ADDENDUM.

"PHILALETHES.'

THE work published under the above name having been frequently quoted in the preceding pages, the following remarks upon the identification of the author, may not be deemed out of place.

The authorship of the History of Ceylon by "PHILALETHES," published in London in 1817, has been attributed to a variety of individuals. Sir James Emerson Tennent, in the introduction to his work on Ceylon, says that "the author is believed to have been the Rev. C. Bisset ;"* and in a note at page 90 of the second volume, on the subject of the Kandian Campaign of 1815, he remarks, "from the identity of the materials of 'A Narrative of events which have recently occurred in Ceylon, written by a gentleman on the spot,' (published in London in 1815,) with the 25th chapter of the History of Ceylon by PHILALETHES, the two statements appear to have been written by one and the same person, and evidently by one who was present whilst the occurrences he describes were in progress." This is however by no means conclusive, for the work of Philalethes consists, to a very great

* Private Secretary and Son-in-law to General Sir Robert Brownrigg, the then Governor of the Colony.

extent, of quotations, and translations, and the "narrative of events" is only freely made use of by the author who so chose to designate himself. There is reason to believe, as I shall afterwards shew, that the two works were not from the same pen. The Rev. R. SPENCE HARDY, in the "Jubilee Memorials of the Wesleyan Mission, South Ceylon, 1864," says in a note, "It appears strange that authors, (as in Barrow's Ceylon, past and present, 1851,) will persist in attributing to Mr. Bisset, the work on Ceylon by PHILALETIES, whose initials are H. W. B., and it is evident that he never was in the island. It has been supposed by others that Mr. Bennet is the author of this work, but his initials are J. W. B." Now, on looking at the end of the preface to the work by PHILALETHES, that name will be seen to occur at the right hand corner of the page, the usual, if not the invariable position in which a writer places his name, in print as well as in manuscript. The initials "H. W. B." stand at the left hand corner, immediately above the date "November 13, 1816." They therefore seem to indicate the initial letters of a place of residence, rather than the name of an author. In Clark's Summary of Colonial Law (1834,) p. 439, it is stated, that "the History of Ceylon, published under the assumed name of PHILALETHES, is, in the copy deposited in the British Museum, attributed to Mr. R. Fellowes."

My attention was originally drawn to Mr. Clark's work by Mudaliyar Louis De Soyza; and Mr. W. N. De Abrew Rajapakse hinted to me that Mr. R. Fellowes was probably an officer serving in the Ceylon Rifles at the time the work by PHILALETHES was written. Following up the clue thus given, I examined the Ceylon Government Almanacs and the General Orders of the Ceylon Command, for the year 1815 and onwards. The result was, that I found Lieut. Robert Fisher Fellows, (also spelt Fellowes) served

in the 4th and 2nd Regiments of the Ceylon Rifles from March 16, 1810, to April 10, 1826, when he died in the Seven Kóralés, to which place, after serving on the Staff at several outstations, he had been appointed Commandant. In the course of his service he went to England on leave, on the 6th September, 1814, and remained in England until the 24th March, 1817. In the General Orders of April 29, 1817, notifying an extension of leave, his name occurs as Fellowes. He was therefore in England during the whole of the years 1815, 1816, and part of 1817; and the work by PHILALETHES was completed by the 13th November, 1816, and published at the commencement of the following year. But, notwithstanding this coincidence, it seemed scarcely credible, that if he was really the writer, he could have avoided intimating so much at least as would have sufficed to shew that he had written from personal recollections of the events described, or have refrained from dropping hints here and there of having been an actual participator in them. Nothing of the sort is however to be found in the book. I therefore wrote to England upon the subject, requesting information upon certain points, and in particular, that the copy of the work in the British Museum should be examined, and an exact transcript sent me of any manuscript that might be found to warrant the statement made by Mr. Clark.

In reply to my inquiries, I received the following particulars, kindly furnished under the hand of GEORGE BULLEN, Esq., the Superintendent of the Reading-room in the British Museum; who also produced the book for the satisfaction of the friend who was good enough to make the inquiry for me. "In the Museum copy the name R. Fellowes, written in pencil, follows the words, 'by Philalethes, A. M., Oxon."" Mr. BULLEN further informed my friend, that Mr. R. Fellowes was one of the superior officers in the

British Museum at the time the work was written; that it was written by him at the British Museum; and that he himself wrote his own name in the Museum copy. There can therefore be now no more uncertainty upon the subject. The initials H. W. B.,' unquestionably refer to the name of a residence, possibly Holly Wood, Blackheath.

From subsequent inquiries I have learnt the following further particulars concerning PHILALETHES. The Rev. ROBERT FELLOWES, L.L.D., was born in Norfolk in the year 1770, perhaps at Haverham Hall, near Norwich, which is a seat of a family of that name. He went to St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, was ordained a Clergyman of the Church of England in the year 1795, and obtained the degree of M.A. in 1801. From 1799 to 1807 he published several theological works-"Religion of the Universe," "Christian Philosophy," "Guide to Immortality," "Religion without Cant," &c., which received high praise from the celebrated Dr. Parr, with whom he was on very friendly terms, as well as with Baron Maseres, who is said to have left him £200,000. He also published, in 1806, a volume of poems. The History of Ceylon, by PHILALETIES, in 1817, is apparently his last work. He was a stanch partizan of Queen Caroline during her prosecution, and he also took a prominent part in the establishment of the London University, where he founded two annual gold medals-called the "Fellowes' Medals." He was Editor for many years of the London Critical Review, at least up to the year 1820. In his later years he seceded from the Church of England, and joined, it is said, the Unitarian body. He died in 1847.

The fact that Dr. Robert Fellowes was the writer who assumed the nom-de-plume of PHILALETHES, accounts for the hitherto puzzling difficulty evidenced throughout the work, that that writer

had never himself been in Ceylon. From whom then, beyond the authors he quotes, did he derive his information, which as evidently came from some one who was intimately acquainted with the country and the contemporaneous events described? I cannot but think, from the similarity of name, and the coincidence already noticed, that Lieutenant R. Fisher Fellowes, of the Ceylon Rifles, must have been a relative or connection, who, during his stay in England, communicated to him the information which a service of four years in the island could not fail to have furnished him with; and that the actual writer of the work chose to attach the name "Philalethes" to his book, rather than appear before the world as the author of a volume, the substance of which had been placed in his hands by another, and that other a relative of his own. And that Lieutenant Fellowes was neither the author of, nor the furnisher of the facts contained in the "Narrative of events which occurred in Ceylon in 1815," is clear, inasmuch as he was in England at the time, having left Ceylon the previous year.