LITEJ^ARy RECISTEK SUPPLEMENT: 
AND CEYLON 
"NOTES AND QUERIES.' 
fUn^er this heading, in fatnre, we mean to give a sm:ill '•Snpplement " with onr Tro/jical AgncuKurist 
monthly, according as there'is matter o£ sufficient value so to be preserved.] 
OECElVIBiaR, 1903. 
MONSIEUR BURNARDS MEMOIR ON 
CEYLON. 
{Continued from page 119.) 
Ths ancient mode of tenure of lands has ^'iven 
rise to so many different denominations in tlie 
Sinhalese districts of the South and West, to 
point out the circumstances under which the 
tenure existed in the lands of the usufractures 
that the comprehension of tliose terms required 
a complicated study which frequently increased 
chicanery, Parvenies is the generic or indigenous 
term for lands granted by the Prince, and the 
term acconunodecens has probably a Portuguese 
origin, or rather a Latin one for censum, cene 
in the French and Roman signifies the liability 
of lands granted on a certain tenure by the 
Lords, as well in France, as in the countries 
which formerly composed the two kingdoms of 
Burgundy. 
The tenure of land in that part of Ceylon, 
which is inhabited by the Malays, is quite different 
from that of the West, though the principle that all 
lauds belonging to the Lord is recognised there 
also, it is as much less positive sense. The reason 
of this is that the princes of those parts having 
being subjugated by the Kings of Kandy, the 
country was portioned out and given to powerful 
chieftains,- as Vanias, liatterales, Vidaans, Adi- 
gars, <Sro., &e., under the tenure of a yearly tribute, 
as is the case still with the Vanias of Minery 
and others. All tho.«e tributary chiefs in the dis- 
tricts of the circumference of the Island, which 
are submitted to the Europeans, were maintained, 
when they conducted themselves well, and they 
were in the contrary case deprived of their author- 
ity us in Vanniefi in 1790, but the lands remained 
for the greater part as a property to the families 
wliieli cultivated tl'.em ; which changed the nature 
of the tenure into a kind of property which the 
Dutch Government respected ; this was not always 
the ease with the Dessaves of the King of Kandy 
when those places were under his dominion, for 
several of them withdrew those lands and gave 
them several times in the year to the highest 
bidders, but for this they were punished with 
heavy lines, when those e.xtortions became known 
to the King or the Adigar, his minister. 
Tlie personal service to which the inhabitants^ 
of Ceylon are bound will perhaps present an 
idea, regpugnant to the philanthrophy of an 
European ; who judges according to the notions 
anil prejudices of his country and education, that 
is to say wrongly and witliout knowledge of cir- 
cumstances. 
We liave no room here to dive into the o rigin 
of this ancient institution, and we will therefore 
only say that, notwithstanding the assertion of 
a Colombo Gazette, which charitably casts the 
blame of this on the Dutch, truth warrants our 
assertion that when equally adhered to, this in- 
stitution is not only moderate, but far less onerous 
than many customs of countries in Europe, where 
the Corvees of men, horses and cattle, are still 
in practice, leaving aside impressment, con- 
scription, &c. Besides this it would be highly ridi- 
culous to wish to govern the nation in India after 
the laws, usages and customs of the most civi- 
lised people of teurope instead of after their own. 
These personal services of all kinds were ori- 
ginally the result of convention, and are an 
essential part of the constitution, is perhaps 20 
centuries date, ard was established probably less 
for advantage of the King, than as a measure 
necessary to hold the people within the bounds 
of duty, dependence and habits of labour, which 
the climate, and the natural apathy of their 
character would have soon deprived them of. We 
will even add that good morals are encouraged, 
and crimes prevented by the people of Ceylon 
being bound to employ those services to which 
they eousider themselves from their birth indis- 
pensably liable ; to give them other natiors by e.x- 
empting them from those services, is to lose 
everything and lead them back to their wild state. 
The inhabitant of Ceylon bound to these services 
will be docile, active and industrious, he must 
constantly think himself under the eye of Govern- 
ment and subject to its power by this obligation 
to work for it, or to purchase an exemption. 
This can only be effected by a general enregistra- 
tion of all the inhabitants, this is one of the 
secrets by which the restoration of agriculture 
may be effected, and the Island rendered flourish- 
ing. To attain this desirable object it is above all 
indispensable that the views and plans of Govern- 
ment should be settled, which can never be 
without positive orders from home fixing the 
general principles according to which all the de- 
tails of the adniinistiation in Ceylon are to bo 
regulated. We w.ll return afterwards to this 
important subject. 
It is not so indifferent a point as is commonly 
thought by whom and how the revenues are to 
be collected, which has an iufluence on produce, 
as that part of the revenue which relate the in- 
habitant and proceed from the employment or 
redemption of his services. This point is not less 
important than the regulation itself of the taxes^ 
