GENERAL CHESNEY.* Ix may be questioned whether this volume contains
in the recorded achievements of the surveyor of the Euphrates Valley route any such valid title to fame as the voluntary admission of M. de Lesseps that General Chesney was the "father of the Canal." The expression was at leak as creditable to the maker as to the recipient ; but the English reader will not be indisposed to accept the great Frenchman's evidence on his own special subject as sufficient testimony to the justice of General Chesney's claim to have a standard biography. The first impression being in favour of the subject, we have no doubt that the modest dimensions of the volume, the interesting nature of its contents, and the literary skill shown in its production, will swore for it an exceptionally favourable reception. The work is not likely to suffer in popular esteem because General Chesney did not succeed in his main object, which still awaits realisation. The sketch of his adventures in Syria and the Euphrates Valley rather gains than loses from the fact that the region in question remains very much in the same condition as when he traversed it, and that schemes of material improvement there still continue to exist only in the air.
The volume commences with an interesting chapter on General Chesney's father, who was a Carolina loyalist during the American War of Independence, and who was one of the very few settlers to return to the United Kingdom after the close of the struggle. In compensation for his losses, Alexander Chesney received an appointment in the Irish Customs service, then attended with no inconsiderable danger ; and it was while acting as Coastguard officer in Mourne that his son, Francis Rawdon, the subject of this biography, was born. The event took place on March 16th, 1789. He began the serious work of life at an early age, and his earliest associations may be inferred from the fact that "his first toy was his father's pistol, which he loved to carry to bed with him." He was at all times a sturdy, energetic child, although short of stature, even to his manhood. In 1797, when Francis was only eight years old, his father applied for and obtained a cadetship for him, as was the practice of the day, although the authors of this biography seem to be disposed to consider his an exceptional case. He was not, how- ever, to join his corps till he was fourteen, and the interval was employed in acquiring suck education as an Irish school could supply. When he came to England he was pronounced too short for Woolwich, and only got over the difficulty by following the suggestion of an officer, and putting cork in his heels. His school life in England is described in some not uninteresting letters to his father. He was little more than fifteen, and only four feet eleven inches high, when be joined his regiment— the Artillery—at Woolwich; and thus, in his own words, was he "exposed to the ocean of the world without either rudder or pilot." In 1805 he was gasetted lieutenant, and joined his company at Portsmouth. There he gat into debt, mainly through losses at billiards and through his father having refused to assist him in meeting the initial and inevitable expenses after joining the Army. Captain Alexander Chesney limited his support to an excellent letter of advice in the style of Polonius, and his son's reply is chiefly remarkable for the prices it gives of the necessaries of life, which should serve as a warning to faintraders. In 1808, when he was 2300 in debt, Chesney left Portsmouth with his company for Guernsey, where during the war we had no fewer than 10,000 troops ; and he took his departure with the firm resolve to clear off his obligations. This he faithfully performed, although it entailed considerable embarrassment and much self- * The Life of the late General P. R. Chesney, Colonel Commandant, Royal Artilkry, D.C.L.. P.R.S., i.e. By his Wife and Daughter. Edited by Stanley Lane Poole. London : W. H. Allen and Co. 1895.
denial during a period of several years. We must leave the reader of the volume itself to master the not uninteresting details of his early career until his marriage in 1822 to Miss Georgette Forster, who died a few years after their marriage. He found relief in his affliction in a visit to the scenes of Napoleon's memorable campaign of 1814. We need not dwell on the incident of his infatuation for another lady, Miss Fraser, which was the immediate cause of his turning his attention to the East. He proceeded to Turkey on a military mission ; but he arrived too late for any active participation in the war with Russia, as peace had been concluded at Adrianople. The visit to the East was, however, attended with important consequences, as it was then that he first turned his mind to the subject of establishing overland communication between the Levant and the Persian Gull.
From a much earlier period than is generally supposed the East India Company had been in the habit of receiving despatches overland from India, by way of Bussora, Bagdad, Aleppo, Constantinople, and Vienna. Chesney made the acquaint- ance at Aleppo of Mr. John Barker, who could have told him how communications were uninterruptedly maintained during Napo- leon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt and Syria; and Chesney's proposition fora Euphrates Valley railway must be viewed, not so much as an original idea, as a practical improvement on the mode of conveying important despatches across Mesopotamia, which had been in vogue for eighty years before. He spent the autumn of 1830 in Egypt, in exploring the Isthmus of Suez, with a view of ascertaining the practicability of a ship canal ; and it was his report on Lake Menzaleh which first convinced M. de Leneps of the feasibility of the enterprise. His subse- quent tour in Syria need not detain us, although he met with several adventures, and was made prisoner by the Arabs in an attempt to reach Petra. Nor is there any necessity to dwell on his first expedition to the Euphrates Valley from the side of Persia. The real importance of the subject begins with the vote in the House of Commons of the sum of £20,000, supple- mented by £5,000 from the East India Company, for an expedi- tion to the Euphrates, and the nomination of Captain Chesney, with the rank of Colonel, to the command. The expedition, including officers, consisted of fifty persons, besides several employes who were to return after the two steamers, the 'Euphrates ' and the Tigris,' had been put together on the Euphrates. The most difficult part of the under- taking was the conveyance overland of these two steamers from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, especially as the Orontes was found to be unnavigable ; but this part of the undertaking was successfully accomplished, after a struggle of ten months. The Turks were unfriendly, and did every- thing in their power to hinder and thwart the progress of the expedition and the movements of its chief. The launching of these vessels on the Euphrates was a great event in the eyes of the natives, and seemed to convey a literal fulfilment of the Arab proverb, for the 'Tigris' was an iron vessel, that "when iron shall swim on the face of the water there is nothing for the Arabs but dispersion." The first part of the expedition lay through an unsurveyed region; and we may quote this passage as illustrating the condition of the country through which Colonel Chesney passed:—
" As a rule, the Arabs were not unfriendly, though vastly astonished at the strange invasion, and sometimes they would try to race the steamer on their swift horses. The more primitive among them were armed with clubs and slings, but other tribes carried the lance as well as a small, short musket. Helfer speaks of some who had their tarbooshes ornamented with tufts of tulips, and who, with their bare arms and legs, looked like wild Indians. Tnrcoraans were also met with, and they invited Murphy and Greenhill to their villages, and treated them much better than the Arabs did when they were inclined to be hospitable. More often, however, they were shy of having any dealings with the people who came in the supernatural lire-ship, on beard of which the Devil clearly had his dwelling. But not only human beings were astonished at the strange apparition. Horses would leave their pasture and come galloping up to get a nearer view of the monster, and even a jackal might be seen standing on the bank with ears pricked, wondering, no doubt, what kind of strange creature had invaded his territory."
The satisfactory progress of the expedition continued almost to its close ; but it was brought to a summary termination by a terrific storm, during which the 'Tigris' was lost, with far the greater portion of the crew. The only satisfactory incident in this catastrophe was the good behaviour of the Arabs on the banks, who restored all the articles they recovered without demanding any recompense. The 'Euphrates' completed the descent and recommenced the ascent; but this part of the under- taking was abandoned, and the expedition closed with an ex- ploration of the Karun river. Its results are briefly summed up in the following lines by the writers of this biography :—
"He had proved the Euphrates to be navigable ; he had demon- strated that it was the shortest route to India ; he had shown that a very extensive commeree exists along it banks, which might, with very slight encouragement, be rendered exceedingly valuable ; while be had also proved that, with proper management, there was nothing to be feared from the Arab tribes."
His return to England was followed by his second marriage, accompanied by many romantic details with which the readers of this volume will become acquainted. His second married life was as brief as the first ; and then followed a period of service in China, where he came to the conclusion that "the Chinese only require Christianity, to be at the head of the civilised world." From China he went to Cork, where he married a third time, and at the same time he completed his work on the Euphrates Expedition, a copy of which was presented to the Queen at a levee. The work was remarkable for the labour expended upon it ; but that was all. Neither in literary style nor in his treat- ment of the subject was it calculated to make projects in the Euphrates Valley popular. His other works, few as they were in number, evinced precisely the same qualities. He failed to make his subjects interesting, and other men reaped where he had sown. In 1856-7, the Euphrates Valley scheme was revived, and Chesney went to Constantinople and Syria again in order to support his old project. Everything looked well for the pro- ject until Lord Palmerston's declaration in the House of Commons on August 14th dispelled the hopes of its promoters. The scheme, although several times mooted, has never been brought forward since in a serious manner.
The last fourteen years of General Chesney's life were passed in tranquillity on his small estate in Ireland; but, to our thinking, the most important event of his whole life occurred during this period, and that was when M. de Lesseps introduced him to the promoters and shareholders of his great enterprise as "the father of the Canal." Three years after this he died at the good old age of eighty-three ; and although his meditated enterprise of shortening the journey between England and India came to no practical result, and notwithstanding the fact that it must be held extremely doubtful whether there will ever be a Euphrates Valley railway at all, still the name of General Chesney will always stand high in the ranks of English explorers, and his biography will furnish interesting reading for all who admire courage and devotion in the pursuit of a great end.
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