NO. 37. — 1888.] INDUSTRIES OF CEYLON. 



341 



the same race and natural character as the energetic Sinhalese, 

 who are ever ready to undertake work on contract, and the 

 goyas, who, to a man, are willing to fell heavy forest, clear, 

 sow, and fence it, for the small return of a single crop of 

 kurakkan, which rarely even yields an equivalent of Id. a 

 day for the severe labour it involves. The wretched crofter 

 of North Britain, who listlessly watches his starving family 

 in a state of moral paralysis, is of the same race, and naturally 

 of the same energetic character, as his countrymen who have 

 made the name of a Scot a synonym for indomitable energy. 

 The African captive who suffers himself to be dragged 

 ignominiously from his home, is often of the same kith and 

 kin as his captor, and would turn the tables on him if he 

 were not demoralised by oppression. In all these cases the 

 difference of character is not natural, but is the product of 

 the particular circumstances, often entirely artificial, in which 

 the people are placed. The same result may be produced 

 either, on the one hand, by oppression, which deprives men 

 of the just value of their labour and reduces them to an 

 abject condition, or by the dispiriting influence of vain and 

 fruitless effort. A dead pull breaks the heart of a colt, and 

 in like manner a hopeless condition makes men apathetic, 

 despairing, and slavish. 



One of the few Dutch Governors who had generous 

 impulses towards the Sinhalese recommended his successor 

 to offer an additional inducement instead of forcible exaction, 

 for he says : " Raising the price of an article has more effect 

 with them (the Sinhalese) than harsh measures." At the 

 same time, his suggested addition of a penny per pound by 

 way of inducement for the production of the article they were 

 levying at a mere fraction of its proper value, shows how the 

 feeling of justice becomes dried up by the exercise of 

 habitual and systematic oppression. 



History teaches that the stability and permanence of a 

 Government depend mainly upon the justice and reasonable- 

 ness of its dealings with the people, and upon the inducement 

 thus offered for the enlistment of their energies. This, in 



