ong enough to resist, if need be, the first impression of public
opinion, but willing to yield when the public have thoroughly made up
their minds. The government in office at that time were not united
among themselves, and consequently were weak, and afraid to face the
public. As a result, Gordon's policy was not carried out, and he fell a
victim. The Soudan is still without a settled government, and the
problem how it should be governed is as far as ever from being solved.
As for slavery, that institution alone has gained by the weak policy of
those who were afraid to send up the old slave-hunter to govern the
unfortunate Soudan.

CHAPTER XV

THE SIEGE

One of the most remarkable characteristics of General Gordon was the
marvellous fertility of his resources. Knowing that there would be a
great deal of prejudice against employing Zebehr, he almost
simultaneously suggested an alternative scheme, which was that, as the
Egyptians could not govern the Soudan, and the English would not,
rather than let it fall into a state of anarchy it should be offered to
the Turks. There was much to be said for this suggestion. Turkey had
once ruled Egypt, and still exercised a suzerainty over it and all its
belongings, and if Egypt was not strong enough to rule itself and its
annexations, it only seemed fair that the suzerain power should
intervene to prevent its being grasped by an upstart like the Mahdi.
Besides, the Sultan of Turkey is the head of the Mohammedan religion,
and had therefore a special interest in suppressing the claims of a
False Prophet.

That the scheme was no hastily-formed one, which he would see fit to
change later on for something else, may be gathered from the fact that
Gordon adhered to it to the very last. Nor was it a scheme suggested by
the immediate difficulties of his position, for in the month of
October, when Lord Wolseley was on the way to relieve him, he writes:--

"Give the country to the Turks, when once you have come to
Khartoum, with one or two millions sterling (which you will have to
spend in three months' occupation up here if you delay), make
arrangements at once with the Porte for its Soudan cession, let
6000 Turks land at Suakim and march up to Berber, thence to
Khartoum; you can then retire at once before the hot weather comes
on....

"I do not advocate the keeping of the Soudan by us, it is a useless
possession, and we could not govern it