The Press. — London, England, 1858-03-13 00:00:00

For the first time since the present dynasty acquired the throne, in 1752, if we may not say rather for the first time in the whole history, the Sovereign of Burma is jut% and mild in temper, easy of access, hears or seeks to bear everything for himself, is heartily desirous that his sub jects shall not be oppressed, and strives to secure their happiness. Ile is, in fact, as far as we can judge, a man of conscience and principle. The very monopolies of trade which he has established in his own behalf have been created with the intention (however shortsighted) of securing a revenue without the infliction of taxation on his people. And if there is any extravagance in his ex penditure, it shows itself rather in the liberality of his gifts than in selfish indulgences. There can be no doubt of his personal popularity. The people speak in terms of admiration of his good qualities, and uniformly, and with apparent sincerity, declare that they never bad a King so just and so beneficent. The contrast with what they have known heretofore, by experi- ence or by tradition, must be powerful. He is too sagacious to suppose that he can stand against the British power, and, as long as he lives and reigns, peace will probably be maintained. But he does not the less continue to hanker after the province lie has lost, and to listen eagerly to reports which hold out a chance, how ever vague or distant, of his being able one day to recover it through some disaster to the British power. Jealous of his reputation, and feeling acutely the loss of territory we had inflicted upon him, he could not bring himself to acknow ledge by treaty that Pegu had been wrested from him—in fact, he ardently desired the re storation of Pegu, and had from the first made up his mind to sign no treaty abandoning his claims. "In a man's life," he observed on one occasion, " there is a beginning, a middle, " and an end. Let your middle and ending " 'ne as good as your beginning . Remember, " there must be a mutual advantage, or no " treaty could be proper and such as to sa " tisfy both countries. If I were to sanction " a treaty discreditable to me, I should lose " my reputation in history ; just as a thousand " years hence your name would be stained if " you did anything to the damage of your " country. Ponder upon this." On the 20th of October, after many fruitless attempts to obtain the consent of the King's signature to a treaty, hut which he firmly de clined to the last, Major Phayre had his fare well audience. The King was silent at first, and, after a few questions, said in a marked manner : K. (To Kilroy.) " Now that the two nations are friends, ev. rything must be done to preserve friendship; the two countries are as one country. Friend ship is often broken by the folly and mismancgement of inferior persons; almost all quarrels have amen from that, and not from misunders ending between leading men." Envoy. "It is very true, your Majesty." K. " Men of judgment and moderation should be placed on the frontier. It is a sery easy thing to quarrel, but to settle a quarrel is difficult. Hatred may arise from a single word ; nevertheless, by care, the beginning of a quarrel may be prevented. It is easy also to make a temporary friendship, but difficult to make it permanent. Our endeavours should be to render it so." The next day the Mission took their departure . During their residence at Amarapoora, the different members of the Mission had been treated with great liberality by the King : There ean be no doubt that our party, during its stay at the capital, as well as during the voyage up the river, kat been treated with greater consideration and with more of that hospitable attention which Indian, as well as Western nations, consider due tt, the representatives or a foreign State, but which is altogether alien to the ancient principles and practice of the Burmans and their allied races, than had been the fortune of any previous British mission Goid bread was provided fur our -at the King's --' horses and ' use daily a charges; . elephants were furnished for our use; the amusements in which the people themselves delight were supplied only too copiously or oar taste; and the. King's care was not confined to the talkers. The welfare of the European 631diers was a frequent subject of the King's inquiry ; they were (with the whole of our numerous retinue, indeed) provided entirely at his Majesty's expense ; of the numerous dishes et Burmese sweetmeats, with fruits and other delicacies, which were mot daily from the palace to the Residency, a part was always destined expressly for the European soldiery; and there was not en individual in the whole o; oar party of nearly five hundred who was allowed to leave without some small present fi•om the King in remembrance of his visit to Amarapoora. From differences of taste, or from the apathy and trickery inherent in petty officials, the King's kind intentions did not always take full effect. But we amid sot be the less sensible that his intentions were really kited and hospitable. Frequent excursions were permitted to the members of the Mission in the neighbour hood, which Captain Yule describes as being extremely beautiful, but intercourse with the people was limited to such a degree that very itew opportunities occurred of learning much concerning their real condition. The capital itself is comparatively modern. It was founded in 1795, and, beyond some forty handsome THE PRESS, koca 13, 1858. temples and the palaces of the Royal Family and Ministers, consists chiefly of streets of bamboo and brick huts, laid out with some degree of regularity, and containing a popu lation of 90.000, of whom about 2,000 are foreigners. During their stay at the capital they were visited by one of the wonders of Burmah, the " hairy woman," Maphoon : The whole of Maphoon's face was more or less covered with hair. On a part of the cheek, and between the nose and mouth, this was confined to a short down, hut over all the rest of the face was a thick silky hair of a brown colour, paling about the nose and chin, four or five inches long. At the alae of the nose, under the eye, and on the cheekbone, this was very fully developed, but it was in and on the ear that it was most extraordinary. Except the extreme upper tip, no part of the ear was visible. All the rest was filled and veiled by a large mass of silky hair, growing apparently out of every part of the external organ, and hanging in a dependent lock to a length of eight or ten inches. The hair over her forehead was brushed so as to blend with the hair of the head, the latter being dressed (as usual with her countrywomen) le Chinoise. It was not so thick as to conceal altogether the forehead. The nose, densely covered with hair as no animal's is that I know of, and with long fine locks curving out and pendent like the wisps of a fine Skye terrier's coat, had a most sit Inge appearance. The beard was pale in colour, and about four inches in length, seemingly very soft and silky. " Maphoon's manner' were," Mr. Yule assures us, " good and modest, her voice soft and fe " minine, and her expression mild and not " unpleasing, after the first instinctive repul " sion was overcome. Her appearance rather " suggested the idea of a pleasant-looking " woman masquerading than that of anything brutal." Her neck, bosom, and arms ap peared to be " covered with a fine pale down, " scarcely visible in some lights." According to the Woondouk, the " King offered a reward " to any man who would marry her, but it was " long before any one was found bold enough "or avaricious enough to venture." We are bound to say that the portrait of Maphoon is not encouraging. No one would visit Burmah without seeking an interview with the " Lot•d White Elephant," who has a palace to himself, is superbly capa risoned, and is maintained in state at the pub. lie expense : The present white elephant has occupied his post for at least tifty years. I !Live no doubt he is the same which Padre Sangermano mentions as having been c in 1806, to the great joy of the King, who had just lost the preceding incumbent, a female which died after a year's captivity. He is a very large elephant, close upon ten feet high, with as noble a heed and pair of tusks as I have ever seen. But he is long-bodied and lanky, and not otherwise well made as an elephant. He is sickly and out of condition, and is in fact distempered during five months of the year, from April to August. His eye, the iris of which is yellow with a reddish outer annulus, and a small clear black pupil, has an uneasy glare, and his keepers evidently mistrust his temper. We were always warned against going near his head. The annulus round the iris of the eye is pointed out as resembling a circle of the nine gems. His colour is almost uniform all over; nearly the ground•tint of the mottled or freckled part of the trunk and ears of common elephants, perhaps a little darker. He also has pale freckles in the same parts. On the whole he is well entitled to his appellation of white. The possession of these elephantine aibinoes derives its importance from the religious vene ration with which they are regarded by the devotees of Buddha. It is held, too, as an ensign of universal sovereignty, and the cap ture of a pure white elephant in the reign of each Sovereign is regarded as a symbol of lawful sovereignty. Less dignified, but more entertaining, was an exhibition of dancing elephants witnessed at Amarapoora The larger animal, a tall lean tusker, was more accom plished. The words of command were bawled into his ear by the mahout, and were accompanied apparently by a great deal of comment or explanatory discourse, whilst at every sentence the elephant responded by a loud grunt of assent, which was intensely comical in effect. His great step consisted in alternately lilting each fore lest, and flourishing it with a circular swe-p, before rutting it again to the ground. Not the least amusing part of the perform ance lay in the gestures of the mahouts, who on each aide went violently through the actions and dances which they intended the elephant to imitate, shouting and encouraging, and urging and bravoing him, as he increased the apeed and awkward agility of his movements in accordance with the stimultuon applied. At last the hind legs also 'came into play. They were flung up alternately in the air like the legs of a kicking horse, but in • slow, disjointed, and inappropriate manner, that seemed to have no connection with the more rapid pas that was going on among the fore legs. The grave aspect of the old elephant's head and eye, all the time that his limbs were going through these un wonted gambols, was very comical, and the whole was certainly a piece of admirable farce, which drew shouts of laughter from English, Bengalees, and Burmese. Captain Yule also adds some valuable chapters upon the history of Indian art with reference to the magnificent remains of Burman architecture at Pagan. The subject is one of peculiar interest to the student of Indian antiquities, and it is suffi cient for us to say that Captain Yule has col lected so much that is new concerning the architectural style and beauty of arrangement of these temples, and illustrated his text with so many superb engravings from original sketches, as to render it most acceptable to all lovers of art, and a material aid towards future investigations of the architectural an. tiquities of Burmah. The people, according to our author, are by no means demoralised or rude; on the contrary,they appear to be acute and ingenious, and capable of great advances. They have a considerable commerce with China and the neighbouring States ; they are ardent cultivators, and the resources and fertility of the soil are great. In fact, Captain Yule describes the people as being extremely industrious, fond of trade, and most expert in the mechanical arts. Their exquisite carvings on stone and metal testify to a high degree of perfection in this particular branch. At the same time we would venture to observe that the members of a mission are not the persona to whom we should look with perfect confidence for dis tinct and accurate impressions of the con dition of :he people of the country they visit. There are so many circumstances which inter fere in such a case to prevent the observer from forming just ideas of the condition of the people at large. For such visitors every difficulty is smoothed and every pains taken to impress the mind most favourably regard ing the power and wealth of the sovereign and the prosperity of his country. Poverty and misery are pushed aside to make room for the appearance of prosperity and riches, and the result is invariably an estimate far beyond the truth. But we think an exception may be safely made in favour of Captain Yule, who appears to have consulted the beat authorities extant before committing himself to any opinion, as well as to have taken every pains to obtain accurate information on the spot both as to the condition of the people and the resources of the country. The result is a mass of minute information which it must have cost him much labour to acquire, but which all future writers on Burmah will justly appreciate. PUBLICATIONS RECE BOOKS. Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post. Thomas Rainey. Second Edition. Trubner and Co. Agatha's Husband. A Novel. By the Author of "John Halifax," &c. Chapman and Hall., Memoirs of James Marquis 41 Montrose, K.G. Jas. Grant . With Illustrations. Routledge Marriage. A Religious Poem. By a Trinity College Prise man. H atchard. Primula. A Book of Lyrics. Hardwicke--The Earl of Clarendon's Speech in the House of Lords on the recent communications with the French Goneraiment. Ridgway — The War in Ow*. John Malcolm Ludlow. Macmillan and Co —Letters to a Ludy on the Progreso of Being is the Universe. John Jacob. J. Chapman—A Reply to the Memorandum of the East India Company; or, sn Insight into British India. Hardwicke--TAe Empero► Napoleon 111. and England. Translated from the French. Howe and Cu. London University 3fagazine. Hall and Virtne--Wesi of Scotland Magazine. Hall and Virtue. Ws have lately paid a visit to a fine full-length portrait of the late Premier, now on view at Messrs. Ratelitf's gallery, in Pall-mall. The portrait, by Mr. Francis Cruikshank, is an excellent and spirited likeness. His lordship is taken in the act of ad dressing the House of Comwons, and all the acces sories are, or we should say will be, carefully worked in. The picture is as yet unfinished; but the only deficiency we noticed in the main figure was in the hair, which has a fluffy appearance. This will, no doubt, be corrected at a future sitting. On the whole, it is decidedly a fine painting, and will s tand worthily in a gallery of historic portraits. I n the same room is the very pretty domestic picture ex hioited at the Royal Academy last year, entitled " God save the Queen," representing the artist her self, Mrs. Ward, seated at the piano, and her three children singing the National Anthem by ber side. The group is very pretty, and we are glad to hear that it is in process of engraving by Ur. Simmons. ..... IV