— 95 — have been prepared to face the storm of opposition that his appointment must inevitably have evoked.

But even now, when it is possible to view the question with eyes no longer blinded by the violent prejudices that warped contemporary judgment, it would be the height of boldness to affirm positively that the appointment urged by Gordon would have afforded a permanently satisfactory, or even a temporary solution of the question ; the impartial critic will be prepared to hesitate before passing judgment in a matter where opinion is so divided, nor will he fall into the fallacy of arguing that because Zubeir was not appointed, therefore the Sudan was betrayed into the hands of the Dervishes and Gordon sacrificed to the Mahdi. But, on the further question of the omission on the part of the British Government to take adequate steps for the relief of the garrisons in the Sudan, and the achievement of the purpose for which Gordon was originally sent out, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion, that, having rejected the deliberately formed opinion of those best qualified to judge, the Government morally bound themselves to find an alternative solution of the question.