Show AN OLDFASHIONED ESTIMATE 1 If a man could be transported back to the times of Addison and Steele and into the presence of those men and the wits of their time it would have been entertaining enter-taining to have heard their conversation and the expression their views upon Englands coursein the Soudan and her position on the Afghan frontier Itmight have been something like this or it might not Nations like men arejilled with pride and ambition and these lead them into wild schemes In accomplishment of their object they lay aside those rules which govern men in the more peaceful walks of a quiet contemplative life devoted de-voted to the worship of Him u d wno nas oruereu an unngs ior tile best and the betterment of the condition of those who have to bear the burdens of poverty and all the hardships hard-ships and sorrows which are incident to that conditih It would be far better for mankind in general if nations would give up their vain ambitions and cease from those wars where men are butchered like animals and vast treasure which comes t from the labor of those who have no interest in-terest in affairs which in no way affect them iasquandered whel it should be applied to relieving those who hive created cre-ated it These are among the thoughts suggested by the reading of Mr Glad stones adventures in the Soudan and on the Indian frontier I have long sought for a satisfactory answer to the question What are we doing in the Soudan but I have received no reply We make no pretention to any right of sovereignty over Egypt and jet the Soudan owes allegiance and has always been tributary to that country and that a False Prophet has arisen in the heart of Africa can in no way affect our own parishes where the litany is fread at stated times as in the wisdom of Parliament is deemed best In these parish churches which are so dear to theliearts of all true Englishmen we sing our songs of praise and chant wHim w-Him who ii Lord of all It cannot be then that true religion is in danger But I am told by a friend who has access to the Ministry that it was necessary for us to go to the Soudan to rescue Mr Gordon who gained some notoriety few years since in China I asked my friend if the Government had sent Mr Gordon to Khartoum To this he replied no but said that he had asked the permission of a the Government to go and that it had II been granted although he was not in the service of the Government My friend was unable to explain to me how it was necessary for a free horn 13ritOl lo ask the permission of any one to travel in foreign countries and participate in rebellions which were not against the authority of I her Majesty To this he l replied in a long and very learned discourse showing how some of onr wealthier classes were holders hold-ers of Egyptiansecurities and the need of the holders being protected although they had invested without consulting Parliament or anyone else but now they had induced Parliament to declare the security of their investments in-vestments a thing of national importance Still I was unable to see any necessity for Mr Gordon to ask permission to go to Khartoum and much less for the country sacrificing the lives of some ten or fifteen j thousand brave men to rescue one foolish man who seems to have had more gallantry gal-lantry than discretion Mr Gorden was killed through his own want of wisdom and the Government has resolved to slay some thousands of Arabs who have never harmed us So far we have only had definite news of how many of our own soldiers are killed but from oA tin 1 n n sources we are assured that the enemy suffered much greater loss than we did This assurance is based upon the following follow-ing i calculation One British soldier is considered by Englishmen to be equal to seven soldiers of any other civilized nation and is based upon the story of Shaw of Warterloo who slew seven Frenchmen before he was killed It is safe to say that even a French soldier is equal to five half civilized soldiers and as one British soldieris equal to seven French soldiers he must be equal to thirtyfive Arabs who are only half civilized soldiers sol-diers This being the case and our own losses in the Soudan being acknowledged ut ten thousand killed andwounded the loss of the I enemy couldnot have been less than I three hundred and fifty i thousand and thus we are more than compensated for the loss of our ten thousand soldiers although al-though that loss was needless and the Mahdi is still wnconquered After this my friend and I strolled past Whitehall and down to the Parliament Houses where we learned that the Government had just ordered the evacuation of the Soudan by British troops For this sudden sud-den change of in policy the Soudan no explanation was given other than that affairs in Afghanistan required the presence pres-ence of all available L troops on the northwestern frontier of India On inquiring the cause for tins move we were informed that there had been a rencounter between some Russian troops andSotne Jfrghaus near Pendjeh and that this endangered Englands empire em-pire in India and this empire must be defended on the Oxus and not on the Indus Butstill I could not see how the affairs of Russia and the Afghans were of special interest to us so long as that which we claimed is respected and when I was told that Russia had no rights in Afghanistan I remarked that ngland so long ago as 1838 had deposed i the Ameer and put in his place an Eng jJ j lish puppet J and that so recently as 1878 J we had sent a mission to Cabul to direct 4 and control the affairs of the Afghans b and that for our interference our agent and his entire suite had been killed The explanation was much tnesame as thatgiven foran interference in the Soudan affair and I comprehend it no better And now when the Parliament Parlia-ment has voted a credit to the Ministry of eleven million pounds sterling we are informed by Mr Gladstone that the negotiations for peace are progressing favorably and that he has ordered all preparations for war to be discontinued Upon learning this I I my friend and I went to Wills I and there over a cup of coffee and some sac I asked him why the negotiations for peace could not have been had before we had made such vast preparations for war to which he answered that the I ways of Providence are past finding out At Drury Lane I bade him good night and I as I walked up the Strand to my lodgings I near Charing Cross I wondered on the t destinies of nations ald said The destinies des-tinies of nations are as much the result of chance guided by a blundering hand as of design planned by a Divine Intelligence and that which the world calls statesmanship states-manship and wisdom is naught but min ceuvering and guesswork I |