internal
enemies. Sir Frederick Bruce came specially from Pekin to Shanghai on
the subject, and Gordon undertook to give the necessary organisation
his personal supervision until it was in fair working order. From the
end of June until the middle of November Colonel Gordon was engaged in
the Chinese camp, which was formed at a place near Sungkiang, drilling
recruits, and endeavouring to inspire the officers with the military
spirit. He describes his work in the following short note, which is
also interesting as expressing his impressions about the Chinese
people:--

"I have the manual, and platoon, and company drill in full swing,
also part of the battalion drill, and one or two men know their
gun drill very fairly. This is so far satisfactory, and I think,
if the whole country was not corrupt, they might go on well and
quickly, but really it is most irritating to see the jealousies
of the mandarins of one another. The people are first-rate,
hard-working, and fairly honest; but it seems as soon as they
rise in office they become corrupt. There is lots of vitality in
the country, and there are some good men; but these are kept down
by the leaden apathy of their equals, who hate to see reform,
knowing their own deficiencies."

By the end of November Gordon was able to think of returning home, as
he had given a start to military reform in China; but before he sailed
he had to receive a congratulatory address from the most prominent
citizens and merchants of Shanghai, expressing their "appreciation and
admiration of his conduct." They had not always been so
discriminating, and at the beginning their sympathies had been for the
Taepings, or at least for strict non-intervention. The Chinese
Government also gave exceptional signs of its gratitude to the
noble-minded soldier, who had rendered it such invaluable aid. It
again offered him a large sum of money, which was declined with as
much firmness, although less emphasis, as on the earlier occasion. But
he could not reject the promotion offered him to the high rank of
Ti-Tu, or Field Marshal in the Chinese army, or churlishly refuse to
receive the rare and high dignity of the Yellow Jacket. The English
reader has been inclined on occasion to smile and sneer at that
honour, but its origin was noble, and the very conditions on which it
was based ensured that the holders should be very few in number.

The story of its or