Siege of Khartoum population of Khartoum was about 34,000. Gordon's plight excited great concern in the British press, and even Queen Victoria intervened on his behalf. The government ordered him to return, but Gordon refused, saying he was honour-bound to defend the city. By July 1884, Gladstone reluctantly agreed to send an expedition to Khartoum. The expedition, led by Sir Garnet Wolseley, took several months to organise and only entered Sudan in January 1885, but by then the situation of the Egyptian garrison and civilians had become desperate, with food supplies running low, many inhabitants dying of hunger and the defenders' morale at
1885 Newfoundland general election 1885 Newfoundland general election The 16th Newfoundland general election was held on 31 October 1885 to elect members of the 15th General Assembly of Newfoundland in the Dominion of Newfoundland. The Reform Party had been created by Robert Thorburn on a platform of "Protestant Rights" after supporters of the Orange Order abandoned the Whiteway government after sectarian riots in 1885 against the government's 'denominational compromise'. Whiteway's Conservative Party was destroyed as a result and Whiteway founded a new Liberal Party. Thorburn's new party swept to power but soon turned away from its sectarian agenda by inviting Catholic Liberals into the