Ceylon claims attention, for the great financial reform which its
Colonial Secretary, with the concurrence of the British settlers, is pushing forward. Sir James Tennent is applying to the finances of the colony the principles of free trade ; removing dif- ferential duties, and bringing the scale down to the revenue point. At the same time, he is working to reduce the expenditure. We say that Sir James is doing these things ; because Ceylon has a military Governor, and in these matters the Secretary seems really to take the lead. The colonists manifest a general and natural desire that their next Governor should be a willing, able, and practical man of business—in a word, that their Secretary should be made Governor on the approaching retirement of General Campbell. The new measures of reform stand at present, we gather, merely on the footing of reports embodying recom- mendations ; but of course, if their purpose has been rightly explained in the local newspapers whence we derive our informa- tion, they cannot be refused the assent of the present Liberal and Free-trade Ministry.
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