BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 121 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

GENERAL GORDON.

It will be unnecessary here to sketch at length the life of the soldier, statesman, and hero around whom has centred the chief interest of the war in the Soudan, and of whom the world has long ere this computed the worth. It is the peculiar property of the warrior to be early appreciated. His deeds are patent to all, and their results are in general so soon accomplished that they become rapidly universally perceived and commented on. Gordon is no exception to this. During his lifetime he was everywhere known, and after his death probably not a paper in the civilized world did not frequently contain his name. And, perhaps, of all the characters of history, not one has been entitled to so much praise and so little blame.

Major-General Charles George Gordon was born on the 28th of January, 1833, at Woolwich, in the very cradle of that branch of the service in which he was destined to pass a career of more than usual distinction, even if his own proper career as an English officer be alone taken into consideration. He was the fourth son of an artillery officer, Henry William Gordon, who attained the rank of Lieutenant-General. He was educated at different pri¬ vate schools, having as his companion and mentor at one of these in Somer¬ setshire his elder brother, the late Major-General Enderby Gordon, but when he was little more 15 he was entered at the Royal Military Academy at Wool¬ wich. He passed his examinations successfully, and obtained the muchcoveted distinction of a Commission in the Royal Engineers. His first station in 1854 was at Pembroke Dock. At the end of 1854 he was ordered to pro¬ ceed with some huts to the Crimea. On his arrival in January, 1855, he was at once placed under the officer in command of a portion of the trenches, and during the remaining nine months of the siege he took a prominent part in the engineering operations in front of the Russian stronghold. At the close of the Crimean War, General (then Captain) Gordon was employed in Bessar¬ abia, Armenia, the Caucasus, and lastly China. On the outbreak of the Taeping rebellion he was appointed to the command of the foreign drilled force, to which the Chinese authorities mainly trusted to bring the rebels into subjection, and was given the brevet rank of Major. This force had been styled the 4‘ ever-victorious army,” and Gordon soon vindicated its claim to'this high-sounding title. He had to organize the simplest details in person. He was always the first man in attacks. It was he who showed the way to victory as well as how to prepare for it; but he never carried any weapon save a small cane, which the Chinese soon regarded with almost superstitious reverence, and named his “wand of victory.” The successful termination of the long struggle which had brought such misery upon China and her people was generally and rightly attributed to the young officer, who refused to profit in any worldly sense by his remarkable achievement. He accepted a few unmeaning honours at the hands of the Chinese Government, eager to express its gratitude, but he refused all offers of a more solid charac¬ ter. He also took every measure in his power to avoid the ovation with which his countrymen were prepared to welcome him on his return ; but his H