MR. GLADSTONE AND GORDON'S DEATH.
[To vas EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Sir Frederick Milner, writing to the Times in 1903, set this matter at rest by proving that Mr. Gladstone went to the Criterion Theatre (to see The Candidate) on the evening of the day on which, in the afternoon, the news of General Gordon's death reached the Foreign Office. It is impossible to suppose that the Prime Minister was not acquainted with the contents of this despatch. This was on Tuesday, February 10th, and the news of Khartoum was in all the morning papers of the 11th. Mr. Morley, it appears, only denies that Gladstone went to the theatre on February 5th, the day on which the news of the fall of Khartoum reached England. But no one ever stated that he did. Lady Dorothy Nevill's remark would be still more misleading if it were not so naively absurd. Of course, no one would have especially blamed Gladstone for going to the theatre the day (January 26th) when Gordon was killed, at a time when no one in England could have heard of his death. But a greater than Mr. Morley denied that Glad- stone went to the theatre in question, and that was Gladstone himself. But the evidence is too strong for him. Observe that he never said : " I went to the theatre on that night, but had not heard the news " ; but he asserts that he went to the theatre the night before the news arrived. Now there seems to be no reasonable doubt that the news arrived on February 10th, and Gladstone went to the theatre on February 10th.—I am, Sir, dm) C. R. HAINES. Pulborough.
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