The Sun.
London, England, 1825-01-03 00:00:00

THE BURMESE WAR.

By an arrival from Bombay, early in the week, we have re-
ceived letters and papers from Calcutta to the beginning of Au-
gust, from Madras to the middle, and Bombay to the end of
that month, from which extracts will be found in another part
of our paper. From these it appears, that at Rangoon an at-
tack was made by the Burmese upon our troops which had been
most gallantly repelled, with very considerable loss on the part
of the enemy, and almost none on our side. On the Chittagong
Frontier, also, there has been some rather harder fighting, which
has been equally creditable to the British arms. From every
thing that we can learn, it is evident that, however brave and
resolute the Burman troops may be, they are not armed and
equipped in a way that can in the open field, or even behind a
field fortification, render them formidable to our soldiers. But
still they possess one positive advantage over them, that of being
accustomed to the climate in which they act ; and before we
congratulate ourselves on our successes, it would be well were
we to wait until we see what effect a September's residence in
the Jungle will produce on our men. That the British arms
will ithimately prove successful, no one who rectllects the
former wars in India can for a moment doubt; but the are still
of opinion, that much blood must be spilt, and much trea-
sure expended, before these presumptuous barbarians be
brought to their senses, and we still think that the war, so
far as it has gone, in the planning of it at least, has been ill
conducted.

An epidemic fever, but of no very dangerous nature, seems
raging in India. Medical men have attempted in this case, as
they did when the cholera first made its appearance, to give
some satisfactory account of the cause of this visitation; but as
in the case alluded to they have totally failed. In Calcutta, we
can only say, that much of the fever which annually appears
during the rains, arises solely from want of attention on the
part of the police to the cleanliness of the city. When the late
Mr. Elliot had charge of that department, comparatively little
fever was to be met with ; but since that period it has been
much more common, and at its first commencement can always
be traced along the houses which border upon the common
sewer, rich in the filth of eight months accumulation.

The fears that were entertained for the fate of Madras, Bom-
bay and Upper India, from the probability that the long con-
tinued drought would produce famine in these districts, are
now, we are happy to say, to a great extent dissipated. Showers
have fallen at Madras' and at Bombay the last advices state,
that the rains had fairly set in. In Upper Bengal too we should
suppose there can be no want of water, as a private letter states
that the indigo crops in Purneah and Tirhoot were totally
ruined by an inundation, and that such was the state of the sur..
face of the Colintry that the Budgerows (boats) of many of the
unfortunate Indigo Planters were moored to their houses. The
general opinion therefole is, that the Indigo crop of this year
will be nearly as short as that of last. The Calcutta price cur-
rent of the 31st July, tates, that the prospects of the planter
in Jessore and Dacca were stillgood, but that from the late
sowings in these districts much of the plant was still in danger.
—(Telescope.)