A country vicar made another
suggestion. Why should not public prayers be offered up for
General Gordon in every church in the kingdom? He himself had
adopted that course last Sunday. 'Is not this,' he concluded,
'what the godly man, the true hero, himself would wish to be
done?' It was all of no avail. General Gordon remained in peril;
the Government remained inactive. Finally, a vote of censure was
moved in the House of Commons; but that too proved useless. It
was strange; the same executive which, two months before, had
trimmed its sails so eagerly to the shifting gusts of popular
opinion, now, in spite of a rising hurricane, held on its course.
A new spirit, it was clear-- a determined, an intractable spirit-
- had taken control of the Sudan situation. What was it? The
explanation was simple, and it was ominous. Mr. Gladstone had
intervened.
The old statesman was now entering upon the penultimate period of
his enormous career. He who had once been the rising hope of the
stern and unbending Tories, had at length emerged, after a
lifetime of transmutations, as the champion of militant
democracy. He was at the apex of his power. His great rival was
dead; he stood pre-eminent in the eye of the nation; he enjoyed
the applause, the confidence, the admiration, the adoration,
even, of multitudes. Yet-- such was the peculiar character of the
man, and such was the intensity of the feelings which he called
forth-- at this very moment, at the height of his popularity, he
was distrusted and loathed; already an unparalleled animosity was
gathering its forces against him.
Pages:
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372