t and nine official members, eight unofficial
members--one for the Kandyan Sinhalese (or Highlanders) and one for
the "Moormen" having been added in 1890. The term of office for the
unofficial members is limited to five years, though the governor may
reappoint if he choose. The king's advocate, the deputy-advocate, and
the surveyor-general are now respectively styled attorney-general,
solicitor-general, and director of public works. The civil service has
been reconstituted into five classes, not including the colonial
secretary as a staff appointment, nor ten cadets; these five classes
number seventy officers. The district judges can punish up to two
years' imprisonment, and impose fines up to Rs.1000. The police
magistrates can pass sentences up to six months' imprisonment, and
impose fines of Rs.150. The criminal law has since 1890 been codified
on the model of the Indian penal code; criminal and civil procedure
have also been the subject of codification. There are twenty-three
prisons in the island, mostly small; but convict establishments in and
near the capital take all long-sentence prisoners.

_Banks and Currency._--Ceylon has agencies of the National Bank of
India, Bank of Madras, Mercantile Bank of India, Chartered Bank of
India, Australia and China, and of the Hong-kong and Shanghai Bank,
besides mercantile agencies of other banks, also a government savings
bank at Colombo, and post-office savings banks all over the island. In
1884, on the failure of the Oriental Bank, the notes in currency were
guaranteed by government, and a government note currency was started
in supersession of bank notes. The coin currency of Ceylon is in
rupees and decimals of a rupee, the value of the standard following
that fixed for the Indian rupee, about 1s. 4d. per rupee.

_Finance._--With the disease of the coffee plant the general revenue
fell from Rs.1,70,00,000 in 1877 to Rs.1,20,00,000 in 1882, when
trade was in a very depressed state, and the general prosperity of the
island was seriously affected. Since then, however, the revenue has
steadily risen with the growing export of tea, cocoa-nut produce,
plumbago, &c., and in 1902 it reached a total of 28 millions of
rupees. (J. F. D.; C. L.)

_History._--The island of Ceylon was known to the Greeks and Romans
under the name of _Taprobane_, and in later times Serendib, Sirinduil
and Zeylan have been employed t