-. 1 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

to the colony. Nothing followed. He was asked to go up country and report on some matters there, and was afterwards told to draw up suggestions of remedies for the evils which he pointed out. He did so; no notice was taken. Possibly he was too earnest and too rapid for the Colonial ministry, or they may have differed entirely from his conclusions; but as they had professed to disagree with the condition of things which he had been sent for that he might improve them, something should have been done. The ministry did nothing except to treat the man, whom they had solicited to hurry to their aid, with an indifference that was unbearable whether it arose from sloth, trepidation, or arrogance.

On the 1 8th of July the ministry requested him to go to Basutoland. In reply he sent a memorandum containing propositions for a convention. He felt that if he went it was due to himself that he should go prepared with some definite proposal in which he would be sustained by the authority of the government. No answer. He had, however, sent a private note to the premier, saying that it was useless for him to go, unless the government were prepared to acknowledge his presence and take account of his proposals. He heard no more of it, though he afterwards offered to resign his office as commandant-general and to go as resident to the territory of the hostile chief Masupha for two years at a salary of 300 a year, as he believed that in time he should be able to gain the old chiefs confidence and restore order to the country. No doubt this proposition seemed too wild and unconventional to require any answer, and by that time it began to be recognized that Gordon was not a likely man to be induced to appear to endorse a policy to which he was entirely opposed. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that he had made the relative position of the government and himself extremely awkward by letting it be known that having proposed a convention, and exposed the provocation and oppression to which the natives were subjected by unjust laws put in force by incompetent and brutal magistrates, he should refuse to lead a force against the Basutos unless improvements were made both in the laws and in the choice of those who administered them.