26 GORDON’S PRESENT JOURNEY TO THE SOUDAN.

On February 3rd, Dr. SchwreinrurtH wrote from Cairo to the author of this pamphlet :—

‘General Gordon flashed through Cairo like a meteor! I feel sure that he will have a complete success in the Soudan. His policy there will astonish the world.”

In the House of Commons, on the 12th inst., Mr. Gladstone spoke

of a plan which had been submitted to the Government by General Gordon, which in any other man’s hands would be presumptuous and fanatical! ‘ But,” he continued, ‘it is not presumptuous nor fanatical

in the case of a man with the gifts and powers of General Gordon.”

This plan could not yet be divulged without danger, but the Prime Minister stated that ‘‘General Gordon went, not for the purpose of reconquering the Soudan, or to persuade the chiefs of the Soudan— the Sultans at the head of their troops—to submit themselves to the Egyptian Government. He went for the double purpose of evacuating the country, by extricating the Egyptian garrisons, and reconsiituteng

at, by gwwing back to these Sultans their ancestral powers—withdrawn,

or suspended, during the period of Egyptian occupation.” | Here is a role worthy, indeed, of the Napoleon of Peace, who goes

forth unarmed, like David, save with the few “smooth stones” drawn from the Word of God, with which he will destroy those “hosts” of opposition and misrule that have so long desolated the land !

General Gordon has arrived at Berber, having safely passed over the dangers of the Korosko desert, and in a comparatively few hours he ought to be at Khartoum. The intense anxiety with which his dangerous journey was watched is almost without a parallel. History records no more heroic figure than that of this simple-minded, God- fearing, Christian officer, perched aloft upon his swift-footed drome- dary, and riding forth with only one English friend and companion, the gallant Col. Stewart, and a few Arab attendants, to confront the wild and barbarous hordes of the Mahdi! The eyes of the whole

civilized world follow with eager but anxious gaze the progress of that

little cavalcade, and great was the feeling of relief when it once more reached the placid waters of the Nile.

What may next happen is hidden in the dark recesses of the future. Of one thing we are quite certain, Gordon will do his duty.

Hieueate, Lonpon, Fed. 14, 1884.