[221] Sir Charles Wilson strives hard to defend Lord Wolseley and Sir Herbert Stewart. He says that Stewart could not march straight across the Desert for lack of transport, though he admits that an additional thousand camels, which could have been easily got in November, would have saved the situation. Why were they not got? Moreover, the blunder of Lord Wolseley and Sir Herbert Stewart is inexcusable, because they acted in defiance of Gordon’s last message. “Come,” said he, “by way of Metamneh or Berber; only by these two roads. Do this without letting rumours of your approach spread abroad.” Stewart’s first occupation of Gakdul, thirteen days before the Desert column was ready to move, was simply a gratuitous warning to the Mahdi of the English advance.
[222] This is sometimes called Gubat, and sometimes Abu Kru.
[223] Gordon’s diaries show that even on the 28th of November, 1884, when his men held Omdurman and the North Fort, Wilson could not have passed the junction of the Blue and White Nile without a strong land force to co-operate with his steamers. On the 28th of January, 1885, however, these positions were in the Mahdi’s hands, and Wilson had no land force.
[224] Lord Charles Beresford was too ill to proceed up the Nile with Wilson, and, as he was the only naval officer available, it was prudent to leave him at Gubat. Had our position there been attacked, he would perhaps have been able to assist in its defence with Gordon’s steamers.
[225] See an analysis of General Gordon’s Journals by the present writer in the Observer for the 28th of June, 1885. For criticism of Wilson’s Expedition, see article, said to be by Sir E. Hamley, in Blackwood for June, 1885.
[226] See The Letters of General C. G. Gordon. (London: Macmillan, 1888.)
[227] Gordon’s death evoked from the Colonies in America and Australia profuse and generous offers of military aid. The only one accepted was that which was made by New South Wales.
[228] When Mr. Gladstone fell from power, and Lord Salisbury’s Government took office in 1887, this promise was renewed. But in 1888 it was repudiated by Mr. W. H. Smith, the First Lord of the Treasury.
[229] The children of the Prince of Wales will probably be provided for by the State. The children of the Duke of Edinburgh, owing to the wealth of their parents, need no provision. The Duchess of Connaught inherited a large fortune from her father, the “Red Prince.” The Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, if she were to have a family, could provide for them as members of the House of Argyll.
[230] The German Crown Prince and the Grand Duke of Hesse received the Order on marrying daughters of the Queen. But the Marquis of Lorne got the Order of the Thistle in similar circumstances.