The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-18 00:00:00

" In fact, the troops had nothing whatever to do ;
attac of
p" there was no enemy, and no fighting, and General God-
win's dispatch, which occupies 15 paragraphs, appears,
therefore,k if iltw aas
gr e great
t designeddea
deal
showoout of theno tfallacy of
Therethat
most venerable axiom, aex ng° nihil fit,' for he has
contrivedotofr
a makenever was so beggarly an account of empty boxes as the
capture
small pagoda,:yetithas
afnudrncisahpetduread it
'—on
olcasoinonfor
recording the brilliant services of Captain Christie, of
her Majesty's 80th Regiment, who led his company to
the
find-
ing it empty ; of Captain Welsh, who drove the enemy
out of their position; of Major. Mayhew, Deputy-Adju-
tant-General ; Major Allan, Deputy-Quartermaster-Ge-
neral ; Captain Smith, interpreter to the force ; and Cap-
tain Burne, Military Secretary ; and Lieutenant Chads,
Aide-de-Camp, who were active in rendering every as-
sistance !' No doubt all these officers would have be-
haved most gallantly if Promo had been as Sobraon or
as Goozerat, but there was literally nothing to do, and
we therefore make over the dispatch to our immortal
contemporary, Punch.'
It will be remembered that, on the capture of Prome,
the Burmese General retired to a stockaded position,
about seven miles distant, called Yea-they-Mow, and
that General Godwin resolved not to follow him there
until reinforced by the second division. The force at
Yea-they-Mow was in all private accounts rated at from
4,000 to 6,000 ; in General Godwin's dispatches at
18,000, and subsequent information has proved the for-
mer estimate to be more correct. On intelligence of the
capture of Promo reaching Ava, the King sent down
orders to dress up G-eaeral Bundoola in old woman's
clothes, and forward him to Ava for decapitation. Bun-
doola thereon escaped to our lines to save his head,
accompanied only by a son of the unsuccessful ex-gover-
nor of Prome. He is now a prisoner on board the Se-
sostris, and has freely communicated all the intelligence
in his power. He states that the force of Yea-they-Mow
amounts only to from 5,000 to 6,000, and that even this
sinsil_ force contains a laitge -number of villagers and
tradesmen, whom nothing but the dread of immediate
execution could retain for an hour within the retrench-
ments. Both parties, moreover, whether soldiers or
rustics, aro said to be in the greatest state of trepidation.
From the day on which the troops landed they have re-
mained in perpetual expectation of an attack, and are
only waiting, with their ponies saddled, for the first shot
to give them a decent excuse to fly. If they ran before
an engagement of some kind, they would be accused of
disaffection, and probably massacred to a man, for the
insane despotism of Ava has reached a point at which
wild acts of cruelty are believed to be indications of
strength.
" It appears, in short, then," says the Friend of India,
"from every account which has reached us, that mat-
ters have gone much further than we expected, and that
the giant Strength of Ava' is even more hollow than we
had believed. From one end of the country to the other
there is actually no strength to resist our progress.
Army there is none—out of Ava, at least—and, of the
bands of armed men who are so denominated in letters
and dispatches, one-half are undisciplined, and the other
half do not care which side is victorious, and think only
of preserving their own lives from the vengeance of their
own King. It was said of the French Convention that
their generals conquered—they marched to battle with
the guillotine behind them ; but the Burmese Generals,
under precisely the same circumstances, find it more ex-
pedient to trust to the forbearance of a generous enemy.
It will readily be understood that an army, in which half
the soldiers are villagers taken from the plough, and the
officers consider the enemy's camp a welcome refuge,
cannot be formidable in the field. Our march to Ava
will in all probability be almost unopposed, and we shall
have only the natural difficulties of the country to con-
tend with lt has been, we believe, sug-

gested that an attack upon Ava would result in the flight
of the King, and that, as he cannot be hunted in the
eastern jungles, the Government would have no respon-
sible authority left with whom to conclude a treaty, and
would perhaps be compelled to annex territory to a
greater extent than it is the present policy to contem-
plate. We do not consider such a contingency very
formidable, but, as we are informed by those well ac-
quainted with the country, it can never arise. The
King cannot leave Ava. It is the stronghold of the fac-
tion which supports him on the throne, and which even
now can scarcely keep down its powerful oppments.
The flight of the monarch from his capital would be fol-
lowed by his immediate destruction and the elevation of
some scion of his family, on condition that he should
make peace with the invaders on any terms."
Extensive barracks are being built at Prome, and
everything looks like permanent occupation ; but the
long expected proclamation for annexation has not yet
appeared. "The only news from Rangoon," says the
Friend of India, " refers to the constant dispatch of
troops to Prome in the smaller steamers, and the exces-
sive anxiety for annexation. This feeling is not confined
to the natives, with whom it is a question of life and
death, but extends to the officers, and from brigadiers to
ensigns, the first question asked on the arrival of a
steamer is, 'ls the decree out r generally followed by
some unpleasant wish about the home authorities, as the
authors of the delay."

What is to be chine with Burmah has now become a
very serious question. The young King of Siam has
dispatched a large army, drilled and organised by two
experienced British officers (who being defaulters had
deserted from the Bengal army), to watch the course of
events on the frontier, and immediately north of this
most powerful of the tributory Shan's States has assem-
bled a force said to amount to 50,000 men and 250 ele-
phants for the same purpose. It is reported that the
Shan States have thrown off their allegiance to Ava, and
assembled their force for the purpose of co-operating with
the Siamese army, but the assemblage of the large bodies
on the frontier occasions more anxiety. It is considered
certain that the Shans and Siamese will at least take all
we leave, and that it would be more conducive to the
ultimate security of our frontier that they should take
such territory as a gift from us than as a conquest of the
wars from the Burmese. I again quote from the Friend
of India --
"At any rate the Indian Government must accept
one certain fact. As in every other instance, since we
became a military power, so in the present, the second
collision between us and the Oriental Monarchies shakes
them to pieces. No orders from England, no caution,
and no forbearance on our part can reconstruct the edi-
fice of the Burmese Monarchy. It is the nursery legend
of Humpty-Dumpty turned into a political reality."
The brigade are under orders for operation against
some refractory tribe on the Peshawer borders. The
state of anarchy and civil wars in the Nizam's dominions
is even worse than usual.