there need be
little doubt of his attaining rapid success, while the memory of
his achievements, when working for a half-hearted Government,
and with incapable colleagues, yet lives in the hearts of the
black people of the Soudan, and fills one of the most creditable
pages in the history of recent administration of alien races by
Englishmen."

Again, on 17th February, in another article on the same subject:--

"The authority of the Mahdi could scarcely be preserved save by
constant activity and a policy of aggression, which would
constitute a standing danger to the tranquillity of Lower Egypt.
On the other hand, the preservation of the Khedive's sovereign
rights through our instrumentality will carry with it the
responsibility of providing the unhappy peoples of Darfour,
Dongola, Kordofan, and the adjacent provinces with an equitable
administration and immunity from heavy taxation. The obligation
cannot be avoided under these, or perhaps under any
circumstances, but the acceptance of it is not a matter to be
entertained with an easy mind. The one thing that would reconcile
us to the idea would be the assurance that General Gordon would
be sent back with plenary powers to the old scene of his labours,
and that he would accept the charge."

As Gordon was not resorted to when the fall of El Obeid in the early
part of the year 1883 showed that the situation demanded some decisive
step, it is not surprising that he was left in inglorious inaction in
Palestine, while, as I and others knew well, his uppermost thought was
to be grappling with the Mahdi during the long lull of preparing
Hicks's expedition, and of its marching to its fate. The catastrophe
to that force on 4th November was known in London on 22nd November.

I urged in every possible way the prompt employment of General Gordon,
who could have reached Egypt in a very short time from his place of
exile at Jaffa. But on this occasion I was snubbed, being told by one
of the ablest editors I have known, now dead, that "Gordon was
generally considered to be mad." However, at this moment the
Government seem to have come to the conclusion that General Gordon had
some qualifications to undertake the task in the Soudan, for at the
end of November 1883, Sir Charles Dilke, then a member of the Cabinet
as President of the Local Government Board, but whose special
knowledge