He proposed that a
small force should be dispatched at once across the desert from
Suakin to Barber, the point on the Nile nearest to the Red Sea,
and thence up the river to Gordon; but, after considerable
hesitation, the military authorities decided that this was riot a
practicable plan. Upon that, he foresaw, with perfect lucidity,
the inevitable development of events. Sooner or later, it would
be absolutely necessary to send a relief expedition to Khartoum;
and, from that premise, it followed, without a possibility of
doubt, that it was the duty of the Government to do so at once.
This he saw quite clearly; but he also saw that the position in
the Cabinet had now altered, that Mr. Gladstone had taken the
reins into his own hands. And Mr. Gladstone did not wish to send
a relief expedition. What was Sir Evelyn Baring to do? Was he to
pit his strength against Mr. Gladstone's? To threaten
resignation? To stake his whole future upon General Gordon's
fate? For a moment he wavered; he seemed to hint that unless the
Government sent a message to Khartoum promising a relief
expedition before the end of the year, he would be unable to be a
party to their acts. The Government refused to send any such
message; and he perceived, as he tells us, that 'it was evidently
useless to continue the correspondence any further'.
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