e electors of Midlothian, September 17, 1885.

106 See the official _History of the Soudan Campaign_, by Colonel
Colvile, Part 1. pp. 45-9.

M65 The Expedition Starts

107 February 27, 1885.

108 Colvile, II., Appendix 47, p. 274. Apart from the authority of
Kitchener, Gordon's own language shows that he knew himself to be
_in extremis_ by the end of December.

109 The story that he went to the theatre the same night is untrue.

M66 Mr. Gladstone's Vindication

_ 110 Belford's Magazine_ (New York), Sept. 1890. A French translation of
this letter will be found in _L'Egypte et ses Provinces Perdues_, by
the recipient, Colonel C. Chaille-Long Bey (1892), pp. 196-7. He was
chief of the staff to Gordon in the Soudan, and consular-agent for
the United States at Alexandria. Another book of his, published in
1884, is _The Three Prophets; Chinese Gordon, El Mahdi, and Arabi
Pasha_. Burton reviewed Gordon's Khartoum Journals, _Academy_, June
11, 1885.

M67 Party Prospects

111 Above, p. 166.

M68 The Left Wing

112 For the censure, 288; against, 302.

M69 Narrow Escape In Parliament

113 I often tried to persuade him that our retreat was to be explained
apart from pusillanimity, but he would not listen.

M70 Change Of Soudan Policy

114 See Appendix.

115 For instance when Mr. Gladstone fell from office in 1874, Lord Odo
Russell wrote to him, "how sorry I feel at your retirement, and how
grateful I am to you for the great advantage and encouragement I
have enjoyed while serving under your great administration, in Rome
and Berlin."

116 "We do not depart in any degree from the policy of leaving the
Soudan. As to the civilisation which the noble and gallant earl
[Lord Dundonald] would impose upon us the duty of restoring, it
could only be carried out by a large and costly expedition,
entailing enormous sacrifice of blood and treasure, and for the
present a continuous expenditure, which I do not think the people of
this country would sanction.... The defence of our retention of
Suakin is that it is a very serious obstacle to the renewal and the
conduct of that slave trade which is always trying to pass over from
Africa into Asia. I do not think that the retention of Suakin is of
any advantage to the Egyptian government. If I were t