that he had occupied Mtesa's capital, when in fact he had to withdraw his men, His Highness in return telegraphed his congratulations, and conferred on him the Medjidieh of the first or second class. This is dreadful,' he writes, for it is obtained on false pretences.' Gordon having finished his surveys, and forced Kaba Rega to fly, started for Khartoum, and reached Cairo on December 5, in twenty days from the former place. He was well received by the authorities, who did not at all like his determination to serve the Khedive no longer.

So Gordon returned to England in December 1876, and soon, we suppose, got so sick of lying in bed till eleven and of eating oysters for lunch, that his determination to serve the Khedive no longer was much shaken. Added to this, the Khedive seems to have known Gordon's worth too well to part with him so soon. To secure his services he made him splendid offers, and turned Ismael Ayoub out of the governorgeneralship of the Soudan to put Gordon in. At the same time he made him a field-marshal, so I and the Duke of Cambridge are equals ;' and in addition to the Soudan gave him the whole coast of the Red Sea, even to Berbereh, opposite Aden. He might well call it an immense command.' But he was to do work for it. In return for the Red Sea as far as Aden he was to reconcile the Khedive with those troublesome Abyssinians, who, in the most shameful way, had got into the habit of thrashing the Khedive's never victorious' armies; and, in recompense for the Soudan, Gordon was to hunt out the far worse slave-dealers of Darfour, who had come to be merely nominal subjects of his Highness. We pass lightly over the Abyssinian difficulty, which Gordon thought overrated, the power of King Johannes being far less than was supposed; but in Darfour he had real work to do, and he set about it like a man. His first act was to disband 6,000 Bashi-Bazouks who guarded the frontier, and, as a matter of course, let the slave caravans pass. Let me ask,' he writes, who could do that who had not the Almighty with him? . . . I will do it, for I value my life as naught, and 'should only leave much weariness for perfect peace.

... I

expect to ride 5,000 miles this year, if I am spared.' When we add that all this riding was to be done at full speed on the back of a camel, every reader who knows what camel-riding is will quite appreciate the feat, and any one who does not know what it is may solve the question equitando' by mounting the camel at the Zoological Gardens and trotting about on it for an hour or so.

Gordon soon found that it was easier to deal even with the Bashi-Bazouks and their patrons the slave-dealers than with the institution of slavery itself. It was all very well to talk of abolishing it, and to compare it with the emancipation of the slaves of the British colonies. The latter was a local question, and owners could be compensated, but how abolish slavery and compensate owners in a country where the whole fabric of society was based on it, and where everyone was interested in maintaining it? There is the less need, however, to follow Gordon further in the solution of this problem, for we believe that slavery still exists in the Soudan and Darfour, just as much as it did before his rule. But though he could not deal at once with slavery, he could cut off the supply of slaves, and hunt out the slave-traders. To do this he had to devote his attention to Darfour, that was the great haunt of the dealers and their armed bands, especially since the Upper Nile had been made too hot for them. But just at that moment Darfour was in revolt, and the Khedive's troops were hemmed in in three places. On June 7, 1877, Gordon was at Fogia, on the frontier of Darfour, bent on relieving, by God's 'help,' the first beleaguered town, Fascher, with 200 men. When we say 200 men, a governor-general is usually attended by such an escort, but Gordon was mounted on such a 'splendid camel' that he came flying' into each station in full marshal's uniform long before the rest of his company. The Arab chief who followed him closest, as a guide, said it was the telegraph.' It is fearful to see the governor'general, arrayed in gold clothes, flying along like a madman!' No wonder that he had to wait for his troops. But at last they came, and by their help, and by gentle treatment of the rebels, the garrisons were relieved, and Gordon had time to turn to the slave-dealers and to their stronghold, Shaka. This establishment had been founded by one Sebehr, a man who had other establishments along the Nile, who called himself a pasha, and had gone down to Cairo with 100,000l. to bribe the authorities. Unhappily for himself, he was detained in the capital against his will, but his interests in Darfour were looked after by his relations and by his son, young Sebehr, who, from what we hear of him, promised to be as great a ruffian as his father. When Gordon came into Darfour, the slave interest at Shaka was deliberating whether they would not fight the Government troops and cut Gordon off. Unfortunately for them, the slavers were not very popular with their neighbours, and as soon as it was known that the new governor, instead of favouring the slavers like

the old one, was against them, one of the most powerful of the tribes, who had been pillaged by Sebehr, fled to Gordon 600 strong, and besought protection. We know that Gordon was not the man to let the grass grow under his feet, so hearing that young Sebehr had left Shaka and advanced to Dara with a view of fighting, Gordon rode thither with a slender escort, met the lad, twenty-two years of age, whom he found a perfect cub, rode through the robber bands, 3,000 strong, completely cowed them, and finally sent the cub back to Shaka with a flea in his ear, to wait the governor's arrival.

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On September 7 Gordon started for Shaka with only four companies, running,' as he says, 'great risk in going into the slaver's nest with so small a force. He calculated there were 6,000 more slave-dealers in the interior who would all obey him when they heard that Sebehr, the arch-slaver, had given in. On September 14 Gordon reached Shaka, and 'put up,' as we should call it, at Shaka's house, who was as gentle, to all appearance, as a lamb, though it turned out afterwards that he and his friends were still plotting. Gordon gave his orders at once. Young Sebehr was packed off in safe custody to Bahr Gazelle, on the Upper Nile, and the other chiefs to different places. As for the slaves, of which Shaka was full, amounting to several thousands, Gordon carried down a caravan with him when he left the place, but then the question what to do with them baffled him, and, having their chains struck off, he left them with the slave merchant who claimed them. He had done no harm in buying them, for it is permissible in Egypt. 'slave raids on the frontier.' posed of in like manner.

The only remedy is to stop The rest, we suppose, were dis

After the foray on the slavers Gordon returned to Khartoum, which he reached on October 16, worn to a shadow, as he well might be, since he had ridden 3,800 miles on camels. There he had to hang a noted murderer,' which he hoped would keep the town quiet for some months, and then started for the Abyssinian frontier on that reconciliation business; but finding nothing but delays in King Johannes, he retraced his steps to the capital of his province early in 1878. Though his finances in the Upper Nile had been prosperous, it was not so in the Soudan, all owing to Darfour and the slavedealers. A deficit in the Soudan means distrust at Cairo, and in some cases disgrace, but Gordon held his appointment in Darfour, and, aided by his able lieutenant, Gessi, in the Nile region, completely routed the slave-dealers headed by old Sebehr. For this purpose he again visited Shaka, and

cleared it completely. We have no space to follow him minutely in those expeditions, but just when they ended a blow fell on the Khedive, who had to feel that the same fate was in store for him which he had so often dealt out to his servants. " On July 1, 1879, Gordon writes: I found here [Fogia, in Darfour] a telegram from Cherif Pasha, telling

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me that the Sultan had named Tewfik Pasha Khedive, and that I was to proclaim it in the Soudan with salutes.' We need not say that Gordon obeyed the order, though he was at first loth to serve under Tewfik. At last he relented, and was despatched on a fresh Abyssinian mission, where he and his followers were made captive, but soon released, owing to Gordon's firmness. The work he had done in his incessant journeys had exhausted even his iron frame. On his return to Alexandria the physicians imperatively ordered rest and freedom from excitement. This advice it was easier to receive than to follow. Gordon went home. But he was not made to lie in bed till eleven, to have oysters for lunch, and, least of all, to dine out. After hastily accepting the appointment of private secretary to Lord Ripon, which, happily for himself, he dropped like a hot coal, he received a call for China, and flew to render service to a nation which he appears to prefer to all others. His stay in China was not long,' says Mr. Hill. It was, however, long enough to render the world a priceless work, and he left with the knowledge that peace was maintained between the great empires China and Russia. When his work was ended he returned home, much touched by the kindness shown to him throughout by the military authorities in England.

Here we take our leave of Gordon and Central Africa. There can be no doubt that England possesses in him an extraordinary man, and that his true place is not in courts and crowded cities, but in the waste places of the earth, and in leading masses of half-civilized men to enter and subdue them. For such men there is still room in all quarters of the globe, and we have little doubt that we shall still hear of Chinese Gordon as foremost in some one of them. He is a man, in short, of a rare nature: he believes both in God and himself, and in that belief this book shows that he has been able to accomplish deeds which few other men would even have thought of attempting. Finally, we must say one word for Mr. Hill, who has successfully completed a very difficult task in editing those letters, all, without exception, written to Gordon's sister. With their publication Colonel Gordon would have nothing to do. He would not see or correspond with

the editor, still less would he read Mr. Hill's manuscript or correct the proofs. It was enough for him to have written the letters. He expressly says that he never cared to see them again, and, so far as the book is concerned, he would give it no more help than if he had been dead. Mr. Hill has, however, brought Gordon to life again by publishing these letters so carefully; and as it is not often that a 'dead man' has the opportunity of thanking his literary executor, we think that Colonel Gordon should lose no time in discharging that duty. He can scarcely object to do this, for, according to his own view, this book also must have been preordained to be published.

ART. X.-Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom in each of the last fifteen years, from 1866 to 1880. Twenty-eighth Number. Presented to both Houses of Parliament: 1881. THE HE results of the General Election of last year are gradually developing themselves. At first, so unexpected was the blow and so great the discomfiture, that the Tory party lost all power of clear political vision, and, being for months in a mist and a darkness, went about like a wellknown character in Church history, seeking for some to lead them by the hand. Many guides presented themselves, more or less skilled in their art, and the puzzled sufferer, trusting sometimes one, sometimes another, made but little way in that pilgrimage which the Outs have always to perform in their efforts to return to the Promised Land. Something, it was clear, must be done. The Ministry must be discredited, and that terrible majority in some way or other be broken up. Several schemes were tried. There was the Bradlaugh question, annoying and distasteful in the extreme to many members of the Liberal party, and perhaps more than to any other to their chief. There was the Compensation for Disturbance (Ireland) Bill, which certainly achieved the result of reducing the majority, on that question alone, by more than fifty. There were the military mishaps of Asia and of Africa. There was the extreme difficulty of managing the irreconcilables in the House of Commons. Still, the Government held its own. It had an enormous superiority of debating power; it had the most loyal support perhaps which any government ever received from a following composed of so many independent thinkers and hard-headed practical men as those who sit on the right of the Speaker. Something must