Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c34.4.2

c34.4.2

but properly understood, it was hardly more than a system of commanding public assistance in works of public utility, analogous to the rates of a municipality. It was only “the perversion of the compulsory labour from one of its chief original purposes, and the neglect to enforce it for legitimate works under the later kings, and by the British Government adopting their system, which occasioned the decay of agriculture and the wasting of population.” P. 20. *A Government Agent’s report.* This is a report by Mr. Liesching, quoted, ‘Manual North Central Province,’ p. 43. P. 21. *Character of the Sinhalese.* Cf. A. O. Brodie, J.C.B.R.A.S., III., p. 161: “The people of Nuwara Kalāwiya are the most gentle I have had the fortune to meet. . . . Serious assaults, robberies, murders, are all but unknown, and during three years I have not had to punish one native of the district for pilfering.” Also Davy, ‘Travels in Ceylon,’ 1821, p. 289: “Amongst few people, I believe, are family attachments more strong and sincere: there is little to divert or weaken them; and they are strengthened equally by their mode of life and their religion.” At the present day, it is mainly in the low-country, where European influence has been long felt, and the social culture of the race has been destroyed, that crime is prevalent. P. 22. *The five servants.* We read in the Mahāvaṃsa (Ch.