sion, however, did not by any means tally | χωρισθεν νομου και δικης χειριστον παντων. with the sentiments of the Cinglese, who Polit. are as much inclined to continue their ancient barbarous practice as their brethren the Candians, although they are deprived of the power."-(pp. 70-72.)

The only exportable articles of any importance which Ceylon produces are pearls, cinnamon, and elephants. Mr. tremely interesting account of the pearl Percival has presented us with an exthe island of Manaar, in the straits fishery, held in Condatchy Bite, near

"There is perhaps no spectacle which the island of Ceylon affords more striking to an European, than the bay of Condatchy, during the season of the pearl fishery. This desert and barren spot is at that time converted into a scene which exceeds, in novelty and variety, almost anything I ever witnessed. Several thousands of people of different colours, countries, castes, and occupations, continually passing and repassing in a busy crowd; the vast numbers of small tents and huts erected on the

The warlike habits of the Candians make them look with contempt on the Cinglese, who are almost entirely unacquainted with the management which separate Ceylon from the main of arms. They have the habit and land. character of mountaineers-warlike, hardy, enterprising, and obstinate. They have, at various times, proved themselves very formidable enemies to the Dutch; and, in that kind of desultory warfare, which is the only one their rugged country will admit of, have cut off large parties of the troops of both these nations. The King of Candia, as we have before mentioned, possesses only the middle of the island, which nature, and his Candian Majesty, have rendered as in-shore, with the bazaar or market-place accessible as possible. It is traversable only by narrow wood-paths, known to nobody but the natives, strictly watched in peace and war, and where the best troops in the world might be shot in any quantities, by the Candian marksmen, without the smallest possibility of resisting their enemies, because there would not be the smallest possibility of finding them. The King of Candia is, of course, despotic; and the history of his life and reign presents the same monotonous ostentation and baby-like caprice which characterise Oriental governments. In public audiences he appears like a great fool, squatting on his hams; far surpassing gingerbread in splendour; and, after asking some "The bay of Condatchy is the most censuch idiotical question as, whether tral rendezvous for the boats employed in Europe is in Asia or Africa, retires the fishery. The banks where it is carried with a flourish of trumpets very much on extend several miles along the coast out of tune. For his private amuse- from Manaar southward off Arippo, ConThe principal ment, he rides on the nose of an datchy, and Pomparipo. bank is opposite to Condatchy, and lies out elephant, plays with his jewels, sprinkles at sea about twenty miles. The first step, his courtiers with rose-water, and feeds previous to the commencement of the his gold and silver fish. If his tea is fishery, is to have the different oyster banks not sweet enough, he impales his foot- surveyed, the state of the oysters ascer man; and smites off the heads of half-tained, and a report made on the subject a-dozen of his noblemen if he has a pain in his own.

ώσπερ γαρ (says Aristotle) τελεωθεν βελτιστον των ζωων ανθρωπος εστι, ούτω και

before each; the multitude of boats returning in the afternoon from the pearl banks, some of them laden with riches; the anxious expecting countenances of the boat-owners, while the boats are approaching the shore, and the eagerness and avidity with which they run to them when arrived, in hopes of a rich cargo; the vast numbers of jewellers, brokers, merchants, natives and foreigners, who are occupied in of all colours and all descriptions, both some way or other with the pearls, some separating and assorting them, others weighing and ascertaining their number and value, while others are hawking them about, or drilling and boring them for future use; all these circumstances tend to impress the mind with the value and importance of that object which can of itself create this scene.

to government. If it has been found that the quantity is sufficient, and that they are arrived at a proper degree of maturity, the particular banks to be fished that year are put up for sale to the highest bidder, and

blame.

are usually purchased by a black merchant. | natural and less capricious than the This, however, is not always the course other, he never fails to indulge it. pursued: government sometimes judges it Where fortune has so much to do with more advantageous to fish the banks on its own account, and to dispose of the pearls peril and profit, of course there is no afterwards to the merchants. When this deficiency of conjurors, who by divers plan is adopted, boats are hired for the enigmatical grimaces, endeavour to If season on account of government, from dif- ostracise this submarine invader. ferent quarters; the price varies consider- they are successful they are well paid ably according to circumstances; but is in pearls; and when a shark indulges usually from five to eight hundred pagodas himself with the leg of a Hindoo, there for each boat. There are, however, no is a witch who lives at Colang, on the stated prices, and the best bargain possible Malabar coast, who always bears the is made for each boat separately. The Dutch generally followed this last system; the banks were fished on government account, and the pearls disposed of in different parts of India or sent to Europe. When this plan was pursued, the Governor and Council of Ceylon claimed a certain per centage on the value of the pearls: or, if the fishing of the banks was disposed of by public sale, they bargained for a stipulated sum to themselves over and above what was paid on account of government. The pretence on which they founded their claims for this perquisite, was their trouble in surveying and valuing the banks.". (pp. 59-61.)

A common mode of theft practised by the common people engaged in the pearl fishery, is by swallowing the pearls. Whenever any one is suspected of having swallowed these precious pills of Cleopatra, the police apothecaries are instantly sent for; a brisk cathartic is immediately despatched after the truant pearl, with the strictest orders to apprehend it, in whatever corner of the viscera it may be found lurking. Oyster lotteries are carried on here to a great extent. The banks are divided into six or They consist in purchasing a quantity seven portions, in order to give the of the oysters unopened, and running the oysters time to grow, which are sup- chance of either finding or not finding posed to obtain their maturity in about pearls in them. The European gentleseven years. The period allowed to the men and officers who attend the pearl merchant to complete his fishery is about fishery through duty or curiosity are six weeks; during which period all the particularly fond of these lotteries, and boats go out and return together, and frequently make purchases of this sort. are subject to very rigorous laws. The The whole of this account is very well dexterity of the divers is very striking; written, and has afforded us a great they are as adroit in the use of their degree of amusement. By what cufeet as their hands, and can pick up rious links, and fantastical relations, are the smallest object under water with mankind connected together! At the their toes. Their descent is aided by distance of half the globe, a Hindoo a great stone, which they slip from gains his support by groping at the their feet when they arrive at the bot- bottom of the sea for the morbid contom, where they can remain about two cretion of a shell-fish, to decorate the minutes. There are instances, how-throat of a London alderman's wife. ever, of divers who have so much of the aquatic in their nature as to remain under water for five or six minutes. Their great enemy is the ground shark; for the rule of "eat and be eaten," which Dr. Darwin called the great law of nature, obtains in as much force fathoms deep beneath the waves as above them this animal is as fond of the legs of Hindoos as Hindoos are of the pearls of oysters; and as one appetite appears to him much more

It is said that the great Linnæus had discovered the secret of infecting oysters with this perligenous disease; what has become of the secret we do not know, as the only interest we take in oysters is of a much more vulgar, though perhaps a more humane nature.

The principal woods of cinnamon lie in the neighbourhood of Columbo. They reach to within half a mile of the fort, and fill the whole surrounding prospect. The grand garden near

the town is so extensive, as to occupy | in chewing cinnamon, the acrid juice of a tract of country from ten to fifteen which excoriates the mouth, and puts miles in length.

"Nature has here concentrated both the

beauty and the riches of the island. Nothing can be more delightful to the eye, than the prospect which stretches around Columbo. The low cinnamon trees which cover the plain allow the view to reach the groves of evergreens, interspersed with tall clumps, and bounded everywhere with

extensive ranges of cocoa nut and other large trees. The whole is diversified with small lakes and green marshes, skirted all round with rice and pasture fields. In one part, the intertwining cinnamon trees appear completely to clothe the face of the plain; in another, the openings made by the intersecting footpaths just serve to show that the thick underwood has been penetrated. One large road, which goes out at the west gate of the fort, and returns by the gate on the south, makes a winding circuit of seven miles among the woods. It is here that the officers and gentlemen belonging to the garrison of Columbo take their morning ride, and enjoy one of the finest scenes in nature."(pp. 336, 337.)

them to the most dreadful tortures.

The island of Ceylon is completely divided into two parts by a very high range of mountains, on the two sides of which the climate and the seasons are entirely different. These mountains also terminate completely the effect of the monsoons, which set in periodically from opposite sides of them. On the west side, the rains prevail in the months of May, June, and July, the season when they are felt on the Malabar coast. This monsoon is usually extremely violent during its continuance. The northern parts of the island are. very little affected. In the months of October and November, when the opposite monsoon sets in on the Coromandel coast, the north of the island is attacked; and scarcely any impression reaches the southern parts. The heat during the day is nearly the same throughout the year: the rainy season renders the nights much cooler. The climate, upon the whole, is much more As this spice constitutes the wealth temperate than on the continent of of Ceylon, great pains are taken to India. The temperate and healthy ascertain its qualities, and propagate climate of Ceylon is, however, confined its choicest kinds. The prime sort is to the sea-coast. In the interior of the obtained from the Laurus Cinnamo- country, the obstructions which the mum. The leaf resembles the laurel thick woods oppose to the free circulain shape, but is not of so deep a green. tion of air, render the heat almost When chewed it has the smell and insupportable, and generate a low and taste of cloves. There are several malignant fever, known to Europeans different species of cinnamon tree on by the name of the Jungle fever. the island; but four sorts only are The chief harbours of Ceylon are cultivated and barked. The picture Trincomalee, Point de Galle, and, at which we have just quoted from Mr. certain seasons of the year, Columbo. Percival of a morning ride in a cinna- The former of these, from its nature mon wood is so enchanting, that we are and situation, is that which stamps extremely sorry the addition of aromatic Ceylon one of our most valuable acodours cannot with veracity be made quisitions in the East Indies. As soon to it. The cinnamon has, unfortunately, as the monsoons commence, every vesno smell at all but to the nostrils of the sel caught by them in any other part poet. Mr. Percival gives us a very in- of the Bay of Bengal is obliged to teresting account of the process of put to sea immediately, in order to making up cinnamon for the market, avoid destruction. At these seasons, in which we are sorry our limits will Trincomalee alone, of all the parts on not permit us to follow him. The dif- this side of the peninsula, is capable ferent qualities of the cinnamon bundles of affording to vessels a safe retreat; can only be estimated by the taste; which a vessel from Madras may reach an office which devolves upon the in two days. These circumstances medical men of the settlement, who render the value of Trincomalee much are employed for several days together greater than that of the whole island;

appetite of a certain species of serpent. The best history of this kind we ever remember to have read, was of a serpent killed near one of our settlements, in the East Indies; in whose body they found the chaplain of the garrison, all in black, the Rev. Mr. (somebody or other, whose name we have for gotten,) and who, after having been Ceylon.

sleeps in a nightcap of steel, and position that he has been serving in dagger-proof blankets. To us it the French emigrant army against his country-is shot, and upon his dead body falls Delphine, as dead as he.

appears rather an attack upon the Ten Commandments, than the government of Bonaparte, and calculated not so much to enforce the rights of the Bourbons, as the benefits of adultery, murder, and a great number of other vices, which have been somehow or other strangely neglected in this country, and too much so (according to the apparent opinion of Madame de Staël) even in France.

It happens, however, fortunately enough, that her book is as dull as it could have been if her intentions had been good; for wit, dexterity, and the pleasant energies of the mind, seldom rank themselves on the side of virtue and social order; while vice is spi ritual, eloquent, and alert, ever choice in expression, happy in allusion, and judicious in arrangement.

Making every allowance for reading this book in a translation, and in a very bad translation, we cannot but deem it a heavy performance. The incidents are vulgar; the characters vulgar too, except those of Delphine and Madame de Vernon. Madame de Staël has not the artifice to hide what is coming. In travelling through a flat country, or a flat book, we see our road before us for half the distance we are going. There are no agreeable sinuosities, and no speculations whether we are to ascend next, or descend; what new sight we are to enjoy, or to which side we are to bend. Leonce is robbed and half murdered; the apo thecary of the place is certain he will not live; we were absolutely certain that he would live, and could predict to an hour the time of his recovery. In the same manner we could have prophesied every event of the book a whole volume before its occurrence.

This novel is a perfect Alexandrian. The last two volumes are redundant, and drag their wounded length: it should certainly have terminated where the interest ceases, at the death of Madame de Vernon; but, instead of this, the scene-shifters come and pick

The story is simply this.-Delphine, a rich young widow, presents her cousin Matilda de Vernon with a considerable estate, in order to enable her to marry Leonce Mondeville. To this action she is excited by the arts and the intrigues of Madame de Vernon, an hackneyed Parisian lady, who hopes, by this marriage, to be able to discharge her numerous and pressing debts. Leonce, who, like all other heroes of novels, has fine limbs, and fine qualities, comes to Paris-dislikes Matilda-up the dead bodies, wash the stage, falls in love with Delphine, Delphine sweep it, and do everything which the with him; and they are upon the eve timely fall of the curtain should have of jilting poor Matilda, when, from excluded from the sight, and left to some false reports spread abroad re- the imagination of the audience. We specting the character of Delphine humbly apprehend, that young gentle(which are aggravated by her own imf men do not in general make their prudences, and by the artifices so tutors the confidants of their passion; Madame de Vernon), Leonce, not in a at least we can find no rule of that fit of honesty, but of revenge, marries kind laid down either by Miss the lady whom he came to marry. Hamilton or Miss Edgeworth, in their Soon after, Madame de Vernon dies- treatises on education. The tutor of discovers the artifices by which she had Leonce is Mr. Barton, a grave old prevented the union of Leonce and gentleman, in a peruke and snuffDelphine-and then, after this catas-coloured clothes. Instead of writing trophe, which ought to have terminated to this solemn personage about second the novel, come two long volumes of causes, the ten categories, and the complaint and despair. Delphine becomes a nun-runs away from the nunnery with Leonce, who is taken by some French soldiers, upon the sup

eternal fitness of things, the young lover raves to him, for whole pages, about the white neck and auburn hair of his Delphine; and, shame to tell!