74 



Foreign Notices : — Asia. 



Taurida Palace ; a projected change which we were not at all surprised to 

 near, considering the great liability of the Apothecaries' Island to inunda- 

 tions of the Neva. Some account of this garden will be found in Vol. I. 

 p. 84. We have tried in vain to obtain a relation of the losses it sustained 

 by an inundation shortly after its completion ; but we have not been so 

 unsuccessful in procuring a ground plan, sections, and descriptions of the 

 double quadrangle of hot-houses erected, or to be erected, and which we 

 shall lay before our readers in an early Number. — Coiid. 



ASIA. 



The Cinnamon Department of the Island of Ceylon consists of from 25,000 

 to 26,000 people, who form a separate cast of their own, and who are alto- 

 o-ether employed in the cultivation of the cinnamon tree (iaurus C'innamo- 

 mum) {Jig. 17.), and in preparing the bark of that tree for the market. 

 The exportation of this article from 

 Ceylon frequently amounts to 6000 bales, 

 of 80 lbs. each bale. Although the cin- 

 namon grows wild in the south and 

 south-west part of the island, the Dutch 

 and English governments have thought 

 it advantageous to have it cultivated in 

 four or five very large gardens ; one of 

 the largest of which, called the Maran- 

 dan, is close to Colombo ; and it is in 

 this that the house and garden of Rajah 

 Pakse {fig. 18.) is situated. From the 

 bark of the cinnamon tree the cinnamon, 

 which is used for culinary purposes, is 

 prepared. It is from the same bark that 

 the cinnamon water and the cinnamon 

 oil are prepared ; and also a very fine 

 oil, like the oil of cloves, is prepared from the leaves, and the finest 

 description of camphor from the roots. 



Rajah Pakse {fig- 18. a), besides being a man of considerable wealth, has 

 great influence amongst the natives of the country, from his official situation, 

 and is one of the most enlightened and liberal-minded natives in the island 

 of Ceylon. He was the man who was principally employed by Sir Alexander 

 Johnston in carrying into eflTect the various measures which he, whilst pre- 

 sident of His Majesty's council in Ceylon, introduced for raising the moral 

 and political character, and improving the state of the natives of that island. 

 Rajah Pakse was the first great proprietor of slaves, who, on Sir Alexander 

 Johnston's suggestion, adopted the resolution, which was afterwards uni- 

 versally acquiesced in by the natives of all the different casts, for gradually 

 emancipating the whole of their slaves, and thereby putting an end to the 

 state of domestic slavery, which had subsisted for more than three hundred 

 years. It was through his intelligence that Sir Alexander Johnston was 

 enabled to succeed in establishing trial by jurj', which was the first instance 

 of that mode having been introduced amongst any natives of India. It was 

 also through his activity that Sir Alexander Johnston, when he collected, 

 for the use of the government, all the customary laws of the various religions 

 and casts in Ceylon, procured the necessary information, to enable him to 

 accomplish that object ; and it was from Rajah Pakse's thorough knowledge 

 of the Pali and Sanscrit languages, that Sir Alexander Johnston was enabled 

 to get the translations, which are about to be published by Mr. Upham, of 

 the three original native histories of the Buddhoo religions, and of its intro- 

 duction into Ceylon, which were presented to him by the high priests of 

 that religion on the island, who are looked upon by all those who profess 

 that faith, as well in Ceylon as in the Burmese and Siamese territories, as 



