The Portland daily press., 1884-02-05
Chinese Gordon.

lE.pancial chronicle.l

Fsxnancial Chronicle.]
But who isSI"Chineseo Gordon? What
have been his facilities for acquiring correct
information regarding the Soudan? and what
fitness has he for the executing of the adj
mittedly difficult task entrusted to him?
These are questions which many are now
asking. The answering of the first ques-
tioa will involve the answers to the other
two. Gordon is of Scottish stock, his an
cestors having fought for the Pretender at
Chlloden. His family has for generations
been connected with the army. He was ed
ucated at Taunton and at the Royal Militia
ry Academy at Woolwich; and on his leay-
ing Woolwich, in 1854, for service as an
officer OF engineers, he was ordered to Penn
broke. In the same year he was ordered to
Corfu; but before he had set out fer the
IonianIsland he received counter instruc-
tions to start for the Crimea. When the
Cfimean war was ended, he was pat on the
staff of Major Stanton to help in the work
of laying down the new frontiers of Russia,
Turkey and Roumania. It was not, how
ever, till later, that Gordon found his real
sphere of activity. From 1860 to the end of
1864 he was in China; and his name is in
separately associated with the putting down
of the Tapping rebellion. His history dur
ing this period reads like wild romance.
He organized an army such as China had
never known before; and such was the faith
OF that army in its chief, and such was its
success, that it acquired the title of the Ever
Victorious Army. Under Gordon it marched
from victory to victory, until finally it
crushed out rebellion, and restored at once
| the unity of the empire and the imperial au-
| thority.
In China, Gordon won The good opinion
! of the world, and to day China is stronger
| for the example he gave and the lesson he
taught her. In 1874 Gordon took service
with Ismail Pasha in Egypt, and succeeded
! Sir Samuel Baker as Governor of the tribes
| in Upper Egypt. His career in Egypt. al
| though it was characterized by less actual
| fighting, is even more interesting than his
| career in China. He carried on and extend
| ed the work which Baker had begun, made
| his name and that of the Khediye respected
| BY all the tribes and by all the neighboring
| States. He abolished slavery; and, difficult
as was the task, he compelled the slave
dealers to respect the law. He was beloved
by the people and was spoken of by them as
the "Little Khedlve." On the appointment
of the Marquis Of Ripon in 1879 as Govern
| or General OF India, Gordon accepted an ap-
| pointment under him; but he did not re-
main in India He has since been in China.
and it is known that his advice was taken
in regard TO the army. Latterly he has
spent some time in Palestine, having become
deeply interested in the Jordan Canal And.
as is well known, when the present COM
mand was given him, he had just been re-
quested by the King of the Belgians to take
command Of an expedition on the Congo.
Gordon is soldier of the Cromwell stamp.
BE carries his religion with him wherever
he goes.
Such is the man who has been called 10
the difficult task Of carrying out his govern
ments orders with regard to the evacuation
of Sondan. He is TO work in connection
with, and to be in certain sense subject to,
Sir Evelyn Barring. 1t remains to be seen
whether Gordon's influence with the black
tribes has not died out during his absence,
and how far their feelings for the foreigner
and for the Khediye have been affected by
the success Of El Mahdi. OF his personal
fitness for the task he has undertaken there
can be no two opinions; but much depends
on the feeling of the tribes, on the liberty
allowed him, and on the support which he
NAV receive,