IN 1843 -- FRANCIS RAWDON CHESNEY -- COMMENTING ON HIS EXPEDATION TO EXPOLORE THE EUPHRATES RIVER FOR A PASSAGE TO INDIA, STATES: AS COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION, IT WAS MY DUTY TO BRING FORWARD THE WORK OF THE OFFICERS COMPOSING THE EXPEDITION, NOT AS WORKS OF ART SUCH AS YOURS, BUT AS BEING DESCRIPTIVE OF THE COUNTRY…

FRANCIS RAWDON CHESNEY

Erscheinungsdatum: 1843

Beschreibung

FRANCIS RAWDON CHESNEY. (1789-1872). British General, soldier and explorer of the Euphrates River whose expedition proved the practicability of the Euphrates route to India. Two, relatively rare, Autograph Letters Signed, F.R. Chesney . Four full pages total, quarto. Integral address leaf of March letter has Chesney s franking signature at lower left, and Holborn WC straight line cancellation. Both: Woolwich, [U.K.] March 23 and April 6, 1843. To David Roberts. Chesney, evidently writing concerning issues in the production of what was to be The Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, writes: [March 23, 1843] My dear Sir, Although I did not then, nor do I now, see anything that could be done, I am not sorry that we had some conversation, because it gave an opportunity to correct misapprehensions. I have made a point of seeing Mr. Coulton who tells me that Mr. Day stated to him, that he expected his expenses of every description to be paid, and that he would not consent ever to pay a £5 note to a charitable institution, to settle the matter. Mr. Coulton on hearing this observed, that such terms were so far wide of anything I had a right to expect, that it would be useless to enter farther upon the subject. I have never heard what Mr. Coulton meant to propose, but he states most positively, that Mr. Day left him without his having made anything like a proposition. Perhaps Mr. Day may have confounded the contents of my letter which he percused [?] at Mssrs. Aernesley and Reade s, with what he thought had passed with Mr. Coulton. With respect to the original Drawings to which you called my attention as being defective, I have no desire to blink [?] this matter. As Commander of the Expedition, it was my duty to bring forward the work of the Officers composing the Expedition, not as works of Art such as Yours, but as being descriptive of the Country: this having been the case, and their execution undertaken by Messrs. Day and Hague, as will be shown in writing; I have prepared the whole of them to produce side by side with the prints, that the Jury may be enabled to Judge for, or against me, in this matter. In June 1840 Mr. White of Marlbro [?] Street wrote to Day and Hague, but the proceedings were stopt [sic] by me, in consequence of the promises then made that my work won t be speedily completed. If Mr. Hague was ignorant of this circumstance, the fault was not mine, and at any rate, he must have known that Mr. Coulton went to him and his partner for months in succession in 1841, to urge the completion of the Drawings, as I did also by letters from Ireland at that period. Towards the end of Oct. 1841 I instructed Messrs. Arnesley and Reade, either to get the work, or take other steps, but as promises of completion were made, I determined to wait for a time, and then to proceed if again disappointed. Accordingly on the 30th of May 1842 I directed Messrs. Sunesley and Reade peremtitorily [?], to commence a suit, should they not find the work completed; which unfortunately proved to be the case. I naturally expect that a Jury must award me very heavy Damages in consideration of the time lost, the Money lying idle, and the loss to the publication in consequence; but there is no Sum they can give, which could be anything like a compensation to my feelings for all the trouble and vexation experienced during the 5 years proceeding the action. I am quite at a loss to conceive why I was thus treated, but as it has been so, my great object is to let the whole affair appear before the World just as it was. I hope and expect to be able to prove that I did my utmost by the employment of others, and by writing urgent letters myself, to get the work completed without resorting to the last alternative; but I believe at the same time, that nothing else was to have answered the purpose: and I have a right to say so with confidence, as the result of the lengthened period in question; for if there was anything like a turn, mine. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 2216010

Bibliografische Details

Titel: IN 1843 -- FRANCIS RAWDON CHESNEY -- ...

Erscheinungsdatum: 1843

Einband: No Binding

Zustand: Near Fine