34 
APPENDIX. 
would be impolitic. Were the finances of the Burmese 
Government in such a state as to render it capable, besides 
paying the debt of fifty lacs of rupees, of redeeming them 
by a pecuniary value, the subject might merit consideration; 
but that this is not the case is a fact in which I place the 
most entire belief, and for which I have already submitted 
my reasons. 
Should our own maintenance of all, or any, of the con¬ 
quered provinces be not considered politic, the placing of 
these under the government of independent rulers, re¬ 
serving the sovereignty of such ports and places as might 
be necessary in a political, military, and commercial view, 
will, I humbly conceive, be a measure more consistent 
with our honour and interests, with the welfare and hap¬ 
piness of their inhabitants, and even with the real interests 
of the Burmese Government itself, than restoring them 
to the domination of that power, already possessed of a 
territory far more extensive than it has the shill to govern, 
—whose rule over its tributaries has always been rigorous 
and oppressive in the extreme, and upon whom the restora* 
tion of its distant conquests will have no other effect than 
that of holding out to it the temptation, and affording it 
the means, to make new aggressions upon its neighbours, and 
finally of bringing it into hostile collision with ourselves. 
T have the honour to be, &c. 
(Signed) J. Crawfurd, Envoy. 
Saugor, 22 d February, 1827. 
