Connecticut western news., 1885-12-23
BURMAH AND ENGLAND.
The Trouble Between the two Countries
 English Rule.

Independent Burmah, against which England has declared war, and which it proposes to annex to the British Empire, covers a territory more than four times as large as the State of New York, sparsley settled by about three millions of half-clyilized Mongollans and Shans. The Burmese are large, vigorous, good-humored people, who are expert mechanics, keen tradesmen, and fond of athletic sports; they arc, too, domestic race and devout Buddhists,
 Being of a gayer and more active tenn parament than other Asiatics, they take eager delight in all kinds of shows and processions, and keep up @ perpetual succession of feast-days.
 The natural resources of the country are very rich. Three large rivers water fertile valleys which are yet untitled. The forests are full of teak, and the mountains contain more or less of coal, gold, marble, iron, silver and lead. There is an abundance of coal-oil, and mines of rubies and sapphires.
 England, it is probible, however, has not been tempted by this natural wealth. It covets Burmsh simply as highway
 
 and Laos. There is an enormous trade in silk and the finer kinds of tea to be opened up in these regions by any European power that can first command waterway which drains them.
 This was the chief object in the effort of France to capture Annam and the great river Songtal tor Son-KoiD. But this river proves to be full of snags and impossible rapids. The Irrawaddy, now under the control of Burmah, rising in the mountains of Thibet, passes the principal trading centres of Bhamo, Mandalay. Prone and Rsngoon. This is the highway which, according to the London Times, England will keep open at any cost"
 Theebaw, the King of Burmah, hav- ing been educated in England, knows the commercial value of his alliance for this reason to any European power. He took steps to make such an alliance with France, and at the same time assiduously picked a quarrel with Eng land concerning the amount of taxes which he proposed to levy on a British lumber company trading in Burmah.
 This was the ostensible ground of quarrel, but the actual difficulty is that England must possess the Irrawaddy as the conduit through which will flow the trade of vast and rich quarter of Asia She cannot gain this now with out the overthrow of the government of Theebaw, and when the government is overthrown nothing remains but the annexation of the country.
 To this policy Lord Dalhousie and other English ststeemen familiar with { Asiatic affairs have always been strongly opposed, on the ground that England ] would not be able to maintain her hold on so distant a territory (marching for | five hundred miles with China), without perpetual sacrifice of money and life, which the gain would not repay. The present war will, however, if it result in the defeat of Theebaw, force this policy on England, whether it is popular with the English people or not What England has undertaken is simi- lar to many other enterprises which have resulted in the extension of her empire Her motive is almost exclusively selfish, and if carried out, her plans involve the destruction of a kingdom and the ex- tinction of its independence.
 But, on the other hand, the people of Burmah will be relieved from the rule of despot who is more atrociously cruel and regardless of the rights and 1 the lives of his subjects than any other sovereign living. Nero or Caligula was not more bloody monarch than is King Theebaw.