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A Mid-Victorian Coverup: The Case of The “Combustible Commodore” and the Second Anglo-Burmese War, 1851–1852

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Oliver B. Pollak
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Extract

The origins of the Second Anglo-Burmese War in late 1851 were the subject of a Mid-Victorian bipartisan and bureaucratic coverup throughout 1852-53. The Government of India in Calcutta had successfully maintained a policy of “non-intercourse” following removal in 1840 of its diplomatic representatives from Burma despite frequent uncoordinated calls for remonstrance by merchants, missionaries and military administrators. In 1851, a convergence of factors, most notably the alleged mistreatment of British subjects in Rangoon, captured the President in Council's attention in Calcutta resulting in a policy change which led to armed intervention. Calcutta's renewed interest in Burma occurred while politicans in London prepared to scrutinize the bureaucratic relations between the London-based Cabinet and the East India Company.

Official discussions in Calcutta about Burma occurred while Governor General Dalhousie was “up country on progress” and at the very time that the Council wanted to test its capacity to act independently. The Council resorted to a unit of the Royal Navy then in Calcutta enroute from Acheh to the Persian Gulf. Commodore George Robert Lambert offered to deliver letters to Burmese authorities in Rangoon and negotiate on behalf of the English subjects. Lambert's reputation for moderation recommended him to Calcutta officials. His instructions from Council and private letters from Dalhousie advised caution and the avoidance of confrontation. Yet Lambert, a line officer, ultimately responsible to the Admiralty in London, could conceivably ignore Calcutta's wishes and chart his own course.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , Summer 1978 , pp. 171 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1978

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References

1 Dalhousie to Cowper, 21 October 1851 and 1 February 1852 in Baird, J.G. A., Private Letters of the Marquess of Dalhousie (London, 1911), pp. 179, 189–90Google Scholar.

2 Elliot to Halliday, 31 October 1851 and Halliday to Lambert, 11 November 1851 in Parliamentary Papers, 1852, XXXVIGoogle Scholar, “Papers Relating to Hostilities with Burmah,” C. 1490, presented 4 June 1852 (Hereafter C. 1490), pp. 155, 159; and Dalhousie to Lambert, 29 October and 3 November 1851, Dalhousie Muniment 6/531, Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh.

3 Lambert to Dalhousie and Littler, 28 November 1851, C. 1490, p. 167 and Dal. Mun. 6/531.

4 Dalhousie to Lambert, private, 23 January 1852, Dal. Mun. 6/82.

5 Dalhousie to Lambert, private, 23 January 1852, Broughton Papers, Add. MSS. 36477, British Library, London. Original emphasis and corrections. This letter was passed between at least Broughton and Herries and probably Fox Maule and Wood.

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8 Dalhousie to Lambert, private, 23 January 1852, Dal. Mun. 6/82.

9 Lambert to Halliday, ISP/173 and Woodman, p. 546. For the threat of appealing to Palmerston see Dalhousie to Cowper, private, 23 July 1853, in Baird, p. 260.

10 Dalhousie to Broughton, private, 23 February 1852, Broughton Papers, B.L., Add. MSS. 36477. See also SirPhilips, Cyril, “Dalhousie and the Burmese War of 1852,” in Cowan, C.D. and Wolters, O.W., eds., Southeast Asian History and Historiography (Ithaca, New York, 1976), pp. 51–8Google Scholar.

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19 Herries to Wellington, 4 May 1852, Herries Papers, LXXVIII, and Herries, II: p. 248.

20 Herries to Derby, 6 May 1852, Herries Papers, LXXVIII.

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22 Herries to Dalhousie, 7 July 1852, Herries Papers, LXXVIII.

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24 See, for example, Minute by Dalhousie, 10 August 1852 not going to London until 7 September 1852. Expressions as “mistaken routine,” inadvertant delay, and “administrative “oversight” were commonly used to cover the stalling.

25 Herries to Derby, 19 August 1852, Herries Papers, XLIV.

26 Duke of Wellington Memo, 24 August 1852, Herries Papers, XCVII.

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41 Ibid., p. 106.

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43 Ibid., p. 78.

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