g for it. By an expenditure of
eighty millions she may free her own people. She would have the
hold over the land, and she would cure a cancer. I am not well
off, but I would offer ---- or his agent L1000, if either of them
would live one week in one of these poor devil's places, and feed
as these people do. Our comic prints do an infinity of harm by
their caricatures--firstly, the caricatures are not true, for the
crime in Ireland is not greater than that in England; and,
secondly, they exasperate the people on both sides of the
Channel, and they do no good.

"It is ill to laugh and scoff at a question which affects our
existence."

This heroic mode of dealing with an old and very complicated
difficulty scarcely came within the range of practical achievement.
The Irish question is not to be solved by any such simple
cut-and-dried procedure. It will take time, sympathy, and good-will.
When the English people have eradicated their opinion that the Irish
are an inferior race, and when the Irish realise that the old
prejudice has vanished, the root-difficulty will be removed. At least
Gordon deserves the credit of having seen that much from his brief
observation on the spot, and his plea for them as "patient beyond
belief and loyal," may eventually carry conviction to the hearts of
the more powerful and prosperous kingdom.

The Irish question was not the only one on which he recorded a written
opinion. The question of retaining Candahar was very much discussed
during the winter of 1880-81, and as the Liberal Government was very
much put to it to get high military opinion to support their proposal
of abandonment, they were very glad when Gordon wrote to _The Times_
expressing a strong opinion on their side. I think the writing of that
letter was mainly due to a sense of obligation to Lord Ripon, although
the argument used as to the necessity of Candahar being held by any
_single_ ruler of Afghanistan was, and is always, unanswerable. But
the question at that time was this: Could any such single ruler be
found, and was Abdurrahman, recognised in the August of 1880 as Ameer
of Cabul, the man?

On 27th July 1880, less than eight weeks after Gordon's resignation of
his Indian appointment, occurred the disastrous battle of Maiwand,
when Yakoob's younger brother, Ayoob, gained a decisive victory over a
British force. That disaster was retrieved six weeks later by Lord
R