APPENDIX. 
25 
gotiation, were about to make a proposition for paying in¬ 
terest on the capital sum for a limited number of years. 
Subject to the final sanction and approval of Government, 
I was disposed to entertain this proposition favourably; 
but it was soon abandoned by the Burmese Government 
itself, under the belief that more favourable conditions than 
could be hoped for from me might be obtained by an ap¬ 
peal to Bengal. Were an arrangement on this principle 
concluded, the result would virtually amount to the pay¬ 
ment of a tribute on the part of the Burmese Government, 
and to a long continued dependence upon us. A sum com¬ 
paratively so small as the interest of fifty lacs of rupees 
would be paid without serious difficulty, and its amount 
would, at the same time, be sufficient to support all those 
diplomatic and military establishments on the southern fron¬ 
tier, from the maintenance of which our hopes of preserv¬ 
ing peace with so vain, fickle, and ambitious a power as 
that of the Burmans must, after all, mainly rest. 
It will be seen that, in the course of the negotiation, 
every proper opportunity was taken of impressing upon the 
Burmese Government our right, by Treaty, to maintain a 
resident Political Agent at its Court. This is a privilege 
which certainly ought not to be abandoned, because some 
contingency may possibly arise to make its exercise expe¬ 
dient. In the mean while, I am decidedly of opinion, that 
the maintenance of a permanent Political Agent at Ava 
would be a measure more likely to impair than support our 
interests at that Court. 
Upon the subject now under discussion, I had the honour 
to submit to Government an early opinion in a minute of 
the 27th of March last, placed on the records of the Com¬ 
missioners for Ava and Pegu. The sentiments expressed 
in that document are, as I conceive, amply corroborated 
by the experience and results of the present Mission, I 
