KANDY IN EAKLY PLANTING DAYS, 
passions had been aronsed it might have fared not 
only with the aggressor, but others also who did 
not participate in the joke. Never make light of or 
joke a man upon his religious principles or belief. 
They may seem very absurd and ridiculous to you, 
but depend upon it yours appear so in the same 
light to him. One of the strong pillars of the British 
power and constitution — perhaps the strongest— is 
religious toleration. No good, but much evil, has ever 
been produced by attempting to coerce a man, or a 
nation, in his or their religious belief, and it is cer- 
tainly not a subject on which a joke may be with 
prudence indulged. By all means uphold and further 
the spread of Christianity and civilization, which 
always go together; but this is to be done first by 
education, then by an appeal to the rational and 
reasoning powers of the mind, and also by what is 
often unfortunately frequently little thought of or 
held in small esteem — example. The story of the 
Moorman and the ham is no light trifling joke ; 
thoughtfully consider it and you will find many a 
similar and more serious parallel. Unfortunately for 
Ceylon, there is always some ham-bone stuck into 
the nostrils of its inhabitants, and if the religious 
feelings and convictions of our fellow-colonists are 
not respected, how can we ever expect ** the 
unbelievers ’’ to respect ours, or become converts 
to a religious system of perpetual quarrelling and 
turmoil. We fear some of the greatest obstacles 
to the spread of Christianity are the acts of Christians 
themselves, men who contend about the “/orm of 
godliness,’’ which very contentions shew that they 
practically deny, or are not under, the power of it. 
They do not shove the ham-bone into the face of their 
“ Christian brethren ” as a joke, as was done in the case 
of the Musdman, but with the deliberate resolve that 
you must eat it, or at all events bite it and swallow 
it. You may tell them it is against your principles 
to eat pork, or that you do not like it, it does not 
agree with your stomach, and that you would in- 
finitely prefer having nothing at all to eat than be 
compelled to bolt that ham, or even a small morsel 
of it. All your mild arguments are useless : the bam 
is cooked and must be eaten ; if you don’t swallow 
it when fresh, all the worse for you, for you will be 
compelled to bolt it when stale. Is this our boasted 
religious toleration? Are we to tolerate— not only 
tolerate, but foster and support — the religious principles 
and absurdities of our ignorant heathen subjects, when 
the conscientious scruples and convictions of our 
highly educated and iutelligent portions of the general 
community are very frequently treated with rude 
