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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. X. 



ability to keep them in a state of efficiency. Hence neglect, 

 the fatal and almost inevitable consequence of irresponsible 

 ownership, has overtaken and ruined the greater number of 

 such works. On the other hand, private capital has, from 

 time immemorial, produced enduring results, which no 

 power can destroy, and which will through all time go on 

 developing the resources of the world. Commerce, the great 

 benefactor and pacificator of mankind, which has brought 

 the most distant nations into mutual intercourse and inter- 

 dependence, owes its origin and development to private 

 enterprise. In Britain, where it has attained the greatest 

 development, and in some other countries, where modern 

 civilisation has subdued or modified the ambition and sel- 

 fishness of ancient despotism, the fruits of private capital are 

 manifest in the advancement of all classes of the people, in 

 the progress of art and science, and in affording the strongest 

 motives for the maintenance of peace and for strengthening 

 the brotherhood of nations. 



The cause of the stagnant state of local industries, which 

 the British Government found on assuming possession of this 

 country, was clearly proved by the wonderful change which 

 immediately followed the introduction of the capital which 

 the planters introduced, and so vigorously employed, and by 

 the widespread improvement in the condition of the natives 

 within the range of its benign influence. The reason that in 

 the regions beyond that range the old stagnation still con- 

 tinues, is because the old adverse conditions which discourage 

 enterprise and make progress impossible are still in force 

 there. The training of ages in oppression and misery could 

 not easily be effaced, even if the former discouragements did 

 not persist. To ignore those conditions, and to heap reproaches 

 upon the victims, is as foolish and unprofitable as it would 

 be to revile the dying or the dead. 



The influence of free intercourse between different coun- 

 tries, and between distant parts of the same country, is an im- 

 portant factor in the development of industrial enterprise. In- 

 former times a nation might keep within itself and maintain; 



