XXII 



ably noticed (by Mr. Canning as was supposed) in the * Quarterly 

 Review' of May 1811, in which it is characterized as one of the 

 njost important political works that had ever fallen under the obser- 

 vation of the reviewer. The opinions it expressed were contrasted 

 with the humiliating language then to be found in the pages of the 

 English press, and with the principle of husbanding resources which 

 was alike the watchword and the fatal error of the despondents. 



"Whilst in command of the Plymouth Company of Royal Military 

 Artificers in 1811, Captain Pasley set himself to consider how im- 

 provements could best be made in the practice of Military Engineer- 

 ing. He had found on active service the serious disadvantage 

 under which the Royal Engineers laboured, of having no properly 

 educated men at their disposal, and no good system for regulating 

 their operations ; and the remainder of his life was chiefly devoted 

 to the supply of these wants. Finding that the ordinary modes of 

 instruction were unsuited to his object, he composed an elaborate 

 treatise intended to enable the noncommissioned officers to teach 

 themselves and their men without the assistance of mathematical 

 masters, on a method similar to that of Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster, 

 and to go through their courses of geometry in the same manner as 

 their company drills or their small-arms exercises. The system thus 

 organized was found so successful at Plymouth, that it was intro- 

 duced on an extended scale into the schools at Chatham in spite 

 of some objections one critic fearing that the men would become 

 better educated than their officers, and might be consulted by the 

 Generals commanding ! His energy and success, backed by the re- 

 presentations of the Duke of Wellington from the Peninsula as to 

 the defective condition of the Engineer Department in the Field, 

 led to the formation of the Establishment for Field Instruction 

 at Chatham, and to his appointment to the office of Director of 

 that establishment, with the rank of Brevet-Major. He was pro- 

 moted to the rank of Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel in May 1813, and 

 he became a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Engineers in December 

 1814. Following up his designs, he completed a work on ' Military 

 Instruction' in three volumes, of which the first was published in 

 1814, and the second and third in 1817. The former contained the 

 course of practical geometry before referred to ; the two latter a com- 

 plete treatise on elementary fortification, including the principles of 



