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was immolated at the fall of Khartoum by the joint labours of the
Gladstone Government and the Arab slave-owners was as certain
in London on the 10th February 1885 as it is now. Such being
the facts, the horror with which loyal Englishmen read that on the
night of the 10th February Mr. Gladstone was observed as a
"guilty creature sitting at play" may be imagined.

Some time afterwards Sir F. Milner, speaking at York, alluded
to the fact. Some one brought Sir F. Milner's speech to the notice
of Mr. Gladstone, who desired his secretary to write "that there
was not even a rumour of General Gordon's death at the time
alluded to." Sir F. Milner set forth these facts in a letter which
appeared in the Morning Post, 2nd November 1885, and showed
that the death of Gordon was placarded throughout London on the
10th of February, whereupon Mr. Gladstone reiterated on the 3rd
November "that he was absolutely ignorant of the rumour to which
Sir F. Milner referred."

He must have doubted whether he was believed, for we find him
writing (Times 27th November 1885), "It is absolutely untrue
that either any news or any rumour, supported by any colour of
evidence that General Gordon was dead, had reached Mr. Glad-
stone on the evening to which reference has so improperly been
made by some political oponents."

If this be so, it was useless to summon Mr. Gladstone to a Coun-
cil on the fall of Khartoum; and if it be improper to call attention
to gross behaviour in a public man, it must be indecent in a by-
stander to call the attention of the police to any crime which he
sees committed in the street.

The situation in Egypt was, nevertheless, not calculated to raise
the reputation of the Ministry, and to pacify a public which they
felt must be sorely offended Mr. Gladstone declared in
Parliament (19th February) that "the Government decided that it was
their duty to instruct Lord Wolsely to frame his military mea-
sures upon the expectation and upon the policy of proceeding to
overthrow the power of the Mahdi at Khartoum."

Brave words! But who could trust them in the mouth of the
"broker that still breaks the pate of faith"? Had he not used
the same words about the Transvaal, and did his conduct in South
Africa augur that he would care for England's honour in the
North? "Time, the clock-setter," was soon to show him as ready
to run from the Mahdi as from the Boers; but not before he had
squandered England's blood and treasure.

But here it is proper to show the statements which he and his accomplices put forward in defence of their "great refusal" when
challenged by Sir Stafford Northcote.

Gladstone, on 23rd February, reiterated his strange assertion
that Gordon " was able to remove himself by going to the South.