352 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

rescue of the Egyptian garrisons in the Soudan, rests with the Pall Mall Gazette which in those days, under the editorship of Mr. Stead, exercised a baleful influence on British opinion. It is only fair to say, that a sort of myth had grown up in England about Gordon's extraordinary faculty of dealing with Oriental races, of winning their confidence, and of moulding them to his will. His personal courage, his contempt for money, his hatred of oppression, his religious fervour, and his sternness of action, tempered as it was by an almost childlike simplicity, appealed to qualities which lie buried in the heart of every born Englishman. The idea of sending out Gordon to arrange the withdrawal of the Egyptian garrisons was caught at by the British Ministry much in the same way as men in financial difficulties grasp at any arrangement which may avert, or at all events postpone, the payment of inconvenient liabilities. Gordon himself was, if my information is correct, confident of success. He held that his personal influence with the Soudanese would enable him to effect, unarmed, a settlement of the Soudan difficulty. The curious part of the whole affair is not that Gordon should have believed in his own success, or that this belief should have been shared by his fellowcountrymen, but that he should have been regarded by statesmen, in a position to known his defects, as well as his merits, as a practical administrator.

In relation to this, let me record a saying of Lord Beaconsfield, which, in as far as I know, has never