The kingdom of . ning of the Suez Canal brought the na-tions of the West into closer contact with those ofthe Orient. With the opening of the Canal the attention ofthe Western nations was turned towards the East,and it was through their colonial expansion that,indirectly, a large influence was brought to bear onthe development of the country. Besides these annals, the attention of those inter-ested in the history of the country should be calledto the collection of the laws of Siam, made in theyear 1807 by a commission appointed by King PhraBuddha Yot Fa, and since 1872 frequently reprin
The kingdom of . ning of the Suez Canal brought the na-tions of the West into closer contact with those ofthe Orient. With the opening of the Canal the attention ofthe Western nations was turned towards the East,and it was through their colonial expansion that,indirectly, a large influence was brought to bear onthe development of the country. Besides these annals, the attention of those inter-ested in the history of the country should be calledto the collection of the laws of Siam, made in theyear 1807 by a commission appointed by King PhraBuddha Yot Fa, and since 1872 frequently reprinted;the absence of a proper chronology is, however,much to be deplored. Nevertheless a careful studyof these laws, taken in conjunction with the facts re-lated in the annals, would probably be instrumentalin constructing an authoritative history of the lastsix hundred years both from an historical and intel-lectual standpoint. Another source of the history of Siam are thelocal chronicles regarding the origin of the more. A Temple From an Historical Standpoint 85 famous statues of the Buddha; an archaeologicalsurvey would also perhaps throw a welcome lighton its history, whilst the chronicles of the neighbor-ing countries of Annam, Burmah, Pegu, and Cam-bodia would elucidate the more obscure description of early travellers and residentsshould also not be neglected, though scarcely anyof them are free from a certain bias. This is more especially the case with regard to thenarratives of the French travellers who visited Siamin the seventeenth century a most interesting periodof its history. The descriptions of modern travellers from thelast part of the nineteenth century are written underpreconceived ideas and inadequate knowledge andmay be disregarded by any one who undertakes aserious study of Siamese history. Happily we have for the last two reigns theofficial gazette in which everything of importance ischronicled and the laws by which the country isgoverned are prom
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