CEYLON AND ITS GOVERNMENT.
[CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK'S SPECTATOR.]
THE expenditure of the Ceylon Government, for 1832, is stated at 310,364/.; the civil charges amounting to 195,921/., and the military to 108,708/. Among the civil charges, however, seem
not to be included the charges of the agent in England, for pensions, stores, &c.; amounting to 27,735/. Among the military charges, are not included arms, accoutrements, clothing, ammunition, transport of troops, and the half-pay and pensions of the force serving in Ceylon. Instead, therefore, of there being a balance of about 60,000/. in favour of the colony, the account, after deducting 30,000/. from the revenue for the money drawn on England, will be little more than squared ; and if the military omissions be added, there will be a large deficiency,— to say nothing of the share of Ceylon for the naval squadron serving in India, and its due portion of the charges of the Colonial Office. So much for Colonial accounts. But even according to the Colonial mode of making up accounts, which, like Colonial currency, must always be taken at a heavy discount, the expenditure for the twelve years ending with 1832—all years of profound peace—exceeds the revenue by no less a sum than 412,641!.; which, it is needless to say, falls upon the people of England. The civil establishment is enormous, and the salaries are most extragavant. In the reformed scale of establishment, there are no fewer than six-and-twenty appointments of from 1000/. to 300C/. each, exclusive of the Governor, who has 8000/., and exclusive of pensions to retired Judges and other civil functionaries, amounting between them to 16,000/. per annum. The revenue establishment alone costs 63,000/. per annum ; in other words, it amounts to a charge of collection equal to near 19 per cent.,—a rate unheard of, we fancy, in any other country : and yet this is far from being the whole umount paid by the people, for the profits of' the cinnamon monopoly are vastly overrated, and several branches of the revenue are collected by farmers.
The military charges, if they were all exhibited, would appear equally extravagant. There are four European regiments upon the Indian strength, amounting at least to 4000 men, aud a Cola
nial regiment still more numerous. The Staff alone, including urAder this head the Engineer department, costs nearly 25,0001, tier annum. That the military force maintained in Ceylon is exorbitant and disproportioned, must appear at a glance, if we compare it with what is necessary to maintain our conquests on the Continent. The whole military force necessary to preserve the latter, is but 150,000 men; according to the Ceylon proportion, it ought to be 600,000. Yet Ceylon is sea-girt, having no native or European enemy to apprehend; while India has an extensive inland frontier, a warlike population within, and warlike rivals without, to the east, to the north, and to the west.
We shall now say a few words respecting what we deem most essential for the improvement of the country. The civil and military establishments must be prodigiously reduced,* so as to admit of a reduction of taxation,without which there can be no essential relief to the people, or any advancement in arts and industry. The monopolies, transit-duties, and taxes on food and necessaries, must be swept away ; and the duties on cinnamon, the great staple of the island, ought either to be taken off altogether, or reduced to a mere trifle,—for the preservation of any kind of monopoly in this article is hopeless, while other countries are known to produce the article, and while a corresponding and cheaper article can be, and has been, substituted for it. The commodities for which the soil of Ceylon seems peculiarly fitted are, first, rice, through means of artificial irrigation,— practicable only when the people are no longer subject to fiscal plunder, but allowed to accumulate capital. Secondly, the cocoa plant is peculiarly adapted to the arid and barren plains upon the shores of the island. Indeed, there is no country in the world in which the cocoa-nut thrives so admirably as in Ceylon; and a mode of hardening the oil having been fortenately discovered by the ingenuity of the manufacturers of this country, t'or the making of soap and candles, it may be expected that this article will become of great importance to the island. Thirdly, cinnamon is the great and peculiar staple of the agriculture of the island ; and nothing but fiscal injustice can prevent it from becoming a most important article of exportation. There is but one other country which produces it, Cochin-China; and it is not under circumstances likely to compete with Ceylon, under free production and free trade. Coffee is another article which seems exceedingly well adapted to the cultivation of Ceylon : in consequence of being duty-free, and the culture being conducted by a few intelligent Europeans, the produce has been more than doubled within the last seven years, and in 1832 exceeded 38,000 hundredweight. Tobacco is an article well suited to the soil and climate: at one time there was a very considerable exportation; but this branch of trade has been stifled by excessive duties, which even at the present moment do not fall short of 150 per oent. on the price. The native products of Ceylon are of small value; as, indeed, are the native products of every country until elaborated by skill and capital. The Ceylon Almanac gives a list of about fifty kinds of useful timber: most of these, however, are common to Ceylon with other tropical countries ; and there is not one of them fit for shipbuilding, and but three ornamental woods—viz. ebony (diospyres ebenum), satin wood (swietonia chloroxylon), and calamander wood (diospyros hirsuta), the last only superior of its kind.
The geological formation of Ceylon is primitive, but eminently deficient in metalliferous wealth. There is neither gold, silver, copper, tin, nor coal ; and the precious stones, so much vaunted of, are more abundant than valuable. The diamond does not exist, and it is rare that any valuable specimens of the sapphire family are procured. Neither is Ceylon fertile in iron ore; and of what exists very little is smelted, and this consisting of washings from the sands of brooks. Mines of plumbago have been discovered ; a commodity of no great value anywhere, but upon which the Government, with its wonted rapacity, charges an export-duty of I Os. per hundredweight,—being equal to at least 200 per cent, upon its intrinsic value.
Although the native produce of Ceylon is thus limited, the Government still further deteriorates it by making a monopoly of almost every article that is saleable abroad or at home. Thefancy woods, which we have above described, are monopolized; and so are the working of the mines, if they deserve the name, of precious stones, which consist for the most part of nothing better than variously coloured quartzes. The reader may judge of the accuracy of this statement, from the fact that the produce of the monopoly of precious stones was on the average of three years, by the Commissioners' showing, but 78/. sterling. The elephants, with which the country is overrun to the destruction of the inhabitants and their husbandry, are monopolized; their tusks are monopolized ; and the chank-shells, already alluded to, are monopolized. The forest-laws, if they may be so called, are rigorous in the extreme. In a country of which ninety-nine parts in the hundred are covered with wood, and where the felling of a tree is a public benefit, no man dares fell one without a licence from the State, and without paying to the Government one tenth part of the value of the timber, after it has been conveyed to the coast,—in other words, paying a tax of ten per cent. upon labour, or for the privilege of dragging a log to the sea-side ; the timber, from its unlimited abundance, having itself no value. Every grant of land is mumble at the pleasure of the State, for public per
• Since the appearance of the first part of this article in last week's paper, our cor respondent has forwarded to us a large sheet printed at Colombo, containing a tabular exposition of the Ceylon " Establishment" for 1533, with a view of the intended mine' lions. From this account it appears, that in future a saving or 14.5671. sill be effected in an expenditure of 70,607/., being an average decrease of 114-1:1 per cent.; in whieli the lIotemor has rendered himself a striking item, cutting down his own salary from WOOL to 70001. per annum, it having previously been reduce(' from 10,0001. to 8000/.
poses, real or pi ett n Here is abundant room for 'improvement
—for revolution. Tleo Mix-eminent has of late sears made some improvements in the administratien; but one or two barrowsful of the dunghill rlf neirances oaly have beea removed. The most im
P
Out emeliorat ion ellich has taken 'place is the abolition of forced, ssvvices, os corte'es. UoliI last year, the inhabitants were liable to he called out, uua lrey were called out, to perform every species of pub le weile or of personel servire to public officers, as nearly se puss:tile oa the saiee tome as the services of gangs of convicts are employed in Sydney and Van Diemen's Land; except only thet tbc Cinealen, were worse fed and less cared for than the newel:Med felon:: in Australia. This species of slavery bad existe(l ill every period of the history of Ceylon,---Native, Portuguese,
Dutch, and ; and was alone sufficient to demoralize anti brutalize any nation la a won), notwithstanding the small dianges which have letely been effected for the better, Ceylon may still be described as a huge garrison town, of which the inhabitants are laid under immense contributions ; such contributiens, to the last farthing, being distributed on the spot, or as it were on the drum head, to the conquerors, whether these be the soldiery or the parties employed as tax-ga therers or ir. the regulation of the pollee. The inhabitants of Ceylon have virtually no share in their own government, and derive no calculable benefit from it ; and England, the conquering state, is so far from deriving any advantage from the conquest, that she is called upon to make annual contributions in aid of maintaining the overgrown garrison, while the patronage thrown into the hands of the Minister is calculated to produce a most pernicious influence, upon her domestic administration. The little work which has furnished us with so much of our information, contains some exceedingly curious matter respecting the antiquities of Ceylon ; which does great credit to the learning and labour of the gentlemen who furnishe 1 it, Mr. TURNOUR and Captain Fonnes. The history—or rather the chronology, for barbarians like the Cingalese are as unacquainted with true history as they are with the steam-engine— goes back, as we have said, for nearly four-and-twenty centuries; the founder of the first mottled dynasty being contemporary with CYRU s, and commencilig his reigu in the year before Christ 543. During this long period, there is stated to have reigned one hundred and sixty-five princes ; which gives an average for each reign of about fourteen years. We perceive that the old and exploded theory, of an ancient state of high or at least considerable civilization, has been revived in favour of the Cingalese. There seems no foundation whatever for this fancy. Bad as the condition of the Cingalese at present is, we have not the least doubt that it is infinitely better than it ever was before, and that they are at this moment a more numerous, industrious, anti prosperous people than at any age of their native history. We draw this inference from the actual condition of other Asiatic nations, which have been left entirely to themselves, undisturbed by external influences ; as well as from the internal evidence which their chronology, meagre as it is, affords of an almost constant state of anarchy. It is rarely in the history of Ceylon that sons or grandsons succeed to fathers; but the succession of uncles, nephews, cousins, and brothers-in-law is frequent. There are at least sixteen usurpers, or one in ten of the whole line of princes. Eight-and-twenty out of the whole number were assassinated. Thirteen were deposed, exclusive of those assassinated. Two were killed in battle, and three committed suicide. Among the usurpers, there were no fewer than fourteen foreigners, who effected their purpose by invasion and conquest. These were natives of the opposite shore of India, and of the Tamul nation; who, in fact, constitute to the present day a considerable portion of the population of the island, and have furnished kings to Ceylon for several centuries past,—being a race more brave and enterprising than the native inhabitants. In such anarchy and confusion, where was there time or opportunity for a people to advance in civilization? But the remains of tanks, water-courses, and temples, are said to be evidences of a pristine civilization. This argument is exceedingly fallacious. All the great relics of antiquity now found in Ceylon are built of hewn stone, and generally of granite, a material nearly imperishable. There is little difference between the appearance of the relics of two centuries and those of two thousand years old, under such circumstances. What the antiquary sees at the present moment, constitutes not the relics of a single age, or of any particular age, but of four-and-twenty ages. Some of them may be as old as the aqueducts of Rome, and some are probably of not one fiftieth part of this antiquity; for nothing is more common, in these rude countries, than to allow the costly monuments of one prince to fall into decay and ruin even under the reign of his immediate successor. It would be wonderful indeed, if among one hundred and sixtyfive princes, half a dozen were not to be found, who, gifted with a little more wisdom than the rest, could build a lbw tanks and water-courses, in order to increase, not only the subsistence of the people, but their own revenue at the same time. That there have been immemorially abandoned, is only evidence of the general anarchy which must always have prevailed. The monuments alluded to are of such a magnitude, that they could only be constructed at the public cost,—that is, by the finced labour of the people ; implying that excessive despotism stilich seems always to have characterized the government of Ceylon, since society began to assume any thing like a regular form among the people. This is the case at the present moment in all rude counts its, whether Asiatic or European. As to the religious edifices, the ease with regard to them is still more clear. We re • conmend to our modern antiquaries to reperuse a well-known passage in old KNOX'S HiSinrieid Relation of Ceilon, an bland in the East Indies; in which they will find the wh de affair perfectly well explained. " This," says KNOX, describing a very holy situation, " is now become a place of solemn worship, the due performance whereof' they reckon to be not a little morittnious; insomuch as that they report ninety kings have since reigned there successively, where, by the ruins that still remain, it appears that they spared not for pains and Lebow to build temples anti high monuments to the honour of this god, as if they had been born only to hew rocks and great stones and lay them up in heaps." " These kings," adds the honest sailor, sarcastically, " are now happy spirits, having merited it by these their labours." Now we entreat our antiquaries of Ceylon and their patrons, to stir themselves to produce in Ceylon—for this is ii their power— a real golden age for the island, instead of vainly pro eling for it amidst the rubbish of antiquity, where unquestionably they will never find it.
What a subject for the statist, the economist, and the enlightened statesman, is the Colonial Empire of Britain! What black traces. of past misgovernment, what glowing prospects of future improvement, rise in vision before us ! What a source of riches, power, and glory to the Mother Country—of prosperous happiness to her offshoots! What a magoificent office is that of Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies; and, coming to his kingdom at the moment when all these things are beginning to be understood, what a lucky man is Mr. SP1:1 Nrc; Rice !
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