— 94 — did not materially affect the question of the slave trade one way or the other, except that, with his appointment and with the setting up of adequate safeguards, the slave trade might have been limited and circumscribed. "We choose to refuse his coming up", writes Gordon, because of his antecedents in re slavetrade ; granted that we had reason, yet as we take no precautions as to the future of these lands, with respect to the slave trade, the above opposition seems absurd. I will not send up A because he will do this, but 1 will leave the country to B who will do exactly the same"(i). At the same time, granted that the Radical Government were to blame in not suggesting a practicable alternative to the appointment of Zubeir, there are others who should share with them what Gordon calls the "indelible disgrace of abandoning the Sudan". The Anti Slavery Society who, without taking the trouble to inform themselves of the local conditions, raised righteous hands in horror at the thought of a slave trader receiving an appointment with the sanction of the English people. The British Public whose well meaning but maudlin sentimentality approved the attitude of the Society, and lastly the Conservative leaders and papers, who were prepared to make a party question of the matter, and gain a spurious advantage from it. Had the Radical Government been convinced of the advisability of sending Zubeir they might quite well (i) Gordon Journals p. 211 "As for the slavetrade the Wahdi will be ten times v/orse than Zubeir."