d our difficulties, as Forster would
certainly have moved, and with the tories and the Irish have
carried, a condemnatory address. My own opinion is that it is
harder to justify our doing so much to rescue him, than our not
doing more. Had the party reached Khartoum in time, he would not
have come away (as I suppose), and the dilemma would have arisen
in another form.

In 1890 an application was made to Mr. Gladstone by a certain foreign
writer who had undertaken an article on Gordon and his mission. Mr.
Gladstone's reply (Jan. 11, '90) runs to this effect:--

I am much obliged by your kind letter and enclosure. I hope you
will not think it belies this expression when I say that I feel
myself precluded from supplying any material or entering upon any
communications for the purpose of self-defence against the charges
which are freely made and I believe widely accepted against myself
and against the cabinet of 1880-5 in connection with General
Gordon. It would be felt in this country, by friends I think in
many cases as well as adversaries, that General Gordon's
much-lamented death ought to secure him, so far as we are
concerned, against the counter-argument which we should have to
present on his language and proceedings. On this account you will,
I hope, excuse me from entering into the matter. I do not doubt
that a true and equitable judgment will eventually prevail.(110)

Chapter X. Interior Of The Cabinet. (1895)

I am aware that the age is not what we all wish, but I am sure
that the only means to check its degeneracy is heartily to concur
in whatever is best in our time.--BURKE.

I

The year 1885 must be counted as in some respects the severest epoch of
Mr. Gladstone's life. The previous twelve months had not ended cheerfully.
Sleep, the indispensable restorer, and usually his constant friend, was
playing him false. The last entry in his diary was this:--

The year closed with a bad night, only one hour and a half of
sleep, which will hardly do to work upon. There is much that I
should like to have recorded.... But the pressure on me is too
great for the requisite recollection. It is indeed a time of
_Sturm und Drang_. What with the confusion of affairs, and the
disturbance of my daily life by the altered character of my
nights, I cannot think in calm, but can only trust and