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opinion which they expressed on 21st April, that the position of General Gordon is one of complete security."

"I adhere to the opinion," said Mr. Gladstone (May 1st), "I
have given in this House more than once, that there is no military
danger at the present moment besetting Khartoum"; but such
catachrestical audacity could deceive no one. Since his message
on the "indelible disgrace of abandoning the garrisons," Gordon,
and the thousands of dependants to whom he was daily doling out
the food he had so strenuously collected, had not been heard of.

Even at Dongola, far down the Nile, between the third and
fourth Cataracts, Mr. Egerton reported (12th May) that there was
"panic." (Blue-Book, No. 25, 1884.)

But for the marvellous influence of Gordon over he minds of
men, and his inexhaustible ingenuity in devising means of defence,
Khartoum would probably have fallen as soon as Berber,* and no
one in Europe knew whether it had fallen.

In May, Sir M. Hicks-Beach moved, "That this House regrets
to find that the course pursued by Her Majesty's Government has
not tended to promote the success of General Gordon's mission,
and that even such steps as may be necessary to secure his personal
safety are still delayed," and the ministerial majority fell to 28,
and was believed to have vanished out of doors.

Justice must be done to Mr. Gladstone by stating that he did
not adopt the sham plea that the "great refusal" was made with
any consideration for Gordon's safety.

Lord Granville's despatch of the 22nd February had assigned
the fear of public opinion as the reason.

Mr. Gladstone, on the 12th May, took the same ground.

"General Gordon told us, and gave us his reasons for thinking
so, that Zebehr, if inclined to the slave trade, would not be able to
pursue it, and would have the strongest possible reason for not
attempting to pursue it, in case we allowed him to stay at Khartoum.
For my part I thought the arguments and the weight due to
General Gordon so great that in my own mind it would have been
a great question whether we ought not to have given way to his
wish. Yes! but for one consideration. And what was that con-
sideration? Why that we should not have announced that
intention forty-eight hours, when a vote would have been passed in
this House, not merely to condemn the Government, but...."

Sir John Gorst said he heard with shame the new theory of
ministerial responsibility which Lord Granville's despatch had
promulgated. "The Prime Minister said in so many words that

* Berber fell about the 1st June. (Blue-Book, 1884, No. 25, p. 117.) Major
Kitchener reported, "Everyone massacred. The Governor and all his family, and all
the soldiers, and many merchants killed."