The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-01 00:00:00

APRIL

THE BURMESE W

We have receivA dispai.cties in iseticipation of the
Overland Mail, which 1,11 Bombay On the 4.h of March.
The following, is the letter of a eurrespondent:—
" Since the dispatch of my last letter preparations have
bean made for prosecuting with the utmost promptitude
and vigour the war which now seems inevitable with
liurmah. It has been wise/y determined to force the
Burmese to terms before the setting in of the monsoon,
and by the time this reaches England a fl .tills of more
than a dozen war-steamers, with 6,000 troops on board,
will be in the Burmese waters for the purpose.
" It will be remembered that Lord Dalhousie had not
reached Calcutta when the dispatches regarding Com
modore Lambert's first affair with the stockades arrived;
they were consequently forwarded to him by express,
and the steamer Fire Queen was kept in readiness to
convey his further instructions concerning Bermes° af-
fairs to the Commodore in the Irrawoddy—the Bengal
Government in the meantime taking only such steps as
were necessary for putting the frontier provinces in a
posture of defence.

"The Fire Qieen left the Sandhee.d3 with the
Governor-General's dispatches on the 2Sth of January,
and reached the commodore off the Rangoon River on
the 30th. The cinmodore imm-diately intimated to
the Rangoon authorities that he should ascend the river
in his frigate next morning as the bearer of a fresh
communication from the Governor-General. Notwith-
standing this intimation, the first stockade he passed the
following day opened a heavy fire on the Fox, which
killed one of her crew. The frigate returned the fire,
but without stopping her course, silencing the enemy's
guns, and Bettina the stockade on fire. The next
stockade took warning by the fate of its neighbour ; it
opened a fire also, for the honour of the thing, but took
care to fire wide of the frigate; and the commodore
therefore passed by it without notice. Two other of the
stockades opened a fire on the steamer Tenasserim,
which followed the Fox a few hours after, and of which
they did not appear to be in equal dread. She returned
the fire of the first stockade with a few rounds of shot
and shell, and with eight or ten rockets ; the latter
set the work on fire, and it continued burning for about
six hours.

" On arriving off the newly-erected fortifications which
now occupy the site of the late town of Rangoon, the
commodore sent an officer and interpreter to the Go-
vernor with Lord Dalhousie's letter. The terms offered
in this communication have occasioned general surprise
and some censure, on the ground that their extreme
moderation would prevent British subjects whose goods
• have been confiscated end destroyed from obtaining any
compensation; and would also, by being attributed by
the Burmese to weakness, render an ultimata settlement
more difficult.
" Their substance was, that if the Burmese Governor
would apologise for his insult to our flag, and pay the
900/. previously demanded as compensation for losses
inflicted on two of the many British subjects who
have been pillaged at Rangoon, the Burmese ships
should be restored, and the blockade raised, an i
an agent from the Indian Government sent
down. The reply was returned in the most insult-
ing manner imaginable, by a dirty labourer in an
equally dirty fishing canoe. The Burmese Governor
took no notice whatever of Lord Dalhousie's first two
demands. He refused to negotiate at all with the com-
modore, but said that he would talk over the subject
with any other agent the Indian Government sent down;
and he is said to have remarked that the blockade did
not inconvenience them at all. In answer to a letter the
commodore had sent him at the same time from himself,
in which he expressed his surprise at having. been fired
at by the stockade while on his passage up the river (of
which the Viceroy had been previously advertised), in
a diplomatic capacity, as the bearer of an answer trom
the Governor-Cieneral to a letter from the King of Ave,
the Burmese Governor replied that he bid given orders
to the stockades to fire into any vessel daring to pass
them without permission. The commodore rejoined,
that he would utterly destroy by fire any stockade that
fired at his frigate on her passage down the river. This
threat had its effect, and the commodore returned to his
anchorage off the mouth of the river without molestation.
" The appearance of the banks of the river at Ran-
goon is described as entirely changed. Not a vestige
remains of the late town. Of the materials of its brick
and stone houses three large masonry torts have been
erected with ' most singular rapidity ;' they appear, it
is said, very strong, and evidently mount some heavy
guns.' The jungle and village near the great Dragon
Yagoda have been entirely cleared away, and the build
tog enclosed with a strong stockade. Other stockades
are everywhere being erected along the banks of the
river. The main wharf of the old town has been turned
into a battery of formidable appearance, but is said to
admit of being enfiladed. The new works altogether
mount 100 guns, and an officer of the Fox writes to one
of the Calcutta papers that Rangoon would now cost a
few the number of their mess before it was taken.'

" On receiving the Rangoon Viceroy's answer to their
last overtures, the Supreme Government are said to have
decided that all further negotiation was out of the
question. The Governor-General immediately ordered
torte consisting of her Majesty's 18th, the 40th Native
Infantry, with another native corps and a company of
European Artillery, to prepare for instant embarkation,
and some steamers and transports were hired for con-
veying these troops to Burmah.
" 'iladras was ordered to send her Majesty's 51st,
two Native Regiments, and three companies of Euro-
pean Artillery; the whole force, about 0,000 strong,
will be under the command of General Godwin, who was
actively engaged in the former Burmese war. Major
Hugh Frazer goes as chief engineer. Orders were at
the same time sent by the Governor-General to the
Bombay Government to equip and dispatch without de-
lay all the war steamers they could spare, manned with
their full war complement, and ready for immediate ac-
tion. The squadron was on its way to touch at Fort
it. George, and convey the Madras force thence to
Burmah. The Bombay Government immediately de-
cided on sending six steam-frigates—the Feroze, the
Moozuffer, the Sesostris, the Berenice, the Medusa,
and the Zenobia—the Semaramis, now in China, to
join, if required, in the river. The first four (three
Of them as large as the Atlantic steamships) were
fully equipped and started from Bombay in four days
after the order had been received; the Zenobia, which
was hourly expected with the English mail of the 20th
of January, not having yet arrived, the Queen has
oeen sent off instead, and the Zenobia is only wait-
ing for the arrival of a detachment of artillery from
Nuggur to follow the other five. The squadron is to
embark the Madras force about the 12th of March,
and Rangoon will probably be in our hands about 10
or 15 days after.
" The general improvement that has taken place since
the last Burmese war in our military and naval re-
sources and appliances, and especially our improved posi-
tion us regards Burmah in particular, has been rendered
very apparent in the late preparations. In 1825 the
troops that were dispatched from Calcutta to Arracan
were no less than three months in reaching their destina-
tion; on the present occasion one steamship (the Pre-
cursor) took in a single trip an equal number of troops
from Calcutta to Arracan in about seventy hours. Steam
has in this instance reduced months to days; but this is
not all; close to Arracan is the Aeng Pass, now held by
a strong detachment of our troops, and from this pass it
is not forty miles to a point on the Irawaddy twice as
near to Ave as to Rangoon, and which it took in the last
war more than a year's campaign to reach from the lat-
ter basis of operations. The rising importance of Bom-
bay as the head-quarters of the Indian navy, and princi-
pal steam-port in the eastern seas, is not less remarkable.
In the last Burmese war it took nearly a month to pre-
pare a small sloop-of-war (the Hastings) for commission.
Now an order reaches us one day for all the steam-fri-
gates we can spare; three hours afterwards everything
is arranged; next morning they are reported in such a
state of progress that they are in squadron-orders to be
off in three days; and in three days they are off.
" A month hence there will be, in all likelihood, a
fleet of at least eight large and five smaller class war-
steamers assembled in the Burmese waters, probably'
says the Bombay Times, the largest collection of that
formidable class of ships ever brought together for the
purpose of actual warfare.' If required, we could also
tend hence the Ajadba, of 1,500 tons and 500 horse
power, and the Aubar, another powerful steam-frigate
(though in that case we should. probably have to depend
on the Peninsular Company for the conveyance of our
mid-monthly mails), and two other first class steam-
frigates of 800 horse power each are now on the stocks
at Bombay. On the Ganges and Indus we have also
flotillas of river steamers and flats sufficient (if it were
considered worth while to use them) to convey the whole
Burmah field force from Rangoon to Ava in five or six
days (the distance is about 500 miles). The force
amounting to 6,000 men) that is about to start is consi-
derably larger than any that Sir A. Campbell had at
his disposal at any time of the last war; and, if neces-
sary, it might be trebled from Bombay and Madras.
" I learn from private letters that the Governor-
General is still in hopes of avoiding anything more than
' a demonstration,' and that he expects the presence in
their waters of a force so large and so rapidly collected
will frighten the Burmese into an immediate acquies-
cence in his terms, and thereby save the expense and de-
lay of a campaign. With any other nation such !
result would, under the circumstances, be almost,.
cor
and
tain ; but the history of the last war—the peoulicaor' vt
irrational obstinacy with which, after two a.
tore_
signal and incessant defeats, they still continua_neell
fuse the terms offered them until General ou_o_riess.
was within forty miles of their capital—alses9
kith an
any
ing a desire to negotiate, yet never doing w•
stockades
other object than to gain time for
and collecting troops, coupled with
present case, ren-
their having courted a collision ihnett
they
should be fin-
ders it extremely improbable t
mere demonstration.
du®l to submit to ur terms by a
the Bassein mouth f
" I omitted mentioning that at.
the Irrawaddy her Majesty
and
's brig Serpent had destroyed
some stockades which had opened a fire on her,
that the Commodore had started for a cruisen that
i '
direction.
e sir C. Campbell's force has returned to its canton-
ments at Peshawar, leaving the Mormund frontier in a
e disturbed and excited state than he found it.
11" r From the China papers it will be seen that the pro-
gress of the rebels is at length decided and unquestion-
able. Tien-teh's proclamations are now openly shown
in Canton, and bulletins of imaginary victories gained
by the Imperial troops are no longer put forth by the
Canton authorities. The Governor- General (Sett) of
the Canton province is besieged by the
ueis in one of
defeated. The only hope of
his own towns, and the remnant of the Imperial forces
have lately been signally
the Mautchoo dynasty lies in the chance of dissension
arising among the rebel leaders, an event by no means
improbable.
e sir S. Gray, the aged Commander-in Chief of the
Bombay army, has had a stroke of paralysis, and returns
to England by to-day's mail; his illness was not unex_
petted. lie bad come out to a tropical climate in his

1,

1852.

72d year, and wai very old of his age. The Core-
mander-in-Chict of Madras is expected to follow him
shortly.
" A locomotivP is now at, work daily on the Bambny
railway. and wow -'s of nu,.i-yNs as- risioe to gBZ,, and
wonder Nth Arg Gkurrp,' Fire Chari:t.' us Atey
have enftstel,..ti

" Genera; Manstu, clmmunding the Scinde divioion
of all, Bombay army, diei on the 22,1 of Feb' nary.
" The Ettgliti mail express of the Bth of J..inuary
reached Lahore, via Bombay, many hours before it
reached Calcutta.

" The Zeoobia steam-frigate, with the Southampton
mails of the aktla of Jaauary, is now nine days overdue.
Considerable apprehensions are entertained regarding
her absence."

(From the Overland Bombay Times.)
The crisis that has overtaken us within the last fort-
! night illustrates the maxim thst India in the midst of'
peace is at war—that we know not at any time what a
week or a month may bring forth. The Irrawaddy,
which now flows undisturbed and unoccupied to the eve,
will, belore a month expires, beer a fleet of eight war
steamers, and an army oi 8,000 itteu 00 its bosom ; nod
the cities of R lngooti and Martaban, new seeceful, fair,
and flourishing, will be heaps of steolting ruins, their
inhabitants scattered, arid the British flag floating
where they now stand. We mentioned is our last the
extreme anxiety of the Governor-General to avoid can-
diet, and to accept of any arrangement that could be
wade not inconsistent with our safety and dignity to
restore amicable relations with Burmah ; he was said
to have disapproved of the abduction of the Burmese
ship-of-war by Commodore Lambert, and to have offered
to restore her; but he insisted on justice being done to
our injured merchants. The proposition was treated
with insolence, and replied to through the hands of
a common labourer, and it became quite clear that
all that was desired • was to gain time —the Burmese
Sovereign had no intention to comply in any way
with our behests. Our frontiers nearest to Burmah
were ordered to be watched, and arrangements were ac-
cordingly made to meet any sudden aggression that
might arise. Her Majesty's 18th Royal Irish were dis-
patched by the Precursor steamer from Calcutta to Moul-
mein, where they arrived in 73 hours; her Majesty's
80th, from Dinapore, taking their place in Fort William.
Iwo native corps, and three companies of artillery, were
to follow. A like force of artillery and native infantry
as that ordered from Calcutta were to be provided from
Madras, being in all two European (11th and 51st) and
four native (38th and 67th Bengal and 9th and 35th Ma-
dras) corps, with four companies of artillery, mostly
Europeans, in addition to those on board the Bombay
steamers. The 49th and 26th Madras Infantry are
betwixt Moulmain and Mergui; they probably number
about 1,200 men; so that in all we shall have about
10,300 fighting men, independent of the ship's crews
at our disposal. The entire force is to be com-
manded by Major-General Godwin, C. 8., of her
Majesty's army, who was present throughout the last
Burmese war from 1825 to 1827; with Brigadiers War-
ren and Elliott to command the Bengal and Madras
brigades respectively. Colonel Foord, of the Madras
army, is to be in charge of the artillery, and Major
Frazer, of the Bengal army, of the engineers. On the
19th February, orders were received at Bombay from
the Governor-General for dispatch for the Bay of Bengal
as speedily as possible, of all the steamers which could
be spared, and such is the high condition of the Indian
Navy, that on the 24th a squadron, under the command
of Captain Lynch, consisting of the Fercze, trans-
formed from a packet to a frigate, and the Moozuffer,
both 1,500 tons and 500 horse-power, and the Sesostris,
frigate, with the troop steamer Berenice, of about 800
tons each, sailed from our harbour within five days'
time of their being aware that there was any chance of
being required. The Zenobia was intended to follow,
had she arrived in time from Aden—the Queen now
takes her place; and this, with the Medusa iron
steamer, completes our armament. The steamers are,
as they were dining the China war, supplied with Euro-
pean artillerymen to work their guns. The Semiramis,
a frigate of 1.200 tons and 300-horse power, from
China, and the liugh Lindsay from Madras, can be dis-
patched if required. From Calcutta, the Enterprize, Fire
Queen, Tenasserim, and Phlegethon, with the iron
steamer Nemesis, are under orders. The 'vessels of the
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Compai.y,
capable of transporting 1,000 men each, are available as
troop-ships. While these matters were being arranged,
dispatches were received from Burmah professing a de-
sire for peace; the first condition was, that Te should
change the channel of communication to Major Berle,
the commissioner, instead of through Commodore Lam-
bert. The arrogance of dreaming of prescribing to us
bow we should conduct our arrangements sufficiently in-
dicated the temper of the Monarch, so our preparations
were pushed on. The squadron sails direct for Rangoon
and Martaban, cities by the river side, of 30 000 and
10,000 inhabitants respectively; they are doomed to be
destroyed, and as they are constructed chiefly of wood,
our first fire will set them in a blaze. We have not
leisure for a regular campaign, and should matters not
be completely settled by the middle of May, the force,
after doing as much mischief as possible, will return to
Bombay and Calcutta, to renew operations in October.
By some it is surmised that the river steamers will push
on as far as draught of water will allow, if requisite con-
tinuing the war without interruption—the fleet remain-
ing at hand throughout the rains.
CALCUTTA, FEB. 21.—The following, says the Ben-
gal Barham. is the substance of the intelligence brought
by the Fire Queen, which arrived yesterday from Moul-
mein and Rangoon river.
The Fire Queen left the Sandheads on the 28th ult.,
and arrived If Rangoon river on tho 30th Pem at 10
P N She went in the next day, and anchored ah. ad of
the Fox frigate at 2 P.M., and towed her up off the
Hat:Ring's Saud, which is about four or five miles below
Rangoon. On going up the river, on passing the first
stockade, which is 10 or 15 miles from the entrance, the
steamer and frigate were fired upon, by which a man of
the Fox was so severely wounded that he afterwards
died of the wound. The fire was returned by the frigate
with shot and shell. The Tenasserim, in passing up
the following day was also fired upon, but without effect,
and the Fire Queen in passing down. The Fire Queen
called off the entrance of Rangoon River, coming back
on the morning of the sth instant. The Fox frigate
was then coming out in tow of the Tenasserim. The
frigate was going on a cruise to Negrais for a week,
leaving the Prilegethon and her Majesty's ship Hermes
to blockade the Rangoon river.
The same journal, in its general summary, under date
of Feb. 21, says:—
" The Governor-General has plucked up a spirit '
and resolved that the Burmese shall no longer hold
alone the power of deciding whether there is to be war
or no war. He has determined that there shall be war,
unless they render it absolutely impossible by a prompt
and unequivocal submission. Their intentions are not
yet perfectly known. They have again fired on our men-
of war when passing the stockades, and killed one man
of the Fox frigate, but they still keep up a show of
negotiation, whether really to avert hostilities or
merely to gain time remains to be. seen. The character
of the court of Ava, and the experience of the
former war, however, render the latter the more
probable hypothesis. The Burmese evidently do not
like Commodore Lambert. Apart from an offence in
having carried off their King's ship—a proceeding
pretty generally condemned—he is doubtless quite too
firm and straightforward to suit their peculiar ideas of
negotiation. They have opened a communication through
their Governor of Manahan and our Commissioner at
Moulmein, aid the Governor-General having promised
that on their acceding to their moderate demands, he
would send down a high tunctionary to settle the terms
of peace and "friendehip, they request that this official
may be sent immediately. The request cannot, of course,
be complied with, as any concession on our side would ,
be attributed to fear. An answer to the Governor-eCteci
neral's letter was sent on board the Fox, on tbdgy
instant, by the hands of a low native, in Inky no
canoe-- a studied insult, of course, and element.
indication of a desire for an amicable
it appears,
The missive was, nevertheless, receivedu:
en eral, received
by the Fire
and we believe brought up to
irCeada. toot. Another
rthe nilegethon on
Queen, which arrived here on the 9th
ljactnst iv'et
or etdc
heel oi ot.na t
t
throughlett. from
Moulmein,
eKi
ni g
whereto the Governor
v;vrtnio.
dPjbeen raised befotbree
proper formalities, arrived hhtehrbea
the 15th inst. Nothing has vs stlen~
aCvael on: tt
ardergai
equipped. Her
of these royal epi,tleA, but ey
With them go sever Mal
" note of preparation"goesue
a and
as soon as they cans be their arrival. Troops ar_ew_tho,
Majesty's 18th Majesty's 51st from
detachment of
y's 80th, now at Di-
the southern Presidency.
-Idnofslllll to relieve the 18th, in garrison
igco fromnh
antaprooreri
isWilliam►"alingh is to travelps'hiatshewrewilardas
Emuernotps
eoafti Naraatiiiveery,
a,nd that cor
who served in the former Burmese chief. Ma' mtyheossseteewafamorr:
service in Bur.° ,
jor Hugh Fraser, of the Ben-
s,. ere, is to direct the' •
gla '"ng omerie • •engineer department; and
mue g d , garrison surgeon of Fort William, is
jonodsiesenyz:yoafretroorodpere
activity. Ships have been taken up for the
liZeuperinten the medical staff. The arsenal here is a
etnot3l3trd:d 1.111;
scene of busy
ordered
rdostores, o
from
and o
m steamersbay
to Madras,
ther as,
to aid in carrying the expedition across the bay. The
Burmese have, on their side, been actively engaged in
preparations for war. The old town of Rangoon,
lying on the banks of the river. has been cleared away
by
strongly
and the new one, a* little inland, has been
stockaded."

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
Casualties by death in the at mies of India since the
departure of the mail on the 17th of February:—
H. M. Troops—Captain Henry Hugh M`Kenzie
Fleming, H. M. 61st Regiment, at Goojranwallah, on
the 12th of February.
Bombay—Brigadier-General A. Manson, C. 8., Artil-
lery, at Bombay, on the 28d of February.
Madras—Lieutenant•Colonel D. A. Fenning, Ist Ca-
valry, at Bellary, on the 16th of February.
Bengal—Major C. F. Farmer, Invalid Establishment,
at Mussoorie, on the 4th of February.