GENERAL CHAMBERLAIN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 290, 14 December 1878, Page 5

GENERAL CHAMBERLAIN.

(From the Fall Mali Gazette.) Lieutenant General Crawford Chamberlain, of the Bengal array, who h mentioned by the InJiaq papers, as the probable commander of any forca destined for service in Afghanistan, is (he younger brother ot Sir Neville Chamberlain, the present Commanderin Chief of the Madras army, and the envoy depute whoss mission to Cabul hag been cut short so prematurely. General Crawford Chamberlain has seen a good deal of service in his hi 3 younger days, including the Afghnn war, but nothing like so much aa his disin.ushel brother. The latter'^ military career began also with the Afghan war, when he wasalmO3ta boy, an i during it he gained a high reputation for peraomi gallantry, being wounded no fewer than six times, on several occasions in single combat. S )on aftsrwarc'a made comujandanJ of a rfg cnent of irregular cavalry, Sir Nevnla Chamberlain rose, by what was in those days very rapid promotion, to the command of the Paojaub frontier fore, with the local rank of brigadier, lie baing still a regimental captain an^ brevet lieutenant-jolonel. This force, which numbered nearly eleven regiments ot cavalry and infantry, guarded, and still guards, the lina of the North-west frontier, and is independent of tha control of the army headqmters, the commandant being iairaajutely under the orders of the Government of PuDJ»ub, an 1 virtually a commander-in-ohief. For many years after our first occupation of the Puijiub, and on first coming into contact with the wild frontier tribes beyond the frontier — who from the time of Alexander the Great downwards have never acknowledged a master — the " Puojaub Irregular Force," aa it was called, was engaged in almost constant warfare with the enemy ; and the brigadier eornmiadeil in peraoa in numerous actions against these gallant foes, characterised in miny cosjs by very hard hand-to-hand fi^htin;. The outbte»k of the- Mutiny found Brigadier Chamberlain still in cornman i on the frontier, but on the death of Colonel Chester, the AdjutantGeneral of the Army, who was killed in the Grst action before Delhi, Brigaiier C a nberlain was summoned o replace him. Shortly

"' •' - ■'■-"'-^•■'"-■-inri-T-ifTfMTrTin leadioa to the despatch in haste of Si John Lxwrecice to India as GovernorGeneral, will stilt be remembered. Here, Bgain, General Chamberlain waa severely wounded, we believe for the eighth time, and the successful completion of the campaign fell to be carried out by Sir John Garvock. This was Sir Neville Chamberlain's last active employment -rqnlesa, the d ; gaified retirement of hi* . present position as Commander-in-Chief of tha Madras Army c*n ba so designated — until he was summoned lo undertake the abortive mission to Cabul. Sir Neville Chamberlain entered the service younjr, and although somewhat crippled by his numerous wounds, bia forty years of service sit lightly upon him Few men of his a ;e are so active and yoong-look-infr, and from his long and distinguished service on the border, probably no Eugliah name is better known or more reappected throughout Afghanistan; and if the choice of the right person for envoy could have secured, its success the late mission might have had a different issue.