There is one argument against the advance which I do not think that your Lordship has urged with the force of the rest.  While the new Sovereign remains undisturbed in the rest of his dominions he will maintain his authority over them, and do his best to prevent our new frontier from being disturbed, knowing that we can advance to his capital and punish him if he does not.  But, were he to be driven from his capital, all the rest of his dominions would soon fall into a state of anarchy, and our frontiers would soon be disturbed by leaders of disorderly bands, anxious to carve out principalities for themselves, and having no other means than plunder to maintain their followers.  For the acts of such men we could hold no one responsible, after we had driven their Sovereign from his capital to the hills and jungles; and half a century might elapse before order could be restored.  In the mean time, wealth would be growing up within our border to invite their aggression, while they would become poorer and poorer from disorders, and more and more anxious to seize upon it.

With regard to an advance upon Amarapoora, it will not be difficult after the rains, if circumstances render it necessary.  The Madras cattle are much better for hard work and all climates than those of Bengal, and sufficient could be collected for the occasion by sea.  Your Lordship’s reasons for not trusting to steamers alone are unanswerable, and it seems impossible for a land and river force to act jointly.  In this, we almost realize the contest between the winds and the moschettoes before the court of the genii in the Arabian tale:  when the winds appeared, the moschettoes could not, and when they appeared, the winds could not.  For the prestige of our own name in the rest of India, to advance to the capital and then give the rest of the country to the Sovereign might, perhaps, be the best; but for the security of our new acquisition, and that of the people of the rest of Burmah, it would certainly be better to stay where we are.  The benefits of our rule might, by degrees, be imparted to that of the rest of Burmah.  The Government would be obliged to treat their people better than they have done in order to keep them.

Here everything still is what I have described it to be so often; that is, as bad as it can be.  The King is the same, and the officers and favourites whom he employs are the same.  I shall not write public reports on the state of affairs till I learn that your Lordship wishes it, which will be, I conclude, when you have carried out your arrangements in Burmah.

The terrible war of races in China, to which I have been looking forward for some years, seems to be coming slowly on.  I wrote to Sir H. M. Elliot about it some two or three years ago, and recommended him to write a better life than we have of Jungez Khan, in order to show what the Tartars now really are.  When he led his swarms of them over China, Central Asia, and a great part of Europe, they worshipped