III. ASIA.

CEYLON.

Constitution and Government.

THE present form of government of Ceylon was established by Letters Patent of April 1831, and supplementary orders of March 1833. According to the terms of this constitution, the administration is in the hands of a Governor, aided by an Executive Council of five members; viz. the Officer Commanding the Troops, the Colonial Secretary, the Queen's Advocate, the Treasurer, and the Auditor-General; and a Legislative Council of 15 members, including the members of the Executive Council, four other officeholders, and six unofficial members.

Governor of Ceylon. -Rt. Hon. William Henry Gregory, born 1817; educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford; High Sheriff of Galway, 1849; M.P. for the City of Dublin, 1842-47; M.P. for the County of Galway, Ireland, 1857-71. Appointed Governor of Ceylon, January 8, 1872; assumed the government, March 4, 1872. The Governor has a salary of 7,000l., and the Colonial Secretary 2,0007.

Revenue and Expenditure.

The public revenue and expenditure of the colony, in each of the eight years 1865 to 1872, was as follows:

The principal sources of revenue are the customs, of an average produce of 286,000l.; licences, including the arrack monopoly, returning 150,000l.; and sales, with rents of public lands, producing together about 230,000l. per annum. The civil and judicial establishments of the colony cost nearly 300,000l., and the con

tribution to military expenditure amounts to 160,000l. annually. For public works, from 200,000l. to 250,000l. have been expended in recent years, and about 20,000l. for education.

To aid in the establishment of a line of railway, a public debt, to the amount of 800,000l., was raised in 1861-67, of which 100,000%. was paid off in 1868. There is a sinking fund provided for the gradual extinction of the debt, which had been reduced, at the end of 1872, to upwards of 640,000l. The railway, 75 miles in length yielded a profit of 113,4907. in the year 1872, the receipts having amounted to 187,2891., and the expenses to 73,8087.-(Official Communication).

Population.

In

The island of Ceylon was first settled in 1505 by the Portuguese, who established colonies in the west and south, which were taken from them early in the next century by the Dutch. 1795-96, the British Government took possession of the foreign settlements in the island, which were annexed to the Presidency of Madras; but two years after, in 1798, Ceylon was erected into a separate colony. In 1815 war was declared against the native Government of the interior; the Kandyan King was taken prisoner, and the whole island fell under British rule.

The extreme length of the colony from north to south, that is, from Point Palmyra to Dondera Head, is 266 miles; its greatest width, 140 miles from Colombo on the west coast to Sangemankande on the east; its area is 24,454 miles, or about 15,678,900

acres.

The following table gives the area and population of the six provinces of Ceylon, according to an official return of the year 1870

Of the total population here enumerated 4,732 were British;

14,201 other whites of European descent, and the rest coloured. At a census taken March 26, 1871, the total population of Ceylon was found to be 2,405,287. The religious creeds were returned as follows:-Buddhists, 1,520,575; Sivites, 464,414; Roman Catholics, 182,613; Mahomedan, 171,542; Protestants, 24,756; Wesleyans, 6,071; Presbyterians, 3,101; and Baptists, 1,478. The whole of the Christians belonged to the European-descended population.

Trade and Industry.

The declared value of the total imports and exports of the colony, including bullion and specie, in each of the five years 1868 to 1872, was as follows:

.The commercial intercourse of Ceylon is mainly with the United Kingdom and India. The amount of trade with the United Kingdom is shown in the subjoined tabular statement, which gives the total value of the exports from Ceylon to Great Britain and Ireland, and of the imports of British and Irish produce and manufactures into Ceylon, in each of the five years 1869 to 1873:—

The staple article of exports from Ceylon to the United Kingdom is coffee, of the declared value of 2,867,7247. in 1869; of 2,790,8987. in 1870; of 2,623,2637. in 1871; of 2,341,6017. in 1872, and of 3,692,3331. in 1873. Besides coffee, the only other exports of note are cocoa-nut oil and cinnamon, the former amounting to the value of 285,0331., and the latter to 113,7251. in the year 1873. Manufactured cotton goods, of the value of 578,1687. 1873, form the staple articles of British imports into Ceylon.

Money, Weights, and Measures.

The weights and measures of Ceylon are the same as those of the United Kingdom. The money of the country is the rupee of British India. Accounts are kept in rupees and cents. For value see page 670.

Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning Ceylon.

1. OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Report of Governor Sir Hercules G. R. Robinson, dated Colombo, September 14, 1867; in Reports, showing the present state of H. M.'s Colonial Possessions.' Part III. Eastern Colonies. Fol. London, 1868.

Report of Governor Sir Hercules Robinson, dated Colombo, September 14, 1871; in Reports on the Past and Present State of H.M.'s Colonial Possessions. Part II. London, 1872.

Report of Governor the Right Hon. W. H. Gregory on the Revenue, Trade, &c., of Ceylon, dated Colombo, October 13, 1873; in 'Papers relating to H.M.'s Colonial Possessions.' Part I. 1874. 8. London, 1874.

Statistics of Ceylon; in 'Statistical Abstract for the Colonial and other Possessions of the United Kingdom.' No. X. 8. London, 1874.

Trade of Ceylon with Great Britain; in 'Annual Statement of the Trade.of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions in the year 1873.' Imp. 4. London, 1874.

2. NON-OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Baker (S. W.), Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon. 8. London, 1855. Duncan (George), Geography of India. Part II. Ceylon. 8. Madras, 1865.

Mouat (Frederic J.), Rough Notes of a Trip to Reunion, the Mauritius, and Ceylon. 8. Calcutta, 1852.

Pridham (C.), Historical, Political, and Statistical Account of Ceylon. 2 vols. 8. London, 1849.

Ransonnet-Villez (Baron E. von), Ceylon: Skizzen seiner Bewohner, seines Thier- und Pflanzenlebens. Fol. Brunswick, 1868.

Schmarda (L. K.), Reise um die Erde: Zeilon. Vol. i. 8. Braunschweig,

1861.

Sirr (H. C.), Ceylon and the Cingalese. 2 vols. 8. London, 1851. Tennent (Sir James Emerson), Ceylon: an Account of the Island, Physical Historical, and Topographical. 5th ed. London, 1860.

CHINA.

(TSIN.-KATAI.)

Reigning Sovereign and Family.

T'oung-chê, Emperor of China, born April 27, 1856, the son of Emperor Hien-fung; succeeded to the throne at the death of his father, August 22, 1861; assumed the government, by proclamation, February 23, 1873. Married October 16, 1872, to

A-lu-té, Empress of China, born 1857, daughter of Ch'ung-chê, Rector of the Academy of Peking.

Uncles of the Emperor.-1. Prince Tun, born 1802; 2. Prince Kung, born 1811; 3. Prince Chun, born 1815; 4. Prince Fu, born 1827.

The present sovereign is the eighth Emperor of China of the Tartar dynasty of Ta-tsing, The Sublimely Pure,' which succeeded the native dynasty of Ming in the year 1644. There exists no law of hereditary succession to the throne, but it is left to each sovereign to appoint his successor from among the members of his family. The late Emperor, on designating his son, a minor, as his successor, ordered that he should be kept, till the time of his majority, under the guardianship of eight high officials, who were to carry on the government in his name. But in consequence of a palace revolution, occurring soon after the accession of the young ruler, Nov. 2, 1861, three out of the eight appointed imperial guardians were killed, and the rest banished, while the supreme power was taken possession of by two of the wives of the deceased sovereign, Tzi-an, the 'first consort,' and Tzi-ssi, the mother of the new Emperor. They associated themselves with Jih-su, Prince of Kong, uncle of the young Emperor, who was nominated head of the Council of ministers, and became virtually Regent of the empire until the assumption of government by the present Emperor February 23, 1873.

Government and Revenue.

The fundamental laws of the empire are laid down in the Ta-tsinghwei-tien, or Collected Regulations of the Great Pure dynasty,' which prescribe the government of the state to be based upon the government of the family. The Emperor is spiritual as well as temporal sovereign, and, as high priest of the empire, can alone, with his immediate representatives and ministers, perform the great religious ceremonies. No ecclesiastical hierarchy is maintained at the public expense, nor any priesthood attached to the Confucian or State religion.