The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-14 00:00:00

PROCLAMATION.

The Court of Ava having refused to make 'amends for
the injcries and insults which British subjects had suf-
fered at the hands of its servants, the Governor-General
of India in Council resolved to exact reparation by force
of arms.

The forts and cities upon the coast were forthwith
attacked and captured ; the Burman forces have been
dispersed wherever they have been met ; and the pro-
vince of Pegu is now in the occupation of British troops.
The just and moderate demands of the Government of
India have been rejected by the King ; the ample oppor-
ity that ilekbeim afforded fqr -repairing-o'l
that was done has been disregarded ; and the timely sub-
mission, which alone could have been effectual to pre-
vent the dismemberment of his kingdom, is still with-
held.

Wherefore, in compensation for the past, and for
better security in the future, the Governor-General
Council has resolved, and hereby proclaims, that the
province of Pegu is now, and shall be henceforth, a por-
tion of the British territories in the East. _ _ _

Suchßurman—Voops as may still remain within the
province, shall be driven out. Civil government shall
immediately be established, and officers shall be ap-
pointed to administer the affairs of the several districts.
The Governor-General in Council hereby calls on the
inhabitants of Pegu to submit themselves to the autho-
rity, and to confide securely in the protection of the
British Government, whose power they have seen to
be irresistible; and whose rule is marked by justice and
beneficence.

The Governor-G-eneral in Council, having exacted the
reparation he deems sufficient, desires no further con-
quest in Burmah, and is willing to consent that hostili-
ties should cease.

But if the King of Ava shall fail to renew his former
relations of friendship with the British Government, and
if he shall recklessly seek to dispute its quiet possession
of the province it has now declared to be its own, the
Governor-General in Council will again put forth the
power he holds, and will visit with full retribution ag-
gressions which, if they be persisted in, must of neces-
sity lead to the total subversion of the Burmah State,
and to the ruin and exile of the King and his race.
By order of the most noble the Governor-General o
India in Connell.

C. ALLEN,
Officiating Secretary to the Government of India.
Dec. 20, 1852:
The Bombay Times thus summarises the events
of the ten days :
" The annexation of Pegu has been proclaimed
in form, but this we stated in our last as so certain
that it affords a confirmation 'merely of a fact in
reference to which no doubt was entertained. The
proclamation itself, which will be found elsewhere,
is curt, clear, and judicious ; it abstains from all
details, and concludes with an intimation that if
the King of Avashall fail to renew his former rela-

tions of friendship with the British Government,
and if he shall recklessly seek to dispute its quiet
possession of the province it has now declared to
be its own, the Governor-General in Council will
again put forth the power be holds, and will visit
with full retribution, aggressions which, if they be
persisted in, must of necessity lead to the total sub-
version of the Burmah state, and to the ruin and
exile of the King and his race. No one can sup-
pose that the King of Burmah will renew friendly
relations with the British Government, or cease to
molest us in the occupation of a province, seized in
compensation for the infliction of injuries which
he pronounces imaginary. According to the Bur-
mese version of matters, the British Government
has nothing to complain of, and has been the ag-
gressor all through—we are entitled according to
them to no apology, and no indemnification, and
they are, they maintain, warranted in endeavour-
ing to recover the territory we have taken, and
avenge the wrongs we have inflicted on them.
Should these apprehensions be realised, the Bur-
mese war has only been suspended, it is not closed ;
it must be resumed immediately in an altered cha-
racter, and peace will only be re-established by an
advance on Ava. This was perfectly forseen as an
inevitable necessity by every one in India from the
outset ; it was a necessity forced upon us, like the
annexation of the Punjaub, by the enemy them-
selves ; and the half-measures to which the Gover-
nor-General has been condemned, by the interfer-
ence of the authorities at home, in conjunction
with the incompetence of General Godwin, have de-
ferred to 1855 that which might have been accom-
plished with ease in 1852, and transformed a six
months' campaign—short, sweeping, and effective
—into a three years' weak, inglorious, unsatisfac-
tory, and through the climate it may be deadly
war. Perhaps, however, it is all for the best—it
seems almost providential that during the last year
of the Charter Act we should have commanders-in-
chief—we except always Lord Frederick Fitzela-
rence—Lunusually imbecile and aged • and who, not
content,' like their predecessors, with spending the
great bulk of their time away from the proper
sphere of their duties at the extreme limit of our
dominions, have gone in one case beyond them, as
if to show the unspeakable absurdity of allowing
20,0001. a-year for the performance of councillor
duties which can by no possibility be accomplished,
and 18,0001. a-year more for military service of such
very indifferent quality that it is dear at any price.
Sir William Gomm is said to have had his pay cut
by the Auditor-General during his residence in a
foreign state, and Sir Richard Armstrong was too
weak to inspect the Madras troops on embarkation
for Burmah. One of the most discreet, determined
governors-general who ever presided over the des-
tinies of the East, finds himself thwarted and sulti-
fied in his measures, and a second war entailed
upon us where our quarrel might have been settled
at once, by a set of clever clerks' in Cannon-row
and Leadenhall-street, by whom, according to
Lord Ellenborough, the affairs of India are, as
under existing arrangements they necessarily must
be, administered. These things, occurring at the
present junctuie; ought to be a warning to the
people at home as to the insanity of the mainte-
nance for 20 years to come of an antiquated, worn-
out, and inefficient mechanism utterly unsuited
for the work desired to be performed by it.
Better men here, or wiser counsels elsewhere,
would, just now, have been ill-timed, and nothing
can serve us so well as exhibitions such as those
just referred to. If, in the face of this, the British
Legislature will go on in the evil courses threatened
to be pursued by them, the guilt be on them and
on their children. The disturbances in Candeish
have happily come to an end, and that without
effusion of blood. The rumours spread regarding
them at first appeared to have been enormous ex-
aageratons—the alarm at the time prevailing most
superfluous. The measures adopted by Govern-
ment at last seemed to have been firm, temperate,
and judicious, and have proved perfectly success-
ful. On the 20th of November the 6th Bombay
Native Infantry, with their families and atten-
dants, about 1,500 persons in all, were de-
spatched to
mostlywind-
wardoto
of Bombay,
BomKhinTay,acinhe2es,
opennarve
milboeasts,
ill found in rigging, none of those on board of them
having ever made the voyage before, or being com-
petent to use a chart or sextant or any other ap-
pliance more complex than a compass. One-half of
them reached their destination in 17 days, others
having been 27 days at sea, made land half as
far to the south as they ought to have done to
northward of Bombay, all suffering from great pri-
vations and escaping by a miracle destruction from
a storm which about this time occurred in these
seas. The commanding-officer, in consideration of
the nature of the winds at this season, took 24 days'
provisions on board, the ordinary supply being 12,
and but for this the men would most probably
have perished for want. Both steam and first-class
sailing vessels were at command in abundance, and,
had the risk and loss of pay been taken into account,
would have conveyed them for less than the sum
actually charged for them under the system of false
economy by which human lives are perilled for the
sake of a pretended saving, which always proves
illusory. The Victoria and Achilles steamers leave
this day for Aden, the merchantman carrying all
the passengers,
nothing but hermpaeas pennant and and goodshe ther ;
coals, ma
sa man-of--war
there-of-w ai rs
scarcely any chance of her reaching her destination
in time. This is the vessel by which we received
our English mails of 24th Nov. on 28th Dec.—the