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196.
At a Patriotic Association meeting, oxtrnvagent eulogies
of Gordon were contrasted with "storms of hooting and
groans" º sich greeted Gladstone's name.
(1)
Gladstone wao
binned and jeered at in the streets, and was particularly
criticized for his insensitivity in attending the theatre
on the night that news of Gordon$o death was received,
this episode was commemorated in a poem in ' nrland=
"So you went to the play Hre Gladstone, While the country
lay shrouded in gloom, While Gordon you brave hearted
victim, Lay slaughtered in distant Khartoum, "
A biographer of Gordon, referring to the delay in
sending a rescue force, remarked "dust here readers I
have got to pull myself up with a round turns for so
angry do I feel when I think of the treatment of Gordon
and the disrespect and noglectfulneoa shown to him, that
I feel inclined to dash my pen through the paper"$'
The Liberal Government were presented an the villains of
the story in many Gordon biographies. Thin idea was
perpetuated by Conservative politicians,
(1) England, 28th February 1885x"
(2) Ib id,
(4)
(3)
and encouraged
(3) 0, Stoblei, For Honour. not Honou n, London 1865, p, 323"
(4) Quote from a speech by Sir Stafford P3orthutto, 2nd June
1885, in J. ingot Hollowell, Did the GludntonG Government
nbr ndon Genpral Gordon.? Ido. London 1 -5"