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Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5231, 23 October 1885, Page 2

Accobdinct to the latest intelligence, King Theebaw, of Burmah Proper, has seemingly made up his miDd to rnsh upon his fate by refusing to comply with the terms of the ultimatum sent him by the Commissioner of British Buruaah. It is reported by cablegram that ho has §eofc ft

body of dacoits into the British territory, and has also reinforced his frontier. The utter futility of any struggle on the part of King Tkeebaw to contend against the British forces would bo apparent to anyone conversant with the past history of the two previous Burmese campaigns, the last of which resulted in tbe occupation by the English Government of the moat valuable portion of tbe Empire, comprising the whole of the Seaboard, and leaving the Burmese Government without one seaport. The resistance offered to our troops was in both campaigns of a very feeble character, the greatest losses sustained by us being only in instances where our troops bad to storm some stockades in the heart of the jangles. But in not one case did they ever venture to face our men in the open field. Their army—if they have anything of the kind deserving such an appellation—has no system, and the very words of yesterday's telegram, in which the King is stated to have sent a body of dacoits into British territory, shows his weakness and paucity in trained soldiers. The word " dacoit" means robber, and ever since the conclusion of the last war in 1853, the frontier has been incessantly infested by dacoits, : who make their home just within the frontier in Burmah proper, and are constantly making inroads into English territory, robbing villages, carrying off cattle and ponies, and even sometimes murdering villages, and then retreating beyond the frontier before they could be followed. This has been the custom for years and years, and though often urged, the British have never made any reprisals, The atrocities perpetrated by King Theebaw bave given him a world-wide notoriety bs one of the most bloodthirsty and cruel monarchs since the time of Nero, and it would be a happy day for its subjects if he persists in his present insane defiance of the power of England. It can only have one ending, and that ia the annexation by England of the whole of Upper Burmab, and of substituting her just and comparatively speakiog mild rule for that of a despot add a tyrant.