Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p1.djvu/441

  The notion of treating upon a perfect equality, which evidently pervaded the recent negociations on the part of the Burman commissioners, and which probably originated not only in the haughtiness of the Court of Ava, but in an impression entertained by it, to which the acknowledged anxiety of the British authorities for peace had given rise, that they were unable or disinclined to carry on the war, rendered the ultimate result of the conferences at Neoun-ben-zeik little problematical; and arrangements for resuming hostile operations were actively pursued. Their necessity was soon evinced. The Court of Ava, indignant at the idea of ceding an inch of territory, or submitting to what, in oriental politics, is held a mark of excessive humiliation, payment of any pecuniary indemnification, breathed nothing but defiance, and determined instantly to prosecute the war. In the short interval that ensued before hostilities were renewed. Sir Archibald Campbell addressed the Kee-Wongee, relative to the prisoners, whose liberation was refused on the plea of British troops having moved by way of Negrais to Rangoon; and in reply to his enquiry, as to the probable termination of the truce, it was intimated, that the demand for any cession of money or territory precluded all possibility of a renewal of friendly intercourse. Nothing remained, therefore, but a further appeal to arms.

