the neck of this far-reaching and disastrous rebellion, and had restored to the Emperor of China the principal cities and towns in peace, the London Times wrote of him:—“Never did a soldier of fortune deport himself with a nicer sense of military honour, with more gallantry against the resisting, with more mercy towards the vanquished, with more disinterested neglect of opportunities of personal advantage, or with more entire devotion to the objects and desires of the Government he served, than this officer, who, after all his splendid victories, has just laid down his sword.”

Before leaving China he was offered a very large reward in cash, as it was acknowledged on all hands he had saved the Empire more than £5,000,000 sterling.  All money he refused; he, however, asked that some of it might be given to the troops, who had served him on the whole with great loyalty, and this was granted.  A gold medal was struck in honour of his

marvellous achievements, and this he accepted and brought home; but it was soon missing.  He thought more of the starving poor than of any medal; so he sold it, and sent the cash it realized to the Lancashire Cotton Operatives, who were then literally starving.  The Imperial Decree of China conferred upon him the rank of “Ti-tu,” the very highest honour ever conferred upon a Chinese subject.  Also the “Peacock’s feather,” “The Order of the Star,” and the “Yellow Jacket.”  By these he was constituted one of the “Emperor’s Body Guard.”  In a letter home he says, “I shall leave China as poor as I entered it, but with the knowledge that through my weak instrumentality from eighty to one hundred thousand lives have been saved.  Than this I covet no greater satisfaction.”

Before he left China, as a proof of the estimation in which he was held, a grand illuminated address was presented to him, signed by more than sixty of the leading firms of the Empire, and by most of the bankers and merchants of the cities of Pekin, Shanghai, and of the principal towns throughout China.

It read thus:—“Honoured Sir,—On the eve of your departure to your native country, we, the undersigned, mostly fellow-countrymen of your own, but also representing other nationalities, desire to express to you our earnest wish for a successful voyage and happy return to your friends and the land of your birth.

“Your career during your stay amongst us has been, so far as we know, without a parallel in the history of foreign nations with China; and we feel that we should be alike wanting towards you and towards ourselves, were we to pass by this opportunity without expressing our appreciation and admiration of the line of conduct which you personally have pursued.  In a position of unequalled difficulty, and surrounded by complications of every conceivable nature, you have succeeded in offering to the eyes of the Chinese Empire, no less by your loyal and thoroughly disinterested line of action than by your conspicuous gallantry and talent for organization and command, the example of a foreign officer, serving the government of this country, with honourable fidelity and undeviating self-respect.

“Once more wishing you a prosperous voyage, and a long career of usefulness and success.”

Signed, &c.

There is truth in this as applied to Gordon:—

“He strove not for the wealth of fame,
From heaven the power that moved him came.
And welcome as the mountain air,
The voice that bid him do and dare.
Onward he bore and battled still
With a most firm enduring will,
His only hope to win the prize
Laid up for him beyond the skies.”

The Emperor wished the British Minister to bring before the notice of Her Majesty the Queen of England his appreciation of the splendid services which Gordon had rendered.  He hoped that he would be rewarded in England as well as in China for his heroic achievements.

A subsequent letter in the Times said that Prince Kung, who was then the Regent of China, had waited upon Sir Frederick Bruce, and said to him, “You will be astonished to see me again, but I felt I could not allow you to leave without coming to see you about Gordon.  We do not know what to do.  He will not

receive money from us, and we have already given him every honour which it is in the power of the Emperor to bestow; but as these are of little value in his eyes, I have brought you this letter, and I ask you to give it to the Queen of England that she may bestow on him some reward which would be more valuable in his eyes.”

Sir Frederick Bruce sent this to London with a letter of his own:—“I enclose translation of a despatch from Prince Kung, containing the decree published by the Emperor, acknowledging the services of Gordon and requesting that Her Majesty’s Government be pleased to recognise him.  Gordon well deserves the favours of your Majesty for the skill and courage he has shown, his disinterestedness has elevated our national character in the eyes of the Chinese.  Not only has he refused any pecuniary reward, but he has spent more than his pay in contributing to the comforts of the officers who served under him, and in assuaging the distress of the starving population whom he relieved from the yoke of their oppressors.”

It does not appear that this letter was ever sent to the Queen, or noticed by the Government, and so the heroic deeds of a man of whom any nation might justly be proud, were forgotten.

CHAPTER III.

“We are to relieve the distressed, to put the wanderer into his way, and to share our bread with the hungry, which is but the doing good to others.”—Seneca.

Our hero having returned to his native land, and to settle for a little while at the quiet town of Gravesend, refused to be lionized, and he begged that no publication of his deeds of daring and devotion in China, should be recorded.  His quiet life here as an engineer was not less remarkable, though of a different kind, than life in China had been.  Here, however, he spent the energies of his spare time, to the services of the poor.  At this juncture I was privileged to come in contact with this remarkable man, in the great city of Manchester, where for a few months, he was employed on some Governmental Commission.  Like his Master Christ—he went about doing good.  My position at this time was an agent, or scripture

reader for “The Manchester City Mission.”  Gordon found his way to the office and saw the chairman of the mission, and from him got permission to accompany one of the missioners round his district.  He expressed his desire to go round one of the poorest districts of the city; as it might afford him an opportunity of seeing for himself some of the social blots and scars in our national life; also of giving some practical help to the deserving poor.  My district was such an one as would furnish him with the opportunities to satisfy him in that particular, and I was therefore asked to allow Col. Gordon to accompany me to its squalid scenes, to my Ragged