moved from the throne of Afganistan, and the English nominee, Shah Shujá, was believed to be safely established; the greater part of the army which had accomplished these services was withdrawn from Afghanistan, and only a single division left there to support Shah Shujá and the English resident, Sir William Macnaghten. When Elphinstone took command of the division at Cabul all appeared quiet, and the troops there amused themselves with pony-racing and theatricals, just as if they were in a friendly country. Elphinstone took no trouble to keep his division cantoned in a position of defence, and misled by the political officers, Burnes and Macnaghten, seemed to forget the peril of his position and his distance from any succour from India. His health was also very bad indeed, and he left all matters of military routine to his subordinates. He was utterly unfitted from his age and health to cope with the grave portion of affairs which ensued at Cabul on the assassination of Sir William Macnaghten by Akbar Khán on Christmas day, 1841. The Afghans promptly closed all communications between India and Cabul, and even between Jellalabad, where Sale and his gallant brigade had established themselves, and Cabul. The English troops were surrounded and practically besieged. Elphinstone had little todo in this posture of affairs; he was crippled by gout, and left everything to Brigadier-general Shelton to manage. At last, on 23 April 1842, before the final catastrophe, the old general died of dysentery, and his coffin was floated down to Jellalabad, where it was buried. By many he was blamed for incapacity, but it is rather the government of India, which selected him for so important a command in full knowledge of his age, infirmaties, and long absence from actual warfare, which deserves the blame.
[Hart's Army List, 1841; Royal Military Calendar; Kayes War in Afghanistan; Gleig's Sale's Brigade in Afghanistan, Gent. Mag. September 1842.]
ELRINGTON, CHARLES RICHARD (1787–1850), regius professor of divinity in the university of Dublin, elder son of Thomas Elrington D.D., bishop of Leighlin and Ferns [q. v.] was born in Dublin on 25 March 1787, and was educated at home by a private tutor. Having entered Trinity College, Dublin, 3 Nov. 1800, under the tutorship of the Rev. Dr. Davenport, and having gained all the honours of his class, he was awarded the gold medal in 1806 for distinguished answering at every term examination. In the same year he gained Bishop Law's mathematical premium, and in 1806 the primate's Hebrew prize. He graduated B.A. in 1805, M.A. 1811, B.D. 1816, and D.D. 1820. In 1810 he was elected a fellow of his college, having obtained the Madden premium in the three preceding years. He was ordained a deacon on 28 Oct. 1810, and on 23 Feb. 1812 was admitted to priest's orders. In December 1814 he married Letitia, daughter of David Babington, esq., of Rutland Square, Dublin, by whom, who died in 1827, he had two sons and other issue. In 1819 be was elected Donnellan lecturer in the university, but his lectures have not been published. In 1825 he was appointed by the Irish lord chancellor and other joint-patrons to the vicarage of St. Mark's, Dublin, and held that benefice until 1831. On 31 Jan. 1832 he was collated to the rectory and prebend of Edermine in the diocese of Ferns, which three months later he exchanged for the chancellorship. In 1829 he had resigned his fellowship, and was elected regius professor of divinity. In 1840 he resigned the chancellorship of Ferns upon his collation by the lord primate, on 14 Dec., to the rectory of Loughgilly, in the diocese of Armagh; and on 22 Sept. in the following year, at the earnest desire of the same patron, he removed to the rectory of the union of Armagh. He effected vast improvements in the divinity school, over which he presided for twenty years. He died at Armagh on 18 Jan. 1850, and was buried in St. Mark's churchyard in that city, where there is a brief Latin inscription to his memory.
Elrington took a very active and prominent part in the formation and management of the Church Education Society for Ireland, founded to provide funds to support the parochial schools connected with the church on the withdrawal of the parliamentary grant. Modifications were afterwards introduced into the management of the national schools, which removed, in Elrington's judgment, many of the difficulties which had induced the clergy to stand aloof from the system. In 1847 he retired from his official position in the Church Education Society, and publicly declared that the clergy ought to accept the amended terms offered by the board of national education.
In 1847 Elrington commenced the publication of a collected edition of the works of Archbishop Ussher, to which he prefixed a full biography; but he did not live to complete his undertaking. The last two volumes have been since published, one of them containing a valuable index to the seventeen volumes, by William Reeves, D.D., now lord bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore. With Elrington has perished a great mass of the ecclesiastical history of Ireland during the
