THE " VILE " CINGALESE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Ever since the days of Bishop Heber we have been
singing about . . . Ceylon's Isle Where every prospect pleases And only man is vile."
In this year of the Coronation might we not make up our minds to a tardy reparation and discontinue this uncalled for slander on these our fellow subjects of King George ?
From the fact that they have raised no protest during all these years it is clear that they possess in no small degree something of that " charity which endureth all things." They have also other of the so-called " Christian " virtues and crime is certainly less rampant than in our own country. If a Buddhist hymn-writer had first praised the beauty of our countryside and then gone on to deplore the " vileness " of the population it is probable that we should have something rather emphatic to say about it. —Yours truly,
H. P. LEONARD.
so Cornwallis Crescent, Clifton, Bristol 8.
Previous page
