tenant of artillery, he was sent on a mission to Egypt to inquire into the relative advantages of the Egyptian and Syrian routes to India. He explored Syria by way of Damascus, and Tiberias, and Djerash, until he struck the Euphrates at El Werdi, encountering unlooked for perils and hardships. With a few Arabs he descended the Euphrates on a raft, and continued his explorations for three years. Apart from the practicability of a Suez canal, he also reported the feasibility of steam communication with India through Egypt. Soon after his return, Parliament voted £20,000 to defray the expenses of a second exploration of the Euphrates route under his command, he having volunteered to serve without pay. He received the brevet rank of Colonel, and early in 1835 he set out, accompanied by an efficient staff of army and navy officers, and a detachment of artillery, sappers, and marines. Landing at the mouth of the Orontes, on the coast of Syria, he transported across the desert two small steamboats, and put them together at Bir, on the upper Euphrates. Notwithstanding the loss of one of these boats with twenty lives, and other disheartening difficulties, he accomplished the task of exploring the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Karum, and making a series of exact soundings and charts of these rivers. Ably seconded by the officers of the expedition, he extended his journey as far as India, and returned across the Arabian desert, reaching London in August 1837. The determination, the energy, and the perseverance that he exhibited, won the admiration of his fellow-countrymen and of all interested in geographical research. The death of William IV. and political complications prevented the full results of the expedition being reaped, either in credit to himself or in benefit to the Empire. In 1836 he was made a Major in the British army, and two years afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1843 he was appointed Commandant of Hong Kong, and of the detachment of artillery sent to China. Upon his return he held commands in Ireland, and in 1851 retired to his family estate of Packolet, near Kilkeel. He was made Colonel the same year; in 1855, Major-General; General in 1868. He visited Constantinople in 1857 and again in 1863 to negotiate concessions for a projected railway. He revisited Sjria, and again surveyed the line from the Orontes to the Euphrates. In 1849 he published the first two volumes of his great work on the exploration of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, a standard book of reference, and one that drew forth the warm congratulations of such men as Better and Humboldt. His book on fire-arms and artillery appeared in 1852; and in 1854 his Russo-Turkish Campaigns of 1828-'29. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a D.C.L. of Oxford. The last years of his life were spent in his native home, and his latest efforts were given to the cause he had so warmly advocated—the opening of communication with India by the Euphrates valley. General Chesney was esteemed a man of essentially conservative instincts. In the recasting of the affairs of the Church of Ireland, of which he was a member, his age and experience gave him an influence which he employed in the same spirit. Like other eminent Irishmen of the generation to which he belonged, he preserved to the last the simplicity of manners and some of the raciness of accent characteristic of the north of Ireland. General Chesney died at Kilkeel, 31st January 1872, aged 82. 233
Chesney, Charles Cornwallis, Colonel, nephew of preceding, was born at Packolet, in Ireland, in 1826. He entered the Royal Engineers as Second-Lieutenant, 1845; and rose to be First-Lieutenant, 1846; Captain, 1854; Lieutenant-Colonel, 1868; Brevet-Colonel, 1873. An eminent writer and critic on military subjects, his principal works were: Campaigns in Virginia and Maryland, 1864-'65; Waterloo Lectures, 1868; Military Resources of Prussia and France, 1870; Essays on Modern Military Biography, 1874, reprinted mainly from the Edinburgh Review, to which, as well as to the weekly and daily press, he was a large contributor. Predictions in his Waterloo Lectures were singularly fulfilled in the war of 1870-'71—as to the enervating effects upon France of a reliance on past glories, and the lax preparation for future wars induced by such a state of public feeling. Colonel Chesney, who was for nearly ten years Professor of Military History at the Royal Military and the Staff Colleges, and at the time of his death was commanding the Royal Engineers of the London district, died 19th March 1876, aged 49, from the effects of undue exposure to cold in the exercise of his duty. He was a man greatly beloved in private life, whilst, according to the Pall Mall Gazette, the United Kingdom "sustained the loss of an able, useful, and conscientiously industrious officer, whose conspicuous and peculiar merits were fully understood and appreciated by those in authority over him." 233
Chichester, Sir Arthur, Baron of Belfast, was born about the middle of the
