§ MR. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether his attention has been called to the account, by one of General Gordon's soldiers, in The Daily News yesterday, of the general massacre of the loyal inhabitants of Khartoum, and especially to the folio wing passages:—
And now fearful scenes took place in every house and building. … Men were slain, shrieking for mercy; women and children were carried off, to he sold as slaves to the Bisharin merchants. This fighting and spilling of blood continued till the sun rode high in the sky. … I hear it said there was no massacre at the taking of Khartoum. They lie who say so, and are in league with Mahomet Achmet;31 and, whether he still has any grounds for adhering to his statement that there was no considerable effusion of blood at the fall of Khartoum, and that no very considerable body of the population ever attached themselves to General Gordon?
MR. GLADSTONEI have read the paper to which the hon. Gentleman refers—and no doubt it is an interesting one—on the subject. The matter is one which might be noticed in debate; but I have not the least intention of entering upon it in answer to a Question.
§ MR. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTsaid, that, in view of the answer of the right hon. Gentleman, he would repeat a Question which he put the other day. The Prime Minister had three times stated that there was no considerable effusion of blood at the fall of Khartoum, and that no considerable body of the population attached themselves to General Gordon. Would the Prime Minister lay before the House the evidence or the ground on which he had formed that opinion?