GORDON AND CANON MacCOLL.
[To TILE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Canon MacColl in his letter on the Mandi's tomb says that Gordon would have entirely approved of Lord Kitchener's treatment of the Mandi's body, and that " he did things himself which were far more questionable." May I, as one of the many thousands to whom the fair fame of Gordon—the Galahad of the nineteenth century—is very dear, ask the Canon what those questionable things were ? The members of the party that allowed the noblest life of our generation, aye and of many a generation before it, to be idly and cruelly sacrificed, never seem tired of stabbing the reputation of a great Englishman and true Christian, just as the fierce Arab fanatics stabbed his body, as it lay on the steps of the palace :— ^savGao,, md..ka Sh itaXatc6iTcpus aoatp,iace9at `ExTup 1) 5TE rijay ?virp7icrev 1vp1 loPace "SU &pa Tis erreatc€ Kal o6rficracrire 7rapcurrcis.
A few years ago a successful journalist brought out a brilliant book on the Far East, in which he gratuitously inserted a paragraph, saying there were many stories afloat in China to the discredit of the hero whom his countrymen at home delighted to honour. When I wrote to the author asking him to substantiate this assertion, or withdraw so cruel a slur on a dead man's character, he simply declined to do the one or the other. Whether Gordon would have desecrated the Mandi's tomb, I do not know ; but judging from all I have read of him, and by him, I should think it highly improbable. Personally, I thoroughly approve of Lord Kitchener's action, and endorse Canon MacColl's opinion
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