CEYLON BRANCH- HOVAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 95 



science. Modern discoveries, however, have gone far be- 

 yond the highest notions of those times ; and by means of 

 the microscope and telescope we see terrestrial objects and 

 worlds in the depths of space to which the ancients were 

 literally in the condition of the blind, as by means of the 

 steam engine we are carried from place to place, and manu- 

 factures are conducted, with an ease and quickness at which 

 even contemporaries stand amazed. But physical science, to 

 which we have been adverting, is not the whole of Educa- 

 tion. There is another and a more essential branch, the edu- 

 cation of the mind and the cultivation of the morals : — an 

 insight into the wonders of the intellectual and moral worlds 

 within us, their powers, faculties and passions, — our ability 

 to estimate and be guided by advice, admonition, revelation, 

 — the great principle of conscience, which assigns a moral 

 character to all our actions, and points out the true sources 

 of permanent happiness ; and that capacity for a continued 

 progress in knowledge and virtue and skill which is the 

 distinctive character of our race. Collateral to this high 

 capacity, however, is our liability to decline from the right 

 path, and to become the victims of ignorance, error and 

 crime. 



Let us now therefore advert to the punishment of crime 

 in this Colony. 



Of the miserable notions both of the Dutch and Mala- 

 bars respecting the principles of punishment, we may have 

 some idea from the answer of the Dutch Government, 16th 

 December 1707, to the application of the Malabar headmen 

 to have the expense of putting slaves in chains reduced. 

 We, says the Governor in council to the Commandeur of 

 Jaffnapatam, Adam Van der Duyn, cannot comply with the 

 application "for diminishing the expense of half a rix dollar 

 " which is usually incurred by such masters as are desirous 

 " to put their slaves in chains, because the masters would 

 <( in that case have recourse too often to that punishment 

 " on account of the cheapness of iron." 



According to the proclamation of the Dutch Governor 

 Falck 1st July 1773, which was a sort of Dutch penal 

 code, " the immutable punishment of murder is death, and 

 i£ will be carried into execution either with the sword, cord, 

 i( wheel or fire." There were various other capital crimes, 

 extending even to the smuggling or dealing without autho- 

 rity in cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and mace. And for most 

 other crimes and offences there was scourging, branding, 

 banishment or death <( according to the exi^encv of the 



