home-Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world is inseparably connected with the command, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.

STATE OF THE FINANCES.

May, 1847.

At the last Anniversary the Committee had to report a falling off, in comparison with the preceding year, of £2,791, 7s 2d. This year the income has not only recovered that depression, but has risen to an amount exceeding that of any former year. The receipts have been

* The dividends brought to account in the last year's Report have been deducted in this statement.

401

APPENDIX III.

RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,

INSTITUTED 1799;

ITS PRINCIPLES, OBJECTS, AND OPERATIONS.

THE advantages which have resulted from an extensive distribution of useful works by THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, have been so manifest, that its objects can no longer be considered of small or questionable importance. The Committee, however, feel it to be their duty, in compliance with the wishes of many friends, to furnish a few statements which the present position and enlarged usefulness of the Society demand; and clearly to specify what they consider to be the fundamental principles on which it was established, and which have been uniformly maintained in its extensive and varied operations, during a period of nearly fifty years.

PLAN OF SOCIETY, AND EXTENT OF CIRCULATION.

The Society was formed to promote the circulation of religious books and treatises in foreign countries, as well as throughout the British dominions, and is conducted by a Committee,

D D

composed of an equal portion of members of the Established Church and of Protestant Dissenters, annually elected at a public meeting of the Institution, in the month of May.

At the commencement of the Society in 1799, the sphere of its labours was much circumscribed by the smallness of its funds, and the unsettled and warlike state of most of the nations of the earth; but through the general intercourse with foreign countries, from the long continuance of peace, and the increased support which the public has given to the Society, its exertions have been extended to almost every part of the world. The first year's circulation amounted only to 200,000 tracts, in one language, and its total receipts were about £450; but, assisted by the disinterested labours of many esteemed friends, and the devoted missionaries of different Christian denominations, the Society has now printed important tracts and books in about ONE HUNDRED languages; its annual circulation from the Depository in London, and from various foreign societies, amounts to nearly TWENTY-TWO MILLIONS; its receipts to £56,000; and its total distribution to March 1846 to about FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY MILLIONS of copies of its publications. It is an important fact, that the daily circulation of the Society's works, except on the Sabbath, is nearly 80,000 copies. As a part of this circulation the issues of the books are often very large. About 300,000 copies have been sold of "The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation Directed and Encouraged."

In carrying forward the operations of the Society on so extensive a scale, including not only our own country and its colonies but many heathen and unenlightened lands, the Committee have aided the labourers of every Protestant Christian Mission in the world, through whom "the leaves of the tree of life" are scattered. The messengers of truth, sent forth by the Institution, find their way to many places which are altogether inaccessible to any other agency. They have passed the wall

of China, and have entered the palace of the "celestial emperor." They have instructed the princes of Burmah, and opened the self-sealed lips of the devotee in India. The sons of Africa have received them in their bondage, and have learned the liberty of the Gospel. They have preached Christ crucified to the Jew, and also to the Greek, and they have made known to savage, as well as to civilised nations, the peaceful truths of the Gospel. In our own land, the soldier has perused these publications with benefit in his barrack, the prisoner in his cell, the afflicted in the hospital, the indigent in the poor-house, and the coast-guard at his lonely station. Persons of all ranks have been instructed by them; and many, through the Divine blessing on these means, have been brought "from darkness into marvellous light." Every year has witnessed an extension of the Society's operations; but the want of adequate funds prevents its proclaiming to "all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, the glorious Gospel of the blessed God."

THE SOCIETY'S PRIMARY OBJECT.

This object is the circulation of tracts and juvenile publications. It is, however, to be specially observed, that the issue of books by the Society has not only supplied a large variety of useful and seasonable reading to the educated classes of the country, but has greatly promoted the Society's primary object. This will be seen from the following facts:

1. Out of the proceeds of the books are paid all the expenses of the Society's home and foreign operations, no portion whatever of the contributions and subscriptions being taken either for the publication of such books or the expenses connected with the Society's gratuitous objects.

2. During the last three years, when "The Monthly Volume" and similar books have been printed and largely circulated, the

issues of Tracts have increased. The following is the circula

These issues do not include the Tracts printed by foreign affiliated societies. Add to the issues of 1846 about 4,497,225 children's books, the total will be 13,120,909, without the addition of broad sheets, hand-bills, Village, Cottage, Select, and other Sermons, the Magazines, and Pastoral Addresses.

3. It will also be seen by the annual cash account that the Society's principal object is never overlooked by the Committee:

The grants for the year ending March 31, 1846, were £3,020
The contributions to the Society for the same period were

6,118

£1,902

This statement shows three important facts-first, that all the Society received it gave away, without detaining a shilling for expenses; secondly, that after paying all such expenses, the grants amounted to £1,902 beyond the total receipts and thirdly, that no portion of a subscriber's contribution was applied even to necessary expenses, the purchase of copy-right, lowering the price of works, or any other business object. If the Society were to discontinue the publication of books, the circulation of tracts, and children's books, would be lessened, in all probability, to the extent of one-fourth of their present circulation.

VARIETY AND CHEAPNESS OF PUBLICATIONS.

There are now about 3,686 publications on the Society's catalogue. These works are almost as varied in their size and contents, as the characters of the readers for whose spiritual