abnegation of self, which form the leading features of the life of Gordon will place him on a pinnacle above even the noblest of his comrades.

This sketch may fitly be concluded with the following quotation from the eloquent address given by the Dean of Rochester, on the occasion of unveiling the memorial windows in the Cathedral, on August 9th, 1888:

"When you get a man trying to do his duty, in its full completenesshis duty to his country, to his God, and to his soul-then you see the emancipation of manhood from slavery. You have the enthronement of faith, you have a vision, as it were, even here as in Paradise Lost, of a man in native honour clad-nay, it is not a vision, it is to be seen in the man renewed in the image of his Maker; it is to be seen in the man who will take the privileges that God gives him, and use them to his best ; it is to be seen, it was seen, in him whose name has been honoured, and whose memory will be revered whenever we look upon that offering. It is to be found in him whose name will glorify the annals of our land as long as England has a history-Gordon the soldier-Gordon the martyr, Gordon the saint. His praise is sung by loftier hearts than mine-I cannot express, if I would, the honour and the love which I feel towards him; I will speak the worthier words of one who was his friend and his comrade."* 'Courage with him,' he says, 'was instinct intensified by faith and by a belief in another life. This life had no intense pleasures for him, he turned away from the applause of men. He accepted what came to his hand, and did it with the loyalty of a true gentleman, and yet more as a servant of Christ. He seemed to look on the world as a prison-house, in the precincts of which lay the new Jerusalem; and his waking thoughts, and even his dreams never wandered from it. While he was here, he did his best. Courage in him was not mere instinct, he had actually no fear. Danger presented nothing terrible to him, and death was an open gate through which he was to escape to a happier place. Whether he met death in action or whether he met it in other circumstances, it was nothing to him; death was to liberate him from the paltriness of human life. When oh, when!' said his mourning friend, shall we see the like again?' There is another question for you and me to answer to-day, How did Gordon and where did Gordon obtain this marvellous power? He tells us again and again; from prayer, from study of the Word of God, from deeds of kindness, and, above all, from communion with his Saviour in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood."

VOL. II.

Lord Wolseley.

M M

COLONEL SIR JOHN BATEMAN CHAMPAIN, K.C.M.G.,

obtained his commission in the Bengal Engineers in 1853, and in the following year proceeded to India. After a short ordinary service he was appointed Assistant-Principal of the Thomason College at Rurki, a post which on the outbreak of the Mutiny he threw up to rejoin his Corps. As regimental Adjutant he was present at the actions on the Hindun river and the capture of the heights before Delhi. During the siege he took his full share of general work in addition to his duties as Adjutant. One of the batteries was named after him by order of the Chief Engineer. He was wounded by a grape shot on September 13th, but at the assault he volunteered for duty, although very lame, and was present at the capture of the palace. Writing on the following day, he stated :

"Our men did not kill a single man who was not a sepoy, that I could see, and I am glad to say not a woman or child was touched."

He commanded the Bengal Sappers during many of the subsequent minor expeditions, and also during the march to Cawnpore and the Alumbagh.

At the capture of Lucknow he resumed the adjutancy, and served with Sir James Outram. During the operations by which the city was taken he twice acted as orderly officer to Sir Robert Napier, the Chief Engineer, by whom he was specially thanked for having, with Captain Medley and 100 Sappers, held an advanced post during the whole night. He served throughout the remainder of the war, and subsequently became Executive officer at Lucknow, where in the beginning of 1862 he received an offer to join Major Patrick Stewart's party employed on the Indo-European Telegraph. On this occasion he wrote as follows:

"I am the happiest man in India to-day, I believe. Here is a telegram I received two days ago from Colonel Yule. 'Lord Canning desires me to ask if you are willing to accompany Major Patrick Stewart to Persia on telegraph business. Say by telegram if you accept. Understand it is left to your choice.' You needn't doubt what answer I gave, and I am now the envy of Lucknow."

Champain worked under Stewart, as his principal assistant, throughout the tedious negotiations which preceded the construction of the Persian telegraphs, and afterwards during the erection of them. On the death of Colonel Stewart in 1865, Major Champain

was appointed to the vacant post of General Assistant to Sir Frederick Goldsmid. At this time he wrote from Teheran :

"You will see in my epistle to Ryde, that I am off to Constantinople at once, to take my dear lost friend's place. . . . . A real triumph came yesterday. You remember, perhaps, that the great objection to our last telegraph agreement with the Persians was that we were only to remain five months after the through line was open. I tried hard for seven months, and then for six, but had to agree for five, the Telegraph Prince and his secretaries being our great opposers. They were jealous of us, and anxious to get the complete management. Yesterday, the Sertip came to me and, after a lot of flattering palaver, asked when our five months were to begin. I replied, in about ten days. He then said, 'Shall you really leave Persia when the time has passed?' 'Certainly,' was my answer. He said, 'Could you be induced to leave all the English staff here if the King desired it?' I pretended to be doubtful, and replied that that was precisely what we wished when the agreement was first drawn up, and that personally I should rejoice in such an arrangement, but that I couldn't speak as to the views of the English Government. He then confessed to me that the Prince and he had been racking their brains as to what they should do if we really left. He allowed that our management surprised the Persians, that their receipts even now were very great from the line, and that the Prince was horrified at the idea of all breaking down when we went, and at the correspondent anger of the King. He added that the Prince himself had actually written to his Majesty asking him to try and prolong our stay for at least a year. Imagine my triumph! I leave for Constantinople on Monday. Oh, that Stewart had survived to see our grand difficulties over!"

From 1865 till 1870 Champain was associated with Sir Frederick Goldsmid in the general direction of the whole scheme, which was still far short of accomplishment. For some years their efforts were concentrated in Turkey, where Champain spent great part of the year 1866 in trying to get the Baghdad line into a state of efficiency. In the following year he was sent to St. Petersburg to negotiate for a special wire through Russia to join the Persian system. He was very graciously received by the Emperor in private audience, and evidently made a most favourable impression on the monarch, as he was invited by His Majesty to accompany the Court to Moscow. No practical results, however, came of the mission at the time.

In 1870 Sir Frederick Goldsmid resigned his post, and Champain assumed sole charge of what had become the "Indo-European Government Telegraph Department." A second cable being about to be laid in the Persian Gulf, Champain started for India to superintend the operation. On the way he had a narrow escape

from shipwreck. He described the event in a very graphic letter, from which the following extracts may be quoted :

"We have had a most disastrous voyage, and this time yesterday I was some fathoms below the surface of the Red Sea with little prospect of ever coming up again. . . . We left Suez on Sunday morning at ten, in the good ship Carnatic. At 1 a.m. on Monday morning she ran aground, going 11 knots, on a coral reef. . . . Pottering went on till eleven (Tuesday). . . The boats were then alongside. Our only women, (3) and one child were handed in, and perhaps two or three men, when smash, crash, went the vessel in the middle. I was shot with lightning force, with dozens of other men and at least 300 boxes, a heavy gun, and sundry other unpleasant articles, down a slippery deck at an angle of about 80°. We were plunged into a boiling whirlpool, and went under to any depth. I was as cool as I am now, though fearfully bumped with the luggage. I knew I must come up some time, and I kept my breath well. After an immense time, as it seemed, I was shot up by the whirlpool, and was just going to take breath when two men pulled me under. I kicked them off and came up again, when a third man seized my legs. Down I went, and he let go, but I was nearly done; I thought of the dear ones at home, and gurgled a prayer, but I came up again. Then another man seized me by the neck and I saw it was Johnson. I gasped out to him that we were all right if he would only let go, as we were close to a mast, which was then about the only part of the wreck above water. He instantly understood and dropped me. I got on the mast and pulled him up and took five minutes to breathe, then I went down and got hold of Taylor, and dragged him out almost drowned."

In the end they were taken off by the Sarmatia, and Champain eventually reached his destination and carried out the object for which his voyage had been taken.

He was representative of the Indian Government at several International Telegraphic Conferences, and owing to his tact, power of expressing himself, whether verbally or in writing, and great sagacity, he was very successful in obtaining support to his views. During the Berlin Conference of 1885 he wrote a private letter, which illustrates this gift:

"I have been curiously successful so far, and have, after really severe fighting, carried everything I cared for. Germany fought me on the Rectificatory question. First they got 14 to 4 against me in Committee. I appealed to Conference. The question was re-opened and sent back to Committee. Voting 10 to 8 against me. Yesterday it was 14 for me and 4 abstentions! Triumph of obstinacy! In the other matters, the only ones I cared for, I have also won, and am cock-a-hoop to-day."

Special questions frequently arose, the discussion and settlement

of which took him to many of the European capitals, whilst in the ordinary course of his duties he made repeated visits to India and Persia. In the great famine which overtook the latter country in 1871-72 he bore an active part in the measures for its relief, being secretary to the Mansion House fund. On this point he wrote from Gulhek in September, 1872:

"I am glad to say that there are no two opinions about the good done by our collection. It seems to have been excellently managed, and thousands and thousands who would have starved were maintained by us all over the country. The example too was not lost, and the richer Persians were forced to do something."

His last voyage eastward was taken in the autumn of 1885 for the purpose of supervising the laying a third cable between Bushire and Jashk; and on his homeward journey he learnt the news that he had received the honour of the K.C.M.G. His health, which had never been good, broke down after this, and he suffered much from asthma and bronchitis. He died at San Remo on February 1st, 1887, having too late sought the benefit of a softer climate than England.

He was a member of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, as also of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, of which he was President in 1879. On the intelligence of his death reaching Persia, the Shah sent the following telegraphic message to Lady Bateman Champain :

"Par ordre de Sa Majesté Impériale, mon auguste maître, je viens vous exprimer ses vifs regrets en apprenant la perte douloureuse que vous avez faite dans la personne estimée de Monsieur Champain, qui a laissé tant de souvenirs ineffaçables en Perse.-Le Ministre des Affaires Etrangères, YAHIA.”

The above sketch has been abbreviated from an obituary memoir drawn up by Sir R. Murdoch Smith, who, better than anyone else, knew the greatness of the character and abilities of his lost chief.

COLONEL ROBERT HOME, C.B.,

obtained his commission in the Royal Engineers in 1856, having joined the Practical Class direct, by an open competition, in the previous year. He passed through the Staff College with great distinction in 1860, and in 1865 went to Canada. Whilst on service in that country he drew up a report on the defence of the frontier against American invasion, which especially attracted