ppears much more problematical.

There remains, however, to be considered a question which I take
to be of extreme importance. I mean the moral basis of the
projected military operations. I have from the first regarded the
rising of the Soudanese against Egypt as a justifiable and
honourable revolt. The cabinet have, I think, never taken an
opposite view. Mr. Power, in his letter from Khartoum before
Gordon's arrival, is decided and even fervent in the same sense.

We sent Gordon on a mission of peace and liberation. From such
information as alone we have possessed, we found this missionary
of peace menaced and besieged, finally betrayed by some of his
troops, and slaughtered by those whom he came to set free. This
information, however, was fragmentary, and was also one-sided. We
have now the advantage of reviewing it as a whole, of reading it
in the light of events, and of some auxiliary evidence such as
that of Mr. Power.

I never understood how it was that Gordon's mission of peace
became one of war. But we knew the nobleness of his philanthropy,
and we trusted him to the uttermost, as it was our duty to do. He
never informed us that he had himself changed the character of the
mission. It seemed strange that one who bore in his hands a
charter of liberation should be besieged and threatened; but we
took everything for granted in his favour, and against his
enemies; and we could hardly do otherwise. Our obligations in this
respect were greatly enhanced by the long interruption of
telegraphic communication. It was our duty to believe that, if we
could only know what he was prevented from saying to us,
contradictions would be reconciled, and language of excess
accounted for. We now know from the letters of Mr. Power that when
he was at Khartoum with Colonel de Coetlogon before Gordon's
arrival, a retreat on Berber had been actually ordered; it was
regarded no doubt as a serious work of time, because it involved
the removal of an Egyptian population;(327) but it was deemed
feasible, and Power expresses no doubt of its accomplishment.(328)
As far as, amidst its inconsistencies, a construction can be put
on Gordon's language, it is to the effect that there was a
population and a force attached to him, which he could not remove
and would not leave.(329) But De Coetlogon did n