But the relief of Sinkat, Tokar, Khartoum, and other stations, garrisoned by Egyptian troops under command of European officers, was imperative. Expeditions to the relief of the two places first named were attacked by the Arabs and cut to pieces, and instructions were telegraphed for the immediate evacuation of Khartoum. But in Khartoum there were not less than 11,000 persons, many of them Christians and many in the Egyptian civil service, and to transport these safely down the Nile would be an operation of exceeding difficulty and hazard.

General Gordon, commonly called "Chinese Gordon," a man of remarkable character, happened to be in London at the time, preparing to start for the Congo in the service of the King of the Belgians. He had been Governor of the Soudan in 1874, under Ismail, and to him the British Government appealed in their perplexity. He readily consented to throw up his engagement under the King of the Belgians, and to proceed to Khartoum, telegraphing to the garrison of that place: "You are men, not women. Be not afraid. I am coming." Meanwhile, the Mahdi had scored another signal success. Baker Pasha, formerly a well-known officer in the English cavalry, advanced in January, with a force of 3,500, to the relief of Tokar and Sinkat; he was attacked near Trinkitat and overwhelmed; his half-trained Egyptians fled, and were cut down to the number of 2,200, and sixteen European officers perished. Then Sinkat fell, the throats of all the garrison being cut, and Tokar surrendered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SHEARS FOR CUTTING HOT SLABS OF STEEL.

These shears, photographed at the works of the Glasgow Iron and Steel Company, are capable of cutting through solid steel slabs 4 feet wide and 12 inches thick. The slabs travel over the "live rollers" in the floor to and from the shears. The use of steel in large quant.i.ties, both for shipbuilding and for the making of rails, was rendered possible by the introduction of the "Bessemer Process" (named after its inventor, Sir Henry Bessemer) in 1860. Steel which had hitherto cost 50 or 60 a ton, now cost but 7 or 8, and rapidly superseded iron. The Bessemer "Converter" has, however, itself given place to the Siemens open-hearth furnace.]

The safety of Lower Egypt being threatened by the Mahdi's continued success, the British Government undertook the defence of a frontier line drawn through Souakim. General Graham ascended the Nile with about 4,000 troops, and inflicted a severe defeat on the Arabs, under Osman Digna, at El Teb, on February 29. Again, on March 11, Graham attacked Osman Digna's camp at Tamai, captured, and gave it to the flames.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAUNCHING AN ATLANTIC LINER AT MESSRS. HARLAND AND WOLFF'S, BELFAST.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRAMING AND PLATING SHEDS, SHOWING MACHINERY FOR DRILLING HOLES IN STEEL PLATES FOR SHIPBUILDING.

The works of Messrs. Harland and Wolff, which, some forty years ago covered two or three acres, and employed a couple of hundred men, now cover nearly eighty acres, and pay wages amounting to 12,000 to 14,000 per week. The tonnage of the vessels built during 1896 amounted to 81,000 tons, considerably more than the output of all the five Government yards.]

[Sidenote: Gordon Besieged.]

General Gordon reached Khartoum on February 18. Finding that things were even worse than he expected, he decided to avail himself of the services of Zebehr Pasha, and telegraphed to Cairo for the Government to allow him to come. Sir Evelyn Baring strongly advised that consent should be given, but Zebehr was of evil repute as a slave-driving chief; stringent instructions were sent from London that he was on no account to be employed, and that if he attempted to join Gordon he was to be detained by force. The Mahdi's forces invested Khartoum on March 23. Gordon, who had to contend with treachery inside the walls, as well as the open enemy outside, displayed extraordinary energy and ingenuity in defence, continuing to send urgent appeals for a.s.sistance, both for Khartoum and for Berber, which was also beleaguered. Berber fell before the end of May; still the British Government turned a deaf ear to Gordon's messages. At last the gallant General appealed from the Government to the "millionaires of England and America" to send him money enough to raise 2,000 or 3,000 Turkish troops to save Khartoum. It is, perhaps, well that by the beginning of May the enemy had gathered so closely round Khartoum that Lord Granville's response never reached Gordon. It was to the effect that Her Majesty's Government was not prepared to supply either Turkish or any other troops for military expeditions, and Gordon was reminded that the mission he had undertaken was of a pacific nature! But the spirit of the British people was galled by the indifference shown by the Government to the fate of their devoted servant; expressions of indignation grew louder and more frequent both in Parliament and in the press, and, at last, early in August, a vote of credit for 300,000 was obtained for the purpose of "preparations, as distinct from operations," for a possible expedition to Khartoum. Lord Wolseley went out to view the military aspect of affairs, and before long a strong force was ascending the Nile.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

A. Col. Frank Rhodes.

B. General Sir Herbert Stewart (mortally wounded).

C. Col. Talbot.

_R. Caton Woodville._} {_From the Royal Collection, by permission of the Artist._

TOO LATE!

After a gallant dash across the desert, the small force under General Stewart arrived within striking distance of Khartoum only to find that Gordon was dead.]

[Sidenote: Too Late!]

Too late! Help had been withheld too long. On the last day of the year a tiny sc.r.a.p of paper reached the British head-quarters on the Nile--"Khartoum all right. C. G. Gordon. December 14, 1884"; but on February 5, 1885, arrived a telegram in London announcing that the place had fallen. When Parliament opened, on the 19th, Mr. Gladstone endeavoured to excuse the Government for their undoubted share in the disaster. "General Gordon contentedly forbore," he said, "indeed more than contentedly--he determinedly forebore--to make use of the means of personal safety which were at all times open to him." The words seemed to be swept from the Prime Minister's lips by a hurricane of indignant exclamations, and he withdrew them. They meant that Gordon might have escaped down the river in a steamer, leaving the loyal Egyptians in Khartoum to their fate. He was not that kind of man. Party discipline prevailed to protect the Government from overthrow on a vote of censure: they managed to put into their lobby 302 against 288.

Khartoum fell on January 26, 1885, after a siege of 317 days, and after the garrison and townsfolk had endured extreme privations for several weeks. Gordon was shot down near the palace, and a horrible ma.s.sacre followed, in which it was reckoned about 4,000 people were butchered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Lowes d.i.c.kinson._} {_By permission of the Artist._

GENERAL CHARLES G. GORDON, 1833-1885.

Served in the Crimean War, and in China in 1860-62. In 1862 he took command of a small and heterogeneous force which, as "The Ever-victorious Army," suppressed the Tai-ping rebellion and saved the Chinese empire. The story of his mission to Khartoum in 1884 is told in these pages.]

[Sidenote: Abandonment of the Soudan.]

Lord Wolseley's expeditionary force, amounting to about 14,000 men, inflicted several defeats on the Mahdi's troops, notably at Abu Klea and Gubat. But the British losses were exceptionally severe, not only on account of the invincible courage of the Arabs and their desperate mode of fighting, but because of sickness and climate. For example, out of General Stewart's desert force of 2,000, no less than thirty officers, including General Stewart himself and 450 men perished. The Mahdi died of fever in July, and the Government decided on withdrawing from the Soudan and fixing the frontier of Egypt at the second Nile cataract.

[Sidenote: Mr. Gladstone's Reform Bill.]

It is necessary at this point to revert to the session of 1884. Mr.

Gladstone had resolved on a further extension of the Parliamentary electorate by carrying out the equalisation of the county and borough franchise. His Bill was received by the Conservative Opposition with that half-hearted resistance which comes of inward disapproval, tempered by dread of alienating the new electors, whom they were not strong enough to exclude. In the end they took their stand on the ground that no such Reform Bill should pa.s.s without a corollary measure redistributing seats. It pa.s.sed the Commons, but the House of Lords declined to consider it until they had the redistribution scheme before them. In vain Lord Granville pledged the Government to introduce a Redistribution Bill the following year, if their Lordships would allow the Franchise Bill to pa.s.s at once. Lord Salisbury declared that he was not going to discuss redistribution with a rope round his neck. At last, after much wrangling, after the usual denunciations of the House of Lords on public platforms, and after sundry processions and demonstrations in London, it was agreed to hang up the Franchise Bill, prorogue Parliament, and call it together in the autumn to consider the complete scheme. This was done accordingly; the Franchise Bill was pa.s.sed, and the Redistribution Bill read a second time, and the Committee stage postponed till after the Christmas recess.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Baron H. von Angeli._} {_From the Royal Collection, by permission of Mr. Franz Hanfstaengl._

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN WEARING THE SMALL IMPERIAL CROWN, 1885.]

[Sidenote: The Afghan Frontier.]

But before that subject could be taken up again, the troubles of the Government had multiplied. Not only had Khartoum fallen, thereby rendering the Nile expedition as fruitless as it was costly, but the violation by the Russians of the Afghan frontier, seemed to render war with Russia all but inevitable, if our treaty engagements were to be held sacred. "The House will not be surprised," said the Prime Minister, referring to the defeat of the Amir's troops by General Komaroff, "when I say, speaking with measured words in circ.u.mstances of great gravity, that to us ... this attack bears the appearance of an unprovoked aggression." Still more profound grew the conviction that the country was on the eve of a great war when, on April 27, Mr. Gladstone came down to the House to ask for a vote of credit for 11,000,000. But he did not tell the House, in the course of a magnificent and most stirring speech, that the Government practically had averted the danger by recalling Sir Peter Lumsden, the British Commissioner in Afghanistan, thereby condoning the offence of the Russians which he (Mr. Gladstone) had denounced already as "unprovoked aggression."

[Sidenote: Defeat and Resignation of Ministers.]

All Parliamentary business, it was understood, including, the redistribution of seats, was to be speedily disposed of in order to make an early appeal to the const.i.tuencies under the new franchise. But, in an unlucky hour for his colleagues, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr.

Childers, decided to include in his Budget provision for increasing the duties on beer and spirits. There is no more perfectly organised body than the Licensed Victuallers; none whom ordinary members are more unblushingly anxious to conciliate on the eve of a general election.

Early in June the Government were beaten on Mr. Childers' proposal by a majority of twelve votes, and resigned.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _R. Caton Woodville._} {_From the Royal Collection._

MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS BEATRICE TO PRINCE HENRY OF BATTENBERG, AT WHIPPINGHAM CHURCH, July 23, 1885.

The Queen and the bride are accompanied on either side by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The bridegroom is supported by Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg and Prince Alexander of Bulgaria. The Bridesmaids are the Princesses Louise, Victoria and Maud of Wales, Princesses Marie, Victoria and Alexandra of Edinburgh, Princesses Irene and Alix of Hesse, and Princesses Victoria and Louise of Schleswig-Holstein. The Archbishop (Benson) of Canterbury and Canon Prothero officiate.]

[Sidenote: Lord Salisbury's First Administration.]

The Queen accepted Mr. Gladstone's resignation by telegram, and entrusted Lord Salisbury with the task of forming a new Cabinet. No easy duty on the brink of a general election, even had the Conservative Party been at Peace within itself. But it was far from being so: a determined revolt was being conducted by Lord Randolph Churchill and his sympathisers--the "rapier and rosette" Tories--against Sir Stafford Northcote's ineffective leadership. Amiable, cultivated, experienced, and sagacious as he was, Northcote had failed to gain the confidence of the combative spirits in his party, who recognised their real captain in the brilliant but erratic Churchill. Lord Salisbury solved the difficulty of uniting these discordant elements by removing Northcote to the Lords, with the t.i.tle of Earl of Iddesleigh and the office of First Lord of the Treasury, placing Churchill in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for India, and committing the leadership of the Commons to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REPRESENTATIVE COINS OF THE REIGN.

1, 2. Sovereign, first issue.

3. Florin, first issue.

4. Crown piece, 1845.

5, 6. "G.o.dless" florin (the words "Dei Gratia" being omitted from the legend).

7. Sovereign, second issue.

8. 5 Piece, Jubilee issue.

9, 10, 11. Double florin, half-crown and shilling, Jubilee issue.

12, 13. Half-crown, new issue.

14, 15. Florin and shilling, new issue.

16. Maundy fourpenny piece.

17. Bronze penny, 1870.

*** The Queen's head is the same (except in scale) on all coins of the same issue.]

This "Cabinet of Caretakers" had but a short existence. The new Ministry met Parliament on July 6, and finished the necessary work of the session in six weeks. It was understood that Parliament was to be dissolved in time for a general election in November. It proved a restless autumn. In almost every const.i.tuency canva.s.sing and speech-making went on without intermission for three months, Mr. Gladstone leading the van with his third Midlothian campaign. He gave no countenance to the demand for Irish Home Rule; on the contrary, he implored the British electors to return such a Liberal majority as should render his party independent of the Irish vote in Parliament. In response to this flashed out a general order from Parnell, directing Irishmen in English and Scottish const.i.tuencies to vote solid against the Liberals, who had "coerced Ireland and deluged Egypt with blood." The Irish leader's policy was to keep the two great parties balanced by the Home Rule vote, and the result of the elections was as nicely adjusted as that skilled tactician could have desired; 335 Liberals returned to the new Parliament were exactly balanced by 249 Conservatives and 86 Home Rulers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A COIN NO LONGER SEEN.

The copper Penny of the early years of the reign.]

[Sidenote: Mr. Gladstone's Third Administration.]