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3 Oct 2014

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This Sceptred Isle

Ireland, General Gordon and a New Political Party
The first Boer War began in 1880. The Transvaal led by Paul Kruger rebelled against British rule. The Boers forced the British to the conference table. By the treaty of Pretoria Convention the Transvaal became self-governing.

By 1885 Gladstone's Liberal Party was split. Lord Randolph Churchill suggested to Parnell that if the Conservatives were returned they would abolish the Coercion Act passed to stop up-risings in Ireland. The Irish vote swung behind the Tories. Gladstone went and Lord Salisbury became Prime Minister. He did not last long and Gladstone was returned. He changed his mind and became a campaigner for Home Rule for Ireland. He knew he could not persuade his party the Liberals and kept his ideas secret. This secret was leaked to the newspapers and two days later the whole country knew. He presented his Home Rule Bill to the House. It was thrown out and so was Gladstone. Salisbury was back. The Irish Question remained unanswered.

General Gordon meanwhile was sent to Khartoum to rescue the garrisons there - he expected the Government to send a relief force. Gladstone's Cabinet dithered. Gordon held out for 10 months but shortly before the force finally arrived Gordon was killed. The British people held Gladstone responsible. The Sudan remained in rebel hands until General Kitchener was victorious at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898.

General Charles Gordon
General Charles Gordon
GENERAL CHARLES GORDON (1833-1885)

  • Known as Chinese Gordon, he fought in the Crimean War, in China and Egypt
  • Was an explorer in China before commanding a force that defeated the Taiping Rebellion in 1864
  • In the 1860s, while serving in Britain, he spent much time working for the relief of the poor
  • He went to Egypt to set up staging posts along the Nile and attempted to crush the slave trade
  • In the late 1870s, he became an international figure as stories of his work in Egypt-Sudan were retold in Europe and America
  • He found time to go to Mauritius and to the Seychelles, which he described as the Garden of Eden
  • Returned to Sudan in 1884 to put down the Mahdi rebellion and relieve the British garrison
  • But the British Government vacillated and failed to send reinforcements in time
  • When the advance party of the relief arrived in January 1885, it was to find that the garrison had been overwhelmed two days earlier and Gordon killed

did you know?
Paul Kruger gave his name to the Kruger Rand.


THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES ON QUEEN VICTORIA'S GOLDEN JUBILEE

"No scene was ever depicted on canvas, narrated by historian, or conjured up by a poet's fancy, more pathetic, or more august than the spectacle of Victoria, Queen and Empress, kneeling yesterday at the foot of the throne to thank Heaven for her reign, with all its joys and all its griefs, of fifty marvellous years.

"The eye wandered over groups of statesmen, writers, orators, famous soldiers and sailors, ermine-clad judges, divines in rarely-worn vestments, Asiatic princes gleaming with jewels, forms and faces as fair as they were royal and noble, a bench crowded with Kings and the heirs of Kings.

"The centre to which the gaze constantly returned as the reason and interpretation of the whole was the figure seated, solitary [still dressed in mourning for her husband], in all that sunshine of splendour, on her chair of state. On her account alone, the rest were there, whatever their degree.

"They were met together to attest the judgement of Great Britain and the world that Queen Victoria had redeemed the pledge she accepted on that throne, beside the altar, half a century ago."

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Chronology
1837 Victoria becomes Queen
1859 Palmerston becomes Prime Minister
1861 Prince Albert dies
1865Palmerston dies
Russell becomes Prime Minister
1868Disraeli becomes Prime Minister
Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
1870 Franco-Prussian War
First Irish Land Act
1874Disraeli becomes Prime Minister
1877 Victoria becomes Empress of India
1880Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
1881Disraeli dies
Second Irish Land Act
1885 Salisbury becomes Prime Minister
1887Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee
1892 Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
1894Rosebery becomes Prime Minister
1895 Salisbury becomes Prime Minister
1897 Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
1898Gladstone dies
1899 Second Boer War breaks out
1901Queen Victoria dies
Edward VII becomes king


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