BURMAH. 



113 



duties, yielding 15 lacs, the transit dues, 

 amounting to 9 lacs, and the monopolies pro- 

 ducing 6 lacs, which latter loss would be 

 made good by the imposition of stamp duties. 

 The expenses of the military expedition, 

 amounting to 40 lacs, were made a charge 

 upon the Indian revenue, after considerable 

 discussion in the British Parliament. The In- 

 dians themselves unanimously opposed the 

 conquest, and afterward the annexation of In- 

 dependent Burmah, and protested against be- 

 ing made to pay the cost of the war. The 

 military expenses of 1886 swelled the amount 

 to many times the cost of the expedition. The 

 administration endeavored to keep the expendi- 

 tures within the limit of the revenue from the 

 conquered country, but, when obliged to aban- 

 don a blundering policy of false economy, 

 changed the basis of calculation, and promised 

 that the expenditure would not exceed the 

 revenue of the newly annexed province and 

 the surplus revenue of British Burmah. 



History. The Burman state owed its rise and 

 growth to the boundary disputes between its 

 powerful neighbors, China, Siam, and Pegu, 

 and, when threatened by either of them, re- 

 ceived assistance from the others. After Pegu 

 had conquered Burmah, in 1758, a partisan 

 leader named Alaungpra, the founder of the 

 present dynasty, recovered the national inde- 

 pendence, with English assistance, and subju- 

 gated Pegu. After the conquest of Assam, 

 Aracan, and Manipoor the Burrnans imagined 

 themselves invincible, and attacked the terri- 

 tory of the East India Company. On March 5, 

 1824, the British declared war, and in the 

 following May landed 6,000 men, under Sir 

 Archibald Campbell, in Pegu, and occupied 

 Rangoon. The English troops suffered from 

 various epidemics, losing 72 per cent, of their 

 numbers, and were valiantly opposed by sev- 

 eral Burman armies, but after two years they 

 overcame all resistance, and were inarching 

 upon Ava, the capital, when the King* made 

 terms of peace, giving up the provinces of 

 Aracan, Tena^serin, and Assam, and paying an 

 indemnity of five cropes of rupees. He also 

 agreed to receive an English resident in Ava. 

 Such is their superstitious belief in the might of 

 the King, that the Burmans to this day believe 

 in the truth of the proclamation issued by the 

 King, which said that because the strangers were 

 exhausted and perishing, he let them remain in 

 the country, and gave them money to pay their 

 expenses. In 1852, provoked by the arrogance 

 of Pagan Mm, then King of Ava, the British 

 again declared war against Burmah, and se- 

 cured the Siamese as allies. Even after the 

 British troops had overrun the whole country, 

 and captured the capital, the King would not 

 sign a peace, but only declared through an en- 

 voy that he would not disturb the English in 

 the province of Pegu, which Lord Dalhousie 

 had annexed by proclamation, if they would 

 cease hostilities. This third province in Lower 

 Burmah united those previously acquired, and 

 VOL. xxvi. 8 A 



shut off the kingdom entirely from the sea. 

 After their former defeat the Burmans had 

 transferred their capital from Ava to Amara- 

 pura. Now a new royal city was erected near 

 Ava, but at a distance from the river, in order 

 to be beyond the range of English gunboats. 

 Pagan was deposed because he would not make 

 peace with the English, the popular War Prince 

 passed over, and Mindoon made king. The 

 Indian Government has since then endeavored 

 in vain to induce the King of Ava to abolish 

 the royal monopolies that hamper trade, to ac- 

 cept the frontier claimed by the British, and to 

 receive the British resident as an equal, and 

 not compel him, like all other persons, to re- 

 move his shoes and assume a crouching atti- 

 tude in the royal presence. In 1867 the entire 

 course of the Irrawaddy was opened to naviga- 

 tion ; but fearing that the people in the north- 

 ern province would emigrate into British Bur- 

 mah in masses, as had the inhabitants of the 

 southern districts, the King forced the Chinese 

 merchants to transport their goods over the 

 difficult southern route, through Theini and 

 Thebaw. to Mandalay, instead of holding mar- 

 ket, at Bhamo, as formerly. In 1875 he gave 

 up his pretensions over the southern Karens, 

 but took no part in the demarkation of the 

 boundary, which was carried out the following 

 year by the Indian authorities alone. The 

 closing of the Bhamo route interfered with the 

 English export trade with Yunnan. The diffi- 

 culty with China, after the murder of Margary 

 on the frontier of Yunnan, and the quarrels 

 with the Burman Government, and disturbed 

 state of the country almost put an entire stop 

 to this profitable trade for some years, but re- 

 cently it has been resumed by the Bhamo route. 

 The English expected to force their views on 

 the shoe question upon Thebaw when, he came 

 to the throne, and accordingly the resident re- 

 ceived instructions in 1879 not to appear at 

 court unless allowed to wear his shoes and 

 stand erect. The Burmese Government re- 

 torted by forbidding Europeans to enter the 

 palace buildings. Many Europeans, among 

 them the English resident, were subjected to 

 insults in the streets. In September, 1879, Mr. 

 Sladen, the British representative, was recalled, 

 the Italian consul undertaking to care for the 

 interests of British subjects; and since then 

 there has been no British representative at the 

 court of Ava. Thebaw and his ministers, al- 

 though firm on the shoe question, because it 

 would have offended the moral and religious 

 sensibilities of the people to have the sun-de- 

 scended monarch approached like an ordinary 

 mortal, were very desirous not to offend the 

 British, and in order to restore friendly rela- 

 tions and explain the situation sent an embassy 

 to the Viceroy. Their envoys, however, were 

 refused an audience at Calcutta. 



The Royal Family. It has been the custom 

 among the princes of the Alaungpra dynasty 

 to have many wives and concubines. The heir- 

 apparent marries for his principal wife the 



