=Source.=--Lord Cromer's _Modern Egypt_, vol. i., p. 432.
(Macmillans.)
I must, for the elucidation of this narrative, state why I think
it was a mistake to send General Gordon to Khartoum. "It is
impossible," I wrote privately to Lord Granville on January 28,
1884, "not to be charmed by the simplicity and honesty of Gordon's
character." "My only fear," I added, "is that he is terribly
flighty and changes his opinions very rapidly...." Impulsive
flightiness was, in fact, the main defect of General Gordon's
character, and it was one which, in my opinion, rendered him unfit
to carry out a work which pre-eminently required a cool and steady
head. I used to receive some twenty or thirty telegrams from
General Gordon in the course of the day when he was at Khartoum,
those in the evening often giving opinions which it was impossible
to reconcile with others despatched the same morning. Scarcely,
indeed, had General Gordon started on his mission, when Lord
Granville, who does not appear at first to have understood General
Gordon's character, began to be alarmed at his impulsiveness. On
February 8 Lord Granville wrote to me: "I own your letters about
Gordon rather alarm. His changes about Zobeir are difficult to
understand. Northbrook consoles me by saying that he says all the
foolish things that pass through his head, but that his judgment is
excellent." I am not prepared to go so far as to say that General
Gordon's judgment was excellent. Nevertheless, there was some truth
in Lord Northbrook's remark. I often found that, amidst a mass
of irrelevant verbiage and amidst many contradictory opinions,
a vein of sound common sense and political instinct ran through
General Gordon's proposals. So much was I impressed with this, and
so fearful was I that the sound portions of his proposals would
be rejected in London on account of the eccentric language in
which they were often couched, that, on February 12, I telegraphed
to Lord Granville: "In considering Gordon's suggestions, please
remember that his general views are excellent, but that undue
importance must not be attached to his words. We must look to the
spirit rather than the letter of what he says."