Vili APPENDIX. 
ports in Persia, Arabia, and Africa, when the town of Mantotte was the great emporium 
of all the trade that was carried on by sea between the western and eastern portions of 
the globe; the antiquities of the island as illustrating the laws, religion, manners, and 
customs of the people, and as connected with the history, laws, and religion of the 
inhabitants of Siam; the botany of the island as affecting many of the moral and 
political changes which have taken place in the situation of the several castes of 
people in the country; and the zoology, particularly that portion of it which relates 
to the various species of elephants that are found in different parts of the island. 
The reading of this report being concluded, Sir ALExanpEr Jounston proceeded to 
develope the proceedings of the Committee in a more ample manner in the address of 
which the substance is subjoined ; and it was then 
RESOLVED, 
“‘ That he be requested to reduce his observations to writing, and that they be 
“printed together with the Report in the Appendix to the Transactions of the 
* Society.” 
GENTLEMEN: 
You have heard an account of the proceedings of the Committee of Correspondence 
for the last twelve months; some of them relate to India in general, some to the 
island of Ceylon in particular; they are all calculated to procure information relative 
to four questions of immediate interest and public importance. The first, that of the 
revival, in consequence of the discovery of steam navigation, of the commercial inter- 
course which was formerly carried on between Europe and Asia through the Red 
Sea. The second, that of the policy of allowing European British subjects to settle 
in the interior of India, for the purpose of introducing amongst the natives of the 
country British capital, British industry, British arts and sciences, and British improve- 
ments. The third, that of the practicability of framing a particular code of laws 
for the use of the natives of India, which shall be adapted to the circumstances of 
the country and to the wants of the people; which shall be divested of all technicalities ; 
which shall be short and precise; and which shall materially diminish, if not entirely 
prevent the delay, the expense, and the inconvenience to which the administration 
of justice is now subject in India. The fourth, that of the different measures which 
are necessary to restore the northern and eastern provinces of Ceylon to the state of 
agricultural and commerciai prosperity which they enjoyed from the first to the 
fifteenth century, when they were the emporium of all the maritime trade which was 
carried on between the western and eastern portions of the globe. It is essential 
to the character and success of the Society, to have it generally known that the 
researches of the Committee are not only of importance to science and literature, but, 
that they are of immediate use to the public; I, therefore, feel it to be my duty as 
Chairman of the Committee, to point out distinctly in what manner each of the 
researches which we have instituted during the last twelve months is of immediate use- 
