ABSTRACT
T HE record of British policy in Ceylon is not free fromblemishes, but on the whole it is one of which the Empirehas no occasion to be ashamed. Throughout the nineteenth century the British Government conscientiously tried to improve the condition of the people, and to hold the balance even between the conflicting interests of the planters, the native aristocracy and priesthood, and the raiyats. A century before the League of Nations enunciated the principle of the trusteeship of backward peoples the Ceylon Government had acted in its spirit without ostentation, and without definition.
