Siege of Khartoum was given a credit of £100,000 and was promised by the British and Egyptian authorities "all support and cooperation in their power.". On his way to Khartoum with his assistant, Colonel Stewart, Gordon stopped in Berber to address an assembly of tribal chiefs. Here he committed a cardinal mistake by revealing that the Egyptian government wished to withdraw from Sudan. The tribesmen became worried by this news, and their loyalty wavered. Gordon arrived at Khartoum on 18 February 1884, but instead of organising the evacuation of the garrisons, set about administering the city. His first decisions were to reduce the
1885 Aylesbury by-election Rothschilds’ defection to the cause of Liberal Unionism. Ferdy Rothschild held his seat as a Liberal at the 1885 general election and retained it as a Liberal Unionist thereafter at every election until dying in office in December 1898. 1885 Aylesbury by-election The Aylesbury by-election, 1885 was a by-election held on Thursday 16 July 1885 for the British House of Commons constituency of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. The by-election was caused by the elevation to the peerage of the sitting Liberal MP Sir Nathaniel Rothschild (usually known as ‘Natty’) of the famous Rothschild merchant banking family. Rothschild had been one of