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such cases, should be extended, subject to certain qualifications, to every half-caste, and to every other native of the island, whatever his caste or religious persuasion.

[2] Cinnamon.-p. 352.

The cinnamon generally grows on the south and south-west coasts of the island, between Matura and Chilau. In these maritime provinces, the cultivation and preparation of the cinnamon are carried on by a particular caste, which consists of between twentyfour and twenty-five thousand persons, who are said to be descended from seven weavers that were introduced into Ceylon by a Mahomedan merchant of the town of Barbareen, about the end of the twelfth, or the beginning of the thirteenth century.

[3] Pearls.-p. 355.

The principal pearl-banks, belonging to his Majesty's government, are situated along the western coast of Ceylon. The East India Company have a chank fishery at Killecarré, and a pearlfishery at Tuticoreen, both of which places are situated on that part of the coast of the southern peninsula of India which is opposite to the island of Ceylon.

It is said that the chank and pearl fisheries on the coast of the peninsula, and the chank and pearl fisheries on the coast of Ceylon, were, at the time, when the Mahomedans were established at Manaar and Mantotte, under one management; the policy of this arrangement is obvious; for, as most of the divers who dive on the one bank also dive on the other, the fisheries at one place may, if under separate management, materially interfere with fisheries on the other. These fisheries seem to have been carried on along the same parts of the respective coasts of the peninsula of India and of Ceylon from the most ancient times. There is little doubt that Killecarré was, as is stated by some authors, the Colchi, mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, and that the pearl fishery, which is mentioned in the Periplus, as having been carried on at Colchi in ancient times, is the same pearl fishery as that which is now carried on off the coast of Tuticoreen and Killecarré.

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The chank fishery is an object of material consequence to the British Ceylon government in point of revenue, which, till the year 1813, was derived in two ways; first, by the sale of the exclusive privilege of fishing this shell; secondly, from the export duties upon the chanks when taken from Ceylon. But this fishery is even of greater importance, because it is a nursery for divers, whose services are wanted in the pearl fishery.

The chank is the voluta gravis, which is sawed into rings of different sizes, and worn by all Indian women as an ornament on their arms, legs, toes, and fingers. But the great market for the sale of these shells is Bengal, where a religious prejudice is entertained in their favour, in consequence of which thousands of them

are buried with the bodies of opulent and distinguished persons in that part of India; this is the cause of the great and constant demand for them. The principal banks belonging to the English government in Ceylon are situated along the north-west coast of Ceylon, a little to the northward of the island of Manaar. The divers generally dive for these shells in three or three and a half fathoms water. The quantity of chank shells which are found on these banks is so great, that the government frequently lets the right of fishing for them at sixty thousand Ceylon dollars a year. As the Ceylon divers learn to dive for pearl oysters, which are found in eight or nine fathoms water, by diving for the chanks, which are found in three or four fathoms, the chank fishery is considered a nursery for the pearl divers.

[5] Mantotte.-p. 356.

The ruins of the ancient town of Mantotto, all of which consist of brick, still cover a considerable extent of country. Great numbers of Roman coins of different emperors, particularly of the Antonines, with specimens of the finest pottery, and some Roman gold and silver chains, have been found in those ruins.

[6] Elephants (Elephantum Pascua).-p. 352.

The elephants which were exported from Point de Galle were caught in ancient as well as in modern times in that tract of country which extends from Matura to Tangalle, in the south of Ceylon, and which, from its being famous for its elephants in his days, is described by Ptolemy, in the map he made of Ceylon seventeen hundred years ago, as the Elephantum Pascua.

The trade in elephants from Ceylon, which used to be very lucrative, is now completely annihilated, in consequence of all the petty Rajahs, Poligars, and other chiefs in the southern peninsula of India, who used formerly to purchase Ceylon elephants as a part of their state, having lost their sovereignties, and being therefore no longer required to keep up any expense of this description. The number of elephants in Ceylon is so great, and the population so small, that it will be of material assistance to the cultivators and manufacturers in the island if these animals can be generally used for labour.

[7] Coodramallė.—p. 355.

Coodramallé was, in ancient times, a town of great importance. There are now extensive ruins on the spot where it formerly stood, It was the place where the fishery for pearls used to be carried on before it was removed to Aripoe, which is a few miles to the northward of it.

[8] Rice. p. 356.

The great quantities of rice, which, in former days, were exported from Trincomalee to all parts of India, were the produce of the eastern provinces of the island of Ceylon, the produce of which is, at the

present time, so reduced as to be scarcely sufficient to supply the small population which inhabits them.

[9] Indigo.-p. 356.

The indigo which was exported from Trincomalee is the produce of the indigofera tinctoria of Linnæus. It was celebrated in ancient times all over India, Arabia, and Persia, for the brightness of its colour, and was an article upon which the merchants of Ceylon, in former days, appear to have made a great profit; it grows at present perfectly wild between Trincomalee and Batticaloa, but is no longer an article of export.

[10] Chayâ Root.—p. 356.

The Chayâ root is the oldenlandia umbellata of Linnæus, and is used for dyeing red, orange, and purple. Although this root grows on the opposite coasts, and on the island of Ramisserum, that which grows in the province of Jaffna, and in the island of Manaar, is reckoned the finest. It gives rise in Jaffna, and in the island of Manaar, to a caste whose sole occupation is to dig for chaya root.

[11] Areca Nut.-p. 356.

This nut is used all over India for chewing with the betel leaf. There are three species of this nut in Ceylon, which grow in great perfection in the interior of the country, and are much esteemed throughout India. The areca nut is to this day one of the most profitable and most abundant articles of exportation from that island.

[12] Sappan Wood.-p. 356.

The sappan wood is made use of for dyeing cotton cloth of a very fine red, or rather a very deep orange colour.

[13] Coire.-p. 356.

The husk of the cocoa nut produces a coarse filament, which certain low classes of the people prepare and spin by hand, in which state it is called coire. In Ceylon it is obtained from the cocoa-nut trees, which grow in great luxuriance along the south-west part of the coast from the river Kymel to the river Halleway, forming a belt one hundred and thirty miles in length, and one and a half in breadth.

This belt was estimated, in the time when the Dutch governed Ceylon, to contain between ten and eleven millions of cocoa-nut trees, and to produce, in addition to a great quantity of cocoa-nut oil and six thousand leaguers of arrack, upwards of three millions of pounds weight of coire. A good tree in that belt was estimated to produce from fifty to eighty, and sometimes one hundred cocoanuts in a year, each cocoa-nut being equivalent as food to at least three ounces of rice.

FOREIGN.

FRANCE.

DR. VENTURINI remarks, in his Chronik des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts,' for the year 1828, that the University of Paris, to which 673 ecclesiastics were attached, was supported in that year by a grant of 90,000l., whilst scarcely 1800l. were appropriated to the support of national schools! No wonder that immorality and disorder should have thriven in exact proportion with the neglect of general education.

THE POLES.-The Polish committee at Paris have received an aid of 12001. from the United States; it was accompanied by a silver vase of 400l. value, which was ornamented with the armorial bearings of Poland. It is intended, that those Polish youths, who have no prospect of entering the military career, should be assisted out of this fund in literary pursuits; and each of them is to receive a monthly allowance of 3l. 12s. There are a number of these youths now attending the courses of lectures, which are delivering in the University of Paris. Each of them is continuing the routine of education which he had commenced in his native country; and a great many of them are devoting themselves to the classics and oriental literature.

TOULOUSE.-The Chevalier Lespinasse, in his dying moments, bequeathed 150,000 francs, (about 6000l. sterling,) for erecting and maintaining two schools in this town, where the system of mutual instruction is to be adopted. Lespinasse formerly played a prominent part in the French convention; few will think that his last hours were not far better employed than his earlier years.

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JEWISH SCHOOL AT PARIS.-This school, which is conducted under the superintendence of the Jewish Société des Amis du Travail,' maintains and educates at this moment 300 pupils, the children of the poorer class of Jews in the French metropolis. For several years past, they have been entirely clad through the liberality of M. de Rothschild. It is extraordinary how much is done with the scanty funds which this school possesses. An income scarcely exceeding 6000 francs (2407.) has sufficed, not merely to teach the pupils reading, writing, and arithmetic; but to instruct those of them in mathematics, grammar, and linear design, whom the necessities of their parents do not call away from the establishment at an early age. Even after their education is considered as completed, the society finds them a master, at an expense of 2700 francs per annum, raised by voluntary subscription, and when they are capable of working for themselves, provides them with tools.

VALENCIENNES.-The religious brothers of St. Yon, eight in number, including their director, are conducting the elementary instruction of 627 individuals, in three separate houses. Under their own roof they have evening classes, between seven and nine o'clock, appropriated to workmen, apprentices, and children, who can spare no time from their daily labours in the earlier part of the day. There are two classes; the one for the juvenile and less advanced pupils; and the other for adults, workmen, servants, and apprentices. In both, the most anxious desire to learn is said to prevail. They have separate places for their studies; and the expense is defrayed by voluntary subscriptions. There is another school for adults, which is carried on at the expense of the town, and pursues the mutual instruction system.

UNIVERSITY OF PARIS.-Some of the chairs in this university seem to be singularly neglected. Guizot, who ought to lecture on modern history, and had thrown no small degree of éclat on his professorship, is become a statesman, and has found better occupation for his time. His substitute is Girardin, who is a maître des requêtes, and finds it a more lucrative employment to write political articles for the Journal des Débats than to attend to his class.Cousin seems to look down with contempt on ancient philosophy, which his learning once so richly illustrated, and has likewise found a substitute, in order that he may devote himself to his official duties, as joint-counsellor of state, and of the university. Villemain, who is no where so much at home, as when filling his professional chair in the presence of 800 youths, has turned them over to a proxy, whose school barely musters 30 followers. M. Villemain has evinced more respect for his salary of 20,000 francs, which he retains as one of the council of the university. Royer Collard has also ceased to come amongst us. His substitute is M. Jouffroy, who is under engagement to give us two lectures a week as laid down in the Programma. But he tells us, that his duties, as member of the chamber of deputies, are in the way; and, therefore, he cuts his two down to one. As brilliant exceptions to these academic abuses, I am bound to name the punctual and illustrious Cuvier, Thénard, Ampère, Biot, Andrieux, Portets, Pouillet, l'Herminier, and a few others. (Paris: 20th February.)

In a recent debate on the vote to the university, the committee of the chamber of deputies having proposed to reduce the salary of the grandmaster (the minister for public instruction) to 20007., and that of the seven councillors of the university to 3360l., (or 480l. a year to each,) the chamber, in spite of a broad assertion from Montalivet, the present grandmaster, that the object of the opposition was to overturn the university altogether, resolved to reduce the whole vote from 5360l. to 3680l. per annum.

BELGIUM.

NATIONAL SCHOOLS.-The proposal, brought forward by Messrs. Robaulx and Seron, that a school should be established at the public

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