Imatges de pàgina
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Such was the prosperous condition of the island, whilst considered in the light only of a captured colony. Subsequent to the peace, when it was ceded by the Government of his most Christian Majesty, and became a dependency of the British crown, the island seems to have been treated with less tenderness and regard. One harsh measure was the abolition or modification of the Loi d'Entrepôt, whereby foreign flags were repelled from its ports. "The day after the promulgation of the order (18 May 1816) the value of produce in the island was lowered one-third, and that of European commodities was enhanced in an extravagant degree."*

The Mauritius, ever since its occupation by the French in 1712, and probably not many years after it was inhabited (for the English, in 1613, found the island destitute of inhabitants), it is asserted, has ever enjoyed freedom of commerce, at least freedom from commercial restrictions; and when captured by the British, the inhabitants were assured "that all the advantages they had previously enjoyed under the government of France, should be continued ; and that they should be admitted to the privileges granted to other British plantations." Hence the colonists were induced to regard this measure as peculiarly oppressive; more particularly as some hopes had been obscurely held out to them, that the trade of the island should be placed upon a beneficial footing.

The effects of the measure were soon visible: a growing traffic between the island and the north of Europe, in rum, the produce not merely of Mauritius, but of Bengal and Ceylon, as well as the trade with South America, was immediately checked; whilst the isle of Bourbon, still under French government, seized the advantages which we despised, and admitted vessels under every flag.

The dreadful calamity which befel the island in the year 1816, gave effect to the applications of the inhabitants for relief against this obnoxious measure; but it was not until the year 1820 that a permanent provision was made for admitting a free commerce between Mauritius and foreign nations.

The great evil, however, of which the colony has had to complain, is the duty imposed upon all sugar produced in British dependencies not in the WestIndies: a regulation which not only crippled the trade between Britain and the Mauritius, but, according to the statement of Sir Robt. Farquhar,§ late governor of the colony, has caused the finances of this country to be burthened with an annual charge of £100,000 for defraying the expense of the civil and military government of the island, which the latter might otherwise have been fully able to discharge from its own revenues.

The expediency of imposing a restraint upon the importation of sugar from India is defended, upon the grounds that the supply would be immense, and that its culture by free labourers is cheaper than the employment of those unhappy creatures who till the soil in the favoured regions of the West. But neither argument is applicable to the Mauritius. Its total produce is not more than four or five thousand hogsheads annually; and by lamentable illfortune, its agrealturists are like those of the West Indies, negro slaves from the coast of Africa; and of this expensive mode of culture they heavily complain. Moreover, the inhabitants labour under a similar disadvantage with India, from which the western colonies are exempted, in respect to their distance

• Petition of the inhabitants and merchants of Mauritius, 1816. Parl. Papers, April 1925. ↑ Petition of planters, &c., Jan. 20, 1823. Parl. Papers.

See order in council, dated 12 July 1820. *

§ Debate in the House of Commons, March 21.

Parl. Papers, passim.

distance from the mother country (which creates additional charges of freight and insurance); and are besides compelled to cultivate sugar alone, “since all attempts to vary the cultivation in other produce have proved ineffectual, from the frequent hurricanes, which more particularly destroy the clove, coffee, and cotton plantations."*

The pernicious effects of this inequitable system to the planters, in the Mauritius are striking and obvious: France permits the produce of the isle of Bourbon to be imported without impediment; consequently, "the sugars of Bourbon, avowedly of an inferior quality to those of the Mauritius, are now selling for seven dollars in specie, whilst those of the latter island have not exceeded from three to four and a half dollars of the paper currency, per hundred-weight,"t

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It is evident, likewise, that the commerce of the mother country must, this state of things, seriously suffer; for as the grower of sugar cannot bear the loss which would attend the barter of his commodity for the produce and manufactures of Great Britain, of which he stands in need, he is forced to forego e traffic which would be equally beneficial to both parent state and dependency, and to supply his wants as well as he can, by intercourse with foreign merchants. This effect was counteracted, partly, by a heavy prohibi tory duty levied upon the admission of Mauritius sugars into France, which threw a fresh obstacle in the way of the trade of this colony.

The considerations here alleged, as well as others, which were repeatedly urged with great earnestness upon his Majesty's ministers, have failed, till now, to produce their just effect. It is mortifying to think, after reading the documents lately printed by order of Parliament upon this subject, that the hostility of the West-India body should have been able so long to defeat the claims of this island to justice. We are accustomed to their resistance when any question is agitated which strikes directly and extensively at that system of management and of commercial preference which they have contrived to prolong, in spite of its manifest impolicy; but to find them opposing claims which rest upon the same basis as their own, and the admission of which can work them no injury, is somewhat incongruous. For ten years have the planters of Mauritius been struggling with difficulties, whilst commerce has been gradually forsaking their ports; a million sterling has been superfluously expended by the mother country upon the government of the island: and what is the object for which these sacrifices have been incurred?-to keep from competition with the West-India growers a paltry quantity of 5,000 hogsheads of sugar per annum, which ought not to be raised at a cheaper rate than their own; and which, if discharged at once upon the British market, would scarcely produce a sensible effect upon it!

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*The Chinar (), or plane-tree, is common in the vicinity of Persian towns.

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PUBLIC Curiosity is so eager respecting the country with which our Indian Government is at war, that the smallest information upon this subject, of an authentic character, is likely to prove acceptable. We have missed no opportunity of procuring such; but so little progress has yet been made by our army in the interior of the country, that no communications have reached us adapted to serve as materials for furnishing a more perfect and accurate account of the empire of Ava, than can be found in the pages of Symes and Cox. A very compendious, and, as far as we have been able to determine, an accurate account of this empire, was published some years ago by Colonel Francklin, in a volume of tracts. This article has recently appeared in the Calcutta Government Gazette, from whence we extract the following abridgment of it. It will be seen from hence, that the military resources of the Burmese monarch are not so formidable as they are supposed.

TOPOGRAPHY.

The Era Wuldey (Irrawaddy) river (supposed by Capt. Cox to be a continuance of the Nan Kiam of the Chinese) divides the original territory of the Birmahs into two unequal parts. To the eastward they possess a tract of ten days' journey, about 150 miles, to the banks of a river called the Saloing-Miet. This river falls into the Sittong, and the latter disembogues itself into the gulf of Martaban. These rivers properly form the boundaries towards the Siamese country; the banks on both sides are desolate, owing to the eternal predatory warfare between the two states. Very little of the tract of country between these rivers and the Era Wuddey is inhabited or cultivated; a ridge of high mountains divides them, and the country, for the most part, is barren and jungly. To the westward (not including Arracan) they possess a tract varying in breadth from ten to thirty miles, where it is terminated by a ridge of mountains inhabited by a barbarous race called Kains, who are, for the most part, independent of the Birmah government. This western tract continues along the west bank of the Chedouwain to latitude 24° north, where the country is said to be caltogether mountainous or desert; so that, excepting the plains of Manchewban, <situated between the rivers Chindouwein and Era Wuddey (which is said to be the granary of the northern part of the Birmah dominions), they do not appear to me to possess (at least derive) advantage from any part of their extensive territory from Kevun-incoun to Prone (Prome), beyond fifteen miles from the banks of the Era Wuddey; in many parts not so much. To the northward they command the navigation of the Era Wuddey to Quantong, on the frontiers of Yunan: to the north and east of Amerapoorah the country is mountainous, as far as the borders of Yunan to the north-east, and Laos to the east the valleys are under the dominion of many little ›princes, called Chobwahs, who pay a certain annual tribute, I fancy very trifling. The inhabitants of the mountainous tract in general are called Shans. Shan, in the language of the Manchew and Eastern Tartars, is the generic name for mountain. To the northward of Manchewban also are several tributary Chobwahs; and, beyond them, the country in general is mountainous and desert, inhabited by savage bordes, called Yeoks, and Carrian Nhees. Beyond the range of mountains to the west of the Chedouwain is the country generally called Cossay, into which the Birmahs have occasionally made incursions, but hold no regular communication with, or dominion over it.

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Below Prone the country in general is more level and susceptible of cultivation. On the banks of the river is as rich a soil as any in the world. To the south-east of Prone is the ancient kingdom of Tonghou, said to be fertile, but thinly inhabited; to the southward and westward of Tonghou the country in general, to the sea, is called

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* For an account of Cossay, or Cossyah, see our last vol., p. 259,--Ed.

called Henzawuddy; to the eastward and southward of Tonghou is the ancient kingdom of Sittong, now dependent on Henzawuddy. Martaban, a large and populous province, lying round the gulf of the same name, and extending some way down. The coast of Tenassarim is a separate government; the seaports of Tavoy and Mergui have very little territory annexed, and are also separate governments.

All the country to the southward of Prone, formerly constituted the kingdom of Pegue.

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The climate of the whole of those parts of the Birmah dominions which I have visited, is more temperate and salubrious than any country of the same parallel of latitude that I know. The seasons are regular, and a pestilence was never known. Earthquakes are very rare, and storms or tempests seldom felt."

The soil of the upper provinces in general is a sandy loam, on a bed of free-stone, or ferruginous rock in the lower provinces it has a larger proportion of argillaceous earth and vegetable matter.

The produce is various and abundant. The spontaneous produce of its forests maintains a decided preeminence from the northern frontiers to the sea. Teak-wood, with all the varieties of timber known in India, is to be found in abundance and perfection. In the upper provinces they grow wheat, and all the variety of pulse and grains known in India; on the banks of the rivers, and wherever they can command water, rice; besides indigo, cossoomba, of a very superior quality; very fine tobacco, and cotton of two kinds, the common white of India, and a brown kind, peculiar to the country, which is imported into China for making nankeens; they have also abundance of sugar-cane, themselves with jaggree made from the variety of fruits, some peculiar to the some in great perfection, as mangoes, oranges, and melons; they have also the various legumes, and excellent vegetables and roots common to India. A dearth is seldom known; when it happens, it proceeds more from indolence and oppression, than any fault in the soil or climate.

but do not manufacture it, contenting cudjoor, or date-tree. They have great country; all those common to India,

COMMERCE, ARTS, and Manufactures.

To China they export annually five or six lacs of rupees-worth (prime cost) of cotton; the returns are made in raw silk, wrought silks, velvet, gold and silver thread, gold in ingots and plates, leaf gold, true and false, for gilding (of which immense quantities are expended), foils of various colours, paper toys and dried fruits. The Chinese also take off a great part of their ivory, amber, jasper, and precious stones, and some birds'-nests from Tavoy and Mergui; but it does not appear that any European or Indian commodities find their way to China by this route, not even broad-cloth; as, under the present system, the price would be too high before it reached the consumer. Exclusive of this, the Chinese appear to me to be universally bigoted in favour of their own manufactures; with less liberality, their commercial policy seems to be regulated by the same principles as our own; they encourage the import of raw materials, and the export of manufactures.

The whole produce of the ruby mines (in which sapphires, topazes, emeralds, and garnets are found jumbled together) does not amount to more than 30,000 tecals per annum; at least what are permitted to be sold: the most valuable being appropriated for the use of the king, and locked up in his treasury. The produce of the silver and other mines it is impossible to learn; but it is but trifling, owing to the rapacity of government, which does not afford sufficient security to the adventurers, or allow them an adequate share for their risk and labour. Mining is every where a dangerous speculation; here particularly so the Chinese and Shans are in general the adventurers. lnft to d pool to rauhanol temperata

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Cossoomba is a beautiful red dye, held in much esteem amongst the Malays, and one of those articles which are scarcely known in England.-Ed.

To Bengal, by way of Arracan, they chiefly export silver bullion for the purchase of silk and cotton piece-goods; they speak of five hundred boats employed in that trade, but I much doubt the fact. vt

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201ɔɔd Juge car From Yanghong and Bassien, they export sticklac, timber, ivory, wax, cuto cutch, wood and earth oil, precious stones, and other trifles, to various parts of India, to the amount of ten or fifteen lacs of tecals or rupees; and import various European, Indian, and China, goods, to the amount of ten lacs, more or less.ied to stem t

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From the Shan country they get gold, silver, musk, sticklac, ivory, jasper, horses, and laipac, a coarse kind of tea, in general, use amongst them, and which they eat with oil, chillies, and garlic. The eating of kaipac forms an indispensable part of the ceremonial in every contract,n skjose to x frgun 19597) 6 290ud ne bojiv i pa a zna From Martaban, Tavoy, and Mergui, they get a little gold, wild cardemoms, ivory, wax, birds'-nests, and tin; and most of their salt-fish and balachong,† 1979 They manufacture most of their silks, and dye them very well of various brilliant colours; also a fine brown cotton cloth, of which they are very fond; and a great deal of coarse, and some fine cotton cloth, for their own consumption. They smelt metals (iron in large quantities for their own use); make paper, and various articles of lackered ware; refine culinary saltpetre; make gunpowder (very bad); manufacture most of the coarse ironmongery; found brass for various purposes; build ships and boats; make twine and cordage; turn in wood and ivory; polish and cut their precious stones; and excel in pottery; but all their best artificers are foreigners; all they do is done rudely; and to their women alone must be ascribed the merit of weaving and dyeing. A Birmah is seldom any thing else than a government servant, a soldier, boatman, husbandman, or labourer. They break in their cattle very well, but their arts of husbandry are very rude; their plough is nothing more than a large wooden rake, on which the ploughman stands and drives the oxen or buffaloes that draw it, The grain is committed to the soil, and the crop is generally left to chance to make its way up with spontaneous growth, except when in the ear, when a good deal of dexterity is used in defending it from the birds. In the culture of tobacco, cossoomba, and some other articles, they are more careful; but husbandry, as well as every thing else, seems to be on the decline. Inclosures were once very general, and artificial reservoirs for water constructed in many places.

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et di fidei baviitoa POPULATION. 9 141 200 val bas ydstens ha. There are three stages of society in which man varies his habitation ? în the earliest or mere savage state, depending on the spontaneous productions of nature for support, he generally crowds to the margin of the sea, the banks of lakes and rivers; hence navigators have so often erred in estimating the population of the islands and coasts, which they have cursorily viewed. As numbers increase, and other resources become necessary, men apply themselves to raising herds, or tilling the soil, and gradually recede from the banks of rivers, &c. to the interior; in the third and last stagey when commerce is introduced, the banks of navigable rivers, &c. are again frequented, and towns raised by the superflux of society. pono don t GMT 1. 3991 10 99mɔtɔb no The Birmah nation has advanced to this last stage of society. The Era Waddey is the high road of the country, and the most fertile tracts of land are to be found on its banks and islands. A traveller passing and repassing to and from the capitaly who has no opportunity of making incursions inland, would form very erroneous conclusions of the population of the country, were be to draw his inferences merely from the sea. I at first fell into this error myself, as I observe by some remarks in my diaryeon my way up the river. We must, therefore, have recourse to other data scanty as they are, they may tend to throw some light on the subject. n. 1 n cb I Cup testint The question of population, I understand, has been often agitated at the Birmah court, and four millions stated as the population of the Birmah territory; and, I have 199910 wout is bububon su tim sesit meat (2011* 100,062 vian 970reason De fennel ] We take it for granted that this is Rangoon. Ed. ~ by r

+ Balachong is a species of caviare, esteemed a great delicacy by the Malays, but is a very disgusting dish to an European palate. It is prepared from the spawn of fish and pounded shrimps, and made into cakes.-Ed.

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