THE LATE GENERAL GORDON.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 231, 14 February 1885, Page 4

THE LATE GENERAL GORDON.

" All, for their sakes so captured and taken !"

Ma.iok-General Charles Gordon, C.8.. is dead ! He died through the treachery of the people whom he was defending. He was betrayed by Faramh Pasha, the "commander of the Soudanese troops. Gordon left England with his life in his hands, as a Christian soldier. He shook hands with H.R.H. the Commander-in-Chief, and went up the Nile ' to hold Khartoum against the enemies of the ' Queen. Depending on his faith in Christ, he . held against the hordes of Mohammedans, ! repulsed them from the city, and taught new j lessons in military engineering. He seems to I have had a premonition of death, and left his letters with Mallock, the author of "Is Life Worth Living?" "for publication. They were published in a London Review. Gordon should be remembered as the Christian who was more tender about women and children than men, who pledged his honours from the Emperor of China to teach the barefooted boys at Chelsea. The life of one Christian matters little in the world. There are more ! " For the ashes ot his fathers and the temples of his gods" he fought; and how can man die better ? His death marks an epoch in history. It was a sorrowful thing, but, in God's will, it is better, because more troops will be sent. Britain bristles with fire and steel, and there is no lack of money. Their divisions will go the Soudan, from England, from India, from Italy, from Abyssinia : a railway will be constructed from Suakim, on a shorfc line of operations, to cross the desert and make a re-entering angle. The body of General Gordon will be saved. Captain Lord Charles Beresford appears to have behaved with the courage of his race, and rescued Sir Charles Wilson below the 6th Cataracts, at Gurkab (which in the cable despatches in spelt wrongly as Gadkul). He rode across the desert to Korti, near Ambukol, where General Wolseley's headquarters were, to confer as to the advance of the main division, which will probably reach El Hadjiri, Taminich, and then attack Khartoum. The Canadians are sending troops to take the place of the Guards, who are ordered to Egypt. This proves that there' is an entente cordiale between Britain and Canada. We give in another part of this journal a very fair likeness of the late General, taken from the Illustrated London Neics of March. 22nd, 1884. Though people of many nations will sorrow for him, the brave, the true, the faithful, yet his death will not be a matter of revenge, but of Christianity against Mohammedanism. The lesson will be a severe one. The Suudan will be recovered and held. Of an ancient Scottish family, which has given many hostages to the State, General Gordon was bom in 1833, and was ' consequently in the fiffcy-second year of his age at the time of his assassination by the followers of the Mahdi. Like Lord Nelson, and many other famous men, he was of a delicate and weakly constitution ; but, reared in a military atmosphere, so to speak* being the fourth son of the third soldier of the present generation of the family, he early perfected himself in all those athletic exercises which harden a man's muscles and strengthen his powers of endurance. He entered the army as a lieutenant in the Engineers, a branch of the service which has boasted not a few of our most distinguished and scientific officers among its members but never one who shed greater lustre on the corps than has Gordon. Like r Sir Henry liavelock, Gordon was a man of deep and fervid relsgious convictions, which he acted out in his life as few professing Christians do, a proficient in the classics, and in many modern languages. He employed all his leisure time, which was but little — for what ' he had to spare from his duties he chiefly gave to personal works of charity and mercy-— in the study of the Bible. A rare combination of sternness and gentleness, he knew how both to command and to persuade All his inferiors loved him, but they feared him, too ; whilst his influence over the Eastern andotheralienraces, with whomhe wasbroudhfc into contact, was unbounded. H e was sent out to the Crimea to do hard and obscure as well as daring and conspicuous work Directly after the .Russian war was over he was employed iii going through Russia, Turkey, and Armenia, arranging the Asiatic frontiers, and deciding disputed questions as to boundaries and outlines. In the year 1857 a brief struggle arose between France and England on the one side and China on the other, the treaty of.Tiensin havino- been violated by. the Chinese stopping British boats going, up, the. Peiho riyer, ; and,by .taking fft d PH#. n S prisoners to. death

<*o'rdori was placed in command of the Emperor's forces. The object of the rebellion was to upset the dynasty and to establish a certain Prince Hung, who declai-ed himself to be the youngest son of Jesus Christ, and that, he had descended from Heaven. He did'not at first set about 1 fighting, but began re-organisihg his troops, arid he soon had a most' efficient force under his command. The Rebels pretended they were willing to submit to the Imperial Government, and by so doing obtained an opportunity to 'slaughter some of Gordon's men.- Gordon assaulted the rebels and . killed " ; 5000, losing only ' 7." At the . end of ,'the .rebellion,'' 1 . Gordon reesived frbin the Chinese Government the Decoration of the Star. He also received an address from the inhabitants expressing their admiration of the line of conduct he had pursued in a position of unequalled difficulty, and surrounded by complications of every possible nature. He found a great nation rent in twain, the people imbruing their hands in each other's blood, but he at the head of his army was enabled to restore confidence in their Government, and to leave behind him' a' prosperous and well-ordered jjeople.: ! He had a great aversion to popularity and .praise, and never wpre any decorations. He prized 'one 'medal which he received in China, but it was lost- sight of for some time, and when discovered was found to have the inscription defaced, and had to be been sent to help in aiding the poor at Manchester. His later life and career in the Soudan, now so sadly terminated, are familiar, at least in outline, to all,- and are commented upon in . another column.