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military establishments exceeds the revenue by more than a hundred thousand pounds a year. This sum is to be consi dered as expended, or, if we may so express it, paid, for the use of the excellent harbour of Trincomallee, alledged to be the only secure place for shipping in the tempests of the Indian seas. It is minutely described by Mr. Cordiner, who visited it in the course of a journey which he made round the greatest part of the coast.

In the company of one of his friends he made an excur sion to Ramisseram, the sacred island, as it is called, lying near the Coromandel coast. He describes at length the great temple of Seeva, which draws numberless pilgrims from va rious parts of the Peninsula. The island is dedicated in a peculiar manner to superstition, almost to the exclusion of the ordinary employments of civil life; and is embossed all over with the marks of its infernal appropriation, in the form of pagodas, and the accommodations for the crowd of worshipping visitants. The novelty, however, the splendour, the complaisance of the priests and dancing girls, the natural beauty, and the apparent serenity of the scene, appear to have fascinated Mr. Cordiner into an extremely complacent state of feeling, a state rather too little susceptible, we think, of the impres sions of grief and indignation which certain apostles, his predecessors, have been known to feel, in surveying a place "wholly given to idolatry." He talks of Rama's peaceful island, and felicitates it that its pagodas are not in the state of those which formerly on the coast of Ceylon were dedicated to Seeva, of which only some rows of scattered pil. lars, and a few remnants of broken images, have survived the fanatic fury of the first European invaders.' (Vol. II. p. 29.) Undoubtedly this little island is one of the prettiest and genteelest residences of the devil, and might properly enough be termed his villa; the nature of his establishment, and the degree of pleasure which any one ought to feel in perambulating his precincts, and surveying his elegant arrangements, may be determined by the following account of his carriages.

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Five swamy coaches, used for the purpose of carrying the idols in procession, are laid up on the sides of the east street. They are solid masses of wood raised, like branches of a cornice, one above another, and intended to symbolize a lingam. The outside is covered with an extraor dinary assemblage of obscene images, representing lewd and indecent scenes, too scandalous in the eyes of an European to admit of a descrip tion. Each carriage has four wheels of solid wood, and requires two hundred men to draw it. When they are dragged along the streets, on occasions of great solemnity, women, in the phrenzy of false devotion, throw themselves down before the wheels, and are crushed to death by their tremenVol. IV. 3 G

dous weight, the same superstitious madness preventing the ignorant crowd from making any attempt to save them.' Vol. II. p. 16.

It may always be presumed, that the monarch and court of any country should form the most interesting object it contains; and Mr. C. has done ample justice to this part of the curiosities of Ceylon, by extracts from a narration, in the journal of Capt. Macpherson, of the proceedings and incidents in an embassy to Candy in 1800. After a tedious jour ney, and a monstrous quantity of introductory ceremonial, the embassy got at last into the royal presence: and most certainly, if any of our readers were at all infected with republican notions, the most powerful antidote which it is possible to conceive would be supplied by what was seen and heard in that sacred presence; that is to say, unless there is something vastly more perverse in the minds of such readers

than in our own.

Having arrived at the entrance of the hall of audience several curtains were drawn, and gave us a full view of the King on his throne in a recess at the farther end of the apartment. The drawing of the curtains was the signal for six of the nobles to prostrate themselves on the ground, and for the Ambassador and the gentlemen who were with him to kneel. While these six nobles prostrated themselves in this way nine different times, they called out O King live for ever, and addressed themselves to him as if they were paying their adorations to a Deity. The King repeated a word three different times in a loud rough voice, upon his pronouncing which the third time, we all got up and advanced a few paces, when the same ceremony was performed a second time.

We then rose once more and advanced to the edge of a carpet where we kneeled, and the nobles prostrated themselves a third time, while the Ambassador, still held by the first and second Adigars, went up to the throne carrying the letter. Having reached the foot of the throne, the first Adigar took off the niuslin that covered the letter, and his Majesty took the letter from the Ambassador's hands and laid it down on his left side. The Ambassador was now led backwards to the spot, where we remained all the while kneeling. Having reached us he kneeled also. The first Adigar now went and sat down opposite to the right of the throne. The second Adigar took his post opposite to the left of it, with his face towards the King. The Dessauve of Uva sat down a little advanced in front of us, and having the Ambassador's interpreters near to him. I forgot to say that we were all obliged to take off our hats when - we entered the hall, excepting the Ambassador, who did not take his off until he had delivered the Governor's letter. After keeping the Ambas sador and his suite some time longer on their knees, the King at length condescended to let the whole sit down on the carpet. This, and all other communication between the King and the Ambassador took place, by the King's addressing the second Adigar, who repeated the sacred message to the Dessauveof Uva. The Dessauve then delivered it to the Cingalese interpreter, who repeated it in Portugueze to a person who explained it in English to the Ambassador, so that a few words took a long time to come from the abrone to the Ambassador, and vice versa. In addition to all these delays,

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the Adigar never received any command from the King that he did not, after hearing it, offer up a prayer for his length of days, and then repeated a prayer to the same purpose before he delivered it to the Dessauve, who heard every word the King said just as well as the Adigar, and was also obliged to repeat similar ejaculations. The King now asked after the health of his excellency the Governor. The Ambassador was obliged to ask and obtain permission to answer the King's question before he could reply. The King then asked after the Governor's family, and after the Ambassador himself, and those who were with him. He asked if his letter and presents had been treated every where with spect, and if his Excellency had met with every attention due to his rank. Here the King stopped, and the Ambassador informed his Majesty that he had orders from his Excellency the Governor to ask certain questions. Permission being granted, he asked in the Governor's name after his Majesty's health, then informed his Majesty that the Governor had entrusted him with certain presents for his Majesty, and begged permission to send them to his Majesty's magazines. This permission being given, he retired from the hall of audience with the same number of genuflections as when he entered, taking care not to turn his back upon the " greatest of terrestrial monarchs," as the King of Candy is styled by his own subjects. While the Ambassador was out of court, the presents were carried in and probably examined by the proper officers. After remaining in the gallery some time it was announced to the Ambassador, that he might re-enter the audience hall, which he did as before, only, that he kneeled the third time at the place where he was seated before, that he did not go up to the throne, and that he and his suite sat down on the carpet without being desired, the former permission being considered sufficient. The King having asked as usual, whether he had not forgotten any of the commissions entrusted to him by the Governor, he replied that he had not, but that he was authorised by the Governor to propose a treaty to his Majesty. The King desired that he would submit it to the consideration of the nobles.

"The King then dismissed the Ambassador, by asking him if he would not be glad to depart, and the Ambassador retired with a repetition of all the kneelings formerly mentioned. The first Adigar then led the Am, bassador to a room, in which refreshments were prepared for him: these consisted of large balls of flour and honey, sweet cakes and fruit, with aqua pura. Having remained here long enough to have made a com fortable repast, had the hour or the provisions been agreeable, the Am bassador was attended to the halting place as before. Here he and his suite got into their palanquins a little before five o'clock in the morning, and reached the Ambassador's house at Ganaroova a little after six o'clock. One of the party, who walked back in the morning, com. puted the distance to be four miles from Candy to the ferry at Ga

naroova.

The King seemed very vain of his dress, and very uneasy on his throne; he kept constantly shaking his head to display the precious stones in his crown, and pulled down his vest or armour to shew off the jewels with which it was studded. He seemed particularly fond of a large round ornament which was suspended from his neck. The throne is a large chair raised pon a platform, three or four steps high; it seemed to be plated with gold,

set with precious stones, and to be like his attire very rich and magnificent. The canopy over the throne, sad falling off!-was composed of coarse cotton cloth, with a cotton fringe. Two men stood by him with fly-flaps, which were kept in constant motion, and he had persons near him whose heads were seen occasionally, with whom he conversed and laughed. He is a young man about twenty-one years of age, with an immense large head, and stupid vacant countenance. The pillars and walls of the hall were covered with patches of chintz of different patterns, each patch vying with another in want of taste and ugliness. There were four chandeliers, and eight hanging lamps of European manufacture, but no lights in any of them. There were only ten lights in the room; these were large wax candles. During the whole time we were in the palace we had Cingalese vocal music, and I thought the airs pleasant. The nobles appeared to take the duty of prostrating themselves by turns, excepting the first Adigar, who did not prostrate himself during this audience, Vol. II. pp. 302-306.

In our author's account of the tribes of brute animals, the elephant deservedly occupies far the greatest space. Nothing more curious is perhaps to be found in any book of travels, than his long and well-written description of the mode of making prisoners of these noble beasts, an epithet, however, which would be better merited, if those which are completely tamed and trained, were not quite so ready and so docile to assist in enslaving their wild and free brethren of the wood. The number of these animals in the woods of some parts of the island appears to be prodigious, as a traveller can hardly advance a few miles without either seeing herds of them, or perceiving the marks of their having very recently crossed his road. If let alone, they seem to mean no harm to the diminutive biped tyrant that makes himself lord paramount of every country; they are, however, sad destroyers of gardens and plantations, and make it difficult for a small colony of people to subsist near their most frequented haunts.

Some of the vegetable productions, especially the trees, are so unlike any thing we see at home, that we can fancy it would take us a considerable time, as residents in Ceylon, to become so accustomed to the sight of them, as not to feel ourselves surrounded as with the strange productions of the magic gardens and groves sometimes described in the Arabian Nights, and other works of oriental extravagance. We may distinguish especially the talipot, cinnamon, banyan, jack, and plantain, which, together with many others, are very well described by Mr. C.

No satisfactory abridgement could be made of the very curious parts of the book to which we have before referred, relating to the pearl fishery and trade, the cultivation of rice, the preparation of cinnamon, the natural deposits of salt, or the campaign of 1803; but it would be injustice to the au

thor not to express in strong terms, that they are well written and interesting.

We doubt whether the Candian war can be justified on any ground of necessity; though nothing in human shape could be more execrably villainous, than the chief of the government against which it was carried on. If it had been fated to end in punishing that villain, such a piece of justice might have gone far to reconcile us to the whole undertaking; but instead of any such result, it partially advanced the designs of the plotting subtle miscreant, and ended in the destruction of the whole British army.

The engraved and aqua tinta embellishments of these volumes are extremely beautiful.

On the whole, we acknowledge ourselves materially indebted to Mr. C., notwithstanding those large make-weight pieces of trivial journal, and those needless details about the Europeans and their houses and amusements in Ceylon, for which he could very easily have substituted something more interesting in itself, and more illustrative of the country which in many respects he so well describes.

Art. IV. A Discourse on the Nature, Design, and Institution of the Holy Eucharist, commonly called the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. By Adam Clarke, A, M. (LL. D.) 8vo. pp. 120. price 2s. 6d. Butterworth, 1808.

THE ordinance of the Lord's Supper, as instituted by the di

vine author of Christianity, is remarkable for its simplicity, its purity, and its evident tendency to promote the religious improvement of its subjects, by assisting them in the devout and frequent remembrance of his death. But though this is the evident design of the institution, it has been lamentably misunderstood, and grossly perverted, by many who assume the Christian name. In the corrupt church of Rome, through the combined influence of ignorance, superstition, and priestcraft, it was converted, amidst the thickest darkness of the middle age, into the monstrous and idolatrous absurdity of transubstantiation: a doctrine which long subserved the purposes of her ecclesiastical policy, by enslaving the consciences of her deluded votaries, but which, in modern times, by its opposition to the common sense of mankind, has notoriously promoted the cause of infidelity. Among many protestants also, it must be acknowledged, that the true nature and design of this institution of our holy religion have not been properly understood. The views which some have entertained respecting it have been vague and incorrect, their sense of its obligation has been weak and inoperative, and their observance of it either prevented by ill-grounded fears, or oppressed

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