( 34 ) 
R, Ottley, became Chief Justice ; but, alas, 
the accomplished writer and judge died at 
Oolomboon May 21st, 1828, his remains being 
interred in St. Peter's Church, where 
his son, born in Colombo (then Home 
Minister) placed a brass plate to his 
Hoemorj'. It is a singular fact that two 
members of the Imperial Cabinet for 1886-92, 
should thus beclosely connected with Ceylon — 
Lord Chancellor Halsbury and Mr. Matthews, 
Home Secretary. 
Wo must not forget an interesting passage- 
at-arms between Chief JusticeGiffaid and Ad- 
vocate-Fiscal Matthews during the administra- 
tion of Lieut Governor Sir James Campbell, 
K.c B. It was thus related by our late 
" senior ' and corrected (in the note) by 
Sir Ricliard Morgan, liimself at the time in 
Mr. Matthews' office and afterwards Acting 
Chief Justice : — 
During his rule ;i vei\y cuiious case of ex post 
facto let,'islati(jn |»ro(hi('e(l much excitement, at 
least ill tlie Supreme Court, Sir Hardin^te Giffard 
being judge and Mr. Matthews, (author of " The 
Diary of an I'.ivalid,") Advocate Fiscal. A ras- 
cally Frenchman attempting to fly from his cre- 
ditors was seized and held in arre-st, by the Mili- 
tary authorities in defiance of the writ of Habeas 
Corpus issued by the Supreme Court. The Chief 
Justice was much excited, and told Matthews that 
in defending such high-handed proceedings he 
was preparing a bed of thorns for himself. Poor 
Matthews did not, however, survive to claim the 
seat of Chief Justice. The brilliant humourist 
died of atrophy. The Regulation which he drew 
up at the order of Government served its purpose 
for the time, though it was subsequently revoked 
by an Order in Council (not till Is*- November 
1830, however.) It enacted that it " was, is and 
shall be lawful" to hold any person in custody by 
warrant of the Governor, such warrant being a 
sufficient return to any order of Court without the 
production of the person, We are not aware that 
any grave collision has taken place between the 
governing and judicial authorities since this pe- 
riod, unless we include the cyclone in the time of 
Sir Carpenter Rowe, in consequence of some ill- 
judged proceeding by which social precedence was 
conceded to Bishop Chapman, a concession which 
the Cliief Justice sturdily denounced. 
We must now bring our notes to an end 
but, before doing so, would say that it is 
Tery pleasant to have the Lord Chancellor 
recalling the memory of his uncle who, as 
Chief Justice of Ceylon, was no doubt the 
great man of his boyhood, he little dreaming 
then that he himself would be thrice Lord 
Chancellor. By far the most genial account 
of Lord Halsbury we have ever seen is that 
contained in the "People of the Period" which 
may well be reproduced at a time when he 
lias placed this community under an obliga- 
tion by sending for our Law Courts a por- 
trait of Sir Hardingo Giffard, Chief Justice. 
We quote it in full in our daily. 
ETYMOLOGY OF AFRICA AND OPHIR, 
Dr Carl Peters' contention that the place name 
Africa is nothing but the Latin form of the 
unmeaning Semitic 'loan' place name Ophir, is 
hibtoricaliy and etymologically untenable. Africa, 
the name by which the Libya of the Greeks 
became known to the Komans throagh the 
Carthaginians, was at first applied by the former 
exclusively to the territory, subordinate to- 
Carthage. 
^.s for Ophir, this place name did probably include 
the south-east cost of Africa, bat it equally included 
the south coast of Arabia, and the whole coast of 
Western India, with Ceylon, and possibly also the 
Malayan Peninsula — ' Acrea hersonesus," — of Further 
India. The term, in short, as used in the Bible, 
may be compared with the Parvaim [compare 
Sanskrit purva, ' Eastein '] of 2 Chronicles lii. 6, and 
our 'East Indies'; and, less pertinemly, with the 
classical Ecus and Panchaia. It occurs as Ophir 
in Genesis x. 29 ; I Kings ix. 28, x. ii, and xxii. 48, 
I Cliion. i. 23, and xxix. 4, 2 Chron. viii. 18, Job 
xxii. 24, and xxviii. 16, Psalms xlv. 9, and Isaiah 
xxiii 12, and as Uphaz in Jeremiah x 19, and 
Daniel X 5 ; and in all these references excepting 
Genesis x 29, and 1 Chrori. i .'.S, Ophir and Uphaa 
are associated with gold. In its Greek form the word 
is written Ouphir, Ophir, Oppheir, Souphir, Soupheir, 
Sophir, Sophira, Sophera, Sophara and Sappheir. Ptole- 
my places vi 7, 41. a Sappharaon the southern coast 
of Arabia, and vii 1. 6, a Soupara on the coast of 
Western India; and vii 1, 15, a Sippara on t}\fi 
eastern coast of India ; and there is a ' Sofala 
thought [Milton m' ant by Purchas] Ophir ' on the 
south-eastern coast of Africa, These four place names 
are all cognate with Ophir, and not with Africa, 
which, as has been shown, is quite another word; 
and I believe the Soupara placed by Ptolemy on 
the coast of Western India to be the original Ophir 
of thetQ all. King Solomon's trade, by means of 
' the navy of Hiram, ' and ' ships of Tarshish ' 
[Tartessus, i.e., Spain, and compare the term, 
' Indiamen '], included imports, expressly ir.voiced 
from Ophir [i Kings x. ill, of ' almug trees and 
precious stones, ' and, not expressly invoiced from 
Ophir [i Kings x. 22, and 2, h ron. ix. 21], of 
' gold and silver, ivory and apes, and peacocks.' All 
these are Indian products, the ' almug trees ' and 
the peacocks being exclusively ludian products, 
and the names used in the original text of the above 
quotations for ivory and apes and peacocks being 
every one of them, Indian names Hebrewised : — 
shen-habbim literally tooth of elephant, for ivorjj, 
being formed from the Sanskrit ib^a elephant ; Icop- 
him for apes, being the Sanskrit kapi ; and tuhhyyim 
for peacocks, the Tamil tohei or togei. This is 
sufficient to prove that from King Solomon's time, 
and from the earliest times, the Hebrews knew of 
India in its trade productions ; and in this way at 
least it was universally known to antiquity. Indian 
teakwood has been discovered in the structural ruins 
[MngheirJ of the temple of IJr of the haldees. An 
ancient Babylonian list of clothing mentions sindhu or 
muslin, which Sayce \_Hihbert Lectures, 1887 \ identifies 
with the sadin of Judges xiv 12, 13, translated in 
the English Authorised Version by sheets, and in 
the Eevised Version by linen garments, and the 
smdon of the Greeks the cendal or sendal of Me- 
difflval Europe; all these denominations sianifying 
Indian stuff. In the original text of Esther i, 6, 
the wood translated green is karpas, the Sanskrit 
karpasa, and Greek karpasos, cotton, and instead of 
the passage reading white, green, and blue hangings, 
it should read white and blue cotton dharis, the striped 
floor-cloths and hangings for which India has always 
been noted. There is no undoubted mention of silk 
in the Old Testament, but silk is rightly supposed 
to be referred under the denomination of meshi in 
Ezekiel xv, 10, 13, translated in both the Authorised 
and the Eevised Veraions of our Bible by silk and as 
demeshek in Amo» iii, 12. rightly translated by 
Damascus in oar. Authorised Version, and wrocgly 
by silken in the offensive Eevised Version. In the 
Book of Esther, moreover, India is twice [i i, and 
viii, 9] referred to by its vernacular name in the 
Hebrewised form of Hoddu, in Syrac Hondn, in 
Arabic Hindu, in Persian Hind in Greek Indika, all 
these being variants of the Sanskrit Sindhu literally 
ft riT«r, but especially the river Indus. 
