The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-22 00:00:00

THE RANKING ALMANACK FOR 1850

This most useful publication is a complete Banking
Directory. It contains a Diary, the Calendar, the
Funds, the Note Circulation Returns, abstracts of
Parliamentary Returns, Bank of England Statistics,
an Analysis of the Acts passed last Session, and an
abstract of the new Bankruptcy Act, the
Stamp Act, with the legal decisions thereon ; a Par-

liarnentary Directory, a Life Assurance Directory,
and a complete Banking Directory. It is, in short, a
perfect mirror of Banking and Monetary Statistics.

MR. WYNN PAYNE'S MAP OF CEYLON.
We have been favoured with a view of the original
design of an illustrated map of Ceylon, 8 feet by .5.
This gigantic map is the work of Charles Wynn
Payne, Esq , who resided on the island many years,
the whole of which he devoted to the study of the
geographical features, and the numerous and valu-
able resources of this splendid colony, which has
enabled him to produce a map more correct than any
which has been hitherto published, comprising the
altitudes and names of mountains, the true course
of the rivers, the depth of the bays, the geological
indications, the sites of the British plantations, and
the climate, latitude, longitude, and depth of water
in each Port. The map, which has obtained the pa-
tronage of the East India Company, and of several
of our notabilities connected with the East, will be
illustrated by views of the scenery of the island. Mr.
Payne is already favourably known to the public as
the author of a series of pamphlets on our eastern
empire ; and from the first of them we extract the
following description of Ceylon, the capabilities of
which have been, it would seem, strangely, not to
say culpably, neglected by all the promoters of various
schemes of emigration :
" the key of the East,' situated between 6
and 10 degrees of north latitude, and between 79 and 82
degrees of cast longitude, is bounded on the south by the
Indian Ocean, on the north and east by the Bay of Ben-
gal, and on the west by the Gulf of Manaar ; and is
divided into five provinces—namely, the northern, the
southern, the eastern, the western, and the central. Its
climate, tempered by the genial breathing of the trade
winds, is peculiarly benign ; and the fertility of a soil
irrigated by countless crystalline streams, render this
island one of the most enviable possessions which any
country can boast. Thickly wooded and mountainous in
the centre; the cost flat and planted with cinnamon groves
and cocoa-nut trees, it presents the subtimest and most
interesting features; and to the geologist and the natu-
ralist it must ever be a sphere of the greatest attraction.
Countless herds of wild cattle wander through its hills,
forests, and valleys. The deer, buffalo, wild hog, and
other animals which the natives hold to have been driven
from the main land across Adams Bridge,' a name
given to the narrow strait between the East India Com-
pany's territories and the island, are exceedingly nu-
merous, and the flocks of wild fowl of almost every
genus would win many an English sportsman, were they
willing to seek a good exchange for powder and shot in
a fcreign ramble—to leave the artificial preserves of
England for the well-stocked forests of Ceylon; while to
the brethren of the angle the clear waters offer all that
they can desire. The forests of teak, satinwood, black
ebony, tulip-wood, beetle nut, and cocoa-nut trees,
which tow.r in sublime altitude, are most extensive;
and the numerous plaintains, like genii of hospitality
distributed through the luxuriance of the land, afford at
once sustecance and a shelter. In a word, the resources
of the country, whether
i we look to its esp,ibility of sup-
porting animal life, to its commercial and mineral trea-
sures, or to its inducements to the naturalist, the emi-
grant, and the sportsman, elevate it to the first rank as
a colonial possession, and as a sphere towards which the
surplus population of Great Britain might be directed—
a course and current of humanity which it is hoped may
find its source in the philanthropy and paternal solici-
tude of the Home Government. Asa spice island it is
invaluable, and the growth of !pobscco, sugar, and cotton
might become, by a little politic encouragement, of incal-
culable value."

THE NOTTINGHAM SAYINGS' BAN E..—EERATHM.--
In a communication which app.qired in our paper on
the Bth inst., explanatory of the legal position of depo-
sitors in savaigs' banks, by a ►lip of the pen the word
Nottingham was written for Northampton, by which a
reference to a dcialcation in a savings' bank, a few
years ago, was made to apply to Nottingham instead of
licirthaispicw,