( 108 . ) 
Ifc is some proof of how Clnistianity has wrought 
on them, that already in point of educatiou and 
of all the itfiueuce which education brings, even 
more in India than elsewhere, Christians have 
begun to take a foremost place. In proportion to 
the population from which they come, Christian 
graduates of the University are for more numerous 
than in any other section of the people except 
Brahmins ; and if the progress of recent years be 
maintained, they will soon equal or surpass even 
them. In other educational lines they are equally 
or even more progressive. 
Or to take another sign of the times, one may 
point to the rapidly increasing measure in which 
the native churches are becoming self-sustaining 
and self-propagating. Those connected with a 
single mission in a single one of the tsventy -two 
districts of this Presidency contributed last year 
E53,340. This does not include a single gift from 
any European, or any gift by which the giver 
profited. School fees, for example are excluded. 
It is tiie contribution of purely native churches to 
purely religious objpcts. In 1892 the corresponding 
sum, was Rs. 29,586, Christians have indeed, 
increased during the ten years, but not very 
greatly in this particular district. The number in 
those churches nas risen in ten years by 5 per 
cent,, but their contribution, as shown by the 
figures, by 80 per cent. 
The condition of Indian Missions in our'genera- 
tion is like that of the army of Wellington after 
his second or his third retreat to Portugal. Great 
things have been done— great in the judgment of 
those who are able to estimate moral forces 
rightly. Errors are being corrected. Experience 
has been gained. No small preparation for the 
final advance has manifestly been made. No 
doubt, if counsels like those of the articles before 
me should prevail, the whole attempt may prove 
a failure still. But if there be even such moderate 
amount of steady perseverance and support as was 
given to the forces in the Peninsula, the time 
of full success may not be distant — not distant, 
that is to say, if the reckoning accord with what 
all history shows to be the method by which divine 
purposes are gained and the rate of speed at which 
they are wrought out. When the full fruit of 
what has been done in the bygone century is 
gathered, not only will India acknowledge Christ, 
but it will be found that the thoughts which have 
been strong in her for millenniums will be as 
important a contribution to the health and vigour 
of the Christian Church as that which has been 
made by the gathered thought and long prepa- 
ratory training of Greek, Roman and Teuton, 
and of every other race whom that Church has 
been the instrument of bringing into living con- 
tact with the God who is ' the Saviour of all men, 
specially of them that believe.' 
Shevaroy Hills, India. William Milles. 
— Indian Daily News, July 25. 
SANNAS, OR ROYAL GRANTS. 
Topavewa, June 28. 
Sir,— The Honourable the Kandyan Mem- 
ber, in speaking to his motion regarding 
village communal rights, is thus reported :— 
" The issue of sannas would seepi to baye 
been introduced very recently ; at least during 
the last 500 years. Sannas were issued by the 
Tamil Kings. As far as I have been able to 
trace, no sannas were issued before that time. 
When the Sinhalese Royal Dynasty ceased to 
exist, the Tamil Kings who succeeded, issued 
sannas to distinguished persons for conspi- 
cuous acts of loyalty to the state. These sannas 
conferred tlie right to the grantee of lands 
that were at the time either at the disposal of 
the King himself or lands previously belonging 
to private persons that had been confiscated 
for treasonable acts." Perhaps the Honour- 
able Member will permit me to put him right 
as regards the period since which sannas, 
or royal grants, were issued by Sinhalese 
Sovereigns. 
Incidentally I should point out that there is 
some confusion in the Honourable Member's 
statements : — " The Sinhalese Royal dynasty 
ceased to exist with the accession In a.d. 1734 
of Sri Vijaya Kaja Sinha, a Tamil, and brother- 
in law of the last purely Sinhalese King, Sri 
Vira Parakrama Narendra Sinha. But *' the 
last 500 years " carry us back to the turbu- 
lent days of Vijaya Bahu VI and the Chinese 
invasion of Ceylon, which ushered in the 
Kotta dynasty in the person of Sri Parak- 
rama Bahu VI. (A.D. 1415-67). 
Ola sannas (royal grants on palm leaves) 
were in vogue certainly as far back as the 
I2th century. For, is it not written in the 
stone chronicles of the Sinhalese Kings at 
Polonnaruwa : — 
" He fSiri Sanga Bo Vira-Raja Nissanaka 
Malla] ordained, in order that the record of 
whatever is given to those who do skillful service 
for any King may last as long as sun and moon 
endure, that it should not be made perishable^ 
like a line drawn on water, by inscribing it on 
a leaf which may he eaten by termites and rats ; 
but that it may continue to their posterity for 
many days, and that the names of the grantees, 
and the names of the royal grantors may exist for 
five thousand years, he introduced in Lanka [the 
practice of issuing] grants on copper [plates] to 
those who had exhibited skillful service." 
So far no genuine copper sannasa has come 
to light of a date earlier than the reign of 
Bhuvaneka Bahu V. (a.d. 1371 accession). — 
Yours faithfully, 
H. C. P. BELL. 
♦ 
OTTER HUNTtNG. 
An ex Ceylon resident and wellknown sports- 
man writing from Ayrshire in July, reports : — 
Otter Hunting — this sport was not a success 
the last time we had the hounds in this district, 
owing to the low state of the rivers from long 
drought. 
The first and opening meet they had in May at 
Stair Bridge (my old home) and the pack had quite 
a brilliant day — finding and hunting three otters — 
and they succeeded in accounting for two of them 
after a long and magnificent run. It was des- 
cribed by a writer and witness of the sport as the 
best bit of work ever seen on the Ayr. Lil^e 
my usual bad luck I could not be there. 
