GENERAL GORDON'S JOURNALS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 51, 29 July 1885, Page 4

GENERAL GORDON'S JOURNALS.

A. despatch frona 1 Boston, June 94, says the journals, of General Gordon at Khar- .• toum,' voluminous extracts from which.: " are given out to the newspapers to-day, make a crown octavo volume of over 500] pages. ■ (It was published ; June ' 24 1 ;) '( Tlie;diaries are m six parts. ' A prorai-i nent feature, of, .the. extracts is the .edn-jj demnation, frequent and bitter, which! Gordon has for what lie terms the "in-lj -decision of the British Government.'' 1 ' In" this connection he writes : "It is not' easy ; to .get o,v.er . . a feeling that aHiope^ -existed of no expedition being necessary 'qwin& to our having fallen," fie be-: ! lieye^ the Soudan should be' given to. the ; Turks : and incidentaUytrefei'ring to.lhdia says;: — J' India to England is not an-ad-vantage. It is the cause of all party intrigues; while", if our energy "wereaevb--'ted elsewhere, it would produce tenfold. India sways all our policy to' our delri--ment.'''" Infai similar manner Gordon* touches upon the marvellous but constantly recuvring theme pf the shortcomings of English administration. "Oh, our Government, our Government," he writes, " what lias it not to answer forgot to me, but to those poor people ? I declare if I ihought the town wished thej Mahdi I would give it up, so much do I respect free wiU.''^A passage apparently, indicating Hfche* tone of the entire book, is the' followiipg :-— .'' l could,-'' he says;.. " write volumes i of ; pent wrath, on this subjectif I did not' betieve these things' ; were ordained, and all vrork for the best.'j