The Indian news is unpleasant : the Xing of Ava
will not cede an inch of territory—will rather brave war with US; and we mut now select our own course. The campaign has been in its nature one of the most unfortunate that our Indian administrators have ever undertaken. To punish a barbaric power, we have laden our- selves with a barbaric province on a questionable tenure ; and we are committed to the almost equally dieagreeble alternative of going on to coercion or retreating in disappointment. The policy of the formal demand forced upon Lord Dalhousie by the late Government, was as much worse than his own idea—which was simply to seize Burmah, as that was worse than the true policy—which should have been a blow sudden and short. No- thing can extricate us creditably from an awkward course until we can finish it off with some dashing and brilliant exploit by General Godwin.
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