TORTURE, DEBT, AND IMPRISONMENT ABOLISHED. 99 Pasha, hated of the people, and to whose sloth and indifference the dangerous position of Sennar and Berber was attributed, had already been dismissed and was on the way to Cairo. It was evident that there would be no delay in making changes that would be popular. Colonel Coetlogon Pasha was now governor of the city, though afterwards Gordon found it unnecessary to retain him at Khartum, where he had been so long shut up; and therefore sent him to Cairo some time afterwards, as his retention as a military officer appeared to be superfluous and there was no other appointment open to him.

Immediately after summoning the officers Gordon held a levee at the mudirieh, to which the whole population, even to the poorest Arab, were admitted. On his way thither the people came around him again, kissing his hands and feet, and greeting him as father and sultan. General Gordon and Colonel Stewart immediately opened offices in the palace, where anyone having a grievance would find admittance and be heard patiently. The former plan of a great box for petitions was afterwards renewed.

But the first clay's demonstrations were not completed till the governor-general had redeemed his word as to the cancelling of arrears of taxation. The government books, containing the records (many of them extending to a remote period) of outstanding debts of the oppressed people, were publicly burnt in front of the palace, and with them those lesser instruments of torture, the kourbashes, whips, and other implements used to inflict punishment or to terrorize. The evidence of debts and the emblems of oppression perished together.

In the afternoon General Gordon created a council of the local notables, all Arabs. Then he visited the hospital and arsenal.

With Colonel Stewart, Coetlogon Pasha, and the English consul, he visited the prison, and found it to be a dreadful den of misery. Two hundred wretches loaded with chains lay there. They were of all ages, boys and old men, some having never been tried, sonic having been proved innocent, but forgotten for over six months, some arrested on suspicion and detained there more than three years, many merely prisoners of war, and one a woman, who had