74 MODERX HISTORY. [Part YI. 



A.D. resolved to administer the colony direct from the crown, 

 1798. r^inl in October, 1798, the Honourable Frederick Xorth, 

 afterwards Earl of Guildford, landed as the first British 

 governor. His appointment, and that of all the civil 

 officers, were made by the king ; but in the conduct of 

 affairs, he was placed under the orders of the Governor- 

 General of India ^, an arrangement which endured tdl 

 Ceylon was incorporated with the British dominions by 

 the treaty of Amiens, in 1802. 



]\ir. North arrived in time to carry into effect 

 the recommendations of De Meuron, that the Car- 

 natic revenue system should be forthA\dtli suspended, 

 and the Malabar dubashes sent back to the continent ; 

 that the native Moodliars should be reinstated in their 

 offices and dignities ; the obnoxious taxes abohshed, and 

 till a preferable arrangement could be introduced by 

 degrees, that the Dutch system should be resorted to 

 for the moment. " I have no scruple," said Mr. Xortli, 

 in liis first executive minute, " in declaring that as it was 

 established and administered imder the Dutch and their 

 predecessors, no system could be imagined more dii'ectly 

 hostile to property, to the industrial improvement, and 

 fehcity of the people. But the mveteracy of habit pro- 

 hibits aU but gradual change, and the experience of what 

 has passed since our conquest of the island must have 

 convinced every one, that abrupt and total revolutions 

 in laws and ci\al pohty are not the means by which an 

 enlightened government can improve the understanding, 

 stinmlate the industry, and encourage the prosperity of 



^ In describing the administi-ation | throw a light altogether new over the 



of Mr. North, I have had the advan- } leading events of the period, espe- 



tage of access to a collection of his ciiilly upon the excesses and coiTup- 



private letters addressed, during the I tious of the Madras officials, and the 



period of his government, to the I more than questionable negotiations 



Marquis of AVellesley, and deposited, 

 after the death of the latter, by his 

 representatives in the British Mu- 

 seum, where they form Nos. 13,864, 

 5, G, 7 in the Catalogue of Additional 

 MSS. These important docimients 



between ^Ir. North and the prime 

 nunisterof the King of Kandy, which 

 were the prelude to the lamentable 

 massacre of the British troops in 

 1803. 



