6 AUGUST 1853, Page 15

HOW WARS ARE GOT UP IN INDIA.* MR. COBDEN has

read with great attention two fasciculi of Parlia- mentary papers, put forth to the world with the usual studied dis- order and mutilations of the blue book tribe on Indian sub- jects ; " papers," says Mr. Cobden, " which require a considerable effort of attention to read them with advantage," in consequence of this arbitrary arrangement. And he has performed a public ser- vice by compiling out of the crude materials a case against the authors of the Burmese war. As he states it, the case is striking and conclusive.

In the summer of 1851, two British ships arrived at Rangoon. Certain natives of British India made heavy charges against the masters ; who were detained, examined before a local magistrate, and mulcted severally in amounts of 551. and 701. They claimed 1920/. compensation as for loss, demurrage, ill-usage, &c. ; and the Governor-General of India instructed Commodore Lambert, with two Queen's ships then in the Hooghly, to proceed to Rangoon and exact restitution to a smaller amount-9201. Commodore Lambert was instructed, in case the Governor of Rangoon should refuse compensation to forward a letter to the King of Burmah at Ava, Ave but with the distinct understanding " that no net of hostility was to be committed at that time, although the reply should be unfavourable, nor until definite instructions regarding such hos- tilities should be given by the Government of India." Arriving in November 1851, Commodore Lambert was met by several other complaints, chiefly of extortionate fines for alleged misdemeanours. Mr. Cobden describes these complaints as absurd, and the cosmo- politan population collected at Rangoon as the refuse of the world. Commodore Lambert, however, entertained the complaints : he re- solved to hold no communications with the Governor, but de- manded of the King the Governor's dismissal. The Governor was dismissed; the Burmese Government promised to settle the de- mand made on them by the Government of India; and the com- munications were opened, through an interpreter, with a new Governor. The interpreter went as the harbinger of a deputation, consisting of Captain Fishbourne, Captain Latter, and two subor- dinate, officers. But the Governor wished that the communica- tions should continue through the interpreter; and when the depu- tation arrived, he pleaded, by his servants, that he was asleep, it being the hot part of the day,—a plea, says Mr. Cobden, equiva- lent to the English plea, of "not at home, The Governor, how- ever, reported to his superiors that the members of the British deputation were intoxicated. A retaliation for these substantial discourtesies follow d, in the seizure of a ship belonging to the • o How Warsare got up in India: the Origin of the Burmese War. By Richard Cobden, Esq., M.P." A new Pamphlet, published by F. and G. Cash.

King of Ave, with "great execution" upon those who resisted the removal of the ship. Satisfaction was still delayed ; and hence the Burmese war, from which it now seems impossible to extricate ourselves.

The case as stated by Mr. Cobden, we have said, is conclusive : but, even on the statement he lays before us, we see reason to doubt whether something of a case on the opposite side could not be advanced. It is a peculiarity of Mr. Cobden's acute mind, not to perceive the force of facts which might prevail with others. That the Governor should plead being " asleep " in bar to a solemn

deputation respecting an affair of peace and war—that the depu- tation, comprisine.b naval officers of rank, should be kept waiting for

a quarter of an hour in the sun—that the principal should be told to take shelter in a shed used for the common people—these things Mr. Cobden regards as trifles. Again, the fair speaking which emanates from the Court of Ave on demand he accepts literally. He compares dates and distances, and takes pains to show that suf- ficient time was not allowed for the Court at Burmah to execute its intentions of doing justice. With a remarkable degree of judi- cial blindness, he appears to ignore facts not included in the blue book,—with the exception, indeed, of anecdotes gathered here and there, which tend to justify his implicit confidence in the Burmese Government, and his total reprobation of the Indian Government or the Commodore.

Others, however, cannot be so completely oblivious of facts fa- miliar to the whole world; and amongst those facts two are pro- minent. First, the port of Rangoon had been notorious for wrongful treatment of British subjects by the local authorities. In the two cases specified, no doubt the complainants were "Bri- tish subjects," as well as the defendants who were subjected to extortion ; but they were not really British persons. They were Coolies and Lascars—members of those mongrel and lawless tribes that infest the Eastern Seas ; and there is prima facie cause for suspicion that the local authorities, which only appeared to ad- judicate between indifferent parties, made a profit out of the plun- der which they extorted in the name of fines. Secondly, it is the standing policy with the Court of Burmah, as it is with the bar- barous courts of that region, to meet claims by plausible and dilatory pleas. Accept the excuses and promises of Indian or Chinese potentates, and you will never exact anything else. Bat Mr. Cobden is charmed with the good feeling and rational tone of

all that emanates from Berman diplomacy, and is evidently inca- pable of perceiving the qualifications inherent in his case—for his he makes it to all intents and purposes.

There were, indeed, gross errors of conduct in the early stages of the dispute with Burmah. Commodore Lambert acted with preposterous inconsistency when he obeyed the instructions to go to Rangoon, and then, setting those instructions at nought, dis- obeyed them in each important particular ; withholding the speci- fic demand, and substituting a new one ; neglecting to await com-

munications from Ave, and engaging in the hostilities which were expressly forbidden to him. He is an officer of the Crown, and

Mr. Cobden presumes that technically be may not have been ixound

by Lord Dalhousie's orders : but if so, he acted without orders, and by his own discretion, or indiscretion, in levying war on a

foreign state, he has plunged us into this contest of many years' duration. Grave displeasure might have punished such miscon- duct with loss of employment, if not of rank.

But in truth, the fundamental fault of the proceedings towards Burmah was precisely the opposite of that which Mr. Cobden seems to think self-evident. It was not the being too impatient with the Burmese—it was not the neglect of formal and deliberate negotiations with the Court of Ava ; but it was the entering into negotiations at all. In the barbarous ports of the far East such niceties are wasted. The puerile punctilio of Burmah, for which Mr. Cobden has so much respect, has no identity with real regular- ity or practical reverence for law and justice ; and it is not worth indulging. British commerce finds its way into marts where, if the local Governments do not share the booty of extortion, they cannot restrain the rapacious. Without trustworthy tribunals, with evidence compared to which that before a Connaught jury in a Ri- band case would be respectable, exactjustice is a sheer impossibi- lity ; and the question is, whether English mercantile sea-captains may be licensed to protect themselves individually and collectively against aggression and extortion, or whether the power of their own Government may not be More quietly and effectively used for the same purpose. " Treaties" with courts like that of Ava are waste paper; and, as we ought not to have wished to annex any part of the golden- footed potentate's land, we ought to have sought no communication with him. The thing wanted was a smart blow on rough and un- tutored barbarians ; who, if they cannot preserve good manners

and sustain law, must pay the damages. Reprisals were the mode ; leaving the Burmans to settle their own injustice among themselves, and to discuss, or perhaps discover by degrees, the consequences of not so behaving as to be fit for admission into the comity of nations. A blow, short, severe, sufficient, and ending with itself. But Peace doctrines have made such proper eastiga- tions unfashionable, and have undermined the resolute spirit which once made the angry word of England a terror to her enemies.