LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
GENERAL GORDON'S MISSION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J
SIE,-I -read the other day an article in the Spectator of December 28th last, in which Mr. Gladstone's sanction of the mission of General Gordon is given as a proof of the deteriora- tion of his judgment by age. On my return to London, I had the curiosity to look what had been the view of the mission taken at the time by the Spectator. I found an article written with the. usual vigour of -your paper, and showing no deteriora- tion of judgment by age. -It was favourable to the mission, and of General Gordon having been appointed to the work,— [No doubt our own judgment was also at fault. But the Government had better means of judging than external critics, and must have had a far clearer conception of the moral im- possibility of leaving General Gordon unsupported after bin great act of self-devotion. And this was the course originally proposed when General Gordon took the risk upon himself of venturing to Khartoum alone.—En. Spectator.]
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