409 



CEYLON. 



CHABLAIS. 



410 



man of each village, to whom the people immediately referred, 

 directed the labour of the people under the authority of the provin- 

 cial chief, and superintended the police. But the superintendence of 

 agriculture was the duty of a particular class of persons who attended 

 to the embankments of tanks and canals, and to the distribution of 

 water. 



The government of Ceylon as a British colony is at present carried 

 on by a governor and two councils executive and legislative. The 

 executive council consists of the governor, who is president, and of 

 the following members : the officer commanding the forces, the 

 colonial secretary, the treasurer, the queen's advocate, and the govern- 

 ment agent of the central provinces. The legislative council is presided 

 over by the governor, and consists of the following members : the 

 chief justice, the commander of the forces, the secretary, the treasurer, 

 the auditor-general, the government agent for the western provinces, 

 the government agent for the central provinces, and the surveyor- 

 general. With the legislative council are associated six unofficial 

 members, natives or naturalised subjects of Ceylon, being chief landed 

 proprietors or principal merchants. The governor, the commander 

 of the forces, the chief justice, the queen's advocate, and the surveyor- 

 general, are appointed by the secretary of state from England. 



Until within the last year or two the revenue of the island has, 

 ever since our acquisition of it, been below the expenditure. It 

 appears from the report of Governor Sir O. W. Anderson, dated April 

 1852, that the revenue is now "fairly in advance of the expenditure;" 

 the revenue for 1851 was429,700J., and the expenditure 409.123/.; the 

 revenue for 1852 was 411.806/., and the expenditure 412.87U. 



In every province is stationed a government agent, and an assistant 

 agent ia stationed in each district. These functionaries administer 

 the affaire of government and officiate also as magistrates. Every 

 village has its native headman elected by the inhabitants, and officially 

 recognised by the government. 



For the administration of justice throughout the island there are 

 in the civil and criminal departments a supreme court, established 

 at Colombo ; a vice-admiralty court, and provincial courts stationed 

 in various districts ; besides magistracies. The powers of the supreme 

 court are similar to those of the Queen's Bench and the High Court 

 of Chancery combined. Justice ia administered by judges appointed 

 from England. There are in this court a queen's advocate, with 

 functions like those of the lord advocate of Scotland ; a deputy 

 queen's advocate and registrar ; and a proctor, who is a barrister, for 

 pleading the causes of prisoners and paupers. Trial by jury has 

 subsisted since 1811. 



In each district there is a court held before a judge and three 

 assessors ; the judge is appointed by the crown and removeable at 

 pleasure. The assessors are selected from amongst the inhabitants, 

 duly qualified, not under 21 years of age. The district courts have 

 civil and criminal jurisdiction. They try all offences except those 

 punishable with death, transportation, or banishment, imprisonment 

 for more than one year, whipping exceeding 100 lashes, or a fine 

 of 102. Appeals may be made from these courts to the supreme 

 court. The criminal jurisdiction of the supreme court extends 

 throughout the island. The sessions are held twice a year in each 

 circuit, being presided over by one of the judges. Sentence of death 

 pronounced at the criminal sessions by the supreme court is not 

 executed until confirmed by the governor. Appeals from the supreme 

 court are allowed to the Queen in council. The Dutch or Roman law, 

 with certain exceptions, is administered in both the district and the 

 supreme courts. All the witnesses in criminal cases are paid by 

 government. 



A savings bank has been for some years established with great 

 success at Colombo, under the patronage of government, with nearly 

 the same regulations as in England. 



The British currency is in circulation throughout the island, and 

 accounts are becoming generally kept in the same. The silver coinage 

 of the island is the rupee, the current value of which is fixed at 20. 

 sterling, its real value being 1. 104<t The silver coin formerly issued 

 by the British government, the rix-dollar, is equal to 1*. 6d., or to 12 

 fanams (a copper coin which is equal to 4 pice). English weights and 

 measures are also becoming generally used. 



There are four regiments of European infantry, two companies of 

 the royal foot artillery, and a regiment composed principally of Malays, 

 a fine body of men, nearly 2000 strong. 



Hiitory, Onesicritus and Nearchus, commanders of the fleet 

 dispatched by Alexander from the Indus to the Persian Gulf, brought 

 the first accounts of the island to Europe. Its character and produc- 

 tions are described by Pliny and Ptolemseus. Cosmas Indicopleustes 

 relates, on the authority of his friend Sopator, a merchant, who 

 visited Ceylon in the 6th century, that the coast inhabitants differed 

 from those of the ulterior (the land of precious stones), and consisted 

 of a proportion of Persians, who had formed a Christian establish- 

 ment. In the latter part of the 13th century the island was visited 

 by Marco Polo, who describes it as the finest island in the world. 

 About half a century later it was visited by Sir John Mandeville, who 

 mentions Adam's Peak. 



The Singhalese annals extant profess to contain an uninterrupted 

 historical record of events for 24 centuries, according to which their 

 first king Hijaya founded his kingdom by the extirpation of the 



original inhabitants about B.C. 543, and their last king, Shri Wikrama 

 Raja Singha, was deposed by the British in A.D. 1798. Many remark- 

 able vestiges of the Singhalese yet remain in various parts of the 

 island. 



Of European nations the Portuguese first established a regular 

 intercourse with Ceylon. The island being torn by internal wars, and 

 invaded from Arabia and Malabar, the king purchased the assistance 

 of the Portuguese with a stipulated annual tribute of 250,000 Ibs. of 

 cinnamon. The allies gradually gaining a footing iu the island, at 

 length, in 1520, strongly fortified themselves at Colombo, subjected 

 the whole of the maritime districts, and retained possession of them 

 for about 150 years. The Kandiaus having called in the Dutch, the 

 Portuguese were expelled, but the struggle lasted from 1632 to 1056. 

 The Dutch, like their predecessors, established their dominion over 

 the maritime provinces, and in 1761, having taken Kandy, they 

 would have subjected the whole island had not the sickness of their 

 troops obliged them to withdraw from the interior. In the war with 

 the French, in 1782, the British took possession of Trincomalee, but 

 it was shortly after retaken by the French, and the sea-coast remained 

 in the hands of the Dutch until 1796, when it was wrested from 

 them by the British, to whom it was formally ceded by the treaty of 

 Amiens. 



In 1815 the tyranny of the native king, who had forced the wife of 

 his prime minister to pound to death her own children in a mortar, 

 and committed other atrocities which rendered his dominion intoler- 

 able, led to his being deposed ; upon which the British took posses- 

 sion of his dominions at the invitation of the Kaudian chiefs, and 

 have retained them ever since. 



In 1848 an insurrection, which at first assumed a somewhat serious 

 character, broke out in the Kaudian part of the island, avowedly in 

 consequence of the imposition of several new taxes by the British 

 government. The insurgents collected in considerable numbers, and 

 set up a native king ; but the rebellion did not spread very widely, 

 and was suppressed with little difficulty. The pretender was trans- 

 ported ; a priest who had taken an active part in the rebellion was 

 shot in his robes, and numerous executions and other severe punish- 

 ments were inflicted after the suppression of the insurrection. The 

 extent and character of these punishments caused much discussion, 

 and the appointment of a committee of inquiry by the House of 

 Commons. The committee decided not to report to the House their 

 opinion on the evidence which they had taken, a decision which led 

 to prolonged debates, while the investigation resulted in the recall of 

 the Governor of Ceylon, Lord Torrington. 



(Knox, Hiitory of Ceylon ; Davy, Ceylon ; Bennett, Ceylon and its 

 Capabilities ; Sirr, Ceylon and the Cingalese ; Parliamentary Papers ; 

 Strabo, book xv. ; Pliny, Nat. Hist., vi. 22 ; Ptolemseus, b. viii.) 



CEYZERIAT. [AiN.j 



CHABLAIS (Sciablese), a province of Savoy, in the administrative 

 division of Annecy, extends along the south coast of the lake of 

 Geneva, and inland as far as an offset of the Alps, which detaches 

 itself from the Dent du Midi, on the borders of Valais. Chablais 

 is bounded S. by the province of Faucigny, W. by the Canton of 

 Geneva, and E. by the Valais. Its greatest length from east to west 

 is 25 miles, its greatest breadth from north to south is about 20 miles. 

 The area is 228,045 acres, or about 356 square miles, and the popula- 

 tion in 1848 was 57,562. It is a very mountainous country, with the 

 exception of a strip of land along the shore of the lake of Geneva, 

 which produces corn, wine, and fruit. A high country crowned by 

 several lofty summits runs generally westward from the Dent du 

 Midi, forming the watershed between the Dranse, which runs north- 

 ward into the lake of Geneva, and the Arve, a feeder of the Rhone. 

 Numerous ramifications run northward from the range between the 

 tributaries of the Dranse, the principal river of Chablais, and subsiae 

 into the plain that bounds the lake of Geneva towards the south- 

 west; but in the eastern part of the province the mountains approach 

 close to the shore. Several narrow valleys run inland between the 

 offsets of the Alps, along the course of the Dranse and its affluents. 

 These valleys abound in rich pastures, on which large herds of cattle 

 are fed. Very good cheese is made in this part of the country, both 

 for consumption and for exportation. The country abounds also 

 with chestnut and walnut trees. The great Simplon road made by 

 Napoleon I. traverses the north part of the province, following the 

 curve made by the south shore of the lake of Geneva. 



Towns. Thonon, built on an eminence above the lake, 16 miles 

 E.N.E. from Geneva, 31 miles N.N.E. from Annecy, hi the midst of a 

 fine and well wooded country, is the residence of the intendeute, or 

 governor of the province. It has a court of justice, a royal college, an 

 academy for boarders, several churches and convents, a handsome 

 town-house, an old castle, and about 4000 inhabitants. At Ripaille, 

 near Thonon, is the once rich and handsome convent founded by 

 Amadeua VIII., duke of Savoy and bishop of Geneva, afterwards 

 Pope Felix V., all of which titles and dignities he resigned and 

 retired to this retreat as an Augustinian monk. The building has 

 been converted into a farm-house and dwellings for the labourers. 

 Evian, a small town, likewise on the coast of the lake, nearly opposite 

 Lausanne in Switzerland, has about 1800 inhabitants. Between 

 Thonan and Evian, on the right bank of the Drause, are the chaly- 

 beate waters of Amphion, which were much frequented in the last 



