| Lower Burma | with an area of | 87,957 | sq. mls., | population | 4,658,627 |
| Upper Burma | ” ” | 83,473 | ” | ” | 3,063,426 |
| Shan States | ” ” | 40,000 | ” | ” | 375,961 |
| 8,098,014 |
With regard to the population of the towns, Mandalay stands first with 188,815. Next to this is Rangoon, the capital and the seat of Government, with 180,324; Maulmein has 56,000. The rest of the towns are considerably smaller.
The population of Burma is scanty in proportion to its area and resources; in fact, population is the great requisite for the development of the country. The quickening touch of British rule and commerce is effecting much in the direction of supplying this need. Every district, without exception, in Lower Burma shows an increase in the last ten years, an increase of 22 per cent. on the whole. The Indian Government is disposed to make the rich province of Burma an outlet for the congested populations of some of the provinces of India, and the great steamer companies are accomplishing this by conveying many hundreds of natives every week from the Indian ports to Rangoon, thereby enriching themselves, enriching Burma, and giving to these people a sphere and a chance in life, where their humble energies may receive their due reward. It is in manifold ways like this that civilisation and a firm and enlightened rule bestow such blessings on these teeming Oriental populations. The number of these immigrants from India into Rangoon, the chief seaport of Burma, during 1890 was 86,609. Owing to the customs of the natives of India, and their reluctance to break entirely away from home and country, there were in that year 65,055 who returned to India. This leaves a balance of over 20,000 for the year, which may represent approximately that very welcome addition to its population which Burma receives from India year by year. Rangoon itself is largely Indian in population, and Indians are to be found all over the country in great numbers.
Both Upper and Lower Burma have yet large tracts of waste land, unoccupied territory that would well repay cultivation, and it is to be hoped that an agricultural population will be attracted from India. Should the railway system of Burma, now being rapidly developed, be united to that of India, that will no doubt be brought about in course of time. As the price of labour, roughly speaking, is 100 per cent. more than it is in India, and as the cost of living is not more than 50 per cent. higher, the balance is decidedly in favour of the immigrant.
Burma is watered by magnificent rivers. Chief of these is the Irrawaddy, with Rangoon near its mouth, and chief among its tributaries is the Chindwin. Both these rivers are great arteries of trade, being navigated not only by great numbers of the quaint-looking Burmese vessels, but by the large and powerful steamers of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, which, since 1867, has been trading on these rivers. Their steamers now ply regularly several times a week up the Irrawaddy to Mandalay, 500 miles, and even as far as Bhamo, some 250 miles farther, and up the Chindwin as far as Kendat. These steamers are splendidly built of steel, with flat bottom, and lower and upper deck, with ample accommodation both for saloon and deck passengers, and are fitted throughout with the electric light. Some of them will carry considerably over a thousand passengers besides cargo.
Historically Upper Burma is a land of great interest. It was all that remained of the once powerful Burmese empire, which in the early part of this century was strong enough to menace our Indian territory, and extended from Siam, in the south, to the confines of Bengal, in the north, and from China to the Bay of Bengal.
Each of the three Burmese wars has arisen in a similar way, and has been marked by the same features on the part of the Burmese Government,—viz., an unwillingness to listen to reason, with much bluster and ignorant self-sufficiency at the outset, and inferior military qualities in the performance,—and each has resulted in the annexation of some part of the kingdom to British territory. Arakan and Tenasserim were acquired by treaty after the first Burmese war in 1824-26; the province of Pegu was occupied and retained, consequent on the second war in 1852-53; this gave us the command of the Irrawaddy, with Rangoon for a seaport; the third and last war, in 1885, took away all that remained of Burmese rule, and the kingdom of Burma became a thing of the past.
Much may be said against war in the abstract, and against wars of this description in particular. It would be easy to represent such a war as this, so far away from England, as aggressive and unjustifiable. I am no advocate for war of any kind, and I am not anxious to defend this action of England in conquering and annexing the last remnant of the Burman kingdom. But I can see that a question of this kind is not to be so summarily settled as may appear on the face of it.
England long ago embarked in India on a career of empire, prompted rather by the force of circumstances than of set purpose; and now it often seems difficult to decide when to go forward and where to stop. I will not attempt to unravel this tangled skein, but will merely say that, leaving aside the questions of how England came by her vast power and influence in the East, and whether she ought ever to extend it, and if so under what circumstances, it seems to me that ultimately and finally the verdict must turn on the use she makes of this unique position, and what she accomplishes with her unrivalled opportunities in the material, intellectual, social and moral advancement of the many races and nations that she rules or protects.
Coming now to the immediate causes of the Burmese war of 1885, the following is the official account of them from the British standpoint:—