THE FATE OF GORDON.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 105, 8 April 1885, Page 3

THE FATE OF GORDON.

[London Corte^pondent of Exchange.] Whatever lingering doubt has remained hitherto about the issue of the unequal struggle between General Gordon and the Mahdi is now certainly dispelled. There cannot be a question that the gallant defender of Khartoum fell a victim to the treachery of Faraz Pasha a back slave, who owed Ins position entirely to his master, who trusted him, it is said, implicity, but who repaid hit* confidence vritlrah ingratitude only approached by the parallel of Judas. AJmost within aight of the British uniforms which had been inarched so many hundred miles, and at sush a frightful sacrifice of Wood- an ti ensure, poor Gordon, Ml, it is said, at the head of a few faithful men, who stood by him m the hour of need; and tried m vain to stem the Arab tide which poured through the open gate. What exact- ! ly occurred will probably not Vie known, certainly for some months to come, when Khartoum shall be m our hands, and we are not obliged to rely on the conflicting accounts of spies and deserters, not too anxious, apparently, to tell the real truth. The fact, however, remains that Gordon is dead, and the gloom which this fact has spread deepens hour by hour as one by one (.lie incidents of his noble and unique career are brought out. One needs to go back to the middle ages for so singular a mixture of religious zeal, military prowess, and almost quixotic knight errantry. No self purpose over seems to have animated him m the (execution of any part of his duties or been at th« bottom of any one of the singular enterprises upon which he un^ terud: Indifferent alike to fame, } qsition, or wealth, he cared nothing ft* the ftp|)lau*e or displeasure of but

follows if only he could feol assured that ho was directed and guided !>v the Most High. That h« could oil many occasions have lefc Khartoum is certain, but he knew to have doim so would have . l>een like leaving sheep t> the wolf, as, uaWl, his been 'nit too apparent since h.a death ; ■in. l latterly the tiny note which he. •ent to Lord Wo'sulty (no logger ihun v posture stamp) showed how closely tho city w»s invested, vi.ii Uow desperately difficult it was to get a faithful messenger through the lines. That Gordon antfcip.ted his fate id also now certain, for m a letter to Sir Charles Wilson he speak* of himself as being surrounded by. traitors, and m the steamers which he sent up to meet the British troops he forwarded some i>e»-sonal effects, letters to friends, and six volumes of diaries containing an entire account of the incidents of the siege. From this it may be gathered how terrible was. the strain lie had to endure and how much it must have co>t him to lose the only friend he possessed m Colonel Stewart "hen he let him go on his ill-fated expedition. Professor Jowett, the Master of Balliol, has dolivered a fitting panegyric on the t hero when he remarked m a sermon recently delivered at the College Chapel, that " not since Nelson's death has any public calamity so deeply affected the hearts and minds of England. Nelson died under the wings of renown at the moment of victory, but Gordon's death came m the hour of the overthrow of our hopes." The master then compared Gordon's career with that of Garibaldi. There was much of simplicity m common to each, but while the Italian patriot expended his blood m his own country's cause and service, the Englishman spent his m the cause, of humanity at lrage,for rices m whom he had no personal tic or interest to serve. Tho one. died m peaceful old a»e on his «ea-girt islo, the other, without a friend at hand, the victim of a savage horde. Very fittingly indeed did the Professor put our obligations to the dead hero when he said Gordon has left " a memory which m some will be always and for ever fixed, and will afffict their lives." " We ni:iy gather," he observed further, " from him courage, and firmness, and wisdom, and self-sacrifioe, and strength m all trials which tho English people may have to undergo m generations to come." The sorrow felt, by all has been increased by the death of General Earle, one of the most gallant officers m England, m. the very moment of victory ; and ii whs not long before he, too, was followed to the grave by Sir Herbert Stewart, fatally wounded at the battle of Gubat. Indeed, the loss of officers has been fearful.