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the science, and rules for construction, many of which apply to civil 

 as well as to military works. 



Finding, in 1817, that his men had been "most grossly ill-treated 

 by the Army Bread Contractor," he was led to inquire into the system 

 under which the army was supplied with provisions ; and in 1825 he 

 printed and circulated, but abstained from publishing, a volume con- 

 taining the result of his investigations. The exposure which he thus 

 afforded of abuses that were prejudicial to the soldier, and the im- 

 provements that he suggested and was partly the means of intro- 

 ducing, were in themselves services of great value. In 1818, he 

 published a volume of " Standing Orders," containing a perfect code 

 of military rules for the duties of all ranks in the army. 



Colonel Pasley organized, during his residence at Chatham*, 

 improved systems of telegraphing, sapping, mining, pontooning, and 

 exploding gunpowder on land and in water, and laid down rules 

 which, being founded on careful experiment, will always endure, 

 besides preparing pamphlets and courses of instruction on these and 

 other subjects. The volume which contained his ' Course of Prac- 

 tical Architecture ' was especially valuable. His work on the ' Prac- 

 tical Operations of a Siege,* of which the first part was published in 

 1829, and the second in 1832, is still a text-book, and the best that 

 has been written in any language on that subject. Every operation 

 in it was treated as a separate study ; and it exposed various mistakes 

 into which the French and German authors had fallen. It was 

 translated into French, and published in Paris in 1847. 



Early in 1831 Colonel Pasley prepared a pamphlet, and in May 

 1834 he completed a volume of 320 pages, entitled ' Observations 

 on the Expediency and Practicability of simplifying and improving 

 the Measures, Weights, and Money used in this country, without 

 materially altering the present standards.' He strongly advocated 

 the adoption of the decimal principle of division in all its simplicity 

 for our coinage, as well as for our weights and measures, and 

 opposed with equal ardour the introduction of the French units into 

 this country. 



He sent to the press in May 1836 the first sheets of a work con- 

 taining * Observations on Limes, Calcareous Cements, Mortars, 



* In addition to these various occupations, he employed privates of Sappers to 

 teach him the native Welsh and Irish languages. 



