Account of the Number of Vessels which arrived at and departed from Cagliari in 1837.

Money, Weights, and Measures.

Accounts are kept in lire, reali, and soldi. 5 soldi = 1 reale = 4fd. ; 4 reali=1 lira = 1s. 6d. ; 10 reali=1 scudo = 3s. 3d. The paper money consists of notes for 5, 10, and 20 scudi.

Farm produce and the coarser metals are weighed by the pesi di ferro: 12 Sard. oz. = 1 lb. = 14 oz. 5 dr. avoirdupois; 26 lbs. 1 rubbo; 4 rubbi= 1 cantaro 93 lbs. 0 oz. 8 dr. avoirdupois. The starello, or corn measure, is equivalent to 1 bush. 14 peck Eng. The palm = 103 Eng. inches. Causes of the depressed State of Sardinia. - The above statements sufficiently show that the commerce of Sardinia is very far from being what might naturally be expected from her extent, fertility, admirable situation, and the excellence of her many harbours. She contains an area of about 9,500 square miles, being, in point of size, but little inferior to Sicily; and in antiquity was reckoned, along with the latter, a principal granary of Rome. "Siciliam et Sardiniam benignissimas urbis nostræ nutrices.” —(Val,

Max. lib. vi. cap. 6.)

Utraque frugiferis est insula nobilis arvis :

Nec plus Hesperiam longinquis messibus ullæ,

Nec Romana magis complerunt horrea terræ.-Lucan, iii. lin. 65.

But the establishment of the feudal system in its worst form, and the unfavourable political and municipal regulations under which the island has latterly been placed, have gone far to neutralise the advantages it owes to nature. The agriculturists of Sardinia principally consist of two great classes-those who cultivate small farms on the métayer principle, and those who work on the estates of others, getting, in most instances, a patch of land for their support, and cultivating it at such times as they are not employed on the lord's lands. Both classes are excessively poor. The agreements under which the former class hold are seldom for more than a year; the landlord furnishing the seed as well as the land, and receiving half the produce. Those who occupy land for which they are obliged to pay a rent in corvees, or other feudal services, are, if possible, still worse off; having usually to borrow the seed either from the landlord or from the Monti Frumentarii established for that purpose, and having also to defray the tithe and a host of other burdens. Another disadvantage under which all classes labour, is the want of houses on their farms: the peasants live together in villages, and have frequently to perform a journey of several miles in going to and coming from their farms.

Lands belonging to a canton or commune are frequently cultivated on a kind of partnership system, being divided into three portions: one of these, called vidazzone, comprises all the lands that are in cultivation, and which are distributed by lot among certain individuals, while the other two portions are occupied in common as pasture. But, as a new distribution takes place every year, it is plain that no individual can take any interest in the improvement of the soil; and this sort of tenure becomes, in fact, the most effectual that can be devised for the extinction of industry. Latterly, however, the government has been making efforts to promote the formation of inclosures and the division of the lands; which, though opposed by the prejudices of the people, have made some progress. — ( Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne, lib. v. cap. 1.)

Even these, however, are not perhaps the greatest discouragements to agriculture. As if to annihilate the possibility of the peasantry emerging from their depressed condition, and to oblige them to confine their industry to the supply of their indispensable wants, it has been enacted that no corn shall be exported if its price exceed 30 reals the starello; and a heavy duty is laid on all that is exported, as a substitute for a general land-tax. Most other articles of export have been loaded with similar duties; and it would really seem that every device that ignorance and short-sighted rapacity could suggest had been practised to reduce this "benignant nurse" of imperial Rome to a state of poverty and destitution.

Happily, however, as already seen, the bounty of nature has proved an overmatch for the perverse ingenuity of man; and such is the fertility of this fine island, that, notwithstanding the influence of the duty now referred to, and the wretched system of agriculture, it exports in good years considerable quantities of corn. The culture of the vine is gradually increasing in importance, and about 3,500 Catalan pipes are exported, chiefly from Alghero and Ogliastro. Olive oil, owing to the little care taken in its preparation, and its consequent bad quality, has hitherto been but little exported; but it is susceptible of an indefinite increase, and might be made an important article. Tobacco is a royal monopoly, and brings about 7 million livres a year into the public treasury. Flax, linseed, saffron, hemp, and barilla are grown to some extent; silk is

produced only in limited quantities, but its produce might, no doubt, be vastly increased; some cotton is produced, and also small quantities of madder, which last grows wild in the island. The mountains are clothed with forests of oak, beech, chesnut, and other timber; but, from the want of roads, these are nearly useless. The agricultural implements and processes are excessively rude. The Sardinian plough, the counterpart of that described by Virgil, does little more than scratch the ground. It is without a coulter, and is very frequently wholly constructed of wood. Oxen only are used in ploughing and other field labour. The corn is left in the fields till it be thrashed, an operation effected by the primitive practice of treading with horses and oxen.

We are glad, however, to have to state, that within the last few years some very important changes for the better have been introduced into the island, and that some of the worst of the abuses previously noticed have been obviated. In 1836, in pursuance

of inquiries previously commenced, feudal jurisdictions were completely abolished; and since then the feudal system has been wholly subverted. And if, as is to be hoped, government follow up the enlightened course of policy on which it has entered, by giving freedom to commerce, the probability is, that the island will, at no very remote period, recover a large share of its ancient prosperity. According to a law passed in 1839, all lands were declared to be the property of individuals, communes, or the crown; the latter becoming the possessor of all waste lands, or those to which neither private parties nor communes could show any title. Lands which had been cultivated or applied to use, whether inclosed or not, were assigned in perpetuity to the occupiers, undisturbed possession being held to confer a sufficient right to the property in the absence of any other title: those whose interests were at all affected by the new changes received compensation in money or lands, or by an assignment of public funded property. The king substituted himself in the place of the barons: he took all the feudal rents into his own hands: and their value being estimated at 20 years' purchase, public securities to the amount, bearing five per cent. interest, were made over to the nobles in exchange for the privileges of which they had been deprived. All kinds of vassalage were, at the same time, made redeemable; and courts of law placed under the direct control of the state were substituted in the place of the feudal jurisdictions where the barons were at once suitors and judges! It is impossible to overrate the importance of these changes; and there cannot be a doubt that they will have the greatest and most beneficial influence. —(Von Raumer, Italy, &c. i. 295-301.) We may, also, mention, in proof of the recent improvement of the island, that the population, which, in 1816, amounted to only 352,000, had increased, in 1838, to 524,633. A good road has been constructed, uniting Cagliari and Sassari, and cross roads have been carried from it to some of the more considerable places in the island. Stringent measures have recently, also, been adopted for the suppression of the banditti, with which the island has long been infested. And should these measures of improvement be properly carried out, the administration of justice simplified and freed from the abuses and venality by which it has long been disgraced, and all restraints on exportation abolished, it may be confidently predicted that Sardinia will gradually become more and more prosperous; that the revenues of the crown will be increased in a tenfold proportion; and that the population will cease to be conspicuous only for ferocity, idleness, and contempt of innovation. (See Geographical Dictionary, art. SARDINIA, and the authorities therein referred to.)

It

CAJEPUT OIL, the volatile oil obtained from the leaves of the cajeput tree. (Melaleuca Leucadendron Lin.) The name is a corruption of the native term cayu-puti, that is, white-wood oil; because the bark of the tree which yields it has a whitish appearance, like our birch. This tree is common in Amboyna and other Eastern islands. The oil is obtained by distillation from the dried leaves of the smaller of two varieties. is prepared in great quantities in Banda, and sent to Holland in copper flasks. As it comes to us it is of a green colour, very limpid, lighter than water, of a strong smell resembling camphor, and a strong pungent taste. It burns entirely away without leaving any residuum. It is often adulterated with other essential oils, coloured with resin of milfoil. In the genuine oil, the green colour depends on the presence of copper; for, when rectified, it is colourless. — ( Thomson's Dispensatory.)

Cajeput oil not being used except in the materia medica, only small quantities are imported. In July, 1831, it sold in bond at about 7d. an ounce; but an idea having then got abroad that it was one of the most efficient remedies in cases of cholera, its price rose in November, 1831, to no less than 11s. an ounce! But it soon after fell into discredit with the faculty, and additional supplies having been obtained from Holland, its price declined almost as fast as it had risen. It is not at present (1843) worth more, in bond, than from 4d. to 9d. an ounce,

CALABAR SKIN (Fr. Petit-gris; Ger. Grauwerk; It. Vaor, Vajo; Rus. Bjelka; Sp. Gris pequeno), the Siberian squirrel skin, of various colours, used in making muffs, tippets, and trimmings for clothes.

CALAMANDER WOOD, a beautiful species of timber brought from Ceylon.

It is so hard that common edge-tools cannot work it, so that it must be rasped and almost ground into

shape. It is singularly remarkable for the variety and admixture of colours. The most prevailing is a fine chocolate, now deepening almost into absolute black, now fading into a medium between fawn and cream colours. It arrests the eye from the rich beauty of the intermingled tints, not from any undue showiness. It takes a very high polish; and is wrought into chairs, and particularly into tables. Sir Robert Brownrigg, late governor of Ceylon, had the doors of the dining-room of his seat in Monmouthshire made of calamander. It is scarce in Ceylon, and is not regularly imported; all that is in Great Britain has been imported by private gentlemen, returning from the colony, for their own use. It is by far the most beautiful of all the fancy woods. The nearer it is taken from the root of the tree, the finer it is. — (Milburn's Orient. Com.; Lib. of Entertaining Knowledge, Vegetable Substances, p. 179.) CALCUTTA, the principal city of the province of Bengal, the capital of the British dominions in India, and, with the exception perhaps of Canton, the greatest emporium to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope. Its citadel is in lat. 22° 34′ 49′′ N., long. 88° 27′ 16′′ E. It is about 100 miles from the sea, being situated on the eastern bank of the western branch of the Ganges, denominated by Europeans the Hooghly River, which is the only arm of the Ganges navigable to any considerable distance by large ships. At high water the river opposite to the town is about a mile in breadth; but during the ebb the side opposite to Calcutta exposes a long range of dry sand banks. Owing to the length and intricacy of the navigation from the sea, it cannot be undertaken without a pilot; so that, even if it did not exceed our limits, it would be useless to attempt any description of it in this place. (See the reduced Plan of the Mouths of the Hooghly River, in the Mercator's Chart in this work.)

In 1717 Calcutta was only a petty village; but it subsequently increased very rapidly, and was supposed towards the close of last century to have 600,000 or 700,000 inhabitants. This, however, was a gross exaggeration; and it appears, from a census taken in 1837, that the population of what is properly called the town amounted to only 229,700, composed as follows:

A great part, however, of what may be fairly considered the population of Calcutta, consisting of labourers, mechanics, and persons engaged in trade, reside at night in the suburbs, or neighbouring villages; coming into town early in the morning to their respective employments. These were estimated, in 1837, on tolerably good data, at 177,000. The small number of English resident in Calcutta (where, however, they are far more numerous than in any other part of India,) may well excite surprise. It was supposed that the cessation of the Company's monopoly, and of the probibition of European resort to India, would occasion an influx of British settlers and capital. But this anticipation has not been realised. Scarcely a single English agriculturist, with capital sufficient to cultivate 100 acres of land, has established himself in India, and there has been no immigration of artisans. And this, after all, is only what might have been expected; the country being too fully occupied, the burdens on the land too heavy, and the wages of labour far too low, to admit of anything like an extensive immigration. The Eurasians, the progeny of white fathers and native mothers, are mostly employed as clerks in the government offices and mercantile establishments; and are said to be an industrious and useful class.(Bengal and Agra Gazetteer, vol. i. part iii. p. 10, &c.) The town, excluding suburbs, extends about 44 miles along the bank of the river, with an average breadth inland of about 1 mile. Fort William, the citadel, lies on the same side of the river, a little lower down. It is a strong regular fortification; but so extensive that it would require a garrison of 10,000 men for its effectual defence. Calcutta possesses great natural advantages for inland navigation; all sorts of foreign produce being transported with great facility on the Ganges and its subsidiary streams to the north-western quarters of Hindostan, over a distance of at least 1,000 miles, while the productions of the interior are received by the same easy channels.

The principal merchants and traders consist of British and other Europeans, Portuguese born in India, Armenians, Jews, Persians from the coast of the Persian Gulph, commonly called Parsees, Moguls, Mohammedans of Hindostan, and Hindoos; the latter usually either of the Brahminical or mercantile castes, and natives of Bengal. The native Portuguese and Armenian merchants have of late greatly declined in wealth and importance. On the other hand, the Persian merchants have increased in numbers and wealth, several of them being worth 250,000. sterling. The large fortunes of the Hindoo merchants have been much broken down of late years by litigation in the courts, and naturally through the law of equal coparcenary among brothers. To counterbalance this, there has been, since the opening of the free trade in 1814, a vast augmentation of the number of inferior merchants, worth from 20,000l. to 50,000. sterling. There are but few Hindoo merchants at present whose wealth exceeds 200,000. sterling.

The principal foreign business is conducted by English merchants; but other parties also, either in partnership with the English, or on their own account, speculate largely to Europe, America, and especially to China. The brokers known under the name of Sircars and Baboos are all Hindoos. The general rates of agency commission are as follow:

Per cent.

24

- 5

5. On the sale or purchase of ships, factories, houses, lands, and all property of a like description

6. On returns for consignments, if made in produce 7. On do. if in bills, bullion, or treasure

14. On the management of estates for executors or adminis
trators
15. On chartering ships or engaging tonnage

8. On goods and treasure consigned, and all other property of any description referred to agency for sale, which ehall be afterwards withdrawn; and on goods consigned for conditional delivery to others, and so delivered; on invoice amount at the exchange of 2. per rupee - half com. 16. On advertising as the agents of owners or comman

9. On making advances, or procuring loans of money for
commercial purposes, when the aggregate commission
does not exceed 5 per cent.
24
10. On ordering goods or superintending the fulfilment of
contracts, or on the shipment of goods where no com-
mission except that of account is derived
- 2}
11. On guaranteeing hills, bonds, or other engagements,
and on becoming security for administration of
estates, for contracts and agreements, &c.; and to
government, for the disbursements of public money,
where the funds of the individuals are insufficient to
Cover risk-
- 21
12. On dei credere, or guaranteeing the due realization of
sales
- 21
13. On executorship, or administration to estates of deceased
persons

5

Commercial Weights and Measures of India, with their Equivalents in English Avoirdupois, Bengal Factory, Madras, and Bombay Weights.

Tellicherry candy of 20 maunds

Banks, Banking.

The paper currency of Calcutta is supplied as follows:The Bank of Bengal was founded in 1806, and was chartered in 1809. Its capital has been increased to 1,679,0004, sterling, divided into shares of 4,000 rupees each, and quarter shares, of which the East India Company hold a considerable number. The shares are now (1843) at a high premium. It is managed by nine directors; three appointed by government, and six elected by the proprietors: time of service, for the latter, three years. The secretary to government in the financial department, the accountantgeneral, and the sub-treasurer, are the ex officio government directors. The bank secretary and treasurer Is also a civil servant. This bank possesses peculiar advantages, its notes being received at all the public offices, in payment of revenue, by the collectors in all the districts below Benares; and, consequently, its circulation extends over a very large and the wealthiest portion of our Indian territory. The govern ment being such considerable shareholders, too, it is generally supposed by the natives that the Bengal Bank is part and parcel thereof; and it enjoys, therefore, the same credit. The charter of 1809 limits the responsibility of the shareholders to the amount of their shares.

The act of 1839 establishing the Bank of Bengal on its present footing, and the resolutions of the directors, provide

1. That the bank shall discount no negotiable security that has a longer period than 3 months to run, or lead any money for a longer period than 3 months.

2. That the directors shall make no loan or advance unless the cash in possession of the Bank, and immediately available, be equal to one fourth part of all the outstanding claims against the bank payable on demand.

3. That the bank shall not be at any time in advance to government more than 7 lacs rupees. 4. No account can be overdrawn.

5. The bank may issue promissory notes payable on demand or at 30 days after sight, provided the total amount of such notes does not exceed 2 crores rupees, and that none of them be for a less sum than 10 rupees.

6. The bank makes advances on goods not of a perishable nature; and it makes no charge for transacting the business of its customers, and allows no interest for the money in its hands.

The rates of discount, &c., vary, from time to time, with! the state of the money market. In 1847 they were as follows:

Rates of Interest and Discount. - Discount. On private bills and notes, at or within three months, 10 per cent.

On Government acceptances, at or within 3 months, 6 per

On deposit of opium and salt, 9 per cent.

On deposit of metals and indigo, 9 per cent.

On deposit of mule twist, silk, woollens, cottons, and other goods, 10 per cent.

No loans on Company's paper or goods granted for less than 1000 rupees.

No credit opened for less than 10,000 rupees.

The Union Bank was founded in 1829. It was, previously to its downfall, the only private bank in Bengal the Bank of Hindostan, the Commercial Bank, and the Calcutta Bank, noticed in the first edition of this work, having all been discontinued. The capital of the Union bank was 1,000,0001, sterling, divided into shares of 1001. or 1000 rupees each, held by all classes of the community. Its notes circulated in Calcutta and its immediate neighbourhood. The main object of this establishment was to fill up the space in the money market, occasioned by the restrictions imposed on the Bank of Bengal by its charter.

We regret to have to add that this bank was obliged to suspend its payments in 1847; and tha the disclosures that have since taken place show that its affairs had been most shamefully mismanaged. The majority of its directors appear to have been deeply engaged in mercantile and other speculations; and they farther appear to have availed themselves, without scruple, of the funds of the bank to assist them in their enterprises, most part of which have proved to be of the most ruinous description. depositors of money with the bank will be paid in full; but it is believed that the entire capital of the

The