soudan, and on the measures which it might be deemed advisable to take for the security of the Egyptian garrisons still holding positions in that country, and for the safety of the European population in Kartoum; and, further, upon the manner in which the safety and good administration of the Egyptian Government of the ports on the sea coast could best be secured. So far then all action lay in the hands of the Government to which Gordon was to make his report: the administrators were to be Her Majesty’s Ministers and their representative at Cairo, while Gordon was to be their informant, and perhaps subsequently their agent, to carry out such measures as they might think fit to adopt. With this arrangement in view, all who knew Gordon’s character and antecedents felt that the only chance for the Soudan lay in Her Majesty’s Government first accepting such suggestions as he might append to his report, and, second, in their giving him carte blanche to carry out those suggestions in his own way. Little heed was paid to the clause which said, “You will consider yourself authorised and instructed to perform such other duties as the Egyptian Government may desire to entrust to you,” for its possible value seemed upset by the concluding sentence, “and as may be communicated to you by Sir E. Baring.” Yet this clause, strangely enough, enabled Gordon to hold a position over which even Her Majesty’s Government could have no control, unless they openly declared the annexation of Egypt and the Soudan. The Egyptian Government, that is the Khedive and his ministers, elected again to appoint Gordon Governor-General of the Soudan; Gordon elected to accept that appointment; and Her Majesty’s Government elected to sanction the acceptance, in an official communication forwarded to him through their representative, Sir E. Baring. From this moment Gordon’s position was entirely altered. Her Majesty’s Government and the Egyptian Government agreed that his mission was no longer to be one of mere reporting. He was to “evacuate the Soudan, and the Egyptian Government had the fullest confidence in his judgment and knowledge of the country, and of his comprehension of the general line of policy to be pursued; and no effort was to be wanting on the part of the Cairo authorities, whether English or Egyptian, to afford him all the co-operation and support in their power.”

When it became an established fact that General Gordon, Governor-General of the Soudan, had been sent up to evacuate the garrisons of the country, it also became an established fact that the method of conducting that evacuation had passed out of the hands of Her Majesty’s Government; and one may also say it had virtually passed out of the hands of the Egyptian Government while Gordon held the Firman of the Khedive. Therefore, as this Firman was never cancelled from the day of Gordon’s departure from Cairo to the day of his death at Kartoum, and as it said, amongst other things, “We do hereby appoint you Governor-General of the Soudan, and we trust that you will carry out our good intentions for the establishment of justice and order, and that you will assure the peace and prosperity of the people of Soudan by maintaining the security of the roads open, &c.,” it is as unfair as it is illogical to talk about “General Gordon having exceeded the instructions conveyed to him by Her Majesty’s Government.” These instructions were neither more nor less than those conveyed to him by the Khedive of Egypt, who actually delegated his own power to his Governor-General. To exceed his instructions was an impossibility; to fulfil or to disappoint all the hopes expressed in them was a possibility dependent solely on the good or bad faith of the Governments who employed him.

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The fact that Gordon held his commission in Her Majesty’s service and the Governor-Generalship of the Soudan at the same time, in no way compromised him with Her Majesty’s Government in regard to their wishes as to how this or that should be done, or as to how this or that should be left undone: yet he tried earnestly to identify himself with their wishes as far as in doing so he could keep faith with the people he was endeavouring to assist, and with whom he began to compromise himself. That he was justified in so doing there should be no shadow of doubt even in the minds of Mr. Gladstone’s ministry. The wishes of the Khedive were accepted by Gordon as the wishes of Her Majesty’s Government, and he had begun to act, i.e. to compromise himself with the Soudanese and the beleaguered garrisons before he reached Kartoum.

These are the Khedive’s wishes as expressed in a letter to Gordon, dated January 26th, 1884:—

The Khedive could hardly have written this letter had he imagined Lord Granville would telegraph three months later to Gordon, saying that “undertaking military expeditions was beyond the scope of the commission he held, and at variance with the pacific policy which was the purpose of his mission to the Soudan.”

Effective measures for the accomplishment of General Gordon’s mission included the possibility and great probability of serious fighting in the interest of a pacific policy, and it is strange if Lord Granville were unable to grasp that fact when he endorsed the Khedive’s Firman.

So far I have advanced only a few of the innumerable proofs of Gordon’s authority to act as he thought fit; as to his capabilities and his judgment it is unnecessary to speak. Of those who subsequently would not accept his judgment, one, Mr. Gladstone, said, “It was our duty, whatever we might feel, to beware of interfering with Gordon’s plans, and before we adopted any scheme that should bear that aspect (i.e. the aspect of interference), to ask whether in his judgment there would or would not be such an interference.” The other, Sir Charles Dilke, said, “He is better able to form a judgment than anybody. He will have, I make no doubt, every support he can need in the prosecution of his mission.”

Personally I do not believe that a single Cabinet Minister doubted Gordon’s authority to act as he thought fit, nor do I believe a single Cabinet Minister doubted either his capabilities or his judgment. It was only when the Government realised how strong that authority was; how significantly Gordon proposed to wield it, and how he meant to call upon his country to support him in what was right, irrespective of party feeling and of prejudiced public opinion, that references were made to “General Gordon’s peculiar views” and to “his disobedience of orders.” I would let the latter remark pass as unworthy of further comment, were it not for the fact that it has become a common phrase among the working classes in the North of England, when they are either speaking of or are spoken to about General Gordon. Now I sincerely trust and believe that the Journals will be read eagerly by the working classes; they cannot occupy their leisure time better than in reading them, and, indeed, in learning much of them by heart. I would say then, to these people, Do not believe that General Gordon was disobedient to his Government. His Government permitted him to accept the Khedive’s Firman, appointing him Governor-General of the Soudan, with full powers, civil and military, and the Khedive desired him to “evacuate the garrisons of the country, and to restore order;” and the way in which this was to be done was left to the discretion of the man who had to do it. I would also ask these people to note particularly that the Khedive did not tell him to evacuate the garrisons of Kartoum and leave the other garrisons in the lurch; did not tell him to sacrifice everything rather than engage in military operations against the Mahdi; did not tell him to identify his interests with those of the people and then to get away as best he could, and to leave the people to their fate. Had the Khedive told him to do this, he would never have accepted the Governor-Generalship of the Soudan; and, when his own Government suggested this method as a way out of difficulties, the substance of his numerous replies was, “Our relative positions do not justify you in giving me such orders. I can only accept them as your wishes; and the duty I owe to myself, as a God-fearing and an honourable man, prevents me being able to comply with them.”

When Gordon telegraphed to Sir E. Baring, “You must see that you could not recall me nor could I possibly obey until the Cairo employés get out from all the places. I have named men to different places, thus involving them with the Mahdi; how could I look the world in the face if I abandoned them and fled? As a gentleman could you advise this course?” he really telegraphed a bitter rebuke to the English Government; and when he added, “It may have been a mistake to send me up, but, having been done, I have no option but to see evacuation through,” he merely pointed out, what the Government already knew, namely, that the position they had allowed him to accept was one over which they had no legal control, unless they announced the annexation of Egypt. I, therefore, again most emphatically repeat, that Gordon in no instance disobeyed his Government, though he frequently had to tell them how utterly unable he was to execute their wishes. The Governor-General of the Soudan had definite orders from the Khedive, whose servant he was, and these orders could not be capsized by the English Government, unless the Khedive were deposed or Egypt were annexed.

I cannot conclude this portion of my subject in a better way than by quoting what the Khedive said to Baron Malortie, after he had appointed Gordon Governor-General of the Soudan. Speaking of his mission, he remarked:—

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The points I have already dwelt upon are all-important for the correct interpretation of what Gordon says in his Journals. There are now two other questions, with which I must deal. The first of these is “To what extent were H.M. Government morally bound to support Gordon?” The answer is to be found in the conditions laid down in the Khedive’s Firman, which H.M. Government endorsed. Mr. Gladstone admitted as much in the House of Commons on Feb. 14th, when he said: “The direct actions and direct functions in which General Gordon is immediately connected with this Government are, I think, pretty much absorbed in the greater duties of the large mission he has undertaken under the immediate authority of the Egyptian Government, with the full moral and political responsibility of the British Government.” Therefore we owed the same kind of responsibility to Gordon as it owed to Egypt, moral and political. Gordon shows in his Journals what brought about our responsibility to Egypt. First, we were morally to blame for General Hicks’s defeat, for had we prevented the Fellaheen conscripts being dragged in chains from their homes, and sent up to recruit Hicks’s army, Hicks would not have left Kartoum, and his troops would not have been annihilated. Through this disaster we became morally responsible for the extended influence of the Mahdi, who, previous to crushing a huge army, had merely defeated small detachments of troops far inferior to his own. It was the crushing of Hicks’s force which led the Mahdi to put forth his agents in all parts of the Soudan, and thus to convert a trumpery local rising into a wide-spreading rebellion. So much for our responsibility from a moral point of view. Our political responsibility began with the order to abandon the Soudan (which was unnecessary interference on our part, inasmuch as the Soudan was practically lost), and was followed up by our objection to the despatch of Egyptian or Turkish troops, our sending Gordon, and our operations for the relief of Tokar and Sinkat. Right through we forced the hand of the Khedive. Why did we not go one step further and force him to cancel the Firman by which he appointed Gordon Governor-General of the Soudan? Had we done this, Gordon would have reverted to his original position as reporter to Her Majesty’s Government, or he could have endeavoured to leave Kartoum at once, as his responsibilities towards the people of the Soudan would have ceased. Until we did this we were as responsible to him, morally and politically, as we were to the Egyptian Government. A little decision here might have spared to us Gordon, Colonel Stewart, and Mr. Power; might have prevented the loss of thousands of other lives; might have saved us millions of money.

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I am only endeavouring to place Gordon’s situation and action in a fair light, and I cannot do this without pointing out how greatly England has been to blame in not accepting a responsibility for which she made herself liable. This brings me directly to the second question, which deals with the reason why Gordon, with the promised support of Egypt and England, failed not only to restore order to the Soudan, but even to extricate the beleaguered garrisons. Volumes have been already written on this subject, and there are probably volumes yet to come, particularly those representing that Journal by Gordon and Colonel Stewart, which was captured by a treacherous enemy, and is now supposed to be in the hands of Mahomet Achmet, the Mahdi. I will content myself then with an endeavour to supply what I feel is the substance of the answer to be found, in this missing Journal, to the question I have raised. Gordon was constantly thwarted and never supported is the summary of a whole which I will give in detail as briefly as I can.

(1) Gordon wished to visit the Mahdi if he thought fit, but Sir E. Baring gave him a positive order from Her Majesty’s Government that he was on no account to do so. Of course, as I have already shown, Gordon, in his position as Governor-General, need not have accepted this as an order, but he was, as he always has been, most anxious to conform to the wishes or desires expressed by Her Majesty’s Government, when those wishes affected only a point of judgment, and not a point of duty or a point of honour.

(2) Gordon proposed to go direct from Kartoum to the Bahr Gazelle and Equatorial Provinces, but Her Majesty’s Government refused to sanction his proceeding beyond Kartoum.

(3) Gordon desired 3000 Turkish troops, in British pay, to be sent to Suakin, but Her Majesty’s Government, advised by Sir E. Baring, who disapproved of the measure, declined to send these troops.

(4) Gordon, being convinced that some government was essential for the safety of the Soudan, suggested the appointment of Zubair as his successor, and gave the most cogent reasons why it was absolutely necessary for the accomplishment of his mission that the appointment should be made. He reiterated his request over and over again from February to December. Her Majesty’s Government would not permit the Khedive to make this appointment.

(5) Gordon requested that in the interests of England, Egypt, and the Soudan, he should be provided with a Firman which recognised a moral control and suzerainty over the Soudan. This was peremptorily refused.

(6) Gordon asked for Indian Moslem troops to be sent to Wady Halfa. They were refused him.

(7) In March Gordon desired 100 British troops to be sent to Assouan or to Wady Halfa. In making known this desire to Her Majesty’s Government, Sir E. Baring said he would not risk sending so small a body, and the principal medical officer said the climate would exercise an injurious effect on the troops. These troops were not sent.

(8) Gordon, for the sake of everything and everybody concerned, showed that the Mahdi’s power must be smashed. Her Majesty’s Government declined to assist in, or even to countenance, the process.

(9) Gordon, in a series of eleven telegrams, explained his difficulties, and said that if Her Majesty’s Government would not send British troops to Wady Halfa, an adjutant to inspect Dongola, and then open up the Berber-Suakin route by Indian Moslem troops, they would probably have to decide between Zubair or the Mahdi, and he concluded these telegrams by saying he would do his best to carry out his instructions, but felt convinced he would be caught in Kartoum. Sir Evelyn Baring, in his reply to these telegrams, recommended Gordon to reconsider the whole question carefully, and then to state in one telegram what he recommended!

(10) Gordon telegraphed: “The combination of Zubair and myself is an absolute necessity for success. To do any good we must be together, and that without delay;” and he supplemented this by another telegram, saying: “Believe me, I am right; and do not delay.” The combination was not permitted.

(11) Sir Evelyn Baring telegraphed to Lord Granville that General Gordon had on several occasions pressed for 200 British troops to be sent to Wady Halfa, but that he (Baring) did not think it desirable to comply with the request.

(12) Gordon desired a British diversion at Berber, but Sir Evelyn Baring replied that there was no intention to send an English force to Berber.

(13) Gordon, foiled on every point, telegraphed a graceful adieu to Her Majesty’s Government. Then came the fall of Berber, upon which Sir Evelyn Baring at once telegraphed to Lord Granville that it had now become of the utmost importance not only to open the road between Suakin and Berber, but “to come to terms with the tribes between Berber and Kartoum”; and Lord Granville telegraphed to Sir E. Baring that “General Gordon had several times suggested a movement on Wady Halfa, which might support him by threatening an advance on Dongola, and, under the present circumstances at Berber, this might be found advantageous.”!!

After this, may we not well echo Gordon’s sentiments, “What a farce if it did not deal with men’s lives”? If Gordon, instead of being thwarted, had only been not supported, how different might have been the result of his mission to the Soudan! Indeed, one may say how different would have been the result! for Gordon has practically said this, and he was a competent and a reliable judge. If England and Egypt had only said, “We will give you no help at all; do what you can with the material you have about you, and do not refer to us until you have succeeded, or until you have failed,” I confidently believe Gordon would have at least relieved the beleaguered garrisons of the Soudan, and would have sent down all who wished to leave the country. His weakness was that of trustfulness—the besetting weakness of an honourable man: it had stood him in good stead through his campaigns in China, and through his previous operations in the Soudan; through terrible sufferings which had often made him wish for death. Then he trusted enemies, and they always enabled him to save life. Now he trusted friends, and they only enabled him to die.

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“The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.”

Gordon tells us plainly in his Journals how great is the evil done by the policy of Her Majesty’s Government, and for how long that evil will live when the Government is dead. Is it not possible to avert something of what is about to happen? Her Majesty’s Government are, I believe, beginning to realise how thoroughly correct Gordon was in his views, and how mistaken they were in not following his advice at the time he gave it. At all events after he was dead they expressed their intention of doing much he recommended while he lived. They have been always very late: too late to save Gordon’s life, and too late to save the lives of many thousands. May they not be yet in time to prevent some of the evil that must live after them? I think Gordon tells them in his Journals they may, and I think he also tells them how. It is impossible to read carefully what he says without feeling that he did not expect to live long, and that he had a distinct presentiment he would die at Kartoum. At all events there is a strong undercurrent of this presentiment all through, and it even rises to the surface every now and then when he appears to be taking a hopeful and almost a cheerful view of the situation. At times it carries all before it, as for example when he emphasises the possibility of the fall of Kartoum under the nose of the expedition, and again in the words with which he concludes his sixth and last volume; but then, on the other hand, it is often quite out of sight, especially at such times as he is discussing his position as Governor-General, and turning over in his mind the expediency of appointing Lord Wolseley or Sir Evelyn Baring as his successor. But, whether on the surface or deep down, I think it is always there, and I feel sure that some of his numerous efforts at a solution of the Soudan problem were intended as final instructions for Her Majesty’s Government, to be read after his death or after the fall of Kartoum. The days of prophecy are gone, and I do not at all wish to place Gordon in the light of the ancient orthodox and professional seer, but in considering his career one cannot avoid being struck by the remarkable way in which the lost gift of prophecy has been replaced by the power of combining knowledge with judgment. It would be well if Her Majesty’s Government would bear this in mind, and lay down a distinct line of policy and action with regard to the Soudan, which should be based upon what Gordon recommends. The recall of the troops from the Soudan may have been necessary to meet the exigencies of the moment, or it may not; but it is a pity it did not precede Lord Wolseley’s letter to Cassim el Mousse Pasha:—

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General Gordon’s Journals are sufficiently characteristic to enable those who read them with care to know their author perfectly. The first volume is alone a very complete introduction, in which each succeeding page brings you to a closer intimacy. If a friendship is not established before reaching the sixth, then all that is noble and chivalrous in man can have no charm. Examples of his rare genius, his nobility, his honesty and his marvellous energy are to be found throughout, but, in pointing out a few characteristics, I will confine myself to the first volume, as I propose to refer chiefly to special points of military and political interest in the others.

In this first volume then we have an interesting instance of Gordon’s nobility, when he declines to have anything to do with certain doubtful proposals made by the apostate Europeans in the Mahdi’s camp, for he declares “treachery never succeeds; and it is better to fail with clean hands than to be mixed up with dubious acts and dubious men. Maybe it is better to fall with honour than to gain the victory with dishonour, and in this view the Ulemas are agreed, for they will have nought to do with the proposals of treachery.”

The generosity of his feeling towards the enemy is shown when he says: “I do not call our enemy rebels, for it is a vexed question whether we are not rebels, seeing I hold the Firman restoring the Soudan to its chiefs.” His consideration is apparent in his regret at not being more considerate; and his tolerance in the desire to spare even the lives of traitors.

His views on hypocrisy are humorously expressed when he is speaking of the Mahdi’s trick of bringing tears to his eyes by the use of pepper under his finger-nails, and, as tears are considered a proof of sincerity, he recommends the recipe to Cabinet Ministers who wish to justify some job.

His severity is evident in his remarks on diplomatists, whom he considers most unsatisfactory men to have anything to do with in their official capacity; and his irritability peeps out when he says: “Egerton must have considered I was a complete idiot to have needed permission to contract with tribes to escort down the refugees. I hope he will get promoted, and will not be blamed for overstraining his instructions.”

His religious earnestness is everywhere apparent, and he delights in endeavours to interpret Scriptural passages, especially such as are more or less paradoxical.

As example of his humility I select the passage where he says: “If we will be with our Master we must be like Him, who from His birth to His death may be said to have been utterly miserable as far as things in this world are concerned. Yet I kick at the least obstacle to my will.” His desire to help every one is to be seen on almost every page, and his forethought, energy and judgment are also everywhere. His notions of chivalry do not permit him to countenance the distribution of honours to men who only do what he considers to be their duty, and he does not approve of the Victoria Cross being given in cases of noblesse oblige.

His determination often prompts him to speak very plainly: “If you remove me from being Governor-General, then all responsibility is off me; but if you keep me as Governor-General then I will, at the cost of my commission in Her Majesty’s service, see all refugees out of this country.” His satire is generally severe, but there is nearly always a cheerful or a good-natured ring in it. The following is a fair example:—

He is a strict disciplinarian, and never hesitates to rebuke laxness in others. “If Abdel Kader is at Kassala,”[5] he says, “what on earth are our people about not to tell me! for of course I could help him. We seem to have lost our heads in the Intelligence Department, though it costs enough money.”

His bluntness and honesty are often combined with subtle humour, and an excellent notion of all three may be gathered from the last words in this volume of the Journals:—

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The interest of the second volume is great from a military point of view, but its value is somewhat lessened by the fact that Gordon’s instructions and suggestions were based on the assumption that the relieving force would reach him some two months earlier than it did. During those two months the conditions around Kartoum materially changed, and with these altering conditions Gordon had to reconsider many of the manœuvres he at first suggested. The political interest chiefly consists in the strong recommendation that the country should be given to the Turks, or that Zubair should be established as Governor-General at Kartoum, and that the Equator should be given to himself. “I will (d.v.) keep it,” he says, “from Zubair;” that is to say, he will guard the country against all slave-hunters. In this volume Gordon declines the imputation that the Expeditionary Force has come for him, and shows how, to save our national honour, it has come to extricate the garrisons of the Soudan. Of the troubles these garrisons were causing him we get a fair notion, but his complaints seem to be only a safety-valve for his humour. He knows the men about him are treacherous and liars, but he almost seeks excuse for them when he says: “Man is essentially a treacherous animal; and although the Psalmist said in his haste ‘all men are liars,’ I think he might have said the same at his leisure.” This volume concludes with a new effort to solve the Soudan problem by suggesting the Khedive should replace him at once by appointing Abdel Kader Governor-General.

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This solution is fully discussed in the opening of Vol. III. It is not one in which Gordon will participate, but it may prevent his being antagonistic to the relieving force. Unless he is deposed nothing will induce him to leave the Soudan until he can extricate the garrisons. In removing him from the Governor-Generalship and in replacing him by Abdel Kader, the Government would be utilising a man whom they could mould to their own shape. Of course this solution was, as Gordon says, in some degree “a trap,” but it recommended itself as the only way out of the difficulty, if the Government decided to abandon the garrisons.

The only creditable solution, Gordon still affirms, is to be found in handing the country over to the Turks with a subsidy or a sum down; and he supplements his argument by a programme showing how by this action Her Majesty’s troops could leave the Soudan with honour before January 1885. “I think this would read well in history,” he says. “Her Majesty’s Government, having accepted duties in Egypt, and consequently in the Soudan, sent up a force to restore tranquillity, which having been done, Her Majesty’s Government handed over the government of the Soudan to the Sultan.” The necessity for this solution is the result, in Gordon’s opinion, of the indecisions of Her Majesty’s Government, and he enumerates with great care the causes which have hampered his action and thus required the despatch of a relieving force. This volume is perhaps more cheerful in its tone than any of the others. The presentiment that the expedition will be too late to prevent disaster is rarely evident, and the advance of the Mahdi promises to decide, at all events, the fate of those who are shut up in Kartoum. “A month will see him defeated or victorious, as God may will it,” and with this philosophical consolation Gordon ceases to discuss the future of the Soudan, and begins an interesting detailed account of the offensive and defensive manœuvres which are taking place in and around Kartoum.

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In the fourth volume—the shortest of all—Gordon continues his narrative of events, and shows how numerous and how wearisome are the internal troubles with which he has to contend at Kartoum. Treachery is silently at work, while indolence, selfishness, and dishonesty make those who are not treacherous almost useless. He is the referee of every petty dispute, as much as he is chief justice, administrator, and commander-in-chief. The people demand his decision on every point, political or personal, and wish to leave it to him to do or not to do, irrespective of his knowing anything of the merits of the case they bring before him. His counsellers say: “Do what you think right, you will do better than we;” and his reflection is, “I, poor devil, do not know where to turn.” Then in sorrow he exclaims, “Oh, our Government, our Government! What has it not to answer for? Not to me, but to these poor people. I declare if I thought the town wished the Mahdi I would give it up: so much do I respect free will.” It is doubtless these internal troubles which lead him to say: “It is of course on the cards that Kartoum is taken under the nose of the Expeditionary Force, which will be just too late.”

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In Vol. V., which begins on the first day of the Arab New Year, the arrival of the Mahdi at Omdurman is reported. The treachery referred to in the previous volume had led General Gordon to make numerous arrests—a necessity he deplored; but these arrests in all probability saved the fall of Kartoum on October 21st, for the Mahdi had evidently speculated on either a rising in the town on that day, or on the gates being opened to him by some of those who were then imprisoned. On this day Gordon also received the news of the treaty concluded between King John of Abyssinia and Admiral Sir William Hewitt, and his anger at the injustice of such a treaty is as apparent as is the bitterness of his satire: throughout the whole volume, indeed, he cannot get away from this subject, and, though the frequent effort to dismiss it in disgust from his mind is evident, he continually reverts to it. He considers it discreditable, and does not hesitate to say so. Moreover, he contends that by the Treaty of Paris, and also by that of Berlin, the integrity of the Ottoman Dominion is guaranteed by the Powers, and that it is therefore a farce to say Egypt ceded Kassala.

His views on the whole policy of Her Majesty’s Government are summed up in an imaginary scene in the House of Lords. “The noble Marquis asked what the policy of Her Majesty’s Government was? It was as if he asked the policy of a log floating down stream—it was going to sea, as any one with an ounce of brains could see. Well, that was the policy of it, only it was a decided policy, and a straightforward one to drift along and take advantage of every circumstance. His lordship deprecated the frequent questioning on subjects which his lordship had said he knew nothing about, and, further, did not care to know anything about.”

Fielding, had he been alive, would have envied Gordon the completeness of this humorous satire. The results of the policy, as far as it has gone, he shows to have been the loss of some 80,000 lives and the effectual restoration of the slave-trade and of slave-hunting: “a miserable end to diplomacy when it would have been so easy in 1880 to have settled the Soudan with decency and quiet, giving up Kordofan, Darfur, the Bahr Gazelle, and the Equator.”

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In the latter part of Vol. V., but especially in the early part of Vol. VI., Gordon fully realises the Abbas catastrophe. He knows Stewart and Power are dead. There is no expression of personal regret, though he is “sorry for their friends.” He loved them both, and he pays the highest tribute he can to their merits; but he is sure that in their present they are happier than in their past. Moreover, he had done his best, for every precaution human foresight could conceive he had taken; having done this, the rest was in the hands of God, and the disaster was “ordained.” But these views do not prevent him from courting all inquiry; and he even holds a court-martial on himself. His verdict is, that if the Abbas was attacked and overpowered, he is to blame; but that if she was captured by treachery, or if she struck a rock, he is not to blame. In the one case he should have foreseen the chance, and prevented her going; in the others he could foresee nothing. It was out of his power to avert treachery; and the Abbas drew under two feet of water, and was accompanied by two sailing boats.

He explains with care and clearness why Stewart and Power left him; they went of their free will, not by his order; for he would not “put them in any danger in which he was not himself.” If they went they did him a service, for they could telegraph his views; if they stayed, they could not help him. They could go in honour, for they had promised the people nothing; he could not go in honour, for he had promised them himself. If Gordon were alive, and thought any one could misinterpret what he says, and thus cast a slur on the memory of either Stewart or Power, he would be greatly pained. His love and admiration for them both was evident; and he knew that, had it been their duty to remain, they would have stayed to die with him at Kartoum. “If Zubair had been sent in March, when I asked for him, we would not have lost Berber, and would never have wanted an expedition;” and, if Berber had not fallen, Stewart and Power would have been alive. Zubair had been his almost first request, and he never ceases to regret that one who had devoted his life to the Soudan should not have been allowed to comprehend its requirements better than those who sat in Downing Street.

Within a week of beginning this volume of his Journal, Gordon expected the town of Kartoum to fall; the recovery of an enormous quantity of stolen biscuit enabled him to hold his own for more than another month. During this time a notion of his troubles may be gathered from what he says up to December 14th; his real suffering must for ever remain unknown. That it depended upon the suffering of others we may feel assured; he never knew what it was to feel for himself. He felt for his country; he felt for all he tried to help, and if he was among such as were killed first, his dying thought would have been, “What is to be the future of all I leave behind?”

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In his Journals—his last words—those familiar with his character and life will see Charles Gordon true to himself to the very end. They will see in him the same ardent passion for justice and for truth; the same scorn for wrong-doing and deceit; the same gentle pity for the sufferings of all, and the same mercy and forgiveness for his foes: and with all this is combined the perfection of humility, and the sense of imperfection. There is no impatience, save with those who wronged his honour and the poor people for whom he died; there is no unrest, for he neared that “life of action” for which he had long yearned; there is no sorrow, no dark doubt, for Charles Gordon was with his God.

A. Egmont Hake.

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