so. Along the frontier the holdings average only about five acres, in the Rangoon district from sixteen to twenty acres is the ordinary size, but here and there are a few considerably larger. It would, however, be a great mistake to endeavour to introduce larger tenancies. It is entirely against the genius of the people, and the appearance of foreign capitalists could not fail to be otherwise than disastrous. The present mode of cultivation is slovenly enough, and larger farms would most certainly not tend to remedy the defect, which is due in great part to the superabundance of available arable land lying waste. Burma is progressing fast enough as it is. The abundance of rich land, the facility with which rights over it can be acquired, the great demand for rice, and the ever-increasing counter demand for European goods, the fixed, though heavy taxation, the cessation of all irregular and unexpected collections, the absolute personal security enjoyed by all under the English administration; all these benefits have resulted in the trebling of the population of British Burma during the twenty-six years since the annexation of Pegu; in the more than trebling of the trade-the value of the seaborne merchandise alone having doubled and reached twelve and a half millions sterling during the last ten years and in the wonderful increase in revenue, which makes Burma the most valuable of all the provinces under the Indian government.

CHAPTER XXIX.

MANDALAY AND RANGOON.

AMERICANS talk, and with good reason, of the magic growth of their cities. But for mere mushroom growth, Mandalay will compare even with Chicago itself, and if we are to judge of the progress of a commercial place by the fair criterion of business results, Rangoon may hold up its head in confident rivalry with any of the typical American cities. Twenty years ago the site of Mandalay was swampy paddy land and rank jungle. Now an area of five square miles is covered with houses, many of them squalid enough certainly, and with large patches of unused land round about them, but none the less contained within the city limits. Rangoon came into British hands in 1852, and at that time possessed no commerce worthy of the name, indeed it was only known as the place for pilgrims to the Shway Dagohn pagoda to stay at, and the residence of the Regent of Pegu, as being the guard station on the most accessible mouth of the Irrawaddy. Ten years later, ships entered or cleared from the port, having a tonnage of 295,000 tons, and the imports were worth 1,200,000., the exports 1,400,000l., and since that date-about the same period when Mandalay was founded-the tonnage has increased to 1,000,000, the value of the imports to

5,000,0007. sterling, and the exports to 4,000,000. In a quarter of a century the commerce of British Burma has risen to nearly 20,000,000l. sterling. The population has quadrupled; public works are carried on; education is widely disseminated; the administration is carefully managed by British officials; a railway, 163 miles long, has been made; there are 1,300 miles of telegraph lines; stately law courts and other public buildings have sprung up, and so far from the work being a tax on the Indian Imperial Treasury, British Burma has been, after its first few years, more than self-supporting. For a considerable time it has contributed to the Imperial treasury a clear surplus of a million sterling. The mere figures are in themselves surprising, but they cannot be truly appreciated unless they are read along side the obvious, undeniable, and acknowledged prosperity and contentment of the native population. When Upper

Burma is annexed, as every Burman believes it will be annexed, and every true Burman hopes, even more astonishing results may be expected, and the Ashay-pyee will prove the brightest jewel in the British crown.

In contrast with this, Mandalay has nothing to show but its size and its forced growth. So long as the king is a man who, like Theebaw Min, has never travelled twenty miles at a stretch in all his life, it cannot be otherwise. Now he has ascended the throne, he cannot leave the capital, and scarce dares even leave the palace. The perpetual incense of flattery naturally makes him

"Take the rustic murmur of the bourg

For the great wave that echoes round the world."

Some of the ministers have visited Europe, and could reform the country, if they dared, but it is ill persuading the tiger to give up flesh-eating. They find it difficult enough to keep their heads safe, even when they do

nothing, where there are so many lurking about for a chance to oust them. The fall of Burman rule is already over due. Two ancient prophecies have been fulfilled; a hat-wearing nation has settled in the land, and ships have gone up the Irrawaddy, without rowers and without sails, and the old legend tells that these signify the doom of the princes. When the English Government ceases to mistake moral clap-trap for humanity, and nursery tracts for sound principles, we may hope to see all Burma cultivated and happy.

The mushroom growth of Mandalay is not to be mistaken for a sign of either prosperity or an advantageous situation. The astrologers and the king settled the new site between them, and when this was arranged a royal order came out bidding all remove themselves from Amarapura to Mandalay on pain of death in case of refusal. The transference of a bamboo hut is certainly no very great undertaking, and occupies less than a week in the pulling down and setting up. But the hardship was none the less where the people had gardens, or fruit-trees growing in their yards. The Chinese alone remained firm. Their houses were of the usual substantial, heavy, Celestial architecture, and, moreover they had built for themselves an elaborate joss-house, in splendour quite equal to the best in Rangoon. Consequently, they flatly refused to migrate the two or three miles distance to the new capital. The astrologers were as usual for using force, but Mindohn Min had more sense. The Chinamen were almost all British subjects, and moreover their dealings contributed substantially to the revenue. Their village therefore remained, and has served to drag out a long suburb beyond the Arrakan Pagoda as a kind of connecting link. Numbers of later arrivals, however, settled in the royal City of Gems, and the wealthier merchants all eventually moved their head-quarters thither,

so that his Majesty triumphed in the end. The best houses in Mandalay, the only brick ones, in fact, are all in the possession of the Chinese and Mogul merchants. Burmans have neither the right nor the money to build anything but wooden erections. These latter have, however, the compensating advantage that they stand all but the most violent earthquakes, while the brick houses, even when they are strengthened by an elaborate wooden framework, usually collapse when there is anything like a heavy shock.

But the great majority of the houses are simple wattled huts, with large open spaces in their rear which serve to keep the town airy and well-ventilated. According to Burman custom each house has its little shop with the entire stock in trade displayed to the view of the passer by. As in all Eastern towns, those who occupy themselves with a regular handicraft all flock together. Thus the umbrella-makers and sellers of saddlery live to the south of the Palace, vendors of bamboo-work and lacquered boxes to the west, while the potters and miscellaneous goods shops are mostly along the street that leads to Payah. Gyee.

There is no attempt at metalling any of the roads, except the broad thoroughfare which leads up from the steamer ghaut, past the ministers' "villas," up to the outskirts of the town, for Mandalay lies two miles away from the river-bank, the idea being that at Amarapura the noise of the foreigners' steamers disturbed the royal repose. The big stones which represent the metalling on this one road are rather a trouble than otherwise, except to the vultures and egrets in the wet weather, when all around is a sea of mud, and the boulders form an eligible coign of vantage. Elsewhere the streets are cut into huge ruts, and the bullock-carts go along in the hot weather in a