822 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Juke 1, 1S99, 
of State swept dovvn and took large ai)])ropiiations 
of surplus balances for the niilitaiy chest. The 
merchants in 1863-4 had found it iinpossihle to 
pet one of their number to accept a .seat in the 
Legislative Council, and so finally rcconunended 
the Editor of the local "Times" as an ex-nierchant! 
and thus Mr. Capper was one of the unotlicial 
phalanx which under the leadership of Mr. Ceorf;e 
Wall (then Planting M.L.C.) resigned during the 
temporary administration of Major-General O'lJrien 
who had succeeded Sir Charles MacCarthy. After- 
wards, under Sir Hercules Robinson, Mr. Capjjer 
served as paid Secretary of a Cattle Coniniission, he 
having got out a nephew, Mr. Keppel Jones, to help 
with the paper. After this Mr. Capper aided 
another nephew in starting and carrying on the 
" Kandy Herald, ' an abortive effort which speed- 
ily died down. He also contributed to the short- 
lived comic journal " ]\tuniandi," if indeed he did 
not edit it at one time. To this same period of 
unsettlement and of many " irons in the lire," 
belongs Mr. Capper's origination of a Cart Trans- 
port Scheme for Uva, in which he was specially 
supported by the late Mr. Thomas Hudson (ot J. I. 
Strachan & Co ) This was managed by his son, 
Mr. Charles Capper, and was afterwards taken 
over by Mr. Jjueius C. Glenny wlien he 
commenced his Haldummulla and Itatnapnra 
stores. In 1870 the Duke of Edinburgh visi- 
ted Ceylon, and Mr. Capper acted as Correspond- 
ent for the Xo7ic?0)i Ti'wics and afterwards published 
an illustrated volume on His Royal Highness's visit. 
In 1874 Mr. Capper parted with the local " Times" 
to a Limited Company formed by Mr. Dunlop, 
Manager of the Oriental Bank, and from this year 
dates the " Times of Ceylon " which had for its 
first Editor Mr. Allardyce from Bombay, after- 
wards Reader to the publishing house of Black- 
woods. In 1882, the Company having collapsed, 
the newspaper and printing property reverted 
to Mr. Capper (who had returned from home) 
and his two sons who made the Firm " Capper 
& Sons." Mr. John Capper (after a brief engage- 
ment as representative of Ceylon at the Cal- 
cutta Exhibition in 1884) finally retired to 
London in that year ; but, altliough then in his 
71sb year, he could not be idle, and so he took 
up the role of London Correspondent, continning 
in that post for fully ten years more. Indeed after 
he gave over this special work to younger hands, 
we found him early in 189G still interested as 
Editor of a small monthly periodical published in 
London for the benefit of West Indian planters. 
Even after 63 years of continuous work with his 
pen, the veteran journalist could not refrain from 
doing something in his old capacity, and we believe 
his interest in public news continued unabated 
until the end came on March 31st, 1898, when 
Mr- John Cappkr had attained the good old age 
of 8.J years. Mr. Capper was twice married : first, 
t'l a sister of Mr. Ackland of the firm he first 
jo ned in Ceylon, by whom he had two sons and 
two daughters — all of whom, save one daught«r, 
predeceased their fathei-. By his second wife (Sliss 
Baylis, aunt of Dr. Baylis long in Kellebokka) 
there were three sons. 
We are conscious of affording but a meagre 
sketch of the career of one who served liis day and 
generation well, and whose connection with 
Ceyhn during about forty years of continuous 
residence, was marked by much useful work. Our 
foregoing record is by no means comf^lete; 
for as " Honorary Secretary to tlie Ceylon Branch 
of the Royal Asiatic Society," Mr. Ca|iper (as we 
l)ublicly testified at a meeting some years ago) 
rendered for many years very valuable service, 
keeping the lirancli alive in fact, when it 
would otherwise have possibly become defunct. 
Then, too, there is a phase of his literary career we 
have omitted to notice above, namely, in his contri- 
butions to Dickens' " Household Words " and this 
we may best do by quoting from a notice of Mr. 
Capper in the local " Examiner " at the time of 
his death: — 
He will best be remembered as the writer of thoso 
breezy skstclies, whicli found a permanent lodge- 
ment eventually iu Old Cfi/lon. Wlio that has read 
his sketch of " Our L id Clerk '—a figure taken from 
life whju the writer was an assistant at Ackland 
Boyd's--, and the object of the sketch was the Chief 
Clerk of the firm with hia strict business habits, 
unswervinc; integrity, unassuming ways, and yet 
shrewd dealings— but will acknowledge ' that the 
writer possessed powers of observation beyond the ordi- 
nary — the ordinary standard that is generally con- 
ccntratod in the one word keen? Then, "Philip of 
Brassfouuder Street"— a faithful sketch of the Eana- 
kipilliis of the olden days : and the Chetty with his 
elastic ideas, first as to the free use by him of the 
Firm's postage stamps, and his indignant and 
dignified planking down of his purse when he wa» 
remindtd that stamps could not be supplied for nothing 
— all these sketches and more of mercantile life in the 
metropolis in days gone by may be rea 1 in the littlo 
volume we have referred to. Nor in it are scenes of a 
graphic and even tauching in'erest wanting of up- 
country life. Of the particular sketches of planting 
life in the work we are referring to, we cannot speak 
with certainty — we have all along been depending 
upon memory. But ther-^ is one hi' — " The Kaudyans' 
Captive," we tliink is its title— which for the simple 
narration of an incident — real or fancied— in connec- 
tion witti the K-i,uriyan dynasty, may fairly lay claim t» 
a place among not the least of our prose idylls. 
Our portr.ait gallery of the Pioneer Colonists of 
Ceylon would certainly have been incomplete if 
it had not included one whose career we have 
thus imperfectly indicated and to whose work 
and men^ory we have endeavoured to do justice, 
in the varied capacities of planter, merchant, but 
especially of litterateur and jonrnalist, all of which 
appertained to Mr. John GAFrzti.—Iiequiescat 
in pace. 
