have already stated, both by Tamils and Singhalese. It may be interesting to add, that it was to the anxiety excited in Europe by the labours of the Dutch missionaries in Ceylon, that the world was indebted for a work whose usefulness was long of the widest range, that is, to the treatise of "Grotius De Veritate Religionis Christianæ." It was suggested by the clergy of the Church of Holland, and was, at first, intended as a handbook for heathen missions, and for the use of seamen engaged in the India trade.*

The following extracts may enable us to bring down the history of the Dutch Church in Ceylon to the present day, and they at the same time show, that, on the advent of the English, the sphere of action of the Dutch ministers was altered, but that the fruit of their labours never perished:

"On the retirement of the Dutch authorities to Java, after the capitulation of Colombo, many of the clergy, and all those of the opulent classes who were in a condition to emigrate, followed the fortunes of the Government, and along with them took their departure to Batavia. Those who remained, assembled, as usual, in the fine old churches, the possession of which had been secured to them by treaty; and the Government, for a time, took on itself the charge of defraying the salaries and other expenses of the ministry. The subsequent fortunes of the Dutch Church, however, and the adverse influence by which it was surrounded, were unfavourable to the continuance of even its diminished prosperity. It was no longer the exclusive religion of the State; the most influential and wealthy of its community had departed; and in comparative poverty and neglect, it had to maintain an equal struggle with the rising pretensions of the Church of England, whose clergy had been appointed as chaplains to the British authorities, and the mili tary; and a still more disastrous contest with the Church of Rome, by whose priesthood the Dutch converts were drawn off in prodigious numbers.

"After the landing of the English, the officiation of the Dutch clergymen had been altogether withdrawn from the out stations and the natives, and confined almost exclusively to the several congregations within the forts of Colombo, Matura, and Galle. But in a very short period, their ministra

tions were still further contracted even here; Galle and Matura ceased to be provided with resident clergy of their own persuasion; the use of the Dutch churches was liberally granted, by the consistories, to the chaplains of the Church of England; and only once or twice in each year, the Dutch clergy of Colombo made periodical visitations for the administration of the sacrament. This decline was, however, in no degree to be attributed either to any hostile influence of the Government, or any failure in the performance of its engagements to the Dutch; and the Classis of Colombo, in its assembly, in 1805, at the very time when serious apprehensions were pressed that the Dutch communion would be speedily extinct in Ceylon, recorded in the archives of Wolfendahl, that everything connected with their religion had, by the favour and protection of the British, stood and continued in the same order as under the Netherlands Government.' Their own clergy were, however, old and infirm; and no probability was apparent of procuring others from Holland."-pp. 100–1.

ex

There are, at present, no more than two clergymen of the Church of Holland in Ceylon. Their congregations are the direct descendants of the old Dutch settlers, of whom, however, not more than fifty now understand the language of their fathers. Of Singhalese and Tamils, who once worshipped together with the Dutch, there are now but few. Large numbers of both attend the services of the Church of England; but being unable to comprehend the difference between these two Protestant denominations, they still conceive that they are members of the "Hollandish Church."

We now come to the last subdivision of the history of Christianity in Ceylon-that is, the British period, which is introduced by the following just remarks:

"There is something of universal interest in the period of this inquiry at which we are now arrived. Two eras have been reviewed in this brief sketch of the history of Christianity in Ceylon -that of artifice and corrupt inducement, practised by the early priesthood of Portugal; and that of alternate bribery and persecution, by the clergy of the Church of Holland. We now come to scrutinise the progress made during the

third epoch, since the British occupation of the island, when, for the first time, a legitimate field was offered for the unadorned influence of the Gospel, and a fair and unbiassed trial has been given to the efficacy of truth and simplicity for its inculcation, unaided by the favour and uninfluenced by the frowns of authority."-p. 77.

How far the laudation contained in this eloquent procemium is deserved, our readers may judge.

The Dutch provinces of Ceylon were taken by the English during the Revolutionary war, and in the year 1796; but our occupation was regarded as little more than provisional, until the treaty of Amiens, by which it was settled that the island should be attached to the dominions of Great Britain. The first English Governor was the member of a family long known by its public services and distinguished talents, the Hon. Mr. North, afterwards Earl of Guilford; "who," as our author justly says, "with administrative talents of the highest order, combined an enthusiasm in the cause of education by which, at a later period of his life, he imperishably associated his name with the regeneration of Greece, as the founder and first Chancellor of the Ionian University." His first endeayour was to restore and extend the educational system of the Dutch. Ile revived the Colombo Academy, a collegiate institution, founded by the Dutch for the training of native students for the ministry, and where their most effective missionaries were prepared. He also re-established the public charities of the Dutch, and aided the exertions of their ministers, by the appointment of catechists. His efforts in the cause of native education were so far successful, that in the year 1801 there were throughout the colony, which then consisted of only the maritime provinces, 170 schools. right to observe that his resources were very limited; and in the time of his successor, Sir Thomas Maitland, who, we are told, was equally anxious to do good, the sum appropriated to the object of native education in Ceylon was restricted to the miserable pittance of £1,500 a-year. The result of this retrenchment was, that not only

It is

education could not be extended, but that great numbers of Mr. North's schools were closed. A MS. autobiography of Christian David, the first ordained Tamil minister. in Ceylon, cited by our author, and which is deposited in the diocesan library in Colombo, states that he was appointed by Mr. North, in 1800, to the superintendence of forty-seven schools, in the peninsula of Jaffna, which were every one suddenly closed by Sir Thomas Maitland in 1805, in consequence, as is supposed, of this want of funds. The Government of that day, like some of its successors, though prodigal of the public money when it was little called for, was penurious just where it ought not. Other circumstances combined to diminish the numbers of professing Christians, especially of those of the Protestant denominations, as rapidly as they at first increased. The Singhalese, under the Portuguese and the Dutch, had long been used to regard the profession of the State religion as a qualification for office, and the insertion of their names in the thombo, or baptismal registry, as the security for civil privileges. They appear to have had, in general, little other conception of the ceremony, than that it conferred some civil distinction; and accordingly the Singhalese term for the rite, when literally rendered, means "admission to rank.” If Buddhists quarrel, "unbaptized wretch" is an ordinary epithet; and when a father scolds his child, he often adds, with threatening voice, that he will "blot out his baptism from the thombo." The measures taken by Mr. North and by Sir Thomas Maitland, however wellmeant, did not much enlighten the Singhalese. The proponents appointed by them appeared to have regarded the administration of baptism as their main duty, and to have applied themselves to discharge it in a very practical manner, and much in the fashion of the early Roman Catholic priests in South America, of whom we have spoken above. On their periodical visits to their respective districts, the children were brought to them in crowds, and being arranged in rows, were sprinkled as the proponent passed along. This ceremony the Singhalese

called " Christian-making, and they regarded it less as a religious than a civil proceeding. Numbers of the converts thus easily made called themselves "Government Christians;" others, openly combining two professions, took the ambiguous designation of "Christian Buddhists;' and the natives very commonly evinced their own estimation of Christianity, by naming it "the religion of the East India Company." These are not recollections of which we have much reason to be proud; and it is no wonder that Buchanan, when he visited Ceylon, in 1806, described the Protestant religion as extinct. It was, probably, owing to the public feeling excited by his remarks, that the minister of the day was led to direct his attention to the subject. Lord Castlereagh, in a despatch to Sir Thomas Maitland, dated 1808, observes that the measures of the Government had been freely censured for their tendency to discourage Christianity. In 1810, Lord Liverpool, at that time Secretary of State for the Colonies, proposed to assist the Dutch clergy, by ministers ordained by the Church of Scotland, and to receive youths from Ceylon, to be educated for the ministry in Edinburgh. In 1816, the congregations of the Church of England were placed under the superintendence of the see of Calcutta ; and in 1845, Ceylon was erected into a separate bishopric. There are now twelve colonial chaplains, besides those of the Churches of Holland and of Scotland, who are alike borne on the establishment of the colony. Their duties, however, are almost exclusively among the Europeans, in the towns and forts; whilst in our narrative of the revival, advancement, and present condition of Christianity amongst the natives of Ceylon, we have to refer to what gives its highest interest to this volume, the labours of the various missionary bodies in that island since the year 1804. The first missionaries who reached Ceylon after its occupation by the English were three Germans, sent out by the London Missionary Society, in the year just named. These were followed by some Baptists, from Serampore, in 1812. The Wesleyan contingent arrived in 1814. Two years later the Americans founded their mission; and in the year 1818 the Church Missionary Society of England sent out four ordained

clergymen. The methods adopted by these several societies are nearly alike, and as we are unable to enter into the details of all, we shall select one, exhibit its operations, and show, at the same time, the difficulties which it has had to overcome, the measure of its success, and the nature of its future prospects. We take, then, the American Mission, which acts under the direction of one of the oldest and most remarkable of the existing associations for the dissemination of Christianity, "The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions," whose head-quarters are at Boston, in Massachusetts. The first settlers in Massachusetts, like those of New England, were missionary colonists. Their charter, given by Charles I., states that one of the objects of the king and of the planters was the conversion of the natives to the true faith; and the seal of the company thus incorporated bore the device of a North American Indian, with the motto "Come over and help us." It may be interesting to add, that the "pilgrim fathers" of the New England States were, indirectly, the cause of the Protestant missions of the Dutch. They were, as our author states, "the first pioneers of the Protestant world, and the first heralds of the Reformed religion to the heathen of foreign lands. Their mission is more ancient than the Propaganda of Rome, and it preceded by nearly a century any other missionary association in Europe. It was encouraged by Cromwell, and incorporated by Charles II.; and Cotton Mathers records that it was the example of the New England fathers, and their success amongst the Indians, that first aroused the energy of the Dutch for the conversion of the natives of Ceylon."

We cannot doubt that amongst the main causes of the prosperity of North America are, the permanence of religious feeling, and the blessing attendant on the fact, that the missionary spirit has never perished. The labours of this great people on their own vast continent have been conducted with the greatest judgment, and marked by a success which encouraged their extension in other lands. In the year 1812, they turned their attention to the East, and, under an act of incorporation from the state of Massachusetts, commenced their missionary

efforts in the Old World. Their first missionaries to India appeared there in 1812, but were ordered by the Governor-General to leave Calcutta by the same vessel in which they had arrived. One of them landing in Ceylon, on his voyage home, was so struck with the openings which it presented for missionary enterprise, and so much encouraged by the Governor, Sir Robert Brownrigg, to engage in it, that, on his representations, the American Board, in 1816, sent out three clergymen and their wives, who fixed their residence at Jaffna, which has been ever since the scene of their remarkable labours. These were reinforced in 1819, and for many years their establishment has consisted of from seven to eleven ordained ministers, with a physician, conductors of the press, and other lay assistants; these are selected from Congregationalists and Presbyterians. It is gratifying to be enabled to add, that the most cordial good-will and desire to co-operate has from the beginning prevailed between them and the other Protestant missionaries in their neighbourhood. For thirty years they have assembled periodically in a "missionary union," to decide on measures and compare results. With all of them education is," as our author says, “a diurnal occupation; whilst in their purely clerical capacity they have felt the necessity of proceeding with more cautious circumspection, improving rather than creating opportunities, relying less upon formal preaching than on familiar discourses, and trusting more to the intimate exhortation of a few than to the effect of popular addresses to indiscriminate assemblies."

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"The first embryo instruction is communicated by them in free village schools, scattered everywhere throughout the district, in which the children of the Tamils are taught in their own tongue the simplest elements of knowledge, and the earliest processes of education-to read from translations of the Christian Scriptures, and to write their own language, first by tracing the letters on the sand, and eventually by inscribing them with an iron style upon the prepared leaves of the Palmyra palm. It will afford an idea of the extent and persece with which education has been these primitive institutions, free schools of the Americans pupils, of whom one-fourth are daily receiving instrucupwards of 90,000 children

have been taught in them since their commencement, a proportion equal to one-half the present population of the peninsula.”

It was soon seen that, in addition to these primary schools, the establishment of boarding-schools was extremely desirable, for the purpose of separating the pupils from the influence of idolatry. The attempt was made, but proved to be attended with difficulties which would have appeared to many insurmountable. In the first place, the natives were suspicious, not conceiving that strangers could undertake such toil, trouble, and expense, without an interested object. The more positive difficulty was connected with caste, with the reluctance of parents to permit their children to associate with those of a lower rank.

"This the missionaries overcame, not so much by inveighing against the absurdity of such distinctions as by practically ignoring them, except wherever expediency or necessity required their recognition. In all other cases where the customs and prejudices of the Tamils were harmless in themselves, or productive of no inconvenience to others, they were in no way contravened or prohibited; but as intelligence increased, and the minds of the pupils became expanded, the most distinctive and objec tionable of them were voluntarily and almost imperceptibly abandoned.

"When the boarders were first admitted to one of the American schools at Batticotta, a cook-house was obliged to be erected for them on the adjoining premises of a heathen, as they would not eat under the roof of a Christian; but after a twelvemonth's perseverance, the inconvenience overcame the objec tion, and they removed to the refectory of the institution. But here a fresh difficulty was to be encountered; some of the high caste youths made an objec tion to use the same wells which had been common to the whole establishment; and it was agreed to meet their wishes by permitting them to clear out one in particular, to be reserved exclu sively for themselves. They worked incessantly for a day, but finding it hopeless to draw it perfectly dry, they resolved to accommodate the difficulty, on the principle, that having drawn off as much water as the well contained when they began, the remainder must be sufficiently pure for all ordinary uses."-pp. 146, 147.

boarding-schools, the American Mission, in 1830, established schools for teaching English, and for elementary instruction of a more advanced description. These were all under a discipline avowedly Christian, yet the missionaries found that they were able not only to enforce the fee demanded, but to maintain their regulations without loss of numbers.

"And it is a fact," says Sir Emerson Tennent, "suggestive of curious speculation as to the genius and character of this anomalous people, that in a heathen school recently established by Brahmans in the vicinity of Jaffna, the Hindoo community actually compelled those who conducted it to introduce the reading of the Bible as an indispensable portion of the ordinary course of instruction."-p. 148.

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This does not seem so strange to us. The shrewd Tamils, as we collect from other observations in the work before us, perceived how the Bible-reading children had improved in demeanour, conduct, and success in life. these same reasons, and possibly in some cases from a deeper feeling never yet avowed, the Roman Catholic peasantry of Ireland, before the introduc tion of the National System of Education, and previously to, and, in many cases, long after, the expressed hostility of their priesthood, anxiously sent their children to the schools of the Kildare-place and the Hibernian Bible Societies.

The other missionaries, we need hardly say, were as active as the Americans. After some years of further experience, they all felt the necessity of founding educational institutions of a still more advanced description for the instruction of the natives in their own language. It became plain to them that, from physical as well as moral causes, the conversion of the natives could be only hoped for through the medium of their well-taught and welltrained countrymen. The niceties of the language and their modes of thought presented difficulties of a most serious character to others; the very terms of the ordinary address of a missionary suggested ideas altogether different from what he intended. Thus, when God is spoken of, they probably understand one of their own deities who

yields to every vile indulgence; by sin, they mean ceremonial defilement,

or evil committed in a former birth, for which they are not accountable; hell with them is only a place of temporary punishment; and heaven nothing more than absorption, or the loss of individuality. Under these impressions each of the missionary bodies at Jaffna formed for themselves a collegiate institution, in which the best scholars from their other schools were admitted to a still more advanced course, and taught the sciences of Europe. That of the Church Missionary Society of England was established at Nellore, but subsequently removed to Chundically; the Wesleyans commenced theirs in the great square of Jaffna; and that of the Americans was founded at Batticotta, "in the midst of a cultivated country, within sight of the sea, and at a very few miles distant from the fort."

"It was opened in 1823, with about fifty students chosen from the most successful pupils of all the schools in the province; and the course of education is so comprehensive as to extend over a period of eight years of study. With a special regard to the future usefulness of its alumni in the conflict with the errors of the Brahmanical system, the curriculum embraces all the ordinary branches of historical and classical. learning, and all the higher departments of mathematical and physical science, combined with the most intricate familiarisation with the great principles and evidences of the Christian religion.

"The number which the building can accommodate is limited, for the present, to one hundred, who reside within its walls, and take their food in one common hall, sitting to eat after the custom of the natives. For some years the students were boarded and clothed at the expense of the mission; but such is now the eagerness for instruction that there are a multitude of competitors for every casual vacancy; and the cost of their maintenance during the whole period of pupilage is willingly paid in advance, in order to secure the privilege of admission.

Nearly six hundred students have been under instruction from time to time since the commencement of the American Seminary at Batticotta, and of these upwards of four hundred have completed the established com cation. More than one an open profession of all have been familiari trines, and more or les spirit. The majority situations of credit a