^O EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

use of which they should be taught to become accustomed. His memorandum went much further than this, for it entered with considerable minuteness into the system on which the Chinese army should be trained, the arms and artillery which should be furnished to it, the manner in which such arms and munitions might be provided, and the methods by which the army should operate in the field and under the conditions of actual warfare, some of the tactics which he recommended having been apparently taken from his observations of the natives in the Soudan, One passage of the document is very peculiar: — "China should have a few small-bored, very long range wall-pieces, rifled and breech-loaders. They are light to carry, and if placed a long way off will be safe from attack. If the enemy comes out to take them the Chinese can run away; and if the enemy takes one or two, it is no loss.

Firing them in the enemy's camp a long way off would prevent the enemy sleeping; and if he does not sleep, then he gets ill and goes into hospital, and then needs other enemies to take care of him, and thus the enemy's numbers are reduced." One could well fancy that there is a little of Gordon's frequently irrepressible satirical humour here; but in effect the advice is a part of his recommendation of a system of harassing warfare with large bodies of infantry able to march unencumbered by much baggage or by any heavy artillery, and well armed with breech-loaders carrying about iooo yards.1 The concluding words of the memorandum were : " China wants no big officer from foreign powers. I say big officer because I am a big officer in China. If I stayed in China it would be bad for China, because it would vex the American, French, and German governments, who would want to send their officers. Besides, I am not wanted. China can do what I recommend herself. If she cannot I could do no good."

The authorities at the war-office were indulgent to him, and, it must be confessed, they strained their rules to the utmost; but as he did not give any guarantee that he would not take up arms in 1 This document nppears in extenso in The Story of Chinese Gordon by A. Egmont Hake, and on the advice which it contains the Chinese army was afterwards formed.