passion of fear, were promulgated. Those peelers, who delivered not more than one-half of their task of angebadde, and refused to acknowledge their culpability, were ordered to be confined in irons for three months. Complete defaulters were to be put into irons for six months for the first offence; for the second offence, they were ordered to be confined in chains for life.

It would appear that, as early as 1736, the Dutch had arranged the cinnamon-peelers, according to their ages, into eleven classes. I have seen a copy of a document that was laid before the governor and council, during that year, in which the strength of the different classes is stated, and the number of pingos each individual was to deliver. Below is an extract from this paper. The last two columns I have added, having deduced them by calculation from the data found in the statement:

Or about 9,078 bales, at 86 Dutch pounds per bale.

The Dutch establishment for collecting cinnamon was at all times very complicated, but perhaps it was more intricate than ever immediately previous to the period when the British landed on Ceylon. The following statement comprehends a brief summary of their regulations, as far as I have been able to collect them.

The establishment was under the direction of a civil servant, who was always an European. The chief of the cinnamon-department, or Captain Canell, as he was more familiarly named, used to make five circuits annually through the cinnamon district. During each circuit, he had particular duties to perform. These perambulations were made with much pomp and noise. Independently of an immense number of attendants, he was preceded by persons bearing silk flags, and accompanied by a band of music, consisting of one hornblower, one hautboy, and five tom-toms. His followers were all supplied with food at the expense of the people of the district through which he travelled. He was supplied with fowls, fruit, &c. for his table, while the coolies and other classes of followers were furnished with ready-dressed victuals. Subordinate to him were a great number of native head-men. His pay was small, but he had many ways of obtaining money, and generally made a fortune while he held the situation. One way, by which he procured large sums, was the sale of appointments. His chief income was an allowance upon the amount of cinnamon collected; so that, to oppress the Chaliahs promoted his own interest as well as that of the government.

The peelers were classed into ten subdivisions, arranged according to their ages and strength. They seem to have advanced one class every year, from the time they commenced to cut cinnamon until they reached the tenth class. The first, or boy-class, was taxed to deliver annually and without pay 65 lbs. The cinnamon cut by this class became a perquisite of the superintendent; that is to say, he was entitled to charge government for preparing it, although the peelers received nothing. The second class were obliged to deliver two pingos of badde, or tax-cinnamon, and three of mitte, or money-cinnamon. The pingo of money-cinnamon weighed 55 lbs. The annual pay of individuals of the second, third, and fourth classes was eight parahs of Bengal or twelve of Batavia rice, three larins and sixteen cubits of coarse cotton cloth. The cloth was given at the end of the peeling season, and it was denominated a present. The tax-cinnamon increased annually, until it reached eleven pingos. Upon reaching this quantity, the tribute decreased one pingo annually until the number was reduced to five. At this rate it was kept as long as possible. When, in consequence of the infirmities of old age, the peeler was unable to deliver five pingos, he was then taxed one pingo annually, but for this quantity he received no remuneration, and this tax he was obliged to pay until the day of his death. From the second year the peelers began to prepare cinnamon, they were annually taxed to deliver three pingos of mitte or money-cinnamon. From the fourth year of cutting, the quantity of rice advanced, as pay to the peelers was increased, from eight to twelve parahs. When a peeler failed to deliver more than five pingos of badde and three of money-cinnamon, he received no cloth. When the delivery of cinnamon was large, the present of cloth was sometimes increased to thirty-six cubits, to which, under particular circumstances, was occasionally added about sixteen pounds weight of salt, and a bottle of arrack.

By a document delivered to the governor and council, it appears that, in the year 1766, the superintendent of the cinnamon-department, Mr. De Graaf, estimated the number of Chaliahs who had taken refuge in the Kandyan country at upwards 1,000. This affords a striking proof that the tyranny of a people calling themselves civilized, and under the forms of law, may be infinitely more oppressive than that of a despot, who is a stranger to the refinement of civilization, and who acknowledges no rule but his own arbitrary will.

Such are the desultory and unconnected details I have been able to collect respecting the Chaliahs. It has been necessary to mention a number of apparently trifling circumstances, in order to show the degree of oppression under which they suffered while the Dutch held the maritime provinces of Ceylon, and to exhibit how low they could descend in their exactions.

The Dutch evidently considered the Chaliahs' labour as their own property. To preserve the subserviency of this people, they degraded and debased them, not only in the opinion of the other castes, but even in their own. The conduct of the Dutch told them that they were born to prepare cinnamon, and the poor people seemed to believe it. The Dutch perpetuated the thraldom of caste, which, although not founded on law, but custom, is infinitely more rigorous than the severest exaction of any rule that has obtained the name of law.

When, in consequence of the weight of the task imposed upon them, and the scarcity of cinnamon trees, the peelers were unable to produce the required tribute, they were accused of indolence and negligence; when they humbly represented their incapacity to deliver the whole amount, they were stigmatized as insolent, turbulent, and contumacious.

Possessed of sovereign and uncontrolled authority over the maritime pro

vinces, having it thus in their power to benefit and emancipate the inhabitants, the Dutch sacrificed the protecting character and influence of the sovereign to the low arts of petty shopkeepers. As sovereigns, they were arrogant, cruel, and despotic; as merchants, mean, oppressive, and avaricious. In their mixed character, they overlooked the recognized maxims of duty and justice, and made right give way to expediency. The extent to which they invaded the natural and acknowledged rights of the subject is clearly evinced by their conduct to the Chaliahs.

ན

In regard to the present state of this caste, and the general economy of the maha-badde, information is more easily obtained, of which the following is a brief statement.'

The cinnamon-department, or the establishment for cultivating and preparing cinnamon, is under the direction of a civil servant, who is styled the Superintendent of Cinnamon-Plantations. By the natives, this department is called the maha-badde. The entire Chaliah caste is under the control of the superintendent. A few families of some of the other tribes of inhabitants are employed along with the Chaliahs, and form part of the maha-badde.

The residence of the Chaliahs is confined to that part of the coast of the island which produces good cinnamon, or from Negombo to Matura. This district is divided into six subdivisions. Over the Chaliahs who reside in each subdivision, there is a moodeliar, or head-man, appointed. His duty is to circulate the orders of the superintendent among the people, and to furnish the requisite number of men, agreeably to the directions of the head of the department. For each man he furnishes, he is allowed one pice per day during the time he is employed. Obsequiousness, as well as self-interest, impel him to perform his duty rigidly, and to discountenance every application that may be made to be exempted from the impost. Should a Chaliah decline the authority of the moodeliar, or neglect to obey his orders with promptitude, the individual is forth with brought before the superintendent, who is authorized to punish him with a certain number of lashes. A similar punishment awaits any individual who absconds and is afterwards taken.

Each of the subordinate classes has a peculiar duty to perform. The first class, or Punuwidukarus, furnish head-men to superintend the labours of the people employed in the department; the remaining number of the class are employed either in carrying messages to and from the superintendent, or in cultivating the plantations. The second class, Hewapunnus or Hewarallis, cultivate the plantations of cinnamon, and watch, at the passes that lead to them, to prevent the cutting of cinnamon-shoots by passengers, &c., and to prevent the ingress of cattle. Inferior superintendents are sometimes chosen from this class. The third class, Ooliyukarus, is not numerous. Individuals of this class are chiefly employed in carrying the baggage and palankins of the superintendent and native head-men.

The labours of a part of these three classes are required during the whole year; each district furnishes the required quota, which is generally relieved monthly. The people belonging to the other caste, who are employed in the maha-badde, are arranged with these three classes, so far as their services are 'concerned. Individuals of these three classes are generally employed by the superintendent about three months annually. Until the commencement of the cultivation of cinnamon, the services of the first, second, and third classes of Chaliahs were but seldom required, and to this circumstance may be ascribed the cause why they are comparatively so little noticed by the Dutch in their regulations regarding the cinnamon department.

The fourth class are Koorundu-karus, or cinnamon-peelers. The people of this class are solely employed in cutting, peeling, and preparing the cinnamon. Early in the month of April, the moodeliar of the district makes a circuit through the villages under his superintendence, and enrols all the individuals of this class who are fit for labour. He enters on his list those individuals who may have attained the age of sixteen years, and erases from his register those who have reached sixty years of age, or who from infirmities have become unfit to undergo the requisite fatigue of collecting and peeling cinnamon. About the same time, the superintendent appoints a day when the whole class is to rendezvous at Colombo, to which place they are brought by head-men from the respective districts. Each peeler must be provided, at his own expense, with a kette, or bill-hook, to cut the cinnamon-shoots, a ko-kette, to slit open and take off the bark, and a kuroondu-kette, to scrape off the cuticle and smooth the cinnamon. Boys under the age of sixteen years have, within these few years, been employed in preparing cinnamon along with the men. On reaching Colombo, which they generally do early in the month of May, the peelers are formed into divisions by the superintendent, and sent to the different peeling stations. The peeling season commonly lasts from April till November or December.

Before the subjugation of the interior of the island, the peelers were chiefly employed either in the plantations or in the jungles of the maritime provinces. Previously to this event, they made occasional inroads into the king's provinces, and cut by stealth considerable quantities of cinnamon; these incursions were, however, in general attended with danger, as the king always repressed such inroads. The range of the peelers became more extensive in 1815, when the British power prevailed in the centre of the island. Each company of peelers brings the product of its labours, at stated periods, to a depôt appointed by the superintendent. The period is generally monthly, but it is sometimes varied, according to circumstances. The superintendent or some of his native assistants attend at the place of delivery. The cinnamon produced by each individual is inspected, weighed, and the quantity entered in a book in a column opposite the individual's name. Should the cinnamon be found to be coarse, or taken from too young shoots, if the tubes be stuffed with sand, the cuticle not carefully removed, or any other adulteration or imperfection be discovered, the peeler incurs the risk of being punished by the infliction of a certain number of stripes upon his bare back with a cat-o'nine-tails. The extent of the punishment is determined by the superintendent, and the lashes are generally inflicted in his presence. By a proclamation of the Dutch colonial government, it appears that the punishment denounced against peelers who introduced thick and coarse bark into the centre of tubes of good cinnamon, with a fraudulent intent, was whipping, branding, amputating both ears, and confinement in chains. In some aggravated cases, the persons offending were ordered to be banished to the Cape of Good Hope, for a period of twentyfive years.

peeler is about 45 lbs. Peelers failing to pro

The average quantity produced monthly by each Boys under sixteen years of age prepare about 20 lbs. duce monthly above the quantity of 30 lbs., and who cannot adduce satisfactory proofs of an adequate cause (as sickness, &c.) for the deficiency, are in the first instance reprimanded, and should similar defalcations again occur, they are liable to corporal punishment, and the practice obtains in the cinnamon department to fine or flog for such a delinquency.

The monthly wages of the people employed in the maha-badde department

are: cash, Rix Dollars 5, equal each to 1s. 9d. when the exchange is at par; rice, one parah, or about 45 lbs.; and one seer, or about 1 lb., of salt. Boys receive each the above allowance of rice and salt, and in money Rix Dollars 3. 1f. 2p.

By a census, taken in the year 1814, of the male population between ten and sixty years of age, belonging to the maha-badde, it appears that the number at that time stood as under :

The Honourable Mr. North, afterwards Lord Guildford, on his assumption of the government of Ceylon, found that a great part of the lands were held

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by tenure of service," which he, to the credit of his feelings and sound policy, abrogated by a proclamation bearing date 3d Sept. 1801. This proclamation states that " whereas we have seen by experience the absolute necessity of abolishing tenure by service and substituting a less oppressive and irregular mode of contributing to the service of the state," and proceeds to enact that " all obligation to service on tenure of lands, throughout these settlements, shall cease, and persons of whatever caste and condition shall, from the 1st May 1802, continue subject to serve only on the especial orders of ourself and our successors, governors of Ceylon only, according to their respective castes and on the receipt of adequate pay for such services." In another proclamation, it was enacted that the natives "shall be free from all obligation of service, except on the particular order of ourself or our successors, in which they will receive pay for the service at the rate of labour in the chief town of the district where they perform it." Such is the magna charta of the liberty of the subject in Ceylon. What is the practice? With regard to the Chaliahs, this charter is a mere nullity. Mr. North, in his proclamation, declares that tenure by service is an " oppressive and irregular mode of contributing to the service of the state;" yet this “oppressive and irregular mode" of taxation was never, in as far as regards the Chaliahs, practically repealed; the old harassing mode of exaction was continued, and it now exists, unameliorated in the slightest degree.

I have said that the Chaliahs did not participate in the advantages promised by Mr. North's proclamation. They are still liable to all the disabilities and exclusions, under which they laboured while the Dutch power was dominant. This servitude is still hereditary and perpetual; they are still liable to be torn from their families, sent to a great distance from their homes, and compelled to labour at an employment in many cases both extremely unwholesome and irksome. The impost is still that of a capitation-tax; the exaction is made by an enumeration of heads, and has no reference to the possession of land. The officers of government are authorised “to seize, take, arrest, send, and employ, in the service of government," persons bound by their castes and other customs of these settlements, in the same manner as was practised during the sway of the Dutch. No enfranchisements have taken place, and no hopes of emancipation are held out to this class of the inhabitants. The Chaliahs are amenable to the laws, but the law does not protect their liberties, when the interest of government is concerned. They continue to be forced most unwillingly from