287 
1SG2.] Literary Intelligence , Sfc. 
The king gave me the other day a pony. The Maguee Minggyee 
told me that he had presented two to His Majesty, and advised me 
to ask his colleague whom His Majesty had directed to give me the 
pony to give me one of them. I went through the royal stables 
and picked out the best of about fifty. His Majesty I presume is 
ignorant that the palace stables contain nothing but small seedy 
ponys of very inferior value. The one I chose is one of the two the 
Maguee Minggyee had given, the only two in fact that I should not 
be ashamed to ride. His Majesty has bought a house for me, and 
seems to count on my residing here. 
If our Government pleased to appoint a Consul here, I am sure it 
might be done. It is a great pity that there is no respectable repre¬ 
sentative of any English house of business here. I am the only 
Englishman in the place, and cannot but observe that the failure in 
the attempt of Rangoon firms to do business here is the fault of 
themselves or agents. The laws are such, that a contract is not 
worth the paper it is written on. But the only firm in the country 
that can do business on any but a huckstering scale is His Majesty. 
His Majesty is compelled to do his business through a set of 
Armenians and Moguls who cheat him, and defile his reputation, 
into the bargain. If the king were wise and used his means well, he 
might be one of the rich monarclis of the East, instead of the poorest. 
He professes that the English help could be of great service to the 
kingdom, and hints his fears that our Government would hinder his 
being supplied with this aid. 
His Majesty has undoubtedly great faith in every thing English, 
of course faith is here quite divorced from charity—and nothing is 
better than that this faith should be cultivated and fed. The French 
have been unlucky in the figure they have cut here. The king was 
intensely disgusted at the set that D’Orgoni brought here, their 
quarrelling, and exposure of each other’s rapacity, even in his presence, 
abusing each other in the most violent manner, have made an im¬ 
pression on his mind that nothing will remove. I am sorry that a 
Frenchman here, a gentleman not of the D’Orgoni set—is about to 
bring here a French mint. Every aid, and step by which His Majesty 
endeavours to civilize his country should be supplied by us. There 
is more reason for this than I can detail to you here. For the 
good of this people, for the advantage of our own commerce, and 
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