THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. I 1 9 incur it rather than to face the certain disadvantages of withdrawing without making any provision for the future government of the country, which would thus be sure to fall under the power of the Madhi." .

This opinion was endorsed by other good authorities who were well acquainted with the condition of the country and with the probable effect of Zebehr's appointment; but public opinion in England was certainly against it, and the opposition in parliament, having learned what was proposed, and concluding that the ministry was undecided whether to countenance the appointment of Zebehr or not, began to make use of the rumour for the purpose of taunting the government with adopting a policy of reticence, not only because they had no other policy, but because they contemplated the employment in high office of a man whose character made any co-operation with him disgraceful if not actually criminal.

It was only a sense of the high character and entirely unselfish conduct of Gordon which prevented attacks being made upon him, but there was no real reaction with regard to him in public opinion, though it was thought that he might be on the brink of a serious error of judgment; and the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society was not silent. Mr. Edmund Sturge, the chairman, wrote to Lord Granville in the name of the committee, saying: " The antecedents of Zebehr Pasha are well known to your lordship. In the records of the devastations and murders inflicted by the slave-trade on North-eastern Africa this man has stood the foremost and the principal actor, and his career is specially marked by perfidy and crime. The committee are unanimous in the feeling that countenance in any shape of such an individual by the British government would be a degradation for England and a scandal to Europe.

The committee express no opinion on the policy of a permanent maintenance of British authority at Khartum, but they earnestly hope that in the event of her majesty's government making an arrangement for its independent rule, the conditions will be such as shall secure the country alike from a reign of anarchy and barbarism, and from that of the slave-trader.