94 CEYLON BRANCH — ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



51, or nearly one half between the ages of thirty and thirty 

 five. In like manner, of the 133 prisoners in the goal of 

 Kandy, there were 45 under twenty five years of age, 62 

 between that time and forty, and 26 above forty years old. 

 But here the greatest amount of crime appears five years 

 earlier, there being of the 62 between the ages of twenty 

 five and forty, no less than. 42, or about three fourths 

 between the ages of twenty five and thirty. Can it be, that 

 this earlier appearance of crime in the Kandyan districts 

 arises from the slower growth of crime in the low country ; 

 or does it arise from greater activity in detecting it? If 

 the latter, then are not the people of Colombo and its 

 neighbourhood suffering the existence and the effects of 

 crime among them five years at least more than need. The 

 subject requires investigation. 



The state of Education among the unhappy inmates of 

 our goals is still lamentable. Of the 190 prisoners in the 

 Colombo goals, there were it appears 107 who could neither 

 read nor write; and of the 133 prisoners in the goal of Kan- 

 dy there were 121, which is upwards of nine tenths : — 

 whereas, in England, the proportion of uninstructed to the 

 entire number of offenders is, as formerly observed, only 

 about one third, and in Scotland about one fifth ; that is to 

 say, of 133 prisoners in Scotland there would not be more 

 than 27 who could neither read nor write. In Kandy there 

 was 121. So, of 190 prisoners in Scotland there would not 

 be 40 who could neither read nor write. In Colombo there 

 was 107. This is certainly a lamentable state of things 

 and calculated strongly to excite our feelings and to rouse 

 our energies as men, as Englishmen, as Christians. Can 

 we indeed wonder at the sorry mixture we so often see of 

 depravity and decorum, of the absence of all principle and 

 the presence of all propriety, the union at once of civili- 

 zation and degradation. 



The importance of Education must commend itself to all. 

 For it discloses and opens up to us the constitution of the 

 universe, — shews us its different parts, their elements, pro- 

 perties and capabilities, — and, in the mastery which we 

 thus acquire over natural agents, we become invested with 

 something like the attributes of a higher power. Accrdingly, 

 by the lively fancy of the Greeks, there was scarcely a 

 great operation in the arts, but it was ascribed to a divinity, 

 or some one supposed worthy of the name, and so Milton 

 ascribes the first use of artillery to the rebel angels. Hence 

 also the imputation of magic, so frequent in the infancy of 



