Private and demi-official telegrams have been received in London showing
that civil war has broken out in Burmah, and that trade beyond the frontier has stopped. No details are known, but it is believed that the insurgents raise the claim of the Nyoung-yan, the member of the House of Alompra who is living under our protection in Calcutta. Indeed, there is hardly any other candidate to put forward. Rangoon is, of course, greatly excited, and on one point with some justice. If Theebau wins, he may demand the surrender of his cousin, and cross the frontier in rage at a refusal. It is, how- ever, most improbable that he will win, his enemies having staked their heads against his ; and if he is idiot enough to invade, the position will become simple. We must then replace him either by the Nyoung-yan or a British Commissioner. The effort would not be great, and Burmah could pay expenses. No moral law binds us to endure either actual invasion or the threat of it, and while the contest is raging a massacre is improbable. Even a Burmese will not make his own cause hopeless while he still has hope.
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