Everybody seems a little at sea about one question connected
with the annexation of Burmah. The House of Commons voted on Monday, by 297 to 82, that the expense of the annexation, only 2300,000, should be paid by India ; but the 82 object to this, and so do certain groups of natives, who assume to repre- sent the continent of India. Even Mr. Gladstone was a little apologetic upon this point, but entirely without necessity. Whatever the value of the Upper Irrawaddy to India, nobody, we suppose, will dispute its value to the Lower Irrawaddy. But the territory drained by that river now pays, and has paid for years, a surplus revenue of a million sterling to help the finances of British India. If, therefore, the worthy people who telegraph from Bombay and Calcutta that " India " objects to pay for the Burmese War wish to be free of Burmese responsibilities, they must restore about ten millions sterling which they have accepted from the Burmese for their own relief. We quite understand the theory that Burmah is not India, and that India ought not to be taxed for it ; but in that case, neither ought Burmah to be taxed for India, which it is, to an inde- fensible amount. The ambitious lads who form societies on the coast, and call themselves "the people" of India, do not under- stand even the direct pecuniary interests of their own con- stituents, or rather they do, and want to take all the profit of Burmah and leave the loss to some one else.
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