ange.
But the army looked at the matter from a different standpoint, and a
mutinous spirit arose. Mr. Wilson informs us that the artillery
threatened to blow the officers to pieces, and a written notification
to that effect was sent to the General. Gordon at once summoned the
non-commissioned officers, who he knew were at the bottom of the plot,
and threatened to shoot every fifth man if the name of the writer of
the notice were not revealed. Immediately they all commenced to groan,
one corporal making himself specially conspicuous by groaning very
loudly. Whether Gordon had any suspicions with regard to this
particular man, we are not informed, but he directed him to be seized,
and ordered a couple of infantry soldiers standing by to shoot him. He
then had the others confined, and again repeated his threat to the
effect that one in every five would be shot if the name of the writer
were not given up. Events proved that the corporal already shot was the
culprit. No doubt many in this country will judge Gordon harshly with
regard to this summary method of dealing out justice; but it must be
remembered that a civil war was going on in which thousands of lives
were annually sacrificed. Gordon knew perfectly well that he could
suppress it if he had a disciplined force under him. He also knew what
a frightful scourge an undisciplined army might become. According to
the tradition of all nations, each man in Gordon's army had forfeited
his life by disobedience in the presence of the enemy. What was the
life of one man compared with the thousands of women and children who
were suffering through the horrors of that war? We in England have been
for so long mercifully spared the misery of war in our own country,
that possibly public opinion has become a little too sentimental.
During the Trafalgar Square riots in 1887, it was suggested by some
that the Fire Brigade should pump cold water on to the rioters in order
to disperse them; and one writer seriously deprecated such a step, on
the ground that possibly the poor fellows who got the ducking might
catch cold! It is possible to go from one extreme to another, and,
while wishing to avoid harshness and cruelty in any form, to become too
sentimental, and thus do harm in an opposite direction. Sentimental
people too often forget the sufferings of the many innocent victims
when contemplating those of a few culprits. War is too stern a thing
for us to trifle with, and those whose duty i