In lectures what scholar was associated with the definition of leisure as a state of freedom

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that important office was conferred. He was afterwards , sciences at Utrecht, on the 15th November, 1782, and in transferred to the University of Utrecht, where he had civil and canon law at Leyden on the 13th January, 1787. for his fellow-student Mr. Imau William Falck, who | These degrees Quint Ondaatje was the first native of became afterwards governor of Ceylon, and who ever Ceylon to take, and, after a lapse of fourscore years, he proved to Mr. Ondaatje a kind friend and benefactor. remains unparalleled in this respect, notwithstanding Falck combined the wisdom of the politician with the the greater appreciation of education, and the increased accomplishments of the scholar. His administration, the facilities of intercourse between Ceylon and Europe. longest of any of the Dutch governors, was able and At an early age, and before he was a householder, he excellent. One of his earliest acts was the treaty of received, on account of his pre-eminent merits (Feb. 10, peace which he concluded with the Kandyan monarch, 1783), the unusual honour of the freedom of the city of in the very first year of his government, ensuring Utrecht, whereby he became eligible to all offices to the Dutch the unmolested possession of all the and dignities of the state, and entitled to the priviplaces on the coast. He also introduced order and leges and liberties enjoyed by the natives of the system into the various public departments, encouraged country. agriculture, and carried the cultivation of cinnamon Imbued, as Quint Ondaatje was, with noble and geneto such an extent as to free the company from depend rous sentiments of patriotism, the deplorable condition of ence on Kandy for supplies. He died at Colombo, in the United Provinces, of which he had just been enrolled 1785, and a monument to his memory is erected in the & citizen, consequent on the unconstitutional adminisDatch church there.*

tration of affairs by the Stadtholder William v, was to Mr. W. Ondaatje, after his ordination, and marriage him a source of deep concern and bitter regret. He with Miss Hermina Quint, the only child of a citizen of therefore resolved on engaging himself in politics, with Amsterdam, returned to Ceylon, his native country, in a view, if possible, to reform the existing abuses in the March 1758. He laboured with exemplary zeal and government, and to restore to the citizens their constifidelity as a minister of the Gospel, both at Colombo and tutional rights and privileges, encouraged, in a great Jaffna, in the north of the island, officiating in no less measure, by the recent successful efforts made by the than three languages, viz., Dutch, Portuguese, and Americans in the cause of freedom. Tamul,t which last was his mother-tongue, and in which To effect these objects, a large proportion of the citihe was the first to commence in Ceylon a new trans- zens aimed at the fundamental restoration of the constilation of the Old Testament. In 1769 he was selected tution, as a sine qua non ; and in this great political from the clergy of Colombo for the office of rector of the movement, which occurred at Utrecht in 1785, Quint " seminary,” which office he held till his transfer to Ondaatje was, for his brilliant talents, great popularity, Jaffna in 1777, where he died, in 1790. He was well and personal influence, nominated as one of the repre. known as a pathetic, powerful, and practical preacher, sentatives of the burghers, and was duly acknowledged and it was seldom that he failed to draw tears from the as such by the government. But, having maintained eyes of his auditors.

with great zeal and boldness the rights and interests of Peter Ondaatje, born in Ceylon soon after his father's the people before the Council of the city of Utrecht, a return from Europe, was taught the rudiments of learn- criminal prosecution was instituted against him by the ing at home, and then was sent to Holland to be Municipal Court of Justice. Through the interposition, educated for the holy ministry. In 1773 (Nov. 16), at however, of his constituents, who made his cause their the age of fifteen, accompanied by his cousin, the only own, the prosecution against him was eventually aban. surviving son of the Rev. Philip De Melho, one of the doned. Subsequently, as a reward for his services sucmost learned divines and biblical translators that has cessively as lieutenant, captain, and major of the armed as yet appeared in India or Ceylon, he embarked for burgher corps, he was, by the Proviucial States of Utrecht, Europe, vix Point de Galle and the Cape. At Amster. appointed captain of the infantry in the regiment of dam he received a course of instruction for four years in Lieut.-General Van Den Borch, and by the States of the the Latin and Greek schools, himself, as well as his province of Holland he was created adjutant.general of relative, residing at the house of his grandfather, Peter the United Holland and Utrecht troops at the time in Quint, at whose death he, by request, assumed the garrison, commander-in-chief of the " Guides," and additional surname of Quint. On the completion of his director-general of the secret correspondence at the classical education, he attended the academical lectures head-quarters of the general-in-chief, the Rhingrave of in the four faculties of theology, philosophy, medicine, Salm Grombach. and law, and took a degree in philosophy and the liberal On the hostile invasion of the Prussian troops in Sep

tember 1787, having under superior orders evacuated • Bishop Heber, during his visitation of Ceylon, went to all the the town of Utrecht with the military and burgher garri. charches at Colombo, and, among them, to St. Thomas's Church, which

son,

he carried on skirmishes with the enemy till the was built in 1815 by Sir Robert Brownrigg, for the use of the Tamul Protestant Christians. Not being acquainted with Tamul, he did not

2nd October, when he received a significant hint to quit proach, but at the close of the servico he pronounced the benediction in the country as quickly as possible. Wisely, however, that language froin a paper in which the Tamul words were represented instead of following the example of the greater number of by means of Roman characters. He was accompanied by Mrs. Heber, his chaplain, tho Rov. Thomas Robinson, afterwards Archdeacon of

the fugitive patriots who sought refuge in France, there Madras, now Master of the Temple.

to become dependent on the niggard bounty of the governThe Tamul and the Singhalese are the vernacular languages of ment, he repaired from Amsterdam to Hamburg, where Ceylon, into which all the laws are rendered, and published by authority he arrived on the 9th October. From thence, on a secret of Government, after they are enacted in English. (The transfer of the island from Dutch to English rule took place in consequence of a letter warning given to him, he again sailed on the 25th of from the Stadtholder, dated Kew, 1769. This letter is deposited among the same month, and, after a most dangerous voyage in the archives of the Dutch Ceylon Government, now in the custody of the the North Sea, he arrived, weary and tempest-tossed, in Colonial British Government.) The Tamul is also one of the principal South Indian languages. The whole Tamul-speaking population is the harbour of Ostend, on the 15th November. After estimated at upwards of ten millions. The word “Tamul," signifying a few days' rest he went to Brussels, where he received "sweet," indicates the predominating quality of the language. Respect information that by name and in person he had been ing the merits and excellence of this ancient and highly-cultivated excluded from the act of amnesty promulgated by the tongue, vide Caldwell's “Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages," and Percival's "Land of the Veda." States of Utrecht on the 14th November, 1787, after the

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that important office was conferred. He was afterwards , sciences at Utrecht, on the 15th November, 1782, and in transferred to the University of Utrecht, where he had civil and canon law at Leyden on the 13th January, 1787. for his fellow-student Mr. Imau William Falck, who | These degrees Quint Ondaatje was the first native of became afterwards governor of Ceylon, and who ever Ceylon to take, and, after a lapse of fourscore years, he proved to Mr. Ondaatje a kind friend and benefactor. remains unparalleled in this respect, notwithstanding Falck combined the wisdom of the politician with the the greater appreciation of education, and the increased accomplishments of the scholar. His administration, the facilities of intercourse between Ceylon and Europe. longest of any of the Dutch governors, was able and At an early age, and before he was a householder, he excellent. One of his earliest acts was the treaty of received, on account of his pre-eminent merits (Feb. 10, peace which he concluded with the Kandyan monarch, 1783), the unusual honour of the freedom of the city of in the very first year of his government, ensuring Utrecht, whereby he became eligible to all offices to the Dutch the unmolested possession of all the and dignities of the state, and entitled to the priviplaces on the coast. He also introduced order and leges and liberties enjoyed by the natives of the system into the various public departments, encouraged country. agriculture, and carried the cultivation of cinnamon Imbued, as Quint Ondaatje was, with noble and geneto such an extent as to free the company from depend rous sentiments of patriotism, the deplorable condition of ence on Kandy for supplies. He died at Colombo, in the United Provinces, of which he had just been enrolled 1785, and a monument to his memory is erected in the & citizen, consequent on the unconstitutional adminisDatch church there.*

tration of affairs by the Stadtholder William v, was to Mr. W. Ondaatje, after his ordination, and marriage him a source of deep concern and bitter regret. He with Miss Hermina Quint, the only child of a citizen of therefore resolved on engaging himself in politics, with Amsterdam, returned to Ceylon, his native country, in a view, if possible, to reform the existing abuses in the March 1758. He laboured with exemplary zeal and government, and to restore to the citizens their constifidelity as a minister of the Gospel, both at Colombo and tutional rights and privileges, encouraged, in a great Jaffna, in the north of the island, officiating in no less measure, by the recent successful efforts made by the than three languages, viz., Dutch, Portuguese, and Americans in the cause of freedom. Tamul,t which last was his mother-tongue, and in which To effect these objects, a large proportion of the citihe was the first to commence in Ceylon a new trans- zens aimed at the fundamental restoration of the constilation of the Old Testament. In 1769 he was selected tution, as a sine qua non ; and in this great political from the clergy of Colombo for the office of rector of the movement, which occurred at Utrecht in 1785, Quint " seminary,” which office he held till his transfer to Ondaatje was, for his brilliant talents, great popularity, Jaffna in 1777, where he died, in 1790. He was well and personal influence, nominated as one of the repre. known as a pathetic, powerful, and practical preacher, sentatives of the burghers, and was duly acknowledged and it was seldom that he failed to draw tears from the as such by the government. But, having maintained eyes of his auditors.

with great zeal and boldness the rights and interests of Peter Ondaatje, born in Ceylon soon after his father's the people before the Council of the city of Utrecht, a return from Europe, was taught the rudiments of learn- criminal prosecution was instituted against him by the ing at home, and then was sent to Holland to be Municipal Court of Justice. Through the interposition, educated for the holy ministry. In 1773 (Nov. 16), at however, of his constituents, who made his cause their the age of fifteen, accompanied by his cousin, the only own, the prosecution against him was eventually aban. surviving son of the Rev. Philip De Melho, one of the doned. Subsequently, as a reward for his services sucmost learned divines and biblical translators that has cessively as lieutenant, captain, and major of the armed as yet appeared in India or Ceylon, he embarked for burgher corps, he was, by the Proviucial States of Utrecht, Europe, vix Point de Galle and the Cape. At Amster. appointed captain of the infantry in the regiment of dam he received a course of instruction for four years in Lieut.-General Van Den Borch, and by the States of the the Latin and Greek schools, himself, as well as his province of Holland he was created adjutant.general of relative, residing at the house of his grandfather, Peter the United Holland and Utrecht troops at the time in Quint, at whose death he, by request, assumed the garrison, commander-in-chief of the " Guides," and additional surname of Quint. On the completion of his director-general of the secret correspondence at the classical education, he attended the academical lectures head-quarters of the general-in-chief, the Rhingrave of in the four faculties of theology, philosophy, medicine, Salm Grombach. and law, and took a degree in philosophy and the liberal On the hostile invasion of the Prussian troops in Sep

tember 1787, having under superior orders evacuated • Bishop Heber, during his visitation of Ceylon, went to all the the town of Utrecht with the military and burgher garri. charches at Colombo, and, among them, to St. Thomas's Church, which

son,

he carried on skirmishes with the enemy till the was built in 1815 by Sir Robert Brownrigg, for the use of the Tamul Protestant Christians. Not being acquainted with Tamul, he did not

2nd October, when he received a significant hint to quit proach, but at the close of the servico he pronounced the benediction in the country as quickly as possible. Wisely, however, that language froin a paper in which the Tamul words were represented instead of following the example of the greater number of by means of Roman characters. He was accompanied by Mrs. Heber, his chaplain, tho Rov. Thomas Robinson, afterwards Archdeacon of

the fugitive patriots who sought refuge in France, there Madras, now Master of the Temple.

to become dependent on the niggard bounty of the governThe Tamul and the Singhalese are the vernacular languages of ment, he repaired from Amsterdam to Hamburg, where Ceylon, into which all the laws are rendered, and published by authority he arrived on the 9th October. From thence, on a secret of Government, after they are enacted in English. (The transfer of the island from Dutch to English rule took place in consequence of a letter warning given to him, he again sailed on the 25th of from the Stadtholder, dated Kew, 1769. This letter is deposited among the same month, and, after a most dangerous voyage in the archives of the Dutch Ceylon Government, now in the custody of the the North Sea, he arrived, weary and tempest-tossed, in Colonial British Government.) The Tamul is also one of the principal South Indian languages. The whole Tamul-speaking population is the harbour of Ostend, on the 15th November. After estimated at upwards of ten millions. The word “Tamul," signifying a few days' rest he went to Brussels, where he received "sweet," indicates the predominating quality of the language. Respect information that by name and in person he had been ing the merits and excellence of this ancient and highly-cultivated excluded from the act of amnesty promulgated by the tongue, vide Caldwell's “Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages," and Percival's "Land of the Veda." States of Utrecht on the 14th November, 1787, after the