In some passages,
which the editor of the Journals preferred to suppress, he
covered Lord Granville with his raillery, picturing the Foreign
Secretary, lounging away his morning at Walmer Castle, opening
The Times and suddenly discovering, to his horror, that Khartoum
was still holding out. 'Why, HE SAID DISTINCTLY he could ONLY
hold out SIX MONTHS, and that was in March (counts the months).
August! why, he ought to have given in! What is to be done?
They'll be howling for an expedition. ... It is no laughing
matter; THAT ABOMINABLE MAHDI! Why on earth does he not guard his
roads better? WHAT IS to be done?' Several times in his
bitterness he repeats the suggestion that the authorities at home
were secretly hoping that the fall of Khartoum would relieve them
of their difficulties. 'What that Mahdi is about, Lord Granville
is made to exclaim in another deleted paragraph, 'I cannot make
out. Why does he not put all his guns on the river and stop the
route? Eh what? "We will have to go to Khartoum!" Why, it will
cost millions, what a wretched business! What! Send Zobeir? Our
conscience recoils from THAT; it is elastic, but not equal to
that; it is a pact with the Devil. ... Do you not think there is
any way of getting hold of H I M, in a quiet way?' If a boy at
Eton or Harrow, he declared, had acted as the Government had
acted, 'I THINK he would be kicked, and I AM SURE he would
deserve it'.
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