§ MR. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs a Question of which he had given him private Notice. Whether the Government have received any information from Khartoum confirming the intelligence in The Times of Saturday, that 6,000 of the Mahdi's followers were besieging Khartoum, and that General Gordon had said the rebels would be quiet if they believed the Government had any backbone; and, whether they approved, of the description 614 Gordon was said to have given of them?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICESir, as to the former part of the Question, it would be better that Notice should be given of it; the latter part of the Question involves a matter of opinion, and I am afraid neither that, nor an answer, would be in Order.