Cecil Spring Rice on Charles George Gordon

“I also heard from the same source that the reason he can't get on with English people is that he can't get over an aversion to anyone who works for money. He doesn't separate it into another art, like Plato. I wish he did. The man who told me this said at the end, "He is without the three strongest passions which make men good or bad—the love of money, the love of fame and the love of women."”

“Two days ago I met Sir H. Robinson, who, of course had very much to do with Gordon in S. Africa. He had a very strong objection to him and said, "When I heard he had been appointed, I said that I knew the Govt. had chosen a man for their servant who would prove their master: and a mad one too." He said that he had been sent to deal with an awful brute among the natives who was brought to face him with great difficulty. As soon as he saw him, however, Gordon fell upon his neck and called him a brother in Christ; which was quite contrary to official precedent. Robinson added that there was no one so undecided in word or so decided in action: that he would telegraph one thing in the morning, another thing in the evening, and a third thing on the next day. The only other person I have met who knew him was Sir Bartle Frere, who said that he was impossible to deal with; "Tell him a thing's for his interest, he'll do the opposite; tell him it's his duty and nothing will keep him from doing it, and doing it the shortest way."”