Weekly Phoenix herald., 1885-02-19
LONDON GONE WILD.
Over the Fall of Khartoum and
 a Feeble Ministry.


 ment, pain. and wrath within u
 memory of man. In the city prop :, business has practically been su: pended, and money went mp with jump. The clubs were all crowde early in the afternoon by men cage
 to gather the news and eXchang
 prophecies, discussions, and fore
 bodings. All the evening paper
 have had their presses racing llk
 mad since II o'clock in the forenoel
 in order to keep pace with the vas
 and sudden street and rural demand
 for extra copies. The Strand anC
 Fleet street showed real signs of in
 terest in the alarming news, as tho
 day wore on, a circumstance whicI
 is the rarest thing imaginable in un-
 demonstrative London, where 0 bull
 letin throng is quite unknown. The | fall of Khartoum has been, in fact
 the only topic discussed. The news
 was first out ill the Morning Chron>
 icle and Daily Telegraph extras,
 about 10 o'clock, but the news was
 not generally known at noon. At
 the latter hour, all the widest rus
 mors were speedily set afoat. One of the most persistent was that Gen. Gordon had been hanged. The official confirmation of the original story, for which every one was waitN ing, appeared at o'clock. It is believed now that a rumor from Lord Wolseley reached the Foreign office on Tuesday at midnight, but it was kept secret till the facts fol> lowed. It is said further that Lord Woolseley got word of Gen. Cor, don's dire strait about the end of December, and that this fact dictated the perilous venture of sending Gen. Stewart swiftly across the desert. Moreover, it is said that the alleged message from Gen. Gordon that Khartoum was "all right" which was published few days after, was fraud, but doubt this statement
 In the absence of the details of the calamity, the English mind is not diverted from it's full swing of fury against MT Gladstone and his Ministry. Never in my life have heard man denounced as he has been denounced to-day, seemingly by every one The city proper is like one vast hissing and flaming globule of wrath. Not a word is heard anywhere in his defense. In the stores and shops, in public places, in the railways, and general ly on the streets, there is one uni> versal voice to be heard cursing him and his. The savage press attacks will have been cabled to you, but l .hey are as rosewater compared with | .he informal expressions of the pub, 1 lie feeling. The whole volume of | rage which has been gathering for year past, forces a vent for itself | low in the widest denunciation. 'o4tunately, Parliament at present IS not sitting, and all the Ministers except Sir Ca1-les Dilke and MT. Chamberlain are away. uence, here exists no focus for the out- break, but it is not unlikely that here will be turbulent demonstra- Ion when the Cabinet, which has been hastily summoned, comes to meet in Downing street. If Parlia- nent were now in sitting, the cons census of opinion is that. the Mlnis- " would collapse tonight like house of cards. While every one that the Ministry has met with a fatal blow, all sorts of theo> ies are promulgated as to the dee ails of sthe coming death scene. Many people believe that the ter ible stress will either kill or break dr. Gladstone, who is peculiarly apt 0 sIcken in a crisis, and stories are irculated of a struggle for the accession that will ensue.
 If the future policy of England in he Soudan was a puzzle before to- ay, it is maddening chaos now. The only thing yet certain is that d or Sd will be clapped on the in ,,,,o fav o oarfai,tu ubiab will ,aralyze business, kill investment nd frighten everybody. The twen- y millions spent for worse than othing have involved now the pending of thirty or forty millions a order to get back to the original osition. Old AngloeIndians to- ay say that really the gravest fea- lre of the whole business IS the des tructIon of British prestige in the yes of the Indian Moslems, and hat nothing short of doubling the ndian garrisons and killing the Iahdi at any cost will prevent a uprising. Even without hls element the question is menace ng beyond precedent, and it ought 3 be evident by this time that the lahdIs resources and following ave been idiotically uuderestimated rom the start. This grand stroke n the part of the rebels will turn very wavering tribe in the desert to he side of the Mahdi. With his rmy thus swelled and thus released rom the siege cf Khartoum, the visest soldiers here fear that Gen. ,tewart.s force and the Royal Irish orce on the way will both be over ,orne by the sheer weight of num- ,ers and massacred, and that even Lord WolselY himself may have to Oht Fo, bic life IvitE 4ha furNp0at |