LITEHARy REGISTER SUPPLEMENT: 
AND CEYLON 
"NOTES AND QUERIES. " 
fUnc'er this heading, io fatnre, we mean to give a small "Sapplement" with our Tropical Ar/riculturist 
monthly, according as there'is matter of sufficient vtilue so to be preserved.] 
MONSIEUR BURNARD'S MEMOIR 
ON CEYLON. 
(Continued from page 115.) 
That part of the west had, however, suffered 
much less thau the rest of the Island from the 
change of Government in the interior, nnd that 
on account of the great fault in the Government 
of the Dutch, namely, that the lands or gardens 
planted with coconut trees or other fruit trees 
paid no tax, and that the priviledged costs of 
the Velales, which possess the major part of 
those lands was sabjeci; to no personal service, 
of consequence, the fields capable of shewiur; io 
the west of Ceylon being of little consequence 
for the maintenance of the inhabitants, who live 
in a great manner on the fruits and other produc- 
tions of their gardens or plantations (called chenas), 
whilst in the rest of Ceylon, with the exception 
of the fine provinces near Jaffna few fruit trees 
are found in comparison with the western parts, 
but many considerable plains, where the cultivation 
of rice composes the only recourse of the inhabi- 
tants, who in the change of Government alluded 
to, for the greater part, successively abandoned 
that cultivation, and having no fruit gardens 
were obliged to disperse, or they fell into the 
greatest misery. This is so true that a district 
in the east of Ceylon, which in 1794 had furnished 
at least 2,000 loads of Nelie (paddy) for exportation 
was obliged to be provisioned with grain from 
the Coast of Coromandel a few years subsequently, 
and they were even obliged to send there ten 
oxen monthly as rations of meat for the soldiers 
of the small garrison, although that same place 
had supplied in the year 1792-3-4-5 and 6 from 
4 to 5,000 head of cattle for the garrison of 
Trincomalee and for friendly squadrons of ships. 
This state of misery arose gradually and was 
occasioned by the bad Government of the interior, 
by the extortions of money from the people and 
its chiefs, and lastly by the total neglect of 
causing annually the dams of rivers, ponds, and 
lakes to be repaired, without which the water 
requisite for their cultivation of rice is not to 
be had. This neglect during two or three years 
suffices to ruin the labours of ten other years, 
and reduces to the greatest indigence the labourer 
whose only recourse is his field. This com- 
plete state of misery is that which the Colombo 
Gazette naively caUed in 1802 the improvements 
of Lieut. Jewell. Other districts in the north and 
east of the Island, equally bare of ftuit gardens, 
participated in the miserable state of things. 
The Collector General above mentioned, had well 
remarked the defect of the Dutch regime whicii 
had lefb the fruit garden exempli from taxes, and 
to remedy this, he wished in 1797 to tax them 
generally throughout the whole Island in money 
and every where at a like rate ; but that plan 
which was as well imagined as the rest of his 
operations, could not he carried into effect. 
In 1798 the King's Govc-nment superseded that 
of the Company, and very far from remedying 
the evil, it almost completed the entire subversion 
of proceeding institntions as well in the interior 
of the country as in the chief places of the Island. 
It suffered that any measure was any usage of 
the former Government for it to be abrogated and 
destroyed and for it to be afterwards recreated, to 
speak the truth, in less advantageous and more 
bui thensome manner. Public works as expensive 
as they were useless — the destruction, deterioration 
and mis-application of very solid buildings, the 
most complete restoration of which would not have 
cost half the sums expended for new acquisitions 
and useless rent?, v/ere among other operations, 
which characterized the first six years of this 
Government, which perhaps with the best inten- 
tions was too much influenced by prejudice to 
individual character. The new order of things 
called for an immense expense, which absorbed 
and exceeded the annual revenue of the Island, 
without that money returning, except in a very 
small proportion, to the mass of population, from 
which it had been raised, as it was almost entirely 
withdrawn from the colony. Truth demands our 
saying here that the only new establishment which 
was really useful to Ceylon was the Supreme Court 
of Justice, which although but imperfectly adapted 
to the local situation, the indigence and the pre- 
vious usages of the colony rescued it from military 
despotism, and administered justice to the general 
satisfaction of the public, which would have still 
more benellted by it, if the charter of the Court 
had established a jury in criminal matters, as 
exist in the continental presidencies. It is how- 
ever certain, that that Court of Justice by re- 
establishing the confidence of the people, and in 
acquiring its respects, in some manner reconciled 
it to the acts of the Government. 
The inhabitants of the four chief places of the 
Island and of the other less considerable places, 
without being opulent, lived in great ease — under 
the Dutch Government, but after the surrender by 
them in 1796 they successively fell off, and contrary 
to their expectation, were in great part reduced to 
imligence, there being only some individuals who 
exercised professions— those employed in Govern- 
ment officers or by private persons— the native 
servants who in a manner have a sbaire of the 
affluence of their masters— with these few excep- 
tions all were exposed to misery— and the reason 
are self-evident. 
