1 82 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

the river route the distance from Cairo to Khartum was 1600 miles, interrupted by cataracts, and many parts of the river were very little known, and had never been traversed by large bodies of men, or used for the carriage of large quantities of forces. Was an expedition on a large scale in the very height of summer feasible or justifiable? He did not say that measures of the kind indicated were impossible, but he did say they were of such a magnitude that they were not to be attempted, and certainly not to be announced, until their practicability had been clearly demonstrated, and until the measures which it would be necessary to take were clearly foreseen. If such necessity should be proved, and if such practicability should be demonstrated, then he believed that this country would be prepared to grudge no sacrifice to save the life and honour of General Gordon. At the same time it would be prepared, if possible, to give relief to those garrisons for the safety of which, as he had said, the government admitted and accepted no responsibility; but whose sufferings, unmerited, undeserved, and cruel, not by reason of any claims they possessed upon us, in the name of mercy and humanity were fully and completely appreciated.

It may well be understood from these declarations that the government had already determined to organize an expedition for the rescue of Gordon and his companions, and this was actually the case. It was proposed to send out an expeditionary force in the following October, when a journey by the Nile might be practicable, and orders were soon sent to the British military authorities at Cairo to commence arrangements by the purchase of some thousands of camels; while in England active preparations were soon made for the accumulation and despatch of various kinds of stores and equipments for a considerable force.

These preparations and the remarkable story of the expeditions of the Nile and the desert columns will commence a fresh page. We cannot, however, close the present chapter without referring to the additional responsibility cast upon the government by the necessity for dealing with the still vexed question of Egyptian finance.