The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 76 (Color Image)

0076	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1

MEMOIR OF SIR HENRY YULE 1886-89.

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degree, affected his health injuriously. The general trend of

political events from i SSo to 1886 caused him deep anxiety and

distress, and his righteous wrath at what he considered the

betrayal of his country's honour in the cases of Frere, of Gordon,

and of Ireland, found strong, and, in a noble sense, passionate

expression in both prose and verse. He was never in any sense

a party man, but he often called himself " one of Mr. Gladstone's

converts," i.e. one whom Gladstonian methods had compelled to

break with liberal tradition and prepossessions.

Nothing better expresses Yule's feeling in the period referred

to than the following letter, written in reference to the R. E.

Gordon Memorial,72 but of much wider application : " Will you

allow me an inch or two of space to say to my brother officers,

` Have nothing to do with the proposed Gordon Memorial.'

" That glorious memory is in no danger of perishing and

needs no memorial. Sackcloth and silence are what it suggests

to those who have guided the action of England ; and English-

men must bear the responsibility for that äction and share its

shame. It is too early for atoning memorials ; nor is it possible

for those who take part in them to dissociate themselves from

a repulsive hypocrisy.

" Let every one who would fain bestow something in honour

of the great victim, do, in silence, some act of help to our soldiers

or their families, or to others who are poor and suffering.

" In later days our survivors or successors may look back

with softened sorrow and pride to the part which men of our

corps have played in these passing events, and Charles Gordon

far in the front of all ; and then they may set up our little

tablets, or what not not to preserve the memory of our heroes,

but to maintain the integrity of our own record of the illustrious

dead."

Happily Yule lived to see the beginning of better times for

his . country. One of the first indications of that national

awakening was the right spirit in which the public, for the most

part, received Lord Wolseley's stirring appeal at the close of

1888, and Yule was so much struck by the parallelism between

Lord Wolseley's warning and some words of his own contained

72 Addressed to the Editor, Royal Engineers' journal, who did not, however, publish it,

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