HISTORICAL SKETCH.

20

part of the eighteenth century the number of children at
school in the Dutch territory averaged about 70,000. Even
‘hose who had left school were obliged to attend at intervals
for a further period of four years and show that they had
not forgotten what they had learnt.
The subjects of instruction were mainly religious, and the
whole system formed a part of the policy by which the
Dutch attempted to bring about the conversion of the entire
population of their territories in Ceylon. Political machinary
 was utilized to carry out this policy, and a motive for
onformity was provided by confining all offices, ranks,
and titles to professing Christians. The motives of the
Dutch Government in Holland seem to have been perfectly
sincere, and many of their clergy in Ceylon showed real
missionary zeal, But the Dutch Reformed Church of that
date was not a type of religion likely to be attractive to the
Oriental mind, and it is probably not unfair to say that the
sfforts of its clergy produced very little in the way of real
sonvietion. The schools, however, must have had beneficial
sffects and tended to give orderly habits to a people who
really required paternal government. The system certainly
leserved most respectful treatment from the British when
shey took over the government of the country.
Organized educational effort was not a familiar idea to
the English in the eighteenth century : in England itself it
was not felt to be any part of the duty of the State to maintain
and direct a system of national education. It is therefore
hardly a matter for surprise that no real effort was made to
sarry on this part of the work of the Dutch in Ceylon. The
Rev. J. Cordiner, the Anglican Chaplain of the first English
Governor, was appointed Principal of all the schools in
Ceylon ; but no system was created for making his supervision
 operative. The Dutch Church was left intact and its
ministers allowed to continue their work on reduced pay
provided by the British Government. But the amount of the
public funds available for education was reduced to a fixed
total of £1,500 annually, and the compulsory attendance,
which had been the keystone of the Dutch system, was
abolished. Schools under clerical supervision continued to
be maintained in the towns, but in the course of a few
years rural education had ceased to exist.
The loss was recognized and deplored by Government,
but no step was taken to remedy it beyond reporting to the
Home Government the lamentable lack of clergy in Ceylon.
It looks almost as if the Governors of the period cherished
the hope that, if only a sufficient number of clergy could ve
imported. the necessary minimum of education would go