It is significant, too, that Gordon's mission was represented
both to Sir
Evelyn Baring, who was opposed to his appointment, and to Mr.
Gladstone, who
was opposed to an active policy in the Sudan, as a mission merely
'to
report'; while, no sooner was the mission actually decided upon,
than it began to assume a very different complexion. In his final
interview with the 'Ministers', Gordon we know (though he said
nothing about it to the Rev. Mr Barnes) threw out the suggestion
that it might be as well to make him the Governor-General of the
Sudan. The suggestion, for the moment, was not taken up; but it
is obvious that a man does not propose to become a Governor-
General in order to make a report.
We are in the region of speculations; one other presents itself.
Was the movement in the Press during that second week of January
a genuine movement, expressing a spontaneous wave of popular
feeling? Or was it a cause of that feeling, rather than an
effect? The engineering of a newspaper agitation may not have
been an impossibility-- even so long ago as 1884. One would like
to know more than one is ever likely to know of the relations of
the imperialist section of the Government with Mr. Stead.
But it is time to return to the solidity of fact. Within a few
hours of his interview with the Ministers, Gordon had left
England forever.
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