Aw article which appeared the other day in, the vist, dealing with the commercial prospects socruing from the annexation, by Hugland, of Barms, ig worth more than passing consi tion, The writer adopts a decidedly frigid tone, aims at applying something like a douche of particularly cold water to the eager hopes of merchants who may Lave counted too largely upon the-advantages they will reap by the throwing-open of a 7 and promi field of interpris nexation of Burma, be warns us, may develop trade, but its development will be neither rapid nor extensive. It may help to develop railways, but in a country where there is such perfect water-communication as in Parma, railway will not very readily be made to pay. The increased trade itself will be more or less at the mercy of the in Yunnan, who will levy transit duties at their own discretion, That Burma haa mineral wealth is not disputed, but that the minerals likely to repay the expenditure necessary to work them is by no means certain, while the rabies and other gems which are known to lat belong to the State, and the State is not likely to leave them a prey to the prospecter, "It may be necessary to annex Upper Burma fur political reasons," concludes the writer in the Beonomist, "but the notion that it wil prove a gold-mine to English traders has no sufficient foundation:
this be 6o—and we hope that our contemporary twki unnecessarily gloomy view of the matter—it is only natural that we should see what political advantages we are likely to gain by con~ verting Burma into a provines of the Indian Hwpice, Here, it is comfort ing to think, we stand upon surer ground, In the first place, it must be patent to all that the slop we have Jately taken in deporting the King and putting end to the frightful misgovernment of his unfortunate country—an nckiovemout which occupied a fow days only—oannot bat have an exoollout effect throughout Asia, and particularly the Far Enst. It is indisputable that the blenderings and failures of Mr, Gindstoue's Government in the affairs of Egypt and the Soudan lave been attended with mischievous results to our prestige among all the Mohammedan populations. Now Great Britain is the largest Mohammedan Power in the world, and any domino.
tion of ils influence, how or slight, is attended with a proportionate menace to the stability of its rule, But the fall of Khartoum will, we trast, be more than neutralised by the conquest and anuoxstion of Burms, the effec of which throughout India is likely to be of a distinctly favourable natare, By this addition to our dominions, too, we have uow become possessed of a solid and. compact Eastern Empire, redobing from the south-we ru bor-
Heal and &. €. & &. Ga dors of China almost. to. the Mediterranean, This was in fact the chief itep needed to consolidate British power in India, and to place that great county in & position to take full advantage of its opportunities in developing the resources of what we may now term Svuth-eastern India, lying contiguous, as it does, to South-western China, The settlement of the Barmese question will moreover have the effect of removing one of the most disturbing elements in our position as an Exstern Power, of which the French and Ras. sinus have been fain to tuke ad vautag every Enstorn difficalty.
We have received an inorense of stre: and. what we have g fluence of th mill be felt at Teheran, aid in the Khanates of Boklara, Samarcand, and Khiva, as well as at St, Petersburg. And, wi India gains, China will not lose. On the contrary, will reap an unquestionable advantage from the presence of a powerful and friendly. neighbour upon her frontier ington of a weak, uncertain, treacherous, wholly asoless dependent, so-called, like the ex-King of Parma, quite apart from any commercial advani i may present themselves for her accept" ce, She will be far better protected, in fact, by the contiguity of a British State than obe over wath, fla 1 tribute and never assisted her with its arms; lo the mere fact that we do not establish a Protectorate over a pup= pet-king, but set up the role of reelf, is a sufficient guarer any intriguing between and a ruler from whom they might consider they still had a right to exact tribute by fair means or foul, There will be no necessity, a8 1 France in Tongqain, to make a Treaty with China stib that Chinese prestige aliall not be injured by anything that may be douse under the regime in Burma, Ohina never bad mach to do with the Burmese Government any way, and in future she will have no more concern with it than with Hongkovg. And it must be admitted that any advantage the French may be supposed to Lnve reaped in Annam or Penguin sinks into insignificance bee the acquisition of Burma by the Bri Franco has been compelled to go to war with Chin id in. that war she suffered reverses and. gained no oredit. Her Cabinet was upset, the Foreign Minister was convicted of prolonged and systematic deception, the Admiral who conducted the campaign died of worry and disgust, and the French are to-day left with an an-manageable and unhealthy jungle on their hands, of which they have not-yet been able to take fall possession, in-feated with.a hostile population, and necessitating Ube maintenance of expeusive garrisous.- Great, Britain acted with greater courtesy and greater caus tion, She first apprized Ohina of her appealed to China, His ap was rejected in its (urn, and' in a week from that day he was taken cap. tive and his Kingdom passed from. hit for ever. These few. circumstances. contain im themselves the elementa of permanence if not of alisolate pros. perity. The really impartial and pops lar administration of British justice. in Parma daring the last thirty years has en the Burmese confidence in British rale, and will help to, consolidate one power throughout the whole State, bee side facilitating the. development of whatever resources the country ma possess; more especially as the Straits Settlements are contiguous to the Barmese territory. The isolated French colon Ovehin China, even if they wore held more securely than is actually the case, cannot affect the growing power of the British Indian Empire, and France must be prepared to s not, only the semi-independent Shan States, but eventually Siam itself, eno dumb to the benign influence of Auglor Saxon enter; and rule, THE SILVER CRISIS, Ir seems indisputable that. the longs pending difficulty about silver la aps Oleveiand in his Message has recom. mended the eusponsion of age, and a Bill has been introduced ito Congress for the repeal of the Bland Coinage Act, Curiously enough, and, we confess, quite unexpectedly as far as we are concerned, these nts have hnd a very depressing flaenoe upon the silver-market, and feeling of paulo has been in the air. Que would Lave thought that change which has been menacing us 80 long would have been pretty well ehns been knowir step must come, and, in spite of the bolstering policy of the his ts, would be fraught with ceratnral and inevitable consequences which no amount of artificial contrivance oan ever hope to avert, Silver lias been falling steadily ever since Inst May, and it is impossible to believe that the threat. ened suspension of the Bland Act has not contributed very largely to thie re" sult, Still, the news that the Bland Act rrevooably doomed,=-that. the longpected. moment tins now actually arrived——has resulted. in " still furs ther decline, and silver. is to-day, quote ed at 463 per ounce.. It. was actually lower than this in 1876, when' it: was quoted 34., and that, we think, wag the lowest. point it has ever touched, Will it fall still more? It is always a perilous thing: to hassard - predict" tion in a matter where so many faotors come, into operation, and, which is subject to.influeuoes. of suck; wide range.and extreme complexity, as: this matter of silver: All'the same, we de not hesitate fo select' (hat ig our bebog
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.