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

THE BURMESE TVAR.

( From the Times.)
BOMBAY, Nov. 17.
The termination of the Burmese war still seems as far
off as ever. "Since our last dispatch," says the Cal-
cutta Englishman, "we have no further acquisitions in
Burmah to report, but our correspondence will show the
state and expectation of the army there, and the general
disappointment felt at the needless inactivity which has
characterised the whole campaien." It has, however,
now become evident that the Indian Government have
no intention of terminating the campaign at Prome.
250 elephants have been dispatched from Calcutta over-
land to Prome through the Aeng pass under the charge
of Captain Baugh. They have been furnished by the
Calcutta Arsenal with cradles for carrying the guns and
apparatus of the batteries over ground where it may be
inconvenient to drag them. The Aeng pass is at pre-
sent held by a small Burmese force, but troops have
been dispatched from Arracan to clear them away.
The arrangements are certainly indicative of an advance
if not to Ava, at least beyond where river navigation is
available. The season during which the Irrawaddy is
navigable by large steamers is now over. On the 10th
of October the river at Prome began to fall so suddenly
and to such an extent that it is currently reported that
the larger steamers now there will be imprisoned for
eight months, or until the next rainy season. We have,
however, about five steamers in the Burmese water of
less draught than the old Diana, and, consequently,
able to navigate the Irrawaddy at all seasons of the
year ; an equal number of the same description might
possibly be obtained from the Ganges ; those at present
available, with a few flats in tow, could take up a force
that would possibly suffice for a dart at Ava ; but such
an expedition would be diametrically opposed to the
Fabian tactics of General Godwin. The elephants he is
expecting from Calcutta can scarcely reach Prome for
two months to come. General Godwin is again on his
way up the river to Promo, with the second division of
his force. Reinforcements for Burmah are being daily
dispatched from Calcutta and Madras. A regiment of
irregular cavalry was among the last departures from
the former presidency. It was not at first intended to
send any cavalry ; one of the newly raised Sikh irregu-
lar regiments that volunteered for Burmah now awaits
embarcation. It is commanded by Major Armstrong,
and has excited much interest and admiration at Cal-
cutta. The Englishman says, "We have seen the
regiment both on and off parade, and a finer body of
men can hardly be wished for.; they are tall, strapping
fellows, with the limbs of Europeans. The Governor-
General. who evinces a warm interest in all that con-
cerns the army of Burmah, has visited the Sikhs in their
quarters, and has gained their hearts by offering them
his good wishes, and expressing his sense of their con-
duct and bearing." They are as accustomed to the use
of spirituous liquors as the Europeans themselves, and
have accordingly preferred a request to Government to
have grog served out to them while on foreign service,
in proportions equal to those granted to Europeans, on
the grounds that the sale of spirituous liquor being for-
bidden in camp, they will be no longer able to supply
themselves in the Bazaar. Their request has been
granted. They are said to be very well inclined to fra-
ternise with the European soldiery, but to look down on
the Hindoo Sepoy as an altogether inferior animal. The
detention of so many of our steamers in the Burmese
waters occasions very great inconvenience to the Bom-
bay Government, and to the community generally, as
regards the arrangements for the conveyance of the
Overland Mails to Suez. Commodore Lambert say he
cannot spare a single steamer, and, if this is really the
case, some temporary arrangements must be made for
the transmission of the Bombay mail by hired steamers.
The Bombay steam flotilla is now principally used for
the conveyance of troops and stores between Rangoon
and Calcutta and Madras.
General Godwin.s voluminous dispatches regarding the
capture of Prome have met with well-deserved ridicule
throughout India. The fighting appears to have been
much exaggerated. An officer engaged at Prome writes
to the Chronicle immediately after its capture as fol-
lows :
" Here we are all safe at Prome, and, thank good-
ness, we have bad no more alarms lately at night, as we
had for the first few nights after we took the place ; and
a nice take it was. I wonder what kind of dispatch the
General will make out of this affair, as, except the first
day we came here, and were in the steamers, and just
after the 80th landed, there was not a shot fired. We
kept walking on—walking on the next morning, every
now and then asking where are the Burmese, and ex-
pecting them to open fire on us every moment ; but no,
we quietly walked up into their principal pagoda, and
then the halt was sounded, as the General determined