Mr. McArthur on Tuesday moved a resolution censuring the continuance
of the grant made in Ceylon to the Established Church. He showed that the population of the bland was
2,405,287, of whom only 60,000 were Protestants, and only 10,379 members of the Church of England ; and of these, again, only 2,197 attended the ministrations of the State-paid chaplains, who, with the Bishop, cost 1.14,000 a year. The withdrawal of the grant had been advised both by the Executive Council and the Governor, Mr. Gregory, and there are Episcopal clergymen inde- pendent of the State to whom 7,000 of the Church of England look for religious assistance. Mr. Lowther, in reply, declared that though the present Government had not reversed the policy- of its predecessors, it did not intend to extend it, as the opinion of the House of Commons had changed. He did not, however, produce any argument for the grant, which is entirely inconsist- ent with Indian precedent, the chaplains not being military officers, except the very odd one that Buddhist priests hold 376,000 acres of land for purposes of worship. That is very true, but they hold that land under treaty, not under British grants, and they are the immense majority of the population. Would Mr. Lowther endow the Protestant Church in Malta because the Catholic Church is rich ? If all are to be endowed equally, we must first of all give a grand slice out of the island revenue to Hindoo temples. The motion was, of course, defeated, by 141 to 127.
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