hich the rent of lands was paid by hereditary service, and a
commission was issued by Sir Hercules Robinson (afterwards Lord
Rosmead) when governor, to deal with the whole question, to define the
services and to enable the tenants to commute these for a money
payment. The result of the inquiry was to show that the services,
except in a few instances, were not onerous, and that almost without
an exception the tenants were willing to continue the system. The
anomaly of an ecclesiastical establishment of Anglican and
Presbyterian chaplains with a bishop of Colombo paid out of the
general revenues has now been abolished in Ceylon, and only the bishop
and two or three incumbents remain on the list for life, or till they
retire on pension.

_Education_.--There has been a great advance in public instruction
since 1875, through the multiplication of vernacular, Anglo-vernacular
and English schools by government, by the different Christian missions
and by the Buddhists and Hindus who have come forward to claim the
government grant. The government has also started a technical college,
and an agricultural school has been reorganized. An agricultural
department, recommended by a commission, should profit by the services
of the entomologist, mycologist and chemical analyst added by the
governor to the staff of the royal botanic gardens at Peradeniya.
There are industrial and reformatory schools, which are partially
supported by government. In spite of the great advance that has been
made, however, at the census of 1901 no fewer than 2,790,235 of the
total population were entered as unable to read or write their own
tongue. Of this number 1,553,078 were females, showing a very
unsatisfactory state of things.

Soil.

_Agriculture._--The natural soils of Ceylon are composed of quartzose
gravel, felspathic clay and sand often of a pure white, blended with
or overlaid by brown and red loams, resulting; from the decay of
vegetable matter, or the disintegration of the gneiss and hornblende
formations. The whole of the great northern extremity of the island
consists of a sandy and calcareous admixture, made to yield productive
crops of grain, tobacco, cotton and vegetables by the careful industry
of the Tamil population, who spare no pains in irrigating and manuring
their lands. Between the northern districts and the elevated mountain
ranges which overlook the