languages: the first, the language of the natives of the south; the second, that of the nations of the north of the island; had also translations made into Tamul of Bishop Porteus's Evidences of Christianity, and two of Miss Hannah More's sacred dramas. A bishop was soon afterwards appointed to Calcutta by his Majesty. Ceylon was included in his diocese. An archdeacon was nominated for that island, and an English clergyman was permanently stationed in the town of Jaffna. The Wesleyan missionaries, though Dr. Coke, their chief, had died on the passage, reached Ceylon in safety, and a cer. tain number were stationed in different parts of the province of Jaffna, and opened schools for the instruction of the natives: all these arrangements having been made, Sir Alexander Johnston, in pursuance of his original plan, mentioned to Dr. Bu chanan in 1806, held a Criminal Session of the Supreme Court at Jaffna, for the express purpose of shewing to the natives of the country, now that they were admitted to a considerable share in the system of administering justice to their countrymen, by having been admitted to the rights of jurymen, that, according to the institution of Great Britain, every man who entrusted with so important a charge, was understood to execute that trust under the awe of religious feelings, caused, immediately before they proceeded into court to open the session, the sacrament to be administered to himself and to all the officers of the court, who were christians, in the great church at Jaffna, and in the presence of all the natives who attended as jurymen. As this was the first instance of such a religious form under such circumstances ever having been observed by the Supreme Court in Ceylon, it excited great interest amongst the natives of the country, and was known to have had a great effect amongst them, from its having convinced them of the high respect which European functionaries were bound to pay to the reli. gion which they professed, and of the feelings which that religion was calculated to produce upon those who were vested with the highest powers in the administration of justice. We shall insert the account given of this ceremony in the Appendix to the abridged edition of Baldæus's History of Jaffna, published by the Wesleyan Missionaries on Ceylon, in 1816.

was

"Extract from the Ceylon Government Gazette, of Wednesday, the 19th of July, 1815. "The Session for the Province of Jaffna was opened at Jaffna on the 22nd.

"As this was the first Criminal Session

which has been held by the Supreme Court at Jaffna, since the appointment to that place of a Colonial Chaplain, it was the first time that the inhabitants of the Province have had an opportunity of seeing the Judges of the Supreme Court attend Divine Service and receive the Sacrament on the first day of the Criminal Session.

"Previous to opening the Session, the Chief Justice, accompanied by His Majesty's Advocate Fiscal, and all the Officers of the Court, proceeded in his robes and on foot from the Court House to the Church, where Divine Service was performed, and an excellent Sermon preached by the Reverend Mr. Glenie; His Lordship and His Majesty's Advocate Fiscal, after having taken the Sacrament, returned back to the Court House and the Session was immediately opened.

"His Lordship, before he proceeded to the Church, fully explained to all the Bra

mins, and to all the other Hindoo Jurors of the Province, the nature and the object of the Ceremony which was about to take place; and informed them that, according to the Principles of the Christian Religion, all persons who possess any portion of power, either as Judges or as Jurymen, ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they act in trust, and that they are to account in the Supreme Being for their conduct to that trust; and that therefore it was customary for the Judges, just before the commencement of a Criminal Session, to attend Divine Service, and to take the Sacrament, as the most solemn and most certain mode of impressing that idea on their minds, and enabling them to discharge their duties according to the true meaning of the Oath which they take before God, at the time they are appointed to their Office.

"As all the Bramins and other Hindoo Jurymen expressed an anxiety to be present at the Ceremony, the whole of them were allowed to attend at the Church during Divine Service, and the Chief of the Bramins, as well as the Chiefs, were permitted to remain in the Church while the Lord's Supper was administered. As none of the Hindoo Jurymen had ever been in a Protestant Church before, and as they seemed very desirous to understand the nature of every part of the Service which they had heard, the Head Bramin of the ancient Pagoda of Candaswamy, at Nellore, who is one of the best Sanscrit and Tamul scholars on the Island, is about to make a translation into Sanscrit and Tamul of the sermon which the Reverend Mr. Glenie preached upon the occasion, a copy of which will be given to each of the Bramin and other Hindoo Jurymen of the Province of Jaffna for their information.".

"This Sermon has since been translated into Sanscrit and Tamul, by the Head Bramin; and a great many Copies of both Translations have been made on palmyra

leaves, under the direction of the Honble. Sir Alexander Johnston, for the purpose of being distributed amongst the Hindoo Jurors, of all the different castes in the Province of Jaffna.

Shortly after this, encouraged by the cordial manner in which the Wesleyan missionaries had, in consequence of Sir Alexander Johnston's advice, been patronised by the government of the island, seven American missionaries, six of whom were married, arrived on Ceylon from America, and, on the advice of Sir Alex. Johnston, established themselves in the province of Jaffna. These missionaries have, independent of their other avocations, devoted themselves with such prudence, ability, and zeal, to the formation of schools for females, as well as males, and to the instruction of the natives, not only in the elementary parts of knowledge, but even in the higher departments of science; that their influence has been felt in a most beneficial manner, not only in the island of Ceylon, but in the southern peninsula of India, from whence many of the natives send their children to the American schools in the province of Jaffna. As these missionaries, from the nature of the sciences which they teach, that of the works which they translate, and that of the intimate knowledge which they acquire of the religion, lite rature, manners, and usages of the Hindoos, are calculated to produce a gradual but a certain change throughout the south of India, they become an object of interest to all those who direct their inquiries to the improvements which are taking place in British India; we, therefore, insert the two following letters, as they are intimately connected with the subject:-The first is one written by Sir Alexander Johnston to Mr.Vail, the American Minister in England, on the occasion of sending to him a resolution which had, on the motion of Sir Alexander Johnston, been unanimously adopted at the Anniversary Meeting of the Members of the Oriental Translation Committee, thanking the prudential committee of missionaries in America, for the great assistance they had afforded the friends of Oriental literature, through the American missionaries established in Jaffna.-The second is the answer from the prudential committee to Sir Alexander Johnston, acknowledging the receipt of the resolution, promising a continuance of their assistance, and announcing the desire evinced by the present government of Ceylon to forward

their views.

"DEAR SIR,-I have the honour to enclose to you a copy of the Resolution of

thanks to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, moved by me, and unanimously adopted by the Meeting at the last Anniversary of the Subscribers to the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.

"I availed myself of the favourable opportunity which your presence at that meeting, as Minister of the United States, afforded me, to point out to the other distinguished persons who attended, how much Great Britain and her East Indian possessions are indebted to the Board, for keeping up, on the island of Ceylon, at their own expense, a mission, which, from its local situation, and its admirable institutions, is so well calculated to improve the understanding, and raise the moral character of the natives of that island, and of the opposite peninsula of India.

"The members of the mission have acquired a thorough knowledge of the Tamul language, and of the religions, literature, and usages of the natives, and have employed that knowledge for the purpose of instructing them in the English language, and in such of the arts and sciences of Europe, as must make them acquainted with some of the most remarkable discoveries of modern times, and gradually but effectually dispel from their minds many of those pernicious opinions and ancient prejudices which are generally entertained by them upon all subjects connected with their religion, their morals, and their philosophy.

"I felt myself the more particularly called upon to move such a resolution, because I was Chief Justice and President of His Majesty's Council in Ceylon at the time the American Missionaries first reached that island; and was the person who, from the high opinion I had formed of the nature of the mission, of the character of its members, and of the advantages which the cause of religion and civilization would derive from its success, strongly urged the missionaries to fix their establishment in the province of Jaffna, which, from its geographical position, with respect to the peninsula of India, would enable them to direct their attention as well to the natives of that peninsula as to those of the island of Ceylon.

"The reports which they have from time to time published of their proceedings, will shew you the rapid progress which they have made in their several objects, and the very important and beneficial effects which their labours must ultimately produce upon the condition of the people, and the state of the country. It must be a

matter of congratulation to the friends of religion and civilization in every part of the world, to see the citizens of the United States and the subjects of Great Britain, in the island of Ceylon, mutually recollecting, under the immediate protection of the British government, their common origin, and their common sympathies, and mutually forgetting, under the peaceful influence of the christian religion, their former jealousies, and their national animosities, cooperate with equal zeal and prudence in spreading the English, their common language, into every part of India, in instructing the understandings and in improving the moral and social feelings of the natives of every caste and religious persuasion, and in rendering applicable and advantageous to their present situation all their moral and political institutions, which, under various modifications and various denominations, have, in all ages and in all countries, whenever and wherever introduced with prudence and moderation, invariably secured the liberty of the subject, the authority of the government, and the prosperity of the nation. I have the honour to be, dear sir, yours, very faithfully, A. JOHNSTON.

"To the Honourable S. VAILE, &c., Acting Minister Plenipotentiary, from the United States of America, to Great Britain."

Missionary Rooms, Boston, U.S. A. Jan. 23, 1833. "DEAR SIR.-In transmitting a copy of a Resolution you did us the honour to move at the annual meeting of the Subscribers to the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, Mr. Vail, our chargé d'affaires, was so kind as to forward also a copy of the letter from yourself, which enclosed the resolution to him. These documents having been laid before the prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, I am instructed to communicate the following Resolutions in return, viz.

-

"Resolved, That the Prudential Committee, recognize with gratitude the honourable notice of the Board, taken by Sir Alexander Johnston at the last Annnal Meeting of the Subscribers to the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland; as well as his favourable opinion of the Ceylon Mission, and his lively interest in its welfare, expressed in a letter to A. Vail, Esq. dated Sept. 22, 1832, and that he be assured that the important aid rendered by him to the Mission of the Board in Ceylon, while residing on that island, is thankfully remembered by the patrons of the Mission in this country."

the Resolution of the Subscribers to the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, at their late anniversary; together with the Letters of Sir Alexander Johnston and A. Vail, Esq."

"The next Annual Meeting of our Board, will be held in Philadelphia, in September. Meanwhile, I beg your acceptance of a copy of our last Annual Report, (the 23d,) which I send for you to the care of the Rev. Wm. Ellis, Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society, Austin Friars, London in that document you will learn the present state of our operations in different parts of the world.

"A fact, however, which has afforded us the greatest pleasure is not mentioned in the report. It is, that Sir Robert Wilmot Horton, the Governor of Ceylon, has been pleased to grant permission for new missionaries to come from America, until reference can be made to England on the subject, and has also promised to write in favour of the Mission to his Majesty's Secretary of State, requesting an official removal of the restrictions which have for so many years prevented the enlargement of our operations in Ceylon; such an event we confidently anticipated, whenever the character of our mission should become fully understood by the government; and we are grateful to the enlightened friends who have taken so much pains to collect and diffuse correct information on the subject. I am, dear sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,—R. ANDERSON,

"Foreign Secretary of the American Board of

Commissioners for Foreign Missions."

From the facts communicated in the above article, there is surely ample ground to encourage the most sanguine hopes for the future. On the one hand, the efficient and ready protection of the English government, while it has already been of such essential service to the cause of religion in Ceylon, holds out the most gratifying prospects for the future. It may surely be taken as an indication of their anxiety to aid more private and individual efforts to extend to every part of their dependencies the light and blessings of the gospel, and those collateral advantages of civilization and morality which invariably follow in its train. We may also be permitted to express a hope, that the noble, zealous, and successful efforts of Sir Alexander Johnston may operate as a stimulus and an example to his successors; and that the time is not far distant when Christianity shall have found in Asia a lasting restingplace, and a theatre for the operation of its mightiest and happiest effects.

ON THE EXERTION OF LABOUR, AS AFFECTING NATIONAL OPULENCE.

IN our last number we offered some remarks on the influence of science and skill, in the application of labour, on the opulence or poverty of nations; adhering still to the subject of national wealth, we beg to draw attention, in the present number, to another of the causes on which that wealth depends.

The condition of individuals, and the magnitude of the population of nations, are dependent on the productiveness of industry, in procuring subsistence. Not only so, but all the higher and nobler interests of mankind, moral and intellectual, are likewise dependent on opulence, and through which alone their interests can be secured and advanced, and hence those inquiries by which the sources of riches may be developed, are of transcendent value.

The original acquisition of all the necessaries and conveniences of life is effected by labour. In every nation, and in every state of society, it is only through the introduction of labour that the subsistence of man can be acquired. "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," applies to all our race, and to almost every article by which our wants and wishes are supplied and gratified. "Though the woods abound with fruits, with vegetable productions, and with game; though the waters abound with fish, and the bowels of the earth with minerals, the fruits and vegetables must be gathered before they can be of use to us; the game and the fish must be caught, the earth opened, and the metal separated from the ore, and prepared, before it can be used.” Even in the most fertile soils, either from the prolific qualities of their plants and aniinals, which are useless or noxious to man, or from the intervention of deep swamps, impenetrable forests, and the like, they present all the barrenness of the desert, and mostly require persevering labour before they become highly productive. The animal and vegetable productions of the earth are presented only at certain times or seasons of the year, and hence they must be laid up in store, and preserved, to supply us in those seasons when they could not otherwise be had; besides that almost all the productions of nature are presented to us in a rude state, and call for the application of labour to prepare and fashion or modify them for use.

Nature furnishes the materials on which labour is exerted, together with her creative agency, her productive motions or operations, her laws of attraction, repulsion,

expansion, contraction; gravity, and the like; "the processes performed by the soil, the air, the rain, and the sun; " with which man co-operates. The variety of productions which labour draws and fashions from the original sources contributed by nature, are almost beyond conception. There is scarcely anything which the rational desires of man can call for, the materials of which do not exist in the world, and which labour, aided by capital, and skilfully applied, is not competent to afford us a supply of. The bounty of Providence is no less conspicuous in the amplitude of the rewards of exertion which are placed within our reach, than its wisdom is displayed in the effectiveness of the motives of fear and hope, of evil to be averted and of good to be attained, by which man is moved from a state of inaction, and impelled to exert his powers.

Since, then, nothing can be procured for the satisfaction of our wants and desires, without the exertion of labour, it is, in every nation, its labour which is that great fund, by the outlay of which its supply of all the necessaries and conveniences of life is acquired. Consequently, it is this fund that calls, in an especial manner, for wisdom in its direction, and for care and economy in husbanding its expenditure, that it may neither lie idle and unproductive, nor be suffered to go to waste in useless or unprofitable channels.

It is obvious, that, cæteris paribus, the opulence of society must depend on the greater or less quantity of labour which it exerts. The quantity of labour exerted in any community, will depend, first, on the industry of the persons engaged in labour; and, secondly, on the number of those industrious persons, in relation to the number of other persons who are unemployed.

The industry of mankind depends on the operation of the two motives to exertionfear and hope. The lash of the overseer is the incentive by which the slave is impelled to labour; the dread of want may be that by which the free labourer is often actuated; while hope may frequently be introduced, and afford a double motive, by adding the cheering prospect of bettering his condition, and providing comforts and enjoyments for himself and family. It cannot be doubted that the operation of both these motives, when a number of individuals of different temperaments and character are to be wrought upon, must be more effectual than one of them alone. Hence the superiority which is found in free labour over that of slaves: in the former, fear and hope are combined; in the latter, fear alone is in

operation. But though wealth should be augmented by bringing both these motives into action, and augmenting, to the utmost, their force, yet individual happiness might suffer by adding to the influence of fear, which is in itself an addition to the painfulness of that labour which is sought to be undertaken by its operation, and its toil endured. On the other hand, the cheering influence of hope lightens and sweetens that labour which would otherwise be irksome, while it animates the powers of the labourer, and calls forth the highest and noblest exertions.

The industry of a workman will depend, in part, on the education which he has received, and the habits and character which have been formed in him in early life. The care which has been taken of his health, and the proper exercise which has been given to his bodily and mental faculties, contribute at once to promote their strength, and to form habits of application, enterprise, and perseverance, which reconcile the mind to labour. Rectitude of character, too, founded on moral principles, contributes to the regular and steady exertion of labour, by offering worthy motives to industry.

But the great and universally operating incentive to industry, is to be found in the prospect of the rewards which labour procures. "A man is induced to continue at labour, by the prospect of obtaining a reward for it; he is inclined to discontinue it by fatigue. The stronger motive will prevail. Whatever adds to the force of the former, or weakens that of the latter, will increase the quantity and produce of labour."

It would be easy to enlarge on the beneficial effects of a liberal reward of labour, not only as regards the happiness of the labourer, but also as regards the quantity and quality, or value, of the work he executes; and, on the other hand, there is room to expatiate on the crippling, the debasing, and other lamentable results, of a poor reward of labour. The contrary positions, which some political reasoners have affirmed, and the arguments they have adduced, for keeping down the wages of labour, are happily as unfounded in fact, as they are opposed to every generous and noble sentiment. Doubtless, there are instances, in which idleness and dissipation are induced by high wages; but this is the exception, and not the rule itself; and we cannot, from hence, argue against the beneficial tendency, on the whole, of an ample reward of labour. We shall not, however, on the present occasion, enter on the discus2D. SERIES, NO. 46.-VOL. IV.

sion of these topics, but pass on to discuss the important question.

On the Circumstances which occasion Employment, or Want of Employment.

The industry of a nation cannot be fully brought into play, except there be employment for the workmen. From the distribution of employments, and the mutability of the affairs of business, a want of work, in some occupations, is continually recurring: the workman is desirous to labour, but cannot find employment. The industry, then, of a community, and consequently the abundance and excellence of its supply of the necessaries and conveniences of life, depend, also, on the degree in which a constancy of employment can be obtained, and a stagnation of business averted. But how, or why, at one time, work for the labourer is offered in abundance, and, in another, exists in such scarcity that it can only be procured with difficulty, few persons distinctly understand.

The effect of capital on employment, and from thence its influence in determining the wages of labour, has been generally misunderstood. It is usually considered that the scarcity or plenty of employment, as well as the wages of the workmen, are dependent on the quantity of capital to put labour in motion. This is the opinion of Adam Smith,* Mr. Mill, and other writers too numerous to mention. But in opposition to this opinion, it may be remarked, that a slackness of work often exists with an abundance of

capital; and this must be apparent, if we notice the circumstances that actually subsist when a want of employment is complained of. Few of the unemployed workmen are without the necessary tools of their respective trades; they possess the means of subsistence, or the credit necessary to procure them. In fact, the same food and other things on which they are subsisted in idleness, would equally maintain them in full work. The workshops and premises of the master remain the same as when trade was brisk. The raw materials whereon to work, in all probability, are to be had in sufficient quantities from the warehouses of the merchants. Here, then, is capital of every kind-tools, subsistence, and materials, amply sufficient for the most active exertion of industry; and yet the workman has nothing to do. Again, when employment returns, is not the capital employed in their occupations the same as that which existed previous to the want of work, and