Rangoon, took that place and Prome, and were permitted to advance as far
as Yandabo; for the king, from motives of piety and regard to life, made
no effort whatever to oppose them. The strangers had spent vast sums of
money in their enterprise; and by the time they reached Yandabo, their
resources were exhausted, and they were in great distress. They petitioned
the king, who, in his clemency and generosity, sent them large sums of
money to pay their expenses back, and ordered them out of the country."--
_Crawfurd's Embassy to Ava._

To quote a vulgar proverb, this is making the best of a bad job.

* * * * *


DRESS.


How far a man's clothes are or are not a part of himself, is more than I
would take on myself to decide, without farther inquiry; though I lean
altogether to the affirmative. The inhabitants of the South Sea Islands
were astonished and alarmed when they, first saw the Europeans strip.
Yet they would have been much more so, could they have entered into the
notions prevalent in the civilized world on the subject of a wardrobe;
could they have understood how much virtue lies inherent in a superfine
broad cloth, how much respectability in a gilt button, how much sense in
the tie of a cravat, how much amiability in the cut of a sleeve, how much
merit of every sort in a Stultz and a Hoby. There are who pretend, and
that with some plausibilty, that these things are but typical; that taste
in dress is but the outward and visible sign of the frequentation of good
company; and that propriety of exterior is but evidence of a general sense