Chap. II.] KOADS. 121 



is now connected with the two principle cities, by roads 

 either wholly or partially macadamised. One continiioiLS 

 hue, seven hundred and sixty-nine miles in length, 

 has been formed round the entire circuit of the coast, 

 adapted for carriages where it approaches the principal 

 places, and nearly everywhere available for horsemen 

 and wayfarers. Of upwards of three hundred miles 

 of roads in all directions, nearly two-thirds may be 

 considered as open and traversable at all seasons, but 

 the others, during the rains whicli accompany the 

 monsoons, are impassable from want of drainage and 

 bridges. 



No portion of British India can bear comparison ^\dtli 

 Ceylon, either in the extent or the excellence of its 

 means of communication ; and for this enviable pre- 

 eminence the colony is mainly indebted to the genius 

 of one eminent man, and the energy and perseverance 

 of another. Sir Edward Barnes, on assuming the govern- 

 ment in 1820, had tlie penetration to perceive that 

 the sums annually wasted on hill-forts and garrisons 

 in the midst of wild forests, might, with judicious expen- 

 diture, be made to open the whole country by mihtary 

 roads, at once securing and em^iching it. Before the 

 close of his administration, he had the happiness of 

 witnessing the reahsation of his pohcy ; and of leaving 

 every radius of the diverging hues, which he had planned, 

 either wholly or partially completed. One officer who 

 had been associated "vvith the enterprise from its origin, 

 and with every stage of its progress, remained beliind 

 him to consummate his plans. That officer was Major 

 Skinner, the present Commissioner of Eoads in Ceylon. 

 To him more than to any hving man, the colony 

 is indebted for its present prosperity ; and m after 

 years, when the interior shall have attained the full 

 development of its productive resources, and derived 

 all the advantages of facile communications with tlie 

 coast, the name of this meritorious public servant will be 



